MIGRATION IN THE FROST 201 



smallest degree a trait in the national character. But 

 when I see a gentle upland such as a Southdown slope 

 christened a " mountain " and a tiny brooklet yclept a 

 " river," it sets me wondering whether all Irish definitions 

 — such, tor instance, as applied to a horse for sale, a 

 shooting to be let, &c. &c. — ought on every occasion to 

 be accepted without scrutiny, by one unfamiliar with the 

 national mode of expression. 



But to resume. From Knockeen Mountain and its 

 neighbours you look over, not only the spreading vale 

 towards Fermoy, but a goodly tract of wild country, 

 having scarcely a house upon it, to the north-west — the 

 whole making a compact block sufficient, if need be, for 

 four days a week. Near Cork and the sea are numerous 

 glens, deep and rugged to get into, and difficult to climb 

 out of. But these to a great measure disappear as you 

 move inland. Small grass fields and narrow banks, gorse- 

 covered and stone-faced, are then the leading features ; for 

 plough is, happily, of little account in Ireland. Light soil 

 and low rents — very badly paid — are other features. If 

 you want any more, they are to be found in the strength 

 and bone of the short-legged horses of county Cork, and 

 in the determination with which men and women alike 

 all drive them along when hounds run. There was no 

 great chance of seeing them at work on Monday, for the 

 whole sport was comprised in a twenty-five minutes' rough 

 scurry round Dundallerick. They set very little store by 

 it ; and rightly, no doubt — though I confess to having en- 

 joyed it, while I watched the men on the outer circle taking 

 their jumps, all strange and novel to me. But then had 

 not my appetite been sharpened by nearly a month of 

 frost, the keenest whetstone to a hunter's zest ? (By the 

 way, I will give you a new term that I picked up during 

 the frost. At that shop in St. James's Street where our 

 noble Master has figured for weeks past, I asked price and 

 name of a cut of a lady riding to hounds. The shopman 

 " didn't know ; the plate represented lady-huntswoman.") 



Passing on to a figure more apropos to the occasion, 

 and whose sharp and healthy physiognomy might well be 

 taken to personify Tom Moody. The huntsman John 



