INIIGRATION IN THE FROST 205 



and they scattered right and left as tliey met the great 

 strai^ghng fences. There is no swishing through the 

 growers as with our straggly bullfinches at home. They 

 grow stout as ash and stubborn as oak. The first fence 

 and its further branches threw a good man on his back 

 — his very pride of position preventing his horse being 

 caught till, two fields on, the latter threw in his lot with 

 some colts. Mr. Riall, on the young Hesper stallion ' I 

 remember on a former visit, took up the running, and 

 held it during the first few furious minutes that led to 

 Shallikoyl (a house with a shrubbery, whereat, if I have 

 it right, a fox has found refuge before). Big grass fields, 

 and strongly thorned banks, were the order of going ; and 

 on one of these Mr, Wyse staked a good horse badly. A 

 stopped drain sent our fox away across a wild, pleasant 

 track of more open ground — the Pepperstown township 

 — till he reached Rathkenny, a good gorse on a hilltop. 

 Hence he could be seen making his way over the next 

 valley ; and soon he took us by Bennett's Hill. To 

 ground under the road at Knockelly, thirty-five excellent 

 minutes. 



This brought us nearly to Grove ; and hounds killed 

 a second fox in the laurels, within fifty yards of their 

 kennelled comrades. The remainder of the afternoon 

 was occupied in an hour's hunt round and about the big 

 wood of Grove Hill. 



Here are some few names of the day, besides those 

 already mentioned, viz. : Mrs. Burke, Mr. and Miss Baily, 

 Miss Helme, Lord Charles Bentinck, Colonel Inigo Jones, 

 Captains Pedder, Gough, Joliffe, M'Lean, Messrs. Brand, 

 Curzon, Malcolmson, Gibbons, Nugent Humble, Higgins, 

 Holmes, Dr. Hefferman. 



Thursday, in its great run of the afternoon, gave us 

 the best sport of all. The morning had been oppressively 

 sunny, almost sultry, when, after a lawn meet at Grove, 

 the Master trotted to the gorse-shrouded hill of Kylna- 

 grana, and there awoke several foxes. It was almost a 

 mercy that no run ensued — till the day had cooled down 

 and a clouded afternoon had introduced us once again to 



1 Afterwards a winner at Piinchestown. 



