2 10 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



for didn't he kill a cow about a month ago !" His con- 

 siderate offer was declined ; but the village of Drangan 

 was soon thickly studded with horses taking their gruel, 

 and men their whisky and soda, in the street. 



AmoncT the field of the day were, in addition to those 

 already mentioned : Captain and Mrs. M'Lean, Mr. and 

 Miss Bell, Mrs. Carroll, Mrs. Hartigan, Sir Charles Gough, 

 Colonel Inigo Jones, Captains Pedder, Joliffe, Murphy, Dr. 

 Hefferman, Messrs. Darby Scully (on a smart young mare 

 just bought after winning one of the £^ races of the 

 country), Wyse, Curzon, Hemphill, Croome (on a three- 

 year-old if I am not mistaken), Shavelle, Crilly, Anglin, 

 Morton, Guiry, Phelan, Mockler, Evanson, and Moore ; 

 and on wheels Mrs. Burke and Miss Malins, the Ladies 

 Beauclerc, Mrs. De Boinville, Mrs. Crilly, Miss Clibborn, 

 Miss Carr, Miss Summerville, Miss Brien, and Miss Power. 



After my experiences of last week, superadded to 

 those of last autumn, I cannot but arrive at the opinion 

 that Tipperary is, as at present, the finest hunting country 

 I have had the luck to ride over — not even excepting 

 Meath, over which it has this advantage, viz. that if you 

 happen to get down in Meath you are very likely to lose the 

 run by remaining in one of its deep, gloomy dykes until 

 rescued with spade and rope. In Tipperary, as I have 

 said before, you may always get up and go on. 



I have told of the sport, and I have already used 

 up more space than I ought ; but, at the risk of being 

 garrulous, I must tell you of my train companions on the 

 way from Fethard. I had been much perturbed lest my 

 week's notes had miscarried. They had been sent by rail 

 rather than post — the latter, strange as it may seem, being 

 in Ireland even more dilatory as a means of communica- 

 tion than the former. My fellow-voyager, a local and 

 jovial priest, hearing my anxious inquiries, sought to com- 

 fort me. " Indeed, the post is a very bad construction 

 here altogether. I'm living but seven miles away ; and 

 you might post a letter to me, and then set off to walk two 

 days afterwards. You'd be with me as soon as the letter 

 — may be before." So I concluded I had done right in 

 not trusting to the postal arrangements of the district. 



