COUNTY TIPPERARY 291 



take np the subject of assisted emi^^ration from Ciieshire, 

 Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, and Yorkshire? Hounds 

 are to be bought very cheap nowadays, while horses, I 

 have reason to beheve, are grown freely on the spot. The 

 undertaking, therefore, on the part of the State need not 

 be a very costly one ; and, while calculated to develop the 

 proper natural resources of Ireland, would do much 

 towards relieving the congested districts of distressful 

 England. Here we are in hunting Tipperary once more. 



From Goold's Cross fifteen miles (Irish) on a side car 

 (also Irish) might appear in the abstract as wholly un- 

 attractive, especially after nearly twenty hours' ride on 

 rail and steamer. But on this soft and mellow afternoon, 

 with the glorious country ripening for the sport on which 

 one's thoughts are greedily bent, there is anything but 

 dulness in such a journey. To the grateful eye, wearied 

 with the prolonged summer, there is pleasure in every turn 

 of the landscape ; there is association of fun and sport in 

 the very sight of an Irish cabin, of its often filthy human 

 occupants, and of its invariably sleek and well-fed pig. 



The Tipperary hounds hunt over a vast block of 

 country, the whole of which, while varying considerably 

 in its manner of fence and description of ground, is, as far 

 as my experience has yet reached, good beyond common. 

 It is nearly all grass ; it is all rideable ; and it all carries a 

 scent. What more would you have ? Well, I will tell 

 you. You must in yourself have a fair nerve, a sufficient 

 store of bodily vigour, and a proper love of sport for 

 sport's sake. I might almost add, you must love a ride. 

 These characteristics pertain largely to the jovial Tipperary 

 field ; and if you haven't them in some slight degree, it is 

 only fair to suggest that various other spheres are to be 

 found which may be more congenial to your tastes. A 

 few falls — nay, a fair number of falls — are inseparable 

 from riding with hounds in Tipperary. They are not 

 likely to be harmful falls. On the contrary, you will 

 generally be let down pretty easily ; and serious accidents 

 are rare (especially as regards the more fragile sex — if 

 the adjective be fitting — since the universal adoption of the 

 safety skirt). But if you happen to be constitutionally 



