COUNTY TIPPERARY 297 



To first check only some fifteen or sixteen minutes, 

 l-)Lit the yellow fox in view, not two hundred yards from 

 liounds. The road and bridge gave him a minute's law 

 in which to reach Rathkenny Gorse ; after which they 

 hunted him through and hunted him round, till Mr. Burke 

 decided to give him his life, when at the end of half-an- 

 hour a blown and beaten fox was pretty well at his mercy. 

 Among others taking part in this merry ride were Mr. 

 Handley (who on the Monday had taken so prominent a 

 part with his grey mare), and Mr. Dawnay (loth Hussars), 

 who thus saw well all the sport of the day. 



JVcd)icsday, October 25. — I thought, after rising at 7.30 

 and filling in my diary before hunting yesterday, that I 

 might claim holiday for the week, and that I had foisted 

 upon my readers as much as I had any right to ask them to 

 bear ; but at risk of prolixity I cannot leave Tuesday untold. 

 It would have been held a great day at any time and any- 

 where. In October, and over the cream of Tipperary, it was 

 nothing less than a delightful and well-timed experience. 

 Wake up, wake up ! ye cub-hunters of Merrie England. 

 November is all too late to begin. You may have frost 

 upon you next week, and then — your winter is over. 



Briefly now. Tuesday at Coleman Cross was more or 

 less a by-day, taking place, at three days' advertisement, 

 of another fixture abandoned. Sport only began about 

 1.45, when they found at Coolmore (near Fethard, and 

 recently the residence of Lord Southampton). A turn 

 up and down the plantations occupied some five minutes, 

 and their fox was seen by a peasant to steal away in a 

 a northerly direction, towards Mortlestown. A lovely 

 country developed at once. Big sound banks, somewhat 

 overgrown with furze and grass perhaps, but seldom with 

 hidden dykes to catch the careless. And of course the 

 fields all grass. Very few cattle in them, and the en- 

 closures of fair size — the ground level and damp enough 

 still, in spite of three or four days of summer weather. 

 Pace gradually improved after hounds had sprung across 

 the road and were heading westward for Woodhouse, their 

 fox's point, some three or four miles away. A galloping 

 hunt of thirtv minutes took us there, and was almost an 



