COUNTY TIPPERARY 



301 



ago to find myself witliin a select circle of the biggest and 

 perhaps the best-looking hunters in the field. They hadn't 

 the decency even then to hide the infirmity that bound 

 them to the distressful country. One after another groaned 

 aloud. " Ugh " went up on one side of me, " Ugh-ugh " 

 on the other. I had heard aforetime the exaggeration of 

 a horse " roaring in his walk." Never before did 1 hear, 

 or believe possible, six horses roaring at a standstill. 



And, as the farmers part with their fillies as well as 

 their colts, it becomes a matter of wonder what is left to 

 breed from. Probably the veterinary surgeon would find 

 few of their brood mares deservins of a clean bill of sound- 



Squads of young horses galloping in the pastures 



ness. Yet good colts and fillies are raised by the hundred, 

 and every man in Ireland would seem to look upon horse- 

 breeding as an absorbing and a profitable pursuit. There 

 they have a way of describing a horse to any listener, no 

 matter how unbelieving or how long practised in the craft 

 himself, that for very intensity cannot fail to insist upon 

 some degree of credence if not of absolute conviction. 

 Here is a little instance which I am writing for my English 

 readers. Irish groom bestriding an animal whose every 

 outline betokened want of speed. To him slyly suggested 

 an intimate friend of his master's: ''Good-looking horse 

 that, Mike ; but is he fast enough ?" " Fast enough, ye 



should be doing this minute ! 

 inquiry could there be to this ? 



What further possible 



