COUNTY TIPPERARY 303 



beseeching will induce them to be party to such a breach 

 of etiquette. In my own recent case I had, I protest, 

 daily implored in vain for a due admixture of water. 

 Then, to top it all, Paddy aforesaid fairly gave me away. 

 Another more or less abstemious guest arrived, and re- 

 quested that he might have his flask " filled weak — the 

 same as Mr. Brooksby's." " Begorra," retorted Paddy 

 with a wicked grin, "-that man likes his dhrink as strong 

 as anybody's I He takes it strong." 



But the quaintest illustration I know of the overflow 

 of whisky was that of a young gentleman who, having 

 satisfied his own requirements for the occasion, admini- 

 stered the rest of the liquor at hand to his pack of beagles, 

 to the extent of two full wine-glasses a hound. He then 

 stationed himself beyond the sunk fence bordering his 

 lawn ; blew his horn and holloaed loudly — till the whole 

 pack staggered over the drop and tumbled into the ditch. 

 There he left them to get sober at their leisure. 



I have only to add, as an instance of how little 

 account is distance regarded in county Tipperary, that 

 Captain and Mrs. Barclay found themselves at the end of 

 the day with some twenty-five Irish miles to ride and 

 drive home I 



I can give you another, far more extravagant, record 

 from the past fortnight. Two young ladies, determined 

 on attending the opening meet, rode their horses twenty 

 similar miles into Thurles at early morn, put them on the 

 train, hunted all day, rode back half-a-dozen miles to 

 Fethard. thence trained back to Thurles, and rode home 

 those twenty Irish miles that night ! What think you of 

 that, my countrywomen ? Without further names I can 

 tell you that a gentleman who keeps his horses at Fethard 

 frequently comes thirty Celtic miles to a meet ; while 

 during the opening week another sportsman found him- 

 self riding forty miles home into county Waterford after 

 hunting with the Tipperary. 



I think I have now gfven you as much as you will 

 swallow. So I will merely assert that it is all pertectly 

 true. 



