TIPPERARY IN OCTOBER 381 



of St. Anne's, the most picturesque of hydropathic estab- 

 lishments, and enough also at Farran, in spite of the 

 determination of the badgers to annul the earth-stopping. 



From the former place on Wednesday hounds even- 

 tually slipped us all by following an old fox across the 

 padlocked railway. Half-an-hour later they got blood by 

 the riverside at Abbeville, our pursuit being regulated by 

 a stray hound or two and by the clusters of labourers on 

 the bank-tops. Interest in the sport retains its place in the 

 hearts of the country people of county Cork, even though 

 its growth may have been stunted at times by political 

 troubles. At the note of the horn they all run forth to 

 see the hounds, and, if possible, to point whither the fox 

 has in their opinion gone. Instance on Friday, a merry 

 maid, by no means uncomely, leaving her potato-digging 

 and leaping to the bank. " Will I come wid ye, darlin' ? " 

 I heard not the answ-er from the gallant official ; but my 

 thoughts went back to far-off Japan, a very free country, 

 wherein I had years ago the fortune to hunt a pack of 

 hounds. Even there, among a people yet more joyous 

 and outspoken than the Irish, I cannot remember to have 

 been greeted thus gracefully. 



CHAPTER LX 



TIPPERAKY IX OCTOBER 



That I have learned to look upon a return to county 

 Tipperary as akin to home-coming is due, primarily, to the 

 wondrously kind comradeship with which I have there 

 been met ; and next, of course, to the fact that I have thus 

 become acquainted with much of its beautiful country. I 

 was enchanted when I first broke ground therein. Since 

 then, I affirm gratefully and unreservedly, the more I see 

 of it the better I like it. 



Yet when last week I arrived at Clonmell, and in the 

 cool evening drove forth under the autumn moon, then just 

 rising in rounded splendour over the purple crest of Slieve- 

 na-mon, Tipperary could hardly be reported at its best. 



