TIPPERARY IX OCTOBER 383 



Cross, we were taken to the beautiful gorse Donegal, the 

 apple of Mr. Riall's eye and the light that twinkles in the 

 orbs of Farmer Smith, better known as Donegal-Smith, 

 who lives near by, and who possesses a faculty of tea9hing 

 young horses to jump that is inborn in equal degree only 

 in his brother. Donegal on the east and Ballyluski on the 

 west, three years ago shared between them all the best 

 honours of Tipperary, each being drawn upwards of a 

 dozen times during a notable season, and on every occasion 

 providing a find and a gallop. A large proportion of the 

 regular hunting-men of Tipperary were assembled above 

 the gorse to-day — in a cold north-east wind that might 

 have done credit to Ranksborough in March. Like Ranks- 

 borough, or whisky, Donegal has no bad side to it. Good, 

 better, and best are the only degrees of comparison. On 

 this occasion a willing fox, leaving his many brethren, 

 chose the good side northward. Red coats and scarlet- 

 trimmed habits swooped round the quarry (the Tipperary, 

 as you know, being already in the full swing of their 

 season) ; the Master had two couple out ; and a patient 

 field — all the more patient, possibly, that the ground was 

 like rock — drew rein to let other thirteen couple reach the 

 first gap before them. I'truth, 'twas edifying. Will you do 

 as well, for your new Masters, ye men of Rugby, when first 

 you sport pink from Hilmorton and Lilbourne in the 

 coming month ? The dust flew, and so did the fourteen 

 couple, soon eighteen, the merry ladies. That the banks 

 were lofty I can vouch. They told me afterwards they 

 were " blind." In humble ignorance I protest I fail to 

 understand the term as applied to a bank. Our North- 

 amptonshire ditches are this year blind as Justice no doubt, 

 as I may prove to myself during the current week. But 

 to a Tipperary bank the better term would surely be 

 masked. At the least you jump on to something solid : not 

 on to empty space. (If you would try the latter sensation, 

 take an Irish horse over Leicestershire while the leaf is 

 still green, and each hedge and ditch remains an apparent 

 bank ! ) The " blindness " of the Tipperary bank seems to 

 me to be brought about by its own height. It hides all that 

 may be beyond. And this " beyant " varies widely accord- 



