384 



THE BEST OF THE FUN 



ing to special district and special accident. It may be a 

 smooth plain surface, such as we have often been told is 

 the speciality of Tipperary, but have failed to find except 

 in occasional patches. It may be a deep broad dyke, a 

 stream, or a boreen (Aiiglice, a stone-paved cart-lane). To- 

 day the country leaned to the dyke, often on either side. 



>A^U 



^^N^ 

 -^1^ 



The boreen 



And when the variety came, in the form of the boreen, you 

 were lucky if you did not illustrate the ready talent of 

 your mount — who popped into and down it at speed — by 

 shooting head-first into the stone-coping he seemed bent 

 upon flying. Such are some of the eccentric experiences 

 of a quick ride over an Irish country ; the horse a skilled per- 

 former, the man a confiding stranger. How much better 

 placed are you than in the stake-and-bound districts that 

 Englishmen call their " Shires ! " In the former a clever 



