4i8 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



to well-worded illustration of the fairs and customs of 

 Tipperary. In each of the cases under notice, it seemed 

 to me, the whole of one opposing party was promptly 

 marching into the police office opposite, while the other 

 walked away with the quadruped in dispute. It made me 

 ache to think of the glorious eighteen hours in prospect for 

 that happy roomful, while they waited judgment and release 

 in the morning ! I'faith, it must have been as exhilarating 

 as a Channel passage. 



But the centre of attraction for all the gentry folk 

 was, of course, the yard of Mr. Bell, the popular veterinary 

 surgeon and most kindly mediator in all that relates to 

 horse buying and selling in county Tipperary. Here at all 

 events we were privileged to see a few neat horses, about 

 to be shipped to Austria by Mr. Schavel — even if the 

 eccentricities of the weather had kept at home most else 

 that was eligible for sale in the country round, Mr. Bell's 

 premises being the recognised meeting-ground for traders 

 amateur and professional. 



It struck me after a time that if I was really to see 

 " the fun of the fair " I had best go forth into the by- 

 streets and corners. This accordingly I did in the driving 

 snowstorm, and was rewarded. I despair of being able to 

 reproduce it, unless you care to take one little instance as 

 picturing the whole. The vendor had obviously smartened 

 himself for the occasion and the day, with his beaver hat 

 (two sides intact, the other two otherwise), his Sunday 

 greatcoat slashed from shoulder to waist, to display a width 

 of white shirt or what not ; his trousers rucked to his knees 

 to do honour to the good grey stockings beneath, a short 

 white clay in his mouth ; and his nose (weather-burnt, 

 doubtless) fiercely afire. A big yellow saddle-cloth, 

 evidently bought for ornament, had shifted its place till it 

 attached itself as a mustard plaster beneath the single 

 girth. One stirrup hung by a cord ; and cord, too, con- 

 nected the bit with the rider's hands. Thus accoutred, he 

 kept his ashplant going in tune with his own quaint ex- 

 pletives and encomia, as he galloped fiercely up and down 

 the road, and sought thus to charm a trio representing 

 possible purchasers. These, as is in keeping with horse- 



