:386 TAKING THE AVERAGE. 



hands liigli, wtli bone in proportion, is unknown 

 here. This is the reason why they esteem small horses, 

 and say large ones cannot carry them ; they have not 

 large ones of the right sort, and I am quite certain 

 that any man accustomed to look over Melton studs 

 would agree with me in saying that among a field of 

 Irish hunters, he could scarcely see one that, taking 

 size, strength, breeding, and beauty into considera- 

 tion, he Avoulcl call a really fine horse ; no, they have 

 good ones, but comparatively speaking they have 

 very few fine horses : here I quite agree with the 

 Irish sportsmen that small horses are generally 

 always better proportioned than large ones, and 

 better for their size, but a good big one shall beat a 

 good little one all the world over to carry weight. 



Breeding as they do from common mares, they get 

 this little hackney-looking horse that cannot go, or be 

 expected to go the pace : he may suit and be fast for 

 the country he has to go over, and in truth does go 

 over it in a wonderful manner, but this does not 

 make him fit for a better. 



Put a field of Irish horses (I speak of them 

 collectively by no means individually) by the side of 

 Coplow : let a fox go away, I will venture to say they 

 (that is the field) would not live Avith hounds ten 

 minutes, no not across three enclosures ; they would 

 (no doubt of them) go on as long as you like, but it 

 would be a wild-goose chase; the farther they went 

 the farther they would be behind : put Tom Smith 

 on one of them, and, unless it happened to be a 

 picked one, I am quite sure he would ask for his 

 night-cap. 



I am fearful I am now losing ground in the good 

 graces of my Irish fellow sportsmen ;. if I am, I am 



