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camp in the least interfere with the exercising of the various strings 

 of horses belonging to the surrounding training establishments. 

 Mr. Pallin can also have a hunt in far-off portions of the plain, his 

 hare giving the hounds a four-mile point without leaving the Curragh 

 or nearing either military or trainers' strings. 



Then have we not the world-renowned racecourse, where a four-mile 

 course is laid out within its circumference, upon which the time- 

 honoured Anglesey, Peel, Waterford, Howth, Red, and Sligo posts have 

 stood for generations ? On the further sde of the railway we have 

 the Curragh Gorse— a covert of the Kildares from which many a 

 rattling fox was run. 



Now, my readers, I in no way exaggerate when I state that, if so 

 minded, w^e could have all the following events taking place at the 

 same time on this noble plain, and that, too, with perhaps little or 

 no interference with each other : — 



All the troops in Ireland under review. 



All the Pi. I.e. in the County Kildare ball practising at the 

 rifle-butts. 



All the trainers' strings at exercise. 



The Curragh October Meeting. 



The Kildare Hounds drawing the gorse for a fox. 



Mr. Pallin's Harriers drawing furze brakes for a hare. 



A coursing meeting if there were hares, which there are not. 



Now what do you think of that, all ye who boast of the greatness 

 of England 1 Where is the place in all your land that could give 

 space for such vast and varied exhibitions of military and sporting 

 events to take place at the same time? And if a man had a front seat 

 in a balloon he could have a bird's-eye view of the whole panorama ! 

 I repeat, there is no exaggeration in what I have stated. 



The Curragh is, as the crow flies, fully six miles long and three 

 miles across, with hill and dale adding considerably to the extent. It 

 does not run out into inland peninsulas, but is practically a 

 parallelogram in shape. 



The herbage, too, although never having been desecrated with 

 a plough, is far away richer and better in quality than that grown 

 upon any plain I ever saw in England. The grass grows short, thick, 

 and sweet, and is particularly good for sheep, while the hares which 

 once lived there in plenty were of the stoutest and best running breed 

 to be found in the three kingdoms. The late Mr. James Galway, the 

 breeder of Master McGrath, told me he often saw a Curragh hare run 

 clean away, without their having given her a single turn, from the 

 best brace of greyhounds in Ireland. Coursing meetings of importance 

 used to be held on the Curragh long ago, and there was a park near 

 where the camp is into which the hares could run for safety, holes 

 being in the walls at convenient places for them. A portion of this 

 old hare park still remains, but the hares have long since been 

 annihilated. 



