CHAPTER IX 



IRISH HUNTERS 



" A N' niver laid an iron to the sod ! " was a 

 -^~^ metaphor I once heard used by an 

 excellent fellow from Limerick, to convey the 

 brilliant manner in which a certain four-year-old 

 he was describing performed during a burst, 

 when, his owner told me, he went clean away 

 from all rivals in his gallop, and flew every wall, 

 bank, and ditch in his stride. 



The expression, translated into English, would 

 seem to imply that he neither perched on the 

 grass-grown banks, with all four feet at once, like 

 a cat, nor struck back at them with his hind legs, 

 like a dog ; and perhaps my friend made the 

 more account of this hazardous style of jump- 

 ing, that it seemed so foreign to the usual 

 characteristics of the Irish horse. 



For those who have never hunted in Ireland, 

 I must explain that the country as a general rule 

 is fenced on a primitive system, requiring little 

 expenditure or capital beyond the labour of a 



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