IRISH HUNTERS 



though its bridle be a Pelham, with a noseband, 

 and without a curb-chain, while one rein seems 

 most untrustworthy, and the other, for want of a 

 buckle, has its ends tied in a knot. And yet, 

 wherever the hounds go, thither follow this 

 strangely-equipped pair. They arrive at a seven- 

 foot bank, defended by a wide and, more 

 forbidding still, an enormously deep ditch on this 

 side and with nothing apparently but blue sky on 

 the other. While the man utters an exclamation 

 that seems a threat, a war-cry, and a shout of 

 triumph combined, the horse springs to the 

 summit, perches like a bird, and disappears 

 buoyantly into space as if furnished, indeed, 

 with wings, that it need only spread to fly away. 

 They come to a stone-gap, as it is termed ; 

 neither more nor less than a disused egress, made 

 up with blocks of granite into a wall about five 

 feet high, and the young one, getting close under 

 it, clears the whole out of a trot, with the elasticity 

 and the very action of a deer. Presently some 

 frightful chasm has to be encountered, wide 

 enough for a brook, deep enough for a ravine, 

 boggy of approach, faced with stone, and offering 

 about as awkward an appearance as ever defeated 

 a good man on his best hunter and bade him go 

 to look for a better place. 



Our friend in the bad hat, who knows what he 

 Is about, rides at this " yawner " a turn slower 



145 



