rule, to get over fields and through gates with a minimum of
"lepping." Some of our Colonial sisters might taunt us for not trying to
leap wire in the brave manner done by Miss Harding (Fig. 102) and other
New Zealand and Australian horsewomen, but their conditions of country
are entirely different from ours. In the Shires, for instance, wire, as
a great rule, is visible only from one side of the fence which it
contaminates, and often takes the form of a concealed trap. Hence it is
carefully avoided both by horses at grass and by riders.

My husband tells me that banks, stone walls and "stone gaps" are the
chief fences in Ireland; that hedges are seldom encountered, except in
the form of furze on the top of banks; and that he has rarely seen posts
and rails in his native land. While enjoying a very pleasant visit last
winter with Mr. Arthur Pollok, the Master of the East Galway Hounds, he
took the photographs of Figs. 115 to 120. Fig. 115 shows a broad bank
about 4 feet high, with a deep ditch on each side, and a tall man
standing on the top of it, so as to give an idea of its dimensions. Fig.
116 is a side view of Fig. 115. In Fig. 117, Mr. Pollok, who is also
tall, is standing beside a higher and more upright bank which has the
usual accompaniment of broad ditches. In Fig. 118, the very popular
Master of the East Galway is close to a typical Galway stone wall of the
"cope and dash" order and close on 5 feet in height. This formidable
obstacle derives its name from the fact that the stones on its top are
firmly cemented together by a dash of mortar. The Masters, hunting men,
hunting ladies, and horses of the East Galway and Blazers think nothing
of "throwing a lep" over a cope and dash of this kind. Ordinary second
flighters in the Shires would probably prefer the Galway "loose stone
wall" depicted in Fig. 119 or the small bank shown in Fig. 120. He also
tells me that although there is wire in East Galway, it is used only for
fencing-in large spaces of ground, and as it stands out alone by itself,
it is no source of danger to horse or rider. My husband returned to
Crick delighted with the people in County Galway, especially because,
when he went out hunting, almost everyone of the small field, both
ladies and men, seeing that he was a stranger, were glad to meet him,
and went up and spoke to him in a very friendly manner. Over there,
hunting is evidently a sport, and not a social function.

Fig. 121, which was very ki