Mr. Croker has an even dozen horses and colts in training, and he showed
us some yearlings of great promise. His two-year-olds and
three-year-olds are all entered for races in Ireland, and those that do
well will be sent over to England. In 1907 his horses won forty races in
both countries, and his stable has altogether about three hundred to
its credit since he came to Ireland.
The horse show at Dublin in August is the greatest event in Ireland, and
draws from the entire kingdom as well as from the Continent, thousands
of horse breeders and horse owners and fashionable people. It is
probably the most brilliant and important horse show in the world.
There are three kinds of jaunting cars,--"outside cars," in which the
passengers sit back to back with their feet on shelves over the wheels;
"inside cars," in which they sit face to face with their feet in the
middle, and "single cars," which have one seat accommodating two persons
facing the horse. The latter are the most comfortable of all, but give
the passengers a good shaking up, which we are told is excellent for the
liver.
It is a curious fact that the jaunting car, although it is distinctively
Irish, and would not be tolerated in any other country, was invented and
introduced by an Italian, Charles Bianconi, a native of Milan, who
arrived in Ireland about the year 1800 and set up at Clonmel as an
artist and picture dealer. Being struck by the absence of vehicles in
the country, for everybody went on horseback in those days, he built a
conveyance of his own design which immediately became popular and was
imitated by every one who had the means to build or buy a box and a pair
of wheels.
Only in Dublin can you hire a covered carriage--four-wheelers or
"growlers," as they are called in London; but in Waterford, Cork, and
Limerick are "covered cars," which are without doubt the most
uncomfortable vehicles that anybody ever rode in, unless it be a Chinese
cart. They are "inside cars," with a hood of canvas or leather over
them, supported by an iron frame or hickory bows. Imagine a large,
square box with one end knocked out of it, and replaced by a step or two
for the passengers to enter; two seats, one on either side, upon which
the passengers sit _vis-a-vis_, clinging to straps suspended from the
roof. There are no windows, no place for ventilation except the open
back, which is covered with a curtain that may be raised or not,
according to the state of the weather.
[Illustration: GOING TO MARKET]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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