Domestic fiction; Ireland -- Fiction; Land tenure -- Fiction; Landlord and tenant -- Fiction; Landowners -- Fiction
Two days after the hunt in which poor Goneaway was killed by Barry’s
horse, Ballindine received the following letter from his friend Dot
Blake.
“Limmer’s Hotel, 27th March, 1844.
“Dear Frank,
“I and Brien, and Bottom, crossed over last Friday night, and,
thanks to the God of storms, were allowed to get quietly through
it. The young chieftain didn’t like being boxed on the quay a bit
too well; the rattling of the chains upset him, and the fellows
there are so infernally noisy and awkward, that I wonder he was
ever got on board. It’s difficult to make an Irishman handy, but
it’s the very devil to make him quiet. There were four at his head,
and three at his tail, two at the wheel, turning, and one up aloft,
hallooing like a demon in the air; and when Master Brien showed a
little aversion to this comic performance, they were going to drag
him into the box _bon gré, mal gré_, till Bottom interposed and
saved the men and the horse from destroying each other.
“We got safe to Middleham on Saturday night, the greatest part
of the way by rail. Scott has a splendid string of horses. These
English fellows do their work in tiptop style, only they think more
of spending money than they do of making it. I waited to see him
out on Monday, when he’d got a trot, and he was as bright as though
he’d never left the Curragh. Scott says he’s a little too fine; but
you know of course he must find some fault. To give Igoe his due,
he could not be in better condition, and Scott was obliged to own
that, _considering where he came from_, he was very well. I came on
here on Tuesday, and have taken thirteen wherever I could get it,
and thought the money safe. I have got a good deal on, and won’t
budge till I do it at six to one; and I’m sure I’ll bring him to
that. I think he’ll rise quickly, as he wants so little training,
and as his qualities must be at once known now he’s in Scott’s
stables; so if you mean to put any more on you had better do it at
once.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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