A History of the Kildare Hunt

' <L l^ JOHNA.SEAVERNS TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 3 9090 014 537 134 Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at TufEs University 200 Wsstboro Road Nortti Grafton, MA 01536 A HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT A HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT By the Sari of JUayo k-p Author of Sport in Abyssinia, De Rebus Africanis, The Cruise of the "Aries." ^ W'B' "Boulton Author o/'The Amusements of Old London, etc.^ etc. Joint author of Memorials of the Royal Yacht Squadron. With many Illustrations. London: The St Catherine Tress 34 0%orfolk Street Strand M CM' XIII ytA-Jl ^3 3 9 CONTENTS Chapter I. Introductory Page i Chapter II. The First Packs of the Kildare Country 1 Chapter III. Sir Fenton Aylmer and Mr A. Henry, 1798-1814 57 Chapter IV. Sir John Kennedy, 1814-1841 loi Chapter V. Mr John La Touche, 1 841 -1846 150 ChapterVI. Mr O'Connor Henchy, 1846-1847 166 Chapter VII. Mr William Kennedy, 1847-1854 191 Chapter VIII. Lord Clonmell, 1854-1857 211 Chapter IX. Lord Naas, 1 857-1 862 239 Chapter X. Baron De Robeck, 1862- 1868 299 Chapter XL Sir Edward Kennedy, 1868- 1874 33^ Chapter XII. Conclusion, 1874- 191 356 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Mr Thomas ConoUy (after Reynolds) Frontispiece Mr Thomas Conolly Face page 19 Lady Louisa Conolly 24 Mr Thomas Conolly and Castletown Hounds 29 Castletown 32 Bishopscourt 41 Sir Fenton Aylmer, Bart., M.F.H. 1798-1814 57 Mr Arthur Henry, M.F.H. 1810-1812 79 Poul a Foucha 88 Donadea Castle 97 The Naas Country from Blackwood Furness 103 Dunlavin 137 Mr John La Touche, M.F.H. 1841-1846 150 Mr O'Connor Henchy, M.F.H. 1846-1847 166 The Marquess of Drogheda 183 Punchestown 1868 189 Mr Wm Kennedy, M.F.H. 1847- 1854 191 The Earl of Clonmell, M.F.H. 1854-1857 211 The Kildare Hunt (at Bishopscourt) 229 Key 229 Lord Naas, M.F.H. 1857-1862 239 Stephen Goodall, Huntsman, and Mr Wm. La Touche 259 vii Face page Hunt Breakfast at Palmerstown i860 265 .» ,, „ „ „ Key 265 Major Edmund Mansfield 272 The Kildare Hunt about i860 289 Lord Naas, M.F.H. 1857- 1862 294 Baron De Robeck, M.F.H. 1862- 1868 299 Straffan Bridge and Sallins 320 Sir Edward Kennedy, Bart, M.F.H. 1868-1874 330 Johnstown Inn 344 Vlll CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY is probable that the traditions of hunting ITstretch further back into the past in Ireland than in any other of the three kingdoms. It would be difficult, I think, to find an earlier record of sport than the legend which preserves the fact that in the first century of our era the hero Fraech received from his aunt a present of seven hounds which chased '' seven stags, seven foxes, seven hares, seven boars and seven otters in the presence of Ailill and Medb, King and Queen of Con- naught, who watched them hunting till midday." I know of no earlier mention of the fox as a beast of chase, and that exploit of the legendary hero may be claimed by Irishmen with some confidence as the first record of a sport which has since become national. It is at a date not much later, as history is reck- oned, that the tradition of sport in Ireland is placed firmly on an historical basis by a no less authorita- tive personage than a Roman consul. Quintus B I HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT Aurelius Symmachus, writing in 391 a.d. to his brother Flavianus, then presumably in Britain, thanks him for his gift of seven Irish hounds, which he describes as " novel contributions to our solemn shows and games " and " calculated to win the favour of the Roman people for our Quaestor." The Romans, it appears, were much impressed by the size of the Irish hounds, which they employed in the amphitheatre to fight men, wild beasts, and other dogs. The fame of the Irish hound continued without any diminution from those days until times quite modern. The Irish hound was a gift highly valued by the princes of all nations and the subject of tribute between chieftains; the right of dealing in Irish hounds, indeed, whether as giver or receiver, seems to have been confined to men of royal birth. Sixteen chieftains so qualified are mentioned by name in the Book of Rights and Customs, the number of hounds composing the gift or tribute being specified in each case, seven hounds being the usual number, and they are described in three instances as " very beautiful, all white, eager and quick eyed." The status of the chase in Ireland in those early times is perhaps best indicated by the fact that the prime chieftain or right-hand man of the king was usually Master of the King's hounds. Finn, son of 2 INTRODUCTORY Cumall, for example, who flourished according to Celtic authorities in the third or fourth century A.D., filled that office for King Cormac, and the poems of the Finn cycle are full of the doings of that hero, his men, his hounds, and their prowess in the field. Three hundred of his hounds, indeed, are mentioned by name, and it is easy to form a definite idea from the poems of the methods of hunting employed by the sportsmen of those days. Finn seems to have hunted in the neighbour- hood of Howth, Ben Edair, and his pack included three hundred full-grown hounds, and two hundred puppies. A thievish Briton in his service stole " three of his best hounds, " Bran," " Sceolaing and " Admall," and fled with them to England, " but the dogs were recovered after a hard-fought battle in Britain," says the historian. Finn's hunting took the form of a drive of deer and wild boar. " He set on foot the hunt at Ben Edair, and took his station between Edair's height and the sea, while his men slipped their greyhounds. There his spirit was gay within him, while he listened to the maddened stags' bellowing as by the greyhounds of the Fraim they were rapidly killed." The earlier records of Ireland, indeed, leave us in no doubt as to the importance of the part played by the chase in the life of those primitive times. The admiration of the Irish for sport is indicated B2 3 HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT by the fact that the word cu, hound, or mil chu^ the hound used for large game, was often a part of the title of chieftain or warrior. "St. Patrick's master was Milchu; his convert, who gave him Down, was Di Chu, and the prefix of cu was common among the leaders of the Irish during the early centuries of the Christian era." As for the love of the Irish- man for his hound, did not Oisin say to St Patrick, " To the son of Cumall, and the chiefs of the Fiann, it is sweeter to hear the voice of hounds than to seek mercy. O, son of Calpurn, wilt thou allow to go to heaven my own dog and greyhound," an in- teresting anticipation of the idea expressed in Pope's well-known lines: " And thinks, admitted to the equal sky. His faithful hound will bear him company." Coming to historical times, we find the Irish reputation for sport in no way diminished. " The Irish," wrote Bartholomaeus Anglicus about 1260, " are contented with milk for drink, and are more addicted to games and hunting than to labour." King John and Edward the First have both left record in the Calendar of State papers of their appreciation of the valuable qualities of the Irish hound. In Tudor times, the hunting establish- ments of the great were a continual grievance with their opponents. Thus, in 1525 the Earl of Kildare 4 INTRODUCTORY charged the Earl of Ormonde " that he exacted coyne and Hvery throughout Tipperary and Kil- kenny for his sundry hunts, that is to say, twenty- four persons with sixty greyhounds for deer hunting, another number of men and dogs for to hunt the hare, and a third number to hunt the marten." Only a few years later, the Earl of Kildare him- self was the object of a similar complaint. The grand juries of Kildare, Kilkenny, and Waterford presented respectively, " that the Earl of Kildare 's Hounds and huntsmen must have meat through the counties of Kildare and Carlow as often as he doth appoint, to the number of forty or threescore, and when he used to have a hunt every day, to have both bread and butter, like a man; which is a more prerogative than any Christian prince claimeth." The Earl of Ormonde does not escape the censure of the grand juries. " Divers persons being servants of the Earl of Ormonde, being called the Hunt," says the presentment, " do use to come to the Mansion house of any inhabitant in the county at all times at their pleasure with their greyhounds and other dogs of the said Earl, and do take meat and drink for the said dogs." Again, " the Poers formerly, and now Lady Catherine Poer, have four- teen persons keeping her hounds, who, besides their own meat, will have bread and milk for every hound; her hounds and dogs are kept at the charges 5 HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT of the county." The same story is told against other of the nobles by the jury of Dingawan and by the jury of Tipperary. It would seem indeed that one of the privileges of being a keeper or huntsman of the great nobles' hounds was a warrant " to take by way of cesse sufficient meat and drink for them- selves and their said hounds of every the free- holder inhabitants of the said country, so that they remain but one day and night with any inhabitant or tenant." With hunting thus established so firmly in Ire- land it is not surprising to find the Irish hound famous throughout Europe.

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