SOME CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS 301 



Mention of the Duhallow Hunt reminds one that 

 the old Irish Hunt Clubs were always celebrated — 

 or shall I say notorious ? — for their conviviality, and 

 that, though there may be cause for regret that these 

 old Hunt gatherings have become only memories of 

 the past, the high revelry and general " divilment " that 

 accompanied them were often discreditable. 



Some of the scenes that took place must have been 

 very amusing, nevertheless. I was told only a couple 

 of years ago, by an eye-witness, who was a member of 

 the old Kilkenny Hunt Club, of the famous ride of 

 Mr. John Courteney, of Ballyedmund (who first brought 

 the Grand National to Ireland), up the brass-bound 

 stairs of the club-house, into the dining-room, and 

 over a wicker fire-screen placed on the backs of two 

 chairs before the fireplace ; also of the expostulations 

 of the lady in charge of the club-house, and Sir John 

 Power's humorous threat as to the steps he would 

 take if she objected, and her defiant reply. 



Among my own acquaintance was a grave and 

 worthy gentleman, now deceased, who, in his youthful 

 days, after a Hunt dinner once disposed himself at full 

 length across the street in front of that club-house, and, 

 chuckling with suppressed laughter, declared to his 

 expostulating friends that he intended to upset the 

 Waterford Mail which was then due ; and I knew well 

 a certain grim old gentleman who, on the only occasion 

 he was ever known to allow his potations to get the 

 better of him, was safely packed in a passing, empty 

 hearse, and conveyed home to a somewhat shrewish 



spouse 



We have heard, too, in more sober England, of roister- 



