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 hunt- 

 ing, 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 



