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. Henry the Eighth in- 

 structed his Lord Deputy of the Council to make 

 a grant of four hounds yearly to a Spanish noble- 

 man, the Marquess of Desarrya, or his son, the 

 longest liver; two Irish hounds were included in a 

 gift forwarded to Queen Elizabeth by Shan O'Neill 

 in 1562; and in 1600 Dr Peter Lombard, primate of 

 Armagh, declared that in Ireland " are bred the 

 fairest and best hunting dogs in all Europe; water 

 dogs that pursue waterfowl; others that hunt hares, 

 rabbits and foxes; and others much larger and most 

 powerful in capturing stags, boars, and wolves." 

 It is interesting to find a record of sport in Ireland 

 which brings us nearly to the eighteenth century. 

 Alderman J. Howell of Cork wrote in 1698, 

 " Wolves indeed we have, and foxes, but these are 

 6 



