CHAPTER II 



THE FIRST PACKS OF THE KILDARE 



COUNTRY 



I AM confirmed in my opinion that organized 

 fox-hunting in Ireland, as in England, was first 

 made possible only by the maintenance by indi- 

 vidual gentlemen of private hunting establishments, 

 by evidence, scanty in all cases, but still conclu- 

 sive, of the existence of three such establishments 

 all close to each other in the district hunted by the 

 Kildare hounds to-day. It is quite beyond doubt 

 that well back in the eighteenth century packs of 

 foxhounds were kept at Castletown by the Conollys, 

 at Bishopscourt by the Ponsonbys, and at Johns- 

 town by the Kennedys. 



Tradition has long assigned the origin of the 

 present Kildare pack to the first mentioned of these 

 families, then represented by Mr Thomas Conolly 

 of Castletown, the famous Squire Conolly whose 

 memory is still alive in Kildare as the type and pat- 

 tern of the Irish gentleman and sportsman. Sport 

 generally in Kildare and fox-hunting in particular 

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