HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



At an insult so dire, 



Father Malachy's ire 

 Was aroused in an instant, so closing the book 

 He gives the arch rascal one desperate look, 

 Then with blessed precision the volume lets fly 

 And hits the arch enemy full in the eye. 



There's a terrible yell 



That might startle all hell, 

 A flash and a very strong brimstony smell 



And save for a cleft 



From his exit so deft, 

 Not a trace of the gentleman's visit is left. 



" We still show the place where the devil's sup- 

 posed to have disappeared through the hearthstone," 

 Captain E. N. Conolly writes to me. 



I may take leave of Mr Thomas Conolly by 

 quoting a short recollection of that gentleman 

 written by a sportsman who called himself " Re- 

 membrancer " in the Sporting Magazine for 1832. 



" Mr Conolly of Castletown, one of the greatest 

 patrons and promoters of sporting that Ireland 

 ever saw. The Irish Turf owes some of its best 

 sources to the constant importations which this 

 princely gentleman continued through his life 

 from the best studs in England. Whether Mr 

 Conolly used the Irish or Cork foxhound or pro- 

 cured a pack from England, I have not been able to 

 learn, though I incline to the latter opinion." 



36 



