HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



fear be angry when I tell yo' yt I went to bed last 

 night at one of ye clock, was on horseback this 

 morning at four, rid eight miles before day break, 

 hunted a fox afterwards, came back afterwards here 

 to dinner and rid a coursing this afternoon till 

 nightfall, and I thank God I cannot say I am much 

 the worse for it. . . . 



My Ld. and Lady give my mother and yo' their 

 services. I am inclined to be sleepy so must bid yo' 

 good night with assuring yo' I am, 



My Jewel, your own for ever, 



A. Weldon. 



The pages of that same invaluable storehouse of 

 information upon sport of all kinds, the old Sport- 

 ing Magazine, enable me to give some interesting 

 particulars of the second of the great private packs 

 which I have mentioned as existing during the 

 eighteenth century in the present Kildare district. 

 It will be clear from some quotations I shall make 

 that there was an elaborately organized hunting 

 establishment at Bishopscourt in the year 1792, and 

 that the pack kept by the Right Honourable W. B. 

 Ponsonby, later Postmaster- General of Ireland, 

 was no new institution at that date. It was a fortu- 

 nate chance for the purposes of our inquiry into 

 the beginnings of fox-hunting in Kildare which led 

 *' An Irish Baronet " to write some of his recoUec- 



38 



