THE FIRST PACKS 



tions of sport in Ireland of more than half a cen- 

 tury earlier to the editor of the magazine in 1845. 



I do not think there will be much difficulty in 

 identifying the gentleman who wrote above that 

 name, and that when he tells us that his grand- 

 father, the reigning baronet, " aet. 93," had pocket 

 boroughs at Annabelle in the Golden Valley, another 

 pocket borough elsewhere, that his son was member 

 for Bannagher in 1792, one son-in-law for Wicklow 

 and a second for Gal way town, the family of Sir 

 Joseph Hoare is very plainly indicated. The writer 

 of the article of 1845, Sir Joseph Wallis Hoare, who 

 by that time had succeeded as third Baronet, was 

 at the date of the meeting he describes a youth act- 

 ing as amanuensis to his grandfather the old 

 baronet. 



It is interesting to find that this meeting, though 

 ostensibly called for the sole purpose of enjoying 

 the sport which followed the custom of one pack 

 visiting the country of another, was in reality a 

 political meeting of the first importance. It was a 

 conference between country gentlemen to consider 

 what the writer describes as " * plots ' between the 

 E. of W(estmorland), Lord Lieutenant, and his 

 facetious secretary. Major H(arcourt), by which 

 the country would be grievously compromised," and 

 it was summoned by a letter written by Mr W. 

 Brabazon Ponsonby from Bishopscourt to the old 



39 



