HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



centred at Bishopscourt I have been able to dis- 

 cover. 



Mr Kennedy, very kindly writing to me in the 

 summer of 1910, said: 



" Nearly 80 years ago a very young child was sent 

 up to bring down his father (he was on crutches 

 from a fall in the hunting field, for he was master 

 and huntsman) to see an exquisitely dressed old 

 gentleman who had called to see him. His father 

 limped down in an old blue dressing gown that 

 wanted darning. 



*' In broken tones that old gentleman, Mr Fred- 

 erick Ponsonby, told the master and huntsman, 

 John Kennedy of Johnstown, that he was leaving 

 the country, having sold Bishopscourt, and from a 

 box he took out a large piece of plate, which he 

 presented to the master, to be run for by the 

 farmers of Kildare, to be won three years succes- 

 sively before becoming the property of the winner. 



" That gift was subsequently known as the Pon- 

 sonby Bowl, and was so run for at the Kildare 

 Hunt Races. It was ultimately won by the Honable. 

 Berkeley Wodehouse, who posed as a farmer in 

 having married Mr Ponsonby 's niece. Miss Fanny 

 Holmes, and settled at Athgarvon Lodge, now 

 Mr Pallin's. Miss Fanny Holmes was a famous rider, 

 the only lady that hunted in those days and a 

 great sportswoman and supporter of the Curragh 

 Coursing Club, for when the Wodehouses left Kil- 

 dare, down went the Curragh Coursing. Athgarvon 

 60 



