SIR FENTON AYLMER AND MR A. HENRY 



and Grennon was aided by Matthews, a son of old 

 George, and his own son, a very small juvenile, as 

 whippers in. 



Grennon had the reputation of being the best 

 huntsman in Ireland, and perhaps had he been in 

 a woodland country such as Essex (the Queen's 

 County is the only one in Ireland that approaches 

 to that character), he would have fully merited it. 

 But in such an open country as Kildare, at least, a 

 country which, though stiffly fenced with ditches 

 and banks, is devoid of wood, the coverts being 

 nearly all gorse, he was too quick, I might almost 

 say too tricky. The subtlest varmint that ever 

 robbed a henroost met with his match in John, and 

 like all very clever men, he was ever fond of dis- 

 playing his talents. Consequently his hounds were 

 accustomed to trust more to him than to their own 

 noses, the results of which, despite his acknow- 

 ledged cleverness, were the reverse often of satis- 

 factory. He possessed all the requisites of a hunts- 

 man, a quick eye, a ready ear, an excellent voice 

 with some very peculiar but tuneable halloos, and 

 was also a sufficiently resolute horseman, though 

 rather nice about his kind of horse. 



I have been able to find only a single further 

 reference to sport under Sir Fenton Aylmer's 

 mastership, a notice in the Dublin Star of Thurs- 

 day, November 22, 1804. It runs as follows: 



77 



