HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



This accident happened long before the existing 

 bridge at Poul-a-Phouca was buih, and I have been 

 unable to find any print or drawing of the spot of a 

 date near to that of the disaster. The illustration 

 opposite, however, gives a very clear idea of the 

 dangerous nature of the place, and is taken from a 

 plate in Willis's Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland ^ 

 published shortly after the bridge was built. I 

 suppose the gorge to have been cleared of much of 

 its brushwood and timber to facilitate the building 

 of the bridge. In the present day, it is again much 

 overgrown. 



It may be worthy of note that a similar accident 

 on a smaller scale was only narrowly avoided 

 during the season of 1909-10. 



Sir Fenton's second mastership was brought to 

 an end by his resignation on October 10, 1814, a 

 resignation dictated beyond all doubt by a rapidly 

 failing health. It was only two years later that he 

 died of consumption at Cork at the early age of 

 forty. Of his personality I have been able to gather 

 very little, but Mr A. Aylmer tells me that he re- 

 members his grandmother often speaking of the 

 hounds at Donadea, which she well recollected, 

 and that Sir Fenton " was a small man, full of 

 spirits, rather boisterous and a great spend- 

 thrift." From what I have written above, it will be 

 clear that, contrary to the received opinion which 

 88 



