SIR JOHN KENNEDY, 1814-1841 



notes which concluded the business upon Mr 

 Kennedy's taking the hounds, by recording the 

 appreciation of the Club of his acceptance of the 

 responsibility of the Mastership on the terms I 

 have set out. " Resolved," says a minute of Oct. 10, 

 1 8 14, " that the proposal of John Kennedy Esqr. 

 is highly advantageous to the Hunt, and most 

 handsome on his part, and that we cheerfully 

 accept same." 



Mr Kennedy was at this time in his twenty- 

 ninth year and at present unmarried, though he 

 had succeeded his father, Mr Edward Kennedy, 

 at Johnstown three years earlier. It is clear that 

 the Hunt was quite as fortunate in the personality 

 of their new Master as in the terms upon which he 

 took the hounds. As I have already indicated, he 

 came of a family of sportsmen long identified with 

 fox-hunting in the Kildare district, and with an inti- 

 mate knowledge of the country he was called upon 

 to hunt. He is described by one or two members 

 of the Hunt, who still remember him, as one of the 

 greatest sportsmen that Ireland has ever seen. He 

 was a fine horseman, an excellent huntsman, with a 

 splendid voice and a wonderful control over his 

 hounds, whose steadiness was remarkable. The 

 difficulty of controlling large fields had not reached 

 an acute stage at the beginning of his reign, at 

 least, but Mr Kennedy's courteous and hearty 



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