HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



Another chastisement was of a different charac- 

 ter, and might almost pass as a caress. Mr Kennedy 

 " blooded " his son by striking him across the face 

 with half a fox which had been killed in a stick- 

 heap at Johnstown after a brilliant gallop. Young 

 Robert, still only a child, saw the death, his hand in 

 that of a stableman. The first two men up were 

 Colonel King, who had lost an arm at Waterloo, 

 and was then commanding the artillery at Dublin, 

 and Dick Magennis, a hard riding sportsman, who 

 also lacked an arm. " Begorrah," exclaimed the 

 stableman to the boy, " there's only cripples up." 



A little later, when Mr Robert Kennedy was still 

 a young boy, there was a famous big fox near 

 Johnstown, which gave long ringing runs, often 

 ending near the kennels, and could never be 

 accounted for. One day he ran into the yard, and 

 the Master thought he had got into a large stick- 

 heap, stacked quite close to the kennels. Young 

 Robert was present with his terriers, and was duly 

 admonished by his father to keep away. When the 

 hounds had been drawn off, after an unsuccessful 

 examination of the stick-heap young Kennedy, con- 

 cealing his design, asked a stableman to come with 

 him into the kennel " to look for rats." On taking 

 his dogs into the " close kennel," used then as a 

 hospital for sick or lame hounds, the terriers' 

 bristles rose, and they bolted the fox, which 

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