SIR JOHN KENNEDY, 1814-1841 



hospitality and urbanity of manner by which he had 

 at all times been pre-eminently distinguished.'* 

 The resolution ended with an earnest request to 

 Mr Kennedy to keep the hounds. The difficulty 

 was the old question of expenses, and Mr Kennedy 

 replied that he had no wish to relinquish the 

 Mastership, but that the sum of ^£800 previously 

 agreed upon was the minimum upon which he could 

 hunt the country properly, and that he could con- 

 tinue so long only as that sum was forthcoming. A 

 vote of thanks to Mr Robert La Touche for his 

 " liberal subscription of £100 a year " places upon 

 record the help given by one generous member of 

 the Hunt at a time of difficulty. A meeting of a 

 month later discloses the fact that the difficulty 

 was surmounted and that Mr Kennedy continued 

 his beneficent rule. 



It may be safely assumed that this satisfactory 

 state of things continued for the eleven years 

 through which Mr Kennedy was still to lead the 

 Hunt. On March i, 1837, members of the Hunt 

 gave a dinner at Penning 's Hotel, Sackville Street, 

 at which they presented him with a fine piece of 

 plate as some acknowledgment of what Kildare 

 sportsmen owed to their master. There is an entry 

 in Baron de Robeck's diary under that date, which 

 gives a glance, though a brief one, at this obviously 

 convivial occasion. 



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