HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



" Dinner at Penning 's Hotel, Sackville Street, 

 given by members of the Kildare Hunt to Sir John 

 Kennedy on presenting him with a splendid piece 

 of plate. Leinster and about twenty-five Kildare 

 men were present. Henry Carter was in the chair. 

 I got home with the assistance of David C. La 

 Touche." 



The last records of 1838 contain no mention of 

 any business save that of the ballot, and it is a 

 matter of history in Kildare that Sir John's long 

 reign ended only in 1 841, when he at length yielded 

 the horn to Mr John La Touche after perhaps the 

 longest and certainly one of the most successful 

 reigns in the annals of the sport. 



I may conclude this chapter with one of those 

 metrical accounts of a day's hunting which are 

 common in most hunting districts. It at least pre- 

 serves for us some of the names of the sportsmen 

 of 1825 i^ Kildare, and their performance in the 

 field as it appeared to some enthusiastic fellow 

 sportsman. 



The verses were written in the margins of a copy 

 of Beckford's Thoughts on Huntings apparently the 

 property of Mr William Brownrigg of Ardinode, 

 whose name, with the date 1819, appears on the 

 front page. They were very kindly copied out for me 

 by the present owner of the volume, Mr J. Whiteside 

 Dane, our indefatigable honorary secretary. 

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