HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



In after years Stephen Goodall was at exercise 

 with the hounds when he met Mr John La Touche 

 at Dunstown. He remained looking at the hounds 

 for at least half an hour, and at last when Goodall 

 told him that he had never met with anyone so 

 fond of hounds and asked him why he never 

 hunted, the reply was as he walked sadly away, " I 

 dare not, I dare not." 



In the absence of any diaries of the period 

 covered by Mr La Touche 's Mastership I am un- 

 able to give any definite particulars of the sport 

 shown, but it was undoubtedly good. Mr Percy 

 La Touche remembers his father saying that the 

 best run was from a find at Eadestown, then con- 

 sidered the best covert in the Kildare country. 

 Mr Robert Kennedy, then a young boy, heard the 

 run described after dinner at Johnstown, where 

 the three brothers La Touche slept the night. After 

 the find at Eadestown they ran straight to Fore- 

 naughts, then by Newtown Mills and straight for 

 the hills. The fox was killed between Tinode and 

 Downshire after a run of forty minutes at the very 

 best pace. Mr W. La Touche, says Mr Kennedy, 

 " showed the skirts of his coat to all beholders," 

 and Mr Kennedy remembers a remark of Mr R. 

 La Touche, " hounds were never touched. All the 

 horses were played out. Mr John La Touche was 

 riding a little thoroughbred horse by Sir Hercules, 

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