MR JOHN LA TOUCHE, 1841-1846 



but had to finish on his feet, when he took the fox 

 from the hounds himself. He sold the horse later 

 to the late Duke of Cambridge for £300, but he 

 was no good after the gruelling he got on that day." 



Some few anecdotes survive from this notable 

 dynasty of the La Touche family. The Ward Union 

 stag hounds used occasionally to meet near Johns- 

 town and Kildare men used to turn out. Mr Carroll, 

 the crack rider of Kildare, used to tell how the 

 Ward men would watch him, and then he had to 

 ride for his life and he beat all but one man, who 

 caught him and knocked him over. As he rode 

 away this man remarked, " Bad luck to ye, you 

 spoiled me lep." 



Mr Robert Kennedy remembers seeing as a 

 small boy Robert La Touche cut down the field 

 on his famous grey mare with the stag from Johns- 

 town to Kilteel. La Touche said it was his first day 

 with the stag and would be his last, for when 

 hounds threw up in a lane under Kilteel, and he 

 asked a man if he had seen the stag, the reply was, 

 " I have her here in the stable, yer honour, with 

 the cow and the ass. Glad yeVe had a straight run 

 at last." 



Mr Robert Watson, for many years Master of 



the Carlow hounds, but who hunted frequently 



with the Kildare, used to tell a good story about 



one of the runs of this period. Mr Watson was one 



MZ 163 



