HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



of a party assembled at a country house, which 

 included most of the men who had seen the finish. 

 Another member of the Hunt , who , however , had not 

 got to the end, was also of the party, and during the 

 discussion was eloquent, as was his custom, about 

 the superior way in which he was mounted. " I've 

 just been thinking," he remarked, " about the 

 amount of money I had between my legs in that 

 run to-day. The chestnut cost me ^£350, and the 

 second horse £250, £700 altogether, and they were 

 well worth every penny of it." There was a lull in 

 the conversation, and the gentleman, turning to 

 Mr Watson, resumed, " By the by, Watson, that 

 was a good nag you were on to-day." " He is in- 

 deed," was the reply. " What did you give for him?" 

 " Sixteen pounds ten," replied Mr Watson, amid a 

 roar of laughter. 



This was the fact. The horse he called Quaker, 

 and he bought him of a man who asked him to buy 

 him because he could not keep him on the land, 

 so he gave that exact sum for him. He was a good 

 horse, and though he never got him to change his 

 legs at a fence he seldom fell. 



That bond of affection and good fellowship and 

 good sportsmanship between the three brothers, 

 which is so pleasant a memory of Harristown of the 

 middle years of the last century, was rudely broken 

 by a tragedy in 1846, when Mr Robert La Touche 

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