MR O'CONNOR HENCHY, 1846-1847 



famous course at Punchestown attracted the atten- 

 tion of Kildare sportsmen, who in that year and 

 afterwards adopted that incomparable course as 

 the place for meetings which had hitherto been held 

 at odd places scattered about the Kildare country. 

 Mr Robert Kennedy, whose recollections go back 

 to that first meeting, well remembers hearing that 

 great rider, Mr Edwards, say to another great rider, 

 Mr Thomas, that Punchestown was the most beau- 

 tiful course he had ever seen, and that he could not 

 have believed that there was so perfect a course 

 in the world. At first, and for a long time after- 

 wards, no fence was touched, and the double was a 

 fearful jump. 



The arrangements at the early meetings were 

 quite primitive. At one meeting they forgot all 

 about the posts, and a horse and cart had to be sent 

 off to a neighbouring covert for timber for the pur- 

 pose . The riders, too, were weighed out with a steel- 

 yard on a triangle on the course. On one occasion a 

 race was won by a mare belonging to Mr Thomas 

 Connor, of Newtown, near Johnstown, ridden by 

 a Captain Proby, a brother of Lord Carysfort. But 

 during the race the scales were tampered with, and 

 as Captain Proby could not weigh out correctly the 

 cup went to Mr Matthew Dunne, of Punchestown, 

 the owner of the famous horse Wanderer, trained 

 by the genius, John Hanlon, which won the Grand 



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