HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



helpful in every way to the interests of the Hunt, 

 the Kildare masters have always managed to keep 

 on good terms with the general body of farmers 

 and country people who have never ridden to 

 hounds. The Irish peasant is always a sportsman 

 and delights as much in a meet and the chance 

 sight of a good hunt as any member of the Hunt 

 itself. No such enthusiasm among the onlookers is 

 known elsewhere than in Ireland, an enthusiasm 

 which is always marked with the national love of 

 emphasis, and generally with a good measure of 

 the national sense of humour. I once asked a 

 labourer which way the fox had gone. " Over 

 there, me Lord," he replied, pointing towards 

 the bog of Allen, " into a counthry that 'ud drown 

 a snhipe." A young officer hunting from Dublin 

 who had come to grief in a deep ditch and was seen 

 emerging up over the edge covered with clay sug- 

 gested the remark to a bystander, " Sure, you'll 

 be aisy buried." Mr Robert Kennedy remembers 

 many engaging experiences of the Irish country- 

 man. " Now, Mr Kennedy, would you like your 

 land ridden over in the middle of April? " said a 

 man in the road. " Indeed I would not," replied 

 Mr Kennedy. " Then I wonder at your riding over 

 other people's land." " I'm much obliged to you. 

 Shake hands. As long as I live I will never hunt 

 again in April." Mr Kennedy has kept his word 

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