HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



As will be seen, this run from the turn at Laragh 

 House, after having gone a little over a mile, was as 

 straight to the finish as it could possibly be and was 

 all over the Meath country. The distance hounds 

 ran, not including the covert hunting in Collestown, 

 was nearly eighteen miles, and the point from the 

 furze bushes where the fox was found to where he 

 was killed is on the map ten and a half miles, but 

 by the land it is twelve, the extreme point being 

 thirteen. The time was exactly five minutes under 

 the hour and that includes the fifteen minutes in 

 Collestown which was the only covert entered. 

 From find to finish there was not the semblance of 

 a check, and there were but two pauses, one on a 

 road near Collestown and another near Grange, 

 so of course Goodall had nothing to do except 

 keep with his hounds, and he never touched his 

 horn, except one little tootle as hounds raced out 

 of Collestown, just to tell the men inside that they 

 were again away. So savage were the hounds when 

 the fox was killed that it was with difficulty that he 

 could be got from them, and a lemon-coloured 

 hound which Will Goodall of the Pytchley had sent 

 as a present to his brother, flew at the whip to get 

 the fox from him, and tore his coat to ribbons. And 

 what a brave old traveller this fox was to have 

 scorned to go to ground in any of the earths he had 

 passed, all of which were, of course, open. A finer 

 country to ride over is not in existence than the line 

 chosen by that sporting fellow, every yard was grass, 

 and fields were met with over half a mile long. No 

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