HISTORY OF THE KILDARE HUNT 



with a terrier, and when hounds were put in, they 

 at once streamed off on that wondrous fox — a Meath 

 one. The point was fully sixteen, some say eighteen 

 miles. I heard Meath men disputing the distance 

 after the run. It was over the cream of Kildare and 

 Meath, only one covert touched, the hounds never 

 once moved, and the horn only sounded once when 

 in Collestown covert, and the fox killed in the open. 

 The hounds were in that condition that one, 

 * Statesman,' a liver-and-white coloured hound 

 that the famous Will Goodall sent as a present to 

 his brother Stephen, flew at the whipper in and 

 tore his coat when he took the fox from the hounds. 

 Goodall never reached Palmerstown that night 

 until ten o'clock; he always walked the hounds 

 home after a long run. Your father was unable to 

 drive on, but your uncle, ' Johnny ' Bourke called 

 on his way back to Palmerstown to tell me of the 

 run. 



" There is no doubt that the Laragh run is the 

 best of all time, the distance, the country, the 

 sound pace, hounds never once touched and the 

 fox killed made it a run of itself. Goodall alone 

 jumped the last fence, riding a famous black horse 

 called the * Nigger.' He told me he thought he 

 galloped over one field three quarters of a mile 

 in length." 



There is one little pleasantry connected with the 

 Laragh run which may be worth recording, as it 

 preserves also the spirit of healthy rivalry which 

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