1 6 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN. 



shared In when " our lines were cast in pleasant 

 places," 'tis especially so in the evening of our 

 lives, when our sun has almost set, and when we 

 by anticipation feel the chill touch of the " wooden 

 surtout," or hear the final inevitable summons. 

 Though our fate during our struggle in this vale of 

 tears may have been unpropitious, though the links 

 that bound us to the *' old house at home," may have 

 been shattered, and the well-knit bonds of friendship 

 which allied us to those most dear may have been 

 severed, memory paints the past with a consoling, 

 though, perhaps fictitious splendour, and any record 

 which aids it is of use. In the manuscripts alluded to I 

 found the names of the first supporters of the Kildare 

 Hunt. 



They were, in 1806, Mr. John Farrell ; in 1807, 

 Messrs. Robert Archbold, Arthur Henry, Joseph 

 Connolly, and Val. Maher ; in 1809, Sir (then Mr.) 

 John Kennedy; in i8ii,SirW. Hunt, and Mr. R. 

 Warburton ; in 18 12, Lord William Fitzgerald, Lord 

 Henry Moore (Lord Drogheda's father), and the Duke 

 of Leinster ; in 1815, Lord Portarlington ; in 1825, Mr. 

 Richard More O'Ferrall, and Lord Howth ; in 1836, 

 the brothers John and Robert La Touche. 



At a meeting held in Morrisson's Hotel, then called 

 Morrisson's Tavern, on the loth of October, 18 14, it 

 appears that Sir John Kennedy offered to take the 

 hounds, provided that the members would guarantee 

 him ;i^500 per annum, to enable him to defray the 

 expenses of keeping the coverts, paying for fowl, &c. 

 The offer was gladly accepted. 



The baronet ^diS,/acik princeps, in every branch of 

 knowledge essential to good mastership, and he spared 



