22 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN. 



to show Sport, and turn out everything in the best 

 style were eminently successful. He was a very 

 general favourite, and he, and his brothers, Robert 

 and William, were brilliant horsemen. Mr. La 

 Touche, who is an exceptionally good judge 

 of horses, kept a splendid stud of hunters. He 

 usually drove a drag, perfect in its appointments, to 

 the different meets ; few more expert "whips" ever 

 sat on a coach-box. He was well versed in stud lore 

 too, and no man living took greater interest in the 

 canine alliances than his brother William. "Jem" 

 Byrne, afterwards " master of the horse" to Captain 

 Sheddon, who has these many years been a consistent 

 and liberal supporter of the Kildares, \vho had been for 

 many seasons whip to Sir John Kennedy, hunted the 

 hounds for some time after Mr. La Touche took 

 them ; subsequently Mr. La Touche carried the horn 

 himself. The next master was the late Mr. David 

 O'Connor Henchy, of Stonebrook, Ballymore-Eustace; 

 he took office in 1846. He, too, was a great man in 

 the saddle, and an ardent supporter of the turf and 

 of hunting. His own colours, blue and pink, were 

 sometimes worn; but old "Dame Fortune," like 

 other dames, is fickle, and she was not generous 

 in her recognitions of his high claims to favourable 

 treatment at her hands. He shared the racing 

 fortunes for a short time of his brother-in-law. Sir 

 Thomas Burke, who was one of the "pillars" of 

 the Irish turf. He discharged the onerous duties 

 appertaining to the post of master of foxhounds to 

 the entire satisfaction of all interested in the welfare 

 of the " Kildares." Although he had them during 

 that awful period when gaunt famine desolated our 



