28 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN. 



Those who have passed along the high road 

 from Dublin to Naas, must have noticed Johnstown, a 

 charming neat little hamlet, which seems to nestle 

 under the protecting woods of Palmerstown. It 

 seems but yesterday since his lordship, on the beaw 

 ideal of a weight-carrier, dressed in his ample pink, 

 with the master's hunting horn at his saddle-tree, 

 surrounded by those canine pets whose music he loved 

 so well, stood in the village at the entrance gate to 

 his demesne, and received — on November's first Tues- 

 day — the cordial greeting of brave men and fair ladies, 

 come to participate in the pleasures of the chase with 

 him ; and now, a few yards further down, '* The Mayo 

 Arms" stands, and opposite to it a little grave-yard ; 

 in its centre a ruin, clad with clinging ivy ; and 

 within its walls a plain Wicklow granite cross marks 

 the grave of the late Lord Mayo. 



He was succeeded as master in 1862, by Baron de 

 Robeck, of Gowran- Grange, Naas. It is no exaggera- 

 tion to say that few better men to hounds ever rode 

 over the plains of Kildare. Hogg was promoted 

 to be huntsman by Lord Mayo, and a great mistake 

 it was on his lordship's part, for a worse huntsman 

 never handled hounds in the country ; and I believe the 

 only hounds he hunted after he left Kildare were the 

 hounds at Rome, so his services were not appreciated 

 in England or Ireland ; he was huntsman for a short 

 time to the Baron, and then Richard Lyons, who had 

 been first whip, was promoted to be huntsman. 



The sport shown by Baron de Robeck during his 

 regime will bear comparison with any of his prede- 

 cessors ; and on his retiring after six years' service, 

 hunting men of all classes in the county subscribed 



