THE KILDARE HOUNDS. 29 



a slight token of their gratefuhiess to him for the satis- 

 faction he gave during his term of office. The 

 next master was Sir Edward Kennedy, Bart. The 

 family is one of the oldest in Leinster, and Sir Edward's 

 ancestors were all noted for their devotion to the sports 

 of the field. As I stated before, his father may be 

 called the founder of the Kildare Hunt Club ; and that 

 his father and grandfather kept hounds, is proved by 

 the fact that both bequeathed a legacy to their hunts- 

 man in their last will and testament. There are now 

 some old silver buttons in Johnstown-Kennedy which 

 adorned the costume of those huntsmen; and it is evi- 

 dent that they used to hunt foxes, as the figure of a 

 fox and the words "Johnstown-Kennedy Hunt" are 

 engraved on them. 



Sir Edward Kennedy, or to be more exact, Charles 

 Edward Bayly Kennedy (Unit. Kigd., 1838), eldest 

 son of Sir John, first Bart., and his wife, Maria, 

 daughter of Edward Beauman, of Rutland-square, 

 Dublin, born on the 13th of February, 1820, succeeded 

 his father, 13th of October, 1848, and was educated at 

 Eton. That he had inherited the ardent love for the 

 *' noble science," which appears to have been trans- 

 mitted from sire to son through many generations of 

 Kennedys, soon became apparent. Indeed it was only 

 natural instinct that led him to embrace the sport so 

 keenly, and study venery in its minutest details. He 

 was only 23 years of age, when he became Honorary Se- 

 cretary to the Kildare Hunt Club. He discharged the 

 duties which devolved upon him as such in the most 

 satisfactory manner ; and to do so required a great deal 

 of tact, a knowledge of the country, and, above all, 

 popularity amongst all classes. The latter enviable 



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