138 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN. 



accomplished rider and won a great many steeple- 

 chases, and owned several famous horses, among 

 others, Economist, sire of the great Harkaway. John 

 Lambert of Aggard, Walter Lambert of Castlelam- 

 bert, and Robert Ffrench of Monivea Castle, were first- 

 rate riders. Robert Bodkin of Annagh was a good 

 man, too, on a horse he had called Kenilworth ; he 

 was ' a bad'un to beat.' John Mahon of Weston, 

 Nicholas Blake of Frenchfort, Martin Blake of Merlin 

 Park, Parson D'Arcy, and Pierce Joyce of Mervue, 

 were all good men in their day. I need scarcely tell 

 you, as of course you often heard of many of his 

 astounding feats in the saddle, that the late Lord 

 Clanricarde was as accomplished and bold a horse- 

 man as rode over a stone wall in Connaught or any- 

 where else. Did you ever read the memoir of his 

 Lordship which appeared in Bailys Magazine eleven 

 years ago ?" 



"I did not?" 



•* Well, I have it here ; it is about the best bio- 

 graphy, in my opinion, that ever appeared in that 

 excellent periodical ; and, I need not add, that it is 

 well worth reading." 



*' It must be very interesting, indeed. Please 

 read it for me. Baily says : — 



" ' The Marquis of Clanricarde, whose portrait we would have 

 presented to our readers before this, but for his public and private 

 engagements preventing him honouring our artist with a sitting, is 

 the most fitting representative of the Sportsman of Ireland in the 

 present age ; and it is only due to himself and ourselves that his 

 deeds on the Steeplechase Course and in the Hunting Field should 

 have some more enduring memorial than that conveyed by a local 

 newspaper paragraph. 



