THE GALWAY HOUNDS. 1 39 



" ' The family of De Burgh, from whence the subject of our 

 memoir is sprung, ranks among the most distinguished in Ireland, 

 and deduces an uninterrupted line of powerful nobles from the 

 Conquest. The Marquis of Clanricarde, the present head of it, 

 was born on the 20th of December, 1802, and succeeded his father 

 as fourth Earl on the 27th of July, 1808, and in 1825 he was ad- 

 vanced by Letters Patent to the Irish Marquisate, and created a 

 Baron of the United Kingdom. Eton and Oxford can claim him 

 among their alumni ; but at this distance of time no anecdotes of 

 his school or college career are current, but it may be taken for 

 granted he was a young man of promise, or that great statesman, 

 Mr. Canning, whose daughter he married, would not have selected 

 him as his private secretary. Commencing life at a period when 

 Irish wit, Irish society as it was of old, and Lever's heroes were 

 still flourishing, and the Galway Blazers were yet extant within his 

 native county. Lord Clanricarde entered heart and soul into all 

 the hilarity which surrounded the sporting circles of his immediate 

 neighbourhood. At that time daring horsemanship and sporting 

 accomplishments were considered as the high road to distinction, 

 and, with the social advantages which he possessed, tutors were 

 not wanting for so apt a pupil ; and after perfecting his education 

 in the art of riding over high walls — and no better school can be 

 found to attain to first-class horsemanship — his Lordship made his 

 </(f'(5?^/ on the Curragh in 1822, winning the first Corinthians ever 

 ran in Ireland on Penguin, by Waxy Pope, beating six others. In 

 the following year he repeated the victory with the same animal, 

 beating the celebrated Roller. He also won a good race on the 

 flat at Loughrea, in his native county, on a wretched-looking 

 animal called Sarsaparilla, belonging to the parish priest, which 

 so delighted the peasantry, that as they cheered his Lordship com- 

 ing back to scale, they exclaimed : ' Sure if he was on an ass of 

 Father Peter's, wouldn't he have a right to win !' But to the turf 

 Lord Clanricarde was never really partial, while to steeplechasing, 

 on the other hand, he devoted himself with all the enthusiasm of 

 Irish youth ; and he may be said to have won his spurs shortly 

 after leaving Oxford, in 1822, over the Roxborough course in Gal- 

 way, on Hawk, by Scherdone. The course was four miles over a 

 stiff country, including four five-feet walls, and the last one mea- 

 sured five feet nine inches at the spot where the Hawk took it. 

 He won the same stake the next year on Mr. Persse's Rollo ; but 



