1 68 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN. 



was rather the exception than the rule, and hounds 

 hunted both fox and hare as stated above of the 

 Cashelmore Hounds. Hunting itself is of very- 

 ancient origin — we read of it in the Bible. The 

 ancient Persians taught their sons three things — '* to 

 ride, to shoot, and to speak the truth." Shooting in 

 those days was a companion of the chase, not sepa- 

 rated from it as at present, and the horseman who 

 could get abreast of the quarry and bring him down 

 with a well directed arrow from the bow, was con- 

 sidered the same as he who now takes the brush. 

 Through the ages of gold, silver, brass, and iron, 

 the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman 

 dynasties that have ruled the world, hunting has held 

 its ground, and we see no reason why it should not 

 continue to the end of time. 



The present master of the Cashelmore Hounds, 

 Mr. Thomas Beamish, was born in the year 1802. 

 By his friends he is still always called by the short 

 and familiar name of Tom Beamish. He never 

 remembers Cashelmore without hounds, and says 

 they were there long before he was born. A labour- 

 ing man, who lived all his life in the neighbourhood, 

 and died at the commencement of the present year at 

 the full age of a hundred years, said that the hounds 

 were there long before his recollection. John 

 Beamish, father of the present master, died in the 

 year 1848, at a very advanced age. His father — 

 John also — died early in the century, and the present 

 master well remembers having been out hunting with 

 his father and grandfather; three generations together 

 in the field with their own hounds. 



John was the family name, and was borne by the 



