THE LIMERICK FOXHOUNDS. 1 85 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE LIMERICK FOXHOUNDS. 



I HAVE not been able to obtain particulars as to the 

 ownership or performances of the several packs of 

 hounds which were, undoubtedly, employed during 

 the last two hundred years, in the pursuit of deer and 

 fox in the county Limerick. Tradition has it that the 

 noble families of O'Brien and Fitzgerald (knight of 

 Glinn), and that of Colonel Lloyd, sustained venatic 

 science ; but I must confine myself to authenticated 

 particulars. I can assure my friends that my brief 

 history is perfectly accurate. I regret that I cannot 

 give more lengthened details, and hope that this 

 chapter may, with all its shortcomings, prove in- 

 teresting to my readers, and receive at their hands a 

 lenient judgment for, 



" When good will is shown, though it come too short, 

 The actor may plead pardon." 



Somewhere, about 1828 or 1830, Mr. Croker of 

 Ballinagard, gave up a pack of hounds, with which 

 he hunted hare, deer, and fox ; it was a scratch concern 

 at best. The hunting gentry of the county then 

 determined to form a pack for fox-hunting only, and 

 the mastership was undertaken by Mr. George Fos- 

 bery of Curragh - bridge, about the date above- 



