276 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN, 



" It mig-ht be said without offence that there was 

 not a man who did more valiant acts than Roger De 

 la Poer ; who, although he were young and beardless, 

 yet, he showed himself a lusty, valiant, and courageous 

 gentleman, and who grew unto such good credit, that 

 he had the government of the country about Leighlin 

 and also in Ossory, where he was traitorously killed ; 

 on whose slaughter a conspiracy was formed among 

 the Irish to destroy the English, and many castles 

 were destroyed." — Giraldns Cambrensis. 



Again, SIrH. Sydney writes, 27th February, 1575 : 

 " The day I departed from Waterford, I lodged that 

 night at Curraghmore, the house that the Lord Power 

 is Baron of; where I was so used and with such plenty 

 and g-ood order entertained (as adding to it the quiet 

 of all the country adjoining, by the people called the 

 Poiver Country, for that surname has been since the 

 beginning of the Englishman's planting Inhabitants 

 there), it may well be compared with the best ordered 

 county in the English Pale." 



Lord Waterford was educated at Eton and Christ 

 Church, Oxford, and during his career there gained 

 great notoriety for many wild, nay, reckless deeds — 

 Indeed, If I were to write of all the extraordinary feats 

 accomplished by him the record would fill more 

 than one large volume ; I will just give a few, hoping 

 they may amuse. At Melton, he caused quite a sen- 

 sation by a practical joke, costing him a good deal 

 of money, which he played on an unsuspecting and 

 eccentric gentleman who worshipped at the shrine of 

 ^sculapius In that locality. The doctor went some 

 miles from the town to attend a patient, and be- 

 fore entering the house of the Invalid, he gave the 



