278 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN. 



On his way to the Curragh from Naas, he met a 

 sweep, whom he knew to be a character and a famous 

 boxer. His lordship, determined to have a pugilistic 

 encounter, used certain abusive language calculated 

 to ** raise the dander" of the other, who shrewdly 

 guessed the motive, and resented (or pretended to 

 resent) being called "snow-ball" They immediately 

 " tackled to work," and a merry " mill" ended by his 

 lordship coming off decidedly second best. He gave 

 the conquering hero a ten-pound note, and went on to 

 the Curragh, bearing very distinct traces of his recent 

 affray, and, on being interrogated by his friends as to 

 the cause, told the story with great good humour, and 

 said that he never had had such value for a " tenner" 

 in his life. 



A parson, who knew that the Marquis was charit- 

 able and generous in the extreme, was in the habit of 

 soliciting alms from him very frequently. One day, 

 the clergyman drove a new and excellently appointed 

 trap to Curraghmore. Lord Waterford gave him ^5, 

 and was rather displeased at seeing that he was not 

 quite satisfied, so he determined to be free from future 

 .seiferitation in a quiet sort of way, and while the clergy- 

 «ian was partaking gf refreshment, the wild nobleman 

 amused himself by whitewashing the trap, horse, and 

 harness all over. 



In 1840, Lord Waterford established a small pack 

 of staghounds at Melton, and always hunted them him- 

 self. A very memorable run is recorded of them, 

 when, in the month of April, in the first year of their 

 establishment, they hunted a stag a distance of thirty- 

 two miles. Some short time afterwards they took a 

 hind in a cellar after a first-rate run, and the people 



