8 



Although he loves racing, as he does all sport, he does not bet. 

 There are few men now of my acquaintance with whom I enjoy an 

 interview as much as I do with this gentleman. From him I hear 

 anecdotes and reminiscences of the sporting past which are so deeply 

 interesting to me, and, as they are given by one possessed of able 

 practical experience, my enjoyment is increased many fold. Alas, his 

 contemporaries are fast " returning the cap and jacket," but he is well 

 and hearty as ever, and long may he remain so, and continue to be, 

 if he will excuse me for using the metaphor, a connecting link of 

 the chain between sportsmen of the past and the present — and " a real 

 old Irish gentleman, one of the olden time." 



Lord Waterford being closely allied to and identified with the 

 Kilkenny Hunt, I shall give an outline of proceedings characteristic 

 of the time. Its fame was about at its zenith in the era I am writing 

 of. No hunt club in the kingdom stood higher in the category of 

 sport, good fellowship, and social position of membership. Sir John 

 Power, who established it, owned the hounds, and they were hunted 

 from Kilfane. It was the custom to have what was called a " Hunt 

 Week" in the city of Kilkenny once or twice during the season. 

 Many of the leading men in Ireland, often numbering one hundred, 

 used, on these occasions, to visit the marble city, and each brought 

 three or four horses at least. Lord Waterford and others brought 

 a dozen. Every day during the carnival these gentlemen hunted. 

 The head-quarters of the party were at Walshe's Hotel, the greater 

 portion of which was used as the club house, during the season. 

 Here forty to fifty sat down to dinner every day during the " Hunt 

 Week," and right merrily did they keep up the festivity. 



All the bedrooms were, of course, engaged, but, truth to tell, very 

 little for sleeping purposes. To dress for dinner in the evening and 

 for hunting in the morning was about all most of them were required 

 for. Although these hard-headed, firm-seated top-sawyers of old 

 could sit up late and hunt all day, none of them ever thought of 

 drinking in the day time. A man addicted to such a propensity 

 would have been " black-balled " for any club of gentlemen he might 

 be put up for. At the same time everyone was expected to drink 

 his two or three bottles of wine after dinner, and the steadier he 

 carried them the better he was thought of. These grand old fellows 

 did not entertain a like opinion to that of Soapey Sponge when he 

 came to the conclusion that "drinking and riding were two men's 

 work " ! 



" Handicapping " was then also a favourite after-dinner amusement, 

 and it was resorted to nightly at these festivals. 



After indulging in this innocent, but not altogether innocuous, 

 diversion during the hours which the party devoted to Bacchus, these 

 sportsmen betook themselves to a quiet turn at the pasteboard and 

 the ivory. These amusements were carried on mostly in the land- 

 ady's boudoir. Mrs. Walshe was of a good old sort. Dearly did she 



