love the rattle of the dice and the shuffle of the cards, and ofttimes 

 would the old lady join in the game, and well able was she to hold 

 her own. 



Truly a hot shop was Kilkenny during these festivals. At no time 

 was it found in its normal state except the few hours of day time 

 devoted to hunting. During the evenings, nights, and mornings 

 the quietude of the city of the cats was disturbed to a degree. 

 Yes, this festive foxhunting fraternity made mirth and melody, 

 fun and frivolity resound off the walls of Kilkenny's old city after 

 days on which they had ridden hard across the paragon pastures of 

 its favoured county. 



Lord Waterford, of course, attended regularly these sporting re- 

 unions, and with him came many of his hunting men. As may be 

 supposed^ " The Marquis " was the leading spirit of all the fun, but he 

 had those nearly as gay as himself in playing the game all round, 

 among whom maybe mentioned the late Lords Howth and Clanricarde, 

 Mr. Power of Gurteen, Sir Richard Cox, and that prince of good 

 fellows Harry Jephson. In addition the following were usually to be 

 found there : the then Lords Ormonde, Desart, and Clonmell, the 

 present Lord James Butler and Sir Robert Paul, the then Sir John 

 Power and his son John, George Bryan, Captain Ponsonby, John 

 Wade, Henry Meredith, Henry Briscoe, Horace Rochford, John Jones, 

 Ned Lalor and his son Tom, Tom Connolly of Castletown, Captain 

 Pack Beresford, Captain Peel, and other officers of the 85th, cum 

 7nultis aliis. 



In 1848 the 7th Hussars were quartered in Kilkenny, so the present 

 Duke of Beaufort (then Marquis of Worcester), Lord Suffield (then 

 Mr. Charles Harbord), General Fraser, Colonel Cooper of Markree, 

 CO. Sligo, and others of that crack regiment were generally to be 

 found among the peep-of-dayboys at the club house. 



In the years 1846-48, there existed great political excitement in 

 Ireland ; the sports of the country were not, however, interfered 

 with as they were in recent years, and foxhunting flourished in 

 Waterford, Kilkenny, and all other parts of Ireland. Some country 

 gentlemen were, no doubt, obnoxious to the peasantry for some reason 

 or another, and upon more than one occasion Lord Waterford's and 

 the Kilkenny Hunts were molested. A determined onslaught was 

 made near Ballyhale upon a number of gentlemen when returning 

 from hunting with the Kilkennys, and they had to ride for their 

 lives across country. On another occasion, about the same time, the 

 late Captain Harry Jephson and Mr. Larry Dobbyn of Waterford, 

 with another gentleman, whose name I forget, were returning late at 

 night from hunting with Lord Waterford, and were proceeding down 

 the steep hill approaching Mullinavat from Hugginstown. Mr. 

 Dobbyn was a considerable distance in front of the others and was 

 walking beside his horse, when suddenly he found himself attacked 

 by four men. Larry was a powerful and determined fellow, and, well 



