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I have seen a great many packs of foxhounds both in the field and 

 on their flags, including some of those considered to be the best in 

 England ; but, without bias or partisanship, I must state that, as 

 far as my humble opinion goes, I never saw the equal of the Curragh- 

 more in a combination of breeding, shape, colour, and work. 



As a great deal depended upon the young entry, of course some 

 years the pack looked better than others, but taking the hounds, say^ 

 from when Mr. Briscoe got them in 1850 until the present Marquis 

 sold them in 1881, I am quite safe in stating that there were few 

 packs of foxhounds, perhaps not one, which held so unbroken a 

 record for breeding, shape, levelness, colour, work, and sport, as did 

 the pack whose history I am striving to give. 



Needless to say the Hunt servants were well turned out in the 

 field, for a smarc Master makes smart men. Our own hunting toggery 

 was also improved even from what it was in Briscoe's time, for we got 

 the real Melton cut from the residents and visitors at Curraghmore, 

 substituting hats for caps, and we added thongs to our whips. 



A meet say at Guilcagh Cross Roads, on a fine hunting day about 

 Christmas time, when Curraghmore would be full of company, was 

 indeed as perfect an exhibition of the sort as could be seen in any 

 other part of the world. Of course, numerically, our meets were very 

 small compared with some of those in the shires and other parts of 

 England ; as a rule sixty or eighty was about our number, but that 

 was all the better for sport. A crowd, as everyone knows, increases 

 the difficulties hounds and huntsmen have to contend with under 

 the best of circumstances, while many a good man endeavouring 

 to get away is blocked and shut out. Not so with us— everyone 

 could have a fair start, and, except upon rare and exceptional 

 occasions, it was his own or his horse's fault if a man did not get 

 away and remain on good terms with the pack. 



It may be considered that some of my remarks and opinions are 

 extravagant, and that I am carried away by prejudice or inexpe- 

 rience ; but to those who cavil at them I would only remark, ask any- 

 one who has hunted regularly with the Curraghmore any time- 

 during the present Lord Waterford's Mastership, and who could ride 

 a foxhunt, whether I am exaggerating or not. 



The only lady I remember hunting in Henry Lord Waterford's 

 time was Miss Smith wick of Kilkenny — now Mrs. Coghlan of 

 Dromina — and she went beautifully ; certainly none other rode ta 

 hounds then. In Briscoe's time, however, ladies began to come out,, 

 among the first being Mrs. Henry Lambert of Carnagh, co. Wexford, 

 and her sister. Miss Williams, and these two ladies could show our 

 best men the way across country, but none could do so better in later 

 years than the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, mother of the 

 present Marquis, the late Mrs. Slacke, Mrs. Dick Roberts, Miss 

 Nugent-Humble, and the late Ladies Selina and Louisa Hastings. 



During the present Lord Waterford's time the number of ladie? 



