39 



We see at times a great difference in the way packs of foxhounds 

 carry themselves and the dash they go with ; not alone that, but 

 there is often a marked difference in the way packs break up a fox. 



I have seen some show lethargy even when apparently in good 

 health and condition, and of a good scenting day ; others when thrown 

 into covert, particularly if it were of gorse, would not half draw it, 

 hounds following each other in straggling order along the pathways ; 

 then, when the fox had gone away, they would ran or hunt the line 

 v.'Ithout that dash and fling which is so essential to the foxhound, 

 many of the pack relying entirely upon a few of their fellows to do 

 the work. I have also been up at a kill with certain packs, and 

 was surprised at the want of fire shov/n at what should have been 

 to them an exciting time, several hounds not caring whether they 

 partook or not of the feast ! 



Not so the old Curraghmore during any time of its three Masters. 

 Even on a bad scenting day, close and relaxing, they always 

 evinced fire and dash as they jauntingly jogged along in their 

 thoroughly-disciplined throng. No matter how thick, strong, or 

 tangled a gorse covert might be, as soon as these hounds entered it 

 they all spread, every one taking his own part. Then to see how this 

 paragon pack would fling out of covert in a body, crashing as they did 

 through or over the fence like the first rush of a mountain torrent. 

 Along the line of their fox, possessed of equal pace, each hound strove 

 for leadership, so that the head this pack almost invariably carried 

 was the admiration of all who hunted with them. Perhaps the best 

 time to see their courage and spirit was when they had pulled down 

 their fox. The blood of the victim seemed to raise that of the hounds 

 to such a pitch that to take the fox from them was a danger of the 

 highest degree for anyone other than the Hunt servants. If, how- 

 ever, the carcase was not recovered within a minute or two, there 

 would be nothing left for trophies beyond the mangled head. How 

 they had accounted for their ivx would, however, be seen clearly from 

 every hound, for, with hackles up, each invariably took good care that 

 he got his share of what he had so ably assisted in bringing to hand. 



The greatest calamity that ever befel the Curraghmore Hunt was 

 of course the death, in March, 1859, of Henry Lord Waterford ; but 

 the second, and happily only other, was that which I have now the 

 unpleasant duty of recording, and I do so in plain ungarnished truth, 

 so that it may be handed down to posterity. 



During the season 1880-81 unpleasant manifestations began to be 

 shown in many ways against the hunting by certain sections of the 

 farmers in different districts of the Hunt, and it soon became apparent 

 that hunting would not be as pleasant in the near future as it had 

 been for so long in the past. The season 1880-81, however, pulled 



