40 



through, but not without outrages more or less malignant. It was 

 not until the following season was about to commence that matters 

 reached the climax. 



On the 6th October, 1881, while cubhunting in Xewtown Wood, 

 not far from Slievenamon Mountain, Lord Waterford, with his 

 hounds, servants, and the few gentlemen, including the late Mr. 

 Thomas Lalor, the owner of the covert, were attacked by a mob 

 numbering over two hundred, and absolutely stoned out of it, while 

 some of the hounds were run through Avith pitchforks. 



The ruffians who composed this mob were not residents in the 

 locality, nor had they any interest or claim to the land. They were 

 all strangers, and came from afar ; but they must have had accom- 

 plices among the local peasantry, for bells rang out in various 

 quarters as Lord Waterford and his hounds were seen approaching, 

 such being the means commonly adopted at the time in Ireland for 

 summoning crowds for disorderly action. 



This determined, cowardly, and atrocious outrage of course brought 

 the consideration of future hunting in the Curraghmore country to 

 an issue. Lord Waterford immediately called a meeting of the sup- 

 porters of the Hunt, and it was held in the City of Waterford a few 

 days afterwards. 



At this meeting the late Earl of Bessborough presided, and to it 

 Lord Waterford related what had occurred. 



The Irish Sportsman had a special reporter present, and in its next 

 issue that paper gave an exhaustive account of the proceedings. In 

 years to come, as well as at present, that report will be interesting, 

 and as the speeches were taken in shorthand there is no doubt as to 

 their correctness. I shall therefore reproduce it to show hereafter 

 how the evil advice of self-interested, self-elected, but well-paid, 

 agitators stirred up our people to wage war against a nobleman who 

 spent lavishly his money in the country, drove him from it, destroyed 

 our sport, and ruined half the people in the neighbourhood. 



In thus handing down to posterity this infamous record I wish it to 

 be understood that I do so entirely from a sporting point of view and 

 in no way political. If people have grievances they can have them 

 adjusted by constitutional means in other places besides the hunting 

 field. 



LORD WATERFORD AND THE CURRAGHMORE HOUNDS 

 STOPPED HUNTING ! 



Important Meeting of Members of the Hunt. 



From Irish Sportsman of loth October^ 1881. 

 "In consequence of Lord Waterford and his field having been 

 stopped hunting at Xewtown on the 6th inst., and of the outrage com- 

 mitted upon them, his lordship called a meeting of the members of 



