121 



•quarrel ; moreover, they knew how well qualified he was to fill the role 

 of M.F.H. 



Briscoe, having made a wonderful, and entirely unexpected, recovery 

 of his health, accepted the invitation, and became Master of the 

 Kilkenny s in the summer of 1870. In doing so, he undertook both a 

 delicate and a most difficult duty, for not alone existed the strife I have 

 alluded to, but the horses, hounds, and country were in a very bad way. 

 However, from his thorough knowledge of the duties, he soon 

 reformed the stud, pack, and country, and by adopting judicious 

 measures and applying them with tact and discretion he soon healed all 

 social sores. The consequence was that within a very few seasons he 

 -brought back the Kilkenny Hunt to as grand a standard of unity, 

 sociability, and sport as it had ever attained in its halcyon days under 

 the Powers of Kilfane. 



I can't give many particulars of his reign in Kilkenny as I was not 

 as nearly connected with that Hunt as I was with the Curraghmore ; 

 but I can say that the sport shown by him was quite as good as what 

 he showed in our country. 



I wish here to correct an error I saw some time ago in print, where it 

 was stated that Mr. Briscoe had John Duke with him in the Kilkennys. 

 He never had. He brought Duke to the Curraghmores from England 

 in 1860, and he never left them. John Tydd was the Kilkenny hunts- 

 man, and a very good one too. 



Briscoe held office in Kilkenny until his death in 1881, a period of 

 eleven years, exactly the same as he held the Curraghmore. 



In some of the duties pertaining to the qualification for M.F. H. many 

 men have been superior to Briscoe. There have been gentlemen who 

 could hunt a pack of foxhounds with greater ability, others were better 

 judges of hounds, others were finer riders and could select a hunter with 

 better judgment. And there were masters who had a better knack of 

 managing an unruly field. But taking ^?^ gloho the duties, it may with 

 safety be said that few men have ever been found who, all-round, were 

 as highly qualified for a Master of Foxhounds as was Henry Briscoe. 



Without being facile iwincein in any one detail, he was admittedly 

 first class in them all. He was an excellent judge of hounds, particularly 

 those best adapted for stud purposes. These he mated upon such 

 scientific and calculative principles that his crosses, as a rule, so nicked 

 that the progeny generally turned out superior in shape and work to 

 their parents. He used only the best strains from the best bred packs 

 in England. A well-shaped hound, no matter how good in his work, 

 unless he possessed undeniably good blood, would not be bred from at 

 Tinvane, The puppies were always selected with good judgment, while 

 no man could train a young entry better. 



As a huntsman, Briscoe could handle hounds as well as most pro- 

 fessionals, and it was accorded by those qualified to judge that with 

 few exceptions he was the best gentleman huntsman of either his day 

 •or before it. Assuredly from 18G0 until his death no gentleman that I 



