The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-07 00:00:00

LORD NAAS.

The cordial welcome which has been extended to the
Irish sportsmen we have introduced into our gallery has
induced us to add to the series the above nobleman,
who may be said to inherit that passion for hunting, and
sport of every description, which has descended to
him from the 'louse of Clanricardo, from whence he
springs. Lord Naas is the eldest son and heir apparent
to the Earl of Mayo, and was born on Feb. 21, 1822. He
was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where
he took his degree. In 1847 he entered Par-
liament as the representative for, Kildare, and sat for
that county until 1852, when he vacated his seat, and was
shortly after returned for Cockermouth, a borough in the
patronage of Lord Leconfield, whose daughter he married
in 1848. From his extreme aptitude for business and con-
ciliatory manners, which are so much required of a Chief
Secretary for Ireland, Lord Derby appointed him to fill
that office during his Administration of 1852 and 1858, and
on his recent accession to power he returned to it.
But it is as a sportsman that Lord Naas claims most at-
tention from us; and although he is only known in the
Shires, in England; as the hardest welter-weight rider
that ever crossed St. George's Channel, on the other side
he has long taken up a conspicuous position as a master
of hounds and the founder of the Palmerstown Breeding
Association for Improving the Breed of Horses in Ire-
land. Lord Naas first became an M.F. El. in the year
1857, when he took the Kildare Hounds, which he hunted
with Stephen Goodall. The country, which was an en-
tirely artificial ono, was in bad odour, but his lordship,
setting to work with his wonted determination, got up 33
new gorse covers. Foxes, therefore, soon became plentiful,
and the seasons of 1859 and 1860 were as good as ever was
seen in the country. The fields were large, and composed
of the hardest-riding set of men in the world, such as
Curragh jocks, steeplechase riders, despe rate cornets and
ensigns fresh from the garrisons of Dublin, Newbridgo,
and the Curragh. The hounds, therefore, got very
little chance, but still, so good is the scent on the splen-
did grass land, and so stiff is the country, that very
frequently they wont clear away from all of them. It
was with these hounds Lord Naas had that memorable
run called the Great Lara Run, in November, 1859,
when a fox was found at Lara, near Maynooth, at twelve'
o'clock, %and killed at two, at S wainstown, in the county of
Meath, a distance of 19 miles by the Ordnance Map. And
the nature of the country may be guessed when we state
that Goodall, for the last hour, never crossed a single
ploughed field. Lord Naas bred generally from the Bel-
voir, Foljambe, and Brocklesly blood ; and with 37 couple
hunted the country from three to four days a week ; and,
as it was 40 miles long and 20 wide, and extends from the
grass lands of Meath to the wild furze hills at the base of
the Wicklow mountains, for a man over 17 stone to be
constantly at the tail of them, must indicate the possession
of good nerve, good knowledge of the sportvand the best
of cattle. But Lord Naas's interest was not confined to
hunting ; for, as we have said before, he is the founder of
the association for improving the breed of thorough-bred
horses in Ireland ; and, being associated with some of the
head Irish nobility, ho has started an establishment which
needs but to be seen to dispel the existing prejudice in
many Englishmen's minds, that they do things anyhow in
Ireland. Rapid Rhone, kindly lent by the Earl of Glas-
gow, was one of their first sires ; and Plum Pudding is
also stationed there. And the first sale of the Palinerstown
yearlings was so far successful that the undertaking pro-
mises to be as profitable to its promoters as beneficial to
Ireland. In private life Lord Naas exhibits all the best
qualities of an Irish nobleman, which is a passport to popu-
larityis all civilised countrio.—Balkis Naga4j4c.