some  years  with  the  late  Sir  Tatton  Sykes  before  he
came  to  Roscommon ;  Hugh  M'Keon,  afterwards  hunts-
man to  Mr.  John  Longworth,  was  second-whip.  This
arrangement  continued  for  five  seasons,  the  sport
being  very  good.  Then,  unfortunately,  Captain
Drought  was  obliged  to  go  abroad  for  the  winter
on  account  of  his  health.  He  was  an  excellent
M.  F.  H.,  and  his  brother  sportsmen  regarded  with
sincere  admiration  a  master  to  whom  they  owed  so
much.  Mr.  Tom  Bodkin  of  Kilclooney  succeeded
Captain  Drought,  and  he,  poor  fellow,  was  soon  after-
wards killed  in  the  hunting-field  whilst  hunting  the
hounds.  The  taste  for  pheasant  preserving  was  then
at  its  height,  and  Irish  keepers  not  having  the  art  of
keeping  foxes  and  pheasants  in  the  same  coverts,
fox-hunting  in  Roscommon  became  a  thing  of  the
past.  Stag-hunting  is,  however,  better  suited  to  a
county  where  there  are  so  few  resident  landed  pro-
prietors, which  is  very  open,  and  where  there  is
such  an  extent  of  bog.  And  those  hounds  afford
a  better  opportunity  for  the  many  hard  riders  resident
in  the  neighbourhood  to  show  their  skill  and  their
hunters'  cleverness,  and  to  cool  the  daring  spirits  that
were  wont  to  chafe  at  the  drawing  of  such  large
coverts  as  Mote-Park  or  Danamon.
