MR. BENCE JONES AND FATHER O'LEARY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.-1 SIR, —In your notice of Father O'Leary's paper in the July number of the Contemporary Review, you regard his allegation "that Mr. Bence Jones laid poison for the Cashelmore hounds in the groves of Lisselane " as improbable. As I have not observed that Father O'Leary has since made any reply to your comment, perhaps you would kindly allow me, in the interests of truth, to say a few words on the matter.
The Cashelmore hounds were kept for three generations—over a hundred years—by a family residing in Cashelmore, a town- land not far from the town of Bandon, and in the neighbourhood of Mr. Bence Jones's estate. I hunted with them during the lifetime of the late master, and in that of his father, before Mr. Jones came to reside in Lisselane. In 1862, Mr. Jones pur- chased property adjoining that on which I live. When I wrote to him for permission to hunt over his land—a permission as corded as a matter of course by the previous owners—he gave a blunt refusal ; and in reference to a remark made by me as to our being neighbours, he wrote—and I still hold the letter—that "he did not want to have anything to do with neighbours."
Times change curiously, and now it seems as if neighbours do not want to have anything to do with him. In 1866, the
CoolielmOre hounds became a club pack, to which about thirty gentlemen subscribed, and of which I became secretary. We got on very well for some years. But when the young coverts of Lisselane grew up, Mr. Jones, not content with refusing per- mission to hunt over his lands, had poison placed in them. And as, notwithstanding our efforts, the hounds would follow foxes to these coverts, they got poisoned, from time to time. Stray hounds, too, would get into his land from the kennels which were near, and took the poison, or were shot by his employ6s. In the end, Mr. Jones gained his point ; subscribers dropped off in a country which could not be hunted over ; and two years ago, for the first time for nearly 150 years, there were no Cashelmore hounds. I may add that we are now getting up the pack again, and it remains to be seen whether Mr. Jones will renew his persecution. —I am, Sir, tic., Mayfield, Baal:los., August 3rd. T. POOLE.
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