Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort's Tour of Kerry, 1788 (Author: Daniel A. Beaufort)

Entry 7

[August] 19
Showery again this morning yet we got to breakfast by 9 & at ten set off for Ross Castle, embarked again in two boats & proceeded to the foot of Glena near Dinas, where a large company was assembled in boats to see a Staghunt, with which O Donoghue42 complimented Mrs Pennyfeather. As soon as we arrived a gun was fired & the hounds laid on. We soon heard their tongue, & by the

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course of the sound in the wood, and that of the men who were placed to man the Mountain, we were guided on Westward, and the whole fleet of fifteen sail was in motion. In about an hour we perceived the stag {Ms 4030 page 12} come down from the wood, refresh himself in the lake, and then run along the shore for a mile, when he turned again into the wood. Our Boatmen anxious to catch him if he should take Sail rowed with such spirit as to pass all the rest. But they also passed the stag, for he had doubled, & tho we made haste back we were only in time to see him once more take sail, when he was soon taken up by Mr Galway's43 boat, & tied there. The whole party attended him from hence to Stag Island near which he was untied & thrown into the lake, from which he swam to the shore of that Island, & lay down.

The boats dispersed now different ways — we to Innisfallen, where we had a cold dinner prepared, & fared sumptuously after walking round that Beautiful Island & observing the noble trees that adorn it, particularly a vast holly and a great Yew, the former large & lofty as an Oak & measuring 10 feet in circumference44 {Ms 4030 page 13}. While we were here Mr Mahony45 brought over the hunted stag to this Isle in his boat to secure him from the Mountaineers who would have slain him for his hide. He had been hunted once before, the tip of one ear being cut off — & now the tip of each is gone. We passed our time here agreably till near 9 when we returned as before. When we landed at Innisfallen a crowd of apple women & nutsellers etc. were assembled there before us, just as if it were a fair, or rather like the savages coming down to barter with our ships in distant Islands.