"In Ireland, the early 1950s through the 1960s was an era of amateur Master/huntsmen―young men of some means―who took on a pack of hounds more as an avocation than a job," writes our correspondent, Dickie Power. He was fortunate to have hunted with many of them, such as Thady Ryan in Scarteen, Evan Williams in Tipperary, Lord Daresbury in Limerick, Capt. Harry Freeman-Jackson in Duhallow, Victor McCalmont in Kilkenny, Elsie Morgan in West Waterford, and PP Hogan in Avondhu. This is our second installment in Dickie’s series about these remarkable men and women.
Edward 'Toby' Greenall, Lord Daresbury, MFH of the County Limerick foxhounds from 1947 to 1977 / Photo courtesy of Hugh Robards
I started my hunting career with the Co Limerick foxhounds and the late Lord Daresbury, MFH and huntsman. In the eyes of a small boy, he appeared a forbidding figure, tall and straight in his pink coat, elegantly turned out, and always beautifully mounted. It was an era of long hunts where hounds didn’t go home until they had accounted for their fox, regardless of the hour.
With the war over and the committee needing to restaff the hunt, they had wisely settled on Edward Greenall, 2nd Baron Daresbury. He had been Master of the Belvoir Hunt in Leicestershire for thirteen seasons (1934 to 1947). While Edward was his christened name, he was known to one and all as Toby, probably because it is a brand of ale from their family brewery, Greenall’s, which was the source of almost unlimited finance. Lord Daresbury came to Limerick and took up residence in Clonshire, then as now the property of the Co. Limerick Hunt.
