REPORTS on hunting with “The Counties”, as the County Limerick Foxhounds are locally referred to, have been glowing with stories of one red letter day following hard on the heels of another. So it was with some sense of anticipation that we joined last Saturday’s meet at the mart yard Kilmallock.

I would know the yard better as a farmer bringing cattle to sale with tractors, trailers and cattle lorries but, on this occasion, horse boxes, hounds and foot followers were the order of the day. With the field mounted, hounds enlarged and the statutory photos taken it was time for huntsman Fergus Stokes to take his 17 and a half couple of old English Foxhounds to the first draw at the famed stud just a short hack at nearby Mount Coote, the home of the Lillingston family.