404 mmB of tbe t>untlng^3ffelt) 



then, on some rare and grand occasion, these isolated 

 units would meet for a combined day's sport. But there 

 was no systematic hunting of the country until several 

 prominent sportsmen agreed to throw their hounds to- 

 gether into a united pack, whose head-quarters were at 

 Clongill Castle, and whose first Master was Mr Waller of 

 Allenstown. To him succeeded Mr Hopkins, who in 

 his turn gave place to Mr Trench Nugent, but no records 

 of sport in those dark ages have been preserved. 



Mr Trench Nugent left the country in 1852 to hunt an 

 English Midland pack ; he had been seven years Master 

 of the Meath, and was the first to reduce chaos into 

 order there, thus paving the way for his renowned suc- 

 cessor and brother-in-law, Sam Reynell, who really 

 founded the fortunes of the Meath, and well deserved the 

 title of ' the Meynell of Ireland,' bestowed on him by 

 his admirers. Sam Reynell had every gift that goes to 

 the making of a first-rate Master of Hounds. His great 

 stature and commanding mien overawed the field. His 

 enthusiasm for the sport infected all who came within 

 his influence ; his energy was unflagging. The longest 

 day could not tire his iron frame. His fiery dash and 

 daring were tempered by a shrewdness which kept him 

 from sacrificing the science to the sport of hunting. 



The country he hunted covered a vast area, seventy 

 miles by twenty, the greater part of which consisted of 

 old pastures, as fine as the very cream of the English 

 Midlands, and far larger in extent. Only one thing was 

 lacking to make the country an ideal one for fox- 

 hunting, and that was the presence of woodlands and 

 coverts in which the foxes might lie and breed. This defect 

 Reynell set himself to remedy by dotting the grazing lands 

 with gorse and stick coverts. Then, indeed, Meath be- 



