410 IRlnas of the 1buntina*3ftel& 



Earl of Fingal, however, came gallantly to the rescue, 

 and hunted the country from Killeen Castle. But un- 

 fortunately some of the landowners who were prominent 

 members of the Hunt had rendered themselves obnoxious 

 to the farmers, and the latter openly declared that they 

 would lay poison on their lands if certain persons named 

 continued to hunt with the Meath hounds. There is no 

 need to dwell upon that dark time. It has passed, and 

 it is to be hoped that the ill-feeling, which was then pro- 

 voked, has also passed never to be revived. Under the 

 present Master, Mr John Watson, the Meath hounds 

 maintain their old renown. 



But never again will ' Jock ' Trotter hunt with them, 

 or with any hounds on this side the Styx. For in 

 February last, but two months after his marriage to 

 Miss Fenwick of Hillmorton, 'Jock' Trotter went over 

 to the majority. It was his passion for hunting that 

 killed him. A year or two ago, Lord Dudley made 

 him field-master of the Worcester hounds. At the com- 

 mencement of 1898, he had a bad attack of influenza, but, 

 as soon as he was able to get out of bed, he insisted on 

 going out with the hounds, though he was warned that it 

 was madness for any one in his weak state to venture out 

 of doors. The consequences were what might have been 

 expected. The influenza attacked him more severely 

 than ever, pneumonia followed, and a few days later he 

 was dead. In every hunting circle in England his loss 

 was deplored, for he was as gallant and knightly a 

 gentleman as ever breathed, but nowhere was he more 

 sincerely mourned than among the warm-hearted fox- 

 hunters of Meath, where he was beloved as no Master of 

 Hounds had ever been before. 



