The Opening Meet 



PERSONAL emotions are very difficult things to describe 

 accurately. Writers have attempted definitions by 

 labelling them as quickening pulse, throbbing heart- 

 beat, blood on fire, and so on; and it is with a mixture 

 of all of them that a lover of hunting greets hounds at 

 the Opening Meet. What is this extraordinary some- 

 thing that rouses the scarlet in one's blood ? Hounds 

 themselves cannot give the answer. Neither can the 

 well-groomed horses. Hunt uniforms, though gay, are 

 silent about it, and a panorama of country, be it ever 

 so enticing, remains exceedingly uncommunicative ! 

 The answer seems to lie in one's own make-up. A 

 deep-rooted love of a very ancient and manly sport; an 

 admiration for those very important personages, Hounds, 

 and for what their speed makes essential .... Good 

 Horses; and a willingness to pit one's courage against 

 any obstacle that a versatile Irish countryside may 

 provide. 



The Opening Meet is a reunion of old friends- 

 canine, equine and human; if the rendezvous is the 

 home of the Master or some member of the Hunt, 

 hospitality is dispensed as one might imagine it to be 

 in the long ago. If the meet be in a town or on one 



