A NOVICE'S EXPERIENCES OF MEATH 7 



broad brook — possibly the same we had seen forded at 

 Philpotstown — was crossed on the way, the Master alone 

 flying it in his stride, the others contentedly availing 

 themselves (^f a cattle-ford. Near the covert of Meads- 

 town a fat female of humble degree had viewed the fox. 

 Loudly she shrieked and wildly she waved her apron till 

 she brought huntsman and hounds to her side, that she 

 might point to exactly the opposite corner of the wide 

 field as reynard's route. Beyond Afeadstown he had just 

 touched the bog, but refrained from putting its path- 

 less surface between him and his pursuers. Forty 

 minutes to here — and he apparently a beaten fox. But 

 the attentions of a collie dog appeared to infuse new life 

 into him. He relinquished the twisting tactics that had 

 kept Cheshire Royal and his comrades so busy with their 

 noses by the bogside ; and he turned back through the 

 plantations of Meadstown. The field now consisted of 

 Messrs. Sullivan, C. Murphy, T. Maher, and H. Cullen — 

 if I have caught my information correctly — and even these 

 were fain to ride cautiously on the return journey to 

 Philpotstown ; Mr. Watson alone, on his second horse, 

 being able to keep hounds close company. To shorten 

 my already too lengthy story, hounds worked their way 

 back by Kilbride Chapel, to regain their starting-point in 

 one hour and twenty-five minutes after having left it, and 

 without having touched a covert (or, it goes without 

 saying, a ploughed field). Still their fox was moving on ; 

 but after hunting him another quarter hour, and almost 

 to Carrolstown, it became necessary to stop hounds in the 

 failing light. 



Such was my initial experience of Meath and its very 

 sporting, keen-working pack. Almost needless to add, I 

 came home delighted with both — in spite of the sundry 

 and more or less severe trials to which, as above noted, 

 my nervous system had been subjected. To the business- 

 like completeness* of Mr. John Watson's hunt establish- 

 ment and to his own marked capacity as a huntsman, it 

 would, under the circumstances of my pleasant visit to 

 Meath, be but bad taste to make other than passing 

 allusion. 



