A NOVICE'S EXPERIENCES OF MEATH 9 



ing that hounds did hunt over it, I should have looked 

 round at once for the lanes of Devon and Somerset — and 

 found them not. Now I have seen it practically demon- 

 strated that the horses of the country can get over it, I 

 wonder the more — as I have never ceased to wonder since 

 I came to Ireland — how I and others of a like sphere can 

 have gone on riding to hounds for so many years and yet 

 have learned so little of what a horse can really do. One 

 conclusion I have come to regarding Meath : which is that, 

 however popular and largely resorted-to the country may 

 again become (and I venture to predict a great future 

 under the present regime), it can never be grossly over- 

 crowded, like some portions of our charming Shires. For 

 in IMeath it is absolutely impossible that you can turn up 

 at the end of a good and fairly straight gallop, mop your 

 forehead, and, ivithout having jumped a single fence in the line, 

 swear it was one of the best things you ever "saw." Do 

 we not see this happen in the Shires time after time, and 

 do more than half of a large field ever ride a run at all ? 

 But in Meath you cannot hunt or go beyond a first covert- 

 side without riding the country, a country that to my 

 unaccustomed and perhaps cowardly eye is very strong 

 indeed. Thus all the regular men of IMeath are sportsmen 

 and horsemen, and withal, may I presume to add, exceed- 

 ingly courteous and pleasant sportsmen too. Moreover, 

 they know their country by heart, and they know the 

 exact capabilities of nearly every man, certainly of every 

 horse, in it. 



While England was being drowned out by daily 

 deluges of rain, and while lament was wafted over by 

 every post that the ground was already deeper than had 

 been known for years, in Ireland we were hunting daily 

 in glorious, perhaps too gaudy, sunshine. Some days 

 hounds could run hard ; on others — glass and forecast 

 identically similar — hounds would be choked off the 

 moment they found themselves among sheep and cattle ; 

 two sources of hindrance that in less overwhelming degree 

 are, I believe, to be found in mild and grassy Meath the 

 winter through. 



On Thursday there was no great scent from Moun- 



