A NOVICE'S EXPERIENCES OF MEATH ii 



rewarded only by running a very beaten fox to ground. 

 After two days with either pack, I may take upon myself 

 to assert that the condition and drive of the Meath hounds 

 leave nothing to be desired. They are tit as hounds can 

 be ; they run hard, and they keep their noses down. 

 Foxes are plentiful, and sport is almost assured. The 

 demesnes in question are a natural arena for cub-hunting 

 (though to-day, be it remembered, was nearly a week on 

 into the regular season) : and the day admits of no story 

 at my hands, albeit its later hour was eked out by means 

 of a short run across the open, leaving all hands at 

 Drumree, the starting-point for the return special to 

 Dublin. 



The greatest novelty of all, to my narrow English 

 experience, was the opening day of the Ward Union 

 Staghounds. Never had I seen in any degree the like of 

 it. Never, possibly, may I see the like of it again. Some 

 profane person in my hearing had compared the occasion 

 to old-time Easter Mondays in Epping Forest. I say that 

 the simile in no way holds good. 'Arry of London would 

 as soon venture to dangle his legs over the gallery balus- 

 trade, or over the knifeboard guardrail of an omnibus, 

 as put his limbs in the position of buffer, to fend off one 

 galloping car from another, amid a crowd of reckless 

 hundreds. Still less would he throw in his lot — regardless 

 of all other essential requisites for riding to deer and 

 hounds beyond four doubtful legs under him and half-a- 

 crown cap money in his pocket — prepared to face any 

 country, any obstacle (and as many of them as good luck 

 will allow him) in company with the pick of the land, 

 both of manhood and horseflesh. This Ward experience 

 enables me to say 1 have now seen the stag hunted by 

 nearly every pack in this yet-united kingdom ; but the 

 manner of meet and of throwing-off is nowhere the same 

 as here. It would be impertinent of me to cavil at the 

 mere dulness of colouring and costume observable at the 

 Meet ; but it is surely incongruous that at such a gathering 

 of mirth-loving people, with a view to a ride with the 

 Ward, only a businesslike solemnity should pervade the 

 function. I fancy that a First Meet is never a very 



