24 MEET OF THE ME A TH HO UNDS IN KILDARE 



One of the largest meets I ever saw was in Kildare, 

 when the Meath hounds were invited to hunt that 

 county some years ago. There must have been 

 nearly a thousand people out on that occasion. There 

 were over seven hundred pink coats alone, besides 

 some hundreds of black. Sam Reynell was at that 

 time, as he had been for over fifty years, master of the 

 Meath, and he generally contrived to keep his field in 

 awe of him. Only three men were up at the finish, when 

 Mr. Pailly, V.S., eclipsed them all by jumping the 

 six-foot wall into Carton, the Duke of Leinster's 

 property. It was the highest jump I ever saw at 

 the end of such a 'quick thing,' and from the way 

 in which his horse Shylock did it, he must have 

 cleared fully seven feet, with the coping. As was 

 his wont, Mr. Wakefield, the veteran sportsman of 

 Kildare, v/as one of the three who saw the end of 

 the run. On that day the veterans alone were up at 

 the finish. But what became of the flash crowd which 

 started I know not ; I can only conclude that they must 

 have been lost in the bog. 



The light division are generally the culprits who 

 come out to ride and not to hunt. Being, as a rule, 

 mounted on cheaper and inferior animals to the 

 heavier men, they are sooner done with, especially 

 when they take to jealous riding. The heavy men are 

 obliged to ride carefully, or else they have very little 

 chance of seeing the end of a really good run, and 

 thus, being better mounted, they generally are in the 

 majority at the end of a long run, especially when it is 

 over a stiff country, in which case they ride slowly at 

 their fences, whereas the ' harum-scarum,' rough- 

 riding light-weights are nowhere. There are doubtless 



