Matthew Higgs
Beagles Column
Matthew Higgs
It is proving to be a trying season. There is little news of good scenting conditions around the packs and the see-sawing weather conditions have not allowed hounds to really settle to their task so far - a depressing thought as we organise our January fixtures is that the season is well on its way!
Talking to other beaglers around the country, what is clear is some packs are more able to cope with the difficult conditions than others. Those who saw the West Somerset up in Alston will testify as to the dazzling quality of the sport they showed, well above the level of the other packs involved, and by all accounts the Newcastle were similarly able to produce good hunts out of the bag when their visitors were struggling later on in the month.
Why this is so is not immediately clear, but in the old days was rather well described as the difference between hare hunting and beagling. The suggestion was that some packs went out with the intent to catch their hares in style while “beaglers” were happy to enjoy the outing with their hounds without too much regard as to whether a hunt was concluded or not.
I strongly believe there is room for both approaches - the delight of hunting is that it can be so many different things to its aficionados - and neither is wrong but the odds are that a pack bred and, arguably more importantly, conditioned and handled to perform - will have the edge over other packs when the going gets tough.
Willie Poole, I think, said a huntsman should leave the kennels muttering: “Gnash, gnash, fox, fox”. Such a huntsman would impart his mood to his hounds whose intent would be absorbed from their huntsman to deadly effect.
Certainly, confident hounds accustomed to success will produce hunts every time they go out and it was always fascinating watching a pack used to accounting for their quarry setting out on a hunt sure in the knowledge of the likely conclusion. They would get away on their quarry with a vengeance and fling themselves about at a check in the certainty they were able to sort the problem out.
Such a pack was less likely to change in a well-hared country because they bustled their quarry along and were usually closer to it and, I believe, were more readily able to realise they had changed because they were used to a reward from staying with their quarry.
Repeal cannot come soon enough!
A pack that was not used to finishing a hunt had no incentive to stay with the hunted hare since it really didn’t matter to them (or their followers probably) whether they changed or not as they had little experience of tasting success. It is the pity of our present state that these nuances are being lost as it is difficult to retain hounds interest in the trail. Repeal cannot come soon enough!
While the hare has ceased to be our usual quarry our interest in its welfare has not waned. Most packs continue to send in their “Hare Return” to the AMHB detailing how many hares are met on each days trailing and while the results are probably not as useful as when we were hunting hares, they still build up into an incomparable measure of population trends across a wide area of the UK.
Some packs are reporting that hares are being less frequently seen on hunting days this year. It will be interesting to see whether this is because fewer have come through the wet autumn or, as I believe, hares are not lying out in the open as much as we’d usually expect at this time of year.
Certainly in our country (Trinity Foot & South Herts) the autumn-sown crops are very backward and the countryside looks brown with very little corn grown across the rows as yet. Many fields have not been drilled at all. In these circumstances there is little food to be had for a hare and in my opinion they are using the woods and hedgerows more than usual. If I am right they should “reappear” in the spring- we shall see!
It’s been fun to get some visiting in. We had a day with the Radley College the other week where Simon Timbrell, their new countryside officer, has settled in well and is busy opening up new country and enthusing the boys. The set up was very smart and workmanlike, and it was good to see so many boys anxious to contribute to the progress of a hunt. Freddy Bolton is hunting hounds for the first half of the season and was making a good fist of it on the day we were out. Remarkably he is almost totally deaf.
It is difficult to evaluate how important one’s hearing is to a huntsman but on reflection I suspect we rely on it more than we realise. Being able to hear the change in direction or intensity in the pack’s cry can help one’s understanding of how a hunt is developing and certainly enables a huntsman to nick in and save his legs during a run. To help him Freddy had a runner to act as his ears. This is hard work for the runner, as Freddy is an oarsman and his speed and stamina mean many struggle to keep with him!
We also went to an unusual meet of the Sandhurst and Aldershot .They had sold (bravely in my opinion!) a day hunting their hounds at a recent Auction of Promises. Richard Wakelin, who has so faithfully supported the Christchurch and Farley Hill through thick and thin for many years, bought it and it was to be his first experience of hunting hounds.
Huntsman Mark Jackson ran with him, of course, and kennel huntsman Nigel Kirk had turned out a workmanlike pack for the day. Nigel has strong views on hound breeding and handling and between them they have developed a lovely pack of small hounds that are rock steady to the many roe deer found in their country.
It was not the best of scenting days but Richard enjoyed his day hugely making at least one cast that drew admiration from a critical field when everyone else had given up. Afterwards he said it was lovely to find hounds swinging to his whistle by the end of the day and his smile reflected the joy all of us lucky enough to hunt hounds find in the pastime.
We have also taken our hounds to Norfolk for a day as guests of the Norfolk Beagles Hound Club. They don’t keep a pack of their own but continue to run their country inviting packs in to hunt it on a regular basis. This arrangement works well keeping a country open in an area where shooting would probably preclude a resident pack filling an entire season’s fixtures.
Many of the visiting packs are glad of an “extra” day away from their country and the arrangement has worked well for many years. I know Jacinth Rogers, their efficient secretary would welcome inquiries from any pack that would like to visit Norfolk. It is a sad reflection on modern hunting that many of the packs that used to visit Norfolk are now amalgamated,(many to each other!) so there is room to one or two more.
May I conclude by wishing all readers of TMV a very Happy Christmas especially those who bravely continue at the sharp end, keeping hounds going in the face of the spiteful legislation that is the Hunting Bill. Few of us, I suspect, really appreciate the pressure that the high profile pack’s officers are under. They all deserve our gratitude.
Matthew Higgs