Braes of Derwent Hunt
Hunting in 1935-36
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Braes of Derwent Hunt Hunting in 1935-36 |
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Back to Home Page Back to BDH History RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 1935-36 SEASON In spite of many disappointments
and drawbacks, it may be accounted as having been a fair average season on the
whole. With foxes abundant and healthy everywhere, a large number were
accounted for, several packs exceeding their previous best records, Owing to
the long unbroken spell of fine weather during the summer, the crops were
gathered in and the stubbles were cleared by the third week in August except in
the far North, with the result, that following three days of steady rain cub-hunting
was pretty general by the end of the month, some of the Wold packs having made
a start in the first week of August though scent was deficient at the time. By
the middle of September the ground had become dry and hard again and on some
days hunting was rendered impossible by the violence of the equinoctial gales
which caused considerable damage to the trees in the woodlands and orchards.
When the wind abated the rain returned, improving scenting conditions and
softening the ground which had become very hard and damaging to the feet of
hounds. In the third week of September unfortunately, there were serious
outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan which
interfered with the operations of five packs. By strong measures these outbreaks
were eventually overcome, and though there were also a few cases in
Warwickshire the steps which were at once taken to prevent the disease from
spreading were completely successful. Later during the season proper there were
some further outbreaks but they were effectually dealt with and prevented from
extending, with the satisfactory result that there was less interference with
hunting on this account than there had been for several past seasons. The conditions for cub-hunting remained favourable until the middle of October when two or three days of exceptionally hard frost made the going bad, both for horses and hounds, but had the advantage of bringing down the leaves and making the countryside less blind than usual in this month. Then just at the right time came more rain to soften the going and for the first time for several years the country was completely free of foot-and-mouth disease when the season proper opened. Unfortunately, however, an epidemic of coughing attacked the horses of the Bicester and Warden Hill Hunt, of which all but two out of twenty four were affected, with the result that their opening meet, originally fixed for November 4, had to be postponed for a week. Luckily the fear that there might have to be similar postponements in the case of the Pytchley and Grafton were not realised. The disease was diagnosed by the Royal Veterinary College as a recrudescence of a mild form of influenza which had been very widespread in the stables of many trainers at the height of the flat-racing season. Although
hunting started generally under the most favourable conditions it was soon
interfered with by continuous and heavy rainfall which for the first half of
November amounted to 3.14 in. against an average for the whole month of only
2.35 in. During the first 24 hours of Sunday, November 17, there was a fall of
an inch of rain in sixteen districts in the south of England, nearly 2 in
falling in the towns of Bournemouth and Poole, while many hundreds of acres of
low lying land were under water from the Thames Valley to Warwick, where racing
had to be stopped on this account on Monday, November 18. In some parts of
Sussex the rain fall during this period amounted to 600 tons per acre – four
times the average for the whole month in this particular district – while the
Fen districts of Lincolnshire and other countries were quite unrideable. One
useful result of this tremendous downpour was to flood out the hiding places of
foxes in road drains and elsewhere, which had been available during the two preceding
very dry seasons, and in some cases main earths, with the unusual result that
instead of the customary experience of foxes being underground and difficult to
find after very wet nights, they were available in unusual numbers. As a
consequence of this heavy and continuous rain the going was very holding and
trying for the horses. Though the last week of November was fairly favourable
for hunting it was considerably interfered with in the first week of December
by frost and to a greater extent by fog, which was so dense on Saturday,
December 7, that it prevented the Quorn and many other Midland packs from
hunting. On December 10 when scent was bad with most packs the Cottesmore brought off a great hunt of two hours fifty minutes, covering between 17 and 18 miles of country with incursions into Quorn and Fernie territories and a best point of 9 miles. The hunt started from Whissenthorpe and hounds were stopped at a late hour a little to the right of Tugby in Fernie country. Will Garrett was hunting hounds, as Mr. Hilton-Green, the Master, was disabled as a result of injuries received by him on the last day of cub hunting in October. He was however, able to resume on Monday, December 16, when he brought off a splendid hunt of seventy minutes, the first fifty minutes at racing pace, over the cream of Leicestershire, from Friars Coppice past Jubilee Lodge, across Ridlington Farm, through Quaker’s Gorse, the Wild Gorse and Tuner’s Gorse, pointing for College Farm, and leaving Launde Park Wood just on the right, over the hill into Loddington Redditch. The bitches had not been touched so far and they looked certain to have their very tired fox, when he got to ground in a drain just below Keythorpe Grange. On the following day a spell of frost set in which put a stop to hunting in the Shires and with other Midland and Northern packs, though others better favoured in the Home Counties and the South and West were able to carry on for a few days longer, hunting was brought to a complete standstill three days later by frost, snow and fog. Most packs had been idle for a week when the frost broke on Christmas Eve and it then rained on every day until the opening of the New Year when thousands of acres of land were flooded. Scent served well, however, and there were no lack of foxes, but the going was terribly heavy everywhere with the result that it was very difficult for horses to keep up with hounds and there was much “grief.” On January 2 and 3 dense fog prevented Midland and other neighbouring packs from hunting, but sport was good elsewhere, especially in the Home Counties. Then after continuous rain for the first ten days of the New Year, culminating in severe storms, it was fine on Saturday, January 11, and there was some splendid hunting almost everywhere, though scent was poor on the plough-land. Unfortunately, sport in Warwickshire and Oxfordshire and the V.W.H. countries was stopped by foot-and-mouth disease, while the Duke of Beaufort was restricted to a small area of woodland. Then from January 13 to January 18 hunting was stopped in most counties by frost and fog, and by the lamented death of the King, until January 29 when it was resumed in an all-day drenching rain, being stopped altogether in the case of the Quorn and greatly interfered with in the case of the Cottesmore, Fernie, Warwickshire and other packs. After two days complete stoppage by floods, on the last day of January the Quorn brought off a brilliant hunt of an hour and thirty minutes from Scraptoft Gorse, hounds marking their fox to ground at Tugby Bushes, after making a deep incursion into Fernie territory and running through some of the Cottesmore Woodlands. The
month of February opened well for the Cottesmore with two excellent hunts of an
hour and fifty minutes and thirty-five minutes very fast, and for the Pytchley
from Naseby with a fine hound-hunt of three hours, covering quite 18 miles of
country. Then from February 3 to 15 hunting was greatly restricted by frost,
fog and snow, especially in the Midlands.
Sport was only moderate everywhere until the 28th when the
Belvoir and Cottesmore were stopped by heavy snow, and the Quorn by fog but it
was quite good in the West where the Beaufort and Cattistock did exceptionally
well. Though there was occasional interference by fog, sport continued good
generally from the beginning of March until the end of the season when the
Quorn brought their tally up to 65½ brace with a great hunt of an hour and
fifty minutes and of point of six miles over the best of their Monday country,
and the South Atherstone covered nineteen miles of country in 2¾ hours with two
points of 5¾ miles and 4¾ miles. On Saturday, November 16, when the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, on their honeymoon, were among the big company present at the opening meet of Lord Burghley’s private pack at Burghley House, the seat of the Marquess of Exeter, there was a remarkable experience. The second fox of the day led hounds from Dotterell Hill by Easton and Colly Weston across the old Stamford race course to the outskirts of the town, threading his way through the traffic, past the entrance to the railway station and swimming the river Welland on to the Stamford meadows from which he doubled back to the place where he was found with hounds close at him and escaped through the line being foiled by other foxes. This pack of about 20 couples which hunts in the neighbouring countries achieved the unusual distinction of killing a May fox on the second day of that month. It is a remarkable record that in the course of 137 years there have been only eight Masters of the Puckeridge Hunt giving an average of seventeen years for each. In Commemoration of the fortieth season of Mr. Edward Barclay as Master, and the twenty sixth season of his son, Major Maurice E. Barclay – one of the best judges of hounds in the country – as Joint Master they were presented by Major W. S. Gosling, on behalf of 333 subscribers, farmers and friends of the Hunt, with excellent equestrian portraits of themselves by Mr. Lionel Edwards, R.A. In
Scotland sport was very good with the Duke of Buccleuch’s, the Eglinton and the
Lanark and Renfrew up to Christmas, but with the Fife it was best during the
latter part of the season. The Dumfriesshire and the Linlithgow and Stirling
and Lauderdale had a satisfactory season. In Ireland sport with the Kilkenny was best for many years, and the County Limerick pack showed wonderful sport in their Thursday country. Scent was only moderate with the Meath hounds but they did fairly well, though with the Galway “Blazers” scent was very bad and sport was poor. Back to Home Page Back to BDH History |
