July 8, 2015
Harry Wight, ex-MFH (1932–2015)
Harry Wight (to the right) and Randy Rouse battle for the lead at Seven-Corners circa 1970s. / Douglas Lees photo
Charles Henry Conley Wight, “Harry,” passed away on May 11, 2015 at INOVA Loudoun Hospital in Virginia. Harry hunted hounds at the Loudoun Hunt starting in 1985 and was appointed MFH in 1990. He retired from hunting hounds in 2001.
His steeplechase racing career spanned over forty years. He won Gentleman Rider titles several seasons, earning his last title at the age of sixty while besting many twenty-year-olds at the game. In 1967, with a committee of the late Dr. Joseph Rogers, S.D. Phillips, and others, he participated in the creation of the first Loudoun Hunt Point-to-Point races on the grounds of Oatlands. He managed these races until 2012.
Lady Anne Hemphill (1929–2015)
Lady Anne Hemphill (nee Ruttledge) passed away this week at Craughwell Nursing Home in County Galway. An elegant and friendly lady, with a pleasant greeting for everyone, she will be remembered as one of the most accomplished Field Masters for the Galway Blazers, a role she filled with style for fifteen seasons.
I remember hunting in Oranmore when Michael Dempsey was huntsman, and as he drew the last covert at the Rifle Range in near darkness, hounds found immediately and we were away. Lady Anne leading the field came down in a narrow lane when her horse slipped. Deciding to stop and help we got a glimpse of her hand barely visible over the wall waving us on as she was trying to extricate herself from under her horse, saying,” Go, on, go on, don’t mind me, enjoy yourselves!”
A Plan to Modify England’s Hunting Act
With Prime Minister David Cameron now leading a majority government, pro-hunting Conservatives are looking to him to make good on his pledge to bring a free vote to the floor in Parliament to repeal the despised Hunting Act of 2002. Despite his majority, however, Cameron is loath to risk a free vote. Too many members of his own party, not to mention the Liberal opposition, have pledged to oppose him on the issue. But the natives are restless, and he must do something. A potential solution has been announced that would, rather than produce a protracted battle for repeal, require only a statutory change in the existing law. This approach would involve only ninety minutes of debate as opposed to weeks. The proposal, if passed, will make it legal once again to use a full pack—as many hounds as deemed necessary for wildlife management—to flush a fox to a gun, rather than the current limit of only two hounds. This, pro-hunters will argue, will help farmers who need predation control and will also help sick and mangy foxes to a speedier and kinder demise. Such a change will also bring the English Hunting Act more in line with Scottish law, thus rendering the plan less objectionable to members of the Scottish National Party than would an outright attempt to reverse the Act. Cameron’s plan is to put the idea to the Conservative party this week. If approved, the statutory instrument could be debated in Parliament as early as next week. Click for more details in Melissa Kite’s article in The Spectator. Posted July 8, 2015
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