October 11, 2018
Duke of Buccleuch Master and Huntsman On Trial
Timothy Allen, MFH and Shaun Anderson, huntsman of the Duke of Buccleuch’s Hunt in Scotland appeared in the Jedburgh Sheriff Court on October 8th on a charge of breaching Scotland’s Protection of Wild Mammals Act by deliberately hunting a fox with a pack of hounds. The pair pled not guilty. Last year, Johnny Riley and his father John Clive Richardson, MFH of the Jedforest Foxhounds were found guilty of breaching the foxhunting laws. Their conviction was the first under the act since its passage in 2002. Evidence in the Buccleuch action was given by a director of the League Against Cruel Sports in Scotland. The LACS has engaged teams to covertly film the country’s ten hunts. As in the Jedforest case, video evidence will be the crux of the prosecution’s case. LACS is working to tighten Scotland’s hunting laws. One sheep farmer in support of the hunt claims to lose at least one hundred lambs every year to foxes, harming his revenue and devastating to the sheep. Three days of evidence have been heard, and the trial has been adjourned until December 4. Posted October 12, 2018
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Meynellian Science
Hugo Meynell (seated), in his later years, with his huntsman Jack Raven and a favorite hound Glider. / Engraving after a 1794 painting by Charles Loraine Smith
The father of English foxhunting was Hugo Meynell, founder of the Quorn, who began hunting hounds from his Leicestershire seat Quorn Hall in 1753. He developed the science of hunting the fox at speed in the open, made possible by the clearing of forests and the enclosure of land.
