This portrait along with the question of the subject’s identity was posted on Foxhunting Life‘s Facebook page to provide an entertaining and informative way of featuring iconic figures in American foxhunting. We suggested that those who know their foxhounds might pick up a clue from the hound in the photo.
Linda Knox McLean, MFH of the Aiken Hounds (SC) was the first to identify our mystery man. And the foxhound as well! She can expect to receive a gift from Foxhunting Life for her correct answers.
It’s a pure July foxhound—Midland Irish 1964—and it’s being shown by Benjamin H. Hardaway, MFH.
Ben Hardaway is the founder and senior Master of the Midland Fox Hounds in Georgia. He is in his sixtieth season as MFH of the Midland, and is the longest serving Master of Foxhounds in the country.
Hardaway would have been more than happy to hunt nothing but July hounds for the rest of his life had it not been for the deer that invaded his hunting country. The hard-driving July hounds could not be reliably steadied to deer as riot, so Hardaway searched the hunting world for an outcross that would deer-proof his pack and at the same time give him the exhilarating chase that he so loved from his Julys.
He experimentally bred untold litters of puppies for years until he met with Ikey Bell who introduced him to the fell hound on the Scottish-English border. Hardaway found that the two bloodlines nicked to give him hounds that were both biddable and electric in the field. Over the years he fine-tuned the July-fell cross and finally produced what the hunting world now knows as the Hardaway type—a Crossbred foxhound that is reproducible as to type and performance, the bloodlines of which are highly valued in this country and in England.
For those interested in learning more about this most famous of all living American Masters, breeders, and huntsmen, we recommend Hardaway’s own memoir, Never Outfoxed: The Hunting Life of Benjamin H. Hardaway III by Himself. Inquiries may be sent to PO Box 1360, Columbus, GA 31902.
Posted December 8, 2011