Scarlet on Scarlet: 100 Years of Hunting with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds 1912-2012, Prue Draper Osborn, 278 pages, Illustrated, color, $100.00 (benefits The Cheshire Hunt Conservancy)
As many of our North American hunts reach their hundredth anniversary milestone, some have produced history books rich with photos and other memorabilia to tell their stories. One of the best is Scarlet on Scarlet: 100 Years of Hunting with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds 1912-2012 by Prue Draper Osborn. This handsome coffee-table book is not only the history of the legendary hunt, but it’s also the story of the many families who have hunted with the Cheshire Foxhounds, often through three and four generations.
The history of Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds could be divided into three phases: its founding by Plunkett Stewart in 1912; its five-plus decades under the leadership of the late Nancy Penn Smith Hannum; and the latest and perhaps most controversial, the transformation from an all-English pack to a Crossbred pack.
After Plunkett Stewart established his hunt in Unionville, Pennsylvania, he was quick to recognize “no country, no hunt.” From this hunt’s inception, land preservation and good landowner relations were emphasized, and today, when so many other hunts are being squeezed out by development, Cheshire is welcome over a large country. Mr. Stewart set about purchasing property for the hunt and encouraging his friends to do so. He often bought land and permitted the farm families to continue to live there.
That devotion to preserving the land has led to Cheshire’s legendary reputation, and the Cheshire Hunt Conservancy (CHC) has written land preservation into the hunt’s mission. The hunt’s conservation efforts have twice been recognized (in 1997 and 2013) with the prestigious Hunting Habitat Conservation Award, a yearly honor sponsored by the Masters of Foxhounds Association and The Chronicle of the Horse. Osborn writes that the hunt “occupies a larger space than just that of a pack of hounds”: “The Hunt and the countryside have become a source of pride for nearby residents—something unique and special.…The CHC is keenly aware of this opportunity and this responsibility, and is dedicated to conducting its affairs so as to maximize the goodwill that has accumulated over the Hunt’s first 100 years.”
The Cheshire began making a name for itself early. Over the years, many well-known people including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis went out with the Cheshire. But the hunt always has had a reputation for serious sport, not high society. In 1954, a Sports Illustrated reporter wrote that “The Cheshire isn’t a flossy hunt, not a social event with an easy ride and an early home. Not all its members are people of leisure and means; there are farmhands and steel workers, too, rich only in their love of the sport.”
When Mr. Stewart’s stepdaughter, Nancy Penn Smith Hannum, began to carry the horn in 1945 as Joint-Master, she had been his apprentice for years, absorbing all she could from her stepfather and from huntsman Charlie Smith and the kennelmen. She became Master when Mr. Stewart died—of a broken heart, some say—on December 26, 1948, about a month after Mrs. Hannum’s mother’s death. Mrs. Hannum was twenty-nine years old at the time.
Much has been written about the indomitable Mrs. Hannum, who was known for hard-riding hunts that lasted for hours and covered miles of territory. It was nothing for a field of ninety to be whittled down to less than ten riders at the end of the day. Three years after taking over the pack, she proved herself on one memorable hunt in 1952 that lasted six hours and ten minutes and covered 37.1 miles. It rivaled the historic Great Lenape Run in 1932, when hounds ran for five hours and twenty-five minutes and covered thirty-six miles. Mrs. Hannum changed horses three times.
Of course, the Hannum children—Jock, Buzz, and Carol—all rode and hunted, no matter the weather. They learned about hunting by “osmosis,” they told the author, and the day’s hunting created lively dinnertime conversation. But it was expected that they all would be in the saddle when the hounds went out, and there was little sympathy for aches, pains, or bitter cold weather. Says Buzz, jokingly, “Once I was given the right to make my own decisions—I was fifty—I stopped.”
Mrs. Hannum rode hard, and she had the injuries to prove it. She had “an unspeakable number of harrowing falls throughout the years. She was always back in the saddle well before any doctor’s recommendation,” says Osborn. One especially horrific accident left Mrs. Hannum’s leg crushed below the knee. The surgeon wanted to remove it, but she refused. How would she ride?
Another time, she broke her pelvis while handling some yearlings. Another member of the hunt, Sanna Neilson, also suffered a broken pelvis about the same time. Mrs. Hannum was disappointed in herself when she heard that Sanna was back riding before she was. Never mind that Sanna was twenty-something and Mrs. Hannum almost eighty.
Mrs. Hannum was also known for her ability to rehab horses thought to be incorrigible. One, El Arabi, a Thoroughbred known for savaging people, was her greatest success. “Sympathy and patience were saved for the horses Mrs. Hannum would rehabilitate,” writes the author.
Eventually Mrs. Hannum traded her horse for a Jeep (with a “Foxy Mama” license plate), but her devotion to her beloved English hounds continued. Finally in 2003, at age eighty-four, after fifty-five years as Master, she retired after leading the Cheshire on a wild ride that saw the hunt conserve 30,000 acres. It took three Joint-Masters to replace her. When she died in 2010—on the final day of the season at age ninety—mourners that gathered later at her farm for her memorial service were not surprised to see a fox emerge from the woods and trot across the field.
When Mrs. Hannum stepped down as Master, the hunt underwent another great change as the new huntsman, John Tulloch, introduced Penn-Marydel hounds into the pack. “Members of the field were dubious, to put it mildly,” says Osborn. Eventually the Cheshire became an all-bitch pack of English/Penn-Marydel Crossbreds.
“English hounds bring drive, forwardness, conformation and hardiness; Penn-Marydels bring their nose, voice and a lighter build,” writes the author. “It was hoped that, brought together, these characteristics would make for the ideal hound for Cheshire hunting country.” Ten years later, the cross has become known as the Cheshire Hound.
What sets Scarlet on Scarlet apart is author Prue Draper Osborn’s ability to coax great stories about the hunt from its members—such as the time Mrs. Hannum ended a long hunt on someone’s pony she caught in a field when her horse tired, or the time the fox ended up in a church basement. Or the Thanksgiving teas at Brooklawn, Mrs. Hannum’s farm. Or how the field would say, “‘Ware Jeep,” when Mrs. Hannum was driving in their midst. Or how the strict Mrs. Hannum was always so encouraging to junior riders. These are the kinds of tales that people tell after the hunt at breakfast, and the stories are what makes this book a delightful read.
As the hunt enters its next one hundred years, it continues the mission of land conservation begun by Plunkett Stewart and nurtured by his stepdaughter. This legacy will guarantee that more families will continue to hunt the territory, “rich in their love of the sport.”
Now in its second printing, Scarlet on Scarlet may be purchased by emailing [email protected] or through the Cheshire hunt office, 610-347-1918. The price is $100 plus $15 shipping. All proceeds go to the Conservancy.
Posted March 25, 2014