The Keen Foxhunter’s Miscellany, Peter Holt, Quiller Publishing, 2010, 224 pages, illustrated, available on AmazonHere’s a book about foxhunting by a man who never hunted. Peter Holt’s wife, however, is a Master of Foxhounds, so the poor fellow has probably heard more about hunting than he ever wanted to know.
The book is a quirky collection of literary quotes, short reports, historical oddities, profiles of hunting eccentrics—no story longer than two pages.
Notwithstanding Holt’s lack of hunting experience, this is a very funny book. Admittedly, my sense of humor is sometimes weird, so here are a couple of samples. You decide.
DEDICATION
For my dear lady wife, whose name escapes me…
From the INTRODUCTION
I admit that I have never hunted. The closest I have got to hunting (apart from my wife) is to be a member of a gloriously anachronistic institution called The Shrewsbury Hunt Club. Founded in 1769 the Shrewsbury is England’s second oldest surviving hunt club after the Tarpoley in Cheshire. It is also England’s least horsey hunt. The Shrewsbury has never owned its own pack nor even organised its own hunting. It once had an aim to promote foxhunting in Shropshire but a surfeit of good champagne caused that to be forgotten long ago.
These days the club is strictly social. Like myself, most of the 100 members do not hunt and many have barely met a horse. We meet only for a ball when we wear our uniform of blue coat with scarlet velvet collar, buff waistcoat, black silk breeches, black stockings and court shoes. Some might say it’s pointless, but hell, you’ve got to try to enjoy yourself these days, haven’t you?
RANDOM SELECTION (SHORT)
Hounds having lost the scent, the MFH stopped to ask a yokel if he had seen the fox. The yokel rambled on and on about how he had indeed seen the fox, and how it had gone this way and that way again, etc. etc.
“And was he as talkative as you?” asked the Master with a scowl.
“Yes, sir, ’e woz. ’E asks me whose hounds be after ’im. I says yours be, sir. ‘Ah,’ says the fox. ‘Then no need to ’urry.’”
Peter Holt is a former columnist with the London Evening Standard. He has several books to his credit. He shoots; his wife hunts.