Sportsman/Publisher Arthur “Nick” Arundel Dies
Arthur “Nck” Arundel at the Gold Cup Races, Great Meadow, 2007 Douglas Lees photo
Foxhunter, visionary, and publisher Arthur “Nick” Arundel died in his sleep at home on Tuesday, February 8, one day shy of being named Outstanding Virginian of 2011 by the Virginia General Assembly. He was eighty-three.
Mr. Arundel was publisher of the Times Community Newspapers covering four counties in Northern Virginia, including Loudoun and Fauquier.
His father was a foxhunter and once served as head of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association. His mother was an ardent conservationist. Mr. Arundel merged the influence of both parents into his life.
Does Your Hunt Have a Song?
Belvedere Hounds drawn by D.T. CarlisleContinuing with our musical theme—songs of foxhunting—does your hunt have a song? Mine does. Yours could, too.
Somewhere around fifty years ago, the late Alexander Mackay-Smith, MFH found himself confined to the hospital with a broken leg from a hunting accident. With time on his hands, he set about composing a hunting song for his hunt. He took the music and theme of a popular hunting song, “Reynard the Fox,” and rewrote the lyrics using well-known places, features, and people from the Blue Ridge Hunt.
Plagiarism? Of course not! Virtually all the traditional hunting songs we know are retreads of even more ancient English and Irish nursery songs or folk tunes with hunting lyrics set to them.
If you have a poet in your hunt, give him or her our new CD, Songs of Foxhunting, and download the hunting songs—music and lyrics—from the website. Ask your lyricist to choose one of the tunes and rewrite the lyrics to memorialize a great hunt, to honor a special member, or to sing the praises of a revered Master.
Whiskey Road Hunt Week, Aiken, SC
Second Installment
Betsy and friends escape frozen Virginia for a week of hunting in warmer climes. We bring you Installment Two of her daily blog, exclusive to Foxhunting Life.
(l-r) Whiskey Road Field Master Geri Rapp, Fairfax Hunt members Ray Moffett, and PetraProbably seventy-five riders in the field this morning from the Batesburg fixture. Whiskey Road hosted a stirrup cup and snack before the meet after which huntsman Joseph Hardiman moved off with the mixed English and Penn-Marydel pack, east towards the cow field adjacent to the fixture.
Hounds struck immediately, coyote, probably, a brace or possibly a leash, and split into two or three groups. Hardiman went with one group, Master/whipper-in Lynn Smith with another, and (seemed like) Master David Smith and the main field with still another.
MFHA Annual Meeting in NYC
| Ed Kelly is elected president of the MFHA. Jim Duggan photo |
The Annual Meeting of the MFHA was held Friday, January 28, 2011 at the Union Club in New York. A foot of snow had fallen on the city Wednesday night, yet when I arrived at Pennsylvania Station on Thursday, the north-south avenues were completely cleared. To be sure, the east-west streets were plowed only one lane wide with cars totally buried under snow on both sides, but the taxicabs were out doing “business as usual” and commerce carried on!
Edward Kelly, MFH of the Golden’s Bridge Hounds (NY), was elected president of the Association and commences a three-year term. Kelly succeeds outgoing president G. Marvin Beeman, MFH of the Arapahoe Hunt (CO). Jack van Nagell, MFH of the Iroquois Hunt (KY), was elected First Vice President and thus stands in line to become president after Kelly completes his term of office. Tony Leahy, MFH and huntsman of the Fox River Valley Hunt (IL) and the Cornwall Hounds (IL), was elected second vice-president thereby stepping into the line of succession to the presidency in six more years.
Fernie Hunt to Appeal Conviction
Fernie huntsman Derek Hopkins will appeal his conviction under the Hunting Act and Badgers Act, according to the Countryside Alliance. Hopkins and countryman Kevin Allen were convicted following a seven-day trial that had been scheduled for only four days. The accused men argue that key evidence, including questions about their intent, was not even addressed […]
Histories for Horsepeople
From ancient times to the recent past, most family histories were preserved by story-telling from generation to generation. Today, with families spread across continents, if not around the world, and no one living next to the old folks to even hear their stories, how are family histories to be preserved?
Karin Winegar has a solution. She provides a unique service which she calls “Histories for Horsepeople.” Karin writes and produces privately published family or hunt histories meant as special gifts for family, friends, business associates, and/or members. She describes herself as “sort of a private family scribe.”
Abandoned Horses at Dunsink to Be Helped
A coalition of local government and a private trust will help the abandoned horses at Dunsink, a common grazing ground near Dublin. The Fingal County Council and the Irish Horse Welfare Trust drew up the plans jointly. According to Sharon Newsome, spokeswoman for the trust, there are approximately sixty horses on the 160-acre site at […]
Movement Afoot to Re-Open Horse Processing Plants
There are movements stirring to re-open horse processing plants in the U.S. The last remaining processing facility, which was located in Illinois, was closed in 2007 by a federal judge. Although horse processing was not outlawed, Congress, in 2006, curtailed the US Department of Agriculture’s inspection of such plants. Just recently, a Summit of the […]
FHL Downloads
Here are some of our favorite musical files available for your download.
Windows users: right-click on filename, left-click on Save Target As (or save link as), and save file to your computer.
Mac users: option/click and save to your computer.
Free downloads:
MP3 Ringtones:
Tip: Try saving the MP3 file to your computer, then emailing it to yourself on your phone! Then download there and save as a ringtone.
Doubling | Gone Away | Gone to Ground | Whip to Me
M4R Ringtones for iPhones Users:
-
iPhone users, download to your computer the M4R files below
-
Connect your iPhone to your computer using the device’s USB connector cable, and launch iTunes in your computer if the application does not automatically start.
-
Click “File” in the menu bar of the iTunes application window and select “Add File to Library.”
-
Use the “Add to Library” dialog box to find the downloaded M4R file that you want to transfer to your iPhone. The M4R file is located where you saved it on your computer.
-
Click the M4R file in the “Add to Library” dialog box and click the “Open” or “Choose” button.
-
Click “Tones” or “Ringtones” in the left side bar of iTunes.
-
Click, drag and drop the M4R file from the “Ringtones” library window pane to the iPhone icon displayed in the left side bar. ITunes transfers the ringtone file to your iPhone.
-
On your iPhone, touch “Setting,” “Sounds,” and “Ringtone,” and you should find the horn call ringtone in the list. Touch to select.
Doubling | Gone Away | Gone to Ground | Whip to Me
Other Downloads:
St. Hubert (MP3) | John Peel Clip (MP3) | Coyote Line Clip (MP3)
John Peel Lyrics (PDF) Coyote Line Lyrics (PDF)
Don’t forget that the CDs with these songs and more are available for purchase in their entirety in the FHL Bookstore.
Subscriber downloads:
Click below to access the full downloads.
Songs of Foxhunting—Country Style
Foxhunting songs with a purely American accent! Would you like to hear a sample? Download lyrics and the MP3 audio file and listen to Coyote Line by Edwin Hall—authentic Americana. If you have the lyrics in your hand and the music playing, you won’t be able to resist joining in on the chorus! Coyote Line is just one of ten songs in Ed Hall’s CD, Meeting in the Morning, available now in our Bookstore.
Also available as promised is a new CD production of Alexander Mackay-Smith’s The Songs of Foxhunting—a collection of twenty traditional songs, including John Peel; Here’s a Health to Every Sportsman; Drink Puppy, Drink; The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night; and many more favorites. There’s too much joy in singing to let those old songs fade away. Not only have they been sung for hundreds of years, but most of them are based on lyrics from the hunting field put to even older English and Irish music. In short, they’re ancient. But let’s go back to Ed Hall and his country music.