Literature

Melton Mobray Midnight Steeplechase of 1890Captain Otho Paget hunted six days a week with the Quorn, Cottesmore, and Belvoir Foxhounds during some of foxhunting’s golden years—the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. His hunting reports, under the pseudonym Q, were published by The Field,  Horse and Hound, and other publications. A collection of the reports was published by Methuen in 1920 in an edition titled Memories of the Shires.

Douglas Lees photoCubhunting season has arrived, and hunt staffs across North America are taking to the field tasked with imposing new rules upon young hounds just discovering new freedoms! Edric C. Roberts addresses the conflict in this timely and light-hearted poem from his collection, Hunters’ Moon (Richard R. Smith Inc., New York, 1930, 70 pp, illustrated).

Riot
Somehow, I honestly never knew why,
Rarity, Chorister, Landlord and I
Found ourselves happily hunting alone,
Running like smoke on a line of our own;

Cubhunting season has arrived, and hunt staffs across North America are taking to the field tasked with imposing new rules upon young hounds just discovering new freedoms! Edric C. Roberts addresses the conflict in this timely and light-hearted poem from his collection, Hunters’ Moon (Richard R. Smith Inc., New York, 1930, 70 pp, illustrated).

Douglas Lees photo

Riot
Somehow, I honestly never knew why,
Rarity, Chorister, Landlord and I
Found ourselves happily hunting alone,
Running like smoke on a line of our own;

Hush Money by Chuck Greaves, Minotaur Books, New York, hard cover, 304 pages, $24.99If you’re going on vacation in August, be sure and take Hush Money with you. I mean the book. It’s a first novel by Los Angeles trial lawyer Chuck Greaves that’s polished and fast-paced with crackling dialog, the latter often the death knell for many first-timers.

Jack MacTaggart, the story’s protagonist, is a non-horsey lawyer representing an insurance company investigating a claim on a recently deceased show jumper. Our lawyer gets educated about horses and the high stakes world of professional show jumping by Tara Flynn, a gorgeous young rider who despises the dead horse’s bereaved owner, socialite Sydney Everett.

Dylan Thomas (1914 -- 1953)“Fern Hill” is one of Dylan Thomas’s most highly regarded poems. The poem is a paean to a green, lush summer and will resonate with anyone who can recall the summers of their youth: the smell of sweet mown hay, the whir of busy insects, the languor of long, sunny days. I’ve reproduced just the second stanza here, because it fits Foxhunting Life’s profile!

 

Letters to a Young Huntsman, Andrew Barclay, Outskirts Press, Inc., Denver, 2012, 116 pages, $27.95I have long admired Andrew Barclay’s writing. As for his expertise, that was proven long ago in the hunting field.

Andrew got a good start to his career by whipping-in to legendary huntsman Les Grimes for seven years at the Green Spring Valley Hounds in Maryland. Upon Grimes’s retirement, the horn was passed to Andrew, and he carried it with distinction there for the next twenty years.

Around the time that Andrew was getting ready to retire as huntsman, MFHA Director Tony Leahy was formulating what is now known as the MFHA’s Professional Development Program—a structured training program for young aspiring huntsmen. One aspect of the program required that a knowledgeable mentor be available to work with each individual admitted into the program.

The Masters Ball by Anne-Marie Lacy, 2012, Indigo-Inc Publishing, 206 pages, $25.00From the elegance of the annual fete in New York to a hair-raising ride at closing meet, author Anne-Marie Lacy takes the reader on mad gallop in The Masters Ball, a light-hearted murder mystery with a charming ghost.

The author, who has hunted for seventeen years, drew upon her experiences in the field with the Mooreland Hunt (AL), the Hillsboro Hounds (TN), and the characters she met along the way for her first book. The astute reader will recognize a few larger-than-life, real-life Masters who were Lacy’s inspiration for her characters.

Flying Change: A Year of Racing and Family and Steeplechasing by Patrick Smithwick, Chesapeake Book Company, 2012, 360 pages, $30.00If you can avoid disabling injury, horseback riding is a sport that many enjoy for a lifetime. All of us have heard anecdotal tales of people who ride—and even foxhunt—up into their seventies and eighties.

With Baby Boomers aging, those stories will become more prevalent, although many of us may be opting for the dressage arena instead of the hunt meet...or the race track.

Author Patrick Smithwick decided to meet growing older head on. He challenged himself at age forty-six to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup, a four-mile timber race over twenty-two solidly built fences that are not for the faint of heart. It is the world’s stiffest timber race.

Mrs. Knox -Illustration by E. Somerville“‘He's sleeping at Tory Lodge,’ said Mrs. Knox.  ‘He's cubbing at Drumvoortneen, and he has to start early.  He tried to torment me into allowing him to keep the hounds in the yard here this season, but I had the pleasure of telling him that old as I might be, I still retained possession of my hearing, my sense of smell, and, to a certain extent, of my wits.’

‘I should have thought,’ I said discreetly, ‘that Tory Lodge was more in the middle of his country.’

‘Undoubtedly,’ replied Flurry's grandmother; ‘but it is not in the middle of my straw, my meal, my buttermilk, my firewood, and anything else of mine that can be pilfered for the uses of a kennel!’  She concluded with a chuckle that might have been uttered by a scald-crow.” -Excerpt from "The Finger of Mrs. Knox"

Foxhunting Life is pleased to bring you downloads of short stories by some of our favorite sporting authors. These works are in the public domain and may be downloaded by you, enjoyed, copied, and shared as you see fit.

The Mardale Church in happy times Ready for demoloition Here are the final chapters of The Mardale Hunt by Ron Black. Through the courtesy of the author, Foxhunting Life has brought you the entire book in installments, with an invitation to download each installment to your computer. Generations of Ron Black’s family have followed the Ullswater foxhounds at the Mardale Shepherds Meet both before the flood and after. The demolition of the ancient village, the relocation of the villagers, and the construction of a new Dun Bull Hotel and a new church were wrenching changes for inhabitants and hunting visitors alike. Ron’s life underwent its own wrenching change when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. A side effect of his medication produced insomnia, and, with more waking hours to fill, he decided to collect all the history of this famous meet—records of the hunts, the many songs written and sung at the Dun Bull in tribute to huntsman Joe Bowman, and the story of the Manchester Water Project as it affected the lives of this community of sheep farmers. We hope you have enjoyed it. In the course of bringing these downloads to you, we had a happy idea for the future. Please see Norm Fine’s Blog (above) for details! Connect with the author by clicking here. (To access downloads of previous installments, click here.) Posted February 22, 2012... This content is for subscribers only.Join NowAlready a member? Log in here