Art & Literature

Picking out the straysHere’s Chapter 2 of The Mardale Hunt by Ron Black. Through the courtesy of the author, Foxhunting Life is bringing you the entire book in installments every two weeks. You are free to download the book to your computer. We hope you enjoyed the first installment. “As long as there are sheep on the fells, there’ll be a Mardale Meet. I’m good for a few more yet….” (Isaac Cookson on the occasion of his sixty-first attendance in 1952)  (To access downloads of previous installments, click here.) Posted December 1, 2011... This content is for subscribers only.Join NowAlready a member? Log in here

Brand New, First Edition (1974), signed by the author

“Foxhunting and music are as inseparable as bread and butter, whether it be the music of hounds, of the horn, or of ‘John Peel,’” wrote the late Alexander Mackay-Smith in the preface to his book The Songs of Foxhunting.

Mackay-Smith spent ten years collecting the music, the lyrics, seventy-seven illustrations, and the background and color behind twenty songs that foxhunters have loved to sing for over two centuries. The book was published in 1974 by the American Foxhound Club.

Through the courtesy of Mrs. Mackay-Smith, Foxhunting Life is proud to offer a limited number of brand new, first edition, signed-by-the-author copies directly from our Bookstore.

Author Ron BlackOnce upon a time there was a village—now submerged under a man-made lake—in the Mardale valley in the English Lake District. The occupants of the village were shepherds who tended their sheep high on the rugged fells surrounding the valley. Each year they would meet to exchange strayed sheep, and from these humble beginnings The Mardale Shepherds Meet—best-known of all the meets of the Lakeland Fell foxhound packs—began. Foxhunting Life, through the courtesy of author Ron Black, is pleased to bring you Installment I of The Mardale Hunt, the first book ever written about this famous meet. It is being published here in a series of instalments which you are free to download as PDF files. “I am a native Lakelander,” writes Black, “the fourth generation to follow hounds, with ancestors who stood on the cold tops at dawn, moved the heavy Lakeland stone to free trapped terriers, and also carried the horn on occasions….Hunting will not come back in the foreseeable future, perhaps not at all, but for three hundred years hunting and the church were the central thread to many communities. This is a part of the story.” We think you will be moved by this touching account of life, loss, and hunting in the Lakeland fells. Posted November 21, 2011... This content is for subscribers only.Join NowAlready a member? Log in here

Author Ron Black...In the north-eastern corner of the English Lake District there is a valley known as Mardale. This secluded valley contains a lake, under which rest the remains of a submerged village. The occupants of the village were shepherds who tended the local sheep high on the unforgiving fells surrounding the valley. Once a year they would meet to exchange strayed sheep, and from these humble beginnings The Mardale Shepherds Meet—best-known of all the meets of the Lakeland Fell foxhound packs—began.

It is often said that the origin of the meet is “older than the memory of man.” The introduction of the Ullswater Foxhounds increased the popularity of the meet, which soon attracted a much larger following than just the local shepherds. In the evening a public house called The Dun Bull was the venue for song and laughter. In time, The Mardale Shepherds Meet achieved worldwide fame.

Raja: Story of a Racehorse, Anne Hambleton, Old Bow Publishing, 2011, 250 pages, illustrated by Peggy Kaufmann, $14.95The fictional adventures and travails of a well-bred Thoroughbred foal are chronicled from the early days by his dam’s side to a Grade 1 Stakes win, to the jumpers in the “A” circuit, to the New York City Mounted Police, to foxhunting with Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds, to the Blue Ridge Hunt point-to-point, and finally to the Maryland Hunt Cup. As a foal, Raja is cursed with a phobia for lightning—the recurring source of his many troubles along the way in achieving his potential.

This may be Anne Hambleton’s first novel, but she has had plenty of practice honing her writing skills in the business side of her life. On the equine side, Hambleton is a horsewoman who knows all the disciplines intimately, and Raja’s adventures unfold believably and with authority. The characters in the story—both animal and human—are well-crafted, and we care about them.

The kids are back to school in their quest for higher knowledge, and it remains our challenge to keep up with them. To help you meet that challenge, Foxhunting Life offers up a little Shakespeare.

In Act IV, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theseus prepares to impress Hyppolita with his hounds. She, having hunted with Hercules, however, gives Theseus a hard act to follow!

Hunting Songs, Volume One: The Lakeland Fell Packs, Ron Black and Wendy Fraser, Blurb Publishing, 2011, 75 pages, 7.50 pounds (soft cover), 15.50 pounds (hard cover), www.cumbrian-lad.comRon Black and Wendy Fraser collaborated on this collection—a folk history, really—of Lakeland hunting songs. Over the course of three-hundred years, followers of the fell packs of the English Lake District wrote these songs to memorialize historic runs, iconic huntsmen, special foxhounds, and—what pleased me especially—brave terriers! Perhaps I just never noticed, but I cannot recall any other book of hunting songs and poems that includes odes to these feisty little creatures.

Or perhaps I paid special notice here because I now happen to be the smitten owner of a nine-month-old Border terrier whose ancestors scurried in their determined fashion over those same fells on the English-Scottish border. Here’s the story of Badger and Butcher by Mr. and Mrs. Curry, and it’s still sung today!