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The annual foxhunting calendar that we’ve been publishing for almost fifteen years has a new face for 2012. Redesigned for Foxhunting Life, the new cover design carries forward the black and scarlet look and feel of our website banner.

On the inside, while our foxhunting images continue to represent the finest examples of the sporting photographer’s art, another new feature has been added! We’ve gone international with a photo from an Irish hunt and an English hunt!

Huntsman Kevin Donohue at Carrichavee RockThe area around the Ballymacad Foxhounds meet at Castlerahan on the outskirts of Oldcastle, County Meath in Ireland is steeped in Irish history. It is part of the old Royal Capital of Ireland. There are many hunting references to be found in the area. The entrance to the town of Oldcastle is over Sliamh na Callaigh which looks out on Loughcrew, the five-thousand-year-old site of the Summer Solstice, where one of the most important High Kings of Ireland, King Ollamh Fodhla was buried in 1277 BC. He officiated at the Feis Teamhrach or The Great Fair held on the Hill of Tara, where in addition to legislative affairs of the ancient Brehon Laws, he introduced horse fairs, horse racing, and hunting.

Jack Day, Joint-MFH flies a Leicestershire hedge

A number of universities in England maintain a pack of foxhounds or beagles hunted on horseback or afoot. Students often comprise the staff—Master, huntsman, whippers-in—and this tradition has provided a start for some of the most successful and brilliant Masters and huntsmen that England has produced—Ronnie Wallace for just one.

At Cambridge University a pack of foxhounds are maintained that hunt a drag laid by student volunteers normally from the cross country track team. Hounds usually complete three or four "lines" during a day's hunting, which might take two to three hours.

At Cambridge, not only undergraduate students serve as Masters but adults who have no connection with the University serve as well. The huntsman is Matt Gingell, a local farmer.

Installment Five 

Whiskey Road MFH David Smith (left) greets Toronto and North York MFH Wolf von Teichman.Betsy and friends escape frozen Virginia for a week of hunting in warmer climes. We bring you Installment Five of her daily blog, exclusive to Foxhunting Life.

Monday was an open day. Gene and Barbara Hough joined me, Tom, Jackie, and Don for a hack in the Hitchcock Woods. We grabbed lunch at Rio Pablo, an excellent Cuban place downtown. There was a benefit for the Hitchcock Woods Foundation that night at the Wilcox Hotel, one of the town's oldest and most grand buildings.

Tuesday dawned cold and frosty but with that promise of spring in the air. There was a pretty good breeze, though, and I was uncertain of scenting conditions as we headed east towards Bill Scott's Fairview fixture near Lexington.

The Scotts own thousands of acres of managed timberland—pine forests cut for pulpwood and lumber—providing excellent habitat for game of all sizes. Gene Hough told me about hunting at Fairview a few years ago when the hounds held a four hundred-pound boar at bay until the huntsman dispatched it (then famously burned it at a pig roast later!).