Stella Smith celebrates her ninetieth birthday hunting with the Tara Harriers (IRE). Her son, Henry Smith (shown right) is Master and huntsman. / Noel Mulliins photo
What does one do to celebrate a ninetieth birthday? Well some people probably go on a cruise, while a few may go on a religious pilgrimage, then others are just happy to be upright. But not Stella Smith. To her, age is just another number. So she went for a day’s hunting with the Tara Harriers, hunted by her son Henry. This was not just impulse, as Stella rides out most mornings on her family farm at Corballis, Donabate, in North County Dublin, Ireland, on her coloured hunter out of a mare that happened to be in foal without them knowing. Hence the name, Surprise.
Michael Dempsey, longtime Master and former huntsman of the Galway Blazers, describes Stella as the most natural horsewomen ever to cross Galway stone walls, getting the most from any horse she rode. Stella (Briscoe) who her mother described as a lovely mistake, there being such an age gap between her brother George and her sister Constance, was born into a hunting and racing family.
Her sitting-room walls are adorned with hunting and racing photos going back for nearly a century. One photo shows Stella as a five-year-old on her first hunt on her pony Archie, with the Meath Foxhounds at Ardsallagh, led by their groom Addie James. Another shows Stella competing at the Castletown House hunter trials with her brother George, and a striking photo of her winning the Tara Harriers Members Race on her good horse King Shilling.
There is also a nice photo of Stella whipping-in to her late husband Lancelot, who had been Master and huntsman of a number of packs, including the Fingal Harriers (1944–1948), East Galway Foxhounds (1949–1952), the County Galway Blazers (1952–1955), the Island Foxhounds (1955–1962), and the Meath Foxhounds (1965–1971). Stella and Lancelot met at the Navan Show, and with both passionate about hunting, romance blossomed.
Lance was an intensive vegetable and cereal grower, particularly peas for Batchelors Food Company that went on to be freeze dried. He was considered ahead of his time in farming practices. He bred pedigreed Polled Herefords, having brought the first bull in from Scotland. He worked his large farm intensively during the summer so he could take the winters off for hunting hounds.
Lance could be considered a journeyman huntsman as he was Master and huntsman of five different packs. Lance and Stella were a perfect hunting match; Stella made the hunters and Lance concentrated on producing his type of pack which included Welsh outcrosses. These were not popular with some hunt committees, but, like Ikey Bell before him, they proved the doubters wrong such was the standard of the sport. Stella, being such a good rider, whipped-in to Lance, particularly when he hunted the Galway Blazers and the Island Foxhounds.
The story of Lance hunting the Blazers at Knockdoe in 1953 has gone down in hunting folklore. On December 19, hounds found a fox at Cregg Castle Woods, and after four miles they came to the Clare River where hounds and fox swam the river, which was in flood, towards Ballyglunin. Without hesitation, Lance jumped his mare into the river and was immediately separated, eventually managing to hold onto a twig while his mare disappeared down-river to be later rescued. Still clutching the twig, Lance saw World War II submarine commander Bill King, husband of writer Anita Leslie, take off his boots and jump in to rescue him. Once safe on the opposite river bank, Lance borrowed a horse and both he and King, the British Navy Mile Champion by now on foot, set off in pursuit to find that hounds had accounted for their fox in a field of kale near Annagh House, a point of seven miles and probably twice that as hounds ran. Hot baths were enjoyed by Smith and King that night. Sadly, Lancelot passed away in 1991.
Stella was born in Bellinter House on the River Boyne, a beautiful Palladian style mansion designed by Richard Cassells, who also designed Leinster House (seat of the Irish government), the Slazenger family Powerscourt House, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald Carton House. Masters and huntsmen of Irish packs stretching back for generations populate her family tree. Her grandfather G.V. (Gussie) Briscoe took over the Bellinter Harriers pack from John Preston, First Baron of Tara, about 1870 and renamed them the Tara Harriers. Her father Cecil Briscoe was Master of the Tara Harriers (1942-1955). Her brother George was Master of the Tara Harriers (1942–2015) and also chairman of the Meath Foxhounds. Stella’s son Henry has been Master of the Tara Harriers for thirty seasons, and huntsman for fifteen seasons.
Stella went to Preston School in Navan, and cycled the five miles each way in hail, rain, or shine. She looked forward to Pony Camp, usually run by Brigadier Bryan Fowler and held on Donald Delaney’s farm in Laytown, where they camped out in tents for the week. The nearby beach was famous as the only beach in Ireland or Britain to host racing under rules each September, while the tide was out. Those races were supported by all the leading flat trainers. Her life was spent hunting with the Meath Foxhounds and the Tara Harriers, hacking her horses to meets often fifteen miles away and returning home in darkness. She recalls when the grandfather of present Tara Harriers kennel huntsman, Sabine Dowdall, hunted the pack. He hacked hounds to meets on horseback, and led them home riding a bicycle in the dark. When he got near Bellinter where they were kennelled, not content with a day’s hunting, hounds usually headed off to hunt in the woods while he got their feed ready. Stella was very lucky with hunting injuries, having suffered only a broken leg, the fault, she maintains, of her brother George who plied her with too much port before a hunt.
Family life was never dull, and the annual trip to the Galway Races was always looked forward to. It took the form of a small cavalcade consisting of their caravan named Mae West pulled by one of their hunters, a few of the family on bicycles, and a spring trap pulled by Stella’s pony. They traveled thus from Bective in County Meath to Gengian Hill in Galway City, a journey of over 150 miles, usually taking about three days. At night they put up tents and camped in various Catholic parish priest’s fields along the way—a true example of ecumenism as the Briscoe family was Church of Ireland! Then on Galway race days in Ballybrit they all mounted the spring trap sometimes accompanied by her Aunt Gladys Brabizon. Aunt Gladys was the mother of the great jockey Aubrey Brabizon who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times on Cottage Rake, and also three Champion Hurdles on Hatton Grace for trainer Vincent O’Brien.
Along the way they often raced the local milkman who took great pride in his trotter pulling the milk dray, so most days there was a good contest with Stella’s pony pulling the spring trap towards Ballybrit. Their caravan Mae West also served as accommodations when they went to fish the Mayfly on Lough Sheelan, bordering counties Cavan, Meath and Westmeath.
During World War II, Stella, accustomed to spending holidays with her grandparents in Wales, went to help the war effort at the Army Remount Centre in Melton Mowbray, training ponies to work as pack animals behind the lines. She shares Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday, so it was only appropriate that she also helped to prepare the Queen’s Household Cavalry ceremonial horses, many of which were sourced in Ireland. These were used to celebrate the war’s end on Victory Day, May 8, 1945, in London.
Just as Stella could dash across any hunting country, she was equally proficient at qualifying the point-to-pointers, and fiercely competitive race riding. Her best racehorse was King Shilling, aboard whom she won numerous races. Another was Moyadd who had such a strong mouth that even the great Cheltenham winning jockey Aubrey Brabazon could not hold him. But Stella could somehow manage. Other horses she remembers are Hope, New Hope, which produced Happy, that later went to hunt in Cork. She always maintained that she was no good at naming hunters as her ponies were either Archie 1, Archie 2, Archie 3 and so on.
Stella has shown horses at the Dublin Horse Show, and paraded the Island Foxhounds at the Royal Dublin Society taking the opportunity to jump all the natural fences, the Irish Banks, and the Stone Wall in the Main Arena for fun. Stella still likes to follow the Tara Harriers, enjoys her grandchildren, and takes an interest in Corballis Farm and their Horse Trekking and Therapeutic Riding Centre which her son Henry runs with fellow instructor Lisa Dandy. She says she has had a wonderful happy country life from childhood, and no special diet. She still rides out most mornings, and leads an active social life, so why change the habits of a lifetime? Her daughter Hilary, who lives in Australia enjoying the surfing life, describes her mother as having a huge, kind heart. What more can one say?
Posted March 15, 2017
Author Noel Mullins is a lifelong foxhunter, photo/journalist, and a regular contributor to Foxhunting Life. Click to visit his website and view his books and articles.