This photograph along with the question of the couple’s identity was posted on our Facebook page to provide an entertaining and informative way of featuring iconic figures in American foxhunting. We furnished a few hints, thinking that this would be a tough puzzle, but our readers made short work of it.
Verity Cameron and Bill Getchell were the first to correctly identify our mystery couple, and since their complete answers were posted pretty much simultaneously on our Facebook page, each will receive a gift from Foxhunting Life. Anne Manfredo Darken filled in more information by naming their pack correctly, so she deserves an honorary mention!
Jumping the fence abreast are Mr. and Mrs. Allen Potts, shown here at around the turn of the twentieth century. Mrs. Potts, formerly Gertrude Rives, owned Castle Hill in Gordonsville, Virginia. Her ancestor, Dr. Thomas Walker, had established the Castle Hill Hounds in 1742. She revived the pack in 1905, and it was recognized by the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association (NSHA) in 1909. This was the first recognized pack to be owned and hunted by an American woman.
Allen Potts served as Clerk of the famous English-American Hound Match of 1905 that pitted the English hounds of A. Henry Higginson against the American hounds of Harry Worcester Smith in the Middleburg/Upperville area of Virginia. Because he had to ride every day, his wife sent her two best hunters with him to the match.
Potts had been a star athlete at the University of Virginia. The school colors at the time were silver gray and cardinal red, symbolizing the Confederacy and their sacrifices. In 1888 a student rally was held to protest the use of those colors for their sports teams. Argument and discussion ensued concerning what the new colors ought to be until a student whipped off the orange and blue scarf that Allen Potts was wearing and held it up for all to see. Potts had gotten the scarf while visiting Oxford the previous summer. The students decided that if the colors were good enough for their star athlete, they were good enough for their school. The next time you watch the UVA Cavaliers in action, think of Alan Potts!
Potts wrote an excellent essay in 1912 on the history of foxhunting in America. His work has been republished as Fox Hunting in America: From Jamestown of 1607 to 1912 by Horse Country Press, Warrenton, Virginia.
Posted February 12, 2012