Coniston Foxhounds
The Lad and The Huntsman
What follows is the author’s Introduction to his forthcoming book, Chappie: color cover, black and white illustrations, about 6 x 8-1/4 inches, $45.00 USD (price includes postage), release date August, 2016. Fifty copies will be printed; half are already pre-sold. Click for purchase instructions.
Chappie, painting by Wilk, reproduced with permission
One morning in the early 1960s, a young lad took a day off school to go hunting; he had planned it down to the smallest detail. Hounds were meeting in the Troutbeck valley at 9:30, but that was on the other side of the 1601-foot-high fell known as Wansfell Pike. As usual he left home about 8:15 am but instead of heading for the playground near the church to meet his mates and play football, he turned left at the Salutation Hotel and took the road for Wansfell.
Beatrix Potter: From Peter Rabbit to Foxhunting
The Troutbeck Valley runs into the fells to the North East out of Windermere, through the seventeenth century village of Troutbeck. The road which runs through the valley rises dramatically toward the Kirkstone Pass and its famous Inn, rebuilt in the 1830s by Sewell the local priest.
As you climb the pass there is a superb view to the right of the head of the valley and the piece of land known as the Tongue (old Norse tunga or table land between two valleys) that joins Hird Ghyll on one side and Hag Ghyll on the other.
At the base of the tongue are the picturesque white farmhouse and outbuildings of Troutbeck Park Farm. In 1923 Beatrix Potter purchased the farm, the deeds containing twenty five separately described parcels of land running to 1875 acres for which she paid £8000. The farm was conveyed to her on 28th August 1923 making her one of the largest landowners in the English Lake District.
The Fell Foxes of Dove Crag
Dove Crag in the rugged Lake District of Cumbria, England
A sheep trod wove its way up the steep fell side, gaining height with an ease unmatched by any route a human could devise. Following it and climbing all the time I skirted small outcrops of rock, crossed a stream full of melt-snow water at the best point to do so, and finally arrived on the ridge. Stopping to catch my breath, for although the route to a sheep would have been easy this human was very unfit, I gazed at the view in front of me. My horizon was filled with snow covered peaks under a bright blue sky. Warm sunlight bathed the ridge and gave a small crag to my left a sharpness normally unseen.
The Coniston foxhounds had disappeared to god knows where, and had been gone for some time. I’d watched them climb the fell side I now stood on. It had been a beautiful sight as they climbed, in a line, like as someone put it “a hound trail.” Their music had carried down the valley, growing fainter as they crested the ridge and then as they dropped into the next valley it disappeared altogether, leaving an eerie silence.
Ruler’s Message
A thick mist descended upon Red ScreesAs reported by The Westmorland Gazette, April 14, 1900
On Monday the meeting of the Coniston Foxhounds was at Grove farm. Hounds got upon a drag close to the farm and carried it up Martindale Pasture, by Hind Cove, to Troutbeck Hundreds. Here a fox was unkennelled, which went across Woundale Bottoms, crossed the Kirkstone Road, and climbed up Brow End Allotment. Climbing along the top to Woundale Head, he made a sharp turn to the left, and came down behind Kirkstone House. He now crossed the road at the Ullswater side of the Pass, near the Kirk Stones, and scrambled up the sides of Red Screes.
Happy Memories of the Coniston Pack
Bernice Melrose, who lives in Australia, purchased this wonderful photo about three years ago at auction.
“It’s a beautiful vintage photo,” she wrote, “and I would love to know more about it if possible.”
Rescue on Cat Luggs
What is dog to man? What is the worth of one terrier to a band of stoical countrymen who live in a harsh place in a depressed time? How hard and how long will such men strive to save a dog from perishing, out of pure respect? Our late Cumbrian friend Ron Black gave us a story to remember.
The rescue, 1934
It’s a long pull from the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel to the site of the borran. You first climb up Stickle Ghyll following the track as it ascends, beside the beck, at first gently, but just before Tarn Crag there is a steeper section. At Tarn Crag the track swings right-handed, and you can cross the beck and follow it up to the tarn on the left bank picking your way through the rocks.
Rescue on Cat Luggs
What is dog to man? What is the worth of one terrier to a band of stoical countrymen who live in a harsh place in a depressed time? How hard and how long will such men strive to save a dog from perishing, out of pure respect? Our late Cumbrian friend Ron Black gave us a story to remember.
The rescue, 1934
It’s a long pull from the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel to the site of the borran. You first climb up Stickle Ghyll following the track as it ascends, beside the beck, at first gently, but just before Tarn Crag there is a steeper section. At Tarn Crag the track swings right-handed, and you can cross the beck and follow it up to the tarn on the left bank picking your way through the rocks.
