Ronnie Wallace
Captain Ronnie Wallace, MFH: A Huntsman Like No Other
Captain Ronnie Wallace with hounds while Master of the Heythrop / Oil portrait by Michael Lyne
Captain Ronnie Wallace, MFH was the undisputed dean of British foxhunting and a frequent and popular visitor to the U.S. He was a genius in the art of venery and in his uncanny breeding sense. He was arguably the English breeder most influential in the development of today’s modern English foxhound.
It’s been thirteen years since Captain Wallace died in an automobile accident at age eighty-two, yet whenever hunting conversation turns to amazing feats of hound work performed by a superb huntsman, I’m reminded of an astonishing story that illustrates Wallace’s supremacy.
Cambridge University Draghounds (UK)
Jack Day, MFH flies a big Leicestershire hedgeA number of universities in England maintain packs 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—the late 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.
