A wonderful hunting tradition The Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show celebrates its 130th anniversary in glory
The Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show, now the centre-point of the flourishing Festival of Hunting, celebrates its 130th anniversary this year
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SERENELY formal, attended by men in bowler hats and dark suits and ladies in flowery hats, Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show appears every summer as an unchanging symbol of hunting’s continuing popularity in rural Britain.
The pinnacle of the hound showing season celebrates its 130th show on 18 July. It was founded 140 years ago, but closed down during the two world wars. Peterborough remains a unique occasion, a triumph of dedication and support by generations of foxhound breeders who have ensured that it not merely survives, but flourishes. Winning a championship at Peterborough is still the ultimate accolade in the foxhunting world.
First-time visitors might think the calm, patient procession of judging classes, broken by polite applause as rosettes are discreetly distributed, indicates a lack of fervour among the contestants and those at the ringsides.
This impression could not be more wrong: the Royal Foxhound Show’s history is packed with colourful evidence that, beneath the surface of formality, passions have always run high. In these modern times, cheering as well as clapping has broken out when champions are announced, especially when smaller packs beat the big battalions.
Masters who send hounds to Peterborough care deeply about their placings. Judges accused of failing to “get it right” need strong nerves, and new judges are paired with more experienced colleagues. In the two-couples class the ring is filled with the scarlets, greens and yellows of hunt staff, and the throng of hounds takes skilful sorting against the clock. One tradition remains: lady judges have yet to appear at Peterborough.
The skill of professional huntsmen and staff in showing
hounds at their best can be a major factor in winning rosettes. Judicious throwing of biscuits to get hounds to run across the ring is one of the skills. Bill Lander, when kennel-huntsman of the Heythrop, said he got special attention from his hounds by substituting pieces of boiled cow’s udder for biscuit.
“It looked like biscuit, but it smelled better and it bounced across the ring,” he recalled.
The pressure was never greater than during the long period of duelling between the “greencoats”, the Duke of Beaufort’s when the senior master was the 10th Duke (known within in hunting circles as “Master”), and the Heythrop when Capt Ronnie Wallace was at the helm.
“I was always accused of winking at Master when I went to the microphone to announce the winner of a class,” said Lord Kimball, for many years one of the show’s impeccable ring stewards.
FIRST SUCCESS
LIKE many good things, Britain’s first open foxhound show was invented in Yorkshire. Thomas Parrington, a land agent who hunted the Hurworth pack, persuaded the committee to add classes for foxhounds at Cleveland Agricultural Society’s travelling show from 1859 when it was held at Redcar. This proved an immediate success, with packs from outside Yorkshire also competing.
Among them was the Fitzwilliam (Milton) pack, which travelled from Peterborough by train to win a couples class at the very first show. The link with the Earls Fitzwilliam was to prove crucial after the Cleveland Show ran into financial difficulties, and closed in 1864. The foxhound classes were switched to the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s annual show, with Thomas Parrington in charge.
When Parrington retired from the secretaryship in 1877, the future of the foxhound show in Yorkshire was in doubt. Peterborough Agricultural Show seized the opportunity, and offered to take on the foxhound classes, with the warm approval of the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam. The family had several packs on their extensive estates, the Earl hunting the Fitzwilliam (Wentworth) while his younger brother, the Hon. George Fitzwilliam, was master of the Milton pack at Peterborough.
George Fitzwilliam died following a bad fall in 1874, leaving an eight-year-old son whose uncle Charles therefore ran the estate. He handed over the mastership of the Milton pack to the Marquis of Huntly who lived at Peterborough.
Huntly, the premier marquis of Scotland, was a man of great charm and drive, and proved well up to launching the newly formed Peterborough Foxhound Show Society, taking on the chairmanship at their first meeting in 1878, with the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam as president.
Huntly had royal connections as a Lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, and this enabled him to pull off the coup of obtaining royal patronage at the inaugural show: the flamboyant Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, attended, accompanied by his Princess, later Queen Alexandra.
They were a young, attractive couple who both hunted, and their presence helped to focus special attention on the inaugural show on 4 July. It was held in the unlikely setting of Peterborough’s skating rink’s grounds, a decision taken because the venue afforded comfortable facilities for the royal couple.
Tom Parrington guided the Peterborough committee in organising the show, and performed as senior judge. This was most helpful because very
‘The cow’s udder looked like biscuit, but it smelled better and it
bounced across the ring’
BILL LANDER
few masters had any experience of judging at a large show at that time. Twenty-one packs competed in six classes. There was just one championship, for the best three couples, won by the Earl of Yarborough’s Brocklesby pack.
Everyone agreed the first show was a great success, but its long history was not achieved without continuity of staunch support of the Fitzwilliam family. The 10th, and last, Earl (Tom) Fitzwilliam, died in office as chairman in 1979, and was immediately succeeded by his wife, Countess (Joyce) Fitzwilliam, until her death in 1995. The chairmanship was filled the following year by her grandson, Sir Philip NaylorLeyland, master of the Fitzwilliam Hunt, who remains in office and has led the Foxhound Show ably.
GLARES ACROSS THE RING
FROM its early days, Peterborough aroused some criticism and controversy in foxhunting circles. Some masters strongly opposed selecting foxhounds for looks, since their main purpose is working in the field. Following its well-supported revival after the desolation of World War I, Peterborough was central to the huge row which erupted over the trend to mix traditional English-bred hounds with Welsh outcrosses.
The Duke of Rutland’s Belvoir pack had been the fount of foxhound breeding, but did not show at Peterborough. Younger masters between the wars, led by Ikey Bell and Sir Peter Farquhar, showed “modern” cross-bred hounds at Peterborough, claiming them to be far more athletic than the much heavier “old English” type of that time.
Capt. Ian Farquhar, Sir Peter’s son, says: “The dispute got so acute that at Peterborough the factions supporting old English sat on one side of the ring, glaring at the masters sitting on the other side, who supported Welsh outcrosses. “
Eventually, Master, the 10th Duke of Beaufort, used Welsh blood in his pack, and the revolution was complete. The Belvoir and other old English packs continued not to show until today’s welcome solution, when a special “old English” show was organised simultaneously in another ring, and its champions paraded in the main show.
Peterborough’s royal links have been strong: it was attended by King Edward VIII as Prince of Wales, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth as Duke and Duchess of York, our present Queen as Princess Elizabeth, and by Princess Anne and Prince Charles. The “Royal” title was bestowed on the show by King George V in 1934.
ENTHUSIASTIC ATTENDANCE
AFTER being held in Peterborough, at Millfield and later at Eastfield, in 1966 the Foxhound Show moved to its present site outside the city at Alwalton, on ground made available by the Fitzwilliam family. The agricultural show moved to the new location as well, but alas had its demise in 2013.
Superbly organised for 40 years by the late Roy Bird as secretary, the Foxhound Show flourished, enabling it to become part of the splendid Festival of Hunting from 2005, offering rings and displays for all types of hounds, accompanied by horse classes.
Horse and Hound presented two cups for best unentered Foxhounds from 1975, which are still competed for today.
The Festival’s enthusiastic annual attendance is a testimony to a wonderful tradition begun by the Royal Foxhound Show, of which Peterborough can be justly proud.