Field sports

Best Little Hunt in England

Marian Waters (To order, email Marian.l.waters@gmail.com, £35)

THERE ARE many hunts that would like to lay claim to the title of this fascinating book, but the author makes a convincing case for the North Cotswold, whose hounds have been kennelled in the picturesque village of Broadway since the start of Lord Coventry’s mastership in 1867. They have punched well above their weight ever since, both on the hunting field and in the show ring, winning several championships at the prestigious Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show during Nigel Peel’s reign as master and huntsman from 1988 to 2018.

Earlier illustrious amateurs included the ‘heaven born’ Chetty Hilton Green and Capt Brian Fanshawe, who both went on to consolidate their reputations with the Cottesmore in High Leicestershire, and Bill Scott, whose son, Martin, wrote the prelude to this book and is the leading authority on hound breeding today.

With such impeccable connections it would be easy to overlook the men and women who form the backbone of their local hunt, but blacksmiths, butchers, farmers, racehorse trainers, peers of the realm and teachers jostle for prominence on these pages, which include several rare blackand-white photographs. They share a love of hunting in general and the North Cotswold in particular. Perhaps we should expect no less from a hunt that claims Guiting Wood as its own, scene of the powerful 19th-century ballad The Fox’s Prophecy.

Any incoming master to the North Cotswold would be well advised to read this book—especially the chapters on farmers and landowners—for they could not find a more accurate or illuminating account of who’s who in this corner of rural Gloucestershire, plus their historical links to the hunt. The rest of us can only look on in wonder that such a tight-knit and happy hunt exists at all and enjoy reading just how it all fell into place. Adrian Dangar