Welsh bloodlines ring a bell
Capt Ian Farquhar visits the South and West Wilts, where the hounds still show the influence of revolutionary hound breeder Ikey Bell 70 years on
EVERY huntsman in the world knows in the back of his mind that however brilliantly things are going — hounds, horses, sport — sooner or later, fate will kick you in the teeth and on a top day with all the organisation carefully catered for, you will have a bummer!
Sadly that was the case when we went off to the South and
West Wilts on 10 February. I was really looking forward to the day as everybody I met was saying that joint-master and huntsman James Andrews was having a cracking season and that hounds were flying. We were due to go on 3 February in different country when they had a cracker and then again on the 17 February we heard they had another stormer, but that is life and although it was a dank, cold day when little went right, it was still fun and interesting.
Some may have noticed in this string of articles that the concurrent theme has to some degree been Welsh outcrosses. And if you want to know anything about that — the reason behind the theory, how much and who from — then the place to look is to the fountainhead, Mr Isaac Bell.
“Ikey”, as he was known, was an American who lived in Paris with his mother as a boy, and went on to be educated at Harrow and then Cambridge. He had no hunting genes but became fanatical and inspired by others, Sir Edward Curre in particular.
Ikey became convinced that the present-day English foxhound was a cripple and that something should be done about it. His first pack (19031908) was the Galway Blazers, before moving on to the Kilkenny (1908-1921) where he brought in Curre bloodlines, then adding Brecon and Carmarthenshire, which he crossed with the best of his English, in particular the Berkeley. By the time, therefore, he came back to England and took the South and West Wilts in 1925 aged 46, he was a long way down the line of getting rid of the heavy shoulder and over-at-the-knee type that was popular in most packs at the time.
Ikey was a charismatic man and soon accumulated a band of disciples, and it is interesting to witness the list of signatories along the top of a painting of South and West Wilts Godfrey 28 — (Lord) Melchett, (Col) Borwick, (Ikey) Bell, (Jack) Lowther, (10th Duke of ) Beaufort, (Gordon) Foster, (Col Guy) Cubitt, (Bill) Scott, (Sir Peter) Farquhar. All were eminent hound breeders at the time.
Godfrey 28 had been bred in
Ireland by Ikey’s Kilkenny Gory 21 out of the legendary Mrs Hall’s (always known simply as the “Missus”) Carlow Goosecap 22, and conformation-wise he was heading in the right direction. Once when Ikey was asked if he regretted losing bone in his hounds, he replied: “Excess bone is a useless appendage — I have never known a hound break a leg through a lack of it.”
QUALITY AND LIGHTNESS
BUT to return to the present. I was keen to witness the hounds in action after hearing such good reports and to see first hand, after all these years, how Ikey Bell’s influence had fared.
Conditions were not favourable for viewing hounds working but casting an eye over them at the meet, straightaway I could see the quality and lightness of bone — not too light, I might add — that was the pre-war aim. Since then, the hunt has been in good hands, with the Morrisons, Douglas Mann, now in his 90s, Simon Clarke, Adam Waugh and now James Andrews. All have concentrated on keeping the old female lines going, and James was immediately able to point out the five different families that all go back to Ikey Bell.
On the day in question, there had been a change of venue — a “husky racing” event at Fonthill had intervened and so we met in Kingston Deverill at the home of David and Alice Stratton, whose daughter Louise is a popular joint-master and field master. We were on Stratton land for much of the day.
Philip Fergus, kennel-huntsman and first whipper-in, previously at the Fife in Scotland, produced the hounds in a quiet and tidy way and his wife Michelle, who was out on her feet, obviously took a keen interest in the hounds as well. I particularly took a shine to a new draft from the Zetland, Borwick 13; he was upstanding and had lines back to the Bicester and also Vale of Clettwr Fairy 75, but that maybe is just personal bias.
I was much impressed by the fitness of the secretary, Col Jeremy Cox, late of the Scots Guards no less — having recently had a fall from his horse, he was reduced to pedal power and kept totally in touch all day on a fairly ancient bicycle. He proudly announced that he had hunted with the South and West Wilts for more than 40 years and so obviously knew everyone in the country.
At the meet it was a bonus to meet photographer Caroline Allfrey, whose father Sir Alastair Aird I had worked with in London. We were also fortunate in being allocated Rob Austin, a regular car follower, as our guide for the day. Despite the fact that his vehicle was a shiny BMW and he did not wear wellies, he still kept us brilliantly in touch and knew the country backwards. We were on the downs in the morning, these days very open and mostly all corn, but drew down the picturesque Wylye valley in the afternoon. The trails are mostly laid by Annie Filkins from Warminster in the morning — a professional show.
QUIET COMPETENCE AT THE HELM
I HAVE known James Andrews since his Cirencester days when he hunted the RAC Beagles and kept a horse with Mrs Farquhar at West End, Shipton Moyne for Beaufort days. His father Jonnie, master of the Glyn Celyn Beagles since 1972, is also an old mate who, with his second wife Sarah has run the Wales and Border Counties Hound Show at Builth Wells for many years. James hunted the Old Berks from 1995 to 1998 and then the South Pembrokeshire until the ban in 2005. After a brief period out of hunting, he took the South and West Wilts in 2010.
He is a quiet and competent huntsman who allows his hounds to get on with it themselves, but still has the ability to keep them up together. In addition, he is not permanently on a mobile telephone, which these days in a bonus. As if hunting hounds three days a week is not enough, James also finds time to work as a land agent over the bridge in Carmarthenshire.
I suggest that if Ikey Bell were to return to his old country today he would be horrified at the changes in agricultural practices, the politics of the nation and of some rural bodies, but he would be heartened by the same old friendly families and to see the hounds in such good hands.