Hunting abroad The lure of the sport in foreign countries
There are ample opportunities for huntsmen all over the world, where the trappings of success prove tempting, says Frank Houghton Brown. But is the grass always greener?
HUNTING is a worldwide sport and huntsmen often cross international borders to practise their craft in pastures new. England exported organised hunting around the globe and has exported some of the best huntsmen as well, but the traffic has not been one-way only.
Henry Vaughan, secretary of the American Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) for 17 years in the 1920s and ’30s, refers to England as “the Motherland” of hunting in the foreword for Try Back, the hunting reminiscences of Alex Henry Higginson MFH (pictured, below). Alex was chairman of the American MFHA for 17 years, and for 30 years hunted his own hounds, the Middlesex in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. In 1930, he became master and huntsman of the Cattistock in Dorset. Henry states that “a number of Americans have been masters of English packs, but none have carried the horn too, as Mr Higginson does”, so this was a ground-breaking endeavour.
Alex was not from a hunting background, yet starting with beagles and then harriers and finally foxhounds, he built up his pack to be recognised as the premier pack of his country.
The famous huntsman and hound breeder Ikey Bell, who was also an American, even if he only hunted hounds in the UK, also wrote a foreword in Try Back. Ikey gave Alex immense credit for his accomplishments, saying that conditions for hunting hounds in America were “more difficult, fortunately for many of us, than those which are generally met with in England”.
With such a long and distinguished track record in his home country, it is clear that Alex considered his eight seasons at the Cattistock as the pinnacle of his achievements.
ACROSS THE POND
THE list of professional huntsmen in the USA is peppered with the names of people who started in the UK. Marc Dradge was one of the many who was lured across the Atlantic to experience a new type of hunting. He was huntsman of the Fife in Scotland when he met the master of the Midland at the Lauderdale puppy show.
“I was lucky enough to sit next to Ben Hardaway at lunch,” Marc’s wife Jill remembers, “and
he persuaded us to come out to work for him at the Midland in Georgia.”
A stint of five years as huntsman of the Fife was followed by seven seasons as kennelhuntsman to Ben Hardaway and Mason Lampton, where a pack of fast, racy, cross-bred foxhounds hunt four days a week, with both grey and red foxes, coyotes and bobcats as their quarry. Jill looked after Ben’s cat hounds, which he kept exclusively for hunting bobcats, and his lurchers.
Marc and Jill spent seven seasons in the Deep South before making a move north, as huntsman to the Windy Hollow hunt near New York, a much more restricted country where the slower and heavy-voiced PennMarydel hounds were more the norm. Jill was field master of the non-jumping “hill toppers” while Marc hunted the hounds.
Three seasons at the Windy Hollow brought to an end a successful sojourn for the Dradge family in the USA, and Marc came back to Scotland to hunt the Lanark and Renfrewshire for nine seasons until he retired in 2019.
What an experience Marc, Jill and their children had in the USA, and there is no doubt that some of the hunting they encountered was both unique and second to none. There was never a full commitment from the Dradges to move abroad permanently, as they always intended to come back, but Jill sums up their wonderful adventure quite simply: “I’m really glad we went, but I’m also really glad we’re home.”
EMERALD ISLE APPEAL
HUNTING in Ireland holds a special allure to many, and huntsmen have frequently made a name for themselves across both sides of the Irish Sea. Ikey Bell was perhaps the most famous of these, producing brilliant sport and a revolution in foxhound breeding at the Kilkenny in the early 20th century, before moving to the South and West Wilts where he continued in exactly the same vein.
Thirty-eight-year old Mark Ollard was brought up with hunting in his genes, both his father and mother being masters of the South Wold in Lincolnshire.
Mark hunted the school beagles at Stowe and took his first step into hunt service when he whipped-in at the Cattistock for two seasons under the tutelage of huntsman Charlie Watts.
Mark ended up in Ireland more by default than design.
“I applied for a mastership in the North of England and when I missed out at the last minute, I was stuck high and dry, so I ended up taking the whipper-in’s job at the Limerick under Will Bryer,” he says.
Mark spent 14 seasons at various positions in Irish hunt service and hunted some wonderful packs like the Island, Westmeath and Scarteen. Money was short everywhere and some hunts were run on the proverbial shoestring.
“One day after hunting, I had to borrow £20 from a foot follower just to buy enough diesel to get the hunt lorry back to the kennels,” he says, when explaining just how tough it was at times.
“I had a lot of fun in Ireland, but coming back to hunt hounds in the UK was an itch that I just had to scratch.”
Hence he is starting his first season back home in England as joint-master and huntsman of his beloved South Wold.
“Things are very different to how I remember it some 20 years ago, but now I have the opportunity to do it properly and I’m really looking forward to it.”
HUNTING DOWN UNDER
CAPTAIN Brian Fanshawe made a huge success of hunting the Galway Blazers before returning to England, where he cemented his reputation as a top-class amateur huntsman at the North Cotswold and the Cottesmore. Brian made several forays to Australia to hunt with and help another passionate foxhunter, John Crosbie Goold at the
Ellerslie hunt in Victoria.
A living legend in his native Melbourne, remembered as a brilliant Australian Football League player for his local team, Carlton, and a fashion-designer to boot, John was a top-class horseman and made a superb huntsman, jumping huge wire fences in an effortless fashion as he kept in touch with his charges across beautiful rolling grassland.
This fired Brian’s love for Australia, and he would always tell anyone who would listen that Australia was the promised land for any aspiring young foxhunter.
Rupert Inglesant made just such a move, having been a master and huntsman of several packs in England, including 10 seasons at the Ludlow and a further five at the Belvoir.
“Having hunted the Belvoir, which was the pinnacle of
everything I had aspired to in hunting, it wouldn’t have worked to go straight into another UK pack,” Rupert explains. “I saw that the Oaklands hunt near Melbourne was advertising for a huntsman and applied.”
“Pure foxhunting” is how he describes his time at Oaklands. “Rolling grassland with long grass and gorse with wire fences and wooden panels to jump.”
Rupert’s wife Caroline would probably have chosen to stay in Australia, but after five seasons he came back home to become joint-master and huntsman of the Cotswold.
“I was naturally drawn back, but I probably shouldn’t have been,” Rupert says wistfully.
CUTTING THEIR TEETH ABROAD
THERE are other less obvious places where Englishmen have been lured away to hunt hounds. Roddy Ando hunted the Stowe Beagles, where the kennel-huntsman John Thornton remembers him as one of the most naturally talented huntsmen he ever witnessed.
Roddy had a disastrous season hunting the Derwent hounds in North Yorkshire before being asked to go to Italy with a view to hunting the Rome foxhounds.
“The hounds were kennelled in the backstreets of Rome and fed on bread, but the hunting country was lovely,” says Roddy. “There were a few orchards and vineyards but mostly rolling grass with walls and rails to jump.”
There was a thriving social
life revolving around La Caccia, a hunt club that Roddy describes as being Rome’s equivalent of Boodles. A dalliance with the wrong girl and Roddy’s season in Italy was sadly cut short.
Men do not have a monopoly on transatlantic hunting. Charmian Green was another to cut her teeth hunting hounds in the USA. We know Charmian for running the Warwickshire country as master for 35 seasons during a golden era for that hunt.
Brought up hunting on Exmoor where her father
Colonel Guy Jackson was master, Charmian went to America as a 21st birthday present. She loved it so much that she returned and spent 12 years there. She formed her own pack, the Spring Creek bassets, and even took hounds across with her on the QE2.
Charmian became professional huntsman to the Fox River Valley hunt in Illinois, from where she was head-hunted to return and join the Warwickshire mastership.
There are a multitude of opportunities for aspiring huntsmen all around the world but it is telling that many often choose to return to these shores before they are finished.