Etonians hound headmaster in ‘leggit’ over hunting society
Pupils protest as relocation of beagle pack fuels fears for future of school’s 164-year-old tradition
‘This is the latest in so many deaths by a thousand cuts. The boys were articulating that – it’s a bit of an unhappy ship’
HUNDREDS of Eton students have joined a protest over fears its 164-yearold hunting society could be scrapped, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
Pupils and their parents at the £42,500-a-year college are in open revolt over the future of the Eton College Hunt, one of the last remaining school beagling packs in Britain.
The kennel huntsman for the society, founded in 1858, was due to leave his post yesterday and the college has so far failed to find a replacement, forcing the hounds to be relocated to another hunt and the society’s operations upended.
This has prompted petitions from students accusing college leaders of a lack of consultation and transparency, while some parents have even intervened to offer to keep the pack together on their personal estates.
While the Berkshire public school says the pack’s relocation is a temporary measure until a new huntsman is found, students and parents fear it is being quietly scrapped by Eton’s “woke” leadership.
Now, the months-long row has boiled over, with hundreds of pupils gathering in the college’s main courtyard on Friday morning for a rare “leggit” – the most powerful gesture by which Eton pupils traditionally express grievances to the headmaster.
In a “leggit”, hundreds of boys congregate at mid-morning on Eton’s campus in their black tailcoats and white shirts to protest until the headmaster arrives to face them, then one shouts “leggit” and they all run away.
Some students at the all-boys school for 13 to 18-year-olds sharing footage of their loud protest on the social media app Tiktok, which was viewed more than 350,000 times. Videos show a large crowd of pupils chanting: “What do we think of Gregg? S--- !”, a reference to David Gregg, the college’s deputy head for pastoral matters, whom the college said had not been involved in the row.
Pupils warned senior leaders they would start a protest to defend the tradition, having offered multiple solutions in recent months to protect the dogs’ welfare by keeping the pack united and close to the college campus ahead of the May 1 deadline.
They feared Eton following Marlborough College by permanently relocating the beagles and seeing student participation in hunting dwindle.
The dispute has become a flashpoint for growing discontent with Eton’s headmaster Simon Henderson and a “woke” senior leadership team, who insiders have accused of undoing centuries-old traditions to align with progressive modern standards.
A source told The Telegraph: “This is the latest in so many deaths by a thousand cuts. The boys were articulating that. This just reinforces the unpopularity of the leadership. It’s a bit of an unhappy ship.”
Last week’s “leggit” is understood to have been Eton’s largest in at least a decade. The source claimed that the rare spectacles are “making a revival under Henderson” as an “organic form of protest” against the headmaster, who has been in post since 2015.
An Eton spokesman said: “Eton’s beagle pack is currently being looked after by another hunt as a temporary measure while the college continues its search for a new kennel huntsman, at which point the hounds will return.”