An Education In Venery

Many of today’s hunting stars cut their teeth with the Ampleforth Beagles. Frank Houghton Brown visits a thriving pack that has survived several challenges.

- Catherine Austen

PACK OF THE WEEK: AMPLEFORTH BEAGLES

IN their present form, this pack has only been in operation since 1994, a revamped and reinvigorated version of the Ampleforth College Beagles.

In 1915, a boy called Paddy Cullinan complained to his mother that there was no sport at his school, at least not the sport in which he was interested, so his mother sent over four couple of beagles from Ireland. The beagles were thus founded and for nearly 80 years this pack was kept by the college and provided generations of students with a hunting education. A host of hunting personalities cut their teeth with these beagles and then moved on to foxhound masterships, but in 1994 the Abbot decreed that the abbey would end its custody of the hounds.

It was a strange coincidence that the last master of the beagles was Hugh Young, whose great uncle Paddy Cullinan had founded the pack, and I well remember his heartfelt and moving speech at their last puppy show.

The monks have been a unique and supportive feature of the hunt. Father Walter Maxwell- Stuart came back to the abbey to join the priesthood having served as a master of the beagles when he was a boy at school. His pastoral and kindly influence on everyone who was lucky enough to cross his path during his lifetime and his 47 years as secretary to the beagles is still remembered today.