She's a corker

Communication, says long-standing and highly respected Belvoir master Lady Sarah McCorquodale, is the key to all, as Catherine Austen discovers

- Catherine Austen

LIKE a pack of hounds that hunts true to the line, or the peal of a church bell, when you meet someone who is utterly genuine, it is unmistakable. They just ring true.

That’s my impression of Lady Sarah McCorquodale, and it is franked by those whom I speak to about her. In her 15th season as a Belvoir master, she is both the backbone of the hunt and its headmistress.

Her efficiency as an administrator is legendary – I have never come across anyone who replies to an email so quickly – and, while she wouldn’t be the type to suffer fools gladly, she is both respected and truly loved in the hunting country. She’s very funny – most of her stories err on the side of not being quite printable – and loves a dirty joke.

James Finney, Belvoir huntsman since 2022, says: “Lady Sarah has a great rapport with all of her farmers – she’s greeted with a hug and a kiss by nearly all of them, and she’d know all of their wives’ and children’s birthdays. It’s lovely to see her with the farmers. She leaves nothing to chance – for a morning’s autumn hunting, she’ll clear the whole of her country for every day. Her attention to detail is second to none.”

ORGANISATION IS KEY

WHEN I arrive at her house, just on the Lincolnshire side of the A1 that knifes the Belvoir country in two, she is in excellent spirits.

“I’m deeply competitive,” she says with a grin, “and I have, this morning, confirmed every meet of mine for the season. We only had to get as far as New Year, but I’ve done it all. And I have found someone to host the hunt supporters’ club Christmas drinks party. That’s two big boxes ticked.”

She wasn’t hunting that morning, but she knows all about it: “Foggy. And most of the lorries got stuck in the gateway to the parking field.” One suspects that by nightfall, she’ll have knocked Parliament into shape and resolved the problems in the Middle East – as long as she has her hourly cigarette.