IF YOU asked half a dozen people what they think is hunting’s greatest strength, you’d get as many different answers. Hounds? The immense privilege of crossing usually privately owned parts of the countryside? For many, hunting also comprises a special community of people of all ages and all types. Few activities can boast tiny children and the very old doing the same thing on the same day in the same way. “Children are the future,” we say, watching as half-pints gallop past us, falling in love with the sport to which we are so attached.
But hunting isn’t like kicking a football around in the park. It takes organisation and dedication to take children hunting and ensure they enjoy themselves sufficiently to stick with it long enough to be independent. Hunting mothers, like hens with their tweed-clad brood of chicks, are rightly celebrated. But there are many equally brilliant hunting fathers who deserve their share of the credit.
In the past decade the Heythrop has earned a reputation for being child-friendly, a trait strongly encouraged by Joint Master and huntsman Charles Frampton. There are several notable Heythrop hunting fathers doing a fantastic job of passing on their own love of the sport. Dominic White is the hunt’s vice-chairman and a regular Field Master. His parents loved hunting and introduced their four sons to it, and now all three of Dominic’s own children – Tom, 20, Freddie, 18, and Jim, 16 – hunt.
Esta historia es de la edición June 2023 de The Field.
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Esta historia es de la edición June 2023 de The Field.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
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