A Hound Man Like No Other

From a background in beagles — and bobbery packs — Martin Letts has become a revered master of foxhounds and hound breeder. Tessa Waugh finds out what drives him.

- Tessa Waugh

THE stats are impressive. Master of the College Valley and North Northumberland for 53 years, huntsman for 39 seasons. At 83, one of the two longest-serving masters of foxhounds in Britain today (the other being Lord Davies of the David Davies). Renowned across Britain and the wider foxhunting universe for breeding and judging foxhounds, specifically hill hounds — a mixture of Fell hound and modern English foxhound — ideally suited to the wild terrain of the Cheviots.

Martin Letts is well aware of these details; he refers to them regularly during our conversation. But when I ask him what he hopes his legacy will be, his reply is quite surprising.

“Being a sort of Beckham of the hunting world,” he says, in his gruff way. 

Becks and Letts? 

“You know the field in which your capabilities lie,” he muses, “and [one aims] to be as high up in your particular field as you can be.”

We are in Martin’s heartland, Hethpool House, in the College Valley, the Arts and Crafts-style house where he and his wife, Eildon, brought up their family and have lived since 1981. There is a welcoming smell of dogs and cooking and a surfeit of hunting books and pictures indicating a hospitable, sporting household where you won’t have to remove your shoes at the door. Outside the window are ravishing views of the wild and hilly landscape where so much of Martin’s life has played out.