HAVE YOU looked at your boots since last Season? When did you last leave the ground? Have you spoken to the farmer whose rails got broken? Summer still has that sun-soaked feel of carefree months untroubled by early starts and endless mud, but whether you are hunt staff or an occasional follower, it is a crucial time for repairing and preparing, laying the foundation for a successful Season.
"People say 'what do you do all summer?" exclaims Percy huntsman Robert McCarthy. "There's plenty to do, rearing three or four litters of puppies, grass to cut, painting, taking youngsters out on couples, staff on holiday, then before you know it horses are back in." He walks hounds out twice a day, keeping them ticking over. "We start with a quiet April, but we never let them right down. The more hounds are out of kennels, the better. We might meet sheep or stop for a chat with a farmer - it all gets them used to things."
The Percy are on bikes in May and horses at the end of July, a typical routine for building fitness. As Beckford says in Thoughts on Hunting, 'in the two preceding months [before the Season], a pack is either made or marred'. It's not all mileage, however: hound shows spangle a convivial calendar. "They generate more interest for everyone," notes McCarthy. "We do Peterborough, Blaston, small shows... They showcase hound welfare, good PR." The Percy were among the entries to the hunt-picnic competition at the Festival of Hunting, which, by the time this appears, I will have judged with this journal's Editor. McCarthy assured me the Percy's table would stand out, citing their tablecloths: the Union flags that fly above Alnwick Castle.
Bu hikaye The Field dergisinin August 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Field dergisinin August 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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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.
Fodder
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The first civil engineer
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Top of the pups
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Angling for success
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Talking scents
The canine nose is an astonishingly complex piece of biotechnology that man has harnessed for sustenance and sport for thousands of years
Wall-to-wall excitement
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