………what “Ban”????? We were invited to watch the local Hunt gathering for the first hunt of the season. Autumn is glorious time in the UK. The colours are unbelievably lovely and living in the country is a privilege. We wandered through the village to watch the ‘hunt’ prepare and depart. Part of the preparation included eating sausage rolls, roast potatoes and drinking large wine glasses filled with port or very generous tumblers of whiskey. I suppose ‘drink driving’ doesn’t apply to hurtling through the countryside, leaping over dry stone walls on the back of a huge hunting horse!!!!
The hounds were amazing………terribly excited……baying, sniffing, rolling and totally unfazed by the horses, onlookers and their dogs on leads and the general mayhem! Of course those that ‘hunt’ are the ‘gentry’ and when they speak it’s in terribly loud jolly tones contributing to the overall cacophony.
At a certain point the Master of the Hunt (him in the red coat), blew his horn, the dogs pulled themselves together, all pointing the same way, stood to attention and off they all went. Those of us remaining (the non-gentry….aka ‘villeins’) marvelled at the whole spectacle and went back to work humming “Do you ken John Peel” ………………wish you were here…………..xxxxx
