The Anonymous Widower

Hares in the Snow

I have about forty hectares of land by the house and today, I could see how many hares there were.  

Hares in the Snow

 Note the two brown piles are not hares!  They are molehills.  

These tracks though were everywhere and as we had had snow last night, these were just the tracks of a single day.  

To me, the hare is the most interesting of all of the animals that inhabit our countryside. I say that too with a lot of respect, as for seventeen seasons I hunted with the Easton Harriers in East Suffolk.  You get entwined with them and those who are anti-hunting will never understand the respect hunters show.  

The snow reminded me of one day at Tannington, where the weather was so cold, that we hunted hounds on foot. Tony Harvey was at one end of an immense field and Jimmy Wickham was at the other with the hounds working between them.  It was a memorable day.  

There was also the day when I was privileged to follow three packs of hare hounds in one day.  Few have done that.  

It was at Tannington again, and we started with our own harriers before an alcoholic breakfast.  We caught nothing. I remember, I hunted one of my son’s ponies called Bluebell. She was a mare and I always found them a better mount for my skills. In later years, I used to hunt a thoughbred mare called Censella and she never dropped me.  But could she go if you asked her!  

In the morning it was hunting bassets on foot.  It is strenuous work, even if bassets are slow.  But once on a hare, they never give up and just keep going. Well some do.  My solitary example might follow a scent for twenty metres or so and then it’s time for a snooze or the next meal.  She’s never caught anything and we didn’t on that day either with the bassets. 

Another alcoholic meal was followed by beagles in the afternoon.  Now these were small and angelic beagles, but they were serious too.  After perhaps two hours nothing had been caught, although we had seen a few hares. 

The day finished with a formal dinner. Tony had suggested that we all go ratting round the stackyard to finish it off, but it was assumed he was joking. 

One thing that sums up the day is Tony asking, if we had all had a good day.  He got a resounding yes.  He then said that is the difference between hunting and shooting and asked how someone would feel if they had gone shooting and hadn’t killed anything!

December 19, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | World | Animals, Hares, Hunting