Yesterday we paid a surprise visit to the Stevenstone, who were hunting outside their own ‘country’ in what was formerly Tetcott Hunt country. Tetcott are the hunt that disbanded earlier this year.
Despite Tetcott country having become vacant, wildlife in the area is not safe, as ex-Tetcott masters Diana Stevens and Andrew Youlden have been arranging for neighbouring packs to hunt some of their old meets. If Stevenstone had known in advance that any away day in Tetcott country is likely to attract sabs, perhaps they would have thought twice about coming.
Although as it was, it seems not many made the trip anyway. Despite perfect weather and scenting conditions, just six riders showed up for the occasion. The meet was at Marhamchurch and the hunt spent the day drawing various valleys: north of the village, east between Steart, Great Beer and Hobbacott (including land they’d been banned from entering), and then north in the long valley between the Old Canal and Brays Hill.
True to form, Di Stevens gave us one of her usually impressive lectures about trail-hunting (she embellishes these more than anyone else we know) and implored us to allow hunt staff to do their thing and to “praise them for doing the right thing”. If it wasn’t for the presence of terriermen on quadbikes, equipped with terriers and spades, some naive onlookers might actually believe Di’s stories.
Alex Wass (now terrierman for the Stevenstone) and his sidekick George Bailey, along with several other terriermen, followed the hunt all day, getting off their quads occasionally to check locations where hounds were making noise, looking for digout opportunities. As is the case for many terrierman types, Bailey also gets his kicks out of attacking women, having been convicted of ABH just two years ago, after he smashed a fish tank over his girlfriend’s head in a fit of rage.
Each of our hunts has its own merry band of violent criminals. Stevenstone huntsman Archie Clifton-Brown himself has a colourful history, having been convicted of assault a few years ago following an incident in which he assaulted a sab who was trying to retrieve the body of an illegally-killed fox at the Thurlow Hunt. Unbelievably, and even though Archie’s colleague at the time was convicted of illegal hunting for that incident, Archie managed to get his assault conviction overturned on appeal, claiming that he was using ‘reasonable force’ to stop the landowner’s ‘property’ (yes, that’s right, the illegally-killed fox) from being ‘stolen’ by sabs. And even if you didn’t know any of the above, there was plenty of other evidence undermining the trail-hunting ruse throughout the day yesterday: the complete absence of any evidence of trails being laid, the fact that Archie kept casting hounds into coverts ideal for foxes (kale fields, gorse, bramble patches) – often far too dense for any human to have laid a ‘trail’, and the behaviour of hunt members whenever a fox was seen, including hollering and pointing out the direction the fox had gone.
Several foxes were chased by hounds at this meet, along with several deer. Sabs were on hand to cover scent, rate hounds and gather the pack on numerous occasions. Our runner team kept with the pack all day, ensuring there were no kills, while others were strategically positioned to intercept hounds at crucial moments and keep an eye on their movements via our drone. At one point, hounds chased a fox out of a kale field, across a valley and up a steep slope through a dense patch of gorse, returning into the valley to be met by our foot sabs who stopped them in their tracks, buying the fox some crucial time to get away. Hounds responded beautifully to our horn calls and were quickly gathered up in a neighbouring field.
Archie, who spent most of the day on foot with the hounds, had shocking hound control. They just weren’t interested in his calls for the most part. Perhaps they care as little for him as he does for them. Sadly several hounds were seen with injuries. One was limping badly at the end.
If the support and encouragement we received from locals throughout the day is anything to go by, it’s fair to say hunts are definitely not welcome in the Marhamchurch area!
Rest assured if they return, we will know about it, and we’ll be there. Please keep the tipoffs coming in.
Gallery
