Tally Ho!

As a child, I remember attending the Thanksgiving Day Blessing of the Hounds at the Green Spring Valley Hunt at our family church, St. Thomas in the Green Spring Valley. Hunting runs deep in my family, as one of my ancestors, Robert Brooke, brought the first pack of hounds to the not quite yet, United States, in 1650. Lines from this original pack still hunt up and down the east coast today.

Coming full circle, I saw some wonderful images of the Boxing Day Hunt in Loughborough (luffbruh), England. My father went to school at Loughborough College.

Gathering before the hunt. The hounds waiting to be called into action. Having a tipple before the hunt in Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds. It’s is a gorgeous little village! Leading out the hounds at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough.Beautiful hunting “pinks”. Many of these jackets are passed along through families. If you click the link, you’ll understand why! The whipper-in, with his whip and hunting horn. We had one of these horns growing up and I used to blow out my ears trying to get it to sound. If you’re interested in learning about fox hunting in America, there are no better books than those by Rita Mae Brown, set in the Virginia hunt country. Her Mrs. Murphy books and “Sister” Jane foxhunting mysteries spin a great story, while she also imparts some good information about the relationship between hunters and their prey.