Hunting heroines

LIKE the worst of hard frosts, Covid has disrupted hunting sorely this season. But with so much spare time at our disposal, it’s been the perfect time to reacquaint ourselves with some peerless hunting literature.

There are so many fine writers to choose from – Surtees, Trollope, Somerville and Ross, Nancy Mitford, Molly Keane. But here I’m concentrating on hunting heroines, from Lucy Glitters in Surtees’ Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour to Willow in Keane’s Conversation Piece. These women intoxicate the reader with their courage and wit. When seen through the male writer’s eyes, their beauty is a key attraction. But their riding skills and hunting expertise are also respected.

Meanwhile, certain writers use the chase as a means to illuminate and satirise society. And whereas the male writer shows sexy, flirtatious women out to get their man, women writers are likely to concentrate on their prowess, writes in his description of “The Lady who rides to Hounds”: “There is the lady who rides and demands assistance and there is the lady who rides and demands none.”