Wet, but welcoming
catherine.austen@futurenet.com
Berkeley, Halmore, Glos
DESPITE being one of the few hunts that is still family owned, the Berkeley has similar problems to hunts all over the land in that its country is shrinking. However, the scale of this surpasses most.
Once upon a time, in the early 18th century, they had enough scope and range of country that the fifth Earl of Berkeley could hunt his own estates from the river Severn to Berkeley Square with six different kennels en route. Now, their country is bordered by the River Severn to the west and the high ground, which is locally referred to as “on the top”, to the A46 on the east.
As a further complication, the country is usually hunted with a north and south divide but, to make things really tricky, the tier system divided it on the
