An education in hunting
catherine.austen@futurenet.com
MY parents’ horror was palpable. Their hunting-mad nine-year old son was hopping with excitement at the ringside. A school pack of beagles was parading and what’s more, they were hunted by the boys. I couldn’t believe they had kept this secret.
Beagles, studies, boys, hunting – what could possibly go wrong? Within a year I had been packed off to choir school, far removed from any venatic distraction to my studies: that was to come later in my academic career.
For generations, “young gentlemen” (and now some ladies) have followed the well-worn path of masterships from school beagles to college beagles before taking a pack of foxhounds.
Pressures of balancing academic studies with co-curricular activities and shifting admission criteria, not to mention economic considerations, have re-aligned this route-map, but the merits and rewards offered by school and college packs, hunting within the law, remain as strong as ever.
Most packs had a humble naissance. A few “hounds” of dubious provenance and questionable breeding were acquired
