by REX NEEDLE

FOX-HUNTING has become a controversial and emotive subject in recent years, resulting in the Hunting Act of 2005 that banned the pursuit of wild animals with dogs.

Yet the traditional meets continue, particularly on Boxing Day, and although the hounds are no longer allowed to hunt down foxes, many hunts use techniques such as drag hunting with dogs setting off on the trail of a scent laid about 20 minutes in advance by a runner or rider dragging a lure.

The first Boxing Day meets after the introduction of the ban took place last week, on Monday 27th December 2005, and some 250 of them were held in England and Wales although the League Against Cruel Sports and other anti-hunting organisations sent representatives to many of them to ensure that they stayed within the law.

Although it has been a less popular venue, Bourne was often the centre of fox-hunting activity in South Lincolnshire in past times, the Cottesmore Hunt, established 1666 by Viscount Lowther, being one of the most active, together with the pack owned by Sir John Trollope [who became the first Lord Kesteven when he was raised to the peerage in 1869] and there were still regular meets in recent years but apart from occasional forays by hunt saboteurs, the sport attracted little adverse comment in this area.

It was a different story in years past when hunts in the neighbourhood pursued their activities with scant regard for person and property because this was the sport of the landed gentry who were also usually magistrates and few dared question their activities. There were also scenes of real cruelty to animals but they must be judged by the customs of the time and it was to be another 150 years before the sport was finally banned as barbaric although that is by no means the universal opinion.

One such incident involved Sir John Trollope’s hounds that met at Manthorpe on Saturday 22nd January 1859 and soon picked up a fox, chasing it into Bourne along South Road. The Stamford Mercury reported the rest of the incident:

At a little before one o'clock reynard made his entrance into Bourne by the south side of the town, passing through Mr Thomas Osborn's yard, through the paddock owned by Mr George Nicholls, over the river and into the Rev Joseph Dodsworth's bottom garden [the vicarage], thence he crossed the Abbey Lawn and into Mr Dodsworth's top garden which is surrounded by a wall more than six feet high. Here the poor fox had, as it were, jumped into a large cage from which there seemed no escape, and he quickly concealed himself behind some flower pots in a little outhouse communicating with the garden.

This however, brought him only a short respite, as the hounds and huntsmen were upon him and he was speedily doomed to death. He was then brought on to the lawn and after the brush and head had been cut off, the master of the hounds stepped forward and threw the body of the fox into the air to fall amongst the dogs, which in a very few moments, tore it to pieces and consumed it. Besides the huntsmen, there were present on the lawn a large concourse of persons who appeared highly excited by the sport.

Ten years later, Sir John Trollope's hounds were again at the centre of an incident. The hunt met at Manthorpe, near Bourne, on Saturday 12th March 1868 and after running a vixen to ground in Dole Wood, they proceeded to Thurlby Wood where they started another fox. The Stamford Mercury takes up the story:

After about three hours' chase to and from Thurlby and Northorpe, and again into the wood, reynard, shortly before 4 o'clock, approached Bourne town by the west side of the railway station and thence across the river forming the back way of Mr Robert Munton's mill [now Baldock's Mill], over the trenches, along the paddocks belonging to Mr John Gibson and Mr Thomas Presgrave, and after making an unsuccessful effort to mount the wall into the back premises of Messrs [Robert] Mills and Company's soda water manufactory [in West Street], he finally took refuge in Mr Thomas Heaton's hen roost, the occupants of which made a precipitate retreat but in doing so, protested loudly against reynard's unceremonious visit and doubtless he must have felt ill at ease at their noisy cackling when he meant no harm for it at once discovered his hiding place.

A couple of dogs were put in to keep him company and the result of their short acquaintance we need not relate. He was then taken into the Market Place and his brush, head and feet cut off and his carcass thrown into the air to fall amongst the dogs which in a few moments tore it to pieces and devoured it. Besides the huntsmen, there were present a large number of persons who appeared highly to relish the sport. One gentleman, in his anxiety to be up at the death, was proceeding along the top of some low buildings in Mr Heaton's yard when a portion of the pigsty roof gave way and he fell through up to his chin, causing him some injury and damage to the roof.

Because hunting invariably involved the gentry, there was great public amusement whenever they suffered indignities such as that which occurred on Saturday 25th January 1850, when riders with the Cottesmore came to grief while in full pursuit on the outskirts of Bourne. The hounds met at Castle Bytham and having raised a fox on the Grimsthorpe estate, chased it across the countryside around Edenham where it crossed the river, badly swollen by thawing snow, but when they attempted to follow, several riders were swept off their horses and left floundering in the water, their hats floating ignominiously downstream as they struggled to reach the safety of the bank, a tale that was recounted in some detail and with much hilarity in the hostelries around Bourne for several weeks.

The appearance of the Cottesmore hounds in full cry on the outskirts of Bourne on Friday 26th January 1872 also caused a good deal of pleasure among local folk. Riders were unseated while trying to cross low lying land that had been flooded by recent rain and one found himself up to the neck in a dyke with a struggling horse which was rescued with difficulty. The fox they were chasing made its way across a row of cottage gardens and the owners rushed to the upstairs windows to watch the cause of the hubbub, finding their little plots invaded by swift running hounds and eager huntsmen. The fox, however, which had given the field a gallop of an hour and a half, eventually escaped unharmed.

But there were also tragedies in the hunting field and in 1861 a local doctor met his death while riding to hounds. Mr Henry Bromley, of Rippingale, near Bourne, who was also surgeon to the Bourne Rifle Corps, joined the Duke of Rutland's hounds when they met at Lenton village on Friday 20th December but shortly afterwards, near Kirkby Underwood, his horse slipped at a dangerous fence and he was pitched over the top, the horse following, trampling on his body and inflicting fearful injuries internally and externally. He was taken home by carriage and medical aid summoned from Bourne and Stamford but after enduring great agony for many hours, he died the following Monday.

Hunting has had a declining reputation in recent years and hunts have recognised their unpopularity by keeping contentious issues to a minimum. There was however one incident in 1998 which raised public anger when the Cottesmore chased a fox through Bourne Wood, much to the distress of walkers who had to jump aside as horses galloped along footpaths in pursuit, and finally ended up at the Beech Avenue entrance where the fox took refuge in a culvert and the hounds ran amok in a private garden. The hunt subsequently tendered a public apology and there were no further incidents.

In view of the barbarity apparent at those earlier incidents described, accounts of which survive in some detail, it is difficult to understand how fox hunting continued for so long yet the sight of horses and hounds at the traditional meets with a picturesque village as a back drop, such as Folkingham where the Belvoir Hunt met in centuries past, will remain an evocation of old England for many years to come.

NOTE: This article was published by The Local newspaper on Friday 6th January 2006.