Being in the Cotswolds at the start of the new year has been lovely and surprisingly mild and sunny. Today we happened on the North Cotswold Hunt – no longer of foxes but of a scented trail laid down just ahead of the hunt by a set of runners on all-terrain quad bikes. I caught the start on video, setting out from the Lygon Arms in Chipping Campden and we were lucky enough to bump into them again on a cross-country walk to Blockley. In a rather working class, urban way, I stared agog at it all: the hound pack, beautiful horses, clopping of hooves and the vivid scarlet jackets. I’m afraid I was quite impressed.
6 responses to “Following the North Cotswold Hunt 2012”
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Pageantry is always impressive and often used to disguise macabre acts of violence, such as war and school speech days.
I do like the idea of laying a scented trail to b****r up the fox hunt though.LikeLike
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Yes, Pete says they keep a fox in a box and smear it round the countryside to create a scent trail!
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I didn’t quite say that… I joked that they get the scent by rubbing a cloth on a fox in heat which they keep in a shed. (I’m not exactly sure how the scent thing works but I’m sure those boxes had something to do with it.)
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[…] Saw a hunt today in Chipping Campden. It’s a strange affair if you’ve not seen one before. A parade of folk on horses follow some dogs through the town and then off they go across the hills hunting down a scent. We saw them off as we started a walk and we bumped into them again half way round. Fi took some video. […]
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There is no fox in any box!! Otherwise the hounds would simply chase the quads.
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You know, this is ruining my vision of rubbing a fox on a tree.
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Fiona Cullinan 
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