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Otter
Hounds
A
mounted
hunt
©
Jeremy
Nicholl
Never quite sure why Geordie stopped whipping in to Weir at the Ullswater, too long ago now to be of any importance anyway, but he reappeared as the huntsman of the Kendal and District Otter Hounds based at Milenthorpe on the Dalem Tower estate. He had always been lucky, being turned down for National Service because apparently he had of all things flat feet! Can you imagine a fell huntsman doing possibly thousands of miles of walking on some steep sided terrain with flat feet.
Anyway the move caused much entertainment to my father, who couldn't see sense in wading up to your waist in cold Lakeland becks. Geordie waded on!
One day we were playing football on the local park as part of the school's PE class. The teacher later commented to my father, 'I gave a penalty but the goal keeper was up the path after the hounds!' Geordie was in the beck!!!
On another occasion I biked up to the New Dungeon Ghyll hotel to watch a meet in the Great Langdale beck. A screaming hunt ensued but I'm happy to say the otter escaped.
For a while John Bulman kept the Windermere Harriers at the New Dungeon Ghyll hotel. We had started rock climbing and passed by on our way to Pavey Ark or White Ghyll. The hounds always gave us a rousing greeting, and we did 'egg em on a larl bit!'. Hotel guests were not impressed as we tended to start early, biking from Ambleside as the first bus was 10 am. The hunting wasn't for me, the hare seemed to go in a circle, so you didn't really need to move from where it got up and the Windermere Harriers soon disbanded anyway, leaving no pack in the central lakes.
In almost 50 years of following hounds I only once attended a mounted meet. A wasted Boxing Day with the Bedale, in the early 70s. A large crowd assembled at the meet, with a wide range of mounts and riders! Vast quantities of 'jumping juice' (Jorrocks') were taken and it seemed a very social occasion. The Huntsman had some nice hounds, though a bit heavy for me, but the country was different. You could always tell a good huntsman, it comes from the way he treats the hounds in kennels. The really good ones could control a pack with just a gentle word, some resorted to abuse and others ...................
A lakeland huntsman in the main chatted
to almost anyone but this fella didn't. Anyway, the field left the meet
and several rode to the boxes and went home! The fieldmaster seemed to
control the rest of them quite tightly. I seriously doubt if many saw
much at all of the hounds.
I came away with the distinct impression that for many it was the opportunity
to ride (and jump) over sombody else's land that was the attraction rather
than the actual working of the hounds - an opinion I still hold. It seemed
a long way (in more ways than one) from the Boxing Day hunt from Ambleside
Market Cross for Loughrigg by the Coniston and to be honest I wished I
was there. I never saw another 'mounted hunt', never really wanted to.
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