Foxhunting Life with Horse and Hound

Huntsman Johnnie Gray shows Hillsboro Denmark 2012, Grand Champion Foxhound of the Carolinas Hound Show.  /  Leilani Hrisko photo

Hillsboro Denmark 2012 was judged Grand Champion of the Carolinas Hound Show on Saturday, May 11, 2013. Bred by Nigel Peel at the North Cotswold kennels in England, he was picked up late one night at LaGuardia Airport, along with another three-and-a-half couple of his North Cotswold kennel mates—all unentered hounds—by Hillsboro huntsman Johnnie Gray.

Before you call Mr. Peel and ask if he will send you a comparable draft, you should know that this was an “inside job.” Nigel Peel’s Joint-Master at the North Cotswold, Bradford Hooker, happens to be the son of Hillsboro’s senior Master, Henry Hooker.

Potomac Keswick was the American Foxhound Champion at the Maryland Foxhound Show on May 5, 2013, hosted by the De La Brooke Foxhounds. / Karen Kandra Wenzel photo    Click on the photo to see a gallery of the rest of the winners!

Here is a concise history of foxhunting in North America from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, tracing the sport from its Colonial beginnings to organized foxhunting as we know it today. The work constitutes part of the first chapter in A Centennial View, published by the MFHA to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Association.

George Washington and Lord Fairfax hunting in the Shenandoah Valley

Hunting in the Colonies (1600s to 1775)
If you were a second son to a family of landed gentry living in the English countryside during the seventeenth or eighteenth century, you would have found your prospects considerably dimmer than those of your elder brother. Precluded, through the laws of primogeniture, from inheriting your father’s estate, you might have been tempted by land grants offered by the Colonial governors of Maryland or Virginia to emigrate, settle in the New World, and make your fortune there.

If you had an adventurous soul, you might have packed up your family, children, furniture, and, of course, a few of your foxhounds, and embarked on the voyage. Along with those tangible items, you would have brought your rural culture and a hunting heritage to these Provinces. By carrying on your habitual pursuits, you would make Maryland and Virginia the cradle of North American foxhunting.

What happens when a noted photographer stumbles across a set of vintage (1930s) British cast lead toy figures of foxhunters and hounds? Award-winning photographer/author/film maker Robert Trachtenberg was captivated by the various poses and old patina on the figures. He placed them into scaled-down landscapes, illuminated them romantically, and produced a suite of seven photographs titled "The Fox Hunt" which are on display at Fuller + Roberts Co., a furniture and decorative arts gallery in the heart of the La Cienega Design Quarter in Los Angeles, California.

I remember having a set of lead toy soldiers as a child, but I relish imagining these figures being unwrapped by a child near the Christmas tree in an English country house many years ago. Trachtenberg's photographs are charming, and we thought you might enjoy seeing the products of this creative man’s imagination. Click for more images and Christopher Harrity's article in Advocate.com.

Posted May 11, 2013