King Henry Viii, Hever
20th January

A large field assembled at the meet despite the weather - there was a strong wind, and during the day we ahd continuous driving rain, which soaked everyone right down to their underwear.

The hounds were taken down the road and laid on in the grass field towards Swan's Nest Island, where they did a quick circuit of the fields and on to the bridleway. By now they had lost all the field, who had failed to spot a sharp right hand turn over a tiger trap. The hounds were taken over the River Eden and sat on the bridge for five minutes to allow the field to catch up.They were then laid on into Whistlers Meadow and they hunted a twisty line up to the road. By now it was raining hard and as soon as possible the hounds were taken onto Four Elms where they were laid on to the footpath alongside the pub. Once settled on the line they hunted into Roodlands Wood and on round the wood back towards Four Elms where they hunted in a large circuit past Holm Wood Place around a very large field with the field struggling in their wake. They then went on towards Roodlands Farm where they caught the quarry, with the field struggling on the wet ground as they tackled several large hedges.

The hounds were then taken down the road, and laid on into a large grass field. They hunted past the slightly confused fishermen at the lake and without hesitation raced through two fields of sheep and jumped into Chittenden Wood, hunting in and out of the wood without a check they eventually left by the road and hunted quickly to catch their quarry below Furnace House Farm. This was an extremely fast hunt and the hounds never checked once and the field, expertly led by David Thompson, stayed right in touch throughout (breathing hard down the neck of the whips) - leaving even experienced member Pauline Holmes breathless with excitement at the end of the line (although it later transpired that extra port at the meet may have contributed to her sense of elation!).

The hounds were soon away and, crossing the stream by Clinton Wood, they hunted in a big circuit on extremely wet ground, with several large hedges to test the horses and riders, to catch the quarry below the crossroads near Owls Court. A hard line for both hounds and horses with horizontal rain, and there were very few dry underpants in the field - partly due to the rain, and partly the size of the hedges!.

The last hunt off the day started just beyond Owl's Court and the whole of this line was straight into driving wind and rain. The hounds flew and the lead hounds were never seen after the first field, leaving the horses struggled to keep up. They raced through the mud under the railway bridge, where James Elgood suddenly found himself flying face first into the deep mud as his horse Malachy stumbled and effectively somersaulted.

Hounds then came in behind Whistlers Farm, across a wonderful huge grass field, catching their exhausted quarry on the bridleway. Over half the field by now was way out of contention, but field master David Thomson had kept the field right up with hounds throughout. A hard day in wet ground for the horses, with driving rain and wind. But the weather conditions seemed to make no difference to the hounds who really flew. Best hound of the day was Rowndtree.

Quarry for the day were Blobbie (who suffered all day from running in tight thermal shorts, much to the amusement of the rest of the hunt), Pierce and Robbie. It was a very hard day for the quarry, and they did a wonderful job running in such conditions.

After an excellent tea in the pub, the last view of the day for the tired hunters as they started to wend their weary way home was David picking up droppings in the car park....