Fox hunting, now banned throughout the UK, was one of the best known traditions of the English Lords in the world. A hunting event where each participant, people, horses and dogs, had a specific role. The history, the ceremonial rites, the roles of the participants of one of the oldest traditions of old England: fox hunting.
Fox hunting was a type of hunting that has its historical roots in old England, at a time when it became necessary to control the demographic increase of foxes. These wild animals, in fact, killed the farmyard animals, forcing the farmers to hunt them with the help of their dogs.
The earliest known hunting expedition dates back to 1534 in the county of Norfolk. Given the need to control the fox population, in the seventeenth century English breeders had already selected dog breeds suitable for this type of hunting, giving life to the Bilsdale, selected in Yorkshire.
Over the centuries the need to control the demographic level of foxes in the area has been lost, to the point that in the twentieth century the latter risked extinction in England, precisely because of the excessive hunting for which they were destined. Until 2005, when it was banned across the UK fox hunting, the latter had remained a sort of tradition of the English Lords, who wished to preserve this event as the exclusive prerogative of the nobles and an element of distinction from their subjects.
The red fox was the main prey of the hunts of the English Lords, who nicknamed this animal in different ways: Tod (ancient word for fox), or Reynard (name of an atropomorphic character of 20th century European literature), or Charlie (named after the English Whig politician, Charles James Fox). The red fox is a small omnivorous predator, which takes refuge in burrows that dig into the earth, and is mainly active at sunset, moving for an arc of 48 km from its nest and is able to reach the speed of XNUMX km / h.
The fox hunting event lasts for a whole day and sees the participation of many people both on horseback and on foot, each of which wears a specific dress depending on the role to which it is called to play. The team thus composed makes use of the help of a pack of dogs that follow the fox's tracks or a tampon soaked in fox urine and dragged by a man on foot along a path.
Each participant in the fox hunt had a specific role. The Hunting Master or Joint Master of Fox Hounds was the one who had the financial responsibility of the hunt and the progress of the hunting activity. Another figure was that of the voluntary honorary secretaries, usually two in the United Kingdom, who had the task of collecting the registration fees among the participants in the hunting trip. The Kennelmans or Huntsmans were in charge of making sure the dogs returned to the group and were responsible for directing the group. This role is known in the media, as they were the ones who blew the horn to start the hunt. In addition, there were the Whippers-in (or "Whips"), or assistants to the Huntsman. Their main task was to prevent the dogs from fighting with each other or with other animals other than the fox. Finally, the figure of the Terrier man, that is, those who had the task of killing the fox itself or digging into the den of the prey, in the event that the latter took refuge there.
The Lords moved with horses, the latter called "field hunters" or hunters. The breed most used in this hunting practice was that of the Thoroughbred, which were ridden by those who followed the hunt. In some cases they were also led on foot during the actual act of hunting.
The hunting event was divided into two groups, considering the horses: the first group of riders is called First Field and had the task of following the fox directly, while the second group, called Second Field, Hilltoppers or Gaters, followed more trails. long in the open field, in order to hunt down the prey in case it left the bush.
Those who, however, really and materially hunted the fox were the packs of dogs, which chased the wild. The latter were left loose in an area where the presence of foxes was high, starting to find and follow the traces previously left by the wild. Once the trail was smelled, the pack began the chase followed by the riders. The hunt ended only when the fox could no longer escape the dogs, a moment the latter called going to ground (i.e. taking refuge in a den dug in the ground), or when it was reached by the pack, and then it was killed.
Very significant were the social rituals in fox hunting, even if over the centuries many of these have fallen into disuse. One of the most important was the blooding, which is a ceremony in which the hunting master or a hunter predisposed to this ceremony take a little blood and anoint the cheeks of a new hunting initiate, usually a child, when it has been captured. the Fox. Another common practice was to cut the tail (brush), the feet ('pads') or the head ('mask'), becoming the latter of the trophies. Both of these ancient practices, however, became obsolete as early as the XNUMXth century.
The period in which fox hunting took place in the United Kingdom was during the autumn seasons, including the months between August and October: in that precise period, in fact, the hunt took the name of cub hunting or autumn hunting and the foxes had reached an optimal physical size having been born in spring.
The cunning of foxes is well known, to the point that just in this period, wild animals gradually developed techniques to escape the sniffing of dogs, learning to climb trees or walking along fences.
The dog breed most used for fox hunting in the UK was the Beagle.