"tally-ho back!" foxhunting in north america and the mfha, by

11

Chapter 1“Tally-ho back!”Foxhunting in North America and the MFHA Norman Fine

f you were a second son to a family of landed gentry living in the English countryside during the 17th or 18th 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, chil-dren, furniture, and, of course, a few of your foxhounds, and embarked on the voy-age. 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.

If, on the other hand, you were a Puritan from East Anglia, you would have

I Opposite: A Good Run on Midway

Farm by D. Haskell Chhuy. Oil on

panel, 18 x 24 in. Courtesy of the

artist.

Overleaf: Hunt Field by Susan C.

Dorazio. Oil on linen, 24 x 36 in.

Private collection.

MFHA.indb 1 6/3/09 12:35:19 AM

2

introduction “tally-ho back!”

2

come to these shores for an entirely different reason—to escape religious persecution. You would have disem-barked, most likely, upon the shores of New England and settled there amongst your fellow Puritans.

Most surely, you would have eschewed frivolity and idle pursuits. Your work ethic would fuel the growth of commerce, and in time your descendants would acquire great wealth. But it would take almost three centuries for them to shed their puritanical prejudices and embrace any sporting activity as an acceptable pursuit. When they did,

finally, it would be they who would launch the modern era of organized foxhunting, subscription packs, and the Masters of Foxhounds Association.

As we will discover, hunting with hounds in North America has been going on since the earliest days of English colonization here. However, it developed differ-ently from region to region, as a reflection of the immi-grants themselves and their disparate backgrounds. And each culture made its own contribution to the sport we recognize today as modern mounted foxhunting.

Hunting in the Colonies (1600s to 1775) In 1650, Lord Baltimore appointed Robert Brooke to the “Privy of the State within our Province of Maryland.” Brooke arrived from England with his wife, eight sons, two daughters, 28 servants, and his hounds. This is the earliest recorded importation of any quantity of hounds to the Colonies. Brooke’s hounds no doubt hunted other game as well as fox, since packs of hounds for hunting the fox exclusively had hardly appeared in England at that early time. The Brooke hound bloodlines were carried on by his sons and their descendants and provided basic stock for American strains fielded today.

From these earliest colonial times, hunting with hounds was carried out in various forms depending on individual circum-

MFHA.indb 2 6/3/09 12:35:21 AM

3

“tally-ho back!” introduction

stances—mounted on horseback, astride mules, and on foot. Family dogs and hounds were taken out at night to hunt “vermin”—racoons, opossums, and foxes.

The cultivation of tobacco in Virginia and Maryland ushered in an unprec-edented era of prosperity in the 1700s, and the plant-ers, who surely loved their horses, built great plantation houses, imported race horses, and rode to hounds in the formal fashion. They cleared land for cultivation and hunted wolves from horseback with hounds to rid their plantations of predators. As the wolves were driven out, it was only natural to continue their exhilarating sport by hunting the native gray fox.

One day in 1730, according to several accounts, a group of tobacco planters on Maryland’s Eastern Shore were remi-niscing about the “good old days” chasing red foxes in their mother country. Sadly, hunting the less inspiring native gray foxes in Maryland did not match up, so the men resolved to improve their sport. The captain of the tobacco schooner, Monocacy, which was owned by one of the planters, was

instructed to bring back from Liverpool eight brace (16) of red foxes on his next trip. The foxes arrived in due course and were liberated along Maryland’s Eastern Shore with

much fanfare, merriment, race meets, and a hunt ball! Some 50 years later, descendants of those imported red foxes would initiate a revolution in hound breeding resulting in what we know today as the American Foxhound.

There were many private packs showing sport to their country neighbors prior to the Revolutionary War. One of special interest, the Castle Hill Hounds, was founded in 1742 by Dr. Thomas Walker of Virginia’s Albemarle County and named for his estate, Castle Hill. After his death the pack was dispersed and hunting ended at Castle Hill. But some-where around 150 years later, a lineal descendant of Dr. Walker—Mrs. Allen Potts (neé Gertrude Rives)—revived the pack. By so doing, the Castle Hill Hounds became the first recognized pack to be owned and hunted by an American woman. Further, her husband, Allen Potts, was the man selected to serve as Clerk of the Great English-

Opposite: Mrs. Allen Potts revived

the Castle Hill Hounds—founded by

her ancestor, Dr. Thomas Walker, in

1742—at around the turn of the 20th

century. Her husband, Allen Potts,

served as Clerk of the Great English–

American Hound Match of 1905. This

photo of Gertrude and Allen Potts (she

on Bachelor) is reproduced from J.

Blan van Urk, The Story of American

Foxhunting, Vol. 1 (1940). Courtesy of

the National Sporting Library.

With Brush in View, circa 1780. The

oldest known paintings of foxhunting

in North America are reproduced in J.

Blan van Urk, The Story of American

Foxhunting, Vol. 1 (1940). Courtesy

of the National Sporting Library.

chap1.Tally-hoBack.indd 3 7/22/09 10:21 AM

4


American Hound Match of 1905. Since Mr. Potts had to ride every day, his wife sent him off to Upperville with two of her best hunters, Bachelor and Benedict.

Another of the earliest private packs in the Colonies was that of Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, who had inherited more than five million acres of land in Virginia, between the Potomac and the Rappahannock Rivers. Before mov-ing to Virginia permanently to take control of his inheri-tance, Fairfax sent hounds to his cousin, George William Fairfax, who was already settled at “Belvoir.”

Arriving in 1746, Lord Fairfax spent some time at Belvoir managing his farms and plantations and amusing himself by hunting. In 1748, shortly before establishing his permanent residence at Greenway Court west of the Blue Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley, Fairfax hired a 16-year-old family friend named George Washington to help survey his holdings. Under Fairfax’s tutelage, Washington, who eventually gained a reputation as one of the finest horsemen in Virginia, became an avid foxhunter. He wrote, “Lord Fairfax was at this time fifty-nine years old. Although a heavy man, he was an excellent horseman, and, as I was never tired of the saddle, we were much engaged in the hunting of wild foxes.”

As Washington makes clear in his diaries, after leaving Greenway Court and eventually establishing his own pack

of hounds at Mount Vernon, he devoted all his spare time to foxhunting up until the eve of independence. Speaking of independence, it can be asserted that a foxhunter’s horseflies helped to launch the nation.

Jacob Hiltzheimer was an ardent foxhunter who owned a livery stable very near Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson himself enjoyed telling how the horse-flies from a nearby livery stable annoyed the members of the Continental Congress as they reviewed his draft of the Declaration of Independence. Wearing short breeches and silk stockings, they were so much engaged in lashing at the buzzing horde with their handkerchiefs, that they were induced to promptly affix their signatures to his document.

Washington wasn’t the only Founding Father to follow hounds. James Parton, a biographer of Thomas Jefferson in the late 19th century, tells us that Jefferson was “as eager after a fox as Washington himself.” And Alexander Hamilton’s name was listed among the members of the St. George Hunt Club in 1783.

The first subscription pack of record in North America was the Gloucester Foxhunting Club. It was founded by a group of Philadelphia sportsmen in 1766. For those who believe that foxhunting was never a competitive sport, consider Article XIII of the Club Rules:

“The Sportsman who first touches the fox after the dogs

Mountain and Muse were brought to

Maryland in 1814 from Ireland. Highly

prepotent, they provided essential

bloodlines for most American hound

breeds. Courtesy Museum of Hounds

& Hunting North America.


5


have caught him, or who first touches the tree on which the fox may have taken shelter, if he does not make his escape therefrom, shall be entitled to the brush, for which distin-guished honor he shall present one dollar to the huntsman. The person taking the brush shall take his seat at dinner on the right hand of the presiding officer of the day.”

Between the Wars (1781 to 1861)The English gained control of New York from the Dutch in 1664 and wasted no time in introducing their sporting cul-ture. By 1665 a racecourse was established at Hempstead.

Hard though it may be to imagine, during the period between the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars, foxhunting flourished on the island of Manhattan from the Bowery to Harlem, as well as in The Bronx and into Long Island. In fact, foxhunting flourished on Manhattan and Long Island even during the Revolutionary War, as the British officers stationed there could hardly be expected to have neglected their hunting.

The winter of 1779–1780 was climactically historic. Chesapeake Bay froze in the bitter temperatures, and red foxes made their first appearance in Virginia. It is believed that they crossed the ice from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, descendants of the eight braces of English reds imported by the tobacco planters in the 1730s. The extent to which the

red foxes that populate the eastern states today are descen-dants of those original English foxes, or are descended from the red foxes believed to have been indigenous to Canada and the northern climes, or are a combination of both is still a matter for theorizing.

From modest beginnings in Maryland, then to Virginia, the population and range of the red fox increased slowly and steadily. The English hounds that had been imported to the Colonies in earlier times were mostly of the type referred to as the old Southern Hound—slow, deliberate, trailing hounds—probably descendants of the French–Norman hounds brought to southern England after the Norman invasion. They were well suited to hunting the native gray foxes in the Colonies, but were too often at a loss trying to pressure and account for the red foxes. New outcrosses were needed, and most breeders looked to England for bloodlines to increase the speed and drive of their hounds.

Fleet hounds from the Quorn and from other fast running packs in the Shires were tried, but found wanting. Lower scenting hounds with bigger voices were needed in North America, and many sportsmen feared that the appearance of the red fox bespoke the end of foxhunting here.

In 1814, Bolton Jackson, an Irish immigrant to Baltimore, brought two Irish foxhounds—Mountain and Muse, a dog

MFHA.indb 5 6/3/09 12:35:27 AM

6


and a bitch—to Maryland, which he presented to Charles Sterrett Ridgley of Oakland Manor near Ellicott City. The two Irish hounds killed foxes with ease, but they were happy to kill anything else that crossed their paths as well, including dogs. Sentenced to death by Mr. Ridgely, they were saved by Benjamin Ogle, Jr., of Belair, who pleaded that they be spared and given into his charge. This was a fortunate rescue, for these two hounds provided essential bloodlines for most of the American hound breeds we know today: Trigg, July and Walker.

Said the American Turf Register of Mountain and Muse, “They were remarkable, as are their descendants, accord-ing to the degree of their original blood, for great speed and perseverance, extreme ardor, and for casting ahead at a loss; and in this, and their shrill chopping unmusical notes, they were distinguished from the old stock of that day; which when they came to a loss, would go back, and, dwelling, take it along, inch by inch, until they got it fairly off again, whilst these Irish hounds would cast widely, and by making their hit ahead, would keep their game at the top of his speed, and break him down in the first hour.”

The bloodlines of Mountain and Muse are widely dis-persed across North America today (indeed in England, as well) by virtue of the great popularity of the Hardaway Crossbred, the essential and original ingredient of which

is the July foxhound. Ben Hardaway, MFH of the Midland Fox Hounds in Georgia, devoted 50 years of study, experi-mentation, travel and trial and error in developing his ideal foxhound. The American Turf Register’s description of the hunting style of Mountain and Muse is a 19th-century version of Hardaway’s hunting philosophy, which he attri-butes to his July bloodlines: “short, sharp and decisive.”

The earliest hunts still active today emerged during this period between the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars. The Montreal Hunt, founded as a subscription pack in 1826, is the oldest active hunt in North America. The oldest active sub-scription pack in the United States is the Rose Tree Foxhunting Club, which was founded in Media, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia in 1859. The Piedmont Fox Hounds of Virginia, however, was established as a private pack earlier than the Rose Tree—in 1840—and holds the distinction of being the oldest active hunt in the United States.

During these years of the early 1800s, ladies were mak-ing their appearance alongside men in the hunting fields of North America. It was a controversial issue with many men. Some were honestly concerned about the safety of the “weaker” sex; others were more concerned about los-ing the hunt in the “likely” event that a damsel would come to distress and they, as gentlemen, would feel obliged to stop and render assistance. But most of the opposition to

Opposite: W. Austin Wadsworth,

from New York’s Genesee Valley,

was elected the first president of

the MFHA. Collection Masters of

Foxhounds Association.

MFHA.indb 6 6/3/09 12:35:27 AM

7


women in the hunting field no doubt had its roots in the fragile male ego. Fortunately, a sufficient population of male foxhunters were quite ready to accept “those ladies who venture on this elegant out-door exercise, made inter-esting not only by their ‘coat, hat, and feathers,’ but by their sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks, and temples shaded by falling ringlets....” (The College Journal of Cincinnati)

Throughout these early 1800s, foxhunting spread to the Carolinas and west to Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia. Foxhunting of some sort was carried on as early as 1831 near Chicago. And in the far Southwest in the area of the Louisiana Purchase (now the state of Oklahoma), the first American military hunt club—the Fort Gibson Hunting Club—was established at Fort Gibson in 1835.

Night hunting flourished in the deep South among men of ordinary circumstances. This is not to say that men of elevated circumstances might not be found sitting by the fire as well. Many were. But any farmer could own a couple of foxhounds and get together with friends at night for an informal “fox race.” These night hunters, along with their countrymen that hunted informally during daylight astride a mule or a work horse, were true hound men. Blood horses, top boots and riding breeches meant little to them. They treasured good hounds, and many of the very best American bloodlines derive from their careful breeding. Enthusiasts

of the American Foxhound today still maintain the blood-lines bred by Bywaters, Maupin, Trigg, Walker—all hound men of that period whose names are permanently engraved in the history of the American hound.

The following description of night hunting was written in 1832:

“Foxhunting by moonlight, though not commonly prac-tised, is said to be most delightful, on a clear still night. The

chap1.Tally-hoBack.indd 7 7/28/09 2:52 PM

8


game does not ‘make off,’ as in the day, nor run so far ahead of the pack; feeling perhaps a sense of greater security. Thus the trail keeps warmer, and the dogs more animated, and the cry fuller, whilst the stillness of the night leaves the music of the pack to fall upon the ear in all its volume and sweetness!

“We are too apt to suppose that to enjoy rural sports involves much expense, whereas with a few choice hounds (say only nine) between himself and a neighbor or two, a man can have real enjoyment.”

By contrast, mounted foxhunt-ing in the southern states prior to the Civil War was carried out in luxury and style by large plantation owners with leisure time. Many planters were descended from the old sporting Colonial families, and they brought their sport to its pinnacle for the times. But all that glamour went up in smoke with much of the southern countryside during the Civil War, and the subsequent struggle for recovery brought whatever foxhunting there was in the South back

to the days of the trencher-fed packs and the night hunters.

Organized Foxhunting (1865 to 1905)The Civil War ended in 1865 with the southern economy crippled, its social fabric asunder, and its citi-zens poverty stricken. The planter aristocracy, formerly the standard setters for the “High Church” of foxhunting, suffered especially. As late as 1883, the Sportsman’s Gazetteer and General Guide said, “Since the war the demoralized condition of many sections of the South, and the greatly impaired

fortunes of the former participants in this manly sport have combined to render foxhunting well nigh impossible, and until horseback riding attains in both North and South a more national character, there is but little hope of resusci-tating this delightful sport.” This was a prescient observa-tion, for two unrelated phenomena were occurring at that very time—one in the North and one in the South—that would herald a new age for foxhunting on this continent.

Harry Worcester Smith organized

the first meeting of six Masters that

led to the creation of the Masters of

Foxhounds Association. Courtesy

National Sporting Library.

MFHA.indb 8 6/3/09 12:35:28 AM

9


In the NorthAs the nation expanded west-ward, as railroads were laid, and as the population grew (bolstered by waves of immigrants from Europe), opportunities for the cre-ation of wealth presented them-selves to men of energy and vision who were willing to take risks. Boston, with its great university across the Charles River, had been preparing such men. They built enterprises that spanned the country and both oceans. Their ventures flourished through suc-ceeding generations, and by the middle of the 19th century an accumulation of wealth coupled with a relaxing of the Puritanical attitude toward the frivolity of recreation led to the beginnings of organized sport. By the turn of the 20th century, yacht clubs, polo clubs, foxhunting clubs, the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association (NS&HA), and the first country club were all thriving.

Contemporaneous with the formation of these new institu-tions, Harry Worcester Smith, A. Henry Higginson and Henry

Vaughan burst upon the American foxhunting scene.

In the SouthThe period following the Civil War saw a number of Englishmen emi-grating to Virginia. Although there were probably as many reasons as Englishmen who came, one can draw some obvious conclusions. A substantial part of an entire gen-eration of young Virginia men did not return home from that bloody conflict, and large properties in that beautiful countryside were, and would continue to be, inherited by women. There must have been a

vacuum for men, and it would certainly not be filled at that time by American men from the North.

Many of the Englishmen who came were foxhunters in their native England and were no doubt anxious to orga-nize the sport here along traditional lines. Three of the principal organizers of the Warrenton Hunt (1887) were English emigrés, as were two of the organizers of the Deep Run Hunt (1887). Another Englishman helped form the

Thomas Hitchcock was captain of

the first U.S. international polo team

and a leading owner–trainer of

steeplechase horses. (Reproduced

from Alexander Mackay-Smith,

Masters of Foxhounds, 1980.)

MFHA.indb 9 6/3/09 12:35:29 AM

10


Blue Ridge Hunt in 1888. The final step in the successful res-urrection of traditional foxhunt-ing in the English manner was to bring the northerners with their wealth and organizational abili-ties together with the southern-ers with their hunting heritage, emerging hunt clubs, and mag-nificent hunting landscape.

North Meets SouthHarry Worcester Smith and A. Henry Higginson were always seeking the best hunting coun-

tries to which to bring their hounds for good sport. Smith, however, was entirely dissatisfied with the “unfruitful” man-ner in which English hounds “tried to follow the American red fox.” In 1896, Thomas Hitchcock brought a pack of American hounds to the Genesee Valley as the guest of Major W.A. Wadsworth, MFH. Smith was impressed with their ability to pursue the red fox successfully, even in bad scenting conditions. Two years later he visited the Piedmont Fox Hounds country near Upperville, Virginia, as the guest of H. Rozier Dulany, MFH.

“[I]t was not until 1898 that I had a chance of seeing a pack of Virginia fox-killing [American] hounds.... I at once saw the opportunity of establishing hounds and hunting in what I felt was the best hunting country in the United States, and, if the sport which I anticipated could be shown, that it would not be long before lovers of the chase would come from the North and, choosing their domiciles, learn to love the Old Dominion with its courtesies, kindnesses and care-free ways.” (Harry Worcester Smith’s unpublished autobi-ography, National Sporting Library, Middleburg, Virginia)

How prophetic! Within a few years, Harry Worcester Smith had assembled his own pack of American hounds, which he called the Grafton, after the Massachusetts town where he lived. He arranged to have the Piedmont registered with the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association and, in 1904, became Master of the Piedmont, succeeding Dulany.

In a letter to Rider and Driver magazine that year, Smith extolled the virtues of the American over the English Foxhound. His letter provoked a swarm of replies by offended proponents of the English hound, but A. Henry Higginson’s published reply went a step further. Higginson offered to match his English pack, the Middlesex, against the Grafton, for “love, money, or marbles—in any fair hunting country in America.” So was born the Great English–American Hound Match of 1905, which was held in the Piedmont country.

A. Henry Higginson, a prolific writer,

edited the first five Foxhound Kennel

Studbooks of America while president

of the MFHA. Collection Masters of


MFHA.indb 10 6/3/09 12:35:30 AM

11


When it was over, after six days of hunting, no foxes were killed by either pack. Smith’s American pack was awarded the trophy by the judges, who determined that his hounds did “the best work with the object of killing the fox.” Of greater significance, though, is the fact that the obscure Middleburg–Upperville area of Virginia was brought to the attention of sportsmen and -women across the country. Newspapers in all the major cities carried daily reports of the match, and sporting magazines sent correspondents to cover the event.

Smith’s mastership of the Piedmont was not long-lived. The Harrimans and other wealthy hunting fami-lies from New York State’s Orange County had already discovered the incomparable hunting countries around Middleburg and The Plains, and they cared not a hoot that Smith had formally registered territory with the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association. Their Orange County hounds, under the mastership of John R. Townsend, made incursions into Piedmont’s country and drew coverts within its boundaries. Smith was outraged and protested to the Association, but the NS&HA was either unable or unwilling to become involved. Smith resigned his master-ship, sold his pack to Townsend for the largest sum ever paid for a pack of foxhounds, and determined to create an Association that would be willing to take control of the

sport of foxhunting and adjudicate disputes.

Smith wrote: “I determined that no other sportsman in America should be obliged to submit to the hostile, unfair and unsportsmanlike treatment that had been thrust upon me by Mr. Townsend. I at once went to work to found the Masters of Foxhounds Association, which would take juris-diction over the sport, exist for that purpose alone and be controlled by the Masters themselves, not by the members of the Jockey Club or the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association.

The Modern Era (1907 to 2007)In October 1906, Harry Worcester Smith mailed a notice to Masters polling them on their willingness to associ-ate, requesting descriptions of their hunting countries and calling the first meeting of the Masters of Foxhounds Association. On February 14, 1907, six Masters met at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at Smith’s invitation and formed an Association generally along the lines of the English

The urbane and diplomatic Henry

Vaughan conducted the business

of the MFHA from his law office in

Boston from 1907 until his death

in 1938. Collection Masters of


MFHA.indb 11 6/3/09 12:35:30 AM

12


Masters of Foxhounds Association. In addition to Smith, the founders were Louis Baetjer, Westmoreland Davis, R. Penn Smith, Henry Vaughan and W. Austin Wadsworth.

Wadsworth was elected president; Smith, chairman of the Hunt Committee; and Vaughan, secretary-treasurer. The business of the MFHA was conducted in Boston, where Henry Vaughan maintained his law office. Thomas Hitchcock succeeded Wadsworth as president the fol-lowing year, held the office for three years and was suc-ceeded by Smith, who ultimately stepped down in 1915. The stalwart constant through these early years was Henry Vaughan, MFH of the Norfolk Hunt in Massachusetts.

As secretary-treasurer, Vaughan traveled extensively for the MFHA and also for the NS&HA, of which he became vice chairman in 1918. He judged hound trials, arbitrated hunt territorial disputes and officiated at race meets. In 1931 he became the fifth president of the MFHA, a post he held until his death in 1938. Vaughan epitomized the urbane gen-tleman-sportsman and was perhaps the most widely respected and warmly regarded ambassador of the sport at the time.

The terms of the first three presidents—Wadsworth, Hitchcock and Smith—were characterized by the fledg-ling Association’s efforts, mostly unsuccessful, to take over certain hunt-related functions from the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association.


13


W. Austin Wadsworth was an obvious choice to be the first president. He was, at the turn of the 20th century, considered the “Dean of American foxhunting.” And the Genesee Valley, which he controlled, was the center of gravity of American foxhunting at the time.

After one year, Wadsworth stepped down and Thomas Hitchcock was elected president. A renowned sportsman, Hitchcock captained the United States’s first international polo team in 1886. He was the top owner–trainer of stee-plechase horses of the time. He served as Master of the Meadow Brook on Long Island and the Aiken Hounds in South Carolina, where hounds still run through the beauti-ful Hitchcock Woods.

After three years of the Hitchcock presidency, Harry Worcester Smith was elected president. He served in that capacity for four years, until 1915, when he resigned. During his term he pursued two primary goals: to wrest control of (1) hunting boundaries and (2) the recognition of hunts from the NS&HA and to bring those functions under MFHA aus-pices. He wasn’t able to achieve either goal. Although Smith was a fearless rider, physically energetic and intellectually creative, he was, as described by author–historian Alexander Mackay-Smith, “egotistical, even offensive in manner and temperament.” Perhaps his personality was an obstacle to accomplishing that which required diplomacy. However, he

must be given credit for establishing the structure that even-tually was able to take over those important functions and for introducing many other sporting innovations, hound shows and related associations.

Harry Worcester Smith’s long-time adversary, A. Henry Higginson, succeeded him as president of the MFHA on February 15, 1915. By 1918 Higginson was able to convince the NS&HA to turn over the recording of hunt territory bound-

Opposite: Henry Vaughan’s law clerk

(and first clerk of the Association),

Joe Jones, was a talented illustrator

as well. Here is his interpretation of

the Great English–American Hound

Match of 1905. (Reproduced from

Alexander Mackay-Smith, Masters

of Foxhounds, 1980.)

William Plunket Stewart pioneered a

culture of conservation and preserva-

tion in his Pennsylvania hunt, the

Cheshire, and provided an early model

for foxhunting. Collection Masters

of Foxhounds Association.

MFHA.indb 13 6/3/09 12:35:34 AM

14


aries to the MFHA but gaining control of the hunt recognition process took a bit longer—16 years, in fact. The NS&HA was loath to give up the dues paid to them annually by the recog-nized hunts to maintain their status. It was Henry Vaughan dur-ing his term as president, who, in 1934, was able to bring the recognition of hunts under the MFHA’s purview by agreeing that a portion of the annual dues would continue to be paid to the Hunt Committee of the NH&SA, which committee would continue to handle all racing matters for the recognized hunts.

Higginson was a most prolific writer on all aspects of the sport of foxhunting. He wrote memoirs, histories, informa-tive books and even fiction. He credits himself as the editor of the first five Foxhound Kennel Stud Books of America, surely one of the Associations most vital functions.

Higginson remained true to his admiration for the English Foxhound by refusing to register any American hounds in the first four Stud Books. In fairness, it must be acknowl-edged that the breeding records for American hounds were incomplete and inconsistent at the time. By comparison, English Foxhound pedigrees were available from the meticu-lously compiled Kennel Stud Book (England), first published there in 1866. Still, it is interesting to note that the field trial foxhunters were able to publish no less than four American Foxhound stud books over the 33-year period prior to 1931, the date when American hounds were finally included in

A complete horseman, J. Watson

Webb was a member of the immensely

successful U.S. international polo

team in the 1920s. Collection Masters


MFHA.indb 14 6/3/09 12:35:35 AM

15


the MFHA’s Stud Book (Volume V) and the year in which Higginson stepped down as president of the Association.

The American Foxhound Club (1912)Because the MFHA at the time was strongly influenced by the northern hunts with their propensity for English hounds, it was left to the southern hunts to organize the effort to legitimize their American Foxhound for mounted foxhunters. In 1912, Joseph B. Thomas founded the American Foxhound Club “to encourage the systematic breeding and general use of American Foxhounds in the United States.” The AFC—precursor of today’s Foxhound Club of North America—started many of our important sanctioned hound shows, among them Bryn Mawr (Pennsylvania) in 1914 and Virginia in 1934.

In 1911, Boston-born Joseph B. Thomas had bought a farm in Middleburg, Virginia—Huntland—and had begun construction of a major kennel and stable complex. Inspired by his Massachusetts friend, Harry Worcester Smith, Thomas began to assemble his pack of foxhounds with the help of his new huntsman, Charlie Carver. From 1911 to 1919, Thomas supplied the hounds for both the Piedmont and the Middleburg packs. He became Master of the Piedmont Fox Hounds in 1915 and for the next four years fielded the finest pack of American foxhounds in the country.

Like Smith, however, Thomas also fell into conflict with

a fellow Virginia Master—in this instance, Dan Sands, MFH of the Middleburg Hunt. As a result, Thomas resigned as Master of the Piedmont in 1919 and established Mr. Thomas’ Hounds at his summer kennels at Ashby’s Gap in the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. With his superb hunts-man, Charlie Carver, he began a program of hound breed-ing on a prodigious scale.

When in 1931 the MFHA finally published its first Foxhound Kennel Studbook to include American Foxhounds, Thomas submitted 182 hounds, the largest number of any of the 29 packs that maintained American hounds. According to entries in that and subsequent Foxhound Kennel Studbooks, hounds directly from Joseph B. Thomas were to be found in 32 organized packs of the time.

Joseph B. Thomas’s influence on the American foxhound was enormous. His foundation bloodlines, which he bought and bred, were mostly old Virginia and Bywaters strains. He acquired hounds of the Brooke strain from Maryland and later out-crossed to Trigg hounds, both of which undoubtedly infused the bloodlines of Mountain and Muse, the famous and highly prepotent Irish hounds imported to Maryland in 1814. Today, the progeny of Thomas’s breeding still thrive in the fin-est packs of American and Crossbred hounds in the country.

Henry Vaughan succeeded Higginson as president in 1931. Although friendly with both predecessors—Harry Worcester

MFHA.indb 15 6/3/09 12:35:35 AM

16


Smith and A. Henry Higginson—Vaughan possessed a dip-lomatic demeanor, a way of getting on with people, the likes of which neither of his friends could claim.

Smith founded the MFHA, and Higginson initiated pub-lication of the stud books and during his term as president wrested control of the recording of hunt boundaries from the NS&HA. But Smith kept his hound breeding to himself, and Higginson is not known to have ever attended an MFHA meeting. It was Vaughan as secretary–treasurer through the MFHA’s first 24 years, then as president for the next seven years, who provided the continuity for these hard-won suc-cesses, negotiated with the NS&HA to finally bring control of the hunt recognition process under the MFHA and left behind a respected and thriving Association.

Of Henry Vaughan, Richard E. Danielson, editor and publisher of The Sportsman Magazine, wrote: “A Virginia Master once said to me, ‘I think of Henry Vaughan as typi-fying the best kind of New England gentleman.’ I answered, ‘Henry is the best kind of New England gentleman, but he isn’t typical. There is only one Henry Vaughan.’ ”

Hunt Staff Benefit Foundation (1929)The roots of the MFHA’s Hunt Staff Benefit Foundation go back to 1929, when A. Henry Higginson wrote to Lord Bathurst in England, asking for organizational and operational

details of the Hunt Servants Benefit Foundation in operation there. The first attempt to raise funds was made at the MFHA annual dinner in 1930. Mr. (later, Lord) David Davies, MFH of Mr. David Davies’ Hounds in England, generously sent two of his Welsh foxhounds under the care of his huntsman, Jack Davies, to New York to be auctioned. The first hound, Mr. David Davies’ Furrier 1927, was auctioned and sent back to auction twice by the successful bidders. Almost $3,000 was raised, and, after the third time through, the final suc-cessful bidder presented the hound to Henry Vaughan, who gracefully accepted it for the Norfolk Hunt.

Furrier is the broken-coated foxhound in the foreground of the Neilson portrait of Henry Vaughan that hangs in the Vaughan Room, named in his memory. Originally set up in the Brook Club in New York, the Vaughan Room was later moved to the Knickerbocker Club in New York. The Vaughan Room is currently located in the Carriage House at Morven Park, Leesburg, Virginia.

Growth and Consolidation (1938 to 1968)William Plunket Stewart was elected president of the Association upon the death of Henry Vaughan. He had been a whipper-in to his brother, Redmond—who estab-lished the Green Spring Valley Hounds near Baltimore, Maryland—as early as the turn of the century. Redmond,

MFHA.indb 16 6/3/09 12:35:35 AM

17


recognized as the foremost amateur hunts-man of his time, hunted American hounds with bloodlines that traced back to the pre-mier foundations of the breed. Both broth-ers were leading race riders over timber.

Determined to find a suitable hunting country of his own, Plunket Stewart scoured the Pennsylvania counties of Chester and Delware, ultimately discovering the mag-nificent Unionville country where, in 1912, Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds made their first appearance.

More important than the enduring repu-tation for sport he gained with his pack, however, were his achievements in orga-nizing and preserving his hunting coun-try. Individuals wishing to hunt with the Cheshire were encouraged to invest in a land company, the funds of which were used to buy farms that became available in the country. Only after (1) refencing the land with post-and-rail timber set well back from the road to allow passage for horses and safe takeoffs and landings into and out of the fields and (2) recording easements that

Above: As early as 1949, Gilbert

Mather recognized the need for a

public relations effort to correct mis-

conceptions and ill-conceived preju-

dices against foxhunting. Collection

Masters of Foxhounds Association.

Fletcher Harper was one of the great

breeders of the American Foxhound.

Collection Masters of Foxhounds

Association.


18


guaranteed hunting rights in perpetuity for the Cheshire hounds, were the farms put back on the market.

This culture of conservation, embraced by the Cheshire hunt members, has endured as Plunket Stewart’s legacy to foxhunt-ing, and has been fiercely preached and practiced to present times by his step-daughter, Mrs. John B. (Nancy) Hannum, during her 58-year tenure as MFH of the Cheshire.

During Plunket Stewart’s term as president, a resolution was passed at the January 1944 meeting of the Executive Committee endorsing “the proposition of urging member hunts to consider seriously the thought of encouraging juniors to take an active interest in hunting by organizing them within each hunt.” This was the first formal statement by the MFHA, acknowledging the importance of making foxhunting more easily available to juniors.

Ten years later, in 1954, the United States Pony Clubs were established by three foxhunters: Mrs. Dean Bedford, MFH, Elkridge–Harford Hunt (Maryland); Colonel Howard Fair, Field Master, Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds; and Alexander Mackay-Smith, MFH, Blue Ridge Hunt (Virginia). The fol-lowing year, Mackay-Smith, in his capacity as District Director of the MFHA, proposed that the MFHA endorse the aims and purposes of the U.S. Pony Clubs. It was resolved that “the Masters of Foxhounds Association commends the program and achievements of the United States Pony Clubs,

Inc., and recommends to its members including all active Masters, the establishment in their localities of member clubs affiliated with the National organization.”

In 1947 Plunket Stewart convinced the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association to cancel that part of the 1933 agreement negotiated by Henry Vaughan that entitled them to a portion of the annual membership dues received by the MFHA. That was a meaningful financial benefit to the MFHA, as the Association had lost 25 per-cent of its member hunts (and their corresponding rev-enues) as a result of World War II.

The other part of that 1933 agreement, of course, was that the MFHA would take over control of the hunt rec-ognition process from the NS&HA. However, in the 14 years since the agreement was concluded, the MFHA had not formulated its own standards for hunt recognition. This was the job facing Stewart’s successor as president.

J. Watson Webb, MFH of the Shelburne Hounds in Vermont, became president of the MFHA upon Stewart’s death in 1948. Webb, along with Thomas Hitchcock, Jr., was a member of the U.S. international polo team that brought the International Challenge Cup back to America from England in 1921 and successfully defended it in 1924 and 1927. Webb was a complete horseman and Master of the Shelburne Hounds for more than 50 years.

Opposite: Vernon Sharp was the first

southerner to be elected president

of the MFHA. He was an all-around

athlete and a former captain of the

Vanderbilt University (Tennessee)

football team. Collection Masters of


MFHA.indb 18 6/3/09 12:35:37 AM

19


MFHA Clerk Joseph J. Jones wrote that Webb took office at a time when “a definite change was taking place in the fox hunting world.... Many hunts were being forced out of their hunting countries by housing developments or industries. Some found new countries while others had to go out of existence. A new generation was beginning to take over, and the sport was spreading out into new ter-ritories, especially to the South and Midwest. Some new groups had knowledge of what it was all about, while oth-ers had no idea of what organized fox hunting consisted of and looked to the Association for guidance.”

Webb set about having written standards prepared that MFHA District Directors could use in deciding whether or not hunts qualified for registration or recognition. The new standards, approved in 1949, were significantly more rigorous than the rather casual criteria used in the past that undoubtedly varied with the whims of each director.

Gilbert Mather succeeded J. Watson Webb and served as MFHA president from 1954 until his death in 1959. Mather had earlier proposed the formation of a public relations organization to promote foxhunting. In 1949, he produced a pamphlet titled Organized Foxhunting in America. Intended to correct the misconceptions and ill-conceived prejudices against foxhunting, the pamphlet was sent to sports writ-ers and editors as a guide to writing and editing articles on

foxhunting. During his term as president, efforts continued to educate and inform both fox-hunters and nonfoxhunters of the place of the red fox in the ecosystem and the facts about foxhunting.

Fletcher Harper agreed to fill the balance of Gilbert Mather’s term as president upon the lat-ter’s death. Although pressed by the executive committee, he declined, at age 85, to stand for reelection to a full term. A Master of the Orange County Hunt for 32 years, he had transformed that hunt from an enterprise of New York families —outsiders—with little stake in the countryside over which they hunted to an institution rooted in the community and forever protective of it.

Harper, with his great huntsman Duke Leach, built up the superb pack of red ring-necked American hounds that are so greatly admired to this day. Mackay-Smith credits

MFHA.indb 19 6/3/09 12:35:38 AM

20


Harper as the first Master to develop a pack of American hounds as mannerly and as biddable as an English pack, an achievement noted at the time by the arch enemy of the American hound, A. Henry Higginson.

In 1960, another Mass achusetts sportsman, William Almy, became president of the MFHA. Master and huntsman of the Quansett Hounds, with country overlooking Rhode Island Sound, Almy was only 22 years old when he was elected to membership in the MFHA. Almost 30 years later, having

hunted packs of English, Crossbred, and American hounds in Quansett, Myopia and Groton (all in Massachusetts) and Culpeper and Warrenton (in Virginia), Almy had achieved a reputation as the leading amateur huntsman in North America. He was a much sought-after judge for hound shows and horse shows (including the National Horse Show) and was kept busy as a steward at race meets around the country.

Almy’s term of office brought to a close this 30-year period of relative calm, constructive growth and consolida-tion. As his term neared its tenth and final year, a ground-swell of new ideas led by a group of “young Turks” put events in motion that would result in a major upheaval in MFHA policy and operation.

New Mandates (1968 to 1994)This period starts with a traumatic battle of wills to limit the term of president to four years and ends with the relo-cation of the Association offices from Boston to Virginia. During this time, Association leaders were preparing for the MFHA to become a more proactive force in ensur-ing the future of foxhunting, and John Glass, Clerk and Keeper of the Stud Book, began his effort to computerize the Stud Book pedigrees.

In December of 1968, Sherman Haight, MFH and C.G. Rice, ex-MFH, acting on behalf of a group of senior


21


Masters, read a prepared statement to the Executive Committee. This far-seeing statement asserted the group’s belief that the MFHA was not sufficiently proactive for the good of the sport.

They noted a 25 percent increase in the number of per-sons coming to the sport in just two years—all newcomers. They noted the many new Masters taking posts of leader-ship in their hunts with little experience themselves. The statement went on to say, “It is felt that the Association leadership has taken a passive rather than active part in helping to meet these problems. The membership looks to the elected officials to generate and implement the proper influence, leadership and climate.”

The statement concluded with a list of issues they felt the Association should address: leadership, improved communications, educational forums, texts and guide-lines for governance and public relations, assistance and encouragement to new hunts, closer liaison between the Association and all Masters and encouragement of the young entry—the future of the sport.

At the January 1969 meeting the very next month, Almy was reelected to what would be his final year in office, a period spanning 24 years of continuous service in various capacities. First Vice President Newell J. Ward, Jr., MFH of the Middleburg Hunt, had served effectively in office

for 21 years, but chose not to stand for reelection since he had been unable to attend Annual Meetings for a couple of years. Venerated though these foxhunting icons were, many members believed that changes were needed.

Alexander Mackay-Smith made a proposal from the floor that the term of president be limited to one term of three years. Almy, just reelected, appointed a committee to review the constitution and bylaws. Stuart S. Janney, Jr., a four-time winner of the Maryland Gold Cup, was chosen to chair the committee. Also serving on the committee were MFHs Mrs. John B. Hannum and Wilbur Ross Hubbard.

Mr. Hubbard presented the proposed new constitution and bylaws at the October meeting that year. He found himself defending the proposed changes against the oppo-sition of President Almy. The die was cast for the mem-bership to vote on the new constitution and bylaws at the next annual meeting in January 1970. Mr. Almy declined to be considered for reelection.

At the January 1970 Annual Meeting, William P. Wadsworth, MFH of the Genesee Valley Hunt and son of the MFHA’s first president, W. Austin Wadsworth, was elected president. Wadsworth was a popular choice, and it was felt that he was well equipped to heal the rift between those members that wanted to limit terms of office and the traditionalists resisting the changes.

Alexander Mackay-Smith was a

student of foxhunting and America’s

most prolific writer on the subject.

His book, The American Foxhound:

1747–1967, remains a treasured

classic for American hound breeders.

Courtesy Mrs. Alexander (Marilyn)

Mackay-Smith.

Opposite: Harry Nicholas, Jr., was

from a keen foxhunting family and,

in addition to serving the MFHA as

president, he also served as president

of the U.S. Pony Clubs. Collection

Masters of Foxhounds Association.

MFHA.indb 21 6/3/09 12:35:39 AM

22


The constitutional amendments proposed by Janney’s committee were all approved at this meeting by the mem-bership, except the amendment that proposed term limits for president and vice presidents. Although the majority voted in favor of term limits, the vote was so close—140 for, 130 against—it was decided to resubmit that amend-

ment the following year with a more complete explanation of its purpose. The single-term amendment was adopted the following year, and an entirely new philosophy of Association management and mission was in place.

Upon William P. Wads worth’s decision not to accept the nomination for another term as president, Vernon Sharp, MFH of the Hillsboro Hounds in Tennessee was elected. His election was both popular and logical; he had served as first vice president under Wadsworth. More significantly though, it was a milestone; he was the first southerner to assume leadership of the MFHA since its inception in 1907.

An all-around athlete, Sharp had been captain of the Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) football team of 1927. It was his wife who brought him to foxhunting, and, according to Henry Hooker, MFH of the Hillsboro, Sharp became a dis-ciple of Hillsboro’s founder and Master, Mason Houghland. The MFHA was shaking off its somnolent years as an “old boys club,” and absolute control of the Association by sportsmen from the North was evaporating.

Harry Nicholas, Jr., was elected president in 1975. Raised in the Meadow Brook country of Long Island, his father was Master of that pack and later the Harford (now the Elkridge–Harford) Hunt in Maryland. His mother and sister were keen foxhunters and his brother, Fred, was a Joint-Master of the Radnor Hunt (Pennsylvania). Harry, Jr., married the former

Sherman Haight, Jr., recognized the

need to transform the Association into

a more proactive force for foxhunting.


23


Josephine Auchincloss, MFH of the Pickering Hunt and soon joined her as Joint-Master there. He also served as a Pony Club District Commissioner, was chairman of the first International Exchange Committee and was ultimately elected president of the U.S. Pony Clubs.

In 1978, Sherman Haight was elected president. Haight was another MFHA leader from a dedicated foxhunting family. His father, his father-in-law, and his brother were all Masters; his mother followed hounds both in the U.S. and in England; and Sherman was Master and huntsman of Mr. Haight’s Litchfield County Hounds in Connecticut. A prime mover in the effort to establish term limits and true to his call for a more proactive agenda of service to the mem-bers on behalf of foxhunting, Haight introduced a flurry of new initiatives during his term and afterwards.

He was a dedicated student of genetics and kennel man-agement, and, along with John Daniels, Haight edited the first Foxhound Kennel Notebook published by the MFHA. Also, during his term as president, the MFHA held its first Foxhunting Study Weekend, now known as the Biennial Staff Seminar.

Haight also championed the notion of the MFHA estab-lishing a museum for hounds and hunting. Although the idea was beyond the financial capabilities of the MFHA at the time, Haight’s tireless work along with that of Alexander

Mackay-Smith and Dr. Joseph Rogers, MFH, led, in 1983, to the establishment of the Museum of Hounds & Hunting by the Westmoreland Davis Foundation at Morven Park.

Haight also established the currently practiced policy of a maximum of two terms for directors. His term as Association president ended at the Annual Meeting in New York in 1981,

Benjamin H. Hardaway III anticipated

the impending confrontation between

hunting and animal rights activism.

Private collection.

MFHA.indb 23 6/3/09 12:35:43 AM

24


and he was succeeded by Benjamin H. Hardaway III, who promptly introduced the assembled ladies and gentleman to some plain talk. In his first speech as president, and in answer to those who urged a different venue for the Annual Meeting, Hardaway said, “The MFHA is alive and well in New York City, and would not become a floating crap game!”

Hardaway, who presided over one of the largest engi-neering companies in the country, was a master at disarm-ing adversaries with his earthy “good old boy” language and then devastating them with the intellect he concealed behind that facade. It was Hardaway who introduced the MFHA to the Wildlife Legislative Fund (now the United States Sportsman’s Alliance) and promoted its value in what he saw as an impending confrontation between hunting and animal rights activism. He brought professional lobbyists to address directors’ meetings and explain the legislative process.

Hardaway became a director of the WLF in 1982. In the conviction that MFHA members should receive the WLF newsletter to waken their awareness to this threat that he saw so clearly, he persuaded the Association to contribute to the WLF to help defray the mailing costs. While some members were wary of the WLF’s stance in support of trapping, Hardaway and others formulated the important policy of coalition-building and mutual support amongst all sportsmen. He warned against allowing ourselves to be

MFHA.indb 24 6/3/09 12:35:45 AM

25


divided and succumbing to the activists’ strategy of taking down our sports one at a time.

During Hardaway’s term, the officers and directors approved, in 1983, the implementation of a computerized stud book and hound registration process. John Glass, Clerk of the Association, must be credited with writing the first software program to accomplish this. He had argued that such a system would save time in producing the annual stud book. This was an important step that reaped great benefits. Today, any interested individual can log onto the MFHA Web site, access the database of nearly 70,000 foxhounds, and print pedigrees of hounds and even imaginary pedi-grees resulting from proposed matings.

In 1984, C. William Bermingham, MFH of the Eglinton & Caledon Hunt in Ontario, became the first Canadian to be elected president of the MFHA. In his remarks at the annual meeting, Bermingham thanked the members for the honor of leading the Association that served two countries, noting that there was no international border between North American foxhunters—only the borders between adjacent hunts!

At the urging of Director C. Martin Wood III, the MFHA Educational Foundation was established in May 1984 to support the publication of educational materials. Former MFHA president Ben Hardaway led the Foundation through its early years. Panel discussions among leaders of the sport

were organized on a variety of subjects, from hound breed-ing to responding to animal rights provocations. Many were recorded, published, and eagerly read by foxhunters around the country. Sherman Haight’s dream of making the MFHA proactive and communicative was being fulfilled. Still more was to come.

C. Martin Wood III promoted

the establishment of the MFHA

Educational Foundation. The

Foundation supports the publication

of books and educational materials

and organizes educational seminars.

Collection Masters of Foxhounds

Association.

Opposite: C. William Bermingham

(right) was the first Canadian to

be elected president of the MFHA.

Richard D. Webb (left) urged mem-

bers to find ways of reconnecting the

U.S. Pony Clubs to the sport

of foxhunting. Collection Masters



26


One panel discussion noted the increase in coyotes in more and more hunting countries, a warning about what could be expected. Still in the future for most hunts were special breeding considerations, new responsibilities for whippers-in, and such innovations as radios, tracking col-lars and road whips.

At the end of his term as president, Bermingham said, “Among the many things that make the MFHA a unique association of ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the most important is tradition. If we all strive to maintain the important traditions of foxhunting, including courtesy and

good sportsmanship, the sport will continue to thrive....”Richard D. Webb, MFH of the Moore County Hounds in

Southern Pines, North Carolina, succeeded Bermingham as president in January 1987. Webb was concerned about the declining numbers of juniors in the hunting field. He was particularly discouraged that the Pony Clubs seemed to be on a diverging path from foxhunting, and he worked throughout his term to reverse that trend.

At the October meeting in 1987, Director James L. Young, MFH of the Orange County Hunt in Virginia, pro-posed moving the MFHA offices from Boston to Morven Park near Leesburg, Virginia. Although there was no agreement reached at that meeting, a committee consisting of Young, Wood, Haight and Neil Ayer, MFH of Myopia in Massachusetts, was appointed to look into the proposal. Despite the initial resistance of several of the officers and directors, Young continued to spearhead the effort. At the January 1988 meeting, it was voted that Young should continue to work out the details with the Westmoreland Davis Foundation with a goal of moving by June of 1990. The move took place in the summer of 1991.

At the conclusion of Webb’s term, he was both opti-mistic yet concerned. On the positive side, he noted that he represented the last of his generation to be holding the reins and that a new generation of “youth and fair ladies”

James L. Young led the effort that

relocated the MFHA office from Boston

to Morven Park in Virginia and was

the prime mover in establishing the

annual Hunting Habitat Conservation

Award. Collection Masters of


MFHA.indb 26 6/3/09 12:35:48 AM

27


Clerk of the Association John Glass

prepared the MFHA for the

21st century by computerizing the

Stud Book pedigrees.

were taking over. He was still worried, however, about the Pony Clubs getting further from hunting and appealed for action on that front.

C. Martin Wood III, MFH of the Live Oak Hounds in Monticello, Florida, succeeded Webb as president. Wood started his hunting career under Hardaway’s tutelage and was very much in concert with the latter’s concerns about the need to prepare for the coming attacks on hunting by animal rights advocates. In his first remarks as president, Wood spoke at the 1990 annual meeting of his desire to: (1) see the end of territorial disputes, (2) counter antihunting activism, (3) position the Association for the next century, and (4) protect and promote the sport.

In 1989, Wood had joined Hardaway on the board of the Wildlife Legislative Fund, and both men continued to pro-mote support of the WLF and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus within the Association. During Wood’s term, the MFHA offices were moved to Morven Park, there was steady growth in member hunts and steps were undertaken to bring the MFHA and the Pony Clubs more closely together.

James L. Young, MFH succeeded Wood in 1993 and pledged support of MFHA principles and to fight for land conservation. His was a term of transition and of imple-menting new initiatives. Under Young’s watch the new

Association offices were made operational; a new execu-tive director was hired upon John Glass’s retirement; a formal MFHA periodical publication, Covertside, made its debut; and the annual Hunting Habitat Conservation Award, jointly sponsored by The Chronicle of the Horse, was introduced.

Expanding the Mission (1994 to Present)In June of 1991, the MFHA offices were moved from Boston to Morven Park near Leesburg, Virginia. John Glass, Clerk of the Association, who managed the day-to-day affairs of the office and published the annual Foxhound Kennel Studbook, relocated from Massachusetts to Virginia and remained in his post until 1994, retiring after more than 20 years of service. Lt. Col. Dennis Foster (USA-Ret.) was hired at that time to fulfil the newly created position of executive director. Under Foster’s administration, the scope of the Association’s func-tions and responsibilities has expanded substantially.

In May of the same year, Norman Fine presented a pro-posal to the MFHA directors suggesting the publication of a quarterly newsletter, Covertside, to provide a voice for North American foxhunting. Fine argued that there were many thousands of foxhunters around the country who might never aspire to become Masters or hunt staff, and, therefore, would never become members of the MFHA,


28


but who loved the sport and would enjoy receiving news and informative articles about foxhunting. Moreover, there were serious challenges facing foxhunting, such as the animal rights movement and the loss of open space and habitat. Fine suggested that an MFHA publication would be in a position to address those issues and discuss ways that foxhunting might overcome these challenges.

MFHA President James L. Young and C. Martin Wood III, chairman of the MFHA Educational Foundation gave strong support to the initiative, and the board agreed. Fine’s first edition was dated May 1994. It consisted of four pages and was mailed to about 4,000 individuals, all the names and addresses that could be assembled at the time. The publication was well received, and within a short time most hunts had requested that their members be added to the list. The publication grew quickly to a circulation of 15,000. Today Covertside is an award-winning quarterly magazine that reaches virtually all subscribers and sup-porters of MFHA-registered and -recognized hunts.

Through the 1990s, North American foxhunters watched with alarm as the animal rights offensive against foxhunt-ing gained momentum in England. For years, the strat-egy followed by the English foxhunting establishment was to keep a low profile and remain unengaged from the rhetoric. In retrospect, it is probably safe to say that

Above: Norman Fine created the

Association’s magazine, Covertside,

in 1994 and has served as editor since

that time.

In 1994, Lt. Col. Dennis Foster

became executive director of the

MFHA. Through his efforts, the

scope and scale of the Association’s

functions and responsibilities has

expanded considerably.


29


most sportsmen in England now feel that was the wrong approach. One thing is certain: it didn’t work.

By the time the Countryside Alliance there took the fight to the enemy, it was too late. On February 18, 2005, the Labour government’s ban on hunting with hounds went into effect. The bill does allow hunting with hounds under certain circumstances and following certain procedures, and hunts in England are exploiting every aspect of this poorly conceived law to keep their sport alive.

Dr. John W. D. McDonald, MFH of the London Hunt in Ontario, succeeded Young as MFHA president in 1996. With the Association reaching out to foxhunters across North America through Covertside, McDonald appointed District Director Mason Lampton to head a committee charged with investigating how the Association might become still more inclusive. Lampton’s Expansion Committee was asked to work out a plan whereby another category of MFHA membership open to any enthusiastic sportsman, whether or not a Master, could be offered. The goal was to bond those willing to help defend and protect the sport into a common force and to raise funds to oppose antihunting legislative initiatives wherever they arise.

The work of the Expansion Committee resulted in the establishment of the MFHA’s subscribing member pro-gram, formally instituted in 2001. Within five months, the

program had attracted nearly 1,000 members. After the first year, there were more than 2,000 subscribing members, and the membership has grown steadily since.

With the goals and activities of the MFHA expanding rapidly, John Glass’s successor, Dennis Foster, redefined the position. Opportunities for action now extended well beyond the traditional MFHA business of stud book pub-lication and the registration of hunts and territories. With

Dr. John W. D. McDonald directed the

formation of a committee to create a

category of Association membership for

all foxhunting enthusiasts. The MFHA’s

subscribing membership is the result

of that initiative. Collection Masters


MFHA.indb 29 6/3/09 12:36:00 AM

30


a background in military intelligence, Foster was perfectly suited to investigate and expose the deceptive agendas of organizations like the supposedly benign Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), as well as the insidious and often unlawful practices of the more militant organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Foster traveled to England during their protracted strug-gle against the ban and offered whatever help he could. Soon he was an invited speaker across North America, England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, educating hunt clubs, Masters’ associations, and other world sport-ing coalitions about the many animal rights organizations, their agendas and their strategies.

In 1999, J.W.Y. “Duck” Martin, MFH of the Green Spring Valley Hounds in Maryland, was elected president of the Association. Martin is an outstanding horseman and a former winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup, the stiffest timber race in the world. Quiet, even-tempered and level-headed, he needed all those faculties when Leishmaniasis broke upon the foxhunting world the following year.

A disease confined primarily to canines, but able to infect humans as well, Leishmaniasis brought a total ces-sation of interhunt activities, including hound shows and breeding activities until the foxhunting world educated itself and took steps to bring the disease under control.

Martin made the hard but responsible decisions, not all of them popular. The MFHA worked closely with the Federal Center for Disease Control and contributed funds to the joint effort. With the help of veterinarian Dr. G. Marvin Beeman, MFH of the Arapahoe Hunt in Colorado, pro-tocols and criteria were established by which each hunt could evaluate its hounds and determine, after the first year’s quarantine, whether or not they could safely par-ticipate once again in interhunt events.

MFHA history was made in 2002, when Mrs. C. Martin Wood III, MFH of the Live Oak Hounds in Florida, was elected president—the first woman to lead the Association. Faced with a substantial increase in office rent at Morven Park, Mrs. Wood responded boldly. Rather than seeking other rentals, the MFHA purchased an investment prop-erty in Clarke County, Virginia, complete with office facil-ities and housing for the executive director. The purchase proved to be a wise move. Appreciation has exceeded the Association’s other investment vehicles, and, even with expenses and improvements, has produced a positive financial result.

Mason Lampton, MFH of the Midland Fox Hounds in Georgia, succeeded Wood in 2005 and serves as the current MFHA president. Lampton is the grandson of Mason Houghland, founder of the Hillsboro Hounds in

Opposite: J.W.Y. “Duck” Martin,

a former winner of the Maryland

Hunt Cup, dealt with the outbreak of

Leishmaniasis in foxhound kennels

and took the requisite steps to bring a

serious situation under control.

MFHA.indb 30 6/3/09 12:36:00 AM

31


Mrs. C. Martin (Daphne) Wood III

became the first woman elected

president of the MFHA. She spear-

headed the purchase of property by the

MFHA, resulting in the move of the

Association office from Morven Park

to Berryville, Virginia.


32


Tennessee, and is the son-in-law of former MFHA presi-dent Ben Hardaway.

Concerned with the increasing shortage of qualified hunt staff, Lampton launched a hunt staff apprenticeship pro-gram under the chairmanship of Patrick Anthony Leahy, MFH of the Fox River Valley Hunt-Cornwall Hounds in Illinois. Under the year-long program, young staff mem-bers aspiring to become huntsmen are given a structured curriculum covering theory, practice and MFHA guidelines for the sport. Each apprentice is assigned a mentor hunts-man, and each has the opportunity to hunt with different huntsmen in different parts of the country to expand his or her total experience. Lampton has insisted that the program be expanded to include new Masters as well, and the first

seminar for new Masters was held in conjunction with the 2006 Biennial Hunt Staff Seminar.

By any measure, however, President Lampton’s term of office will always be defined by the MFHA Centennial Celebration. Carrying on with the theme emphasized so forcefully by Hardaway, then Wood, and pursued so vig-orously by Foster—the threat to the future of foxhunting by animal rights activists—Lampton seized upon the 100th anniversary of the founding of the MFHA to provide a vehi-cle for raising a sizeable war chest of funds to finance fox-hunting’s defense. His premise was that foxhunters would be willing to combine a fun-filled year of centennial activi-ties with a willingness to contribute to the future of the sport. Lampton’s “hallucination,” as his Centennial Committee Chairman René Latiolais called it, was a complete success by any measure, from the well-attended activities that drew foxhunters together all across North America to the funds contributed, so dearly needed to ensure the future.

Norman Fine is the creator and editor of the MFHA magazine Covertside. He also serves as editor of The Derrydale Press Foxhunters’ Library. He has hunted with nearly 50 hunts in the United States, Canada, Ireland and England. He makes his home in the country of the Blue Ridge Hunt (Virginia).

As this centennial book makes its

appearance, Dr. G. Marvin Beeman

leads the Association into its second

century. His challenge, and that of

those who follow, will be the pres-

ervation of our sport, our hunting

culture and our open spaces.

MFHA.indb 32 6/3/09 12:36:04 AM

33


The immensely successful centennial

celebration and fund-raising effort

is entirely the result of Mason H.

Lampton’s imagination, vision and

unparalleled ability to inspire talented

people to work and contribute.

MFHA.indb 33 6/3/09 12:36:05 AM

"tally-ho back!" foxhunting in north america and the mfha, by

Documents