Well worth a visit

Capt Ian Farquhar finds the Essex and Suffolk to be an ‘impressive show’ on his first trip to the region, as hounds run well with a really good cry

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RINGING the changes, it was fascinating last week to go to East Anglia for the first time. I will confess I have never hunted in Essex or Suffolk before; somehow it seems not to be on the way to anywhere else. But recently I had been told firmly by friends that the Essex and Suffolk is a well-organised and efficiently run hunt that has some wilder country than you would expect, and that in addition the kennels were a very good set-up and worth seeing.

So, leaving in plenty of time, we set off-early last Friday to stay with one of the joint-masters, Gillie Cranfield, whose husband Richard happens also to be the very effective hunt chairman. They have a lovely house and the most charming Bedlington terrier/lurcher who I was informed spent too much time asleep — not a family failing!

The hunt’s origins go back to Sir William Rowley, master from 1791-1800. The Essex and Suffolk were united until 1921, when they split. During World War II the Essex part of the country ceased to operate, while the Suffolk half carried on; the two packs reunited in 1946 when they moved into the kennels at Layham, where they still are today.