‘A remarkable standard of sport’

In the latest of his occasional series about great foxhunters he knew personally, Alastair Jackson charts the life of Anthony Martyn, master and huntsman of the Glamorgan

- Catherine austen

ANTHONY MARTYN was the perfect example of a traditional master of foxhounds in that he settled in his home county of Glamorgan and took on the mastership of that pack of hounds, which he hunted and bred himself for 30 years.

A lightweight and fine horseman, he was also a gifted huntsman who consistently showed a remarkable standard of sport.

His friendly and outgoing nature made him a popular master and he took on the duties of a magistrate, high sheriff and deputy lieutenant in the county.

In an article he wrote in his later years, Anthony remembered the surge of excitement that he felt as a small boy on first seeing the Glamorgan hounds sweeping down a field a few seasons before World War II and longing to be part of it. Although he admitted that his memory may have exaggerated the glamour and colour of the scene, they were a well-turned-out and well-mounted field and the hounds took his breath away. He asked his mother then how to become a master of hounds and she answered that if he was keen enough, it was perfectly possible.

That possibility became a fact. He acquired a 14.2hh cob that he hunted with the Glamorgan throughout the war, hacking many miles to and from hunting on roads that were virtually free of traffic. He was at school at Downside in the Mendips and whipped-in to the school pack of beagles.

At Cambridge university it wasn't long before he met Marcus Kimball, later to become a distinguished parliamentarian and field master of the Cottesmore, who was master of the university draghounds, and Anthony soon installed his own horse in Cambridge.

Marcus left university to hunt the Fitzwilliam, where Anthony hunted the following season with another new student acquaintance, Nick MacDermott. Nick became a lifelong friend and later hunted the Kildare hounds.

FIRST MASTERSHIP