Time to dig deep

The lasting effect of Covid-19 on our favourite sport cannot be predicted, but history gives us much to feel positive about, says Andrew Sallis

- Catherine Austen

THIS global pandemic has been likened to a world war, only this time against an enemy we can’t see. Historians will quantify its significance, but Covid-19 certainly caught most nations napping and strained society to the limit with its expectations, resources and conventions. Its lasting economic and social effect cannot be predicted, but history suggests that the “new normal” will include our favourite sports, including hunting.

Indeed, hunting had two glorious renaissances in the 20th century, each following the world wars. Life after each war was different to before, but new challenges resulted in revitalised sport.

Hunting has always championed tradition, but evolution has been equally important. Far from declining as feared, Baily’s Hunting Directory listed 238 packs of foxhounds in 1949–1950, an increase of 10 on pre-World War II numbers.

But the post-war countryside looked different; oceans of grass were guarded by barbed wire or had fallen under the plough.

Few hunts disbanded, but the majority existed on skeleton staff. Farmers kept hunts going, providing food for the remaining hounds and horses while welcoming the hunt, though many curtailed their seasons by February in the interest of potential crop-damage. Farmers even formed their own hunts, such as the Chiddingfold Farmers in Sussex, to maintain hunting in the area.

Masters and staff disappeared off to war, leaving older and retired hunt staff and the young to maintain kennels and hunt administration. Ladies stepped up to the plate, working in kennels, taking on masterships and hunting hounds.