‘The dam's the secret'

As huntsmen’s thoughts turn to which hounds to breed from, Frank Houghton Brown stresses the importance of using the very best bitches

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HUNTSMEN and those people tasked with breeding the hounds have now had the autumn hunting season to assess their hounds. They will have had some idea of which bitches to breed from and what stallion hounds to use from the previous season. Work is the principle driver in decisionmaking and, during the autumn in tough scenting conditions, it’s the perfect time to get close to the action and see which hounds are the top performers, have the heaviest voices or the lowest scenting ability.

One of the foremost hound breeders of the 20th century, the 10th Duke of Beaufort, wrote, “When talking of hound breeding, it is necessary to begin at the beginning and think first of a bitch for brood purposes.”

Tom Sebright, a famous huntsman of the Fitzwilliam hounds, was even more forthright and used to tell any young upand-coming huntsmen, “Ah my lad, the dam’s the secret.”

With this in mind, those packs with strong female lines are at an advantage. The tail-female denotes the mother of the mother in an unbroken chain on the bottom line of the family tree, and this golden thread has reinforced the qualities of the brood bitch over generations, hence its value.

Lord Middleton was master of the Warwickshire when he bred the famous Warwickshire Comfort 1820. This bitch came with him to Yorkshire and the Middleton hounds still have five different female lines that go back to Comfort.

Anne Henson was brought in to the Middleton mastership by Lord Halifax in 1960 at the tender age of 19.

“Charles Halifax would take me to the kennels every Sunday morning and he was adamant about the importance of our female lines and how we must protect them,” she says.

Lt Col Malcolm “Peach” Borwick took the hounds when the ninth Lord Middleton gave up the mastership in 1921, and Anne believes the retention of the female lines is largely down to Borwick’s influence.