The lure of overseas

There are ample opportunities for huntsmen all over the world, where the trappings of success prove tempting, says Frank Houghton Brown. But is the grass always greener?

- Catherine Austen

HUNTING is a worldwide sport and huntsmen often cross international borders to practise their craft in pastures new. England exported organised hunting around the globe and has exported some of the best huntsmen as well, but the traffic has not been one-way only.

Henry Vaughan, secretary own hounds, the Middlesex in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. In 1930, he became master and huntsman of the Cattistock in Dorset. Henry states that “a number of Americans have been masters of English packs, but none have carried the horn too, as Mr Higginson does”, so this was a ground-breaking endeavour.

Alex was not from a hunting background, yet starting with beagles and then harriers and finally foxhounds, he built up of the American Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) for 17 years in the 1920s and ’30s, refers to England as “the Motherland” of hunting in the foreword for Try Back, the hunting reminiscences of Alex Henry Higginson MFH (pictured, below). Alex was chairman of the American MFHA for 17 years, and for 30 years hunted his his pack to be recognised as the premier pack of his country.

The famous huntsman and hound breeder Ikey Bell, who was also an American, even if he only hunted hounds in the UK, also wrote a foreword in Try Back. Ikey gave Alex immense credit for his accomplishments, saying that conditions for hunting hounds in America were “more difficult, fortunately for many of us, than those which are generally met with in England”.

With such a long and distinguished track record in his home country, it is clear that Alex considered his eight seasons at the Cattistock as the pinnacle of his achievements.

ACROSS THE POND