Hounds, not hangovers

A fast-paced day following the RAC Beagles, a historic pack predominantly managed by students from the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester

- Mary Skipwith

THINK back to university or college days and memories of skipping lectures, partying in dubious fashion choices and nursing sore heads are likely to feature heavily. Witnessing the sunrise was most likely to happen when slinking back to digs after a particularly raucous night. While it would be foolish to suggest that such japery doesn’t occur at the Royal Agricultural University, there are students there who see the start of the day for far more wholesome reasons; with the responsibility of running the University’s pack of beagles, they are awake to tend not to hangovers but to hounds.

Despite the change in the institution’s status from college to university, the pack is still known as the RAC Beagles (RACB) and is predominantly managed by the students. One integral to the ongoing success of the pack is William Stubbs, who is huntsman as well as one of four Joint Masters. He may be young but he is far from inexperienced. “My first Season hunting the RACB was 2023-4 but I whipped-in to them the Season before,” Stubbs tells me. “Previous to that, in my gap year, I had a great Season as second whipper-in to the Dartmoor foxhounds where Harry Gosling (also a former Master of the RACB) hunts hounds. When I was at Radley I was Joint Master for three Seasons and carried the horn for my last two.”

Jumping at the opportunity to watch Stubbs in action for a day, I make the journey through the postcard-gracing beauty of the Cotswolds and arrive at the Meet a few miles away from Cirencester. I am surprised to see as many students as there are. Surely an 11am Meet on a Saturday when there are no lectures scheduled and a hunt ball later that evening puts some off attending?