It's ‘Frexit' at the Cotley

Fred Eames’s retirement as master and huntsman of his family pack, the Cotley Harriers, means it’s the end of an era for these hounds, as Will Chanter discovers

- Will Chanter

FOR many, the wilds of Devon are to be avoided for hunting. It is seemingly a place where, historically, the local populace pursued different game animals nearly the whole year round and, even more worryingly for some, apparently don’t count the number of jumps encountered.

However, for locals and converts there is no finer place to hunt and perhaps, even more so, no greater hunting community to hunt among.

While the West Country is full of “unters”, they are a factional bunch. Perhaps those who purvey the closest to unadulterated West Country charm and old-fashioned courtesy are those who hunt with the West Country harrier packs. Among those, the Cotley Harriers, with their unblemished pedigree of both hounds and huntsman, stand prominent.

The retirement of Fred Eames after 14 seasons of hunting hounds brings to an end a nearly unbroken tradition of the Eames family hunting hounds since 1797, when Fred’s great-great-great great grandfather Thomas Deane (whose daughter married an Eames) started the Cotley.

No doubt the harbingers of doom who soar over social media waiting for the carrion of hunting will cry that this really is the end, for the Cotley without an Eames seems like the Tower without its ravens, but with Fred’s cousin Mary Perry – the daughter of Vyvyan Eames – continuing in the mastership, the family connection remains.

Also retiring is Fred’s father, Edward Eames MFH, who has held office since 2000 and, very ably, started hunting hounds at the age of 52, having whipped-in since 1968. Duncan Cinnamond, the popular kennelhuntsman, goes to hunt the Albrighton and Woodland and Matt Biddiscombe will now hunt the hounds.