Рита Браун: Hounded To Death

Draft.To acquire hounds from another hunt is to accept a draft.

Draw.The plan by which a fox is hunted or searched for in a certain area, such as a covert.

Draw over the fox.Hounds go through a covert where the fox is but cannot pick up his scent. The only creature who understands how this is possible is the fox.

Drive.The desire to push the fox, to get up with the line. It’s a very desirable trait in hounds, so long as they remain obedient.

Dually.A one-ton pickup truck with double wheels in back.

Dwell.To hunt without getting forward. A hound who dwells is a bit of a putterer.

Enter.Hounds are entered into the pack when they first hunt, usually during cubbing season.

Field.The group of people riding to hounds, exclusive of the master and hunt staff.

Field master.The person appointed by the master to control the field. Often it is the master him- or herself.

Fixture.A card sent to all dues-paying members, stating when and where the hounds will meet. A fixture card properly received is an invitation to hunt. This means the card would be mailed or handed to a member by the master.

Flea-bitten.A gray horse with spots or ticking which can be black or chestnut.

Gone away.The call on the horn when the fox leaves the covert.

Gone to ground.A fox who has ducked into his den or some other refuge has gone to ground.

Good night.The traditional farewell to the master after the hunt, regardless of the time of day.

Gyp.The female hound.

Hilltopper.A rider who follows the hunt but does not jump. Hilltoppersare also called the second field. The jumpers are called the first flight.

Hoick.The huntsman’s cheer to the hounds. It is derived from the Latin hic haec hoc, which means here.

Hold hard.To stop immediately.

Huntsman.The person in charge of the hounds, in the field and in the kennel.

Kennelman.A hunt staff member who feeds the hounds and cleans the kennels. In wealthy hunts there may be a number of kennelmen. In hunts with a modest budget, the huntsman or even the master cleans the kennels and feeds the hounds.

Lark.To jump fences unnecessarily when hounds aren’t running. Masters frown on this, since it is often an invitation to an accident.

Lieu in.Norman term for go in.

Lift.To take the hounds from a lost scent in the hopes of finding a better scent farther on.

Line.The scent trail of the fox.

Livery.The uniform worn by the professional members of the hunt staff. Usually it is scarlet, but blue, yellow, brown, and gray are also used. The recent dominance of scarlet has to do with people buying coats off the rack as opposed to having tailors cut them. (When anything is mass-produced, the choices usually dwindle, and such is the case with livery.)

Mask.The fox’s head.

Meet.The site where the day’s hunting begins.

MFH.The master of foxhounds; the individual in charge of the hunt: hiring, firing, landowner relations, opening territory (in large hunts this is the job of the hunt secretary), developing the pack of hounds, and determining the first cast of each meet. As in any leadership position, the master is also the lightning rod for criticism. The master may hunt the hounds, although this is usually done by a professional huntsman, who is also responsible for the hounds in the field and at the kennels. A long relationship between a master and a huntsman allows the hunt to develop and grow.

Nose.The scenting ability of a hound.

Override.To press hounds too closely.

Overrun.When hounds shoot past the line of a scent. Often the scent has been diverted or foiled by a clever fox.

Ratcatcher.Informal dress worn during cubbing season and bye days.

Stern.A hound’s tail.

Stiff-necked fox.One who runs in a straight line.

Strike hounds.Those hounds who through keenness, nose, and often higher intelligence find the scent first and press it.

Tail hounds.Those hounds running at the rear of the pack. This is not necessarily because they aren’t keen; they may be older hounds.

Tally-ho.The cheer when the fox is viewed. Derived from the Norman ty a hillaut, thus coming into the English language in 1066.

Tongue.To vocally pursue a fox.

View halloo( halloa).The cry given by a staff member who sees a fox. Staff may also say tally-ho or, should the fox turn back, tally-back. One reason a different cry may be used by staff, especially in territory where the huntsman can’t see the staff, is that the field in their enthusiasm may cheer something other than a fox.

Vixen.The female fox.

Walk.Puppies are walked out in the summer and fall of their first year. It’s part of their education and a delight for both puppies and staff.

Whippers-in.Also called whips, these are the staff members who assist the huntsman, who make sure the hounds “do right.”

HOUNDED

TO DEATH

CHAPTER 1

Rose twilight lingered over Shaker Village in central Kentucky, which, this Saturday, May 24, was hosting the Mid America Hound Show.

Jane Arnold, master of Jefferson Hunt Hounds in Virginia, drove alongside dry-laid stone walls, quietly relishing the village’s three thousand well-tended acres of land. It was as if the spirits of the Shakers hovered everywhere. Sister Jane, as she was known, respected the sect’s unswerving devotion to equality, peace, and love, qualities that suffused those past lives like the rose-lavender tinted twilight suffused the rolling pastures with ethereal beauty.

Pared-down functionalism, the essence of Shaker design, pure as fresh rainwater, prefigured later architectural and furniture development. Sister admired the care and intelligence the Shakers used to build their houses while fortifying their spirits with song and hard work.

Much as she admired their clean straight lines, she herself felt more at home in a mix of eighteenth-century exuberance allied with modern comfort.

She laughed to herself that her nickname, Sister Jane, meant she’d fit right in if only she could slip back in time to work alongside the Shakers. However, she’d soon have run afoul of the sisters and brothers as they did not practice sex, which had eventually resulted in the extinction of the sect. No one had ever accused Sister of being celibate.

Shaker ideas and ideals lived after them. Perhaps most people hope to leave something behind, usually in the form of progeny. But some are able to also impart inventions, artistic achievements, or new ways of seeing the same old problems.

What Sister hoped to leave behind was a love of the environment, belief in the protection of American farmland, and respect for all living creatures. Foxhunting was one of the best ways to do that because a person could inhale the best values while having more fun than the legal limit.

It pained her that so many people thought that foxes were killed in the hunt. Countless times she’d patiently explained that hunting practices in the United States were different from those in England. Given that the Mid-America Hound Show would be made up of foxhunters showing their best hounds, she breathed in relief. She wouldn’t need to have that conversation here.