BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: John J
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 07:13 AM

I run with the "Cheshire Tally-Ho! Hare & Hounds" club, a running club formed in 1872 that follow cross-country trails of sawdust laid by 'Hares', see www.cheshiretallyho.org.uk for details.

The club was recently approached by the Cheshire Draghunt with a view to members of the Club laying a smelly trail for their doggies to follow. I gather the plan is that runners dragging a bag of smelly stuff (my old socks?) go out 15-30 mins before the doggies are released, and then run like hell. Hopefully the doggies don't catch the runners.

It will ceretainly be good for speed training!

John

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: gnu
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 05:31 AM

Of course, I am obliged to mention the "sport" who visited an old farmer who owned the best hound dog in the world to observe this canine in action. The dog was put to the chase, immediately picked up a scent and took off with great speed. They followed that unmistakeable sound of a hound hot on the trail until silence abruptly fell. The sport remarked that the dog must have lost the scent. The farmer raised his hand to signal "wait quietly". Shortly, the dog was heard quite a distance from where it had let up. The farmer pointed toward the area betweens howls and said, "Runnin' on posted land."

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 01:46 AM

LadyJean: I never heard the term "Kentucky fox hunting" but that sounds like what my relatives did! And they were from Kentucky! I don't think it was foxes that the dogs were after, though; more likely raccoons, possums, or rabbits. My dad and my uncles would sit on the porch at night, smoking, swapping stories, swatting mosquitoes, listening to the dogs run through the woods, and offering interpretations of what the various barks meant. They knew, or claimed to know, which dog was barking, and what the dogs were doing. They could tell when the dogs had picked up a scent, when they were in hot pursuit, and when they had "treed." Or they could have been bullshitting--how would I have known the difference? I was just a kid, listening because there was nothing else to do; there were no other kids to play with. All my cousins were much older than me, probably off in their cars somewhere. I was a city kid; this happened on our yearly visits to the farm. Over the years, I have lost touch with all my farmer relatives.

Anyway, I never knew this was a widespread practice. As far as I ever knew, the "hunt" always ended with the rabbit escaping down a hole, or the raccoon or possum escaping up a tree, so I suppose these hunts were about as humane as hunting ever got in those days.

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 11:30 PM

Ebbie --> One of the stories was one called 'The Most Dangerous Game'. [snip] story of a man who was shipwrecked onto an island guarded by vicious dogs. There his host is a man who, has a game wherein a victim is given X number of hours head start and informed that at a certain time the dogs and the host with his high-powered rifle will come after him.


I saw the movie made on this. (Don't remmember the bit about the dogs) One of friends was crazy about it because of one of the actors and/or the director. I think it was a 1930's vintage B&W movie. The point of the story is that the huntee is a world famous hunter who previously felt no mercy for his prey. I believe that the original book was a big seller in its day, some many years before.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: HuwG
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 08:02 PM

The local Mountain Rescue Teams train search dogs in the manner that Guest, Kate G describes.

Anyone who needs to be found and rescued will generally be immobile (injured, comatose, or perhaps just lying up waiting for the weather to clear. However, it is sometimes possible for them to go wandering in circles or erratically if they are lost in thick weather. And there have been one or two idiotic SAS wannabees who have treated the Mountain Rescue search teams as hostile patrols. This has usually been tactfully described in the press as "suffering delusions due to hypothermia and exposure".

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 06:52 PM

I believe the more normal system for drag hunts is they drag an appropriately smelly bag around, leaving a trail for the fox to follow. Typically fish - I think that fish has traditionally been used, hence the expression "Red Herring".

Chasing a jogger sounds more fun. But you can imagine it might be a bit nerve-racking as the hounds catch up - you'd be worried the hounds might turn out to be traditionally minded. "Now that's a bloody funny looking fox! Still, now we've caught the bugger, we'd best tear him limb from limb."

Sid Kipper suggests a variation in which the hounds chase Morris Dancers, more specifically the ones who dress up in drag.

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: GUEST,KateG
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 06:32 PM

The Mitford (Nancy, Jessica et.al.) family would have "child hunts" in which the father would hunt one of the girls with his dogs. Apparently the girls loved it but the neighbors were horrified.

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 10:39 AM

It was the Hollywood movie with Val Kilmer that made it a mutant-type thing, if I remember correctly.

Steve, you ought to post that info on the spider thread we had recently!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: gnu
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 05:34 AM

No. Buddy falls overboard, makes it to the island, gets hunted just as above, beats Moreau, and the deal is that one of them must "furnish a repast for the dogs". Apologies for the spelling but it was only one cup of tea past rising when I posted.

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: Hrothgar
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 05:26 AM

Dr Moreau?

But that was a mutant-type thing, wasn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 05:25 AM

The Island of Dr Moreau, by H G Wells ...

I read a short story where an old man kept cats on an island; when he died, they ate him, and anyone else who arrived, as there was no-one to feed them. For a really creepy take on the theme, read Web, John Wyndham's last novel: the island is taken over by social spiders -- think great big eight-legged ants!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 05:12 AM

Gnu, yes, that's what came to my mind, too. But, I think there was another movie or Outer Limits/Twilight Zone/Alfred Hitchcock episode which may have been an even closer version of the one Ebbie remembers. It think I read the same story years ago.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: gnu
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 04:52 AM

The Island of Dr. Morrow was similar, no ? Please correct me. Anyone know of what I speak ?

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 12:00 AM

When I was 7 years old my family bought a huge house into which our huge family moved. (7 bedrooms and still I never had a bedroom of my own in all the years we lived there)

In the attic of this 1862 house were stacks of books that eventually I and my brother just older devoured. Some of the books had 'adult' themes (For instance, in one book the male and female protagonists were constantly at vehement odds. When they both inadvertently chose an abandoned barn to dash into to escape a rain squall, I had no idea why they came out flushed and arm in arm after the storm was over.)

Included in this treasure trove was a red-covered book with short stories. One of the stories was one called 'The Most Dangerous Game'. It was a chilling (at least to a 10 year old!) story of a man who was shipwrecked onto an island guarded by vicious dogs. There his host is a man who, it develops, has a game wherein a victim is given X number of hours head start and informed that at a certain time the dogs and the host with his high-powered rifle will come after him.

There is a happy ending, given the premise...

Subject: RE: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: LadyJean
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 11:33 PM

I think they do have fox hounds chase a person. I have never ridden at gallop or jumped a horse, but I have always wanted to. But torturing a fox for fun has no appeal for me.
Kentucky style fox hunting, where the hunters turn their dogs loose, and sit under a tree drinking whiskey and listening to the hounds bay might be easier on the fox.

Subject: BS: Only Mad Englishmen and Dogs!**bg**
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 10:56 PM

I love to watch the program Dogs with jobs on the National Geographic channel. Today, they showed a man in England who owns 42(!) bloodhounds. He doesn't use them for fox-hunting. Oh no! He uses them for DRAG HUNTING! That's not his website, I cannot remember his name, BUT the dogs with the jobs, in this instance, hunt a jogger, that's right a HUMAN jogger; in fact it was the "lord's" own brother, who seemed ecstatic at having been chased all over hill and dale, for several hours, through mud and muck, rain and cold, by a pack of braying hounds. Of course, to them he was the fellah with the biscuits and they HAD to catch up to him for their treats!

Now, I'd never heard of this before and I thought it a great, if kind of Orwellian, solution to what I consider a horrid practice, i.e. fox-hunting, but in looking over sites I find it has a long tradition AND is totally apart from the more "trad" hunting.

Pretty interesting!

kat