Meet: East Kent Hunt
Location: Honeychild Manor, St Mary on the Marsh, Romney Marsh
After two unsuccessful kennel watches, it was third time lucky, and we followed the East Kent foxhound lorry to the meet. The time was 5.30 am. The hunt took us down on to the Romney Marsh to the meet, which was at Honeychild Manor, at St Mary on the Marsh.
At approximately 7 am the hunt set off south from the meet, the huntsman cast his hounds in the reed beds of the ditches and oepn drains that cover the marsh. We had a clear view of the hounds and so decided to call them over to us and away from any foxes that might have been taking cover amongst the reeds. However, despite our best efforts, the huntsman's control over his pack was too good.
The hunt soon moved off and got on to a scent, so we tried to get in the best position to call the hounds again. The hunt seemed to have an intermittent chase of a fox before we next caught up with them, which was about a mile east of the meet and at the other side of the village.
As the morning went on, the wind had picked up, making it easier for us to predict the direction of the hunted animal. We placed ouselves due west from the hunt as the wind was coming from the east. It wasn't long before the hounds went into cry and a fox could be seen running our way. It had to run past a group of foot followers and terrier men before reaching us. We stopped dead in our tracks and waited until it had passed before jumping into action. Our group of seven sprayed lemon scent across the path that the fox had taken and then we crossed a ditch to wait for the hounds.
The huntsman tried to put his hounds on the scent but all they could smell was the lemon-scented citronella and, when the hounds got to the ditch, our group created a wall of noise by cracking whips and shouting voice commands to get back. The pack wouldn't cross the ditch with all the noise and so the hunt had to let that fox live another day - but not without having a bit of a tantrum!
We followed the hunt until they packed up at about 10.30 am. with them only having one chase, which ended up with no kill as we saw the fox trotting off in the distance. We can't be sure they didn't kill during the day but there was no evidence to suggest that they did.
On the whole, not a bad day out for our first hunt of the season.