Meet: East Kent Hunt
Location: Petham - Cub hunt
The day started with us turning up at the East Kent Hunt kennels in Elham at 6 am to follow the huntsman and hounds to the meet. The hound lorry left the kennels at 6.45 am and took us ot the village of Petham where all the rest of the hunt was gathering at a property near the church. The hunt moved off from the meet at 7.30 am and went south into Brockhanger/Waddenhall wood, where they were to stay all day.
The hounds went into cry so we placed ourselves west of the wood at the bottom of the hill and waited in case a fox broke cover, the only wildlife we saw, though, was some hares. When the hounds briefly lost the scent we tried to call them out of the wood but,as they got to the edge of the wood, some of the hunt moved round it to stop them leaving.
The hunt moved over the hill but still remained in the same wood, which was very large and awkward to sab. To get in a good position we had to drive round a large road circuit. We found all the foot supporters at the south of the wood so we stopped and went in on foot.
We remained outside the wood in a field with long, dry grass which backs onto Stubbs Wood, so we were effectively surrounded by woodland. It was at this point that we think we inadvertently took the hounds off the scent of a fox after we sprayed lemon spray along a well-used fox/badger run. The hounds got into cry but when they got to the sprayed area they lost the scent. We can only assume that the fox crossed the field we were in through the long grass into Stubbs Wood behind us, where all the crows and magpies were screeching in alarm of a predator in their midst. The huntmaster showed his disgust by walking his horse into us - he likes to act tough on his horse to compensate for his height. needless to say he will be in panto this year as one of the seven dwarfs!
The hunt went deeper into the wood so we followed them in. The hounds went into cry for a while and then started to bay as if they were stationary. Then the huntsman sounded a call on his horn which sounded like the hounds had run a fox to ground. We rushed to the hounds only to find the Whipper-in (Huntsman's assistant) off his horse next to a fox earth. On seeing us they gathered the hounds together and moved off, leaving two riders behind - we assume they were to act as a marker to show the terrier men where the fox had run to ground. We remained with them for at least 30 minutes until they got the message that we were not going to let them dig out the fox and moved off. We tried to catch up with the hunt again but they were some distance away. Whilst following them we saw a hunt supporter on foot acting a bit suspicious so we decided to follow him. Then he started running through dense woodland and we took pursuit, only to lose him in all the brambles. We tried to get back to the main path only to hear what sounded like the Huntsman's call for a kill and then call for home. Whatever the supporter was up to we are sure it was no good and the call for a kill at about 10.30 am and end of the hunt may suggest that the terrier men may have killed a fox during the day and the carcass was given to the pack at the end of the hunt - without being there we can only speculate.
While the hunt went back to the meet to box up the horses, we went to check on the fox earth that we were at earlier, to see if it had been touched, and to wait and see if the terrier men came back to dig out the fox. It was 11.45 am before we left for home so we think it highly unlikely that they would return after that length of time.