The Times this morning has a picture of the Holcombe Hunt in Lancashire. Not to be outdone BB roving reporter, Angela C-C, took this picture; better composed than the one in The Times and reminiscent of a Munnings.
As you can see it has been a wet Christmas in the south of England. I will arouse universal derision but I gave Robert gumboots for Christmas, albeit lined in faux fur for warmth.
The CC & FH beagles “was formed in 1971 by the amalgamation of the Christ Church and New College Beagles and the Farley Hill Beagles. The Christ Church pack was founded in 1874, following an earlier establishment alternating between Beagles and Harriers dating from 1852. The New College was founded in 1896 and subsequently variously partnered with Magdalen, Trinity and Balliol. The two university packs joined in 1950. The Farley Hill Beagles were started in 1919 by Messrs GP and VP Simmonds, with hounds from the Downton Hall and the Trowbridge. Further drafts came from the Eton and from Major Birbeck, and notably in 1940 from the Christ Church”. (Baily’s Hunting Directory, 1974-75)
Baily’s HD has been published since 1897; until 2008 it was the red-backed bible of hunting. Now it is published online – a snip at £20 a year; tally ho!
Also in The Times today, William Hague writes about planting trees.
“At our home in mid Wales we are lucky to have space, and we have been planting trees by the thousand, while allowing countless more to plant themselves. When I say ‘we have been planting’ I mean some very expert local people have been planting while I grandly supervise.”
The expert local people in Margravine Cemetery are employed by Hammersmith and Fulham Council. They do a good job planting, pruning and maintaining trees in the borough’s streets, parks, cemeteries and open spaces.
Here are a trio of Cox’s Orange Pippins in the cemetery. To digress, in July 2019 a walk along the north bank of the river immediately west of Hammersmith Bridge was hampered by a whole block being closed for filming. I tried to find out what was being filmed but to no avail. Now I know.
” … in the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, Bond meets M in what the film’s producers clearly decided was an iconic London scene – my very same childhood haunt, by one of the boathouses on the Hammersmith riverside.” (Melanie Phillips in The Times)
