A short trip over the Severn bridge with our pals from South Wales today to visit the Woolaston Bassets, who met at the Rising Sun, Woolaston (between Lydney and Chepstow). This lot are a brand new hunt, one of only 8 registered basset hound packs in the country, and with their opening meet less than a month ago we thought it would be rude not to check them out and introduce ourselves.
After their initial surprise at our arrival they set off through the village with sabs in tow. They assured us that they would only be hunting rabbits today, we assured them that they would not. They made a big to-do about their ‘official trail layer,’ so we kept up with the huntsman and the tiny pack (just 3 and 1/2 couple – that’s 7 hounds in non-hunting speak!) as they moved from field to field, making sure they weren’t up to anything naughty.
For the most part they followed the trail, apart from a few sneaky draw of a hedgerow where the hounds got quite excited. Sabs helped the whips in rating the pack, much to the annoyance of the huntsman who ordered that the police were summoned. They then set off along the country lanes to a mates farm, where they waited for the police to arrive. After the usual ‘blah, blah, blah, intimidation!’ spiel, the police rightfully told them that we weren’t doing anything illegal and that was that.
After a bit of waiting around, they began the walk back along the country lanes to the meet at about 3 o’clock, with sabs and a couple of police vehicles following. Job done! Under 2 hours in the field, very little for us to do and no kills.
A message to any hunt in the region – we can find you, and if we find you hunting wildlife, we will stop you!
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