I’ve gotten my copy of the Wadsworth pamphlet and I’m ready to add to my library 
I plan to download SmartAlex’s favorite book on rising aside.
What are your favorite works about hunting, and why (yes, a two part essay question!) ?
Hi Hinderella - Fox Hunting in North America by Alexander MacKay Smith. Melvin Poe portrait is on the cover. Awesome book. Well written and very informative. I’ve read it twice. :yes:
Foxhunting: How to Watch and Listen (Foxhunters Library) by MFH, Hugh J. Robards, Christine M. Cancelli and Norman Fine
Great read. There’s separate chapters written in the viewpoint of the master, the huntsman, and the whip…I thought it was fascinating.
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Well… all the Gordon Grand books. I just re-read the Christmas short stories this week.
Oh, and why? I love the stories and the fact that there is continuity with the characters throughout. You can learn a lot about hunting and life in that time period while still enjoying a story.
Second Gordon Grand.
Longrigg’s History of Foxhunting (generally findable on E-Bay or Amazon).
Hounds for a Pack, by Comte de Vezins.
Beckford’s Thoughts On Hunting
Ben Hardaway’s Never Outfoxed
Daphne Moore’s Book of the Foxhound
The Duke of Beaufort’s book.
The Voice of Bugle Ann
Can’t go actually look at the bookshelf now, exciting conclusion to Houston v. Indianapolis, but those are titles that come to mine and there are many more!
Oh. But. Go to the open library, I think it’s openlibrary.org and you can download all sorts of cool early 20th century and even 19th century books on hunting. For free.
Well,dang,the Texans lost.
But, here is the openlibrary list of ebooks you can go and read:
http://openlibrary.org/search?q=foxhunting&has_fulltext=true
A fascinating list.
And, if you do a search but don’t click on the ‘ebooks only’ box, it will bring up a larger bibliography.
I’m still sitting here. Okay, did go get another glass of chardonnay. But suddenly Somerville and Ross popped into my head, how could the Irish RM have slipped my mind as one of the faves?
Anyhow, a random google shows you can read select portions here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34630/34630-h/34630-h.htm
Side splittingly funny, and the PBS series based on the books was fabulous. Bonus on the series was Willie Leahy playing, well, Willie Leahy, but it fits to a tee.
Thank you so much, everyone! I especially appreciate the eBook suggestions. Quite honestly, I usually prefer “real” books, but the long power outages with the hurricane & snowstorm made me appreciate my eBooks. While the batteries lasted, I could read in the dark 
I’m using up some vacation time next week, so when I’m not in the saddle, I can be looking for books.
Marry Christmas to all!
The MFHA"s Centennial Book is a great book of American Foxhunting…with a litle about most of the bigger hunts in the US>…I just read it while traveling at Christmas. It is super!
Really great fox hunting books.
Hello Hinderella,
Two amazing books, The Diary of a Cotswold Fox Hunting Lady by Francis Witts, she kept a wonderful hunting journal from 1905 thru 1910 until she met her future husband ( she met him while out hunting ). Also, We Go Hunting Abroad: A First Venture With Irish Banks And English Downs by Charles D. Lanier. The diary of an american gentleman and his daughter from Virginia , they go hunting for several months in Ireland then on to England. Both books are wonderfully descriptive with details about hunting in both Ireland and England in the early 1900’s and are available on ebay. Enjoy !
[QUOTE=Beau’s mom;6034928]
Foxhunting: How to Watch and Listen (Foxhunters Library) by MFH, Hugh J. Robards, Christine M. Cancelli and Norman Fine
Great read. There’s separate chapters written in the viewpoint of the master, the huntsman, and the whip…I thought it was fascinating.[/QUOTE]
Based on Beau’s recommendation, I ordered this book. It’s a great read. Definitely recommend it to a newbie or as a refresher.
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I’m gonna keep saying it…
The Bolinvars, a/k/a Bolinvar in its 1st edition form, by Marguerite Bayliss.
The SHB thread obviously talks about the pedigrees but it’s also a REALLY GREAT fox-hunting novel.
I’d like to say that this book change my life a bit… If someone interest could write me a PM.
Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man
Roger Scruton, On Hunting
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There is a newer book, by Dennis Foster, the fellow who has written extensively for Covertside, on Whipping in, which is excellent. Its about much much than just whipping in, and includes stories from his hunt trips all over the world. Informative and interesting so its a big win for me.
http://www.amazon.com/Whipper-Whipping-Colonel-Dennis-Foster/dp/0977195600
These are two particularly thoughtful fox hunting books which have already been mentioned in this thread, I am seconding my vote here:
Foxhunting: How to Watch and Listen by MFH, Hugh J. Robards…because - he says it already in the title - it really is about how to watch and listen to the hounds. Each chapter takes the point of view of a different “character” in the cast of characters (even the fox). Very educational and readable.
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Siegfried Sassoon. A thinly-veiled autobiography of the British poet’s early years (he pretends he is the main character George Sherston). Beautifully written, elegiac account of what it must have been like to fox hunt as a pure, nervous beginner in an “ordinary” middle-class/upper middle-class English village in 1880s-1910s. This was really the book that started it all, for some readers. Sassoon is famous for his WWI poetry. He was also related to the immensely wealthy Jewish family, the Sassoons, but the money didn’t trickle down to him. So this is a really weird, interesting account of a young man wanting to fox hunt and be a somebody, and being painfully self-conscious about it.
In an extraordinary example of “pay it forward”, Sassoon wrote about being inspired to get into fox hunting by the 19th century novels of R.M. Surtees; readers of Sassoon then became inspired, in turn, to fox hunt!
Surtees is worth reading and collecting (roughly analogous to Dickens) but feels very dated for a modern American audience; Sassoon still feels contemporary.
You can find these books on Amazon. I hope you enjoy them.
Two of my absolute favorite reads of 2014:
The Fox in the Cupboard–story of a British woman who takes up riding and hunting as an adult, right at the time of the Foot and Mouth epidemic and the move to ban hunting in England. Very engaging (and funny) personal story interwoven with current events.
Foxhunting Adventures: Chasing the Story by Norman Fine–Several short essays about hunting in all kinds of different territories by the former editor of Covertside, current editor of Foxhunting Life
Letters to a Young Huntsman, Andrew Barclay… Fantastic book… Easy to read and so much good information
Shilling, Jane – The Fox in the Cupboard
Love this one because I enjoy reading about hunting in England, and she writes very well.
Meeks, Trevor – Foxhunting: A Celebration in Photographs
Lovely and informative photos and writing.
Slater, Kitty – The Hunt Country of America
Reminds me of when I first learned to ride (not that I have ever hunted in Virginia!)
White, Robb – The Haunted Hound
A very interesting young-adult novel about a different kind of fox-hunting.
Maybe a coming-of-age novel, with good characterization and narrative.
McClary, Jane McIlvaine – A Portion for Foxes and Cintra’s Challenge
Both are good reads.
[QUOTE=Beverley;6036317]
I’m still sitting here. Okay, did go get another glass of chardonnay. But suddenly Somerville and Ross popped into my head, how could the Irish RM have slipped my mind as one of the faves?
Anyhow, a random google shows you can read select portions here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34630/34630-h/34630-h.htm
Side splittingly funny, and the PBS series based on the books was fabulous. Bonus on the series was Willie Leahy playing, well, Willie Leahy, but it fits to a tee.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for suggesting the Irish RM - I’ve been enjoying this enormously. I read the chapter “Trinket’s Colt” aloud to my DD, and we laughed so hard that we cried!
