They're coming!

The local hunt was exercising the foxhounds on the mountain behind us as we sat down to lunch. Only a hundred metres away, the pack was tracking along the contour lines in full voice, with the huntsman keeping a loose rein on them with his horn.

And then the cry went up and a fox flashed by our kitchen window running down the drive and streaking away across the fields in front of the house. A minute later the hounds followed at a fast lope but the fox was long gone.

While foxhunting is a controversial pastime (illegal in the UK under most circumstances, but still legal under others...) most would agree that the sight of a pack of foxhounds baying and tracking is a spine-tingling one!