Firle Place

The meet at Firle Place is always one of my personal favorites, generously hosted by Lord Gage. The delicious Whiskey Macs and a tremendous selection of nibbles warmed us up well in preparation for the day up on the chilly downs. We were delighted to have Lord Gage out on his magnificent big chestnut and fellow Master Ruth was mounted on her possible new hunter, a big grey that was certainly racing fit!

Unbeknown to us, however, our esteemed huntsman had spent Saturday up at Olympia as a guest of the Field family in their box, and seems to have drunk his way through the bar. As the coach brining the whole party back from London had no brakes, it sounds as if they were lucky to have made it safely home. At the same time field master Clare was going down with the bug that had laid her daughter Polly low earlier in the week and was not able to make it at all.

So, the day dawned very cold indeed with no field master and a huntsman with a severe hangover!

Luckily Nic was still floating in the happy clouds after his chance meeting, whilst on hound exercise on Wednesday, with Caddy Lee Preston, the weather forecaster from Meridien (rumour has it that Nic has a photo of her pinned on his wall!). By the time he had told her what a big fan he is, and had been filmed with her, he was firmly up on cloud nine - we hope for the forseable future. I, however, was less chilled having found myself designated field master. Having walked the country with Clare and Caroline Peate, Master of the Southdown & Eridge, on Monday to look for places to slot yet more fences in, in theory I should have had some idea where we were going. However, I had not paid much attention as it was Clare's day, and she had also spent Friday up there walking country.

Unfortunately, while the sun shone with very little wind, there had been a heavy frost overnight and as we congregated at the meet we decided to go up on the hill and then take a view on how much we could do depending on the amount of thaw. As it transpired, the going was generally OK on the top, but still frozen in the valleys, which limited the amount of jumping.

The first hunt was excellent - long and fast with hounds hunting extremely well, totally unfazed by the maze of footpaths and the many walkers out enjoying the sunshine. We had a couple of long checks as Nic allowed the hounds a mid-hunt drink from a trough and later had to cast around for the scent as we were unsure of our quarry, Andy's, route. With the wide open fields to enjoy we were able to put on the Coakham interpretation of a long cavalry charge, which somehow always set the heart racing. The long hunt was a delight - as Nic says, its how bloodhounding should be.

The second hunt was shorter but as it seemed as if the ground was starting to freeze once more, and as hounds and horses were definitely tired as we came up the last hill to the finish, it was clear we had done enough.

Chris Field dashed off ahead to get the hot water on for tea, whilst we hacked home back down Firle Bostal - the planned hunt down the Bunny Run and through the park back to the boxes would have been impossible after the frost. The only disappointment at tea was that Robbie's first ever efforts in the kitchen - making Turkish Delight out of his birthday cookbook - had failed to set and so had been left at home.

As delegated field master the biggest difficulty was knowing which gates had to be shut, so many thanks to the field for perhaps closing more than was required, but better a happy farmer than one with sheep all in the wrong place!! And, in conclusion, many thanks to all the farmers who let us over their ground.

Jo Carr