COMING into a new hunting season it is fitting that we consider some hunting literature to while away the long winter nights. I am immediately drawn to the writings of two gifted Irish writers of the chase, Somerville and Ross, the latter being Violet Martin’s pen name.

I had the privilege of working on their original manuscripts when I was on a research fellowship in the National Sporting Library near Washington DC some years ago. It is near Mount Vernon the home of America’s First President George Washington who hunted his own pack of hounds.

Dr Edith Somerville (1858-1949) from Castletownsend in Co Cork and Violet Martin (1862-1915) from Oughterard in Co Galway, were cousins. Edith was master of the West Carbery Foxhounds but also had a Kerry Beagle pack. On her visits to Violet’s home she hunted with the Galway Blazers. Both born into Anglo Irish families they were active suffragettes as members of The Munster Women’s Franchise League in both Skiberreen and East Anglia from 1895. As Edith mixed more with the locals of West Cork she had a compassion for the rigors of country life for Irish farm folk and for the colour of language which became the main source of many of the great stories.

Publications

They were prolific writers, penning 35 books on foxhunting, travel, illustrated books, and biographies. Hunting favourites are Some Experiences of an Irish RM, The Silver Fox, A Patrick’s Day Hunt, Slippers ABC of Foxhunting, Dan Russell the Fox, Mount Music, In Mr Knox’s Country, Notes of the Horn, Hunting Verse Old and New, The Sweet Cry of Hounds.

They were all richly illustrated by Edith as she was an accomplished artist who trained in Paris, London and Germany, and exhibited around the world. Their books are sought after by collectors and are all of their writings are published as co-authors despite Violet passing away 34 years before Edith.

Humour

Readers need to picture the hunting landscape around the end of the 19th and early 20th century mainly dominated by the Anglo-Irish, professionals, local characters and small farmers. I will select a few extracts from their writings just to whet the reader’s appetite.

The main characters in the book and television series The Irish RM are Major Sinclair Yeates the Resident Magistrate, Philippa his wife, Flurry Knox the master and huntsman of Mr Knox’s Hounds, Dr Jerome Hickey the honorary whipper-in, Lady Knox the eccentric owner of a large dilapidated country house, Slipper the general dog’s body, and Mrs Cadogan the housekeeper.

On Hunt Followers

‘There are three types of hunt followers, the forward, the cunning and the useless’.

On Hunt Country

‘There is no more monotony in West Carbery fences than in the mind of their makers, and the end of an iron bedstead filling a gap is an everyday occurrence, that merely illustrates the Irishman’s capacity for using the wrong thing in the right place.’

‘I followed Flurry over one of those infinitely varied erections pleasantly termed, ‘gaps’, made of three razor-edged slabs leaning against an iron bar.’

On the Fox

‘The hill fox is expert in the problems of scent, plays the game coolly, and half way down the hill he makes a sudden ’jink’ round an immense rock and faces the upgrade again.’

On Hounds

‘The Huntsman comes fitfully up in the fresh wind.

“A tenor note answers at last, and the hearts of the wise are glad because it is the voice of Fencer, who always tells the truth.

“The voice from the wood behind us of Venus hunting a line, in the next breadth they were gone.”

On Hunt Horses

‘Take the sound of a horses galloping feet. Not many thrills can equal it.’

‘Michael’s horse Moses had a distance appearance of standing on four champagne bottles his tendons were so bad.’

‘The Quaker’s three cornered gallop wrecked its inevitable revenge upon my person.’

On the Characters in The Irish RM

Major Sinclair Yates on finding a house in the area, ‘It had been easy enough, I had my choice of several, each with hundreds of acres of shooting, thoroughly poached, and a considerable amount of the roof intact.’

‘All my experience at Sandhurst Officer Training did not prepare me for the sensation of jumping a briary wall.’

‘Mrs Knox, I may summarise her attire by saying that she looked as if she had robbed a scarecrow.’

‘The snores of Mrs Cadogan and her nephew Peter rose tranquilly up from their respective lairs.’

‘More rain coming Mr Knox. You’ll have to put a goose down the chimney someday soon, it’s the only way to clean it you know.’

‘The music at the hunt dance was supplied by the organist of the local Church, who played with religious unction and at the pace of a processional hymn.’

In 1932, Edith was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by Trinity College in Dublin, and she died in her home Tally Ho House in Castletownsend in 1949. She and Violet are buried side by side in the graveyard of St Barrahanes Church in the village where Edith was the organist for over 70 years.

In the First World War, a soldier was found dead clutching a copy of The Irish RM. When somebody enquired what he died from the reply was, ‘He died laughing!’

What a pleasant way to go to that great hunting field in the sky.