Horse & Hound – 22 August 2019

64 Horse&Hound 22 August 2019

Pictures by Grossick Photography

HUNTING

LOWTHER

10 August

y Catherine Austen

[email protected]

usten

Lowther, Cumbria

THE culmination of the foxhound

judging at Lowther is the overall

championship in the Fell hound

ring. The best modern English

hound is pitted against the best of

the hill hounds, the Welsh hounds

and the local favourites, the Fell

hounds. Each ring also provides

a senior judge for the finale and

all four of them have to agree and

adjudicate on an overall winner.

Ian Hawkins, huntsman of

the Sennybridge Farmers, is a

Welshman with huge hunting

experience and wisdom, and was

the judge of the Welsh hounds.

A CollegeValley

andNorth

Northumberland

bitchfroma great

lineis supreme

champion

CharmianGreen,theretired

masteroftheWarwickshire,

wasjudgingthemodernEnglish

houndswithWilliamNunneley,

andtheyhadbothtravelledup

fromExmoorfortheday.

RobertProud,huntsmanofthe

Bewcastle for the past 20 seasons,

was the Fell hound judge and

your correspondent adjudicated

over the hill hounds. These were

by far the largest classes as many

varieties of hounds come under

this banner.

David Savage held his regal-

looking tan-coloured doghound,

Teme Valley Silvain 16, while

Robert McCarthy galloped the

Percy’s old English Aragon 15 up

and down the ring. The Coniston

Dreamer 16 had won the Fell

hound championship — “A perfect

exampleofhowa Fellbitchshould

look,”accordingtoRobertProud.

However,it wasthechampion

hillhound,CollegeValley

andNorthNorthumberland

Gaslight18,whichtookthetop

award.Gaslightwasasgraceful

andbalancedofftheleadasonit,

andexpertlyshownbytheCollege

Valley’spopularkennel-huntsman

ByFRANKHOUGHTON

BROWN

Gaslight glows in the mud

Andrew Proe. The College Valley

have been prominent at this

show since its inception, and it

was fitting that at Andrew’s last

Lowther hound show, in his 34th

year at the Mindrum kennels, it

was he who came up to collect the

Lowther trophy.

“Gaslight is from an Eglinton

Right: Teme Valley Silvain takes

the champion Welsh hound title