Getting the ‘Dartmoor bug’
Two Bridges, Yelverton, Devon
“HUNTING hounds on Dartmoor is a totally different thing,” said Mid Devon master and huntsman Duncan Hume. “You’ll see as much houndwork in a day as you will in a season in the Shires.”
Well, I’m sure if you are a Dartmoor regular you do, and how lovely for you, but during the first hunt of the day, a three-and-a-half-mile point and six as hounds ran, I honestly couldn’t look up. The terrain we were crossing — at a speed that continually felt a gear too high — seemed so treacherous that I found it hard to drag my eyes away from it.
If I did, it seemed likely that my hireling, Storm, would fail to spot some lethal bog/lump of granite/hole and we would tumble to our doom. I am exaggerating a bit for dramatic effect — I did watch these impressive hounds —
