It was a great shame not to have a larger Field out with us at the Fox Goes Free at Charlton, partly because we were hunting in a beautiful part of the Goodwood Estate and partly because they would have seen one of the most extraordinary sights our Master has ever seen out hunting. It is illegal for hunts to intentionally hunt deer, but by the end of the day the Master was left wondering, is it illegal for deer to hunt hounds? Olly Room, Mark Little and Jeff Lynne were our Quarries for the day and we were most grateful to our host farmer John Holt, for accommodating us.

The first hunt started at the top of North Lane, with hounds roaring off with a little more enthusiasm than accuracy to start with. This brought them smack into a herd of around 50 fallow deer on North Down. Hounds stopped and couldn't go any further because the deer were standing on the line. As the Master caught up, the hounds started to hunt the heel line (the reverse direction of the Quarry's line) away from the deer. The Master decided to let the hounds run the heel line for a while, in the hope the deer would move off the line. As he cantered along behind them, he heard a strange noise behind him. He looked round and saw the entire herd of deer chasing the hounds! Not being sure what would happen and feeling that this could lead to some problem, the Master had to ride off the deer and push them into the wood. "In 27 years of hunting hounds, I thought I had seen most of the strange things you will see out hunting, but this really was quite mind blowing. Deer, hunting hounds as opposed to deer hunting, hounds!"

Once the deer had been successfully pushed off the line, the Master took the hounds back to where they had lost the line. As the hounds got through the foil, hounds picked up the line to run by Court Hill and down by Half Moon Piece to East Dean, where they caught their Quarry.

The last hunt started on the bridleway by Highdown Croft with hounds running over Highdown and down to Ide's Barn. Crossing Droke Lane, hounds ran up Wallerdean Hill towards Bubholts before turning down to Manor Farm, where hounds caught their Quarry.

Photographs by Ann Brewer (Click to enlarge)