On this day in 1896 my great uncle George, aged only 16, died of peritonitis in the cottage in which he had been born. He must have been in agony and how would his parents and siblings have felt. No money, no doctor and then on Christmas Day ‘The Midwives’ dealt with exactly the same problem and she lived. How times change.
According to ‘ Throwback Thursday’ on this day in 1986 Hereford United won two nil against Wolves. How the fortunes of both clubs have altered their status!
On this day in 1994 I travelled to Ledbury to visit my father and to get there for the Boxing Day tradition of seeing the North Ledbury Hunt parading up and down the High Street. All colourful, beautiful with well turned out horses and the hounds, of course, looking happy and excited. That's to the onlookers, but let them loose in the fields and it is different. The dogs have been trained to scent, chase and kill the fox - ‘the vermin of the countryside’ as promulgated and believed. The old stories maintained it was a wanton killer and to be dispensed with. Some can still believe that, but whether they do or not is irrelevant because the hunters want to carry on as they have done for centuries.
The existing Hunting Act has done very little to stop ‘the meet’ and still allowing the hounds and huntsmen to carry on as they want with little or no supervision and scant regard for the legislation.
Blood Sports still exist in several forms and hunting with hounds and huntsmen is one that should be stopped.
Tradition and culture us slow to change, but change is happening. I will wait and see whether the tv channels carry pictures of the hunt and what the anti-hunt lobby have been able to do. The traditional meeting time is now. Already preparations will have been made to thwart the fox and have a successful kill.
Death is out there.
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