From Mrs Julia Pickles Sir: To write about hunting you
need in your nostrils the scent of horse sweat, leather and the soil of old England; you need the atavistic music in your ears of questing hounds, and the joy and terror in your heart when faced with a five-foot gorse hedge and God-knows-how-wide-aditch on the landing side, and the ingrained memory of the sensation of half-frozen chunks of cowpat splatting into your face.
Charles Moore knows the scent, the music, the joy and the terror. Furthermore, he understands that the fight is not 'town v. country'. Whether you are 'country' or 'townie' is a state of mind, heart and soul; it has nothing to do with where you live or work. We all have our roots in the countryside and wish to preserve it, whether for sporting purposes or for rambling. Many townies, such as myself, enjoy hunting for the sheer joy of galloping over other people's land without the prospect of being clapped into jail, though jail may soon be a possibility.
One question which no one has addressed is the spiritual suffering of those deprived of hunting. Ann Maltalieu said words to the effect that hunting was poetry, literature and music. She was right. Hunting is all these things to those who understand and love it. Those affected by a ban on hunting will suffer as surely as any civilised person by a ban on music, art and literature.
Julia Pickles
London SW1
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