'We Are Definitely On the Entertainment Business' : Ten Years After Controversial Legislation Changed Fox Hunting for Ever, It Still Thrives Among the Riders Who Regard It As a Birthright

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'We Are Definitely On the Entertainment Business' : Ten Years After Controversial Legislation Changed Fox Hunting for Ever, It Still Thrives Among the Riders Who Regard It As a Birthright

IT is a beautiful late autumn day in Selkirkshire. From hilly farmland near the village of Lilliesleaf one can look across several miles of green countryside towards the rolling Cheviots that mark the border with England. A shaft of sunlight slants down through the clouds, falling on a distant field and picking out a figure on horseback, a man in a scarlet coat galloping after a pack of hounds and followed by a dozen or so riders. The urgent, staccato sound of a horn carries quite clearly through the mild morning air and confirms that this is indeed a fox hunt.This classic rural scene, familiar from a thousand paintings on the walls of country pubs, might be taking place a decade or even a century ago. Yet this is 9 November, 2011, almost ten years after a law was passed that, most people believe, banned the blood-sport forever. In fact, fox hunters - in a wily move reminiscent of their cunning, jinking quarry - have survived the politici...

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