Roger wrote:

Do you or do you not deny that prior to what you claim is your original
mailing you told Andy that fox hunting had not been around for
centuries?


From wikipedia.

Using scenthounds to track prey dates back to Assyrian, Babylonian and
ancient Egyptian times, and is known as venery. In England, hunting with
hounds was popular before the Romans arrived, using the Agassaei breed.
The Romans brought their Castorian and Fulpine hound breeds, along with
importing the brown hare (the mountain hare is native) and additional
species of deer as quarry. Wild boar was also hunted. The Norman hunting
traditions were added when William the Conqueror arrived, along with the
Gascon and Talbot hounds; indeed, the traditional hunting cry 'tally ho'
derives from the Norman French equivalent of 'il est haut' (he is up);
ie. the stag has started running. By 1340 the four beasts of venery were
the hare, the hart, the wolf and the wild boar. The five beasts of the
chase were the buck, the doe, the fox, the marten and the roe.

The earliest known attempt to hunt a fox with hounds was in Norfolk,
England, in 1534, where farmers began chasing down foxes with their dogs
as pest control. By the end of the seventeenth century many organised
packs were hunting both hare and fox, and during the eighteenth century
packs specifically for fox hunting were appearing. The passing of the
Enclosure Acts from 1760 to 1840 had made hunting deer much more
difficult in many areas of the country, as that requires great areas of
open land. Also, the new fences made jumping the obstacles separating
the fields part of the hunting tradition. With the onset of the
Industrial Revolution, people began to move out of the country and into
towns and cities to find work. Roads, rail and canals split the hunting
country, but also made hunting accessible to more people. Shotguns were
improved during the nineteenth century and game shooting became more
popular. To protect the pheasants for the shooters, gamekeepers culled
the foxes almost to extirpation in popular areas, which caused the
huntsmen to improve their coverts. Finally the Game Laws were relaxed in
1831 and later abolished, which meant anyone could obtain a permit to
take rabbits, hares and gamebirds.

Although viewed as a typically traditional rural British activity,
hunting with hounds takes place all over the world. Hunts in the United
States, Canada, Ireland and India are legacies of the British Empire to
some extent, although some claim that the first pack devoted to hunting
only fox was located in the United States. In 2004 the Masters of
Foxhounds Association of America included 170 registered packs in the US
and Canada, and there are many additional farmer (non-recognised) packs.

Many other Greek- and Roman-influenced countries have their own long
tradition of hunting with hounds. France and Italy for example, have
thriving fox hunts. In Switzerland and Germany, where fox hunting was
once popular, the activity has been outlawed, although Germany continues
to allow deer to be driven by dogs to guns. In some countries drag
hunting is also popular, either instead of or in addition to quarry
hunting, in which a scented bag is dragged over a pre-determined course.
Bloodhounds are used in some areas to hunt the "clean boot", a human
runner, for sport.

When fox hunting in the United States, the fox is rarely caught. In
fact, much effort goes into training the foxes so that they do not get
caught. In the late summer of the year, the hunt take the young hounds
out "cubbing". They teach the puppies to hunt while they are teaching
the young foxes to give chase. In Britain "cubbing" consists of training
the young hounds in hunting by firstly surrounding a covert and then
'drawing' it with the puppies, allowing them to hunt and kill within the
surrounded wood. Once the season proper starts (usually from early
November), the idea is to drive the fox from the covert and chase it
over open countryside.