Does anyone know anything about the Horse and Hound Hunt Ball? when did it end and why? I believe it included a horn blowing competition which was won by many famous huntsmen.
The Horse & Hound Ball was certainly going as long ago as 1949 when the Piccadilly Hunt rode through London in protest at the anti-hunting Bill of that year as they were afterwards welcomed at the Horse & Hound Ball.
The ball was still going strong in 1983 as on 1st March that year it was targeted by Class War when it was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
It was still going as recently as 2001 as then there was some publicity about its disruption by the Urban Alliance when held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on 1st March that year.
Over a surprisingly long period of time these tiny subversive groups have clearly stuck to just one strategy for getting their views across to the general public; getting publicity by disrupting events whose nature best fitted their (& the publics) stereotypical perceptions of the hunting world.
When & why the Horse & Hound Ball ceased, I do not know. It may have been that the rising cost of holding such events in Central London did for it alone or the additional cost of the necessary security operations to deal with demonstrations or drunken revellers, someone else will surely know.
The ball certainly included a horn blowing competition which was won on more than one occasion by Albert Buckle as mentioned in his H&H obituary by Michael Clayton & by Dick Lloyd who used Ernest Bawdens horn as described on the CD accompanying the book Reflections Life Portraits of Exmoor & on the following link:- http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/Archives/exmoor/lloydsummary2.htm
Thanks for the reply. It appears that it became too much hassle! Which is a shame, as far as i'm aware theres no longer a horn blowing competition on the same scale.
