The Brighton and Storrington & Surrey and North Sussex Beagles - yes all one name - came
from their southern retreat to visit the Holme Valley and Colne Valley country.
This Friday we met at The Huntsman in Holmfirth
and vanned, somewhat uncertainly, to find Brushes, a reservoir and moorland at
the end of along lane. Brushes is in
Holme Valley Beagles country but located in Lancashire, part of Greater Manchester near
Stalybridge. Well I assume it is Lancashire as it is over the Pennines to the west, but there are parts of Yorkshire over the top as well and I always
tended to think Yorkshire finished somewhere along the top.
I struggle a bit with the name of the pack and hope they don’t
join forces with another one and elongate it even further! Something like North and South Downs Beagles
has nice ring to it, but there must be a good reason why they wish to retain all
these individual identities. Since I have never asked I will never know.
Unfortunately the photos below are extensively of the ‘hanging
around’ before setting off as the gloomy weather and dark moorland was against
my photographic skills and probably that of my camera too. If it moved it blurred.
Not exactly a stirrup cup
Professional guidance.
Is that an afterthought coming up?
No it isn't Beckham!
David Beckham looked a bit better in a 'Beanie' - but not much.
I don't know if the BSSNSB normally wear uniform or not. Hopefully they do as it is part of the tradition we need to maintain (in my opinion) and much more photogenic. At a guess I think they will be saving it to look resplendent on Saturday, which is a much more important event.
This is how you cover the ground!
Perpetual gloom
That cloud portends something
The hounds and followers kept going higher and further east. It looked rather threatening to me so I trudged back and luckily came across the keeper in his Landrover on top of the lane leading onto the moor. While chatting the heavens opened so luckily I got a lift back to my car and never got wet leaving the poor souls of the BSSNSB to weather it up in the hills somewhere.
