Journey 4
William Cobbett
Meon Valley
How would Cobbett feel about today’s hunting ban?
Hunting was another of Cobbett’s passions. To him, it was vital that rural communities had shared
activities, and hunting was top of his list.
He’d find plenty of supporters for his views in today’s English shires.
That’s because hunting was under fire in Cobbett’s day, just as it is now. Then, the Evangelical Church targeted it in order to reform the ‘lower orders’. Cobbett fiercely opposed this, claiming that the rural rich and poor alike had a taste for blood and were proud of their ‘manly’ sports.
With an uncanny resonance for today, Cobbett reckoned country people wouldn’t give up hunting without a fight. In the Meon Valley, a way that Cobbett passed down, Nick talks to the master of Clinkard Meon Valley Beagles. This family has hunted hares for nine generations, and Nick uncovers a similarly determined, if more restrained, desire to preserve traditional ways.