Yesterday (Wednesday 29 October, 2025) the government announced it will carry out a consultation on a full ban on trail hunting “early next year”.  The challenge to hunting is perhaps even greater than it was in 2004 given the huge Labour majority and a definitive manifesto commitment.

This news comes in the same week as the death of Edmund Porter, master of the Eskdale and Ennerdale hounds for 46 years. Edmund was huntsman from the age of 19 and by all repute one of the greatest of his or any other generation. Both pieces of news reminded me of a favourite quote of one of the Eskdale’s supporters: “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”.

I never hunted with Edmund but knew him well as the assertive Chairman of the Central Committee of Fell Packs which represents the unique hunts that operate on foot in the fells of Cumberland and Westmorland. That quote sums up the challenge that faced Edmund and every other master and huntsman when the Hunting Act came into force in 2005 and which faces them again now.

The quote, by composer Gustav Mahler, referred to his musical contemporaries, but it is hugely relevant to every traditional activity. If we commit to a static and unthinking reverence for the rituals of the past then we risk hunting becoming a relic.

I know that, of course, Edmund Porter regretted the original ban on hunting and would have strongly opposed further restrictions, but I also know that he was incredibly proud that the fire of the Eskdale and Ennerdale burns bright with the Porter family continuing its association of well over 100 years. All over the country in recent weeks newcomers meets and children’s meets have seen hundreds of new recruits to a form of hunting which might not be the same as when Edmund first took the horn in 1963, but which keeps alive the spirit and community which we all hold so dear.

It is also that wonderful time of year when opening meets are happening around the country as they have for hundreds of years. On the face of it these great occasions seem to be an unchanging part of rural life, but underneath they also represent an evolving countryside and this year hold particular importance.

As we face the challenges ahead we should keep in the forefront of our minds future generations, whether they are from a hunting family or come new to hounds. They are the fire that will take hunting forward and we must not hinder them through the mindless worship of ashes.

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