The Surrey Union Hunt - Our History Unbuttoned candidly reveals the story of this renowned provincial pack of foxhounds through more than two centuries of endeavour that ranges from mundane practicality to the quaintly bizarre. Disclosed in its pages are the ups and downs, the financial booms and busts, the successes, the blazing rows and how, more than once, it all looked to be finished forever.

But apart from the hunting, which is reason enough for the reader's thorough enjoyment [including the regular use of special trains to convey horses and hounds, together with an account of a 9 mile point, being 24 miles as hounds ran, in Surrey!], popping up throughout this work is a fascinating cast of characters, together with accounts of their exploits:

• The touchingly romantic tale of Lord William Beresford, a long-forgotten holder of the Victoria Cross, and his date with destiny beside a dowager Duchess in Dorking is retold probably for the first time in a century.
• The Edwardian humour depicted in the cartoons of artist and Hunt subscriber, G Denholm Armour, show that the verities of horse ownership and hunting endure.
• The eccentric Colonel Jolliffe, Master of the Merstham Hunt, who became so incensed with the behaviour of Mr Maberley, Master of the adjacent Old Surrey, that he fought a duel with him in 1818.
• The real reasons why the Marchioness of Reading and her baby-doll nightdress become so newsworthy are divulged, as is the unexpected link between two local families and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
• An unsolved murder in 1834 is uncovered.

For the serious historian, there is fresh research and newly discovered material that is published for the first time - including the accounts and other details of the foxhound kennels maintained by Lord Bruce in Leatherhead during 1722. To permit further study, many original documents from the Hunt archives and other private sources, including personal diaries, are also reproduced.

But if one merely wants to look at the pictures, there are some cracking good photographs and illustrations that will lift even the most jaded of spirits!

Background & Technical Details:

"The Surrey Union Hunt - Our History Unbuttoned" is an historical review of foxhunting in the Surrey Union Hunt country during the period 31 December 1721 to 31 January 2007.

Author: Julian Womersley
Foreword by William and Pippa Funnell

136 pages, bound into gold foil-blocked red book-cloth hard-case cover with full colour dust jacket - 220mm deep x 285mm wide. It contains: 4 colour plates [one of which is a double page spread]; 36 other colour photographs; 6 black & white plates; over 100 monochrome pictures and other illustrations; 1 song [with accompanying music] and 2 Armour cartoons.

PRICE: £30 [+ £5 p&p]

Available from: I H Agnew Esq, Oak Lodge, Ifield Wood, Nr Crawley, West Sussex RH11 0LE

Telephone: 01293 - 514700 [office]
E-Mail: Edgebury@uk2.net

Please make your cheque payable to The Surrey Union Hunt