THE HOUNDS AND THE FURY, the fifth installment in your “Sister Jane” mystery series, follows the life of “Sister” Jane Arnold and her foxhunting friends in Virgina. Why did you decide to write a mystery series about foxhunters and hunting?
Mostly because I love foxhunting and also because hunting with hounds is one of the oldest organized things human beings do. There are pictures on the tombs of Pharaohs of hounds being led out by a couple of straps.
Also, hunting in general is the first large scale cooperative activity men and women did together. Don’t believe for one minute all women sat around in caves or perched on tree limbs. We’d be extinct if that were the case. We needed every able body in the mists of time. Unfortunately, sexist interpretations hold sway even if they are fundamentally silly.
If we lose hunting, we lose a deep part of what it means to be human.
Is there a difference between American foxhunting and British foxhunting?
Americans hunt to chase, not to kill. The British hunt to kill. Before you decry this, remember their agricultural practices are different. Would you deny a rancher the right to protect his sheep or cattle from coyote? The fox is a pest to sheepherders in the U.K. Fortunately, that isn’t the case here, and unless you have chickens or ducks raised domestically, the fox is rather a delightful creature.
Also, England passed the Enclosure Laws which changed the landscape from the medieval village model wherein roads radiate from a village like spokes and the farmers live in the village. The Enclosure Laws divided up the kingdom into pretty squares with hedges, bullfinches, fences, etc. It’s much easier to stay with your fox in that type of open, yet contained topography.
Here in Virginia, founded in 1607, there’s so much wildness, deep hickory and oak forests and the further west you go (except for large urban areas) the bigger the spaces. Foxes use this to their advantage. The score at the end of a rousing day is always: Fox: win; Human: lose.
What is foxhunting like in the United States and who fox hunts today?
Foxhunting is vibrantly alive in North America. There are 169 hunts in Canada and the U.S. under the jurisdiction of The Master of Foxhounds Association of America. If one factors in farmer packs, there are many more.
You ask who hunts today? The great thing about hunting is someone worth a billion dollars (yes, one billion) might be riding right next to someone who makes twenty-three thousand dollars a year. No one cares including those individuals aforementioned. Foxhunters cut across ethnic and class lines, all professions, all ages. There are a few people hunting today in their nineties and to hunt in your seventies is nothing. In fact, age is another thing no one notices. Either you can stick on your horse or you can’t.
There are some things all hunters share in common: physical toughness, a deep love of nature, riotous humor and, this is both a plus and a minus, an overheated sex drive.
You are passionate about animal welfare, yet you are an avid fox hunter. How do you explain this seemingly unusual juxtaposition?
Foxhunting promotes animal welfare. I’m so glad you asked that question. Since we don’t kill foxes purposefully, we are able to put to rest the taint of being heartless vulpicides. Since we are outside, especially hunt staff, we are the first to see a spike in distemper, mange, shingles, or rabies in wildlife. Most Masters of Foxhounds enjoy a good working relationship with state and local wildlife officials as well as the local S.P.C.A. We are able to alert officials of an impending epidemic.
We also help avert this in foxes, at least, by trapping them and getting the first set of rabies, distemper, etc. shots into them. You can never trap them a second time, they’re too smart. We also worm them monthly except when the vixens give birth. Then we don’t worm them for about three months. You put the wormer in kibble since you aren’t going to get it into them by talking them into it.
I think our efforts, unpublicized, help ensure the safety of other people’s house pets. Possums, skunks, raccoons, and feral cats, also dip into the coated kibble. But the only way we can make a bigger dent in rabies (which for Virginians sweeps down from the Canadian border usually appearing first in New York State) is if an oral rabies vaccine is developed and is affordable. Then we can really sweep through those mammals which are usually reservoirs for this disease.
This may be a lengthy reply, but there are so many misconceptions about foxhunting, in particular, and hunting in general, some of it fostered by anti-hunting groups, that I feel compelled to offer a more sober view.
The other tremendous benefit from foxhunting is economic. There is no such thing as real estate that’s value doesn’t lift upwards if the hunt rides over that land. Also, there is the benefit to feed stores, farmers who grow hay, veterinarians, blacksmiths, truck dealers, trailer dealers, motel owners, etc. Hunting also provides jobs for young people who have a feeling for horses and hounds. Not every young person wants to be trapped inside an office staring at a computer. Come to think of it, the not-young person writing this would simply shrivel up and die in a job like that.
Agriculture is Virginia’s biggest contributor to the state economy. Within that, the horse business is the third largest contributor to the agricultural wealth of the Old Dominion. In a state like Kentucky, the horse industry may be the economic leader within agriculture or darned close.
It’s a foolish person who wants their state and the good people therein to lose money and jobs.
As I stated earlier, this is a vibrant sport, pastime, and industry.
Both your Sneaky Pie/Mrs. Murphy and Sister Jane mystery series contain anthropomorphic animal characters. Why do you feel it’s important to give an almost human voice to animals in your work?
Given the limitations of human senses, especially the limitations of language (language is rational, life is not), I do the best I can by the animals. They use their own sophisticated methods of communication, some of which I understand and some of which eludes me. Just picture a horse: s/he can use their tail, the very hair on their body, ears, their nostrils, their breath, as well as distinct sounds to communicate. Humans have body language but not as many ways to use it. One simple example, we can’t swivel or flatten our ears. Over the millennia we have become so hag-ridden by language that many of us can no longer correctly read human body language much less communicate with other species.
Most of your books, like THE HOUNDS AND THE FURY, are set in the South or are filled with Southern manners and traditions. For you, what does it mean to be Southern in the 21st century?
To be Southern is to be triumphantly alive and to allow humans the room to fail and the grace to recover. It’s better if they fail publicly so we can enjoy the drama, as well as be uplifted by the redemption. Or as my mother used to say about her sister, “She peddles uplift, but relishes downfall.”
Other Americans can take life so seriously it can sometimes be tedious to be in their struggling-for-perfection companies. Poor darlings.
Sister Jane is an active and strong woman with a sharp mind and kind heart. Is the character of Sister Jane based on you or someone you know?
Everywhere you look there are Sister Janes. It seems to me that women grow stronger as they age. Sister Jane is based on many women I know and I thank the Good Lord for knowing them, too.
I’d like to say Sister Jane is based on me, but she’s a nicer person than I am. Also, I wear scarlet when I hunt my hounds and Sister doesn’t like that. I really understand her position and if I were to visit her hunt, I wouldn’t dream of wearing scarlet. (Well, I wouldn’t anyway even though I am staff at my hunt.) I would wear a black or dark navy coat, no colors unless she invited me to wear my colors in which case it would be a black or navy coat with my colors on the collar and the hunt button.
In your Mrs. Murphy mystery series, you collaborate with Sneaky Pie, your feline companion. For your Sister Jane series, is there a certain fox who occasionally gives you tips?
Funny, you should ask that. For years a vixen has lived behind my barn. Her name is Sardine because we put out sardines for her, which she adores. She sometimes lounges near the barn and when we show up in hunt kit (either ratcatcher or formal wear) she hastens to her den. In all these years, Sardine has never given me a run, but she has given me lovely cubs that disperse for their own dens early November. Once settled in, they’ll give you a go.
Sardine wounded me this spring though. I keep chickens and I love my chickens since that was the first animal for which I was responsible as a child. I had a little red hen that followed me around like a dog. The chicken coop is secure; the runs are wired from top to bottom to keep out foxes, as well as hawks. But the old wooden gate had begun to sag on its hinges and I didn’t pay but so much attention. It sagged to the point where Sardine stood on her hind legs, flipped the latch, and dispatched my chickens, carrying them to her den. She even murdered my little red hen.
Right now, Sardine is in my bad book, but I’ll get over it. She’s taught me a lot, that sleek red vixen. For one thing, mind your gates.
