A Microphone Impression of the Beaufort Hunt's
Point-to-Point Meeting at Leighterton, Gloucestershire, including a Commentary on one of the Races
Recorded by the B B C Mobile Unit and produced by DAVID GRETTON
Tonight a microphone picture is to be given of a point-to-point meeting of the Duke of Beaufort's hunt. By arrangement with the secretary, Captain D'Arcy Harris , the mobile recording unit of the BBC was at work yesterday on Lcighterton racecourse, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, where the meeting was held.
By means of records and a running commentary by D. F. Gretton , listeners will be able to visualise such things as the arrival of the horses ; the calling out of the runners and the riders ; the bookies shouting the odds ; the scenes in paddock and weighing-room and stewards' room ; and the names and achievements of some of the horses competing. It is also hoped to give a description of the start, running, or finish of one of the races with a running commentary by a hunt official.
It is interesting to remember how far the Beaufort hunt goes back into English history, for it was famous before the fox was hunted in England. Previous to 1762 the Badminton kennels could show only one couple of foxhounds, the rest being deerhounds and harriers. In that year, the fifth Duke of Beaufort, then in his minority, followed the example of other famous hunts and turned his own solely to the chase of the fox, and later in his life he gave some of his celebrated foxhounds to his nephew, the fifth Duke of Rutland, to make up the Belvoir pack.