I RECEIVED a telephone call, “would you like to give the after dinner speech at the Ampleforth College Beagles annual dinner?” came the question. Ampleforth joint-master Benoit Guerin, steeped in hunting, growing up in his native France where his father and grandfather had their own packs, posed the question. He also hunts an Irish Draught hunter (by Huntingfield Rebel) with the local Sinnington Hounds. He has hunted with all the well-known names in hunting including Ronnie Wallace who started hunting the Eton College Beagles, Monique de Rothschild in the Forest of Rambouillet, located west of Paris, and many other notable people. Guerin also has one of the best stocked libraries of hunting books.

Foundation years