OUR HUNTING FATHERS: FIELD SPORTS IN ENGLAND AFTER 1850. By Professor Richard W. Hoyle.

2007 1st edition. 8vo paperback (241 x 168mm). Ppxv,320. B/w photographs and illustrations, bibliography.

In recent years, field sports of all descriptions including even angling, have fallen foul of an energetically evangelised official ideology. Despite this, field sports remain an important part of the lives of a significant portion of the population. The author examines the place of field sports historically and socially, relying heavily on secondary sources. Somewhat implausibly, Hoyle maintains that this book is "surprisingly, perhaps, ...the first attempt to offer a proper historical perspective on the subject of field sports in England." This probably hangs on the author's interpretation of the word "proper". An interesting read containing contributions from many authors, with much useful material and an extensive and useful bibliography. Chapters include: Field sports as history; Royalty and the diversity of field sports, c1840-1981; Sport and the survival of landed society in late victorian Suffolk; The shooting party - the associational cultures of rural and urban elites; Wildfowling, its evolution as a sporting activity; 'A delightful sport with peculiar claims' - the specificities of otter hunting, 1850-1939; Science, sport and the otter, 1945-1978; the development of salmon angling in the nineteenth century; Starting a hare - exploring the history of coursing since the mid-nineteenth century; Foxhunting and the Yeomanry - county identity and military culture; The fortunes of English foxhunting in the twentieth century - the case of the Oakley Hunt. Contributors include R.W. Hoyle, Nicholas Mansfield, Edward Bujak, Mark Rothery, John Martin, Daniel Allen, Charles Watkins, David Matless, Paul Merchant, Harvey Osborne, Ian Roberts.