Hound music - Rosalind Belben

Written in gorgeous prose, this fine historical novel aims to show how, at the turn of the century, the whole household - and indeed the whole village - is intimately linked with fox-hunting, from the local farmers to the master's valet, from the parson to the doctor, from the gypsy boy to the nursemaid taking out the baby in his pram. Only one person is not a supporter. She is Dorothy Lupus, wife of the Master himself. When her beloved husband dies, Dorothy feels scourged by the singing of houdns that carries from the kennels across the park. Rhapsody, Rapture, Romany, Roguish, Padiant, Rarity, Rakish, Ringlet and Restless...they sense tragedy and mourn the Master. Dorothy seizes the chance to banish hounds and their hound music for ever. She goes away, for her health, to North Africa...But in her absence, her children begin to hunt again. On eof the hounds has escaped from its new owners and made its way back home, the children still have their ponies and their lap dogs, the spaniel, the dachsounds, the terriers, the bloodhound...