The Battle of Orthez
In 1808, Napoleon chased the Bourbons from Madrid and placed his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. This is a fatal decision. A bloody guerrilla fight undermines the French troops. Joseph had to leave Madrid pursued by Wellington's troops who, landed in Portugal, went back to Spain to inflict a severe defeat on the French at Vitoria in June 1813.
This defeat is decisive for the future of Pau.
The English army crosses the Bidassoa, occupies the Basque country and heads east. On February 27, 1814, on the heights of Orthez, 45,000 English soldiers found themselves facing 32,000 French soldiers, commanded by Soult.
Wellington's victory opens the road to Toulouse and the whole of the Southwest.
(Excerpt from the book "Le Cercle Anglais").
The beginnings of hunting
On May 18, 1814, Wellington's armies were at Pau.
The resemblance of the Bearn moors and their native lands quickly encouraged British cavalry officers to practice their favorite sport there: fox hunting.
When peace returned, many of them won over by the sweetness of life in Béarn returned to settle there.
Béarn has long had the privilege of retaining the only fox hunting crew, the "Hunting", of English and Irish tradition, the "Pau Hunt Drags". The story of this crew today uhistory in continental Europe merges with that of its "Masters" and the great riders who took part in it.
1840 - Le Pau Hunt Drags
theColonel WhiteandSir Henry Oxendenat their head, they form a crew: the Pau Hunt Drags was born
and war is declared on the foxes of the country.
Lord Oxendenthe founder was like all the English colony seduced by the Bearn landscape which reminded him not of England as is too often said but of the south of Ireland, a region very favorable to this sport of obstacles which is hunting. fox. As in Southern Ireland, the Pau moors of the time, planted with touyas guaranteed the perfect flexibility of the soil, never marshy, never frozen.
In addition, the small Béarnaise properties were closed off by embankments, veritable small earthen walls surrounded by ditches, which constituted remarkable natural obstacles. The peasants, for their part, were delighted to be rid of the foxes which swarmed. Convinced that it was necessary to take advantage of these advantages as soon as possible.Lord Oxendenbrought in superb English horses and a pack of fox hounds and so the Pau Hunt Drags began its activities.
Unfortunately, the passion that the master had for his wife was more violent than that which the hunt inspired in him. WhenLady Oxendendied in 1842 her husband ordered the slaughter of the horses fed to the pack which was also to be executed after this feast.Dupontthe unfortunate piqueur who received this order did not have the courage to go through with his gesture. He saved twelve pairs of dogs. Thanks to them the Pau Hunt was able to live again andDupontserved him until his death.
The Masters which succeededLord Oxendenshared his taste for Béarn but they quickly discovered that the hunts had to stop at the end of March at the risk of seeing the horses contract touya fever in the event of heat.
Under the Second Empire the Pau Hunt was definitely launched. From that moment on, he welcomed distinguished guests such as theDuke of HamiltonwhoseNapoleon IIIlent the castle of Pau so that he could treat his guests honourably. (Pau Horse and tradition)
However, the Pau Hunt experienced a serious crisis in 1880.Count of Bari, son of the last king of the Two Sicilies,Ferdinand II, moved to Pau in 1879. He set up his pack and organized his own hunts, twice a week, competing with the Pau Hunt, so much so that in April 1880, the masterJohn Stewartresigns and the Company is dissolved. Aware of the damage that this situation could cause to the tourist season, Mr. de Monpezat, mayor of Pau, has the city bear the cost of staff and the maintenance of the pack while waiting for a solution._cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
Gordon Bennettthe owner of the New York Herald Tribune, unblocks the situation. He arrived at Pau station on November 30. After a meeting at the Town Hall with the Count of Bari, the two members merge. The Pau Hunt is reconstituted andGordon Bennettbecomes interim master: he bears the expenses of the crew.
On December 5, he chairs themeetat Allées de Morlaàs. The seventy riders present set off from Andoins. At the end of thisrun, only ten remain in the saddle, includingGordon Bennettto whom is given thebrush(tail of the fox). (The English Circle)
Some Masters honored
It is impossible to pay tribute to all these boatswains. It should simply be noted that they were first English then American. A French finally obtained this title from 1893 to 1896, theBaron Lejeunestud officer. He helped to calm the timidity of the Béarnais who feared and laughed at the snobbery of the English colony. From 1896 to 1899, it was atBaron d'Esteof being a Master, his scrapbook (to be discovered partially below) testifies to all the activities of sporting life in Pau and the hunting appointments of the Pau Hounds, which he had carefully cut out and composed on more than five hundred pages!
This precious document is a nugget of historical information!
We certainly appreciated the generosity ofMH RidwayMaster in 1901 but we smiled while contemplating the gigantic stables which adjoined his villa Sainte-Hélène and which were intended to be a replica of those of Chantilly.
It was not Condé who wants, they said, but it was ultimately only superficial irony. In any case, the Béarnais now had a place in the crew, modest in number but nevertheless one of the most brilliant. No one disputed that theBaron de Palaminywas the best rider in the Pau Hunt and that his sheartMarion de Palaminycannot compete with the English amazons.
FH Prince and Henri de Vaufreland
The susceptibilities seemed completely calmed whenF.H. Prince, an American industrialist, became Master of the Pau Hunt in 1901. He was to remain so for thirty years. His considerable fortune allowed him to maintain an exceptional stable which his friends took advantage of to hunt alongside him and to receive every Saturday during the season, the full crew, in evening dress "red coat" of rigor for the Gentlemen :Edward VII, theprince henry,Alfonso XIIIand a number of archdukes thus profited by his hospitality. He was assisted in his duties by his Joint Master, a very distinguished AnglophileViscount Henri de Vaufreland. This one contributed by his friendly availability to bring down the last prejudices which still separated the Anglo-American sportsmen from their French counterparts.F.H. Princedid as much for the reputation of the city as the mayor of Pau,Alfred de Lasenceone day exclaimed:My dear Master, we will erect a statue for you next to that of Henri IV.".
F.H. Prince, lucid, replied with a strong American accent: "Yes but in small plou".
Shortly after, he had the pain of losing his sonnorman, died for the Allied cause in the ranks of the Lafayette squadron. An avenue in Pau now bears his name.
1920-1934
In the 1920s, the Pau Hunt reached its peak... The Master's stables housed more than a hundred Irish and Anglo-Arab horses, to allow the remounting of around sixty English and American buttons, the vast majority of them. The latter were regularly joined by big names from Spain vacationing in San Sebastian. thePrince of Walesand the Infantes d'Espagne repeatedly honored the crew with their presence.
However in the thirty years of the Mastership ofF.H. Princethe physiognomy of the hunts had changed somewhat although we remained very discreet about the fact that most often, instead of hunting foxes from the country, we had recourse to the system of drags already practiced in England, Ireland and the States -United.
The drag, riding course behind a pack ends with a release of foxes. It should be noted that at this time also the Pau Hunt was emulated by the creation on the Basque Coast of a neighboring crew, the Biarritz Fox Hunt. Of Anglo-Saxon frequentation this one was not to survive the disappearance of his Master in 1934.
Many people from Pau have kept the nostalgia of these gentlemen going to the Master's dinners at the Villa Sainte-Hélène in tailcoats in the colors of the Pau Hunt.
1939-1940
The masterF.H. Princeand the foreign colony leave Pau. The requisition of the horses and the subsequent occupation forced the Pau Hunt to dismantle.
Video: Pireneas Library
Old movie fromRene Perony, preserved in the Patrimonial Library of Pau.1939.Rating F-6-1.
Material description: Film often damaged, numerous scratches and stains. Mute.
1946
However, from 1946 two Pau riders well known to horse racing circlesHenry HorngrenandPaul Larregaintake up the challenge and begin to animate "Travers Pays" near Pau.
1947
Despite being 92 years old,F.H. Princecrosses the Atlantic one last time to hand over the torch toMarquis du Vivier. This one with dedication and generosity reassembles the crew. The latter will no longer be English and we will no longer see the splendours of yesteryear, but the embankments are still there and the tradition is safeguarded.
The new Master was assisted in his duties by his two Joint Masters successive, the Pau
Henry HorngrenandRobert Nancy. These men had the great merit of maintaining the tradition in a crucial period for the crew. It was then decided for the sake of discretion to wear the so-called small hunt outfit, a black jacket with forest green facing.
The pack now consisted of only seven Anglo-French reformed crewsVerneandLoubet.
The first hunting date was then set for March 17, 1947 at the Bastard forest ranger's house.
He didn't lack pace. Around the MastersRenaud du Vivierand Joint MasterHenry HorngrenstoodMadame du Breil, superb in Amazon,Mrs. Horngrenwho carried the colors of Sweden high in international horse shows and her daughter, the spiritualCountess of Navailles.
The following month the town hall of Pau reinstalled the kennel of the pack in the domain of Berlanne.
From 1960 to 1975
In 1960, theMarquis du Viviertransferred his functions and his charge of Boatswain to theBaron Jean of Arist. The latter, Béarn in the cgenerous heart and outspoken, would give the Pau Hunt a new impetus. The crew will open up to all sports riding enthusiasts in the region and in particular to young people from horse riding clubs. The crew will soon number around thirty Buttons.
The radiation, notoriety, knowledge of the agricultural world of the new Master will enable him to establish a friendly dialogue with the rural communes and their hunting societies, in order to extend the territories of the crew. He will have the great merit of having included the Pau Hunt within the framework of the sporting and traditional heritage of the region and of having had it accepted as such. He was helped in his task by two enthusiastic Joint MastersGustave Cierenet Henry Legrand.
In 1969, reviving an old habit of the last century, the crew moved, not to England, but to Ireland, this time. He couples for three weeks on the way of the fox, with Irish crews, the "Black and Tan", the "Wicklow Fox Hunt" and the "Tipperary Fox Hunt". If the Pau Hunt brought back only distant memories to old Irish Masters, our Buttons nevertheless made a very good figure on the slopes of County Cork and in front of the impressive ditches of Limerick.
From 1976 to 2000
Prohibited from riding by the faculty, theBaron d'Aristemust death in the soul resign himself to transmit his whip, on November 4, 1976 to one of his Béarnais Buttons like himGeorge Claveriewho will become, at 39, the 28th Master of the Pau Hunt. Supported by the unfailing friendship, availability and skills of his Joint MasterRaymond Béziatand members of its committeepatrick barthe,Bernard Baylac,Bernard BurrusandGeorges Moutet.
George Claveriewill set itself three objectives.
Reconnect with certain traditions, maintain if not improve the sporting quality of the Crew's drags and bring an increasing number of young riders to Fox Hunting, the breeding ground for the Pau Hunt of tomorrow.
It was to fulfill the first of these objectives that in 1978 he had the English-style red uniform resumed, which blends so well with the colors of the Béarnaise countryside and that he has since watched over with courteous but firm authority the maintenance of the customs to the behavior of its riders and respect for the rural environment.
From 2000 to today
The Pau Hunt is still installed in the property of Berlanne, with a historic kennel built for
3 packs. This property was sold in 1890 by Madame Torrance to the city of Pau, in memory of her son who died during a "point to point", on the condition that the crew of the Pau Hunt be maintained there.
Like a house put out of water, waiting for better days, the old tradition at Pau Hunt bends but does not break...
The drag crew is now experiencing a renewed vitality brought about both by the rediscovery of outdoor sports riding, which pushes riders out of the comfort of rides,
but also by the very nature of the "drag".
This is the merit today of a new generation of riders: not only to continue to survey our countryside on horseback but also to have fully taken into account the cultural and environmental aspect of this activity (the youngest member at twenty year).
As wrote theBaron d'Ariste, Master of the Pau Hunt from 1959 to 1976, "if in the French vénerie one rides a horse to hunt, the Pau Hunt hunts to ride a horse"
… and this is where the word “hunting” is partially usurped, because there is no game!
If we had to give three characteristics to the Pau Hunt
- you never get bored (obstacles and landscapes are guaranteed).
- each outing is a popular event which, if it is codified (rules of conduct, dress), remains festive for the guests on horseback or the spectators on foot... here we are not snob, and each hunt ends with a solid meals in these inns dear toCecil AldinandHarry Elliott.
- there is only the pleasure of seeing the pack and the horse-rider communion working.
