Hound Music

Romney Family

by 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 hounds 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. One of 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.

Genres: British Literature, Historical Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Rosalind Belben is an English novelist. She was born in 1941 in Dorset where she now lives. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her novel Our Horses in Egypt won the James Tait Black Award in 2007. Among her other books are Bogies, Reuben Little Hero, The Limit, Dreaming of Dead People, and Hound Music.

Reviews

[Polly Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosalind Belben, HOUND MUSIC, Vintage 2002
A British foxhunting family's climb out of despair following their father's hunting accident.
Fox hunting in England, 1900-1902. We start out on a glorious hunt with the master George Lupus, the hunt staff, and his wife Dorothy and children--teen-age Ida, then Griselda, and youngest Bevis--and Pastor Cornforth and various disparate characters. Bevis proves quite able to bring home a wayward hound.
On another hunt George Lupus takes a tragic spill. The children tiptoe about their incapacitated father; growing brave, they sneak favored hounds up the back stairs to his bedroom. Oldest son Esmond is away at school, the other children home and being tutored by proper “Miss Inkpen.” Dorothy, also most proper, countenances no rudeness (backtalk) from the children: they stand helpless when she dismisses the whipper-in, sells off George’s hunters and all the hounds--because their “music” unbearably brings back the horrible night George died.
George’s well-meaning brother Oliver suggests a trip to Africa, and off he and Dorothy go, leaving the children bereft--no father, no mother, no hunting--only George’s partially crippled, sympathetic brother Archie. The family’s house dogs--Dorothy’s dachshunds, various terriers and spaniels--remain the only canines until a foxhound finds his way home. Bevis recognizes Rumour, one of their pack, and gets his gypsy friend Jem to die the hound black, and the grounds man‘s wife to keep it. Before long, he‘s working Rumour to form the motley collection of house dogs into a pack. Young Bee--about 8 or 9, I imagine--proves to have quite a knack. Soon he and the girls and Jem, and pastor Cornforth, who has found them another hound, are riding out with their pack and preparing for a foxhunt. Ida has written to masters who bought some of their hounds to ask if they would be willing to return any of them.
Meanwhile, Dorothy finds travel in Africa rather tedious--until one night, visiting acquaintances from the ship in their new, rural home. Out for a walk, Dorothy gets lost, falls down, gets hurt, and spends a ghastly night in the creepy woods. Two native boys find her. Fifteen-year-old Douod brings her water, cleans her wounds and, while practically carrying her back to civilization, peels prickly fruit to feed her its luscious red berries. The next day, Dorothy sends for Douod and gifts him magnanimously. The next day, he returns with more of the painfully peeled, precious fruit. They walk, and sit on the ground together, even though Dorothy has nothing to sit upon. She experiences an epiphany of phenomenal tenderness when Douod affectionately lays his arm across her shoulders.
The tenderness lies dormant until Dorothy is home and discovers the magnitude of her children’s achievement. Their hunt has attracted subscribers now, and procured more hounds, forming a pack sufficiently large to dismiss the wayward dachshunds. In her enthusiasm, Dorothy sets out to hire a huntsman, build new kennels, etc etc--intruding so overwhelmingly that the children, having lost control, begin to back out. Uncle Archie lays into Dorothy and sets her straight. Thinking of Douod, she submits, even lets Bee wait a few more years before going off to school.
Near the end of that hunting season, Snowmaid, a favorite old hound, gets lost, then returned dead in a sack. Snowmaid’s nose and face had been clenched in a trap, her paws ragged from trying to escape. Everyone mourns; that night, the hounds do not sing.
I loved this book, and reread passages before picking up on it again to resavor the entire story.
Rosalind Belben also wrote the wonderful OUR HORSES IN EGYPT, portraying the sisters Griselda and Ida as adults.

[Sal]

more of the spectacular Belben. I saw this described as a book about fox hunting during the time of the Boer War. I'm sold.

[Kay Baird]

This review by M.J. Fitzgerald got me excited to read this book.