1979 - Hounds are Home - Numerous Insider Stories
Joseph and Emmanuel Gaggero - Marielu and Sir George Gaggero
Ida Marfé and Dr J .A. Patron - Francis and Elisa Francia
Mabel Andrews-Speed and the Hon. Arthur Carrara - Master Frank Imossi
Jerome Saccone and John Mackintosh - Jaime Russo and J. Bensusan
Mrs John Gaggero and Leslie Cardona
Point-to-Point - Pablo Larios (1920s – Lionel Edwards)
When I wrote my essays on the Royal Calpe Hunt and the Larios family I would have had to pay more than a hundred quid to buy Gordon Fergusson’s book Hounds are Home. When it went well down in price recently and got myself a copy I realised that had I bought it earlier I would probably never have bothered to write these essays. An easy to read text, together with well over a hundred photographs and illustrations Fergusson’s book is the definitive history of the well-known Hunt.
I have never hunted foxes – or anything else for that matter - and would probably still not be able to tell you the difference between a “Whipper In” or an “Earth-stopper”. In fact, my main interest in the Hunt lies elsewhere. I am fascinated by the fact that for nearly 125 years one of the most supposedly romantic and enjoyed institutions that Gibraltar has ever produced actually had very little to do with the civilian, non-ex-pat population of the Rock.
Hunting morning in Main Street (1876 - Lt J. Marshman)
When the above sketch was drawn, the population of Gibraltar consisted of about 18000 people – the majority of Genoese and Spanish descent. The picture shows around 35 individuals in Main Street on a Hunting morning - yet I can only identify about five people who might just be classified as typically Gibraltarian.
The Hunt was created jointly in the 19th century by both officers of the Garrison and by British civilians stationed or living in Gibraltar. I suspect most of those involved thought of it as another example of the philosophy of the English Public Schools, institutions that viewed such traditional activities as hunting and shooting - and sport in general - as important adjuncts to British Imperialism. Whatever the case, it seems to have ensured that "Johnny foreigner" and colonial natives would mostly be viewed by Britons at home and abroad, with condescension, indifference or contempt
It does not require too careful a reading of the Hounds are Home to understand these distinctions between the governed and those who governed brought about by these engrained attitudes.
In 1929 the Spaniard Pablo Larios, Master of the Hounds for decades, found himself embroiled in a vendetta with the Governor Alexander Godley who was determined to replace him with somebody he thought of as far more suitable - somebody British, preferably himself. Inevitably caught up in all this was the Deputy Master Arthur Hankey a man who was fluent in Spanish and well-known to local Campo farmers.
You don’t have to read between the lines to realize that the governor era todo una pieza. Godley dismissed the Deputy Master as “a Gibraltarian civilian called Hankey” despite the fact that the man had been born in England, was educated at Eton, an ex-member of the RNVR and had not set foot on the Rock until he was 30. By the Governor’s reckoning people who could even remotely be classified as “natives” were beyond the pale. He was belittling Hankey by classifying him as one of these .
“A Gibraltar civilian called Hankey”
Elsewhere, a quick count through the Book’s index reveals well over 650 names – governors, generals, admirals, naval officers of one kind or the other, colonels and majors, captains and lieutenants and . . . they all have one thing in common. They are almost universally home-grown Britons.
In fact the only local people mentioned in the entire book – unless I have managed to miss the odd one – are those found at the beginning of this article, every one of them from among the most well-off 20th century business families on the Rock - most of them given just a cursory and more or less incidental mention.
Apparently an exception ot the above was Marielou Gaggero, who was - according to Fergussen - “among the youngest living followers of the Royal Calpe Hounds". He dedicated the book to her "and to the hounds themselves"
Mind you I think he married her later on which might have had something to do with it.
As regards Governors of Gibraltar, from Colin Campbell in 1809 to Noel Mason-MacFarlane in 1942, just about every one of them is given a sympathetic mention – other then perhaps for Godley who nevertheless gets more than his fair share of space.
Alexander Godley
Another quick look – this time at his acknowledgements page - reveals an avalanche of nearly seventy British names. Hidden away among them are J. Bensusan – Curator of the Gibraltar Museum - Mrs John Gaggero and Leslie Cardona.
Throughout the narrative Spaniards occupy both ends of the spectrum – from the many titled men and women of the Larios dynasty to the often anonymous working class men who invariably occupied the most menial posts required by the Hunt – such as for example the earth-stoppers whose job it was to block up the entrances to fox holes which are also known as earths.
The following quote which Fergusson attributes to one of the Calpe Hunt’s many members shows the underlying disdain for Spaniards by at least one British hunter. According to this wit most foxes in Spain died of old age because ‘the earths are many and the earth-stoppers are Spanish.’ And yet local Campo folk such as José Pecino, for example, worked continuously and successfully at the Kennels from 1901 until 1928 as an earth-stopper and from 1928 onwards as Kennel Huntsman right up to 1948.
The Hon Arthur Carrara KC at Guadacorte Farm suitably attired for the hunt. Bowler hats seem to have been de rigour for civilians and the Navy
But despite my criticism, the book is a must for anybody remotely interested in the social history of Gibraltar. Among the many references to Hunt meetings, point-to-points, horse racing and polo there are also numerous insider stories and titbits. For those who can’t be bothered or can’t afford to buy the book I have copied most of the more interesting tit-bits and illustrations and have posted these separately in several chapters as shown below.
1979 - Hounds are Home – Part 1 (See LINK)
1979 - Hounds are Home – Part 2 (See LINK)
1979 - Hounds are Home – Part 3 (See LINK)
1979 - Hounds are Home – Plates (See LINK)