After more than four decades with the Burton Hunt, north of Lincoln, huntsman Jim Lang is retiring at the end of the season early next year – but that won’t stop him making the most of this month’s Boxing Day meet! This month we ride out with the hunt to celebrate his 41 years with one of the country’s oldest packs.

Ordinarily winter is the busiest time for Lincoln’s Burton Hunt, with the kennels a hive of activity in preparation for the first meets of the season. However, the season is really only getting going after its usual activities were placed on hold following the threat of a further outbreak of Foot & Mouth and Blue Tongue.

Fortunately, just a week previously at the time of writing, the ban on animal movement across the county was lifted and the Burton Hunt could ride out for this first time this season, and with huntsman Jim Lang retiring next year as the season ends, we were delighted to be invited to ride out with the hunt for its first sortie.

Meeting Jim at the kennels north of Lincoln, we were pleased to have the opportunity to reflect on over four decades with the hunt, a rare opportunity to find out how the sport has changed over the years.

“I arrived in 1966 when Mr Arthur Lockwood was master of the hunt.” Says Jim who hails from Cornwall. “He told me that it’d take 25 years for locals to accept me!”

Despite being with the Lincolnshire hunt for over four decades, Jim retains a wonderfully warm, rounded Cornish accent which is a pleasure to listen to. Nostalgic and appropriate, talking to Jim is the conversational equivalent of a good strong cuppa, which is just what we enjoyed by the open fire in the house, adjacent to the purpose built kennels constructed by members behind the 1905 farmhouse less than ten years ago.

 “Farming has radically changed in that time, and necessarily hunting has adapted too. There’s no longer the routine of spring drilling, it’s all winter corn nowadays, and because Lincolnshire is no longer a ploughed county, the hunt has become faster, taking place over grassland rather than ploughed fields.” He says.

Whilst the hunt has become faster though, Lincolnshire’s landscape is more conducive to enjoying watching the hounds over the land, flatter, with larger fields in an age of industrialised farming that was