Red-Faced Farmers Ride In Piccadilly

Chronicle (Levin), 26 February 1949, Page 5

Red-Faced Farmers Ride In Piccadilly

Received Friday, 10.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 25. Red-faced hard-riding farmers clattered down Piccadilly this morning to thc cry of "yoicks, tallyho." The hunt was on, the kill ahead of them, the Anti-biood Sports Bill now helore the Commons. They had come from the West oi England to lodge their protest against legislation which would prohibit the hunting of foxes as a sport. They hired London hacks which they startled as much as theLopdoners with the hlare of their pqsthorn. Excitement gfew as the field reached the Piccadilly shopping centre. Vehicles pulfed into the roadside and mounted police tried to head the hunters to clear a way. Customers and assistants rushed from. the Shops, but Piccadilly Circus saw the climax of the excitement. People crowded the pavement and the hu,ntsmen rose» in their saddles and hlew their horns until their cheeks nearly burst. Pamphlets of protest fluttered everywhere, whips cracked and the horses tossed their heqds and whinnied. The quafry was in sight and away went the hunt along Regent Stteet and Oxford Street to Hyde Park. As- the hunt was in progress Seymour Cocks rose in the Commons amid cheers and counter-cheers to move his "Protection of Animals (Hunting and . Coursing Prohihition) Bill. ' ' It prohihits hunting of deer, f otter or hadger with hoimds as sport and similarly hare and rabbit coursing. "I think it might have amused Oscar Wilde to see the unspeakable. pursuing the uneatable near Leicester Square," said Mr. Cocks, referring to the Piccadilly hunt.