Following my visit to the David Davies, I left Jim and Pauline Meads late that afternoon and made my way through Newtown up to Knighton where the following morning the Huntsman of the Teme Valley, David Savage had very kindly agreed to show me his hounds. It was early June and the scars of winter were still very plain to see. The wooded valleys were weeks behind and far away from coming into full leaf. The bracken appeared to be taking a complete year off, there was no sign of it smothering the hillsides as usual. It has been an extraordinary year to date and the sting in winter’s tail bit very late into spring. A considerable amount of ewes and lambs were lost in this part of the world making what was already a very tight situation for the Hill Farmer even worse.
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