Fox hounds being lead through the village of Chipping Norton by the master of the hunt at last year's Boxing Day meeting. Photograph: Mim Friday / Alamy/Alamy Patrick Martin gestures towards 45 yapping fox hounds and breaks into a grin. "Look at them, they are my life. They are also probably one reason why hunting is more popular than ever. People have really stuck together over the issue. What happened at Heythrop won't change that." With Boxing Day, the traditional highlight of the hunting year, approaching it has been a rollercoaster week for Oxfordshire hunts. Twelve miles west from Martin's kennels at Bicester, across undulating countryside, the Heythrop Hunt – local MP, one David...
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