Custom, Praxis, Possession and Dispossession in Foxhunting Landscapes

Alison Acton

Landscape Research, 2015, vol. 40, issue 2, 154-173

Abstract: E. P. Thompson's classic text Customs in Common (1991) explored the complexities of space, praxis and custom. Thompson observed that it is the active, pre-modern, lay quality of customary access to land which makes it an evasive phenomenon to examine. However, I uncovered a rich seam of this obscure form of customary tenure during seven years of in-depth participant observation as a rider with Hunts. Modern foxhunting originated as a sport of the landed classes, beneficiaries of enclosure, and grew from enclosed landscapes, but over two hundred years ago, Hunts lost the legal right to freely use their territories. In response to this divestiture, they increasingly relied upon patterns of informal land use, which were practised by the poor, who were dispossessed by enclosure. An analysis of foxhunting landscapes reveals legacies of possession and dispossession and the survival of ancient custom evident, yet largely unrecognised, within the English countryside .

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2013.824074

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