Hounds in the News

Ban the Dancers

Source: Daily Telegraph Letters to the editor. (may require registration)

Re: Ban the dancing
Date: 7 March 2002

SIR - Leave foxhunting alone. Ban morris dancing please.

From: Simon Palmer, Portland, Dorset

Re: Kill the dancers
Date: 8 March 2002

SIR - Further to Simon Palmer's letter (Mar. 6), I have a suggestion. Why not let the foxhunters hunt morris dancers?

This would solve two problems and would be an interesting spectacle.

From: Brian Street, Bromley, Kent

Re: Pagan past of morris dancers
Date: 13 March 2002

SIR - Morris dancers have, in the past, been persecuted not merely because they look funny and skip, but because they were also, during a darker period of our history, hunted with dogs by Puritan zealots, because of their association with pagan ritual.

This association is also clear in the fact that New York State's finest morris dancers are called the Bassett Street Hounds and host an annual event called the Dogs Day Ale. Perhaps Brian Street (letter, Mar. 8) should explore this avenue.

From: Geoff Leeson, Bromley, Kent