Important Editorial
This will be the last edition of Earth Dog Running Dog. After 28 years and 324 editions, for me, the time has come to bring it to an end. I had hoped that someone would come forward to take it over but that is not going happen and so reluctantly, I must call it a day. My health has meant that its been a bit of a struggle for the last few years but I took a turn for the worse last May and then another last August which just about brought an end to my hunting/ terrier work days and now, with the latest Royal Mail postal price rise, followed by this Corvid 19 business and occasional ailing I feel that it is all just too much to deal with, too much of a burden for me and it will not improve. Time, at last, to sort it all out, put my affairs in order while I am able. And so, after 28 mostly very happy and enjoyable years I have to bow out. It will not be easy for it has kept me busy, sometimes too busy; I will not be able to find anything like it to fill up my time and I don’t like being idle.
This now leaves me with the massive task of refunding money to those who have subscribed for future issues and it will not be easy for it will mean calculating hundreds of renewals to see just how many issues each individual has left so that each repayment can be worked out. And then making the actual refund. To do this each subscriber will have to fill out the form on page 66 with the information required so that repayment can be made. This will be made by cheque or direct to your bank account according to the information you return and the whole process will take a few months to complete. So please fill in and return the form or, if you don’t want to cut this last issue, photo copy or exactly copy the info requested on plain paper instead, please print clearly. Bank transfer is probably the best method for most and will be the easiest for me for I don’t fancy having to order a pile of cheque books from the bank and then having to make out and post hundreds of cheques but it will be your choice.
All that is left for me now is to thank you all for supporting the mag over the years and I know there are still many who have been with us from the very beginning. For those who have been keeping the mags in binders and who wish to order more to complete their collection we will still supply any that you need but please be very quick in letting us know in case we have to order some in to cope. Priced at £10 each or £18 for two, includes postage, add £3 for outside UK.
We will also still supply any book orders or requests for back issues and the price for back issues will be £5 for 1 issue, £15 for 5, £25 for10, or £40 for 20 and this will apply for the rest of this year by which time I should have made all refunds due and then be able to finally close down the website and walk away from 28 years of my life. This will be a massive task for me so please bear with me, I will be as quick as I can about it.
Thank You All
When I came to live where I am now, I soon discovered that my neighbour was something of a local character. We got on well from the start. And when he saw I had working terriers he took me off to follow the local hounds straight away. And from then on he came hunting with me as often as he could manage which, for many years was almost every hunting day. He owned the surrounding fields and kept a few sheep and earned his living by hedging and fencing and working as required on local farms. Well recently his health let him down and he gradually became more or less house bound, his sheep had long gone but now he could hardly look after himself or his collie dog and eventually we had to get him into hospital where in a matter of weeks, he just faded away. As he was about to be driven away in the ambulance he asked me to look after his dog and called me “a kind man.” No Glen you were the kind one, as kind a man as ever lived. He died on15th April. He will be a familiar figure to all who followed our pack and that includes the many friends who visited for a day out with me over the years for he made every one welcome. He was six months younger than me and I always thought he would outlast me for he was a tough old boy and, in his own way, he always looked after himself, plenty of food, plenty of coal and wood for the fire and a visit to the local most nights while his health held up. In the early days he used to give me a bit of a hand with the terriers, even known to turn some earth in small quantities. And now he’s gone and Irene and I will miss him for I could not have wished for a better neighbour. But that’s the stage of my life now, old friends leave the scene, old friends get fewer and the old times are further away with every passing day. The ever rolling stream bears all its sons away. They are the stars on a dark night.
And I decided that the mag had now reached a stage where I just could not keep it going. My health was not reliable and I had too many weak spells. Regular readers will have seen the gaps increasing, monthly became every six weeks and even that is too much for me now so I had to end it. It has been a huge part of my life for almost thirty years and I have enjoyed it more than I can say. It was tough going at the start and touch and go each month but with the help of various understanding printers, we managed to somehow publish almost every month. It wasn’t easy. After about half a dozen issues I discovered I had throat cancer and that was a great set back, finished the mag just as we get started I thought but the surgeon told me that he would cure me and that was good enough for me. And he did. Got a croaky voice and throat these days but that’s a small price to pay. Gradually the mag established itself and then Adrian Simpson and his two mates started the Welsh Game Fair, gave me a place for a stand in a very prominent spot right beside the terrier ring and that was the turning point, we never looked back. And a couple of years after, The Fell & Moorland who organised the Terrier show at the Midland Game Fair gave us a spot in their tent and our cup was full. No charge from The Welsh or The Midland, all in full support of a voice for Terriers and Lurchers. They were great days, never to be forgotten and I gained subscribers and friends all over Britain and Ireland.
And what about the years when war criminal, traitor and pervert Tony Blair attacked us with his hunting ban? The rally’s and marches, the protests and campaigning. All in vain, we won the debate but the lefty class warriors forced the ban through and also put a ban on free speech in Britain so that today we have to watch our every word when we talk about race or religion or immigration or various perversions. I cant say what I used to say. Well I can but I don’t want to end my life in jail! That’s Britain since War Criminal Blair!!. Didn’t take long to end our freedom did it? Now we have reached the stage where idiots burn our flag and pull down statues and tell the original British what we must do. And moron snowflakes even kneel before random black people begging forgiveness for slavery when it was our ancestors who not only traded in it but, don’t forget this, ABOLISHED IT. I don’t believe in kneeling, asking forgiveness, nothing to do with me. Come on you native Brits, for Gods sake take back our country before its too late. Its OURS, it doesn’t belong to immigrants or other nationalities. Our fathers and their fathers sacrificed for us to have our own country, our own home where we live as we chose, not as aliens from elsewhere tell us. Are we the wimps who give it all away – and KNEEL!
But enough of that, its too late now and this is the last mag so its time to thank you all, readers, writers and all who have helped, somehow or other, in whatever capacity, along the way. It’s been great meeting you all and even not meeting some of you for I have spoken and e mailed with people without ever meeting them but we have built up a friendship. All I can do is let you know that you have all been appreciated, there have been very few dissenters, we have mostly got along very well and I shall miss all this.
I have lived the past 33 years exactly as I wanted to live them. Nobody has told me what to do or made me do anything I didn’t want to. Its been tough going at times but I have been happy, content with my way of life and very fortunate to have met some great friends and acquaintances, most of them interested, as I am, in dogs and hunting. If you are ever in my area, call in and if there’s a kettle boiling you will be welcome to a cup of tea, can’t promise anything stronger these days. When the Welsh Game Fair was going strong and the village was full of friends from Ireland and Durham I always had a bottle of Whisky or Rum from the ferry’s and we all new how to knock it back! I couldn’t keep up with my Irish and Geordie drinking mates but I would give it a try. Great days. Great memories.
Thank you all.
