Tony very kindly picked me up as my car was out of action. Unfortunately, Annie and Cass had to stay home and have a walk later, as it would have been too much of a squeeze to try to manoeuvre four large Bassets in the back of Tony’s car.

Frankie drew the short straw and had to work.

The weather was just right, lovely and warm and with a gentle breeze. Eighteen hounds and their owners commenced the walk, the Bassets, as usual causing quite a lot of interest with other walkers in the car park.

We started off and hadn’t gone far when we noticed a group of people looking for mushrooms. Tony went over to them and started talking to one gentleman. It turned out to be the broadcaster David Dimbleby, whom Tony had met previously on several occasions. He did ask if Basset Hounds were any good at helping the party find any mushrooms, Tony answered that it was most unlikely - rabbits maybe!

We continued until we came to the lake, quite a nice spot on such a lovely day, with various other dogs and owners around. In fact, one little terrier-type dog was most intrigued by the Bassets and wanted to come along with us. As the owners were going in the opposite direction he was reluctantly dragged away by his lead.

With no further interruptions we made our way back to the car park only to find that Sherlock’s owners had arrived just too late, could hear us in front, and spent the walk trying to catch up. By a strange coincidence, we also had a new member with his young bitch who lived in the same area (Lewisham) as Sherlock’s owners. It was quite a long journey for all of them, and none of them had met before.

Some members decided to visit the nearby ‘The Old Oak’ either for a drink or for some food. We all sat in the garden and had a very pleasant hour eating, drinking and generally discussing Bassets amongst other things.

There was much sniffing on the part of my two when I got home (where have you been with Bassets?) but they soon cheered up when I took them over the fields near me.