EAT British Lamb - 50,000 foxes can't be wrong.

So said one of the placards paraded past a bemused Admiral Nelson, as the landmarks of London echoed to the unusual sound of the hunting horn rather than the taxi horn.

Another quoted GK Chesterton's famous line: "We are the people of England, who have not spoken yet."

The people of London, for their part, seemed to be in hiding from the strange wax-jacketed invasion by the provinces - the city seemed deserted on this quiet, sunny Sunday morning, apart from the cheering crowds gridlocked on the Embankment.

Three hours earlier, we had boarded a specially-chartered train at York, with the kind of first-class compartments in which people get bumped off in Agatha Christie novels. The atmosphere on board was good-humoured and friendly, the people looking forward to the day ahead and all firmly convinced of their mission.

One man had travelled in from Wensleydale because he does not like coach travel but he was hoping to find the rest of his hunt in the quarter-of-a-million-strong crowd in London.

A formidable lady called Alison from the Countryside Alliance took charge of me and dragged me off for a crash course in country life, introducing me to all the different groups travelling down from North Yorkshire - from beaglers to farriers, huntsmen, showjumpers and point-to-point riders.

Various national newspapers had talked about the march being hijacked by the pro-hunting lobby. For the North Yorkshire marchers, this was openly and unapologetically a pro-hunting march from the start, with 80 per cent of the people on board representing their local hunt.

David Philpotts, master of the Derwent Foxhounds, said: "It's a chance for normal country folk who traditionally don't make a fuss to make their views known."

David Jones, of Sheriff Hutton, said: "Hunting is essential to the culture and social life of all the working people, whether they're landowners or working class."

Emphasising a point made by many of those on the York train, that all parts of the rural economy are closely linked, he said: "If hunting doesn't survive then point-to-point doesn't survive, then National Hunt racing follows on.

"People call us the green welly brigade but someone in a factory has to make green wellies. I work for a lighting company in Bridlington and the demand for our products comes from the rural way of life."

Young Farmers Club member Rebecca Pulleyn said: "We depend on hunting for our jobs, we've spent two years in college and now there's going to be nowhere for us to work."

Nigel Pulling, a pub landlord and hunt follower from Brompton-by-Sawdon, said: "The Government is out of touch, very much so. "There's a big cross-section of people here today."

Opposition leader William Hague also praised the diversity of the marchers.

"There's an incredibly number of young people here - people who thought today was going to be about toffs in red coats have been proved wrong", Mr Hague told the press in Hyde Park.

The Countryside March came to a peaceful conclusion after a day which was both dignified and light-hearted. Above all it was a powerful demonstration to the Government of the strength of feeling in the countryside.

See COMMENT, 'Rural anger must be defused'.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.