FEW things have been as socially divisive in recent years as the ban on hunting with dogs - especially in rural areas, where hunting was part of the way of life.

Almost four years on from the ban becoming law (the Hunting Act 2004 actually came into force in February 2005) perhaps the most surprising thing, however, is how little has changed.

The hunts still ride out to hounds (though legally they are allowed only to follow artificial scent trails) and the protesters still sometimes protest (though as often as not they are looking for evidence the hunts are breaching the law).

Whatever your personal view, the fact is that hunting with hounds really has been a part of traditional country life in Yorkshire for centuries.

The Sinnington Hunt dates back to 1680 or thereabouts, according to the Masters of Foxhounds Association, while the Badsworth Hunt has records going back to before 1730.

The York and Ainsty (now divided into the north and south hunts) dates back to the early 1800s.

Captain Henry Butler, son of the 11th Viscount Mountgarret, apparently kept a small pack of foxhounds shortly after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He appears to have had a licence from Mr James Lane-Fox to hunt an elongated north-south area of land. In 1821 the permission became permanent and the hunt was named the York and Ainsty because it lay mostly within York's old rural borough.

Sir Charles Slingsby was Master of the York and Ainsty for 17 years from 1853-1869. In February 1869, according to the City of York Council’s Imagine York website, Sir Charles, his kennel huntsman Charles Orvis and two followers were drowned when the Newby ferry, which had been overloaded with 13 horses and 11 men, overturned.

The York and Ainsty hunt was divided permanently into north and south hunts in 1929.