ISAAC ‘IKEY’ BELL, the pioneer of the modern English foxhound and one of the most gifted and influential hound breeders of the 20th century, was born in New York in 1879. His father was a successful cotton broker, diplomat and philanthropist, while his mother, Jeanette, was the sister of James Gordon Bennett: the flamboyant proprietor of the New York Herald, famous for funding Stanley’s expedition to find Livingstone. Bell’s father died when he was 10 years old. After his mother moved to Paris, where her brother had launched the Paris Herald, he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge. It was here, with the proximity of the Cambridgeshire, Oakley, Thurlow, Puckeridge and Fitzwilliam hunts, that Bell developed his passion for hunting and interest in hound breeding.
On leaving university,…
