Hunting of the Earl of Rone, England

Hunting for the Earl of Rone, England © earl-of-rone.org.uk

Take an unfortunate volunteer. Dress him head-to-toe in sackcloth and hide his face behind a heavy wooden mask.

Seat him ‘backsy fore’ on a donkey and then have several hundred villagers dressed as Grenadiers chase him, shoot at him, humiliate him, knock him from his mount, and eventually throw him into the sea.

This is what happens during the Hunting of the Earl of Rone, a grisly tradition that dates back centuries, although it was banned from 1837 to 1974 for licentiousness and drunken goings on.

The festival re-enacts the story of the Earl of Tyrone, who fled Ireland in 1607 to be shipwrecked off Combe Martin, North Devon.

He hid in the local woods but was eventually flushed out by the Grenadiers.

The event takes place on Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

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