the wild hunt

The wild hunt

Dogs and people have allied together for centuries to hunt.

The affinity is probably because there are similarities between dogs and people.

They can both be pack animals and gregarious, and aggressive and bullies,

The hunt is the primitive element at work in both species.

I believe that the primitive nature of the human being, 

which could never quite be got rid of, 

but which religions have been trying to control since society developed

is symbolised by the dog, and that primitive man 

Is the origin of the stories of werewolves - Or one of the origins

Herne the Hunter was an old British story, of a wild huntsman 

leading a spectral pack of dogs through the countryside.

It probably was more widespread once. 

The last one i heard of was alleged to have been seen 

In Windsor Forest Great Park

Harrison Ainsworth "Windsor Castle" illustrated by George Cruickshank.

The wild huntsman in Germanic folklore .

There was a haunted tree, Herne's oak, in Windsor Park

but which or where exactly it was....or is... is uncertain apparently.

Literary references abound. 

from Shakespeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor, to Harrison Ainsworth, 

writer of the "Lancashire Witches"

And there is a story in the classic children's tv series "Shadows" on the theme.