PRO-HUNT campaigner and celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson Wright encouraged county huntsmen to 'keep the faith' after joining them in the field last Saturday.

The former Two Fat Ladies star got up early to cook breakfast for supporters at Huntington village hall, near Kington, before following the Radnor and West Hereford Hunt on a quad bike.

Clarissa Dickson Wright turned up to offer her support to hunt members and encouraged them to continue the age-old hunting tradition.

Startled supporters were surprised to see Ms Dickson Wright, who braved gale-force winds and driving rain, hurtling across Newchurch Hill on her unusual 'mount'.

"It's 20 years since I've ridden a horse," she said. "I was nine stone then and only remounted for the last series of Clarissa in the Countryside."

She spent the day with huntsman David Morgan and the Radnor hounds, flanked by 60 horses and 200 supporters on foot.

During the celebratory post-hunt dinner at Titley village hall, the celebrity countrywoman, who has a direct line to a Special Branch officer to protect herself from animal rights activists, voiced her controversial opinions on the sport.

"I am a Roman Catholic and for 300 years you could be sent to the scaffold for being a Catholic. So don't tell me about banning hunting," she said.

"We are striving to preserve freedom of choice for our sake and that of our children."

She recalled attending demonstrations in London. "I never thought I would see the day when I was frying eggs for 600 women under a statue of Winston Churchill," she said.

"A Special Branch officer at the all-women protest in Parliament Square said the gas bottles might constitute a government security threat.

"I'd been invited to cook for Number 10 when Vladimir Putin came over. I told him if I'd wanted to kill the Cabinet I'd have done it then, dear boy!"

Senior hunt master, Dr John Davies, thanked Clarissa Dickson Wright for her support and David Morgan for a successful season's sport.

Hunt spokesman Andy Milne said the Radnor hounds now enjoyed an international reputation, attracting riders from Spain, the USA, Ireland and the Czech Republic.

He said when the season started again in November, Radnor hounds would welcome any foot followers, runners, cyclists as well as chefs on quad bikes!