Nobody will ever forget the day the country came to town

With groans of relief our neighbours yesterday returned to their normal midsummer tasks of making hay and silage. Yet all went back to work lit up by the success of the Countryside Rally, held in Hyde Park on Thursday.

It is too early to gauge the political effect of this mass protest against the latest attempt to ban hunting with hounds; but nobody who took part will ever forget the day the country went to town - or the sight of 100,000 people in bright shirts and dresses flooding the plain around the Reformer's Tree, or the waves of sound that rocked the plane trees as 100,000 voices swung into "D'ye ken John Peel?" and "Jerusalem".

The size of the crowd far exceeded the expectations of the organisers, the British Field Sports Society, who had hoped for 25,000. The fact that four times as many people turned out was largely due to the success of independent countryside marches.

This grass-roots idea was conceived at least a year before the Labour party came to power, by Mark Miller Mundy, a photographer, and Chipps Mann, a farmer's wife, both from Gloucestershire. Neither is, or has ever been, a hunting person. Indeed, Mrs Mann declares herself "far too frightened ever to climb on to a horse". Nevertheless, both felt that the time had come for country people to stand up for their rights.

The plan was for marches starting from Scotland, the Lake District, Wales and Cornwall to converge on London. Small numbers of core marchers would go all the way; hundreds more would join them on daily slogs of about 20 miles.

Mrs Mann and her husband Charles turned one of their farm buildings into an office. Volunteers manned telephones, fax machines and photocopiers. As news of the plan spread, hundreds more offered to house and feed the walkers as they came past.

So, from a kitchen table-top, and on a tiny budget, the idea raced throughout the land. Marchers were told that, whatever provocation they might meet, they must conduct themselves "in a dignified and orderly way".

At Calbeck, in the Lake District, 400 people turned out. At Tavistock, in Devon, 700 well-wishers saw the West Country marchers off; at Stow- on-the-Wold 2,000 people crammed the square to salute walkers from Wales.

As the marchers drew closer to London, their courage and dedication attracted much favourable publicity - with the antis conspicuous by their absence. The one place they showed in any strength was near Woodstock, where about 20 of them appeared, dressed in black from head to foot, to scream their ritual obscenities. The man who wound down his car window to speak to them was Mark Miller Mundy; when he said, "Sorry, boys, you're last year's flavour", they were temporarily struck dumb.

The BFSS naturally had many worries. One was that the antis would call false bomb scares on the Tube to disrupt the rally. Another was that the police might ban umbrellas, as potentially offensive weapons.

Yet on that glorious day all was sweetness and light. Marches and rally showed beyond reasonable argument that country folk are not the bloodthirsty monsters the antis claim: the qualities most in evidence were good humour, guts and compassion.