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Hunting supporters gather before the start of the Lunesdale Hunt in Sedburgh, Cumbria, to show their solidarity for one last time before the ban is introduced on 18 February 2005.

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Huntsman Paul Whitehead leads the hounds off on foot in Lunesdale, one of about 250 hunts throughout England and Wales to meet on Thursday.

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Members of the oldest foxhunt in the country, the Bilsdale Hunt, set off for the final time in Thirsk nearly 350 years after the organisation was first established.

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Meanwhile outside the House Of Commons, International Fund for Animal Welfare campaigners raise a glass to the forthcoming ban.

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Police in Hullavington, Wiltshire, oversee the start of the Duke of Beaufort's Hunt where hundreds gather in the driving rain to support the event, which costs around �400,000 every year to run.

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Beaufort Hunt Joint Master Capt Ian Farquhar leads the way along the route which has become very popular with Prince Charles, his sons and Camilla Parker Bowles.

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Anti-hunt organisations, for whom the ban is the culmination of years of campaigning, say they hope most continuing hunts will stay within the law.