444 lkin(js of tbe Ibuntina-f iel& 



twenty-two stags, and eight hinds, of which all but two 

 hinds were killed. It was in this year, too, that the 

 grateful sportsmen of Devon and Somerset, 430 in 

 number, subscribed ;^757 towards a testimonial to Mr 

 Bisset, in recognition of the pluck and perseverance and 

 unselfish devotion he had displayed during the fifteen 

 years of his arduous struggle to put the Devon and 

 Somerset Stag-hounds on a firm footing. There was 

 great difficulty in persuading Mr Bisset to accept a 

 testimonial, and he only consented to do so when it was 

 proposed that the money should be expended on a 

 picture, embodying a scene in the history of the hounds. 

 So Mr Samuel Carter painted a picture, which I think 

 was hung in the Royal Academy of 1871, representing a 

 stag at bay, in Badgeworthy Water, with Mr Bisset on his 

 favourite grey horse, the huntsman, the whips and half-a- 

 dozen celebrated hounds. And this was presented to 

 Mr Bisset at a great public banquet at Doncaster on 

 the 14th of September 1871. 



Moreover, that year 1870 was marked by another 

 notable event in the history of the Devon and Somerset. 

 John Babbage resigned the horn and was succeeded by 

 Arthur Heal, the best huntsman Exmoor has ever seen. 

 For some years, whilst I was editing a well-known journal 

 which devoted more space to hunting than any of its 

 contemporaries, Arthur used to supply me every week 

 with his own notes of the runs they had had and the deer 

 killed. All wire and whipcord was Arthur Heal, and 

 his tough frame defied wind and weather and fatigue. 

 The longest day never seemed to tire him, and up to 

 the last, when he had been as whip and huntsman with 

 these hounds for three-and -thirty years, he could still ride 

 away from every one on the moor. 



