MR. EDWARD FAIRFAX STUDD 137 



was strengthened by purchases from Mr. Ross, Mr. 

 Froude Bellew and from other sources, and Dan 

 North was kept on as huntsman. 



Concurrently with these arrangements came the 

 resignation of Mr. Ross who, as will be seen later, ^ 

 had been enjoying a second spell of office as master 

 of the South Devon, then hunting the Newton side 

 or southern portion of the country. Thereupon the 

 new joint-masters of the Haldon claimed the portion 

 vacated by Mr. Ross, as they were entitled to do 

 under the terms of the arrangement entered into 

 when the country was first partitioned, ^ and at the 

 same time they of course resumed the name " South 

 Devon " for the pack with which they were to hunt 

 the re-united country. The re-union, however, was 

 only momentary. The claim to the Newton side 

 appears to have been waived in favour of a gentle- 

 man, Mr. Hemming, who undertook to hunt that side 

 with a separate pack ; it re-attached shortly after 

 when he failed to make good his undertaking, and 

 during the cubhunting the country was hunted as 

 one by Mr. Whidborne and Mr. Studd jointly. Then, 

 on the opening day, November 2nd, an incident 

 happened that brought their partnership to a sudden 

 and dramatic end. 



The pack met, according to custom, at Haldon 

 Race Stand, but did not find until reaching Oxton. 

 There, in tlie Hang of Oxton, a wild red deer was 

 roused, a stag of about four years. The presence of 

 this visitor from Exmoor was totally unsuspected, 

 for though red deer did in those days, as they do now, 

 sometimes penetrate as far south as Moreton Woods 

 and Buckland Woods, they had never been heard of 

 on Haldon. The incident brought out at once the 



1 See Chapter XV. « See p. 127. 



