164 THE SOUTH DEVON HUNT 



iDeagles and then of harriers, called the Chudleigh 

 Harriers, which proved to be the foundation, as at 

 present established, of the Haldon Harriers. He met 

 his death some years later in the field, on Dartmoor, 

 being knocked down by his horse when leading over a 

 stone wall. Falling against a granite boulder, he was 

 killed on the spot. 



A familiar figure in the field was old Billy Butler, 

 bailiff at Oxton. He had been in the service of Mr. 

 Studd and his family all his life and was an old man 

 and toothless when I first saw him, the occasion 

 being the finding of the red deer on the opening day 

 in 1882 as related in an earlier chapter. ^ He it was 

 who first gave us the clue to what was afoot, as he 

 came tearing down the road below the Jackdaw Inn 

 lisping out in his cracked voice : " Stag gone away ! 

 Stag gone away ! " I may here explain that the said 

 Jackdaw Inn has been the disappointment of many 

 wayfarers who knew it only by name, for it consists 

 merely of a deserted tollhouse, now in ruins, and 

 acquired its name (on the authority of Billy Butler) 

 from the fact that a certain old woman who once had 

 charge of the turnpike gate kept a tame jackdaw and 

 did a little refreshment business there on the quiet. 



Billy Butler was quite part of the hunt establish- 

 ment and had a wonderful instinct in placing himself 

 in a position to view a fox. He was an enthusiast, 

 and insisted in subscribing handsomely to the pack 

 while it was kept by his master. He remained on at 

 Oxton as a pensioner until his death about the year 

 1912 at the age of ninety-four. When well over eighty, 

 he used still to poke about on his pony, and, when 

 past that, would turn out on foot to have a look at 

 hounds when they were visible from Oxton. Only 



1 See p. 137. 



