i86i — 1871. 61 



death of one heavy in calf. Mr. Knight, of Exmoor, 

 also condemned it, and the result of its cessation was 

 a rapid increase in the number of the deer. 



Throughout the next two seasons the hunting con- 

 tinued steadily and with improving success, but the 

 sport lost two of its best friends in the spring of 1863 

 and of 1864, through the deaths of a good yeoman, 

 known to all the district as " Tom Webber," and of 

 Dr. Palk Collyns. 



" Tom Webber" had been from the first a staunch 

 supporter of Mr. Bisset, and was very highly esteemed 

 by him, and, indeed, by all that knew him. *' He was," 

 writes Mr. Bisset in a page of his journal, " at once a 

 pattern yeoman, husband, father, neighbour, friend. 

 As a stag-hunter he was the best of all patterns. Pas- 

 sionately fond of it, to the exclusion of all other hunt- 

 ing, strictly careful and ever jealous of the slightest 

 infringement of its ancient and time-honoured laws, 

 always in the field and ever at his post and ready to 

 assist, a thorough master of the art, cool and collected, 

 yet modest and unassuming, he was, in short, as he 

 has been truthfully described, the best and truest 

 stag-hunter that ever cheered hound." He lies in the 

 quiet churchyard of King's Brompton, in view of his 

 favourite Haddon. Tom Webber has been dead more 



