Stag hunt happen

firing on all cylinders and rationing meanwhile continued to overshadow everything.

By the 1960s the sport was flying along but so too was the opposition, who now, as well as everything else, had started on a new thrust – that of buying up key tracts of the hunt country. Then, eventually, came the Ban. Those who kept the hunt alive as others prepared its obituary, have our thanks – the two Toms, the Scotts and of course that marvellous enigma, Donald Summersgill, the longest serving huntsman in the Devon & Somerset’s long history, to whom fell the task of salvaging something gainful from the ashes of the Hunting Act.

They fought the Ban with spirit and optimism and then in 2005 when all grounds for optimism seemed to have vanished like the jangling song of the corn bunting, they re-established the DSSH on a successful new footing within the new legislation, which was able to retain subscribers and continue managing the deer in a thoughtful and methodical way.

If this book has any purpose in life, it is to keep bright the memories of those countless people who have dedicated their lives to the sport

A History of the Devon & Somerset Staghounds (262 pages, 150 photo illustrated) is to be launched on Saturday, December 1, 7pm, Exford Village Hall.

To order a copy, which costs £25+£3.50, email either Pat Bawden (staghounds@ exmoor.org.uk) or Jeremy Whitehorn (jeremywhitehornbooks@gmail.com) or telephone 01884 254488 (10am5pm).