Mutual Surprise.- An Incident with Sir John Amory's Staghounds. 1907.

For Sale is a Full Page removed from "The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, October 5th, 1907," showing a Drawing by Lionel Edwards, called Mutual Surprise.- An Incident with Sir John Amory's Staghounds."

Sir John Amory's Staghounds were established in 1896, at the suggestion of a Master of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, for the purpose of hunting the country over which the deer were spreading in ever-increasing numbers, but which it was not convenient, owing to distance and other reasons, for the Devon and Somerset pack to cover.  The incident depicted above took place in the long woods which lie on either side of the beautiful Lyn.  A hunted stag, after giving a good gallop over Exmoor, "soiled" in the Lyn.  Refreashed by his bath, he climbed once more into the woods, cantering back along the path by which he had come.  Turning a corner, he came suddenly face to face with some of the field.  The surprise was mutual!  The horses snorted and plunged, and the crowd hastened to give his antlered lordship the right of road.  A stag, indeed, could give man or horse a terrible wound with his sharp brow antlers, and such accidents, according to local gossip, have actually taken place.  Horses seem to have a natural antipathy to deer.  A tired hunter, or even the quietest old crock, will shy and plunge at the sudden appearance of a stag.  In the present case, after surveying the crowd for a few seconds, the deer turned sharply to the left, and crashed downwards through the woods to the river again, where some twenty minutes he was killed.

Condition is Very Good.