<div class="description">
Mordaunt Fenwick-Bisset (1825-1884), Master of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, painted by Samuel John Carter,  exhibited at the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Academy_of_Arts&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="Royal Academy of Arts (page does not exist)">Royal Academy of Arts</a> in London in 1871, under the catalogue description: <i>"A September evening, Exmoor Forest". A wild stag at bay with portraits; to be presented to the master of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, Mordaunt Fenwick-Bisset Esq., at the beginning of his seventeenth season by upwards of 400 deer preservers and friends"</i>. The painting was presented to him at a dinner at <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dunster&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="Dunster (page does not exist)">Dunster</a> on 14th September 1871. (Fortescue, Hon John, Record of Staghunting on Exmoor, London, 1887, p.50). He is shown on his hunter <i>Chanticleer</i> surrounded by his favourite hounds, with a stag at bay at Badgworthy Water, Exmoor Forest. Bisset's noble gesture of removing his hat recognises the equal nobility of the stag, which has run with courage and strength but at last, exhausted, is standing at bay and has accepted its fate. The hounds are forbidden from touching the quarry, which is despatched traditionally by the knife of the huntsman, here seen approaching at right and blowing his horn to release the hounds from their duty and to notify them to await their reward of the quarry's liver. A whipper-in has dismounted from his horse at left to assist in the despatch of the quarry, whist straggling riders of the field gallop down the hill in the background to claim credit of being "in at the kill", having kept pace with the hunt all day and proved their riding prowess, wayfaring abilities and stamina, all of which Mr Bisset, calm and relaxed, has mastered with ease.</div>
<div class="fn value">
Samuel John Carter</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.easyart.com/art-prints/Samuel-John-Carter/Devon-%26-Somerset-Staghounds-%28Restrike-Etching%29-37127.html">http://www.easyart.com/art-prints/Samuel-John-Carter/Devon-%26-Somerset-Staghounds-%28Restrike-Etching%29-37127.html</a>