As I was having my breakfast a bit bit of lava and bacon I thought I'd try and get hold of Johnny and see what was what. Of course due to the great media interest that this story had whipped up then he was quite in demand fielding calls from all over the world but I managed to get him on his personal skype number. He'd had a bit of a morning of it and was at the end of his tether complaining that he wasn't getting any money for it but I suppose he has brought it all on himself really and I had to point out that it would be good publicity for his forthcoming series on BBC Four*** He'd also been up to the Sportsman's the night before and had a bit of a cider head on him as this is where he'd first heard about it and people were buying him drinks for a few words of precious Kingdom wisdom. So I don't blame him for being a bit off with me. He was also going on about a dodgy Withycombe's hog's puddin. I tell you he can be, despite what you see on the telly, a right bleddy so and so from time to time. Anyway, according to Johnny he knew all about the Emperor as he has been following and filming him for years and has managed to get him on tape time and time again. So he was best placed to pass comment on this symbolic beast. However, although he agreed that it did sound like the Emperor, there were several factors which didn't quite add up. Firstly, if the stag that was shot in Rackenford was the Emperor then he wasn't strictly on Exmoor and was actually about ten miles from his stomping ground, which I'm sure you'll agree remains an open secret amoung us folk and the like and seeing that Stags are territorial and that this is the rutting season it isn't very likely that he would have bounded over Tivvy way. Secondly, it would have required a bleddy gurt van in order to carry away the carcass antlers and all and would have also required a whole team of blokes to lift it on to the back of a truck or van. Since this story broke people have been traipsing all over the spot where he was said to have been shot and evidently there are absolutely no signs of slaughter. Although sceptical about the demise of the Emperor, Johnny maintains that this sort of thing is going on all the time on the moor and it's lowlands. Rich buggers from up country coming down here buying hunting rights off a farmer or landowner and then having a jolly with their mates blasting away at the fauna so he was glad that the story was highlighting this diabolical situation. So I let him get back to that there Giles Brandreth who was on the landline calling from the One Show and told him I'd see him for a pint in the Marshals on Tuesday and we get to the bottom of it.
So this story started to become rather puzzling and it became even more so the following evening when I went up to check on the Old Bey. He'd managed to get the old Wolsey going at long last and the first thing he'd decided to do was to take it out on the moor and go and have a look at the stags rutting. Which is a popular past time in this part of the world. First thing he said to me directly I walked in the door was that he'd seen the Emperor, he was darn sure of it, and also he'd captured it on his old VHS camera that he carts about with him. Apparently he'd been out Winsford way and had heard a stag bellowing so he pulls over and stalked through the woods till he came to a clearing where low and behold he came across a giant stag and about fifteen hind so camcorder at the ready he got them on tape. So we rigged up the video playback mechanism and after a few moments of some rather shaky images interspersed with some footage of the South Molton traction engine rally the emperor and his harem came into focus and blow me it had to be him, standing proud amid the herd bellowing his heart out, antlers held high for all to see while other young stags circled tentatively knowing their place. He'd obviously seen them off but they were still hanging about in the hope of servicing an errant hind.
In order to verify that this imperial beast was the Emperor or not we held up one of Johnny's framed photos that he'd given Father a while back, in front of the screen and compared the antler spread and other features. No doubt about it we both agreed that the Emperor is still alive and well and doing his thing out on the moor. At least he was last Thursday afternoon.
Still whatever the true story I reckon it has been rather good that such news has caused a certain amount of controversy in this area and beyond about the nature of hunting for sport rather than deer management. To my mind the collecting of trophies by certain moneyed folk all sounds a bit like the great white hunters in days of Empire. In spite of our reputation not all country folk are hunt supporters, infact I loathe the Hunt and it's toadie camp followers with a vengeance, thing is we just don't like being told that we shouldn't be. Finally I do have to admit that on high days and holy days I love a haunch or two of venison if it comes my way and call me a hypocrite but I seldom ask where it comes from. Terrible but true.
**For more information on Johnny and his forthcoming new series on BBC Four please click on the links
http://www.johnnykingdom.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vnf8g
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