THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 25 



The late Earl Fortescue, Lord-Lieutenant 

 of the county, was at that time, from 181 2 to 

 1818, Master of the Staghounds ; and " those," 

 Mr. Collyns tells us, "were glorious days; 

 ninety deer, forty-two stags, and forty-eight 

 hinds having fallen in fair chase during the 

 six years of his Mastership.* The halls of 

 Castle Hill rang merrily with the wassail of 

 the hunters, and many a pink issued from the 

 hospitable seats of the neighbouring squires, on 

 the bright autumn morning, to participate in 

 the pleasures of the chase. When a good stag 

 had been killed, the custom was for James 

 Tout, the huntsman, to enter the dining-room at 

 Castle Hill after dinner in full costume, with his 

 horn in his hand, and after he had sounded a 

 Mort, ' Success to stag-hunting ' was solemnly 

 drunk by the assembled company in port-wine, 

 after which Tout again retired 'to his own place,' 

 and rested himself after the labours of the day in 

 company with one or two favourites whose escape 

 from the kennel had been connived at. There, 

 before the ample fire, the huntsman dozed away 

 his evening, and killed his deer again ; while 



" ' The staghound, weary with the chase, 

 Lay stretched upon the rushy floor, 

 And wag^ed in dreams the forest race 

 From Castle Hill to wild Exnioor.'' " 



* The Devon and Somerset Stag-hounds, under the able Master- 

 ship of Mr. Fenwick Bisset, killed fifty deer (stag's and hinds) from 

 August to December, 1876. 



