442 mngs oX the 1f)unting*3ftel& 



to hunt the wild deer, and any one would undertake the 

 management, he would present them with his large 

 draft. 



' A start having been made towards raising a pack, the 

 question was how that pack was to be kept up. A 

 meeting was held on the 23rd to consider the subject, and 

 finally, after a vast deal of talk without any substantial 

 support being promised, Mr Fenwick Bisset undertook 

 to hunt the countr)^ for one season, trusting entirely to 

 the liberality of the country to supply him with requisite 

 funds, without making any conditions as to amount of 

 support, etc., and that, should the subscriptions fall 

 short of the required sum, it should be entirely at his 

 discretion to give up the stag-hounds at once. In fact, 

 though there was great plausible support, and confident 

 assurance that there would be ample support from those 

 who had been supporters in former years, there were 

 evidently misgivings as to what support the stag-hounds 

 of this day might find ; and, as it proved, those mis- 

 givings were not without foundation. Thus Mr Bisset, 

 though but a novice, undertook the mastership, and thus 

 were established the Devon and Somerset Stag-hounds.' 



With John Babbage as huntsman, and Arthur Heal, 

 who had only up to that time been entered to hare, as 

 whip, Mr Fenwick Bisset started hunting the red deer 

 of Exmoor on the 2 1 St of August 1855. The first season 

 was not encouraging. In twenty-five hunting days they 

 only took three stags and two hinds, of which all 

 but one stag were killed ; and what with the hounds 

 killing sheep, and the poachers killing deer, and the 

 landowners holding aloof, the prospect looked black 

 indeed. But Mr Bisset was a ' rare plucked 'un,' and 

 he resolved to go on with dogged determination. The 



