/IDasters of tbe Devon an& Somerset 445 



So well were deer preserved that Exmoor soon began 

 tx) suffer from a plethora of stags and hinds ; their 

 numbers became positively a nuisance, and the question 

 was how to keep them down. A strange contrast to the 

 state of affairs when Mr Bisset first took the hounds ! 

 But what annoyed the Master most was the crowd that 

 mobbed the hounds on opening days, especially at 

 Cloutsham and on the Quantocks ; for, the chase of the 

 wild stag had become fashionable, and the fields grew 

 troublesome and unwieldy. The deer were to some 

 extent kept down by killing sometimes three or four 

 in a day, but the visitors it was impossible to keep 

 down, however much the genuine sportsman, somewhat 

 selfishly perhaps, might resent their intrusion. 



So ' all went merry as a marriage-bell,' till the fatal 

 month of January 1879, when rabies broke out among 

 the hounds in such a virulent form that the whole pack 

 had to be destroyed, and all the work of five-and-twenty 

 years was thus practically undone in a moment. ' It was 

 a bitter pill to swallow,' wrote Mr Bisset to a friend, 

 ' but there was no help for it.' Yet, with the same in- 

 domitable resolution never to despair which had char- 

 acterised him all along, Mr Bisset at once set about 

 forming a new pack, and in the August of that year he 

 was honoured by a visit from the Prince of Wales, who 

 enjoyed a good run, was duly in at the death, and, in 

 accordance with immemorial custom, with his own hand 

 drew the knife across the throat of the stag at bay. 



In 1880 Mr Bisset was persuaded to put himself up 

 as Parliamentary candidate for West Somerset, in op- 

 position to the representative of the Acland interest. 

 He was successful, but he found the atmosphere of the 

 House of Commons very distasteful to him. ' I assure 



