448 Ikings of tbe Ibunttn^^f ielb 



John Fortescue, ' Mr Bisset could no longer ride as at 

 the beginning, but his keen eye saw more than did many 

 of the thrusters. While the tufters were drawing, he was 

 always to be seen in some commanding position, stand- 

 ing bolt upright as when he was a subaltern in the King's 

 Dragoon Guards, and watching the proceedings through 

 an opera-glass. This and his brief terse way of giving 

 orders earned for him the name of the " General," by 

 which, curiously enough, he had been known-in his young 

 days in the regiment. 



' He spoke little, and then always slowly and deliber- 

 ately in a deep bass voice. Nothing annoyed him so 

 much as a pushing, chattering stranger ; and he would put 

 down such an one with an epigrammatic decision which 

 was peculiarly his own. Frantic people galloping up 

 with reports of deer were often treated somewhat un- 

 ceremoniously or subjected to a searching examination 

 on minute points which few could pass. Such interviews 

 he generally concluded with an oracular cough of 

 peculiar vigour, or with the question: "Has any one 

 else seen this so-called stag ? " ' 



Mr Bisset's generosity did not end with his death. 

 He provided by his will th;it his small property at 

 Exford, where he had built kennels, stables, and dwellings 

 at a cost of ^^7000, might be leased for a term of twenty- 

 one years ' by the Master for the time being of the stag- 

 hounds, and any four members of the committee, so long 

 as the hunting were continued in the same manner as it 

 had been during his Mastership, and during the time 

 wherein Lord Ebrington had held command since his 

 retirement' The rent required was but £,']0 per annum, 

 practically covered by the seventeen acres of land be- 

 longing to tlie Exford property. 



