EDITOR'S PREFACE 



XV 



Next in order of succession came Colonel 

 Hornby, who held the reins of government for 

 two seasons only, and in 1895 the present master, 

 Mr. Sanders, came to inaugurate a lustrum of 

 unexampled activity that bids fair to be of lono- 

 duration. At the close of the stag-hunting season 

 of 1901, Huxtable, who had acquitted himself well 

 throughout twelve years in a situation rendered 

 none too light by the plethora of deer, relinquished 

 his place as huntsman, and made way for Sidney 

 Tucker, who had acted as whipper-in since 1889. 



Ever since the dispersal of the old pack of 

 hounds, which occurred in 1825, no attempt has 

 been made to breed stag-hounds on Exmoor. The 

 plan of trusting to consignments of over-sized 

 hounds drafted from fox-hunting kennels has been 

 adopted ; and the supply holds good in spite of the 

 demand for such hounds that has arisen through no 

 less than three auxiliary packs having been formed 

 (at Tiverton, Barnstaple, and the Ouantocks) to 

 assist the Suzerain Power by harryino- the out- 

 lying portions of an expanded empire. Mr. Bisset 

 presented his pack of hounds to Lord Ebrington in 

 1 88 1, at the same time handing over to the use of 

 his successor the kennels, stables, and dwellings 

 which he had erected at Exford. the centre of 



