CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER 125 



great labour, and not without large drafts on his 

 own purse, he has organised as good a pack of 

 hounds as a man could wish to follow, and since 

 he commenced his rule the prospects have become 

 brighter, and a turn in the tide of affairs has indeed 

 taken place. I sincerely trust that this state of thinos 

 may continue. The sport has now the countenance 

 and support of the landlords and the enthusiastic 

 good wishes of the farmers. Mr Bisset knows how 

 to take the command of a pack and of a country ; 

 and hunting as he does on the most approved 

 principles ; observing the rules from which in days 

 of yore no sportsman ever deviated ; havino- his 

 deer carefully harboured ; drawing with tufters and 

 not with the pack, and so avoiding the danger of 

 destroying deer out of season or unwarrantable, I 

 have no doubt that he will find the owners of coverts 

 continue to rally round him as they have done ; and 

 that, if it should be our good fortune to keep him 

 amongst us, he will again re-establish the sport, and 

 place it on such a footing as to make it vie with that 

 which our forefathers witnessed, and the history of 

 which they recounted and handed down to their sons 

 and sons' sons with pride. Woe betide the stag 

 which the present pack pursue ! Well may he 

 tumble when he hears the twang of John Babbage's 



