CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER 203 



to follow his example, and submit with unselfish 

 cheerfulness to the slight inconvenience and damage 

 which he may sustain from permitting the animal to 

 take an occasional ramble through his turnips, or pay 

 a matutinal visit to the oat field. I wish I could feel 

 assured that the present master of the hounds in- 

 tended to hold the reins of government for some 

 time to come, for should he cease to do so, as 

 rumour asserts may be expected, we shall find it 

 difficult, indeed, to replace one who has done his 

 utmost to put the hunting establishment on a proper 

 footing, to conciliate landlords and farmers, and to 

 lend every aid in his power to the preservation of 

 the deer. Should Mr Bisset decline to keep the 

 hounds, prompt support must be given to a successor, 

 purse-strings must be drawn readily, and liberal sub- 

 scriptions provided ; or the poacher, who always is 

 most formidable when there is no packhunting in 

 the country, will soon recommence his attacks upon 

 the deer, and do irreparable damage and mischief. 



The worthy writer of the treatise on Venerie, 

 which I have often quoted, delivered a lecture to the 

 nobility and gentry in Queen Elizabeth's reign, which 

 one would have hardly thought that the subjects of 

 that sovereign required. He thus writes, in a 

 chapter headed ' Certain observations and suttleties 



