300 THE RED DEER OE EXMOOR. 



and far between, and, with one or two exceptions, 

 not much blessed with this world's goods. The 

 class of residents not owning land, professional men 

 and those engaged in business, which contributes so 

 large a part of the income of most packs of hounds, 

 was absolutely non-existent round Exmoor. In a 

 Avord, the country could not afford the funds necessary 

 to support the hounds on theiooting essential to the 

 maintenance of sport on a sound basis. 



But at this crisis a friend was arriving whose 

 advent contributed largely to the solving of the 

 diflficulty, that friend being the railway. 



The excellent sport shown by Mr. Bisset's hounds 

 had been told far and wide among hunting men, and 

 a few good sportsmen like Major Whyte Melville, 

 Mr. Granville Somerset, and others had come down to 

 enjoy the sport, but the country was singularly 

 inaccessible, and it was not till the railway made 

 access more easy that visitors came down in any 

 numbers. The effect was twofold : they subscribed, 

 or some of them did, to the hunt fund, and they 

 brought money into the country and spent it there, 

 with the result that many who had been indifferent 

 to, and even averse from, staghunting began to 

 realise that the hounds might become a source of 

 prosperity to the district, and many a purse, hitherto 

 fast closed, yielded to the entreaties of the hunt 

 secretary. 



During these long years of trouble Mr. Bisset had 

 been fortunate in having the help in the field of three 



