222 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



classes. There were the men who live for hunting, 

 who used to hunt with the Devon and Somerset Stag- 

 hounds, until the country was stripped for business in 

 the Shires ; and there were the men who had chosen 

 Porlock or some other centre in the Devon and 

 Somerset country as the scene of their annual vaca- 

 tion or holiday. To whichever class he might belong 

 Mr. Bisset treated the follower with courtesy so long 

 as he kept his tongue within his mouth. But he would 

 not brook the slightest interference. And he had two 

 methods of dealing with interference. The one was to 

 subject the interferer to a searching cross-examination 

 corampuhlico on minute points ; the other was to waive 

 the interferer aside unceremoniously, as if his inter- 

 ference were not worthy of attention. I have referred 

 to these characteristics of Mr. Bisset, because in a 

 later portion of this chapter. Lord Ribblesdale, late 

 M.B.H., has published his views of the conduct of a 

 Master of Hounds in the field, especially in cases of 

 impertinent interference. 



Before concluding these remarks on the wild red 

 deer of Devon and Somerset, I ought to state that 1 

 am indebted to Mr. R. A. Sanders, the Master of the 

 Devon and Somerset Staghounds, for his kindness in 

 reading my MS. before it went to press, and to Mr. 

 E. A. V. Stanley, the Master of the Quantock Stag- 

 hounds, for his courteous letter, in which he writes : 

 " I shall be delighted to help you in any way if you 

 wanted any particulars of Red Deeron theQuantocks." 

 I am afraid that there is no room in this volume for 

 an essay on " Masters of Hounds : The criticisms of 



