72 STAG- HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



disgrace to the country, but a heartbreaking dis- 

 appointment and mortification to himself." 



With his usual generosity and self-denial he con- 

 sented to retain the mastership, and not content with 

 that, made provision for the future by purchasing a 

 small property at Exford for the erection of kennels 

 and stable, which were duly commenced in May, 1875, 

 and occupied on Lady-day, 1876. Hitherto, owing to 

 the distance of the kennels from the Forest, it had been 

 the practice for the hounds to lie out at Exford and 

 Larkbarrow, and various places. 



From 1872 onward the sport grew and continued 

 to grow in popularity. Strangers came in greater 

 numbers than ever for a gallop with the Devon and 

 Somerset; and Mr. Bisset's complaints of the mob at 

 the opening days at Cloutsham and on the Quantocks 

 became concurrently more frequent. The deer, too, 

 had become " seriously numerous," and " the Horner 

 campaign" of 1872 comprised ten consecutive meets 

 at Cloutsham, during which time the pack was lodged 

 at Holnicote, close to Porlock. On one day, the 29th 

 of November, three hinds were killed, and the total 

 number of deer of all kinds for the season amounted 

 to forty. The Horner hinds, indeed, had become so 

 unmanageable that Mr. Bisset had resolved to hunt 



