76 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



half were old hounds entered either to fox or to carted 

 deer. There were now two distinct packs, the " mad 

 pack" and the " new pack," as Mr. Bisset called them, 

 which took their regular turns out hunting, and were 

 never allowed near each other. 



It was in such circumstances that Mr. Bisset began 

 his twenty-fourth season, anxious to hunt three days a 

 week in order to shorten the numbers of the deer, and 

 beset with difficulties at every turn. On the opening 

 day at Cloutsham there was a larger mob than ever 

 (" Cloutsham opening day," he writes, " is becoming 

 seriously too much of a rabble and fair"), and the 

 hounds of the new pack that were entered to carted 

 deer promptly began to run the Exmoor sheep. The 

 new pack did little good until they went to the Ouan- 

 tocks, where in one day they killed two stags and a 

 fallow buck. After this, with the help of much whip- 

 chord, and indeed of powder and shot also, they were 

 gradually knocked into shape. Until this was done 

 there was no end to the worry and vexation of that 

 season, to which the never very manageable field con- 

 tributed not a little. '' The Quantock gathering on 

 the opening day," writes Mr. Bisset, "is becoming 

 worse every year ; and the rough and rugged character 

 of the Horner country is here wanting to check the 



