1871 — i88i. 79 



very straight run, and the Prince was duly in at the 

 death and cut the stag's throat. Mr. Bisset himself 

 was not out on this day, being detained in Scotland 

 by the death of his father, so Mr. Warren, Secretary 

 of the Hunt throughout Mr. Bisset's mastership, took 

 the command. 



The hunting continued with good sport to the end 

 of November, when it was stopped for a month by 

 frost. But before Christmas had come, the old trouble, 

 in spite of all precautions of purification and disinfect- 

 ants, had returned once more. A fresh case of rabies 

 appeared ; four hounds were destroyed, the rest were 

 separated, and nothing more could be done till March. 

 Throughout these three months the hounds were regu- 

 larly exercised in muzzles, occasionally running a crip- 

 pled deer, of which there were an unusual number in 

 that winter. On one day a herd of hinds passed just in 

 front of the hounds while exercising, close to Hawk- 

 combe Head, and the whole pack broke away in 

 different directions, finally killing two hinds (in spite 

 of the muzzles) at Blackford and Horner, and being 

 with difficulty prevented from killing two more. The 

 streams were very high, and the muzzles did not pre- 

 vent hounds from drowning their deer when they 

 brought them to the water dead beat. On the same 



