1871 — i88i. 81 



in England has come to have the longest. The num- 

 bers of the deer made the work of shortening them 

 extremely difficult. On one day the proceedings 

 opened by finding a herd of forty-four deer ; on 

 another twenty-three fine stags were seen, on the way 

 home from Culbone to Exford. In a word, the deer 

 had got out of hand, and in spite of great efforts to 

 diminish their numbers it cannot be said that they 

 have been under control since 1879. 



With the season of 1880-81, however, the history 

 of Mr. Bisset's mastership ends. The journal stops 

 abruptly in the middle of a sentence describing the 

 finish of the day's sport on the 6th of April, and the 

 records of his last season terminate without the sum- 

 mary and review which is given at the close of every 

 other. His work, however, was now done, and the 

 object for which he had striven for twenty-seven years 

 was finally attained. At a meeting held in December, 

 1880, Lord Ebrington agreed to accept the master- 

 ship; and so the staghounds returned in 1881 to one 

 of the county families. 



It would not become the present writer to enlarge 

 on the selection of the new master, but it is fair to say 

 that Mr. Bisset, if left to nominate his successor, would 

 have chosen no other. Ten years previously he had 



G 



