1871— i88i. 83 



heir of Holnicote and Killerton he was duly elected. 

 It was said, and truly said, that he was the only man 

 who could hope to beat the Aclands in that division ; 

 but in his heart he would much have preferred, not 

 only for the esteem wherein he held that family, but 

 for other reasons also, to have foregone his victory. 

 Though very regular in his attendance at the House, 

 the life was distasteful to him and injurious to his 

 health. " I cannot," he wrote in June, 1883, '* I can- 

 not attribute my illness to anything else than the con- 

 finement of the House of Commons, for though a silent 

 member I was not by any means an uninterested or 

 unobservant one, and in my own peculiar way worked 

 hard." He spoke to the same effect to a company of 

 farmers at a hunt dinner. "I assure you," he said 

 earnestly, "that I would far sooner be anywhere on 

 Exmoor except on the Chains in the thickest fog, than 

 in the House of Commons" (the Chains, be it ex- 

 plained, is the worst tract of bog on the moor), and 

 unquestionably he thoroughly meant it. On his first 

 visit to the House he met Sir John Amory, then mem- 

 ber for Tiverton, an old supporter and subscriber to 

 the staghounds. "Come here," said Mr. Bisset in 

 his slow deep tone, " Come here and show me my way, 

 I don't know the country." " Now," he continued, 



G 2 



