CHAPTER VII. 



1881— T885. 



If the new master started with great advantages in 

 the shape of a good pack of hounds, a good huntsman, 

 and a country so well disposed as Mr. Bisset's long 

 exertions had rendered it, yet he was confronted at the 

 first with one great difficulty, namely, an excessive 

 number of deer. The whole country, in spite of Mr. 

 Bisset's vigorous campaign of 1880-81, was swarm- 

 ing with deer. Over and above the district which 

 Mr. Bisset had regularly hunted, there was a small 

 herd belonging to the Eggesford covers ; and stray 

 deer were reported in the course of the next three 

 years on Dartmoor, in the Blackmore Vale, and in the 

 Duke of Somerset's park at Stover. All of these the 

 new master was expected to come down and hunt, 

 irrespective of the facts that there were far too many 

 deer near home, and that a master cannot always have 

 time, even if he have inclination, to go forty, fifty, or 

 sixty miles from kennels on the chance of finding a 



