HARBOURING AND TUFTING. 145 



Stag can stand only for a short time before the pack, 

 they are loud in their complaints against the master — 

 more especially if he refuse to give up the old stag to 

 follow one of the young ones roused by him that have 

 broken away. What is an old stag to them ? They 

 have condescended to meet the Devon and Somerset 

 staghounds and expect a gallop as their right. 

 Patience, good friends, and think a little. This old 

 stag has been playing mischief in the fields all around : 

 will it be any satisfaction to the farmers who have been 

 patiently enduring his raids all the summer that a 

 young deer should be killed twenty miles away, while 

 the old arch-sinner is left unharmed ? Master and men 

 have been working hard all this time in the endeavour 

 to kill him and prevent his spoiling sport another day 

 while you have been smoking and chatting at your 

 ease. It is the privilege of the field to abuse the 

 master ; and it is one of the functions of the master to 

 endure that abuse. Mr. Bisset is extremely clear upon 

 this point, and he spoke from an experience such as is 

 accorded to few men. Two things, however, cannot 

 be expected from him : first, that he should always 

 sacrifice the farmers who preserve deer for the whole 

 year round to you who come down for at most a 

 couple of months to hunt them ; second, that he should 



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