THE CHASE 247 



twenty minutes lost in a long and fruitless cast will add 

 a great deal more than twenty minutes to the rest of the 

 run after the true line has been tardily recovered. 



There are some very late finishes on record with 

 the modern Devon and Somerset, as there were with 

 their predecessors. Mr. Bisset killed his first stag by 

 candlelight at 7.50 P.M. on September 28, 1855, after 

 a chase of over seven hours, the pack having been laid 

 on quite close to the deer at 12.50. We gave up a 

 stag about the same hour on September 10, 1883, being 

 then twenty miles from the kennels. We found the 

 same stag again on October 10 ; he ran the same line 

 almost field for field, but that time we killed him. 

 On this day a well-known local doctor visited a lady 

 in an interesting condition on his way to the meet, 

 promising to call in again presently ; this he had an 

 opportunity of doing early in the course of the run, 

 but finding his services were not yet indispensable, he 

 went on and saw the stag killed, returning to his 

 patient in time to bring a fine boy into the world. It is 

 said that his father once did all this, and gave surgical 

 assistance to a cow as well, in the course of a day's 

 hunting. On September 29, 1884, we tried, though in 

 vain, till 8.45 to kill a young stag found nearly five 

 hours before ; but the run of September 22, 1871, was 

 the most remarkable all round, for on that day hounds 



