THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 17 



none in Great Britain. Heroes, in fact, were 

 those four men, in their line, worthy of song 

 as the heroes of Homer. 



Then there was Mr. John Codrington on the 

 Old Berkshire side, an amateur who, in all the 

 details of field or kennel management, knew 

 scarcely a whit less than his professional fellow- 

 workmen of the Oxfordshire hills and vale. 

 Being a Master of the Meynell School and 

 an ardent promoter of the modern foxhound, 

 Codrington was eminently qualified to give 

 any tyro, who had the luck to hunt with him, 

 most instructive lessons in all that pertained 

 to the newest style of breeding hounds and 

 killing a fox. 



No wonder, then, that at the feet of such a 

 Gamaliel, and with such professors so near at 

 hand, Russell should have proved himself a 

 ready and proficient scholar ; nor that, with his 

 natural aspirations, quick perception, and de- 

 cisive action, he should have gained that 

 practical knowledge of the " noble science 

 which few have attained to and none have 

 surpassed. 



It was fortunate for Russell that his passion 

 for hunting was limited by the tide of his 

 exchequer, which, never overflowing, was too 

 often reduced to the lowest ebb ; for, had it 

 permitted him to hunt his four or five days a 

 week, it is very questionable if ever he would 



