112 MEMOIR OF 



dignity, but outrage the feelings of his gay and 

 well-mounted comrades. 



But Russell had no such apprehension ; he 

 stood his ground and joined heartily in the 

 laugh ; told them of the landlord's craft at 

 Warminster, and his own inability to detect it, 

 owing to the Stygian darkness that prevailed at 

 the time and throughout his journey. He then 

 sprang into the saddle ; and by him at least, 

 if not by one other of the party, the quaint 

 figure and accoutrements of his horse were 

 speedily forgotten ; nor for one moment did 

 they appear to trouble his thoughts during the 

 rest of the day — a day he loved to record as 

 one among the happiest, if not the happiest, of 

 his long life. 



But if, on this memorable visit to Bath, 

 there were other gallants in the held better 

 mounted and better equipped than the Devon- 

 shire parson, certain it is that he, like Ulysses 

 of old, held his own against all comers ; for, 

 on the 30th of May, 1826, the fair Penelope 

 honoured him with her hand, and converted him 

 thenceforth into a happy Benedict. Soon after 

 this auspicious event, he retired from the charge 

 of George Nympton and South Molton parishes ; 

 and, after devoting but a brief period to the 

 usual hymeneal holiday and its attendant mys- 

 teries, he removed with his handsome bride to 

 Iddesleigh, near Hatherleigh ; and, his father 



