THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 117 



and hare with the same hounds ; so that when 

 the real wild article was not to be found, the 

 other was always at hand to give his hounds 

 a spin and keep his field in good humour. 



He had not been long at Iddesleigh when, 

 one day as he was drawing for a fox, at some 

 distance from home, his ear caught the sound of 

 a church bell, rung in a jingling fashion, and 

 with more than usual clamour. A stranger 

 might well have supposed it to be a signal of 

 alarm intended to warn the country-side that a 

 fire had broken out on some neighbour's pre- 

 mises, and that the need of help was urgent 

 and pressing. But no such thing ; as Russell's 

 prophetic spirit too well divined, it was the 

 signal that a fox had been tracked to ground, 

 or balled into a brake ; and the bell sum- 

 moned every man who possessed a pickaxe, a 

 gun, or a terrier, to hasten to the spot and 

 lend a hand in destroying the noxious animal. 



Russell's letter is now before me, describing 

 his first adventure with a party bent on murder- 

 ing a fox in his new country : 



" During the winter of the first vear I was 

 at Iddesleigh, the snow at the time lying deep 

 on the ground, a native — Bartholomew alias Bat 

 Anstey — came to me and said, ' Hatherley bell 

 is a-ringing, sir,' 



'"Ringing for what?' I enquired, with a 

 strong misgiving as to the cause of it. 



