THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 12 



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Farm, whose brake at Wrays never lacked a 

 litter of foxes. He was the owner of a cele- 

 brated grey mare by "Crickneck," her dam 

 being a grey Exmoor by "Katerfelto" — this last 

 horse, the sire of such wondrous stock, and 

 the hero of that attractive story written by 

 Mr. Whyte-Melville, is said to have been 

 captured after his long run on Exmoor ; and 

 then bought, according to a tradition still prev- 

 alent in the region of Hatherleigh, by the Rev. 

 John Russell, sen., the rector of Iddesleigh, 

 and Russell's father, in whose possession the 

 horse died. Then there was Mr. John Brendon, 

 of Red Windows, near Chillaton, a fine rider, 

 with consummate nerve and good hands. The 

 Eastcotts of Broadwoodwidger and Norton ; 

 Brown of Hollacombe, Parson of Panson, Sec- 

 combe of Seccombe, a family that have held 

 their own at Seccombe from a period ante- 

 cedent to the Norman Conquest : Cory of 

 Staddon, Oliver Palmer of Tinhay, Tickel of 

 Bratton-Clovelly, and that rare specimen of a 

 yeoman, Smale of Thorn. 



But the encouragement Russell met with 

 from the cover-owners around him was, in 

 some respects, equally warm and gratifying ; 

 for, besides the cession of the country made 

 to him by Mr. Newton Fellowes and Mr. Glubb, 

 another large landed proprietor, Mr. John Morth 

 Woolcombe, of Ashbury, undertook to preserve 



