THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 135 



"'Not on any account,' I replied, 'till I have 

 his permission to do so.' 



"'But I'm sure vou may,' he continued; 'for 

 he told me so last night.' 



"I begged him, however, to ride up to 

 Passaford, half a mile off, and bring me word 

 'yea or nay,' from his uncle, and promised 

 that I would wait an hour for his return. I 

 did wait a full hour, when suddenly the hounds 

 dashed in over the road-fence, and in an 

 instant a fox was on his legs. Ran him up 

 close to the house, but I saw nothing of Billy ; 

 then breaking away, he put his head straight 

 for Dartmoor ; but the hounds raced up to him 

 before he reached Sourton. I viewed him 

 ahead, and saw him crawl into a large furze- 

 bush on the open moor ; rode up to it, and, 

 before the hounds arrived, had him in mv 

 arms. But there was no house, and therefore 

 no bag, within a couple of miles ; so I threw 

 him down, and they ate him — no one up but 

 myself. I then went back to Norleigh ; but, 

 before I arrived there, a farmer came up and 

 asked me to kill a hare for him, wiiich I did; 

 the hounds, however, tore her so much that 

 he begged me to try again. I did so, and 

 found a tough old lady, that gave me as good 

 a run as the dog-fox had done, though not so 

 straight ; and I killed her also — two brace of 

 hares and a fox — a very satisfactory day's work, 



