THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 185 



Russell was again prepared to go to the rescue, 

 had not Colonel (afterwards Sir Walter Raleigh 

 Gilbert) persuaded a miner, by the bribe of a 

 capful of silver, to go down ; and secured by 

 a rope round his waist, to bring up the hounds, 

 one by one, safely "to bank." 



It was a grand run throughout : sixteen 

 miles as the crow flies — measured on the map 

 — and the last seven over the wild open moor 

 without the shadow of a fence or check from 

 first to last. 



Russell to the end of his life spoke of it as 

 one of the finest things he had ever witnessed; 

 but the cream of the run, the finishing touch 

 — that brilliant passage over the Bodmin Moor 

 — was due to him and him alone. 



Of the many queer incidents that befell him 

 in those early days, the one he met with at 

 Porlock is by no means the least amusing ; and 

 as it illustrates the feeling of a strong partisan 

 in favour of him and his hounds, it shall be 

 told as nearly as possible in his own words. 



" In the spring of 1830 I took my little pack 

 down to Porlock to enjoy a week's hunting in 

 the open and extensive commons in that locality; 

 and rare sport we had day after day both with 

 fox and hare. I was accompanied by the Rev. 

 J. Pomeroy Gilbert, there to be joined by the 

 Rev. H. Farr Yeatman, two of the best and 

 most accomplished sportsmen I ever met, to 



