THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 187 



"The next day," says Russell, "with the 

 view of propitiating Mr. Tamlyn, I wrote him 

 a very polite note inviting him to dine with 

 us ; but he declined the honour, much to the 

 disgust of Mrs. Smith, who consoled herself 

 with these words, 'Well, never mind, I'll give 

 it to 'en mvself the first time I set eyes on 

 the mean old scamp.' 



"And," continued Russell, "I have reason 

 to believe that she absolutely kept her word ; 

 for she was a veritable termagant — a tigress in 

 petticoats." 



One result of the week's sport being some- 

 what remarkable, it may interest the reader to 

 have it in Russell's words: "The very day 

 Tamlyn went to Porlock to forbid my hunting, 

 I found a fox in the heath on Lucat Com- 

 mon, his property. Thinking it was a vixen, I 

 rode up to the bush out of which she jumped, 

 and, behold ! curled up in a warm nest were 

 four live cubs. I tied my handkerchief to a 

 bush hard by, and rode after the pack as fast 

 as my horse could carry me. But it was a 

 blaze of scent all the way ; and in thirty 

 minutes, to my great annoyance, they ran into 

 and killed poor little Vicky. I then returned 

 to her kennel, took up the cubs — all four 

 vixens — and sent them by Bat Anstey to Iddes- 

 leigh, fifty miles away. An earth was made 

 for them under Halsdon, Mr. Purse's residence; 



