214 MEMOIR OF 



moor with so grand a head, were in Russell's 

 estimation too big for the high banks and close 

 covers of that country. Still, their power of 

 driving on a half-scent, their indomitable per- 

 severance, and, above all, their tambourine, 

 sonorous tongues, which made the deep combes 

 of Devon ring again with applause, fairly 

 charmed Russell's heart. He could thus tell to 

 a vard how they were turning in cover ; and, 

 barring their unwieldy size, so far as his means 

 would permit, he did all he could to fashion his 

 own pack after that model. But, of course, it 

 was an unequal game between the pocket of 

 the feudal lord on one side, and that of the 

 perpetual curate of Swymbridge on the other ! 

 And although the latter contrived, by hook or 

 by crook, to get together after a time quite as 

 killing a pack of hounds as any in England, 

 they were the gleanings only of many kennels, 

 and consequently, in point of uniformity and 

 grand appearance, were as unlike those of his 

 neighbour as a Satyr might be to Hyperion. 



Still, "handsome is that handsome does," 

 and year after year the sport Russell continued 

 to show, equalled at least, if it did not surpass, 

 that of any pack in the country. With him, in 

 those days, so long as a hound was a good 

 worker, it mattered little what his looks were. 

 " Let me go into a strange kennel," he would 

 say, "give me the pick of the pack and I'll take 



