THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 247 



had already discovered, equally good all round, 

 in chase, line-hunting, and road work. 



A story went the rounds, but how it came 

 to be known will ever remain a mystery, that 

 he was heard to whisper the names of Beatrice 

 and Barbara in his dreams that night. It was 

 therefore shrewdly suspected that his object 

 was not altogether a disinterested one, when, 

 jogging alongside John Beale a few days after- 

 wards, he was reported to have said, " What a 

 pity 'tis, John, those hounds are not an inch or 

 two higher ; Sir Walter, I know, likes a level 

 lot, and the pack, I think, would look all the 

 better if he were to draft them." 



"What! draft they tew beauties, Mr. Rissell?" 

 replied the veteran ; ** nit he, if I know'th it. 

 Why, they'm the flower of the flock, they be, 

 and will do more work in a day than some 

 hounds in a w4ck." 



Sir Walter, too, prized Beatrice and Barbara 

 as the pearls of his pack ; but not more, perhaps, 

 for their intrinsic merits than for the blood they 

 carried in their veins. He had bred them him- 

 self at Haccombe, and being from his Bashful 

 by Mr. Bulteel's Justice, a son of the famous 

 Beaufort hound of that name, they had come 

 from a sort stout as steel on both sides, and 

 real hard drivers, even on a half scent. Con- 

 sequently, the Furrier blood could scarcely have 

 been more valued by Osbaldeston, nor that of 



