CHAPTER XII. 



The South Molton Meetings — Limpetty, Mr. Trelawny's 

 Huntsman, rides over a Flood-Hatch on "Jack 

 Sheppard " — Russell Ceases to be a Master of 

 Hounds — His Long Devotion to the "Antient 

 Sport of Kings " — A Brief Sketch of the Stag- 

 hounds — A Barrister and his Gallant Grey 

 brought to grief in an Exmoor Bog — ^Anecdote 

 OF Hind and Calf. 



Mag"nificent creature ! so stately and brig-ht ! 

 In the pride of thy spirit pursuing thy flight! 

 For what hath the child of the desert to dread, 

 Wafting up his own mountains the far-beaming' head ; 

 Or borne like a whirlwind down on the vale ! 

 Hail ! king of the wild and the beautiful — hail ! 



* * * -x- * * 



In the wide raging' torrent that lends thee its roar — 

 In the cliff that once trod must be trodden no more — 

 Thy trust, 'mid the dang'ers that threaten thy reigfn : 

 But what if the stag on the mountain be slain? 

 On the brink of the rock — lo ! he standeth at bay. 

 Like a victor that falls at the close of the day. 



John Wilson. 



Under the immediate auspices of Russell him- 

 self, backed up by Mr. Trelawny and Sir 

 Walter Carew, the meetings at South Molton 

 continued to flourish, season after season, w^ith 

 unqualified success ; the stout foxes, the unde- 

 niable hounds, and the rough heathery wastes, 

 over which the chase from day to day swept 



