272 MEMOIR OF 



he went away ; letting his hounds alone at a 

 check, and when they failed, making a grand 

 cast on the line far ahead, his intuition as to 

 the run of a fox guiding him aright in almost 

 every case. His command over hounds — two 

 or three of which he always had near him — so 

 that with a tricky fox in a deep woodland, 

 the moment he caught a view he could clap 

 them on instantly. By this method he often 

 drove a fox away from his old haunts and 

 country, and so forced a run on a strange 

 line — a grand point in favour of hounds. Then, 

 his feeding — he knew the constitution of every 

 hound in his kennel. 



So far, then, as to Russell's life with his 

 own hounds ; but there is another and a no 

 less remarkable phase of it — his long devotion to 

 the " Antient Sport of Kings" — a phase which, 

 before we part with him, claims to be seen 

 and described, however imperfectly, through 

 the medium of this memoir. 



With the exception of that memorable day, 

 the 30th September, 18 14, when, with Lord 

 Fortescue's hounds, Russell saw his first red 

 deer found at Padwells ; and then, after a 

 thrilling chase, helped to collar the noble beast 

 in the depths of the roaring Barle, no allusion 

 has been as yet made to his love of Stag- 

 hunting, a sport he followed through a long 

 life with an ardour worthy of a boy — always 



