THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 281 



and putting his head straight for the distant 

 Chains of Exmoor. 



The rouse was magnificent, and the hounds 

 being clapped on at once, away they went at 

 best pace for the wild waste on Exehead ; 

 crossing the brook above Cornham, they raced 

 thence up to Acland's Allotment and Five- 

 barrows, through the deep ground of which 

 none but the stoutest horses and most experi- 

 enced men could now hold their own and live 

 with the hounds. Among these, however, was 

 our friend the barrister, well mounted and well 

 forward on a thoroughbred grey, but riding a 

 little wide of the pack and following a well- 

 known member of the hunt, on wiiom he had 

 been told to keep his eye. Never was a field in 

 greater discomfiture ; some scattered for miles 

 over the dusky moor, some floundering in the 

 bog like flies in treacle ; others brought to a dead 

 standstill, as the chase swept on to Yard Down, 

 Bray, Challacombe, Showlesborough Castle, and 

 thence to Woodbarrow, where the gallant grey 

 and his rider, having left their pilot miles behind, 

 came to grief, and bid fair, in the absence of 

 all human aid, to pass the night amid the 

 swamps and jack-o'-lanterns of that solitary waste. 



The man had, of course, quitted his saddle ; 

 and, with bridle in hand, was doing his utmost 

 to help the horse forward, as he now struggled 

 hock-deep through the spongy soil. With a few 



