294 MEMOIR OF 



Earl Fortescue, in 1818, as Master of the Dul- 

 verton Staghounds, and from whose house, it 

 will be remembered, Russell saw his first stag 

 killed in 18 14, has kindly favoured the writer 

 with the following letter : — 



" So long ago as I can remember — and that 

 is not far from half a century — down to the 

 present year, Russell has always stuck to the 

 staghounds with a consistency unequalled by 

 any living man ; no matter where they met, 

 how long they ran, nor where they finished at 

 the end of the day. Our entrance hall, as you 

 know, is pretty well decorated with stags' heads, 

 trophies of the chase in my father's time, when 

 the woods and combes of Exmoor resounded 

 with the music of those grand old-fashioned 

 hounds, which he kept for six years. 



" Well, it would charm your heart to hear 

 the fine old fellow when he drops in upon us, 

 as he now and then does, still throwing his 

 tongue with all the vigour and animation of 

 youth, and pointing out, as if it had happened 

 yesterday, how this deer or that had fought 

 his last fight to the bitter end ; how, with 

 brow-antler, piercing like a bayonet, another 

 had killed the bravest young hound in all the 

 pack, knocked over the huntsman, or old Joe 

 the whip, or perhaps Russell himself, and held 

 his own against all odds, till the death-stroke 

 fell, and his life-blood crimsoned the ground. 



