332 MEMOIR OF 



certainly on my head — for my hat was ' britted 

 in,' and I saw more stars in the farmament 

 than ever was a-piit there. Ask your old daddy 

 to explain that to you." 



Again, in the same year, . he writes thus to 

 a brother sportsman, and claims his sympathy : 

 " Last Thursday Lord Portsmouth's hounds met 

 at Castle Hill ; and, while they were running, I 

 suffered such agony in my teeth that I requested 

 a medical gentleman present to rid me of the 

 chief offender. * In lieu of a better instrument, 

 a bit of whipcord,' he said, Svould serve the 

 purpose ' ; and, verily, with that hempen ap- 

 pliance out he lugged the supposed culprit ; but, 

 alas ! it proved to be a valuable friend — a tooth 

 as sound as the day it was 'dropped.' You'll 

 pity me, I know, when I say this is not the first 

 time I have suffered a similar loss." 



His habitual conversation, too, lacked nothing 

 of the epigrammatic style so conspicuous in his 

 letters ; in it he went straight to the mark ; and, 

 if called upon to make a speech, he invariably 

 did so in a few words, always pointed and often 

 humorous. " If you have anything to say, get 

 up and say it, and then sit down," was the 

 advice of the great Iron Duke ; and that was 

 precisely Russell's plan. 



While dining with his old curate at Bath, 

 not long ago, with a party of gentlemen, most 

 of them west-country friends, one, a most 



