334 MEMOIR OF 



long and idle summer dream, is roused from 

 his leafy haunts and forced into view, dis- 

 playing, to the hunter's delight, his big haunches, 

 stately form, and magnihcent head ; the bad 

 news reached Dunster Castle, where quarters 

 had been prepared for him, that the Prince was 

 unable to leave home, owing to the serious 

 illness of one of his boys. So the project then 

 fell through, to the great disappointment of 

 Russell and every other stag-hunter, man and 

 woman — from the fair maids of Taunton to the 

 hardy yeomen of the Western moors. 



To enter minutely into the abstract question 

 of Russell's clerical life would scarcely be con- 

 sonant with the general tenor of this memoir ; 

 still, as all his life he represented a phase of 

 English character which, by the moderation of 

 his opinions, and the unconventional manliness 

 of his conduct, was a daily protest against the 

 forms of one party and the cant of another — 

 against Stiggins on one side and " dear Mr. 

 Oriel" on the other — a brief allusion to it 

 cannot be avoided. 



To hold the line and maintain a steady 

 middle course amid the host of skirters, now 

 dividing and confounding their flocks, not less 

 by the motley variety of their views than by 

 the contempt thev exhibit for the law of the 

 land, is unquestionably a feature of the highest 

 value in a clergyman's character at the present 



