CHAPTER IV. 



FURTHER BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 



IT has been said that to extol a reputation already 

 bepraised is a wasteful and ridiculous excess. No 

 hunting man has had his reputation more bepraised 

 than Mr. John Russell. Therefore it is necessary 

 that I should make an apology to my readers 

 for writing a memoir of a man who has been the 

 subject of so many biographical notices, that a critic 

 might justly say of me, soleni quis dicere falsum 

 aiideat. My apology is my pride in having known 

 Mr. Russell. Often recollections are like the casket 

 of silver that held the ashes of death. The re- 

 collections of Mr. Russell are like the elixir of life. 

 John Russell was born on the 21st of December, 

 1795, at Belmont House, Dartmouth, opposite to 

 Mount Boon, but his father moved to South Hill 

 when Russell was only fourteen months of age. 

 Subsequently, when Russell was still in petticoats, 

 his father became Rector of Iddesleigh, where he 

 took private pupils, and kept a pony for their ex- 

 clusive use. The rule was that the boy who learnt 

 his lessons best had the pony for the next day's 



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