BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 163 



rides over fifteen stone, be a good man to hounds ? " 

 Such was his modesty. As a matter of truth, he was 

 the best man to hounds who ever rode over Exmoor, 

 and, owing to the state of his purse, he always rode 

 brutes which few men would have cared to throw a 

 leg across. But in his hands the most indomitable 

 animals became tractable, and he was never cruel to 

 a horse. 



I can remember so many familiar faces, some of 

 whom, alas ! have joined the great majority, who 

 were friends of Mr. Russell that it is impossible for 

 me to mention their names. Mr. Nicholas Snow 

 (the Master of the Stars of the West), his nephew, 

 Mr. Charles Snow, the late Sir Thomas Acland, Mr. 

 Charles Troit (brother of Mrs. Walter Hook, wife 

 of the late Rector of Porlock), and the present Sir 

 Charles Acland, possess names that are known in 

 the West Country, where the name of John Russell 

 will be revered as long as English people revere 

 muscular Christianity. 



It has been said that Mr. Russell was overrated as 

 a sportsman. The statement is a matter of opinion, 

 but I am sure that his bitterest enemy would say that 

 he was a champion of muscular Christianity. He 

 fought against the noodle-doodle arguments of the 

 pitiful scholiasts against sporting parsons, and openly 

 avowed his contempt for the young clerical school at 

 Oxford, who professed to be Protestants, when they 

 were more akin to Romanists. 



One anecdote I cannot omit while writing about 



