396 mnQ6 ot tbe 1l3untiug*ffielD 



John Truman, who was educated at Harrow and Christ 

 Church, Oxford, settled, when he was about three-and- 

 twenty, at Preston Candover, in Hampshire, and at once 

 started a pack of harriers. Now, these harriers oc- 

 casionally ran a fox, and one day in November 1803 

 they got on the line of a straight goer from Preston 

 Wood, ran him for ten miles without a check and rolled 

 him over handsomely in Amory Wood between Alton 

 and Shalden. This brilliant run brought consequences 

 which Mr Villebois had not foreseen. That part of 

 Hampshire was then hunted by the foxhounds of Mr 

 Russell of Greywell, a wealthy solicitor from Essex, who 

 had married the dashing and fascinating Lady Betty 

 Bermingham, the daughter of an Irish peer and one of the 

 reigning de//es of her day. Lad}^ Betty was a brilliant 

 horsewoman, like so many daughters of Erin before and 

 since her time, and it was quite as much her desire to cut 

 a figure in the hunting-field as his own love of sport that 

 induced Mr Russell to get together a pack of hounds, 

 on the sale of those which had belonged to Lord South- 

 ampton and Colonel Beaver. With these foxhounds he 

 hunted from Greywell what is now the H.H. country, 

 and Lady Betty, in a scarlet habit, became a conspicuous 

 and familiar figure among the hard-riding Hampshire 

 foxhunters. 



When Mr Russell heard that Mr John Truman 

 Villebois had killed a good fox with his harriers, he was 

 extremely angry at what he thought an unsportsman- 

 like trespass upon his preserves, and, meeting Mr Villebois 

 not long afterwards, gave that gentleman a piece 

 of his mind in very forcible terms. Mr Villebois made 

 a warm retort, whereupon Mr Russell exclaimed, ' Then 

 you had better hunt the country yourself Whereupon 



