Hlejanfcer IRusscl 533 



the natural overflow of a brimming reservoir of virility. 

 In his robust contempt for clerical cant and puritanic 

 prudery he now and then loved to shock the prejudices 

 of formal pietists with a dash of audacious irreverence 

 which burst like a shell amongst them. Yet, for the 

 most part, even his political and religious enemies 

 admitted that if he hit hard he hit fairly there were 

 no blows below the belt. He was a manly, straight- 

 forward fighter, and his great gift of humour, whilst it 

 often lent a sting to his invective, supplied at the same 

 time a balm which half healed the wound it inflicted. 



But great as Alexander Russel was as a journalist, 

 there were some who thought him even greater as an 

 angler, and maintained that no one who had not met 

 " Russel of The Scotsman " amongst his convivial com- 

 rades of the Edinburgh Angling Club, in those jovial 

 symposia at "The Nest," knew the real man or could 

 form any conception of his racy and glorious humour. 

 It is as a " King of the Rod " that he claims a place 

 in these pages, and without further generalising I shall 

 proceed to particularise ; though in proving his right 

 to figure among the illustrious " brothers of the angle " 

 I must necessarily touch upon other sides of his 

 character and other phases of his life, for it is the 

 man as well as the angler that I wish to present to 

 the reader. 



Alexander Russel was born in Edinburgh on 

 December loth, 1814. His father was a solicitor, his 

 mother the daughter of John Somerville, Clerk of the 

 Jury Court. On both sides of his parentage, then, the 

 lad was closely connected with "old father Antic, 



