CLOUTSHAM. 331 



of the hounds rode over. The clergyman gave 

 out " Abide with me," and a wheezy harmonium 

 struck up the tune, but they did not have the Master 

 of the staghounds there to church every Sunday, 

 and the congregation were not to be denied. One 

 adventurous voice began " As pants the hart," the 

 rest joined in, and the curate and the harmonium 

 were utterly left. 



The Rev. Jack Russell was a sportsman of a 

 different sort from Parson Frowde and Parson 

 Boyse. Their equal in every sport in the field, he 

 was immeasurably their superior as a man and a 

 clergyman. When he was promoted to a good 

 living, only a few years before he died, the Bishop of 

 Exeter was remonstrated with for admitting to 

 preferment a man who had kept a pack of hounds 

 for forty years, in defiance of his ecclesiastical 

 superior. The Bishop's retort was, " If all the parishes 

 in my diocese were as well worked as Mr. Russell's, 

 I should not have all the anxiety I now have." 



Where Parson Jack Russell was there was sure to 

 be gathered together a group of the best sportsmen in 

 the hunt — such men as the late Earls of Portsmouth 

 and Fortescue ; Sir Frederick Knight, the owner of 

 Exmoor ; Colonel Henry Sanford, one of the hardest 

 men of his day; Mr. Whyte Melville, Mr. Granville 

 Somerset, Mr. Froude Bellevv, Mr. Sam Warren, 

 Mr. Joshua Clark, Mr. John Joyce, and many others 

 who have now gone from the scenes they loved so 

 well ; and though they might stand about and talk 



