40 THE SOUTH DEVON HUNT 



of ill health, he placed in the hands of his successor, 

 Mr. Long, fifty-five couple of as fine bitches as ever 

 entered a covert.^ 



The following incident gives a note of King's 

 character. A friend of Jack Russell's, in the pre- 

 sence of Lord Henry Bentinck, told how King, when 

 master of the Hambledon, once saw a hunted fox 

 dash into a flock of ducks and seize and carry off a 

 mallard which was subsequently picked up by King 

 when the fox was run into. Lord Henry ventured 

 to doubt the truth of the story, and had for 

 answer : " I had the pleasure of knowing Mr. King 

 intimately, and he was a man quite as unlikely to 

 tell an untruth as your lordship." ^ 



He was not the only hunting member of his 

 family, for his nephew Thomas King at one time 

 kept a pack known as the South Devon Harriers, 

 hunting the parishes of North Huish, Diptford and 

 Marley.3 



John King died in the saddle while out with Mr. 

 Trelawny's hounds on Dartmoor in 1841.* 



^ Fores's Guide for 1850. 

 - Life of the Rev. J. Russell. 



* Fores'a Guide for 1850. 



* Life of the Rev. J. Russell. 



