Summary: Exact solutions of the equations of slow viscous flow are obtained for a solid sphere moving in the presence of a naturally permeable plane surface bounding a porous medium for the cases of (a) normal approach to the surface and (b) rotation about a diameter perpendicular to the surface. Saffman’s form of the boundary condition at a naturally permeable surface when the permeability \(k\) is small is applied and numerical values of the drag and torque exerted by the fluid on the sphere are obtained for a wide range of the dimensionless parameter \(\overline{\lambda}=\sigma a/\sqrt k\), with \(a\) the radius of the sphere and \(\sigma\) the slip coefficient.