JOHNA.SEAVERNS 
 
00^ 
 
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 Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at 
 Tufts University 
 200 Westboro Road 
 North Grafton, MA 01536 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF ANOTHER TOM SMITH. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 EOBSON AND Sr jf, GREAT NORTHERN PRINTING WORKS, 
 
 PANCBAS ROAD, N.W. 
 
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 o^ 
 
 ■I' M 
 
SPOETHG INCIDEI^TS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LIEE OF MOTHER TOM SMITH, 
 
 MASTER OF FOXHOUNDS ; 
 AUTHOE OF ''THE DIARY OF A HL'NTSMAN," ETC. 
 
 Wat)^ IIIttstrHibirs. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 
 
 1867. 
 
 IThe right of trantlation and reproduction is reserved] 
 

ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The following pages contain some notices of 
 the life of Thomas Smith, Ex-Master of Fox- 
 hounds, and the keenest sportsman that I at 
 least have ever known. He was not, it is true, 
 horn with a silver spoon in his mouth, like 
 Tom Smith of Tedworth, with whom he ran 
 a long course of honourable rivalry; but he 
 was, as I may say, '^ bom in the saddle," 
 which is more to the purpose for a true sports- 
 man. 
 
 During his long career, Mr. Smith has been 
 twice Master of the Hambledon Hounds; he 
 has also been Master of the Craven and of the 
 Pytchley; he has hunted with most of the 
 best packs in the kingdom; and he has had a 
 good deal of sport in Scotland, where he made 
 havoc among the salmon and the grouse, as 
 
vi Advertisement, 
 
 well as looking sharply after the four-footed 
 fercB naturce. In 1852 he retired fi'om his last 
 Mastership with a handsome testimonial. But 
 the public had not yet done with him. He 
 was called on in 1858 to serve the office of 
 High Sheriff for Hampshire, the duties of 
 which post he discharged with zeal and ability. 
 He now lives, and long may he live, ^'a pro- 
 sperous gentleman," in the centre of the Ham- 
 bledon Hunt ; and so well has he carried his 
 years, that he is still an effective member of 
 the First Hants Light Horse (better known as 
 the Droxford Foxhunters' Corps), a force that 
 he was instrumental in first suggesting. 
 
 During his sporting career, Mr. Smith has 
 performed feats and met with adventures that 
 probably no other man has equalled. And this 
 is not my opinion alone. Mr. Nichol, who 
 kept the New Forest hounds, usually spoke of 
 him as ^Hhe heaven-born huntsman;" and Mr. 
 Codrington, who hunted the same pack, said, 
 " Were I a fox, I would rather have a pack of 
 hounds behind me than Tom Smith with a 
 stick in his hand." Several of Mr. Smith's 
 
Advertisement. vii 
 
 friends have therefore thought it advisable 
 that some of these matters should be put in 
 print, whilst the eye-witnesses of many of 
 them are still alive, so that there may be no 
 cavilling about them at a future day. Indeed 
 this is the consideration, and the only con- 
 sideration, that has induced our old friend to 
 consent to their being brought forward during 
 his lifetime. The particulars are all taken 
 from his own lips, and I have never found him 
 to vary even in the most minute manner. 
 Should any one express his surprise at any of 
 them, I can only reply, in Mr. Smith's own 
 words, "" If any one states the exact truth at 
 first, he can repeat it a thousand times without 
 faltering;" which is a piece of good advice 
 that young sportsmen would do well always to 
 bear in mind. 
 
 In conclusion, I hope that this volume will 
 have interest for more than one class of readers. 
 It shows that Mr. Smith is a staunch fox- 
 hunter, and a good deal more beside. Many 
 useful inventions have been the fruit of his 
 fertile brain, ranging from the improvement of 
 
viii Advertisement 
 
 pastures and the preservation of fruit, to the 
 ^' Tron-Duke " bit and a locomotive battery; 
 and lie has also found time to offer suggestions 
 as to recruiting, military colonies in India, the 
 improvement of the metropolis, &c., to the 
 proper authorities, which H.E.H. the Duke 
 of Cambridge, Lord Palmerston, and others 
 have thought well worth consideration. 
 
 Although the following reminiscences are 
 tolerably numerous, yet I believe that a suf- 
 ficient number of useful hints and interest- 
 ing facts can be added, if Mr. Smith can be 
 prevailed on to take the trouble of relating 
 them, to fill another volume or two. 
 
 A FRIEND. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 -*^i-**- 
 
 CHAPTEE, I. 
 
 page: 
 School-boy days — Early activity and habits of observa- 
 tion — An ugly wound — An election anecdote — 
 Yolunteering — First scarlet coat .... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Farming — Vice-President of the Winchester Agricul- 
 tural Show — Fox-hunting — Cricket — Devon Stag- 
 hounds — Marriage — Residence at Hill House, Ham- 
 bledon — Visit to Scotland — Lord Fife's practical 
 jokes — Mr. Owen, of New Lanark — An unpleasant 
 mistake — Adventure in a coal-mine — " Out of debt, 
 out of danger" 19 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 Sport in the New Forest — Sir Bellingham Graham — The 
 horse General — Mr. Smith becomes Master of the 
 Hambledon hounds — Unpromising beginning — Ex- 
 traordinary run into Sussex — Mr. Smith's picture of 
 the H. H., with sixty-five likenesses — Visit to the 
 Quorn — An unexpected honour . . . .39 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PA(iK 
 
 The Harabledon pack increased — A perilous adventure 
 — Anecdote of Lord Palmerston — Accidents — Hard 
 riding — Removal to Swanmere — Death of Mrs. Smith 
 — Society at Exton — Sir Joseph Yorke and others — 
 Yisit to London — Resigns the Hambledon hounds . 64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Becomes Master of the Craven Hunt — A daring leap — 
 The horse General — Repartee of Mr. VVarde — Anec- 
 dote of- H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester — Troubles 
 with young hounds — " A haunch of fox" — The Grey 
 Withers — The Swing riots — Gives up the Craven . 86 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Second marriage — A theory on Stoneheuge — Mr. Beck- 
 ford's Letter on the Rights of Fox- hunters — Pub- 
 lishes " The Diary of a Huntsman" — A run with the 
 Royal stag-hounds — Death of Vampire — Plan for 
 kennels and stabling 104 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Declines the offer of various Hunts — Visit to Scotland — 
 Residence in Dorsetshire — " Tremulous to her new 
 Master" 121 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Becomes Master of the Pytchley Hunt — Management of 
 the hounds — Difficulties — Lord Spencer — Kind con- 
 duct of the Duke of Buccleuch — Extraordinary runs 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Resigns the Pytcliley — Hints on buying horses — 
 An unpleasant adventure 131 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Visits to Scotland, Yorkshire, &c. — Sir Tatton Sykes' 
 establishment at Edlesthorpe — Anecdote of Sir Tat- 
 ton — Castle Howard: runs with various packs — 
 Anecdote of Lady Morgan — Visit to the Continent — 
 Kindness of Mr. N. M. Rothschild and his family . 157 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Returns to England, and resumes the Mastership of the 
 Hambledon hounds — Purchases the Fir Hill estate, 
 Droxford— His " Good-bye Day" . . . .174 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Publishes "The Life of a Fox, written by himself " — 
 Visits the Duke of Beaufort at Badminton, and 
 Lord Fitzhardinge— The bull-dogs and the bear . 197 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Life at Fir Hill — Serves the ofl&ce of High Sheriff of 
 Hants — ^Various suggestions and improvements . 207 
 
Directions for placing the Plates. 
 
 — >-'-i 3ei «- — 
 
 Portrait of Mr. Smith — to face Title-page page 
 
 Taking a Span-ow's Nest 4 
 
 Over Lyndhurst New Park Paling 41 
 
 Taking the Stag , . . .43 
 
 Awful Leap with the Quorne Hounds 66 
 
 Swiming across a River QQ 
 
 Leap over Elcot Park Wall 89 
 
 Building up of Stonehenge .105 
 
 Raising of the Stones 106 
 
 Two old Stags fastened together by their Antlers . . .151 
 
 Plan of Cottages with three Bedrooms 208 
 
 Design for a Locomotive Battery 212 
 
 Plan for the Thames Embankment 215 
 
MEMOIE OF TOM SMITH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Scliool-boy days — Early activity and habits of observation — 
 An ngly wound — An election anecdote — Volunteering — 
 First scarlet coat. 
 
 Tom Smith, the son of Mr. Thomas and Martha 
 Smith, of Shakl^ii Lodge, near Alton, in the 
 county of Hants, Avas Lorn there Angust 5th, 
 1790. He was the eldest of nine sons, who 
 all had to make their own way in the world ; 
 and, on the recommendation of Dr. Eeynolds, 
 then Dean of Winchester, he^ was sent to Eton, 
 being intended for the Church. He, however, 
 remained but a short time at that famous seat 
 of learning; for he showed such a decided 
 liking for active habits and field sports, that 
 
 B 
 
Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 his father "was induced to remoye him, send- 
 ing in liis place his next "brother, Samuel, now 
 Yicar of Weedon Lois, in IN'orthamptonslure. 
 Two other brothers also became clergymen; 
 two others entered the army; one became a 
 sailor ; another a barrister ; and the ninth died 
 young, as did also one of his sisters ; the 
 eldest daughter married Colonel Johnston; 
 and the second married Mr. James Ward, a 
 county magistrate. 
 
 Tom's next school was at Holybourne, not 
 very far from home, and where he had plenty 
 of opportunities for ^^ sport" in a small way, 
 which he eagerly engaged in, being not at 
 all daunted by an awkward adventure that 
 befell him in one of his holidays. In common 
 with most country-bred boys, bii'd-nesting had 
 great charms for him, and in pursuing this 
 diversion he narrowly escaped with his life on 
 one occasion. He had noticed a sparrow's 
 nest in the roof of his father's cart-house, and 
 this he determined to get. He induced one of 
 
An aickward Adventure. 8 
 
 the men to place a long ladder for him, which 
 he ascended; hut he then found the nest al- 
 most beyond his reach. Determined not to be 
 foiled, he stretched out at full length over a 
 lath, and had just grasped the prize, when 
 away went the ladder from imder him, and he 
 was left hanging to the lath by one hand, as 
 he is represented in the accompanying sketch, 
 which he made at the request of a friend many 
 years after. A boy of only ordinary nerve 
 would have dropped to the ground in a minute 
 or two, and been either killed on the spot, or 
 crippled for life, for the height was at least 
 forty feet ; but Tom Smith, though only twelve 
 years old, had a good share of the extraor- 
 dinary nerve that he has since had the oppor- 
 tunity of showing in divers "moving accidents 
 by flood and field," and was equal to the 
 emergency. He was alone, and though he 
 screamed for help, he had little hope of re- 
 ceiving it; so he at once set about helping 
 himself. He thrust his disengaged hand be- 
 
Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 tween the tliatcli and the rafter, about a foot 
 below his first hold, then abandoned that and 
 made a clutch lower do^Ti, and ^^rung the 
 changes" in this way several times, although 
 of course the shock each time was terrific, and 
 seemed enough to dislocate the arm ; but he 
 persevered, and at length thus reached a beam, 
 along which he crawled until he came over 
 a wagon, into which he dropped, without 
 broken bones, but fearfully exhausted, and 
 with hands quite benumbed. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Smith was himself a great fox- 
 hunter and a bold rider, and he allowed his 
 son, when at home for the Christmas holidays, 
 to worry the hares on his land, by '^ hmiting" 
 them with every cur that he could get. In 
 this sport Tom took great delight, and he 
 looked on himself as already a ^' Master of 
 Hounds," although his ^'pack" was rather a 
 motley one. In this sport he was joined by 
 other boys in the parish, and more than one 
 " hard rider " in after days has been heard to 
 
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A Hint for Horsemen, 
 
 own Tom Smith as liis instmctor. This was 
 particularly the case with Douglas Standen, 
 afterwards Colonel Standen, a particularly bold 
 rider, and a man totally indifferent to falls. 
 He always ascribed both these qualifications 
 for a keen sjoortsman to the instructions of his 
 first riding-master, Tom Smith, who taught him 
 to sit loose on his pony and lean back when 
 riding over or through a fence. But how- 
 ever great a man's nerve may be in early life, 
 it is liable to be destroyed by a sudden shock. 
 This happened with Colonel Cummins, one of 
 the boldest riders in the H.H. country, re- 
 siding at that time at Bui*kham, three miles 
 from Shaldon, and who often encouraged the 
 young fox-hunter by giving him a ginger- 
 bread nut or sandwich. The Colonel, how- 
 ever, left Burkham and went abroad. A few 
 years after this he returned, and went in a low 
 pony-chair to make inquiries as to Mr. Smith's 
 family, when his young friend expressed his 
 great delight at the hope of seeing him ride 
 
6 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 again in liis iisiial bold and straightforward 
 manner ; and as the Colonel was not yet pro- 
 vided with a horse, he most urgently offered 
 to lend him his own, when he was sur- 
 prised by the Colonel holding up both hands 
 as if shocked at the thought, exclaiming at 
 the same time, ^'Eide your hunter ! I would not 
 get on the back of your horse, or any horse in 
 the world, on any account whatever; I have 
 entii'ely lost my nerve ever since my adven- 
 ture in Italy." This he related as follows : 
 '' When travelling in Italy, and sleeping at an 
 inn not famed for its good character, I had 
 fastened my bedroom door by an additional 
 matter of my o^vn, that is, with a stout walk- 
 ing-stick, having a spike at each end, — one 
 stuck into the floor, and the other into the 
 door. After lying quiet, as if asleep, for some 
 time, in the middle of the night I heard a 
 noise opposite the foot of the bed, and saw 
 that part of a panel was gently moving ; next, 
 with my eyes nearly closed, I saw a man come 
 
A jyeriloiis Adventure. 
 
 lip to my bedside with a dark lantern in liis 
 hand, ^Yhich he opened, and placed the light 
 close to my face, in order to see whether I was 
 awake or asleep. I succeeded in deceiving 
 him, and he quietly took my watch, purse, and 
 pocket-book from imder my pillow; and, after 
 looking over other things in the room, he was 
 retiring, hoping to unfasten the door : when 
 doing this, I sprang suddenly out of bed and 
 on to the man's back, with my arms and hands 
 so firmly fast round him that, although he 
 knocked my head against the posts and wall, 
 and then ran down stairs with me on his back, 
 and carried me out into the street — by which 
 time my calls for help were heard, and the 
 rascal was secured — it required the strength 
 of three men to unlock my arms from the 
 man's neck. This, then, is the cause of my 
 having entirely lost my nerve ; but I saved 
 my money and my watch, &c., and my life." 
 
 But with all their efforts, the young sports- 
 men, we believe, never killed a hare; and 
 
8 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 Tom, wlio ever liked variety, never missed 
 an opportnnity of sport of any other kind. So 
 lie was ever ready to act as marker to the par- 
 ties of shooters that his father often enter- 
 tained ; and they were the gainers from the 
 extraordinary aj^titude that he showed for 
 marking a covey. Bnt he was very near doing 
 this once too often. It haj)pened, when he 
 was on a visit at Marlow, that he was out 
 with his uncle and another gentleman; and, 
 when passing by the side of a young hedge- 
 row, the pointer stood at a rabbit. Tom was 
 told to go on the other side and tlu'ow a stone 
 to drive the rabbit towards the shooters. He 
 was about to do so, when the rabbit started, 
 both gentlemen fired, and down went their 
 young marker, apparentlj'' killed. Each ac- 
 cusing the other as the author of the mischief, 
 they rushed towards him, and found a hole 
 the size of a crown-piece in his hat. This 
 redoubled theii' fears; but they found he was 
 only stimned, and, placing him on the siiootin 
 
 
An Election Anecdote. 9 
 
 pony, they carried liini to the doctor. A full 
 charge of shot was taken out of his head, and 
 afterwards shown to him in a wine-glass ; but 
 one shot that had lodged in his right hand 
 (which had been in a line with the hole in the 
 hat) was not noticed at the time, and it still 
 remains there. 
 
 At one of the Hampshire elections, when 
 Sir H. Mildmay and Mr. Chute were candi- 
 dates, Mr. Smith was an active canvasser on 
 their behalf, and Tom had an op23ortunity of 
 seeing of what stuff the ^'independent elector" 
 was then made. Of course, such things are 
 out of date now. An Alton butcher named 
 Boswell had promised his vote, and Mr. Smith 
 went, accompanied by Tom, in a carriage to 
 convey him to the poll; but they found 
 another carriage at the butcher's door, and 
 learnt, without surprise, that he had j)romised 
 the other party also. Each canvasser, it ap- 
 peared, had '' staked money on his head," and 
 an edifying dialogue ensued. At last it was 
 
10 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 agreed tiiat they slioulcl toss up for tlie but- 
 cher. Mr. Smith won, and carried him off; 
 but he was obliged to keep a very sharp eye 
 on his man until he had voted. Mr. George 
 Eose, the '' old George Eose" whom Cobbett 
 used to abuse so much, was on a visit to 
 Mr. Smith soon after; he pronounced this as 
 pretty a piece of electioneering as ever he had 
 known, and he had the credit of understand- 
 ing such matters. 
 
 Among the visitors to Mr. Smith was, on 
 one occasion, the Due de Bourbon (the father 
 of the unfortunate Due d'Enghien), who came 
 for a little sport, accompanied by a servant 
 carrying two double-barrelled guns : he was 
 then a guest of Lord Elcho, at South Warn- 
 borough, not far from Shaldon. Though very 
 young at the time, Tom well remembers the 
 stately royal emigrant, and the tears that he 
 shed at seeing, in the dining-room at Shaldon, 
 a picture representing the capture of the Bas- 
 tille. 
 
Will Harrison. 11 
 
 Beside hunting in his own small way, Tom 
 was allowed by his father noAV and then to 
 join the Hampshire hounds, at that time un- 
 der the management of Mr. Joseph Eussell, 
 who kept them at Grewell, a few miles only 
 from Shaldon. Will Harrison, the old hunts- 
 man, used good-naturedly to talk freely with 
 the young I^imrod, and taught him the names 
 of all the hounds. It was also no uncommon 
 thing for him, after the fox had been lost the 
 day before, to say, ^^ Well, Master Smith, what 
 became of our fox yesterday?" The lad had 
 always a prompt answer; and as he really had 
 a very quick apprehension, he was often flat- 
 tered by hearing old Will exclaim, ^^ By jingo, 
 he's right !" But Tom did not confine himself 
 merely to hunting animals ; on the contrary, 
 he closely observed them; and having natural 
 artistic talent, he soon began sketching them, 
 thus laying the foundation of the facility which 
 afterwards enabled liim to paint the whole 
 Hampshire Hunt at one sitting, as we shall 
 
12 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 relate by and by, though it must be o^vned 
 that the sitting T^^as rather a long one. 
 
 Tom "was still at school when England was 
 thi'eatened with invasion, and Yolunteer corps 
 were formed in every quarter in consequence. 
 As at the present day, '^ cadet corps" were set 
 on foot, though not so named; but the elder 
 school-boys were drilled, and were provided 
 with wooden swords and guns, of Avhich the 
 blades and barrels were handsomely black- 
 leaded; and in order to procure feathers for 
 their hats, the hackle of all the white and red 
 cocks, in Tom's neighbourhood at least, was 
 " appropriated" with or without leave, as might 
 happen. Mr. Smith was a captain in the Bent- 
 worth, Shaldon, and Lasham corps; and on 
 Tom quitting school, at the age of seventeen, 
 he was at once appointed an ensign in his 
 father's company, in which he continued until 
 the peace of 1814. He thus acquired a great 
 desire for a military life, and a promise of a 
 commission was obtained for him ; but family 
 
A Hoax. 13 
 
 circumstances afterwards prevented Ms accept- 
 ance of it. 
 
 About tlie close of tlie war, Mr. Smith 
 built himself a new residence, called Shaldon 
 Lodge, and let the old Manor-house, which he 
 had formerly occupied, to Sir Lawrence Hal- 
 sted, who resided in it whilst building the 
 mansion now called Theddon Grange, but 
 which he styled Phoenix Lodge, after the ship 
 that he had commanded. Sir Lawrence was 
 often visited by his father-in-law, Sir Edward 
 Pellew, and others of the Pellew family, and 
 an intimacy between them and the Smiths also 
 sprang up. Captain PownoU Pellew (after- 
 wards the second Lord Exmouth) was a par- 
 ticularly bad shot, but yet was fond of blazing 
 away at the birds ; and this gave occasion to 
 Tom Smith to indulge his natui-al love of fun 
 by hoaxing liim. They were out together in 
 Theddon Wood, when a Avoodcock rose close 
 to the gallant captain, who drew the trigger, 
 and it fell dead. Half frantic with delight, 
 
14 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 lie clashed forward, picked it up, declaring it 
 to be the finest bird that ever was seen ; then 
 having most carefully smoothed its feathers, 
 he placed it almost reverentially in his pocket, 
 saying how delighted his sister. Lady Halsted, 
 would be, as it was the first bird he had ever 
 killed on the wing. Tom professed himself 
 equally delighted, and urged him to reload his 
 gun, as woodcocks were often found two to- 
 gether. The captain proceeded to do so, when 
 he found that his gun had missed fire, and 
 that it was the report of Tom's gun that he 
 had mistaken for his own. Terribly indignant, 
 he tore the bu^d from his pocket, and hurled 
 it at Tom's head, stigmatising him as the 
 greatest humbug he had ever seen. This 
 was rather unfair, as Tom did not know that 
 the captain's gun had missed ^q^ and was 
 quite willing to give him the credit of the 
 shot. Tom, indeed, was rather misunderstood 
 by the Pellews, though he always was on 
 excellent terms with them, and with Dean Pel- 
 
Veneration for Foxes. 15 
 
 lew — now, alas ! no more — long the only sur- 
 vivor of the party. The Dean, writing not 
 long before his own death to him, alluded most 
 kindly to their youthful sports. Yet even he 
 made a terrible accusation against his old 
 friend, quite sufficient to ruin him in the eyes 
 of sportsmen, wliich is, that once when they 
 were shooting in a wood together, he saw a 
 fox pass ; and as Tom's gun had been dis- 
 charged only the moment before, he thought 
 that Eeynard must have been shot at. Mr. 
 Smith, after this lapse of time, cannot give an 
 account of all that he may have done on that 
 day, whenever it was; but he knows that even 
 at that age his veneration for a fox was such, 
 that he thought a man who would shoot one 
 would shoot his own father. So he has no 
 hesitation in pleading ''not guilty." 
 
 On one occasion Sir Edward borrowed a 
 strong gray horse belonging to Mr. Smith, 
 and rode it a few miles to call on a relative of 
 his wife's, who lived at Bui'kham. The Ad- 
 
16 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 mii'al -vras a very great weight; and on liis 
 return lie complained sadly of tlie rongli ride 
 he liad liad, saying, sailor-like, that he '^must 
 be fresh coppered;" but his horse seemed to 
 haA'e the "worst of it, for it fell dead lame, and 
 had to be tiu-ned out into the marshes for some 
 months. At last it was found that it had not 
 been crippled by the twenty stone or so of the 
 future victor at Algiers, but had been lamed 
 by a sharp flint, which in due time worked out 
 at the coronet, between the hair and hoof. 
 
 Shortly after this, the premature death of 
 Mr. Smith entirely altered the prospects of his 
 eldest son, as he considered it his duty to sacri- 
 fice his o^TL inclinations in order the better to 
 assist his widowed mother. Mrs. Smith was a 
 woman of extraordinary energy and ability; 
 but she had twelve children to provide for, 
 and it was resolved that the eldest should give 
 up his promised career in the army, and, in- 
 stead, take charge of the farm, which was an 
 extensive one. The friend who had end^a- 
 
First Scarlet Coat. 17 
 
 voiQ'ed to procure Mm a commission was Mr. 
 James Ward, tlien a very yoimg man, who 
 was paying his addresses to one of the Misses 
 Smith. He was a well-known member of the 
 Hampshire Hunt, and a county magistrate; 
 which latter position was bestowed on him at 
 the early age of twenty-one. But though Mr. 
 Ward could not gratify his friend in one 
 way, he resolved to do it in another. It was 
 his custom to make an annual idsit to his for- 
 mer guardian at Lyndhurst, taking his three 
 hunters with him, so as to join the !N'ew 
 Forest hounds. He now pressed Tom to 
 accompany him, who gladly consented. They 
 got to L}Tidhurst all right; but on the next 
 day young Ward, full of tender thoughts of 
 ^'the girl he had left behind him," changed 
 his mind, and rushed back to Shaldon, leaving 
 his three himters, his first-rate grooms, his 
 scarlet coat and boots, all unreservedly at the 
 disposal of his friend Smith. The latter was 
 now at the height of his ambition : the splen- 
 
 c 
 
18 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 did hunter, tlie first-rate groom, the scarlet 
 coat and boots, seemed almost too good news 
 to be true ; but he took care to make good use 
 of them nevertheless, and thus he soon at- 
 tracted the notice of the master of the hounds, 
 that famous old sportsman, Mr. John Warde, 
 who frequently invited him to dine with him, 
 especially after a good day's sport. The inti- 
 macy thus begun endured as long as Mr. 
 Warde' s life ; he was proud of liis pupil, and 
 was often heard to say, when any instance of 
 the prowess of the latter was related in after 
 days, ^^ I entered Tom Smith to hounds." 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Farming — Vice-President of the Winchester Agricultural 
 Show — Fox-hunting — Cricket — Devon Stag-hounds — 
 Marriage — Residence at Hill House, Hambledon — Yisit 
 to Scotland — Lord Fife's practical jokes — Mr. Owen, of 
 Xew Lanark — An unpleasant mistake — Adventure in a 
 coal-mine — " Out of debt, out of danger." 
 
 It fortunately happened tliat in the very first 
 year of his farming Mr. Smith was able to be 
 of great service to his family by his energy 
 and good management. Wheat was enor- 
 mously high at the time of harvest; and 
 foreseeing that this could not long continue, 
 he exerted himself as few you:^g men would 
 have thought of doing to get his crop to 
 market. A threshing-machine had been em- 
 ployed a year before by Sir Thomas Miller, at 
 Froyle ; but it was no favourite with farmers 
 or labourers, and nobody, in that part of the 
 
20 Memoir of Tom Smitli. 
 
 country at least, thouglit of using it. Mr. 
 Smith, however, being, as will be seen here- 
 after, of a mechanical turn of mind, satisfied 
 himself of its merits, and yentured on one of 
 his own, which he set to work as soon as the 
 crop was housed. It was of six-horse power, 
 and by employing thi-ee sets of men and horses 
 working day and night, he soon had nearly 
 forty loads of wheat tlu^eshed out, which sold 
 at from 45/. to 48/. j)er load; the price fell 
 before the next harvest to 12/. or 13/. 
 
 About this time Eennet, of Farnham, had 
 invented a hand-machine for sowing turnip 
 and grass seeds in drills; and Mr. Smith de- 
 sired him to add a long trough of wood to be 
 filled with ashes, so as to be dropped into the 
 drill on the turnip-seed. The improved ma- 
 chine was sent to the Agricultural Exhibition 
 at Winchester, when a prize for the invention 
 was awarded to Mr. Smith, Avhich he handed 
 over to Eennet. 
 
 In connection with this Agricultural Exhi- 
 
A long Ride. 21 
 
 bition, a proof of Mr. Smith's ■antiring energy 
 may be related. He was one of the Vice- 
 Presidents, and, of conrse, it was necessary 
 that he shonld be at the opening; but he knew 
 how to combine pleasure with business. He 
 was passionately fond of dancing, and was sure 
 to be well received by the ladies. On the even- 
 ing before the show he rode from his house, 
 near Alton, a distance of eighteen miles, to a 
 ball at Henley Park, near Guildford, and danced 
 until four in the morning. Then he changed 
 his dress, mounted his horse, and rode to 
 Winchester, forty miles off, where he arrived 
 before eleven, the hour for the opening. !N'ei- 
 ther he nor his horse seemed to have suffered 
 from this. Soon after, he rode over to Mr. 
 Chute, at the Vine. It was a frost, but the 
 old squire had the hounds out. The fox took 
 
 a line down Preemantle Hill, one of the steep- 
 est in that country, followed by the hounds. 
 Although there was a large field, Mr. Smith 
 was soon left alone with them; and when, 
 
22 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 after riding several miles, the men came up, 
 they found him in the midst of the pack, with 
 the fox in his hands. 
 
 Shortly after this he accepted an invitation 
 into Sussex, to witness the last day that the 
 Duke of Eichmond's hounds hunted fox, be- 
 fore they Avent to Swinley to hunt stag, having 
 been made a present of to the Prince Eegent. 
 On this day they had a capital run; Mr. Smith 
 was luckily the first in at the death, and took 
 the brush. 
 
 His next sport was in Devonshii-e, where 
 his brother Samuel for ten years held the 
 perpetual cui-acy of Tiverton. This occasioned 
 liim to pay several visits to that country, 
 where he was introduced to Mr. Newton Fel- 
 lowes, who kept a pack of large foxliounds at 
 Eggesford, and whose cheery voice, ^' Cover- 
 hoick," when he thi-ew them into cover, can 
 never be forgotten. He also became a member 
 of the cricket-club at Barnstaple ; and as he 
 had had some previous experience in Hanip- 
 
A hasty Journey. 23 
 
 shire, he was able to be of service in their 
 matches with the Teignbridge club. This 
 caused him to be sought after; and accord- 
 ingly, when he was one day sailing with his 
 friend Mr. Fleming, of Stoneham Park, in his 
 yacht Elizabeth, he received a letter par- 
 ticularly begging him to join his Earnstaple 
 friends at eleven o'clock next day. The yacht 
 was then off the Isle of Wight, and it seemed 
 hardly possible to be in time ; but Mr. Smith 
 resolved to try. He was instantly set on 
 shore, travelled all night (there were no rail- 
 ways then), and reached Exeter, where a car- 
 riage-and-four was in waiting with some of the 
 party. He was just allowed time for a plunge 
 in the bath at the inn and a cup of tea, and 
 then repaired to the field. The Earnstaple 
 party was successful ; but many expressed the 
 opinion that it would have been otherwise if 
 the Hampshire man had not been there. 
 
 Another sport that he enjoyed in Devon- 
 shire was otter-hunting, along with Mr. 
 
24 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 Treby's lioimds ; they commenced work at foiu' 
 in the morning, and he was highly gratified. 
 He also became acquainted with that keen and 
 good sportsman, the Eey. J . Eussell, who rode 
 his famed horse Monkey on the day that Sir 
 Arthnr Chichester had a wonderful run with 
 his stag-hounds. The Devonshire mode of 
 proceeding is worth description. The stag 
 was roused by three or four couple of hounds 
 only, called tufters; the rest of the pack being 
 kept shut up until the stag broke cover. 
 Then they were let loose, and, to the surprise 
 of our Hampshire friend, the whole field, led 
 by the Eca^ !Nimrod, instead of trying to be 
 with the pack, took a line parallel to the 
 stag, who, with the hounds after him, ran 
 clean away. Although our friend Smith was 
 mounted by Sii' Arthur on a thorough-bred, 
 he was obliged to pull up. "When, in conse- 
 quence, he was making his way to shoot with 
 Mr. Fellowes, at Dulverton, he fell in with 
 two men in scarlet, with two hounds, going 
 
Devon Stag-hounds. 25 
 
 towards home ; they were the Master and the 
 himtsman. The former, on being asked what 
 wonki become of the honnds, quietly replied, 
 '^ Oh ! they'll find their way back to the ken- 
 nel in the course of a day or two ; this sort 
 of thing often happens.'' Very likely it did, 
 for it was evidently impossible for any horse 
 in the world to keep with stag-hounds in such 
 runs as that. 
 
 Soon after his return from Devonshii'e Mr. 
 Smith's prospects were changed greatly for 
 the better. He had been requested by a 
 friend to yisit a kennel at East Meon, where 
 there was a pack of fox-hounds which were 
 expected to be shortly for sale, in consequence 
 of the death of the owner. On leaving the 
 kennel they met two ladies : one of whom was 
 the clergyman's wife, and a friend of Mr. 
 Smith's family ; the other lady was the mdow 
 of the Master of Hounds. The usual intro- 
 ductions were followed by an acquaintance, 
 and at the end of the year the lady became 
 
26 Memoir of Tom Smitli. 
 
 Mrs. Smith. Never was man blessed with a 
 more amiable partner, and if ever pair were, 
 they were honestly entitled to the Dnnmow 
 flitch. They resided in the honse at East 
 Meon for a few years, and then removed to 
 Hill House, Hambledon. 
 
 It may not be received in Kent or Sussex, 
 but it is a fact that in Hampshii-e the origin 
 of the game of cricket is ascribed to Hamble- 
 don; and its old-established club was in full 
 swing when Mr. Smith came to reside there. 
 He accepted the office of secretary ; and from 
 the old club-books that thus came into his 
 hands we glean some curious ^particulars, 
 which afford strong presum23tion in favour of 
 the claim. The game, it seems, was at first 
 practised with one stump only, then with two, 
 and lastly with tlu-ee. For some years after 
 Mr. Smith's connection with the club, there 
 was suspended from the roof of the club-house, 
 on Windmill Down, an old worm-eaten bat, 
 more resembling Hercules' club than any 
 
Cricket, 27 
 
 thing to be seen at the present day, and 
 which was in high estimation among the 
 members. Unluckily, after a club dinner, a 
 yonng member who had his grog on board, 
 jumped on the table, and ran off with the 
 j)recious relic, to have, as he said, " one hit ;" 
 the hit shattered it to atoms, when the culprit 
 had to make a speedy retreat, or unpleasant 
 consequences would certainly have resulted 
 from the outraged feelings of the spectators. 
 
 The Hambledon men were all cricketers ; 
 but a few names must be specially mentioned. 
 Foremost among them was Mr. Hale, the 
 owner of Windmill Down ; and Mr. Bonham 
 of Petersfield, Colonel King, and Messrs. Ei- 
 chards and Butler were constant attendants 
 at the matches which Mr. Smith exerted him- 
 self to get up. He was an enthusiast about 
 the game ; and haying often played at Lord's 
 with the Marylebone Club, he was well ac- 
 quainted with Mr. "William Ward, and gene- 
 rally prevailed on him to attend the Ham- 
 
28 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 bleclon matches. Mr. Ward in one match at 
 Lord's scored 272 runs. On one occasion 
 Mr. Smith was opposed to him at a match in 
 the Isle of Wight. Ward was bowling, and 
 Smith hit the ball back nearly straight ; Ward 
 attempted to catch, but could only reach the 
 ball with the tip of one finger, which was 
 broken back flat on his hand, and he could 
 play no more that season. 
 
 The Hambledon club were tolerably suc- 
 cessful in theu' matches, and whether successful 
 or not, the little place was always a scene of 
 gaiety on such occasions, as it was Mr. Smith's 
 custom to invite all the strangers to his house, 
 and the evening was usually finished up with 
 a dance. One match played is worth record- 
 ing. The Hambledons had to go in the last 
 innings against nearly 200 runs. Mr. Smith 
 held his bat during the fall of nine wickets, 
 when seventy-two runs were to be got. The 
 tenth player. Colonel Hogg, having left the 
 groimd, believing it to be a lost game, the 
 
Life at Hamhledon. 29' 
 
 Sussex gentlemen told Mr. Smith to call in 
 any other in his place. Mr. T. Eutler, of 
 Eerry Lodge, then brought in his bat, when 
 these two players got the seventy-two runs 
 and won the game. 
 
 Another sociable institution of Hambledon 
 was a whist-club, consisting of six or seven 
 families, which met at their respective houses- 
 once a week. The cricket-club was given up, 
 and Windmill Do^vn brought into cultivation. 
 Mr. Smith left Hambledon shortly after; but 
 the kindness and hospitality that he enjoyed 
 there can never be forgotten by him. But 
 this is rather anticipating the course of events. 
 
 After a few months passed at Hambledon, 
 improving the house, &c., Mr. Smith went to 
 London with his wife for a short time early 
 in the spring. Having looked in at Tatter- 
 sail's, he bought a bro^^n horse which be- 
 longed to Colonel Bowater, and vras reported 
 to be a capital hunter. This induced him to 
 go with the royal pack of stag-hounds, along 
 
30 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 with an old Marlow friend, Mr. John Brook, 
 of whose bold riding ranch had been said. 
 The consequence was rather unpleasant. Mr. 
 Smith's ardour was roused ; he had no idea of 
 being cut out in horsemanship, and he so 
 urged on his poor steed that it died on the 
 way home, and was disposed of to a knacker 
 for a guinea; a bargain this, which enabled 
 him to tell his wife with a clear conscience 
 that he had sold him, though of course the 
 particulars oozed out imder cross-examination. 
 This incident is mentioned to warn yoimg 
 sportsmen never to hunt or ride hard a horse 
 that is fat and out of condition. 
 
 When in London, Mr. Smith's good friend 
 Mr. Gr. Taylor procured for him from the 
 Earl of Fife permission to shoot grouse, and 
 to fish for salmon in the Deveron. In his 
 way to Scotland he managed to be at Edin- 
 biu'gh when King George TV. arrived there, 
 which was in August 1822. At the request 
 of Lady Jane Taylor, who was the wife of 
 
Scotch Salmon- fishing. 31 
 
 Major Taylor and sister of the Earl of Fife, 
 lie made a sketch from her window of the 
 an-ival of the king in his yacht, which her 
 ladyship carefully preserved. He also saw 
 Sir Walter Scott busily engaged in marshal- 
 ling the Highlanders preparatory to their 
 taking part in the royal reception. 
 
 Leaving Edinburgh, he rented a nice house 
 in the town of Keith for two months, and 
 commenced salmon-fishing. His first attempt 
 was not successful, as after hooking a ^q 
 salmon, and bringing it on to the shingle after 
 half an hour's i)lay, it gave a sudden spring 
 and escaped, carrying a good part of the line 
 with it. This was a lesson, and he used a 
 gaff for the futiu^e. But he had not much 
 time to give to salmon, as it was now the 
 grouse season; so he bought two good pointers, 
 and had excellent si^ort with them, although 
 his greatest bag Avas only thirty-six brace. 
 These he sent to his friends in England, 
 packed in layers, in a box surrounded by 
 
32 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 hops; and tliey arrived all safe and good, 
 althougli there were then no railways. Be- 
 side these, he killed a few black-cock, but 
 only one ptarmigan. 
 
 Part of the time in Scotland was passed at 
 Duff House, the seat of the Earl of Fife; a 
 nobleman whose peculiarities were generally 
 amusing, but on one occasion proved anything 
 but pleasant. His lordship asked Mr. Smith 
 to go with him to see a wild boar, which he 
 kept in an outhouse. Arrived at the spot, two 
 ladders were placed against the wall, which 
 ni}^ lord and his visitor ascended; but the 
 instant Mr. Smith reached the top he found 
 the boar, with open jaws and enormous tusks, 
 grinning horribly close to his face, and mak- 
 ing frantic efforts to seize him. The ''joke" 
 was, that Lord Fife carried hid imdcr his coat 
 a whip with which he " touched up" the boar ; 
 and the wonder was that a fall backwards did 
 not occur. 
 
 After leaving Duff House, Mr. and Mrs. 
 
Mr. Owen^ of New Lanark, 33 
 
 Smith went to Lanark to see the falls of the 
 Clyde. On the following day, which was 
 Sunday, they received an invitation from Mr. 
 and Mrs. Owen, of ISTew Lanark, to spend the 
 day with them at their mnch-talked-of estab- 
 lishment. Prompted by curiosity, they went, 
 and were couiieously received. But they 
 soon found that Sunday was not observed in 
 the customary manner here; for Mr. Owen 
 took them into a large room, where about one 
 hundred boys and girls were assembled, who 
 by his desire sang ^^ Scots, wha hae," &c. &c. 
 Mrs. Smith observing one particularly nice, 
 clever-looking girl, remarked that she would 
 be glad to take her into her service; upon 
 which the philosophic Mr. Owen grew out- 
 rageously indignant, declaring that none of 
 his young people were ever intended for the 
 degradation of household service ; and he re- 
 peated this so A^ehemently, that his visitors 
 returned with speed to their inn. Before 
 leaving Scotland they visited Dundee, where 
 
 D 
 
34 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 tliey made tlic acquaintance of Mr. Kean, 
 Avith whom and liis "wife they visited 
 Glammis Castle, and some other celebrated 
 places. 
 
 Some time after this Mr. Smith went into 
 Cheshire, on a visit to a cousin of his, who 
 had manied the Eev. Giles Peel, a cousin of 
 the second Sir EoLert Peel, and incumbent of 
 Ince. From their house he went one day to 
 Sandywell Head to see the Cheshire hounds. 
 He staid till it was nearly dark looking over 
 the hounds, especially the clever lot of un- 
 entered ones, which were equal in point of 
 size and muscle to any in the kingdom. He 
 had a good distance to Avalk back to his inn, 
 and did not arrive till quite late. He retired 
 at once to his room, but was distiu-bed by a 
 great noise of footsteps passing and repassing 
 his door ; and when he awoke in the morning 
 he heard the same, with the addition of whis- 
 pering and low speaking. "When he came do^vn 
 to breakfast, he noticed the boots followed 
 
All unpleasant Mistake. 35 
 
 him into the room, and was at once joined 
 by the landlord, who asked a series of ques- 
 tions as to where he had come from, and where 
 he was going to, in a tone that grew more and 
 more impertinent, until at last Mr. Smith lost 
 his temper, and exclaimed, ''Wliat the — is all 
 that to you?" At last came the explanation. 
 A highway robbery had been committed in 
 the neighbourhood the night before, and the 
 good people of the inn fancied that their guest 
 might possibly be the oifcnder, as he came to 
 the house so late. Laughing and storming by 
 turns, Mr. Smith exhibited an envelope ad- 
 dressed to Mr. Peel, on which that gentleman 
 had jotted down his route to the Kennels; 
 and now it was the turn of the poor host to 
 make a thousand abject apologies for his in- 
 jurious suspicions. 
 
 During his visit to Ince, Mr. Smith had a 
 very narrow escape from loss of life to himself 
 and others, which may well be related as a 
 caution. He had a desire to see a coal-mine; 
 
36 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 and Mr. Gibbons, the owner of one of the 
 deepest in the neighbourhood, formed a party 
 for the purpose, and accompanied them him- 
 self. When they arrived at the bottom, some 
 hundreds of feet below the surface, a light 
 was placed in the hand of each, and they pro- 
 ceeded along the passages. At length Mr. 
 Smith noticed a dark hole some three or four 
 feet wide above his head, and he was in the 
 act of raising his lamp to see more clearly 
 what it was, Y,dien he received a severe blow 
 on the arm, which brought both hand and 
 lamp to the ground, accompanied by a frantic 
 exclamation, ^' Oh ! heavens I" His consterna- 
 tion may be imagined when he was told that 
 the hole was filled with gas, which the raising 
 of his lamp otAj a few inches higher would 
 have ignited, when the destruction of the pit 
 and all in it would have been the Avork of a 
 moment. 
 
 Another danger which Mr." Smith has 
 escaped is the danger of debt ; and he is ever 
 
Out of Deht^ out of Danger, 37 
 
 ready to maintain that lie lias escaped this 
 danger and its penalties, owing to "a word 
 spoken in season" by Colonel Johnston, his 
 brother-in-law. The Colonel and Mr. Smith 
 were going out to ride one day, when a fish- 
 hawker came np, and some of his ware was 
 purchased; after which the party prepared to 
 start, when the Colonel said, ^' Smith, the fish 
 is not paid for." The hawker cried, '^ Oh ! sir, 
 I know Mr. Smith well enough ; he will pay 
 me another day." But this did not suit 
 Colonel Johnston's ideas, who took money 
 from his pocket, and would have paid the 
 trifle, but that Mr. Smith anticipated him. 
 When the man was gone, the Colonel asked, 
 ^' Smith, how could you bear to put it in the 
 power of such a fellow as that to say that you 
 owed him a shilling even for a day?" The 
 reproof went home, and under any difiiculties 
 ^^ready-money payment" has ever since been 
 the practice of Mr. Smith ; to which he attri- 
 butes his success in life, and which cannot be 
 
38 Memoir' of Tom Smith. 
 
 too earnestly impressed on every man, parti- 
 cularly if lie ventures on so troublesome and 
 uncertain an occupation as tliat of master of 
 hounds. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Sport in the New Forest — Sir Bellingham Graham — The 
 horse General — Mr. Smith becomes Master of the Ham- 
 bledon hounds — Unpromising beginning — Extraordinary- 
 run into Sussex — Mr. Smith's picture of the H. H., with 
 sixty-five likenesses — Visit to the Quorn — An unexpected 
 honour. 
 
 In the spring of 1823 Mr. Smith took his two 
 hunters to Lyndhnrst for a week's hunting in 
 the Kew Forest, which at that time was an- 
 nually visited by many masters of hounds 
 and celebrated sportsmen. Among them was 
 Sir Bellingham Graham, whom he had. known 
 formerly when a cadet at the Military College, 
 Great Marlow, and had frequently met, with 
 Sir Godfrey "Webster, dining at his uncle's, 
 Mr. Wethered. He well recollects seeing 
 these two young baronets, with their orange- 
 coloured hunting-coats, riding to meet the old 
 Berkeley hounds — that colour being the uni- 
 
40 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 form of that hunt — since changed to scarlet 
 with black collar, and silver fox on it. A 
 large house called Eenmants was at that time 
 used for the college: it was afterwards pur- 
 chased by Mr. Wethered, and converted into 
 a most charming residence. This gentleman 
 left by will 1000/. to provide for a second 
 sermon on every Sabbath day. 
 
 On this occasion Sir Bellingham rode a 
 famous horse, Beeswax. One day, when the 
 chase was across the New Park at Lyndhurst, 
 Mr. [N'ichol, the Master, called to the baronet, 
 and told him that he must come to the gate, as 
 they had a deer-fence before them. Sir Bel- 
 lingham only shook his head, and went on 
 with the hounds straight to the palings, which 
 the pack was getting over or through as they 
 might. Mr. Smith wished to see how one of 
 the noted hard riders would act in such a 
 case ; he therefore kept close ; and when the 
 baronet's horse went over the fence, he went 
 over it also, and the ditch beyond, all right; 
 
The Horse General. 41 
 
 but Beeswax came down on his chest ; how- 
 ever, he soon got up again, and both horse- 
 men came np with the hounds before they had 
 killed their fox. "When Mr. IS^ichol and the 
 rest of the field arrived, Sir Bellingham told 
 them what had occurred, and offered at once 
 to give 250 guineas for Mr. Smith's horse, 
 which was called the General, and had cost 
 but forty-five guineas three moi *=5 before. 
 Mr. Smith, however, preferred to keep his 
 steed ; and some of his performances will be 
 related hereafter. 
 
 Some time after this Mr. Smith had an ad- 
 venture in the !N'ew Forest, which he made the 
 subject of a spirited picture, — one included in 
 the Loan Exhibition at Southampton in 1866. 
 
 The royal stag -hounds met that day at 
 Stoney Cross, intending to take a particular 
 old stag which had been doing mischief in the 
 cottage gardens. It was found lying by the 
 keepers, was roused; and the hounds being 
 shortly after laid on, they went at a most 
 
42 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 awful pace, whicli it appeared impossible for 
 horses to maintain. Mr. Smith allowed every 
 horse to pass him, being 500 at the least, and 
 followed them quietly, until he saw them bear- 
 ing to the right, when he rode across, and was 
 shortly first, instead of last. He kept his eye 
 on the leading hounds, and they ran into a 
 patch of bushes and among trees. He keeping 
 outside, saw the same hounds leading as usual 
 into this covert, and he continued with them, 
 only two couple going away. He hallooed as 
 loud as he could ; but no other hounds came 
 after them, and only four or five men. They 
 ran straight across the forest for eight or ten 
 miles, and into an enclosure called the Frenches, 
 where he followed; but he found the other 
 men at the end of the enclosure, who must 
 have headed the stag, as the then only two 
 hounds came to a check ; and after making a 
 cast forward without success, he brought them 
 to the spot where they had been checked. On 
 riding into some high fern, he saw the stag 
 
Adventure icith a Stag, 43 
 
 lying on the ground, with his horns flat on 
 his back, like a rabbit in her form. Mr. Smith 
 whipped him u]3, when he broke away out of 
 the enclosure, and ran for four or five miles, 
 with the two hounds close to his haunches. 
 Luckily Mr. Smith's horse jumped OA^er the 
 23alings ; and so he kept in sight of them until 
 the stag ran into a stream of water, and stood 
 in it, defying the hounds ; he gave one of 
 them a kick, but being in the water, it was 
 not hurt. Mr. Smith remained for nearly an 
 hour sitting on the bank and hallooing, imtil 
 a forest-keeper came, whom he sent to inform 
 Davis, the huntsman. Shortly after, one of the 
 whippers-in came up, and directly jumped off 
 his horse close to the stag, wliicli then quietly 
 trotted out of the water. Mr. Smith begged 
 the whipper-in to mount his horse, saying 
 that the stag was not much distressed, as his 
 mouth was shut. The man said, ^' That only 
 proves that he's done;" and so it j)roved; for 
 when the stag had gone about 100 yards, he 
 
44 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 quietly trotted back again into tlie water, and 
 remained there nntil Davis came up with tlie 
 hounds and the whole field. Lord Eosslyn, 
 on arriving, inquired who had gone on with 
 the two hounds. No one answered; and see- 
 ing Mr. Smith sitting on the hank, he un- 
 courteously said — 
 
 "Mr. Smith, you must have been the j^er- 
 son." 
 
 On his pleading guilty, his lordship said — 
 
 "You ought to have stopped them." 
 
 "Stop them I" was the reply; "I might 
 as well try to stop the Thames. I had enough 
 to do to keep within sight of them." 
 
 " Then, sir, if you had been a sportsman, 
 you would have stopped them." 
 
 To which Mr. Smith replied — 
 
 " "When I want a character, I shall not 
 come to youi' lordship for it." 
 
 The stag was shortly taken out, and his 
 horns sawn off, which were offered to Mr. 
 Smith; but he refused to receive them, after 
 
Master of the Hamhledon Hounds. 45 
 
 what Lord Eosslyn had said. The stag was 
 taken to Swinley. 
 
 When Mr. Shard gave up the Hambledon 
 hounds, Mr. Smith, at ihQ request of friends, 
 agreed to take the management. He there- 
 fore purchased Mr. Shard's pack, and kept 
 them at Mr. Goodlad's, at Hill Place, where 
 he also lived, until it was required by the 
 owner. Mr. Shard, it should be said, had 
 hunted that country, after Sir Bellingham Gra- 
 ham and Mr. Osbaldeston had each had it for 
 half a season only. [N'o time was lost in pro- 
 cui'ing huntsmen and whippers-in. Old Will 
 James was kept as kennel huntsman, and John 
 Major offered his services, which were ac- 
 cepted. John had formerly belonged to the 
 Hampshire hounds; but he had lately been 
 in France, where he had imbihed a taste for 
 brandy that made him almost useless. He 
 only killed one fox in the first six weeks ; 
 and on then being told at cover side that he 
 must kill one that day, he coolly handed the 
 
46 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 horn over to the Master, saying lie had better 
 hunt the hounds himself. John was of course 
 sent home, and Mr. Smith was left to his own 
 resources. A fox was shortly after found in 
 North Coppice, which, after a ring or two in 
 cover, broke away; all appeared prosperous, 
 until the hounds were running on the opposite 
 side of a wide hedge-row, when on a sudden 
 they stopped, and seemed to have killed their 
 fox, to thp great joy of the new huntsman, 
 which, however, was soon turned into grief; 
 for when he rushed tlu'ough the hedge-row to 
 take up the fox, he found that his hounds had 
 killed a poor sheep. He at once believed him- 
 self ruined for life as a huntsman ; and after 
 rating and flogging the hounds so fimously as 
 to bring all the field to the spot, he took them 
 home. The Eev. G. Eichards, and that kind 
 good man Mr. Butler, rode part of the way 
 with him, and endeavoured to console him, 
 assui'ing him, from their experience, that such 
 an event was not very unusual early in "the 
 
All unpromising Beginning. 47 
 
 season and with young lioiinds, and telling 
 Hm tliat they would make it all right with 
 the owner of the sheep. On reaching the ken- 
 nel, John Major, the discarded huntsman, first 
 met the hoimds, and said in a dissatisfied 
 tone — 
 
 ''' I see you hayo had blood to-day.-' 
 ^'Yes,'' was the only reply; which sent 
 liim away as miserable as the master, until 
 he learnt the real state of the case, when he 
 became jolly enough. In the course of the 
 evening the shepherd came (no doubt sent by 
 good Mr. Eutler) to thank the imlucky hunts- 
 man for haying killed a poor giddy sheep that 
 had given him ^' a mort o' trouble." Eyen 
 this well-meant deyicc did not comfort poor 
 Mr. Smith, and he went to bed only to be 
 tormented ^vii\l frightful dreams, in which his 
 hounds appeared to be hunting eyerything but 
 foxes. Howeyer, he determined to giye them 
 one more trial; and although with a doubtful 
 heart, he took them to the place of meeting the 
 
48 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 next liunting-day. He judiciously kept his 
 doubts to liimself, and men who expected to find 
 him downcast saw him apparently in his usual 
 high spirits, which was soon really the case, 
 as he killed his fox that day after a good run. 
 The incident was soon forgotten by all but 
 himself : but he turned it to use ; for it deter- 
 mined him never to let the hounds be out of 
 his sight when in chase. 
 
 iN'otwithstanding the misadventure of their 
 first day, the Hambledon pack turned out a 
 good one. They had, as ^'Mmrod'^ allowed, 
 one of the most extraordinary runs on record. 
 The meet was at Stanstead, which was at that 
 time a neutral covert with them and Colonel 
 G. Wyndham, whose hounds met the same 
 day at AUsworth Bridge, only a mile off. 
 This was inconveniently near, and at Colonel 
 Wyndham's request, made tlirough Mr. Eing- 
 ham IN'ewland, Mr. Smith retired, leaving 
 Stanstead for the Colonel. The Hambledons 
 foimd in the Markwells, between two and 
 
Extraordinary Run into Sussex. ^\} 
 
 three o'clock, ran up wind to Gravel Hill, 
 where the fox was headed, and viewed at the 
 turnpike road near Highdown Wood. He 
 tui'ned short back down wind, through and 
 across Harting Down, Up Park, and over the 
 Sussex Downs, through West Dean woods and 
 close to Colonel Wyndham's kennel at the 
 Drove, through the large Williams' wood, 
 keeping in the roads in the wood thi'oughout. 
 The pack, therefore, certainly did not' change 
 theii- fox, who was evidently running for some 
 point, probably an earth; but this being the 
 Colonel's hunting- day, it most likely was 
 stopped. He then took a line at an awful 
 pace over the downs, sinking the hill near to 
 Petworth, and after crossing that deep bottom 
 by Burton Park to Graffham Hill, crossed the 
 London and Chichester road, and ran again 
 over the downs to a large wood on the right,' 
 where the hoimds got up to him. He was 
 often seen almost among them, and nothing 
 could have saved him, only just at this crisis a 
 
 E 
 
50 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 man outside tlie wood imluckily hallooed them 
 on to a fresh fox away over the open down. 
 It was impossible to get nj) to the hounds 
 until they had got into Potcombe Wood, when 
 it was getting dark, or they would have been 
 taken back to the wood where they had left 
 their beaten fox, which had been so nearly 
 killed that one man got off his horse believing 
 such to be the case. 
 
 It was now time to think of home, which 
 was not less than forty miles off, and there 
 was scarcely light enough to count the hounds. 
 Wlien this was done, it appeared that two 
 were missing. The horn was accordingly 
 bloA\Ti two or three times, and a halloo was 
 heard at a distance in reply. Shortly after 
 one of Colonel Wyndham's men rode uj) with 
 a message from his master, inviting Mr. Smith 
 to take up his quarters with him for the night, 
 the pack, &c. of course being included in the 
 invitation. They reached the Drove between 
 eight and nine o'clock; and after he had seen 
 
Condition of the Hounds. 51 
 
 to his hourids, Mr. Smith, sat clo^vn to dinner 
 in his host's clothes, well pleased to he spared 
 the long ride home that night. Shortly after 
 diimer the Colonel left the room ; and when he 
 returned he said that he could not help going 
 to see how a pack of hounds looked after 
 such an extraordinary long and hard run. He 
 said that when he went into the lodging-room 
 with a lantern, all the hounds jumped off the 
 benches with their sterns over their backs, as 
 if ready to start off home, thus proving theii* 
 stoutness and condition. Before breakfast 
 next morning the Colonel ^T.*ote an account of 
 this run to his father. Lord Egremont, which 
 he read to his visitor, in order that it might 
 be corrected, if needful. It finished thus : 
 ^' If Smith had found his fox at my kennel- 
 door, which they passed near, it would have 
 been one of the best and straightest runs I 
 ever saw ; but they had come when there at 
 least seventeen miles !" 
 
 The account of this extraordinary run must 
 
52 , Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 prove to Masters of Hounds that they must 
 keep nearly as many hounds to hunt three 
 days as to hunt four. At this time the sub- 
 scription was under 600/., and therefore only 
 thirty or thii'ty-two couple were kept in the 
 Hambledon pack. To make up a proper pack 
 of eighteen couple, Mr. Smith was obliged to 
 include four or five couple that had hunted 
 two days before, generally the youngest or 
 freshest. This great run was on a Monday, 
 and on the "Wednesday he was forced to take 
 out foiu' couple that had been engaged in it. 
 There was an immense field from Sussex, who 
 came to hear the true account of the Monday's 
 performance ; and he ventured to tell them all 
 that these four couple would be soon far be- 
 hind the rest, if they ran at all. This was 
 fulfilled to the very letter. In fact, if fox- 
 hounds are worked too often, that is, before 
 they have had time to get quite fresh again, 
 they will lose the dash of foxhounds, and be 
 nothing better than a pack of harriers. 
 
Picture of the Hampshire Hunt. 53 
 
 "We have said in an early chapter that Mr. 
 Smith had a talent for painting, and this he 
 displayed abont this time by producing a pic- 
 ture which contained sixty-five portraits of 
 men and horses belonging to the Hampshire 
 Hunt. It happened in this way. He was 
 riding to Hinton House, the place of meet, 
 along with Mr, G. Richards, Avhen, from the 
 opposite hill, he saw the whole party grouped 
 before the house. It was a dull frosty day; but 
 a gleam of sunshine suddenly broke through, 
 and it occurred to him that this was a. good 
 subject for a picture. At a glance he took in 
 the whole scene; and he retained it so tho- 
 roughly in his mind, that though he was late 
 home after the run to Allington, he commenced 
 his work immediately after dinner. He worked 
 on, hour after hour, until ^nq o'clock the next 
 morning, and then he had finished the pic- 
 ture, which now hangs in the dining-room at 
 Fir Hill. Almost incredible as it may seem, 
 he never once touched a single figure of man 
 
54 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 or horse again ; and yet so exact are the like- 
 nesses, that every one can be, and has been, 
 identified. The Hnnt wished to have the pic- 
 ture engraved, but Mr. Smith declined such 
 an honour; it was, however, engraved after 
 all, without his knowledge. 
 
 After the hunting season Mr. Smith again 
 went to Scotland. During his absence from 
 home. Lady Gage called and requested to see 
 the pictiu'e, as the likenesses of her two sons 
 and Admiral Gage were in it. It was brought 
 to her in her carriage, when she drove off with 
 it, leaving a message, that, b}^ the wish of the 
 Hunt, she would take it to London to have it 
 engraved. This message, by some oversight, 
 was not forwarded to Mr. Smith, and thus a 
 little surprise was prepared for him at Melton, 
 where he stayed on his way back from Scot- 
 land. He there found Ferneley the artist busy 
 with a picture of all the men and horses be- 
 longing to the Quorn Hunt. He asked permis- 
 sion to see this, which was readily granted; and 
 
Picture of the Hampsliire Hunt. 55 
 
 in tlie course of conversation the artist asked 
 liim Ms reason for wishing to see it. He re- 
 plied, that he had never seen a picture of a 
 whole Hunt before. Ferneley replied, ^^ That 
 is very likely, for there never was but one of 
 a whole Hunt ever painted." Mr. Smith in- 
 quired where that one could be seen, and was 
 told that if he would go, when in London, to 
 Watson's in Yere-street, he would there see 
 a picture containing the likenesses of all the 
 men belonging to the Hampshire Hunt, which 
 had been painted by a Mr. Smith, and was 
 then being engraved by Turner, rerneley 
 added that he had taken other artists to see 
 the picture, and they had all agreed it was the 
 first attempt that had ever been made to paint 
 a whole Hunt, and this had led him to under- 
 take the picture he had then in hand. This 
 was flattering news for his visitor ; and he has 
 since seen the example that he thus set fol- 
 lowed with regard to several other Hunts. 
 After seeing Ferneley 's picture, Mr. Smith 
 
56 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 went over to Quorndon, where Sir Bellingliam 
 Graham, his old acquaintance, was then Mas- 
 ter of Hounds. On the following day they 
 rode together to the first regular meet at 
 Kirhy Gate. Mr. Smith was mounted on the 
 General, for which Sii' Eellingham had offered 
 250 guineas ; but he told the baronet that 
 these Leicestershire hard riders rather fright- 
 ened him. 
 
 ^'jN^ever mind," was the answer; ^'you'll 
 get along with that horse ; besides, after the 
 first five minutes you'll see only ten or twelve 
 of them with the hounds;" which turned out 
 to be the case. To liis surprise, when the 
 hounds were running across a large pasture, 
 these men turned to the left away from them ; 
 but he, seeing what he took to be only a 
 common fence, rode straight on. It was a 
 fence, to be sure ; but on the other side w^as 
 an aw^fully wide and deep ditch, ^'hicli his 
 horse coukl not clear. Instead, he performed 
 a complete somerset, and fell on his back, 
 
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 Mm 4 ^ . 
 
 
 M^. 
 
 m\ ///J y - 
 
 V 
 
 
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 '*">! ! !'■ Ill ^ ill' 
 
 t^^ 
 
 
 % 
 
 ^'' it 1^ S 
 
 f ) ri ■"'il'- 
 
 i 
 
 if/ IIP 
 
 mill 'IK 
 
 1 
 
 W: I 
 
 'I! 
 
 i 1 
 
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 o 
 
 z 
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 a 
 
A Run ivith the Qitorn Hunt. 57 
 
 sending liis rider headlong before liim, to the 
 great amusement of the Quorners. Lucidly 
 neither man nor horse was much hurt; they 
 were soon on the go again, and joined the 
 rest. After a severe run the fox was yiewed 
 close before the hounds, under a high up- 
 right spiked gate, which Sir Bellingham and 
 Sir James Musgrave tried to lift off the hooks. 
 Whilst they were thus employed Mr. Smith 
 came up, when the General carried him over 
 the pales beside the gate, and he was the 
 only one in the field when the fox was killed. 
 Presently Sir Bellingham and a few others 
 came up, when the baronet offered the brush 
 to Mr. Smith, saying — 
 
 ^' Tell the Hampshire lads that I can kill 
 a fox here, though I didn't kill many among 
 them.'' 
 
 Sir Francis Burdett was present, and see- 
 ing the brush in Mr. Smith's hand, he, in 
 the most quiet and kindly manner, advised 
 him not to take it, saying — 
 
*58 Memoir of Tom Smitli. 
 
 '^ Wc never do it in this county." 
 Mr. Smith, thanked him for the hint, 
 and tohl him what message Sir Bellingham 
 had given him. Sir Francis never forgot 
 the General, and repeatedly offered to pur- 
 chase him at any price, until Mr. Smith put 
 an end to it by saying that he would take 
 nothing less than an annuity of 100/. for 
 life; and even after that Sir Francis was 
 often heard to express his regret that he had 
 not been able to obtain the horse. 
 
 Mr. Smith had a somewhat similar accident 
 afterwards, whilst hunting his own hounds, 
 the Pytchle3^ They came suddenly to an 
 awkAvard fence, namely, a single rail on a bank 
 between two ditches. Although two or three 
 of the ^' hard riders'' were before him, they 
 very politely allowed him to pass them; and 
 as the rail was but a low one, he thought 
 it practicable, and rode at it. Unfortunately 
 he was not mounted on the General, or it 
 might have been all right. As it was, his 
 
Conqyleting a Picture. 59 
 
 horse fell into the wide ditch on the far side, 
 and his rider, as soon as he could gather 
 himself nj), had to pull him out by the tail. 
 He remounted, and shortly after overtook the 
 houndsj alone, before any of the rest of the 
 field came up, as they had made a long detour 
 to have the benefit of a gate. A day or two 
 after this, ]\Ir. Isted, one of the hard riders, 
 and who was also a clever di'aftsman, was 
 amusing some of the party with a sketch that 
 he had made of this fall, and in due time 
 it was handed to the subject of it. Mr. Smith 
 remarked that he had forgotten one incident, 
 which he would supply ; and taking a pencil, 
 he added a portrait of a horseman, who bore 
 a tolerable resemblance to Mr. Isted, gallop- 
 ping along with others away fi'om the hounds 
 and making for the gate. The sketch thus 
 completed is probably still in Mr. Isted' s 
 portfolio. 
 
 During this visit to Sii* Eellingham Mr. 
 Smith had the pleasiu'e of preventing a duel, 
 
60 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 which at one time seemed imminent. In- 
 formation came one clay, after dinner, that 
 Lord Anson had run a fox to ground in the 
 Quorndon country, and then, contrary to cus- 
 tom, had had it dug out. Sir Belllngham 
 fell into a towering rage, and on the instant 
 wrote a challenge to his lordship. With dif- 
 ficulty Mr. Smith prevailed on the baronet 
 not to send it off instanter, but to take it 
 with him to the meet next day, and abide 
 by the judgment of the Hunt. This was, 
 that if any insult was meant, it was not to 
 Sir E., but to the whole Hunt ; but that great 
 allowance was to be made for so young a 
 Master of Hounds as his lordship, and that 
 a letter of remonstrance was all that was 
 called for. Eather reluctantly Sir Eellingham 
 gave up the '' affair," and he was repaid by 
 a capital run, with blood of fox instead of 
 a lord at the end of it. 
 
 On his way home Mr. Smith paid a visit to 
 Great Marlow. Hearing that the royal stag- 
 
Chance Interview witli a Duchess. 61 
 
 liounds met close by, at Maidenhead thicket, he 
 joined them; and when they were taking the 
 stag ont of a small stream, he sat down on the 
 wall of the bridge, holding his horse. He was 
 accosted by an elegant and high-bred lady, 
 who was also on the bridge, and who made the 
 remark that he did not appear to take mnch 
 interest in snch hunting ; to which he replied 
 that he did not, for he had just returned 
 from hunting with the Quorn hounds, where 
 he had had capital sj^ort. The lady replied that 
 she had lately received a letter from a friend, 
 whose hounds hunted the adjoining country 
 to the Quorn, who stated that his pack had 
 had better sport than the Quorn. She then 
 asked if he had ever been further north; to 
 which he replied that previous to the hunt- 
 ing season he had been on a visit to Lord 
 Fife at Duff House, for salmon-fishing in the 
 Deveron, and grouse-shooting over his lord- 
 ship's moors, which were the most extensive 
 in the north ; to which the lady quickly re- 
 
62 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 plied: ^'No, not so extensive as my father's, 
 the Duke of Gordon." 
 
 This discovery of his companion's rank did 
 not, however, put an end to their conversa- 
 tion. He led his horse towards Marlow, which 
 proved to be the lady's road home : she 
 walked beside him, conversing most affably ; 
 and when they arrived opposite her house, 
 she kindly invited him to enter and refresh 
 himself and his horse. He learnt afterwards 
 that this lady was the Duchess of Man- 
 chester. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Smith resided at Hill Place he 
 had the pleasure of a visit from Lord Erroll, 
 when an amusing incident occurred. A day 
 or two after his arrival Mr. Smith was told 
 by his footman that my lord's valet was dis- 
 satisfied with his accommodation. He had, 
 he said, been accustomed to his bottle of port 
 every day. Mr. Smith asked my lord if such 
 was the case. The reply was : 
 
 ^'Well, I su2:)pose it is, since he says "so; 
 
My LorcVs Valet 63 
 
 but I never knew it before. But I'll settle 
 the fellow. I don't want much attendance, 
 so I'll send him to the nearest public-house 
 to board ; I'll promise he won't diink a bottle 
 of tJieir port." 
 
 To the infinite disgust of '^ my lord's gen- 
 tleman," this was carried out; and when the 
 visit ended his master took him back with 
 liim rather chap fallen. 
 
CHAPTEE lY. 
 
 The Hambledon pack increased — A perilous adventure — 
 Anecdote of Lord Palmerston — Accidents — Hard riding — 
 Removal to Swanmere — Death of Mrs. Smith — Society 
 at Exton — Sir Joseph Yorke and others — Visit to London 
 — Resigns the Hambledon Hounds. 
 
 In Mr. Smitli's second season tlie Hambledon 
 pack 'svas increased to forty conjole ; not so the 
 subscrij)tion. A run or two witli them may 
 be related. 
 
 It is held by many sportsmen that foxes 
 which rim to ground shortly after being found 
 are bad, and only fit to be dug out and killed. 
 Mr. Smith's experience has taught him that 
 this is an error, and that the oldest and best 
 foxes will do it on good scenting days — that is, 
 on days which they know to be such, though 
 their pursuers may not. On one occasion a 
 fox was found at Allington ; and Mr. Smith 
 at once sent ofi" the whipper-in to see if the 
 
Tricks of old Foxes. 65 
 
 large earth, was stopped just beyond Dum- 
 mer's coppice by tbe meadows. After a short 
 ring or two, the fox ran straight to this earth, 
 and the hounds began scratching and trying 
 to get in. Mr. Smith, supposing it had not 
 been stopped, was for the moment very angry; 
 but he soon saw the sticks that the whipper-in 
 had thrust in, and jumping again on his horse, 
 he galloped with the hounds to the end of the 
 wood, where they hit off the scent, and had 
 the finest run possible of fifteen miles before 
 they killed their fox, near the village of West 
 Meon. It was a very fine old fellow. Colonel 
 Greenwood, who alone had kept him company 
 across the dirty Duiiey country, will recollect 
 Mr. Smith saying, when he had the fox in his 
 hands, '^ JN'ow I don't care if I never kill 
 another fox;'' so good did he consider this run 
 to have been, which was afforded by a fox 
 that would have gone to gi'ound in ten minutes 
 if he could. 
 
 In Hampshire it rarely happens that it is 
 
66 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 necessary to cross wide rivers; but the follow- 
 ing good run with blood Avould have been lost, 
 had not two men swum across a considerable 
 river. 
 
 On this occasion the Hambledon hounds 
 met at St. Margaret's, near Titchfield, found 
 on Mr. Delme's rough ground, and shortly ran 
 to the wide river between Titchfield and the 
 Southampton "Water. The bridge was a mile 
 and a half distant; and therefore Mr. Smith 
 swam his horse across close after the hounds, 
 as did also Captain Yorke. When about half- 
 way across they found their horses sinking, 
 with only their heads out of water. They 
 therefore slipped off their backs and swam to 
 the shore, when the General turned down the 
 stream, and SAvam strongly, as if going out to 
 Spithead ; but seeing nothing but water and 
 boats before him, he changed his mind, tacked 
 about as he passed a shallow creek, and stuck 
 his fore feet firmly into the muddy bank. 
 Captain Yorke' s horse followed him to the 
 
A perilous Adventure. 67 
 
 shore. In a short time the whipper-in (who 
 with the rest had gone round by the bridge) 
 arrived, and gave the Master his horse. Mr. 
 Smith and the Captain then dashed off after 
 the hounds, and killed their fox near Titch- 
 field common, whilst the whipper-in was 
 getting poor General out of the mud. There 
 were some carriages on the common, and the 
 fox was given to the hounds close to them. 
 One of the company asked Mr. Smith whether 
 he was not very cold and wet. To which he 
 replied, ^^IN^either, but I have some water in 
 my boots ;" and holding up his foot, the water 
 poured out as from a bucket, and steaming as 
 if from a tea-kettle. This was in the depth of 
 winter. 
 
 Whenever the hounds hunted in the neigh- 
 bourhood of South Stoneham, Mr. Fleming 
 made a point of inviting Mr. Smith to pass 
 the preceding night at his hospitable mansion. 
 On one occasion there was a fancy ball at 
 the house, and the amiable hostess promised to 
 
"68 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 open the ball with him, on condition that he 
 wonld wear a Scotch dress. He did so ; but 
 when the time came, he found the dance was to 
 be the galo23, which he had never practised, nor 
 even heard of. It was too late to hold back 
 then; so he went to work, trusting to the 
 chapter of accidents. In a minute his partner 
 cried with a laugh, ^'Why, you don't know 
 the galop!" ^'IsTo," he replied; ^^only in the 
 hunting field." ^Nevertheless, he found the 
 time so well marked by the music that he 
 proved an apt pupil, and ere the dance was 
 over Mrs. Fleming said, ^'Il^ow you do it as 
 well as any of them." 
 
 At Mr. Fleming's he often had the pleasure 
 of meeting Lord Palmerston; of whom, as a 
 sportsman, an anecdote may be related. His 
 lordship was in the field one day, when a fox 
 was found at Eittem. Eeynard ran straight 
 to the water at Bursledon, but did not cross ; 
 instead, he turned short back by Eotley coverts 
 to Bittern, where he ran to groimd, with the 
 
Anecdote of Lord Palmerston, 69 
 
 hounds actually close to his brush. All the 
 horses had had enough, and all the field left 
 immediately except Lord Palmerston, who ap- 
 peared anxious that the fox should be got out, 
 saying that the hounds deserved to have him. 
 He was told that it would be a long job, as the 
 soil was sandy, and the fox could dig as fast as 
 the men could. ^^^Nfever mind," was the re- 
 ply; '^I will stay and help to the end." His 
 horse was accordingly sent with the rest to a 
 farm-stable, and all hands dug away as long as 
 daylight lasted ; then lanterns were got ; and 
 at a quarter to eleven the fox was got at, after 
 which the future Premier had a ride of four- 
 teen miles in the dark to Broadlands. The 
 explanation of his anxiety was, that his horse 
 was entered for the Hampshire Hunt cup, to 
 qualify for which it was necessary that he 
 should have been in at the death of three 
 foxes — and this made the third. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, as is well known, per- 
 mitted, or rather encoui'aged, his friends to cor- 
 
70 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 respond with liim on any topic of public in- 
 terest; and Mr. Smith often availed himself 
 of the privilege. His suggestions were al- 
 ways most kindly received, and it was quite 
 evident from the answers that they had been 
 attentively weighed. One matter that he 
 urged on his lordship was the following. He 
 had seen letters from officers in India, from 
 which it appeared that the growth of tea was 
 being greatly extended there; and he sub- 
 mitted that if this was encouraged by the 
 Government, it might be as well to be pre- 
 pared for ill-will on the part of the Chinese, 
 which might lead them to give assistance to 
 the Eussians in their designs on India. This 
 assistance he thought might take the shape of 
 allowing Eussian forces to pass thi'ough their 
 territory, or at all events to be advantageously 
 stationed on their western frontier. To meet 
 this contingency, he suggested the formation 
 of military colonies in the high and healthy 
 regions bordering on Thibet, which would at 
 
Falling reduced to a Science. 71 
 
 once serve as a reward to time-expired soldiers, 
 and so keep tlie pension-list within moderate 
 bounds, and also as eonyalescent depots for 
 invalids. Lord Palmerston replied, that the 
 suggestion was good in itself, but he thought 
 that, from increase of population in Great 
 Britain, all the tea that could be raised in 
 India would be consumed without causing 
 such a falling off in the demand as might 
 alarm or offend the Chinese. 
 
 The Hambledon country is an easy one to 
 cross, except the dirty Durley part of it ; yet 
 if a man will ride over gates, whether fastened 
 or unfastened, he may get a fall. Mr. Smith 
 has had experience of this, and has broken 
 more bones than most men who still keep in 
 the saddle; indeed, as he says, he considers 
 '^ he has reduced falling to a science," he has 
 had so much of it ; but still he thinks the best 
 use that he can put his experience to is to 
 give a few hints that, if attended to, may make 
 falls rather less serious than they are. His first 
 
72 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 broken bone lie got in the following way. He 
 was, during a run, riding out of a farmyard 
 where tlie manure was knee-deep, and his horse 
 hit the unfastened gate before his hind legs 
 were fairly oyer; the gate swung open, and 
 caught the horse's leg between the two upper 
 bars ; down went his rider, and broke his col- 
 lar-bone. Though in great pain, he managed 
 to lift the gate off the hooks, and thus saved 
 his horse's leg ; but the effort gave his own 
 broken bone a terrible wrench. He was taken 
 into the farm-house, and had a glass of vinegar 
 — his constant practice in such cases — and was 
 sent home. This may be a useful hint; for 
 though he cannot explain how it acts, he 
 knows that he, and others too, have found it 
 most beneficial. In a fortnight he rode to see 
 the hounds, with his arm bound firmly to his 
 side. Tliis accident should be a caution to 
 young men to ^4ook before they leap," and to 
 see whether a gate opens to or from them. He 
 ought to have done so himself; but the fact is, 
 
An extraordinary Escape, 73 
 
 that the gate opened on to Winter's Hill com- 
 mon, where cattle are turned out, and it was 
 therefore not hung in the usual way. How- 
 ever, there are other obstacles than oddly-hung 
 gates to be met with in Hampshire ; and one 
 of the most extraordinary escapes that Mr. 
 Smith ever heard of happened to a member 
 of the Hambledon. Mr. Barkworth, who was 
 one of their hardest riders, when in chase 
 went full tilt at a low part of a hedge near 
 Basing Park, when, wonderful to relate, he 
 fell flat on his face, and his horse disap- 
 peared ; it had fallen down a draw-hole seventy 
 feet deep, whence chalk had been drawn for 
 dressing the land. Of course the horse was 
 killed, but his rider did not lose his nerve as 
 well as liis steed. Another member of the 
 Hunt was a very noted hard rider ; this was 
 Sir J. C. Jervoise, of Idsworth. Many men 
 will ride over fences, but very few would ride 
 down a steep hill like him; indeed he was 
 never known to turn from anything. On one 
 
74 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 occasion lie rode down that terrible hill oppo- 
 site Duncnmb Wood — of course it was half 
 gallop, half slide — and when he got to the 
 bottom, he fonnd that his horse had torn off 
 three of his shoes. Sir Jeryoise would as- 
 suredly go in the first flight in the Pytchley 
 country. 
 
 A lady also occasionally hunted with these 
 hounds J whose nerve had been proved in a 
 most extraordinary way — Miss M — d. When 
 on a visit at Holywell, and riding with the 
 Hambledon hounds in full cry across Walt- 
 ham Chase, a gentleman's horse in front of 
 the huntsman and this lady made a complete 
 somersault when crossing a shallow water- 
 course, and the rider fell stunned and unable 
 to move for a second or two. When they saw 
 him move, and try to rise up, they left him, 
 the lady laughingly saying, ^'I really thought 
 he was killed;" which induced her companion 
 to say, "Your nerve is extraordinary!" &c. 
 This remark brought from the lady, when 
 
A Woman of strong nerve, 75 
 
 they next met, the following relation : — 
 When residing in a town in Italy, or else- 
 where abroad, she was suddenly awakened one 
 night by seeing a man come into her room, 
 who immediately fell on his knees, praying 
 that she would listen to him for a moment. 
 He then told her that she could save him from 
 destruction, if she would suffer him to remain 
 there a very short time. On hearing this, she 
 allowed him to recount his story, namely, that 
 he had committed some offence, and was being 
 pursued by the police, and that not a moment 
 could be lost. The lady then desired liim to 
 go into a closet, and locked the door on him ; 
 which she had just time to do before the police 
 were heard in the house, having traced the man 
 into it. They insisted on searching every part, 
 which they did, until they came to the lady's 
 room, which also they entered, although she 
 was lying in. bed, and apparently had just 
 awoke from sleep. They searched the room 
 thoroughly, tried the locked door, without sus- 
 
76 Menioir of Tom Smith, 
 
 pecting tlie trick, and then retired. When 
 the lady had dressed she released the prisoner, 
 and was so much interested by his story, that 
 she arranged for him to remain in that room 
 for a day or two, and pretending herself to be 
 ill — caused by the alarm — removed to another 
 room, where she had food brought, which she 
 divided with him, until the police, who were 
 stationed round the house for two or three 
 days, had withdrawn, when the man left, 
 overwhelming her with expressions of grati- 
 tude; and she never heard of him until two or 
 three years after, when a very gentlemanly- 
 looking man called to see and thank her for 
 her protection; which was to her the more 
 gratifying, as the offence committed was a 
 pardonable one. The story was told to Mr. 
 Smith, in the presence of others, by the lady 
 herself. 
 
 From Hill Place Mr. Smith removed his 
 hounds to Swanmere House, belonging to Mr. 
 Shearer ; and here he lived most happily for 
 
Bemoval to Exton House. 77 
 
 some time, until lie was so unfortunate as to 
 lose liis beloved wife. Her cleath was sudden, 
 and the supposed cause is one too moui-nful to 
 be dwelt on. Her funeral took place at Ham- 
 bledon, in whicli diurch there are monuments 
 for several of her family. This sad event 
 made Swanmere distasteful to him, and he 
 therefore removed to Exton House, which had 
 been the residence of Mr. "Wadham "Wyndliam. 
 Here his old Mends kindly gathered around 
 him. One in particular was Mr. JS'ichol, the 
 Master of the ISTew Forest hounds, whose cha- 
 racter both as a sportsman and a gentleman 
 was such that there was no difficulty in get- 
 ting pleasant parties to Exton to meet him. 
 His visits were usually on the Thursday, in 
 order to be ready for the Friday's meet. 
 Much useful information was gained from him, 
 for his science and experience were ever at the 
 service of his friends; and he was in every 
 way a most agreeable companion ; not the less 
 so for mixing a touch of good-natured satire in 
 
78 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 liis discourse wlieii he saw occasion. Though 
 few men ever showed such good sport as he 
 did with the ]^ew Forest hounds, he was but 
 badly supported; and at last, in consequence 
 of some captious objections, he resigned them. 
 Shortly before he did so, one man rode over 
 a hound called Gratitude, when Mr. JN'ichol 
 shouted out, with a glance at the dissentients, 
 who had been formerly his warmest admirers, 
 "For God's sake, don't kill Gratitude; it is 
 already reduced to a hound's name." 
 
 They were pleasant parties at Exton ; where 
 Sir William Hoste, Sir Francis Collier, Cap- 
 tain Olliver, and the Yorkes often accepted 
 Mr. Smith's hospitality ; and he in return was 
 most warmly welcomed by Sir Joseph Yorke 
 and his lady (who was the Dowager Marchi- 
 oness of Clanricarde) both at Sydney Lodge 
 and in London. On one occasion they went 
 together to see Miss O'lN'eill in the character 
 of Belvidera, when Sir Joseph was so much 
 affected at the distress of the heroine, that he 
 
Anecdote of Sir J, YorJce. 79 
 
 burst into tears, and left the theatre, saying 
 that he wonki go home and have his cry 
 ont. Poor Sir Joseph, as is well known, was 
 drowned in Southampton Water, and at a spot 
 that was full in view from a summer-house 
 at Sydney Lodge where Mr. Smith had often 
 c^one with him to view the sunset. A short 
 time after Sir Joseph's death, Mr. Smith 
 called on the family ; and happening to meet 
 with the coachman, who was an old servant, 
 he heard from him a curious anecdote of the 
 deceased. It seemed that some time before. 
 Sir Joseph, when leaving for town, had given 
 the man directions to destroy a !Newfound- 
 land dog, as it was old and almost blind. 
 The man did not like the commission, and de- 
 layed from day to day, until at last Sir Joseph 
 returned unexpectedly, and finding the dog 
 still alive, asked him rather angrily what he 
 meant by it. The man replied, that he had 
 not been able to make up his mind how to kill 
 him. The answer was, ^'Why, drown him, to 
 
80 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 be siu^e ; it's the easiest of all deaths, and the 
 one that I should prefer for myself." If such 
 was his wish, he had it. 
 
 Miss Urania Kington, who was the daugh- 
 ter of Lady Clanricarde by her second hus- 
 band, was a constant rider with the Hambledon 
 hounds; and she bore off the bell from most 
 ladies that Mr. Smith ever met with, whether 
 in the ball-room or when mounted on her 
 fayourite handsome horse Selim. She pre- 
 sented a silver hunting-horn to him, which he 
 still retains, and which Lord Kintore so much 
 admired that he sent for one exactly like it. 
 
 One of the pleasantest of the many merry 
 meetings at Exton was when Captain Yorke, 
 Eliot Yorke, and Hemy Yorke, were present. 
 ^' The mirth and fun grew fast and furious," 
 sustained by Eliot Yorke's quaint and cheery 
 sayings, and numerous songs by Captain 
 Yorke, whose memory in that way was won- 
 derful, whilst his never-failing good humour 
 and cheerfulness were absolutely contagious. 
 
The Habits of Deer, SI 
 
 Mr. Smitli, as we have said, had early cul- 
 tivated a habit of observation of the animals 
 that he followed ; and this enabled him not only 
 to paint them, but to explain to others points 
 in their habits that were "posers'' to people 
 who had not kept their eyes open as wide as 
 he did. This soon became known ; and accord- 
 ingly he became a kind of oracle, often con- 
 sulted, though very probably his advice was 
 not always followed. Sir George Eose once 
 called on him for the purpose of stating the 
 following " case ;" and his observation of the 
 habits of the wild deer on Exmoor enabled 
 him to reply satisfactorily. A party of gen- 
 tlemen, having ISTew Forest keepers and blood- 
 hounds with them, chased an old stag until 
 their horses would go no further, and only 
 three of the hounds kept on the line. One of 
 the keepers got a fresh horse, and went to look 
 after them. He found the hounds lying down 
 utterly exhausted a short distance from each 
 other ; and only a hundred yards oJQf the fore- 
 
 G 
 
82 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 most was the stag, lying down also; but on 
 the approach of the man, he rose quickly, 
 and went off steadily. The question was, was 
 the stag tired ? Mr. Smith was able to reply 
 at once, ^'j^o; he had never gone at his 
 best pace, though the hounds did; he only 
 went sufficiently fast to distance them; and 
 such is the case with good old foxes." As a 
 proof of this, he related what he had witnessed 
 with one of the fleetest packs of fox-hounds, 
 being the one that Mr. Osbaldeston brought 
 with him to himt the Hambledon country. 
 They started an old fox within fifty yards of 
 them, near Hog's Lodge, and they raced him 
 on the open down for a mile and a half, keep- 
 ing him in sight, but neyer getting nearer; 
 nor did the fox mend his pace, which it was 
 afterwards evident enough he could have done, 
 had he thought it necessary. They ran on for 
 four or five miles more without one mementos 
 check, and then they came to anotlier open 
 down, reaching a mile or so. IS^ot one of the 
 
Old and young Hounds. 83 
 
 hunters could now see the fox, and the hounds 
 came to a sudden check on the middle of the 
 down. Tom Sebright the huntsman, and Dick 
 Eurton the whipper-in, who were considered 
 the two best men in the kingdom with hounds, 
 tried all their craft ; but the scent could 
 not be recovered. Poor Sebright was quite 
 aghast, and said to Mr. Smith, who was at his 
 side during the whole run, ^^ Well, I couldn't 
 have thought that any fox could have run 
 away from such a pack as this !" and he de- 
 clared that he would write and tell his master 
 of it; for stay in the country he would not. 
 Getting a little calmer on the way home, he 
 began to ask Mr. Smith if he could in any way 
 account for their losing the fox. Mr. Smith 
 replied, that the Squire had brought a picked 
 pack of forty couple of hounds, not one of 
 which was more than a four-year hunter. 
 These hounds could race as fast as older 
 hounds, if not faster; but had there been a 
 few six or seyen-year hunters among them> 
 
84 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 these old hounds would have held the line and 
 not have gone beyond the scent ; or perhaps 
 the check might have been caused by a flock 
 of sheep having been on the doT\Ti before the 
 hounds got there. In conclusion, he suggested 
 that they might make a wider cast to the out- 
 side of the down; but Sebright, utterly out 
 of spirits, shook his head and went moodily 
 home. These hounds only killed seven foxes 
 during the fourteen weeks that they staid in 
 the Hambledon country, although Mr. Osbal- 
 deston occasionally assisted in hunting them. 
 On these occasions, when a check occurred, 
 the pack was divided, and two casts made 
 right and left at the same time. 
 
 A simpler case than this !N'ew Forest one 
 was recently submitted to Mr. Smith by a 
 gentleman who has coverts in the Vine Hunt. 
 His keepers had assured him that when the 
 Yine hounds were running a fox through one 
 of his coverts, they saw the hunted one snatch 
 up a cock plieasa*iit, and though they hallooed. 
 
Resigns the Hamhledon Hounds. 85 
 
 lie did not drop the bird — was not that a very 
 unusual thing ? Mr. Smith replied, '' No, not 
 at all ; keepers -will say anything ; but I would 
 not believe it if I had seen it myself;" thus 
 leaving his friend to form his own opinion. 
 
 After residing two years at Exton House, 
 Mr. Smith resigned the Mastership of the 
 Hambledon hounds, and was succeeded by 
 Mr. John King, from Devonshire. 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 Becoines Master of the Craven Hunt — A daring leap — The 
 horse General — Repartee of Mr. Warde — Anecdote of 
 H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester — Troubles with young 
 hounds — " A haunch of fox" — The Grey Wethers — The 
 S^ving riots — Gives up the Craven. 
 
 In tlie year 1828 tlie gentlemen of the Craven 
 Hunt invited Mr. Smith to hunt that country, 
 which offer he accepted. Some opposition 
 came from Mr. Grantley Eerkeley, who claimed 
 the country as a relative of Lord Craven; 
 but the club adhered to their resolution, and 
 Mr. Berkeley withdrew. ISo time was lost in 
 sending the Hambledon pack to the kennel at 
 Hungerford, lately occupied by Mr. "W. "Wjmd- 
 ham, and before him by Mr. John "Warde, 
 the early '' patron" of Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith's 
 next step was to visit Mr. F. Villebois at 
 Adbury, who kindly showed him the country ; 
 and at the meeting of the club a map was 
 
Reclaiming Coverts, 87 
 
 produced, from which it appeared that several 
 of the coverts had been lent to adjoining 
 hnnts — the Vine, Sir J. Cope's, Mr. Assheton 
 Smith's, and Mr. Moreton's (afterwards Lord 
 Ducie). It was resolved that the new Master 
 should claim these coverts, in order to show 
 that they belonged to the Craven country. 
 This was not a pleasant task ; but Mr. Smith 
 acted on his instructions, and advertised these 
 <30verts for the meets on the first week of 
 regular hunting. As he had expected, this 
 gave great offence to the Masters who had 
 bunted them before; and when it became 
 known that a fox was killed each day, he 
 received very angry letters on the subject. 
 He replied civilly to them all, stating that the 
 only object was to prove that they belonged 
 to the Craven country; and as that end had 
 now been answered, it was very probable that 
 they would not be hunted much, if at all; 
 only reserving the right to do so if required. 
 This satisfied all but Mr. Assheton Smith, 
 
88 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 who hunted Southgrove, and he threatened 
 loudly. It happened that this covert belonged 
 to King's College, Cambridge, of -which Mr. 
 Smith's brother was a Fellow; and by his 
 influence a notice was sent to the lord of 
 Tedworth forbidding his himting in it. After 
 a while things and tempers cooled down, he 
 was readmitted to Southgrove " on suffer- 
 ance," and the two Tom Smiths became 
 greater friends than ever. 
 
 During the ride that Mr. Smith took mth 
 Mr. Yillebois to see the Craven country, they 
 passed the wall of Elcot Park, which Mr. 
 Yillebois said was a great obstacle when 
 hoimds ran through the park. Mr. Smith 
 pulled up, as if measuring the height, which 
 was six feet two inches; and being seen to 
 smile, he was told it was impossible for a 
 horse to jump it, neither was it necessary, 
 as there were doors in different places. He 
 said nothing then, but bore it in mind. It 
 happened, however, in the second year of his 
 
A daring Leap. 89 
 
 mastership that the fox led the honncls through 
 this park, and they followed through the holes 
 left at the bottom of the walls for game to 
 pass. The horsemen made for a door, but 
 found it locked. Mr. Smith, who was mounted 
 on the General, rode at the wall ; but the horse 
 ran his head up to it and then stopped short. 
 He was then taken back about forty yards, 
 an,d again put at it, and being well spurred, 
 accompanied by a touch of the whip on the 
 shoulder, he sprang over, to the surprise, and 
 indeed horror, of the whole field, who thought 
 it an act of madness, as the rider does now. 
 On reaching the ground on the other side, the 
 horse's fore feet gave way, and he came down 
 on his chest, his rider's feet being dashed on. 
 the ground in a way that gave an awfal shock ; 
 but the horse rose with him on his back, and 
 he kept his seat for a short time, but long 
 enough to allow him to stop the hounds. The 
 men in the mean time had forced the door : 
 when they reached him he was unconscious ; 
 
90 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 but tliey lield him on his horse until he got 
 home, when he was bled, and carried insensible 
 to bed. In three weeks he was again in the 
 saddle, when he was told by some of his 
 friends that they had ridden through the door- 
 way which he had cleared. This was cer- 
 tainly a most remarkable leap ; but Mr. Smith 
 is so far from being proud of it, that he never 
 mentions it, and when others do, he condemns 
 it as an act of wanton folly, which he would 
 be sorry that any one should imitate. He 
 rode the General for seventeen seasons, and 
 then gave him to an old quiet coursing friend, 
 who had him for five years, and then found 
 him one morning dead in the stable. 
 
 In the first year of his Mastership of the 
 Craven, where, as has been mentioned, Mr. 
 "Warde preceded him, Mr. Smith killed a fox 
 which was so old that it had not a single tooth 
 in its head. One of the Himt met Mr. Warde 
 shortly after at Hatchett's Hotel, and making 
 a very solemn face, inquired, '^ Why, Warde, 
 
Anecdote of Mr. Warde, 91 
 
 how is it you are not in mourning ?" ^' What 
 do you mean ? who ?" cried Warde, astonished. 
 ^^ One of your oldest friends," said the other, 
 with a deep groan. "- "Who — who is it ? tell 
 me at once." ^^ I will. Tom Smith has just 
 killed a fox that you must have hunted a 
 hundred times, for he hadn't a tooth in his 
 head." ^^Oh!" said Warde, who was never at 
 a loss for a reply, '-'• that's my doing after all ; 
 I entered Tom as a puppy." 
 
 The Craven country is not a good scenting 
 one, but it has always a good supply of foxes, 
 and, notwithstanding park walls, is an easy 
 one to cross. Still a fall can be had, if you 
 desire it. It happened once that Lord Ailes- 
 bury had the Duke of Gloucester staying with 
 him at Tottenham Park, and he invited Mr. 
 Smith to come over to the shooting, and stay 
 for the night. As he had a meet near that 
 day, he could only accept the invitation to 
 dinner; and knowing the covert where the 
 shooting was to be, his dread was lest his 
 
92 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 iLOunds should be led towards it. As it hap- 
 pened, the fox did lead that way, and Mr. 
 Smith felt obliged to keep close to the hounds, 
 so that he might stop them if necessary. It 
 was the end of October, and the ditches were 
 full of grass ; so he got two or three falls, one 
 of them being in full view of the shooters, 
 who had collected at one spot on hearing the 
 hounds. The fox was killed in the open, and 
 Mr. Smith was in time for dinner at Totten- 
 ham. He was seated nearly opposite the royal 
 Duke, who addressed him with, ^' I hope you 
 were not hurt when you had a fall to-day." 
 His reply was, that he did not know which 
 fall was alluded to. The Duke then said, 
 "Pray, sir, if you have had several falls in 
 one day, how many do you get in a whole 
 season?" This appeared too absurd to need 
 any reply, and he endeavoured to evade an 
 answer by turning to his neighbour, when he 
 was startled by the Duke saying, in a loud 
 peremptory tone, " Sir, when I ask a question. 
 
The Duke of Gloucester. 93 
 
 I expect an answer; let me ask you again, 
 Ilow many falls do you get in a season?" 
 ^' Twenty, or more." ^^ Twenty !" cried the 
 Duke, and raising his eyes with a sort of 
 devout expression, ^^ thank God I'm not a fox- 
 hunter !" which was followed by a roar of 
 laughter from the company, Assheton Smith 
 especially. 
 
 Mr. Smith again met his Eoyal Highness 
 when he was shooting at Mr. Pearce's, of Chil- 
 ton Lodge. Of course the Duke was placed 
 where the best shooting was likely to be : he 
 was constantly firing, and a fair number of 
 head appeared on the ground at the fiinish. 
 After the ladies had left the dining-room, the 
 keeper was sent for to state the number of 
 birds ; and on Mr. Pearce remarking, " Why, 
 that is six more pheasants than we had 
 reckoned," the reply was, '^ Yes, sir; but we 
 have since found six more that His Eoyal 
 Highness shot at." To those who knew 
 what an execrable shot he was, the '^ Aah ! 
 
94 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 I thought so," of the Duke was diverting 
 enough. 
 
 During the summer time it "was Mr. 
 Smith's custom to yisit as many celebrated 
 kennels as he could, year after year, so as to 
 mark the result of breeding from j^erfect or 
 imperfect hounds, &c. He was, in the first 
 year of his Craven mastership, thus engaged 
 about a hundred miles from home, when he 
 received a most unpleasant letter from the 
 Marquis of Ailesbiuy, saying that the hounds 
 had broken away from the men when at exer- 
 cise in Tottenham Park, and had chased his 
 deer; and unless Mr. Smith kept better ser- 
 vants, he could not allow the hounds on his 
 property. Of course no time was lost in re- 
 turning home, when he heard a sad chapter 
 of accidents, though things might have been 
 worse. Contrary to orders, his men had taken 
 the young unentered hounds along with the 
 older ones into the park for exercise, fancying 
 that they were under good command. TJn- 
 
Troubles with young Hounds, 95 
 
 luckily a rabbit jumped up among the pack, 
 and was pursued by the young bounds into 
 some high fern, out of which leapt a fallow 
 deer, after which they were in an instant. 
 The men rode after them trying to stop them, 
 but their hallooing and shouting had the con- 
 trary effect, by inducing the whole pack to join 
 them; and then they were running full cry 
 in various directions, and were only stopped 
 when the herd of deer had got together in one 
 comer of the park. It was fortunate that they 
 did not lay hold of a deer; but it was with 
 great difficulty that they were got out of the 
 park, being kept at full gallop to prevent 
 their tm^ning back. 
 
 Mr. Smith took vigorous measures with 
 the delinquents. On the day after his return 
 he had a few of the wildest fitted with couples, 
 to which was attached a piece of wood eighteen 
 inches long ; this threw them over on their 
 backs if they attempted to run. Thus equipped 
 they were taken towards the park, and when 
 
96 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 within lialf a mile of it they appeared to smell 
 the deer, and made several attempts to rush 
 forward, uttering a frightful whine. They were 
 then severely corrected ; after which they were 
 taken among the deer, when they became 
 quite furious, like mad hounds. Seeing this, 
 each hound was fastened to the park-pales, 
 and again flogged most soundly ; after which 
 they were taken back to the kennel. Each 
 succeeding morning and afternoon saw a few 
 couples treated in the same way, until the 
 pack had been gone through ; but it was not 
 thought safe to trust them until after cub -hunt- 
 ing, of which they had had none. On one oc- 
 casion when they attempted to follow the deer 
 Mr. Smith had a narrow escape of his life. 
 He was riding in Savernake Forest adjoining 
 the park, and was going at a furious pace to 
 stop the hounds, when the dead branch of an 
 oak-tree pierced his hat, just grazing his head; 
 but he left his hat on the tree until he had 
 accomplished his purpose. 
 
A Haunch of Fox. 97 
 
 Before the regular hunting began, he had 
 sufficient confidence in his hounds to ^ the 
 fijfst day's meet at Tottenham Park. This 
 brought together a large field, many of them 
 reckoning on the death of a deer; but they 
 were disappointed. I^ot one hound took the 
 least notice of the deer, although on their 
 mettle in chase, and they killed their fox. 
 Before starting, one or two of the men had 
 ironically requested a haunch of venison ; and 
 when the fox was killed ^Ir. Smith rode up to 
 them, offering them ^^ a haunch of fox," and 
 telling them that it was only fair they should 
 eat it. 
 
 It is only right to mention that when Lord 
 Ailesbiuy heard of the reformatory measures 
 going on, he kindly sent a live deer to be 
 placed in the kennel, for the hounds to see 
 and get used to, which had a good effect; 
 and this was all the more kind, as his lordship 
 had been informed by Mr. Assheton Smith 
 that when once hounds had taken to deer they 
 
 H 
 
98 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 never could be broke of it. The object of this 
 declaration might be to get the hunting of his 
 lordship's extensive domain; but if so, the man- 
 oeu^Te failed, and the Marquis had no reason 
 to repent his trust in the other Mr. Smith. 
 The Craven hounds never again took notice of 
 the deer, but worked so steadily that, though 
 they had no cub-hunting that season, they 
 killed ninety foxes in ninety-one days' hunting. 
 It was luckily the best scenting season pos- 
 sible, and with scarcely any frost; but what 
 with his exertions at starting, and his anxieties 
 about the deer, giving him frightful dreams, 
 the Master lost two stone in weight; which 
 was better for his horses, if not for himself. 
 
 One day the hounds had killed a fox after 
 a good run in Savernake Forest, and were 
 about to retiu'n home, when Lady Elizabeth 
 Bruce, the daughter of the Marquis of Ailes- 
 bury, who had been in at the death, rode 
 back to say that the forest-keeper had just 
 shown her a fox lying in the fork of an oak 
 
Reynard up a Tree. 99 
 
 tree at a great height from the groimdj and 
 she was most desirous to see it hunted. Her 
 ladyship was one of the most fearless and ele- 
 gant riders that ever followed hounds, and her 
 wish was law to the gallant Master. The 
 hounds were accordingly taken to the tree, 
 where the fox still was. A keeper ascended, 
 when the fox ran out to the extremity of a 
 large branch, and dropped fi'om thence to the 
 ground, full forty feet. He ran briskly, appa- 
 rently unhurt, and the hounds were laid on 
 the scent; but he saved himself by running 
 into Westwoods, where there were three other 
 foxes on foot. 
 
 It is not our intention to chronicle all the 
 good runs in the Craven country, but the 
 following one must be told, as it has a con- 
 nection with a story to be related hereafter. 
 The meet was at Fifield, near Marlborough, 
 in consequence of Mr. J. Goodman having lost 
 a good deal of poultry, which was supposed to 
 be taken by a fox lying in Borum Wood; and 
 
100 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 lie would ratlier have lost the whole than have 
 Eeynard disj)osed of in any but a sportsman- 
 like manner. On the arrival of the hounds at 
 his house, he said to Mr. Smith : '' You will 
 laugh when I tell you something about my 
 youngest boy. He is now at home for the 
 Chi'istmas holidays, and I had promised him 
 a ride on his pony after the hounds to-day, if 
 he fii'st leai-nt his lesson in geography. I 
 asked him just now the capital of some country, 
 and his reply was, ' Borum Y/'ood.' " By 
 general consent the rest of the lesson was 
 excused for that day, and the embryo sjDorts- 
 man accompanied the party to his ^^ caj)ital," 
 where the fox was found, which after a good 
 run in the open to the left of Marlborough, 
 was run to ground under an immense stone, 
 similar to those at Stonehenge. This was one 
 of the Grey Wethers, which lie in a valley the 
 south end of which terminates near the old 
 Bath road, bordering on Salisbury Plain. It 
 was impossible to get the fox out; but Mr. 
 
Tlte Grey Wethers. 101 
 
 Goodman was determined to prevent such an 
 affair in futiu-e. He therefore sent fourteen of 
 his strongest cart-horses, and men with tools, 
 to move the stone ; but without the slightest 
 effect. Mr. Smith took great notice of this, 
 and from his observation he formed a theory 
 to account for the mode of building Stone- 
 henge, which will be found in another chapter. 
 Being able to do nothing more, Mr. Goodman 
 had all the holes stopped up with stones, 
 which it would seem that the fox found out. 
 For when what every body thought was the 
 same fox was found a few days after by the 
 hounds, he broke away on the same line as 
 before ; but either from being pressed too hard, 
 or from knowing what had been done, he re- 
 turned to Borum Wood, and a^an tlirough that 
 to Westwoods, an immense cover of several 
 thousand acres. This had been anticipated by 
 Mr. Smith, who was desirous to oblige so good 
 a friend of fox-himting as Mr. Goodman. 
 Accordingly he had brought with him a larger 
 
102 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 pack than iisual, ten couples of wliicli were 
 kej)t in reserve in an empty stable. After 
 running for some hours in Westwoods, these 
 fresh hounds were brought to the wood, and 
 they soon killed the hunted fox. Strange to 
 relate, his sides were of different colours : one 
 was nearly black, the other the same as usual ; 
 so that during the run it was more than once 
 thought that they were running two foxes. 
 Major Hilliard begged the skin as a ciuiosity ; 
 and the poultry of Mrs. Goodman dwelt in 
 safety for the future. 
 
 Mr. Smith being at TattersalPs one day, 
 whilst he hunted the Crayen, was introduced 
 by Tattersall to Prince Esterhazy in terms ab- 
 surdly laudatory, when the Prince told him 
 that if he would go abroad, he should have the 
 management of his pack of hounds; but he 
 regarded the offer as a joke, though Tattersall 
 assured him that it was in earnest. He never 
 had any idea of residing abroad, and he soon 
 after resigned the Craven. He sold his pack to 
 
Tlie '' Sivinf Pdots. 103 
 
 Mr. F. Yillebois and Mr. Drax, the former of 
 wliom engaged to hunt the country. During 
 his mastership of this hunt the ^^ Swing" riots 
 occurred, and a disorderly mob entered the 
 town of Hungerford, where they regularly be- 
 sieged the town-hall, in which the magistrates 
 were assembled. Mr. Smith and other sport- 
 ing gentlemen armed their servants and came 
 into the town the next day, when the rioters 
 sheered off; some of the ringleaders were 
 afterwards hung at Eeading. 
 
 Before quitting the Craven, mention should 
 be made of Charles Treadwell, Mr. Smith's 
 first whip, who was afterwards recommended 
 by his master as huntsman to the Quorne, and 
 also to the Bramham-moor Hunt, where his 
 bold riding rather surprised them. On the 
 above occasion, when Mr. Smith informed him 
 that it had been resolved to meet the rioters, 
 he instantly cried out, '^ Which horse shall I 
 ride ?" 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 Second marriage — A theory on Stonehenge — Mr, Beckford's 
 Letter on the Rights of Fox-hunters — Publishes "The 
 Diary of a Huntsman " — A run with the royal stag- 
 hounds — Death of Vampire — Plan for kennels and 
 stabling. 
 
 'Withi:n' six months of liis quitting the Craven, 
 Mr. Smitli married Miss Denison, of Ossington, 
 the sister of the late Eishop of Salisbury and 
 of Mr. Evelyn Denison, the Speaker of the 
 House of Commons. Being shortly after on a 
 visit to the EishojD, a party was made up to go 
 to Stonehenge. On their return there was 
 a discussion on that wonderful structui-e, in 
 which Mr. Smitli did not take j)art. This 
 caused the Eishop to ask if he did not agree 
 with the rest as to the almost superhuman 
 character of the pile, and the inadequacy of 
 any lvnoA\ai means for raising it. He replied 
 that he saw nothing so marvellous about it, 
 
I 
 
 H 
 
 CI 
 
 Pi 
 
 ay 
 
 
 
 
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 f J !zi 
 
 Pi q 
 o tri 
 
 ^ - 
 
 ■^ !z; 
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 ^s 
 
 tn g 
 
 '^ o 
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 ^ o 
 I/] 
 
 ^ 
 
A Theory on Stonehenge. 105 
 
 and that lie tliought lie could point out a way 
 in AYhicli it might have been constructed. 
 Pen, ink, and paper were forthwith placed be- 
 fore him, and he was desii-ed to put his ideas 
 in a tangible shape. He at once made a 
 sketch (substantially the same as that on the 
 opposite plate), and the matter furnished con- 
 versation for the evening. The Bishop, look- 
 ing at the sketch, allowed that there might be 
 something in the supposition, and next asked 
 where the huge stones at Stonehenge could 
 have come from. Mr. Smith then gave, an ac- 
 count of a fox having been run to earth at the 
 Grey Wethers, and explained that those stones 
 are just of the same character ; some of them 
 being twenty feet long, seven or eight wide, 
 and tln-ee or four thick. He allowed that it 
 would require a great number of men to trans- 
 port such stones for ten miles over Salisbury 
 Plain; but anyone who looks at the Wans- 
 dyke, which traverses the same district for 
 thirty or forty miles, will see that that is no 
 
106 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 real objection. Whoever they were that dug 
 that wide dj^ke, and tlu-ew np that high bank, 
 must have had abundance of labour at com- 
 mand; and, though Mr. Goodman's fourteen 
 horses could not move one of the Grey We- 
 thers, long levers very probably could. As Dr. 
 Johnson sa3^s in Basselas, ''the master of me- 
 chanics laughs at strength ;" and Archimedes 
 had said long before him, ''Give me a place 
 to stand on, and a lever, and I will move the 
 world." Beside the explanation given by the 
 plate itself, it may be necessary to suggest that 
 trunks of oaks bound with iron, and pierced 
 with holes for levers, would furnish rollers to 
 propel the stones to very near their ultimate 
 destination. It is also necessary to suppose 
 the site of Stonehenge occupied by a mound, 
 either natural or artificial; the ascent being 
 by an easy incline fi'om the quarter whence the 
 stones were brought. On the top of the 
 moimd we must suppose as many holes dug as 
 there were upright stones to be placed. On 
 
Bights of Fox'liuntei^s. 107 
 
 the arrival of each stone, it would be dropped 
 into its hole ; and Avhen all were thus placed, 
 there would only remain the more easy task of 
 laying on the imposts, each end of which evi- 
 dently has been mortised on to the perpen- 
 diculars. The earth would then be dug away, 
 leaving the structure complete; and if this 
 earth must be accounted for, we may think it 
 probable that we see it in the numerous bar- 
 rows near, that still exist on Salisbury Plain. 
 
 Mr. Smith had the pleasure to meet Mrs. 
 Ker Seymer at the Bishop's table. This lady 
 was the daughter of Mr. Beckford, whose 
 Thoughts on Hunting are so well knoAvn ; and 
 she kindly communicated to him the following 
 impublished manuscript of her father. As 
 there does not appear to be any well-under- 
 stood definition of the rights tTiat constitute 
 a fox-hunting country, it may be useful in 
 avoiding or settling disputes, the writer being 
 recognised as an authority wherever sport and 
 sportsmen are to be found. 
 
108 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 '^ You ask my opinion of the rights claimed 
 by fox-hunters ; I will give it as concisely as 
 I can. 
 
 ^^ Three distinct rights are to be considered 
 — original^ acquired, and by sufferance. Ori- 
 (jinal right undoubtedly belongs to the pro- 
 prietors of the covers, &c. &c. where foxes 
 may be supposed to lie ; but when once a pack 
 of fox-hounds is established in a country with 
 the consent of those proprietors, an acquired 
 right is then obtained, of which the said pack 
 cannot afterwards be deprived ; unless, by an 
 uncommon misconduct on the part of those 
 concerned in the management of the hounds, 
 the proprietors themselves should think fit to 
 deprive them of it. This is the case of all the 
 old-established hunts in the kingdom. 
 
 ^' Eight by sufferance is where a neigh- 
 bouring pack avails itself of a vacancy; the 
 country at that time, by some accident or 
 other, being without any hounds. A blot is 
 no blot till it is hit, and this possession is 
 
Bif jilts of Fox-hunters. 109 
 
 good no longer tlian it remains nndispnted. 
 Should the Duke of Eutland part with his fox- 
 hounds, Sir Gilbert Heathcote may hunt the 
 country; but should the Duke, or any other 
 gentleman in that neighbourhood, claim the 
 country with the consent of the proprietors, 
 Sii^ Gilbert must return from whence he came. 
 ^' You ask if the purchase of a pack of 
 hounds can establish a right? Most certainly 
 not. The hounds are movable at the will of 
 the pui'chaser, and may be carried into a dis- 
 tant country; consequently there can be no 
 inherent right in them iclien so removed, 
 When Mr. Blair disposed of his fox-hounds 
 to Lord Craven, they were removed into Berk- 
 shire, and I took possession of the country. 
 
 '' Covers must be regularly hunted to es- 
 tablish an exclusive right. Mr. Farquharson 
 has bought Mr. W}Tidliam's hounds, and may 
 hunt that country. But since the hounds 
 have been removed into a distant and distinct 
 country, in consequence of which none of the 
 
110 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 Wiltsliire covers will be regularly hunted, and 
 tlie greatest part of them not hunted at all, 
 should Mr. "WjTidliam, or any other gentleman 
 in that neighbourhood, at any time, think 
 proper to establish another pack (provided it 
 be mth the consent and approbation of the 
 proprietors before mentioned), Mr. Farquharson 
 
 « 
 
 must resign the country. 
 
 ^' Should you ask on icJiat these rights are 
 founded, I shall answer you in two words — 07i 
 common sense, 
 
 " Stapleton, Nov. 2G, 180G." 
 
 Another visit paid was to Mr. Evelyn 
 Denison, at Ossington, who procured Mr. 
 Smith some sport with Lord Henry Bentinck's 
 hounds. The meet was in Lincolnshire, 
 twenty-eight miles from Ossington. One hack 
 and a hunter were sent on over night half- 
 way, and he rode another hack the next morn- 
 ing to the same place; the hunter having 
 been already sent on to the meet. He fol- 
 lowed on the fresh hack, the other being left 
 
Roarers, 111 
 
 for the return journey at niglit, wliicli was 
 made very comfortably, after a good day's 
 sport. Lord Henry rode back some miles with 
 him, and gave him a message for their com- 
 mon brother-in-law, Mr. Denison, Lady Char- 
 lotte being Lord Henry's sister. It was, that 
 the young horse of his which he had sent for 
 the whipper-in to make a hunter of, was a 
 rank roarer ; and what was extraordinary, this 
 was the ninth horse out of eleven that he had 
 sent that had become so ; and the only way 
 that he could account for it was that they 
 were all very large horses. His lordship) also 
 asked Mr. Smith whether he had ever heard 
 any cause for a horse becoming a roarer ; who 
 replied that he had not : he never had but one 
 horse a roarer, and that was one of the largest 
 he ever possessed; indeed, he' had scarcely 
 ever seen a small horse a roarer. The reason, 
 he thought, possibly might be, that as large 
 horses are the produce of a thorough-bred by 
 a half-bred, which produce may inherit part of 
 
112 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 the shape or ]nake of the one, and part of the 
 shape or make of the other, they may have a 
 small chest, though otherwise of large propor- 
 tions, and thus the lungs have no proper space 
 for action. 
 
 Whilst at Ossington Mr. Smith paid a visit 
 to Lord Manvers, ^\\\o recommended him to 
 see the Duke of Portland's wonderful improve- 
 ment of some poor land, commons, &c., which, 
 by irrigation, he had converted into valuable 
 pasture. His lordsliip was suffering fi'om a 
 recent illness, and was not able to accompany 
 the party, although, owing to his florid com- 
 plexion, a gentleman remarked that he looked 
 very well in the face. With his usual ready 
 wit, his lordsliip replied, '' I am very well in 
 the face. "^"^ The party retui'ned much gratified 
 with what they had seen. Some time after 
 Mr. Smith accompanied the Earl to the meet 
 of Mr. Foljamb's hoimds. The sport was very 
 indifferent ; and, after losing their first fox, 
 they got tired of the fimereal pace that seemed 
 
Residence at Bulstrode. 113 
 
 to be in fashion ; so tliey returned liome, and 
 occupied the rest of the day in inspecting the 
 farm which his lordship hekl in hand. 
 
 After these visits, Mr. Smith and his wife 
 settled down for a while in the cottage adjoin- 
 ing the lake in Bulstrode Park, which Mr. 
 Florence Yoimg, who was a connection by 
 marriage, begged them to occupy, treating 
 them with all possible hospitality and kind- 
 ness. Here they were visited by Mr. and 
 Lady Charlotte Denison during the Ascot 
 week ; the cottage, curiously enough, . being 
 one that Lady Charlotte's grandfather had built 
 for his gardener. It is necessary to mention 
 this visit, as it was the cause of Mr. Smith's 
 first appearance as an author. He had long 
 been in the habit of keeping a note-book, in 
 which, when he returned from a hunt, he 
 usually jotted down anything in relation to 
 sporting that struck him as remarkable, and 
 as not having been noticed before. Mr. Deni- 
 son having perused these notes, strongly lu'ged 
 
 I 
 
114 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 tlieir piiWication — wliich Mr. Smith would 
 never have dreamt of — saying, ^' You ought to 
 publish them, for they are really original re- 
 marks ; a huntsman is rarely capable of TVTit- 
 ing, and thus AYhatever he has learnt dies with 
 him.'' This seemed a sufficient reason for the 
 venture; and accordingly the notes were di- 
 gested in the course of the next six weeks, 
 and published by Messrs. '\\^iittakers, under 
 the title of The Diary of a Huntsman. As 
 everything in it was matter of fact, Mr. Smith 
 was not surprised to find that it was well 
 received ; in a pecuniary point of ^iew it was 
 most successful; and but one sportsman ever 
 endeavoured to criticise or contradict any part 
 of it, stating that dew rose instead of falling, 
 as believed by Mr. Smith. 
 
 Whilst residing at the cottage, Mr. Smith 
 ventured once more to himt with the royal 
 stag-hoimds, though this was not his inten- 
 tion when he left home ; he only meant to see 
 the stag tiu-ned out and then return. The 
 
Run with the Royal Stag-hounds, 115 
 
 meet was at Burnliam Beeches; and after seeing 
 the deer off, and the hounds had got out of 
 sight, ho was riding quietly on the turnpike 
 road on his way home, when he was joined by 
 the late Marquis of Worcester, who said di- 
 rectly, '^ I see that you despise this sort of 
 hunting as much as I do;" his lordship also 
 haying left them. They trotted on until they 
 came in sight of Maidenhead Bridge, and then, 
 most unluckily, the stag and hounds crossed 
 the road in front of them. The Marquis re- 
 mained where he was ; but Mr. Smith, wishing 
 to see the hounds cross the Thames, rode 
 hastily over the bridge and along a road 
 parallel with the bank, when suddenly he saw 
 the stag crossing. In a few minutes the 
 hounds and all the field appeared, and all 
 thought of going home was abandoned. He 
 well knew that his horse had not had a gallop 
 for the last month, as fox-hunting was over ; 
 but he thought that Davis and others who 
 knew him would pronounce him ^' dead slow," 
 
116 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 or wliat not J if lie did not go on; and lie could 
 not face that. So off he went with the hounds ; 
 and a most awful pace it was : he was deter- 
 mined to keep up with them, and he did it for 
 several miles, until the stag ran through a 
 doorway into a walled garden, when he quickly 
 ^ closed the door to prevent the hounds killing 
 him. Here he and his horse remained for 
 nearly an hour, until Davis and the field came 
 up ; but before that he saw that his horse 
 was in a bad way, so he led him quietly to 
 Twyford, and into a stable there, in which the 
 poor beast had been but a few minutes, when 
 he reared up, placed his forefeet on the man- 
 ger, and dropped do^\Ti dead. Thus, for want 
 of a little self-control, he lost one of the best 
 horses that man ever possessed, as will be 
 evident from one or two s]3ecimens of his per- 
 formances that we will now relate. 
 
 Xo horse ever passed him duiing the 
 hardest run in the Craven country, or stopped 
 liim at any fence, though he could and did stop 
 
Tlie Horse Vampire, 117 
 
 others, including even a steeple-chase rider on 
 a first-rate horse. Jem Mason is alive, and 
 can vouch for the follo^ving statement. Mr. 
 Harvey Coombe's hounds fomid a fox at 
 Hodgemoor, and they ran to and through Mr. 
 Du Pro's park, straight to and. over the high 
 oak-paling at the far end. Mr. Smith was the 
 first at the paling, mounted on this horse, 
 whicii carried him clean over. Jem Mason 
 only was near him, and vras well mounted, but 
 he turned back; and then for several miles 
 across this difficult country no man beside 
 Mr. Smith saw the hounds until they reached 
 a lar2:e covert. The next summer, when in 
 London, Mr. Smith went to Elmore's to look 
 at a horse, when Mason came up ; and, in 
 answer to an inquiry whether he knew Mr. 
 Smith, replied, "Oh! don't I? wh}-, he's the 
 only man that ever stopped me at a fence ; he 
 did it at a rasper, Du Pro's park-pales, with 
 Coombe's hounds." Probably Anderson the 
 dealer heard of this, for he sent a groom 
 
118 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 from London to Bulstrode witli a clieque for 
 150 guineas to buy the horse; but his offer 
 was refused. 
 
 One Sunday, when returning from church, 
 ]!ilr. Smith was surprised to see a carriage and 
 four drive up to the door. It contained Lord 
 Suffiekl and his brother-in-law Lord Gardner, 
 who, after apologising for coming on that day, 
 stated their object. It was to request him to 
 give his opinion on a plan furnished by a 
 London architect for a keiuiel for 100 couples 
 of hounds, and stabling for forty or fifty 
 horses, with lodging for men. The estimate 
 was 5,600/.; and they wished the work to be 
 begun as soon as possible, as Lord Suffiekl 
 had engaged to hunt the Quorndon country 
 the next season, and it was then the middle 
 of summer. On looking at the plan, Mr. 
 Smith at once saw that the architect was alto- 
 gether wrong in his ideas, and also that the 
 whole thing could be done properly for one- 
 half of his estimate. This he explained to his 
 
Plans for Kennels and Stabling. 119 
 
 visitors; and, in consequence, tliey pressed 
 liim to return to London with them, which he 
 did, in order to draw out a proper plan for the 
 buikling. "When this was done, on the follow- 
 ing day, the architect was sent for, who approved 
 of it, and offered to send his clerk of the works 
 to superintend the building. Accordingly 
 the whole party went down by rail the next 
 day to the site, where Mr. Smith marked 
 out the plan on the ground, and the founda- 
 tions were at once begun. Lords Sufheld and 
 Gardner remained but a few days, which was 
 all the better for the progress of the works, as 
 they had several members of the hunt to dine 
 with them at the hotel at Leicester, which 
 caused late hours; and these never suited Mr. 
 Smith, who had, beside, to see to the agree- 
 ments with the different tradesmen — a matter 
 that matched but badly with the joviality of 
 a hunt dinner. He remained until he saw 
 things so far advanced that there could be no 
 mistake, and then left ; but he returned when 
 
120 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 all was finished to see that all was as it should 
 be, and that there were no over-charges. In 
 consequence of this yigilance, the whole ex- 
 pense was but 2,600/. It certainly gave him 
 a good deal of trouble, but it was a business 
 of much interest to him; and he felt amply 
 repaid when Lord Gardner sent him for his 
 own use his peer's ticket for the Queen's 
 coronation, wliich occurred in the next sum- 
 mer. He went early, and secured an excel- 
 lent i^l^ce next to the peeresses. Eeing so 
 advantageously placed, he made some pencil- 
 sketches of various parts of the grand cere- 
 mony, and returned home most highly gra- 
 tified. 
 
CHAPTEE A^II. 
 
 Declines the ofEer of various Hunts — Visit to Scotland — Resi- 
 dence in Dorsetshire — " Tremulous to her new Master." 
 
 During Mr. Smith's residence at Bulstrode he 
 received offers of various Himts ; but he did not 
 feel inclined to be confined to one place, and 
 so declined them all. Beside others of less 
 note, he had offers of the Bedfordshire, Hert- 
 fordshire, Sussex, Warwickshire, and the Yine. 
 In consequence of these offers he visited Lord 
 Tavistock at Oakley, and was, with Mrs. Smith, 
 often invited to Woburn. His lordship offered 
 to give him his hounds and eight hunters. 
 In the same way he visited Mr. Delme Eat- 
 cliffe, at Hitchin, with whose hounds he was 
 much pleased ; they had an excellent run, and 
 killed. "With Mr. Calvert, who offered the 
 Hertfordshire country, he had capital shooting. 
 
122 Memow of Tom Smith, 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Smith paid a visit to Scot- 
 land, wliere they took a cottage at Kelso — the 
 salmon-fishing in the Tweed being one great 
 object ; and Mr. Smith had good sport. They 
 had acquaintances among the neighboiu'ing 
 gentry, and the time passed most agreeably. 
 Field sports occupied the day, and the even- 
 ings were given up to dancing and singing, 
 first at one Mend's house, then at another. 
 At Lord Jolni Scott's they were most hospit- 
 ably received, and at Sir Hugh Campbell's 
 they attended a ball. First and foremost 
 among their friends was Mr. Eobertson, who 
 kept fox-hounds at Coldstream, and had as 
 huntsman Charles Treadwell, who had served 
 in the Craven under Mr. Smith. Mr. Eobert- 
 son is a ^' Liberal " in every sense of the word. 
 He j)i'oved himself such in supporting the 
 Liberal Governments of late years in all their 
 wasteful schemes, such as for fortifications on 
 Portsdown Hill, which would requii-e half our 
 army to man; and, in the better sense, of 
 
Mr. Robertson^ of Coldstream. 123 
 
 freely spending his own money also. For lie liad 
 kept up entirely at his own cost a good pack 
 of fox-hounds for several years, and had made 
 many excellent gorse covers, well fenced in, on 
 his property in JSTorthumberland ; and he is, 
 beside, hospitable to a degree not often seen 
 in the present day. Few men in the IN'orth 
 will be so missed. His wife too is a most 
 amiable and excellent lady, and her singing 
 delighted her guests. In short, everything at 
 Coldstream (Mr. Eobertson's seat) w^as in 
 keeping. 
 
 A curious incident connected with Mr. 
 Eobertson's pack must be related. After a 
 very good rim, the fox was followed into a 
 large plantation of young firs, evidently beaten, 
 and was viewed by Mr. Smith hardly able to 
 go. At this moment the hounds changed to a 
 fresh fox some distance off. Mr. Smith told 
 Treadwell of this ; but he only shook his head, 
 and cheered the hounds away in the open. A 
 single hound, however, stuck to the scent, and 
 
124 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 in the course of a few minutes lie was lieard 
 ajDparently baying at an earth. Mr. Smith 
 rode up, and saw the fox, with his back close 
 to a furze-bush, fighting with the hound. He 
 got behind, and dropped the thong of his whip 
 close to the mouth of the fox, who bit at it : 
 this settled him, as Mr. Smith at once twisted 
 the lash round his mouth, and catching him 
 by the poll, carried him out of the cover. A 
 gentleman who was passing brought back 
 the pack, and they soon ate him. 
 
 Mr. Smith, whilst at Kelso, often hunted 
 with Lord Elcho'S pack, which was a splendid 
 one, and he had some good sport with them. 
 The Duke of Euccleuch also had a clever j)ack, 
 though not so j^owerful as Lord Elcho's. Mr. 
 Smith hunted with them also, and found the 
 huntsman, Old Will, as Lord John Scott used 
 to call him, a faiiish huntsman and excellent 
 servant, indeed far superior to what one often 
 meets with. Lord Elcho was a particularly 
 affable, agreeable man, a capital shot and fly- 
 
Residence in Dorsetshire. 125 
 
 fisher, and the best gentleman huntsmen that 
 Mr. Smith had ever seen. 
 
 In returning from Scotland, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Smith slept but one night at an iim, so many 
 friends' houses were open to them; a very 
 agreeable matter, although it made their jour- 
 ney rather slow. They visited, among others. 
 Sir Mathew Eidley, when Mr. Smith had a day 
 with his hounds (it was the last year that Sir 
 Mathew kept them), and also painted a picture 
 of her ladyship on horseback ; she was a daugh- 
 ter of Lord "Wensleydalo, and a most charming 
 person. After a short time they went into 
 Dorsetshire, on visits to Lord Portman, Mr. 
 Farquharson, and Mr. Drax. This latter gen- 
 tleman had purchased half of the Craven pack, 
 as already mentioned. At his splendid man- 
 sion of Charborough, Mr. Smith met Mr. 
 Grantley Berkeley, who, it is hardly needful 
 to say, was most excellent company. They 
 then took a house for a few months at Eoume- 
 mouth, and Mr. Smith amused himself with 
 
126 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 the shooting on Poole Heath. Whilst thns 
 em^^loyed one clay he moyecl a fox; and haying 
 informed Mr. Drax of it, the hounds were sent 
 to find him, which they shortly did. They ran 
 him across the turnpike-road, and to the left of 
 it, straight to Christchurch Water, where they 
 came to a check. John Last, the huntsman, 
 gaye him up for lost ; but Mr. Smith told him 
 that the fox must be gone back, and that if he 
 trotted along the turnpike-road, he might j^ro- 
 bably cross the line of the fox where he had 
 crossed it that morning. The place mentioned 
 beinoj full four miles off. this occasioned some 
 surprise; but the adyice was taken; and, on 
 arriying at that spot, the hounds did hit off 
 the scent as if close to him, and ran him to an 
 earth near where he was first foimd, close to 
 his brush. 
 
 After quitting Bournemouth, Mr. Smith 
 resided for some time in a cottage near 
 
 House, in Dorsetshire, the residence of a gen- 
 tleman who kept a cleyer pack of hare-hounds. 
 
" Tremulousr 127 
 
 This gentleman was an old acquaintance, and 
 he was often supplied by Mr. Smith with small 
 unentered hounds. Whilst Mr. Smith had the 
 Craven, he had a most perfect very small bitch 
 of his best blood, which he called '^ Tremu- 
 lous." She had been entered, and made steady 
 from hare and other riot, but was found too 
 small for his pack. He therefore offered to 
 give her to Mr. ; but only on condi- 
 tion that he would keep her as long as she 
 lived. This having been promised, she was 
 sent, with the accompanying ''copy of verses,'' 
 to impress the promise on the gentleman's 
 mind. Great was Mr. Smith's mortification 
 when he heard, some time after, that it had 
 failed to do so, and that poor ''Tremulous" 
 had been parted with, for three couples of 
 
 hounds belonging to the Eev.^ J. E , who 
 
 kept a pack in Devonshire, and who was a 
 first-rate judge of a hound. 
 
128 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 TREMULOUS TO HER NEW MASTER. 
 
 " Craven-Hunt Jcennel, Hungcrford. 
 
 " How oft in course of time we see 
 The fate of dogs and men agree ! 
 How oft, as fate or whims incline, 
 Are both compell'd to change their line. 
 And slowly to retrace the road 
 With eager steps they lately trod ! 
 
 " Thus I, who once must never dare 
 E'en look at what is call'd a hare ; 
 With whom a rigid education 
 Had check'd each rebel inclination ; 
 Who never once was wildly bent 
 To revel in forbidden scent ; 
 And in preserves, through all temptation. 
 Had never stained her reputation, — 
 Must now forget each law and rule. 
 Each precept that she learnt at school, 
 And what she was condemned to hate 
 Pursue with ardour — such is fate ! 
 
 " Though this is dreadful innovation, 
 Yet Tremulous finds consolation ; 
 The comfort that she has, is knowing 
 The master's kind to whom she's going ; 
 For of that name some fame or word 
 Has surely reach'd to Hungerford. 
 E'en dogs have heard thy judging eye. 
 Thy huntsman's lore, thy merry cry ; 
 The triumphs that thy pack has had, 
 So oft by thee to victory led. 
 The wish express'd, late be thy end, 
 As husband, master, father, friend ; 
 
Tremulous to her new Master. 129 
 
 Excuse my boldness, sir, for you're, we know, 
 Non magis Marti quam Mercurio.^' 
 
 " When snow gives dull unwelcome rest 
 To hound and hare and scarlet vest. 
 And lake and brook, and hill and plain, 
 Are bound in Winter's icy chain. 
 Thou knowest, in thy well-stored mind, 
 Resource and comfort well to find. 
 Thy friends then, on the social night, 
 Hang on thy tongue with new delight : 
 When wit and learning take their turn. 
 They Hsten and or laugh or learn. 
 Full well by thee observed we see 
 The rite of hospitality ; 
 That sacred rite, whose gen'rous care 
 Angels ere now have deigned to share ;f 
 Perhaps, to bring thee nearer heaven. 
 It is to thee an angel given. 
 In whom th' admiring world may trace 
 An angel's mind, an angel's face. 
 And, oh ! would Fate the bliss but give, 
 A bliss for which 'twere blest to live. 
 When trembling limbs and many an ache, 
 That dogs and men in age will shake, 
 And my last sand is nearly run, 
 Tell me my occupation's gone, — 
 Would Fate allow me to attend - 
 That lady as a humble friend, 
 Sometimes to share the happiness 
 Of gentle word or kind caress, — 
 Then Tremulous indeed might say, 
 The dog has seen its happy day." 
 
 * Horace. f Genesis xix. 20. 
 
130 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 Some time after Mr. Nicliol gave up the 
 New Forest country, Mr* Smith was himting 
 with the Forest hounds, when the following 
 incident occurred, which the Duke of Beaufort 
 (then Marquis of "Worcester) may probably 
 recollect. The hounds had drawn one of the 
 large enclosures blank, and were about to try 
 some other covert, when his lordship told the 
 Master (who was also huntsman) that Smith 
 was certain that a fox was in it, as he had seen 
 two hounds, when wide of the pack, on a 
 strong drag of a fox. The pack was brought 
 back to where these hounds were seen, and 
 shortly found; and three other foxes vv^ere 
 viewed across the rides. It often happens that 
 coverts are not half draT\Ti, in that country 
 especially. 
 
CHAPTEE YIIL 
 
 Becomes Master of the Pytchley Hunt — Management of the 
 hounds — Difficulties — Lord Spencer — Kind conduct of the 
 Duke of Buccleuch — Extraordinary runs — Resigns the 
 Pytchley — Hints on buying horses — An unpleasant adr 
 venture. 
 
 Whilst residing in Dorsetshire, Mr. Smith 
 received an invitation from Mr. G. Payne and 
 other members of the Pytchley Hunt to hnnt 
 that country. Wishing to see all the best 
 hunting countrieSj he accepted the offer, though 
 he saw that he had an uphill task before him. 
 The Hunt had then no pack ; but they proposed 
 to purchase that of Lord Chesterfield, who had 
 last hunted the country. This^ however, they 
 failed in. Owing to his lordship's absence in 
 Prance, or some other reason, the pack was 
 not for sale imtil the end of October; and then 
 Lord Ducie outbid the Hunt, and carried them 
 off. He, however, only wanted twenty couples^ 
 
132 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 and lie gave Derry, the former liuntsman, all 
 the yoimg unentered honnds to select them for 
 him. This being done, there remained fifty- 
 two couples for the new Master, to which he 
 added part of a pack from Wales; and with 
 these he had to commence on the 29th of 
 October. 
 
 On writing to the chief proprietors of the 
 coverts and lands within the Pytchley Hunt, 
 the new Master received replies from most of 
 them acceding to his request of permission to 
 hunt ; but three or four stated that, unless the 
 establishment was conducted with more pro- 
 priety than had sometimes been the case here- 
 tofore, they would not consent ; and one gen- 
 tleman insisted on ^'Sabbath observance" on 
 the part of the men employed. Mr. Smith's 
 reply was, ^Hhat Sunday should not be dese- 
 crated by them, if he could prevent it," which 
 satisfied his pious correspondent. 
 
 In order to lose no time, he sent to head- 
 quarters the three horses that he already had, 
 
Master oj the Pytcldey Hunt. 133 
 
 and bought some more at the sale. The hounds 
 had physic; and as he wished to give them cub- 
 hunting in Sywell Wood on the next day, he 
 asked Lord Chesterfield's men- — Deny, Goddard, 
 and Jones — to go with them ; which they pro- 
 mised to do. But they changed their minds 
 in the course of the night ; and when he went 
 to the kennel early in the morning, they told 
 him they could not go with the hoimds, as 
 they were Lord Chesterfield's servants. This 
 was, in the language of diplomacy, ^'an unto- 
 ward event;'' but the new Master had met 
 with and surmounted as great difficulties be- 
 fore, and he resolved to show the fellows that 
 he could do without them. He told old Hayes 
 the feeder, and Moody a helper in the stable 
 — ^who, as he knew, had occasionally ridden a 
 second horse — to get ready to go with the 
 hounds ; and then went back to his lodgings, 
 where he put on his red coat, and filled his 
 pockets with bread and biscuit to throw to the 
 hounds on their way to the covert. As he 
 
134 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 rode back, with his horn in his hand, he met 
 the malcontents, when Derry said, ^'I see you 
 are going to exercise them." ^^Oh! yes; I 
 hoj)e they won't have too much of it." ^^ Why^ 
 sui'ely you are not going to hunt them ? you 
 can't know them, nor they you." "Never 
 mind — they'll know me as well as they know 
 you in an hour or two." This was received 
 with a loud laugh by the trio, as they knew 
 that the young hounds had never yet been out 
 with horses. 
 
 Having reached the kennel, he directed 
 Hayes, as soon as the hounds came out, to trot 
 off towards Sywell Wood (four miles off), and 
 not to pull up till he arrived there. Hoody 
 was to bring up the rear, and the Master took 
 his place in the middle, speaking cheerily and 
 tossing biscuit to them. In this way they in 
 due time reached the field adjoining the covert, 
 when he halted them to recover theii' wind, 
 and dismounting, he walked about among 
 them. After half an hour or so spent in this 
 
Management of the Hounds. 135 
 
 "way, lie tkrew tliem into cover; tliey soon 
 found in the great wood, and they had very 
 pretty amusement for an hour or two, when 
 the fox took to ground, and the hounds were 
 taken home. At the kennel the whole village 
 was assembled, with Lord Chesterfield's men 
 very busy in the crowd, foretelling that he 
 would return by and by without the hounds, 
 instead of which the whole fifty-two couples 
 were with him. 
 
 After a day's rest the hounds were taken 
 to Nobottle Wood, belonging to Lord Spencer, 
 who formerly hunted that country. They soon 
 found several foxes, and they ran one into a 
 drain under a road in the wood. Whilst try- 
 ing to get him out, Moody's horse having lost 
 a shoe, he was sent to get another put on. 
 Scarcely had he gone, when a view halloo was 
 heard outside the wood, and the Master deter- 
 mined to give his pack a little more exercise. 
 He therefore left Hayes to get the fox out, and 
 though alone, took the hounds to the halloo. 
 
136 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 They got on the scent, which happened to be 
 very good; and they ran their fox in the open 
 for nearly an hour, when they killed liim. 
 Seeing two men on horseback in the wood, the 
 Master blew his horn repeatedly, until one of 
 them came up, who proved to be Lord Spen- 
 cer's head-keeper. He began regretting that 
 ^^Mr. King" was not there to see the finish; 
 and, in answer to an inquiry as to who that 
 might be, he replied, ^'My lord's old hunts- 
 man, and the best that ever was." Just after 
 the hounds had eaten their fox, John King 
 rode up, got off his old gray horse, and walked 
 about wiping his forehead, and exclaiming, 
 ^^ Well, this is wonderful !" for, of course, the 
 whole country well knew that this was an un- 
 tried pack, &c. Then addressing the Master, 
 he declared that he would write that very night 
 to Lord Spencer and inform him of all that 
 had happened. He was as good as his word; 
 for two days afterwards Mr. Smith had a most 
 friendly letter from Lord Spencer, saying that, 
 
Visits to Althorpe, 137 
 
 after wliat Jolm King had said, he migM rely- 
 on receiving every assistance that it was in his 
 power to give. His lordship closed his letter 
 with a cordial invitation to Althorpe, of which 
 Mr. Smith subsequently often availed himself. 
 The days were given to shooting, and the even- 
 ings to cheerful conversation. His lordship 
 took great pleasure in speaking to his visitor 
 about the various public characters who had 
 borne a part in passing the Eeform Bill; and 
 he had the portraits of many of them hung up 
 in his hall. After good John King had taken 
 his leave, the hounds were led home. The 
 way was mainly through pastures, where there 
 was no trace of a road; and old Hayes was 
 obliged to ride first to point out the way. 
 They had to pass through Brixworth, where 
 Derry and his two whippers-in lived. They 
 were standing at their door; and when' they 
 saw the fox's head hanging from the saddle, 
 if they were pleased, they did not look so. On 
 the contrary, one bawled out savagely, ^' I'll 
 
138 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 be — — if he hasn't killed an old fox !'' The 
 hounds were all got back safely, though, as the 
 land near Althorpe swarmed with hares, there 
 was some riot with the young hounds. 
 
 For the two following days the Master 
 was busy with providing meal, hay, and corn 
 for the cub -hunting kennel at Brigstock ; and 
 then he took all the horses and hounds there, 
 and remained with them for a fortnight, in 
 Avhich time he killed nine foxes and ran seve- 
 ral to ground. The country round belonged 
 to the Duke of Buccleuch ; his old and valu- 
 able head-keeper had orders to give every 
 assistance, which he did, and there was an 
 abundance of foxes. 
 
 Having thus blooded his hounds, Mr* 
 Smith returned to Brixworth, and made known 
 to Mr. G. Payne, Mr. Hungerford, and the 
 others, that he could now ventiu^e to com- 
 mence regular hunting ; but that it was neces-; 
 sary .for them to assist him in procuring a 
 hmitsman, as it was understood that he would 
 
Insubordination. 139 
 
 not linnt the hounds kLmself, and he had failed 
 to procure one by advertising. The first whip, 
 Goddard, on hearing of the sport that had been 
 had, had offered his services; and it was agreed 
 that he should be the huntsman, chiefly be- 
 cause he was a steeple-chase rider. Jones, the 
 second whip, and young George Turner, the 
 son of Lord Chesterfield's head-groom, were 
 also engaged. Goddard had hunted the hounds 
 six weeks, and killed only two foxes, when 
 Jones, the first whip, in defiance of orders, 
 persisted twice in a bad trick that he had of 
 riding to view the fox when in chase, though 
 not at check beyond any small covert. As 
 he was rarely in time, and if he was, he headed 
 a fox back, and was liable to halloo the hounds 
 on to a fresh one, he was told that if he did this 
 a third time he would be discharged. He then 
 did it more resolutely than before, and was dis- 
 missed that night. Within half an hour God- 
 dard came in, and said that he thought Jones 
 had acted right, and as he was discharged, he 
 
140 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 should leave also ; whicli lie at once did. And 
 it was no cause of regret ; for lie would never 
 liave been fit for his post, as he took no real 
 interest in the sport. One day he had a good 
 run from Crick, but lost his fox. The next 
 day Mr. Smith was riding with him to cover, 
 and asked him how he had slept. His reply 
 was, ^' Yery well — I'm very well." Mr. Smith 
 next asked, '^ Then what became of your fox 
 yesterday?" He replied, ^' I really don't 
 know — I have never thought of it since." 
 ^^ What !" cried the Master; '' find a fox, have 
 a good run, go to bed and sleep without think- 
 ing what became of your fox? — you'll never 
 be a huntsman as long as you live." 
 
 There was to be hunting next day; the 
 meet was to be at Crick, and one of the best 
 coverts in the kingdom was to be drawn there. 
 "When the Master reached the town he found 
 there some hundred men in scarlet from all 
 the neighbouring hunts, and he had to ride by 
 them with Hayes and Moody in theii' shabby 
 
Lord Cardigan. 141 
 
 old red coats ; George Turner alone of liis fol- 
 lowing being well dressed. He had prepared 
 himself for all sorts of sarcasms, and so took 
 no notice of the remarks that were freely made, 
 as he felt sure that he could show them sport. 
 Just before the throw off. Lord Cardigan in- 
 quired why the other two men were dis- 
 charged. He received the short reply, ^^For 
 disobedience of orders;" and, without asking 
 anything more, said, ^^ Quite right — but what 
 do you mean to do?" ^^Find a fox, have a 
 good rim, and kill him." Turning to Lord 
 Eosslyn, his lordship said, '' That's plucky, 
 isn't it ?" and then introduced Mr. Smith, not 
 knowing that they had already become ac- 
 quainted in the New Forest. 
 
 The hounds were soon at work in that fine 
 gorse of ten acres, having moved two foxes, one 
 of which left the covert, and passed through a 
 host of horses, thereby proving to the Master 
 that he had some point ; but no one else then 
 thought so, for when the hounds ran to the 
 
142 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 end of the second large field, where they threw 
 up, he heard such remarks as, '^ Here's a pretty- 
 sort of huntsman." He told two men on foot 
 to get the fox out of a di-ain which he alone 
 had seen one hound mark, and directly led the 
 pack off to the far side of the gorse, rode into 
 it with them, and, as he expected, found the 
 other fox on the outside, ready for a start. 
 The fox broke away before any of the men had 
 got up, thus giving the hounds a better chance 
 than usual ; and being well settled to their fox, 
 the men had quite enough to do to get sight 
 of them for at least a mile. On they went at a 
 racing pace for about half an hour, when they 
 came to a check in a road. The men were 
 now getting their second horses; and Lord 
 Cardigan, who regretted the check, was look- 
 ing about for his, when Mr. Smith said to him, 
 *^ Never mind about your horse; the fox is 
 gone down the road, and Ave shall hit him off 
 before we get to the fresh manure-heap." They 
 then kept on together ; the hounds hit off the 
 
A famous Run. 143 
 
 scent on the right-liand side of the road, ran 
 for twenty-eight minutes across the finest grass 
 country possible, and then ran into their fox. 
 His lordship, who was the only man quite 
 close to the Master, was much pleased and ex- 
 cited, exclaiiiiing, "Capital! capital! TU give 
 you a character" (for Mr, Smith had men- 
 tioned his reply to Lord Eosslyn in the i^ew 
 Forest). The run lasted fifty-five minutes, 
 and his lordship has often since said that it 
 was the best that he ever saw; in fact, a better 
 could not be, looking at the fine grass pace 
 and time, and there being but one check. 
 
 JN'ot long after this, the Master had sup- 
 plied himself with proper whippers-in, but not 
 with a huntsman, although he took every pos- 
 sible means to find one; whether his efi'orts 
 were counteracted by any one, he cannot take 
 on him to say. At the first meet after this 
 they had another famous run, when, strange as 
 it may sound, not one man besides himself 
 ever saw the hounds after the first five mi- 
 
144 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 nutes. They found a fox in Yelvertoft gorse, a 
 small coyert of four acres. Though surrounded 
 by a large field of sportsmen (or at least horse- 
 men), the fox broke through them, and was 
 apparently making for Hemplow Hills, where 
 are large coverts of gorse. Just ahead was 
 an almost impracticable wide high hedgerow, 
 which the hounds shot through, and then were 
 lost to sight. The Master rode over a single 
 high and strong rail and deep ditch, but was 
 not followed by one man. After a chase of 
 several miles they killed their fox, but not one 
 else of the field was present. It was only as 
 he was returning with the hounds that he was 
 overtaken by two of his men. He was told 
 the next day by Mr. G. Payne that when the 
 riders arrived at the top of the hill, neither 
 horse nor hounds were to be seen, men went 
 galloping about in all directions, and the scene 
 beggared all description. 
 
 Shortly after the Yelvertoft run Mr. Smith 
 paid a visit to Mr. Vivian, in order to have a 
 
Meet in Grafton Park, 145 
 
 day with the Bedfordshire hounds, of which 
 Mr. Magniac was then master. When they 
 reached the place of meeting, they found the 
 field waiting for the Duke of Bedford, who had 
 promised to be present. His grace on his 
 arrival inquired for Mr. Smith; and when he 
 came forward, told him that he had come pur- 
 posely to meet him, in order to ask him all the 
 particulars of that splendid run, and whether 
 it was true that he was the only man with the 
 hounds during the greater part of the run and 
 when they killed their fox. Having received 
 the required information, his grace left the field 
 without joining in the sport. 
 
 The Duke of Dorset was one of the chief 
 proprietors in the Brigstock part of the Pytch- 
 ley country, and by his desire the hounds met 
 at Grafton Park (where was a large covert) 
 at three o'clock in the afternoon, as he had a 
 party of foreigners at his house, to whom he 
 wished to give some idea of English sport. In 
 the park is a circular space, with six roads 
 
 L 
 
146 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 from it in the form of a star; three carri- 
 ages containing the visitors were placed there, 
 which gave them opportunities of seeing the 
 foxes and the hounds crossing and recrossing, 
 and afforded them great amusement for three 
 hours, until the Duke thought it time to return 
 home for dinner, but expressing his hope that 
 the Master would bring an account of the day's 
 sport. They killed soon after the departure of 
 the Duke, and the brush was taken up to the 
 house, when his Grace introduced Mr. Smith 
 to some of the party, who were Italians, as 
 *' II cacciatore di volpi.'' His Grace, as is well 
 known, was one of the most finished gentlemen 
 in the kingdom, and a most agreeable even- 
 ing was passed. The strange exclamations of 
 the foreigners had greatly amused everybody 
 when in the field; but the amusement was 
 quite as great afterwards to see with what 
 surprise they listened to a few hunting anec- 
 dotes, and still more when told that the hunts- 
 man cheered each hound by name, and knew 
 
Clearing a Brook. 147 
 
 its tongue^ when he heard it, even in the 
 wood. 
 
 These two good runs, and his extraordinary 
 good luck, led the Hunt to request Mr. Smith 
 to continue Master and Huntsman also; and he 
 went on with them for another season. Seve- 
 ral other runs were remarkable enough; as 
 one from Naseby to the Brigstock country; and 
 another from Misterton, when he rode over the 
 first brook that he had ever attempted ; it was 
 seventeen feet wide, and he had to cross it 
 three times during the run. The only three 
 men beside who rode at it failed; they were 
 Mr. G. Pa}Tie, the Eev. Vere Isham, and Tom 
 Goddard. 
 
 In the second season they met one day at 
 Sulby, which was then occupied by the Duke 
 of Montrose. Mr. Smith dined with the Duke 
 the day before, and the conversation turned on 
 an extraordinary rim a few days before with 
 the Quorn hounds, when the pack ran clean 
 away from every horseman, owing to their 
 
148 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 having to cross a pasture of 100 acres, which 
 was saturated with rain and very deep. Mr. 
 Smith being asked what he thought of it, said 
 he thought it a wonder that such things did 
 not occur more frequently, as the hounds had 
 no weight to carry. A hearty laugh was raised 
 against him, and exclamations of ^^ Why, such 
 a thing had never been knoT\Ti before in that 
 country," &c. ; but he was able to bear it, for 
 
 " A man convinced against his will 
 Is but an unbeliever still ;" 
 
 and though many years have since gone by, he 
 has not changed his opinion. A distinguished 
 party had assembled at Sulby, and he was able 
 to give them a fine day's sport. He knew 
 that a good fox would be found in JUoatland 
 Wood, which was nearly four miles distant; so 
 he merely ran his pack thi'ough a covert or 
 two on the way to it. When there, they im- 
 mediately found; and their conduct impressed 
 on him the belief that, from some cause or 
 other, hounds might now and then be safely 
 
A good Run, 149 
 
 left to themselves during a run; for it so 
 happened that only one man (Mr. Wheble, 
 of Sir John Cope's Hunt) beside himself got 
 clear over the wide brook ; a few of the field 
 got up with the pack before they reached Scot- 
 land Wood, where the fox was killed. 
 
 One more run must be related, as it was 
 near the end of Mr. Smith's last season with 
 the Pytchley Hunt. The hounds met at Fox 
 Hall, a favourite meet, and shortly after found 
 close by. They ran their fox for twenty-two 
 minutes, over the finest turf, like a flash of 
 lightning ; after which they came to ploughed 
 land and slow hunting, which allowed the 
 fresh horses to come up. Although the hounds 
 were still hunting, Sir H. Goodricke rode up 
 to Mr. Smith, and told him that they all 
 wished him to find a fresh fox. His reply was, 
 " Certainly not ;" adding, that the hoimds 
 would get up with their fox in Hope's planta- 
 tion, just beyond. Sir Harry (who was Mr. 
 Payne's brother-in-law) took back the me'Ss- 
 
150 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 age ; but soon again rode up to say, tliat if he 
 persevered, the men would all. go home. '^ I 
 can't help that," was the reply; "we can kill 
 onr fox without you." The Duke of Buc- 
 cleuch, who was the only man that had kept 
 close to the hounds, on hearing the last mess- 
 age, said that he thought at first that the 
 gentleman was coming up to praise the hounds 
 for working so well over the ploughed land, 
 and expressed his hope that Mr. Smith would 
 persevere. He did so; and on reaching Hope's 
 plantation, a few minutes after, the hounds at 
 once hit off the scent. Then they had about 
 twenty-five minutes' racing pace over a fine 
 grass country, and killed an old dog fox. 
 His Grace, who was the only one there beside 
 the Master, got off his horse, and requested to 
 have the brush, although, as he said, it was 
 the first that he ever took home in his life. 
 He also said that that was the best day's 
 sport he had ever seen, and that he would 
 let the malcontents know what they had lost. 
 
Story of two Stags, 151 
 
 He expressed Hs regret, too, that Mr. Smith 
 was about to resign the Pytchley, and urged 
 him to come to Scotland to hunt with his 
 hounds. His Grace rode twenty-eight miles 
 to the meet the next day, for the purpose of 
 telling the men what a run he had had; which 
 he did, to their no small chagrin. 
 
 On one occasion the meet was at Boughton 
 House, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, 
 when, just before the throw-off, the keeper 
 requested Mr. Smith to come with him to see 
 a curious matter. It seemed that one of the 
 watchers had that morning seen eight feet of 
 deer sticking up out of the water; and when 
 with assistance the two stags were got on 
 shore, their horns were so tightly intertwined 
 that it was impossible to part them. They 
 were supposed to have been fighting, when 
 one drove the other into the water, and was 
 thus drawn in himself. They certainly pre- 
 sented a curious appearance as they lay dead 
 on the grass. It is believed that the heads 
 
152 Memoir of Tom, Smith, 
 
 and antlers thus locked together have been 
 preserved, as Mr. Smith suggested. 
 
 At the end of this, his second season, Mr. 
 Smith made known his intention to resign the 
 Pytchley country; and he carried it out, not- 
 withstanding various letters of regret that he 
 received. One of these was signed by many 
 yeomen and farmers in the Hunt, and it stated 
 that the country had never been hunted more 
 satisfactorily even by the celebrated Mr. Mus- 
 ters or Mr. Osbaldeston. His twenty-two 
 horses were sold at Tattersall's; and they 
 fetched far more than merely remunerating 
 prices. This being a novelty when a Master 
 of hounds sends his stock to the hammer, Mr. 
 Smith has been asked to explain how it hap- 
 pened; how, in short, he had been able to 
 avoid purchasing at least some unsound horses. 
 The following is the whole of the mystery, 
 and he hopes it may be useful to some of his 
 readers. 
 
 His plan was, never to buy a horse with- 
 
Hints for Horse-buyers, 153 
 
 out either riding it himself or having a written 
 warranty. He made his choice of the two 
 plans; and if it was refused, he never would 
 buy. If the horse was at a dealer's in Lon- 
 don, he commonly rode the horse in the Park, 
 the dealer's groom accompanying him, trotted 
 or galloped, and then took it back, saying 
 that he would call the next morning. He did 
 so, taking good care to make his call an early 
 one, before there was time for any exercising ; 
 and if the appearance of the horse was then 
 satisfactory, he closed the bargain- 
 On one occasion he was forced to make a 
 trial of a horse's soundness in a more disagree- 
 able manner. Owing to accidents with his 
 horses whilst hunting the Craven, he was 
 obliged to go to London to purchase a horse; 
 and having heard of a likely one at Osborne's 
 commission stables, he went there; and as he 
 liked the appearance of the steed, and really 
 wanted it at once, he ventured to buy it on 
 a written warranty; but luckily he gave a 
 
154 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 cheque dated a few days forward. As he 
 wanted to be back at Hungerford as soon as 
 possible, he determined to ride the horse part 
 of the way home, his groom being to come on 
 by coach, and take charge of it the next day. 
 He had ridden nearly to Staines, when he fell 
 in with a mob of London roughs, who had 
 come out to see a prize-fight, and having been 
 baulked by the magistrates, were ripe for any 
 kind of mischief. Two of these fellows were 
 in a gig, whipping and galloping like mad; 
 and when they came near him, though he had 
 drawn up on the side of the road, they pulled 
 the reins and attempted wantonly to drive 
 over him. To save his leg, he struck at the 
 horse's head to turn it away; but the blow 
 caught one of the vagabonds on the nose, 
 and covered his face with blood. They were 
 in the act of jumping out to seize him, when 
 he put spurs to his horse and galloped off. 
 The whole rabble rout, horse, foot, and drags 
 of every description, gave chase ; and it looked 
 
An unpleasant Adventure. 155 
 
 somethmg very like a race for life. Einding 
 Ms pursuers gain on Mm, lie rode at a fence, 
 but his horse fell at tlie ditch. The mob were 
 almost on Mm ere he could force Ms horse 
 over ; and then many got into the field at a 
 gate near the spot, and chased Mm with cries 
 of *^Stop tMef!" and choicer exclamations. 
 Luckily the horse cleared the next hedge 
 and ditch, wMch some of the fellows rode at, 
 but only to fall head over heels. Mr. Smith 
 rode off, laughing at them floundering in the 
 mud, cleared the next fence into the road near 
 Staines, and stopped at the inn, to refresh both 
 himself and his horse. Soon after the ostler 
 came to say that the horse was very lame. 
 Mr. Smith went to the stable, and then sent 
 for a farrier, who proved to be a very respect- 
 able, intelligent man. They discussed the 
 matter over a bottle of port, when the farrier 
 pronounced the horse unsound, and pointed 
 out the marks of its having been lately blis- 
 tered on the lame leg. Mr. Smith sent the 
 
156 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 horse back to Osborne, stopped the cheque at 
 the bank, and heard no more of the matter. 
 
 This convinced him of the soundness of his 
 plan of never purchasing a horse till the next 
 day ; and it also showed how much more 
 valuable a man's own trial is than any war- 
 ranty in the world. Indeed, he heartily 
 wishes that all warranty of horses should be 
 abolished b}^ law, and purchasers be thus 
 forced to exercise their own judgment. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 Visits to Scotland, Yorkshire, &c, — Sir Tatton Sykes' estab- 
 lishment at Edlesthorpe — Anecdote of Sir Tatton — Castle 
 Howard : runs with various packs — Anecdote of Lady 
 Morgan — Visit to the Continent — Kindness of Mr. N. M. 
 Rothschild and his family. 
 
 Being once again out of harness, Mr. Smitli 
 occupied some considerable time in paying 
 visits to various friends. His steps were first 
 turned towards Scotland, where lie was most 
 kindly received by the Duke of Buccleucli, 
 Lord and Lady John Scott, Lord Elcho, and 
 others. Having taken his two horses with 
 him, he joined the hounds whenever he had 
 the opportunity, and saw some excellent sport 
 with the Duke's hounds, as also with Lord 
 Elcho' s. Salmon and grouse were also duly 
 attended to. The Duke, many years after- 
 wards, writing to him at Droxford, assured 
 
158 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 liim that lie had not forgotten the best day's 
 sport that he ever saw in the Pytchley country 
 or anywhere else, and said that he had often 
 related the incident to others. 
 
 One of Mr. Smith's nieces married Mr. 
 Haigh, of ^Tiitwell; and on her husband's 
 death, her uncle, being one of her trnstees, 
 had annuallj^ to go into Yorkshire to see after 
 her affairs, and the management of her fine 
 estate, which lay in Sir Tatton Sykes' country. 
 He in consequence was invited to Edlesthorpe, 
 where the baronet at that time kept a pack of 
 fox-hounds, and he had good sport with them. 
 Sir Tatton also showed him over his establish- 
 ment, which contained a numerous blood stock, 
 the produce of nearly a hundred thorough- 
 bred mares. Mr. Smith remarked that he had 
 never seen stock looking in such good condi- 
 tion, but of course they must consume ^n im- 
 mense quantity of hay. His host replied that 
 they consumed no hay at all, as he would 
 prove to him nest day. Accordingly he was 
 
Sir Tatton Syhes* Plan of Feeding, 159 
 
 taken to see the mares, colts, and fillies fed, 
 wlien he found that their food entirely con- 
 sisted of oats in the straw cut into chaff; the 
 oats were cut before the straw was dead ripe, 
 and it was found to be almost as good as hay. 
 There were tanks kept filled with water, and 
 the whole of the stock was allowed to feed 
 without limitation. The plan seemed to him 
 well worth following by all breeders of horses 
 as well as by farmers. In each paddock there 
 was an excellent shed with long manger, and 
 about twenty colts or fillies were placed in 
 each. The viewing the establishment took 
 up two whole days, which were to Mr. Smith 
 the most interesting of the kind in his life. 
 He was also greatly pleased with a clever pack 
 of harriers which belonged to Sir Tatton's 
 young son (the present baronet), and wliich 
 he wished to cross with the blue mottled 
 Southern hound. Mr. Smith had a friend 
 who kept a pack of the old Southern hound, 
 and strongly advised the measure ; indeed, he 
 
160 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 thinks that even Masters of fox-hounds must 
 shortly cross their high-bred hounds, and 
 thereby regain noses. 
 
 In the dining-room there was a large pic- 
 ture, of which Sir Tatton told an anecdote in 
 his peculiar quaint way. It represented his 
 father and mother, with himself standing in 
 front, dressed in a drab frock-coat, red waist- 
 coat, and top-boots, and was the production of 
 the best artist of the day. When it came 
 home, there was, of course, a muster of the 
 tenants to see it. All agreed that the like- 
 nesses of the old baronet and his lady were ex- 
 cellent, but, for some cause or other, the third 
 figure seemed to puzzle them ; probably the 
 costume was not quite that which they were 
 accustomed to see the young squire in. At 
 last a light seemed to dawn on one of the 
 party, and he cried out, ^^Oh! it's their old 
 groom." Young Tatton was standing by, and 
 said, with a polite bow, ''Yes, it's their Mth- 
 ful servant, Tat," to the dire confusion of the 
 
Art Criticism, 161 
 
 honest farmer who had mistaken him for a 
 groom. The story is not much in itself, but 
 the mode of telling made it irresistibly comic. 
 
 Some time after this, when his niece had 
 married again, Mr. Smith was invited to ac- 
 company her husband's brother, Mr. Stephens, 
 to Castle Howard, where, by the united efforts 
 of many guns, a heavy bag of game was got, 
 which was forwarded to the Earl of Carlisle, 
 who was then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 This business being finished early, Mr. Smith, 
 in compliance with a request from Mrs. Ste- 
 phens, went into the picture-gallery, where 
 were several paintings which she had most 
 admirably copied. There he found an artist 
 engaged in copying the Three Maries — a pic- 
 ture that he had often heard highly praised ; 
 and he asked how it was that one hand of our 
 Saviour is painted fleshless, like that of a 
 skeleton, whilst the other is full -sized and 
 plump. The artist replied, '' Sir, you have 
 discovered the only fault in the picture." 
 
 M 
 
162 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 Before quitting Castle Howard, ]\Ir. Smith 
 noticed on the first landing-place three land- 
 scapes painted with a great extent of sky. 
 They are placed within the stone frames of 
 tln^ee windows, and represent distant views. 
 From the hall the deception is perfect; and 
 the surprise is great when they are ap- 
 proached. 
 
 On another visit to "Wliitwell, Mr. Smith 
 had a run with the York and Ainsty hounds, 
 ivhicli were not generally considered to be 
 good ; but he found that it was not the hounds' 
 fault. They soon found a fox in a large wood. 
 The fox, after running a ring or two, with 
 a good scent, through the open part, was 
 lost among some large trees. Mr. Smith 
 rode after the hounds; but the Master and 
 others kept in a road in the wood, and called 
 loudly to him that there was no way out 
 in the direction that he was going. Yet, as 
 the hounds did get out, he followed them, 
 and had the pack entirely to himself. He did 
 
A Hun with the Pytchley. 163 
 
 his best to assist theni ; and they were rimning 
 fairly into their fox, which he had just viewed 
 dead-beat before the hounds, when the hunts- 
 man and others galloped up, and, either from 
 jealousy or want of sense, took the hounds in 
 a contrary direction, made a cast to a large 
 wood, and never got on the scent again. This 
 is related to prove that where h'ounds go, a 
 huntsman should go, if possible. 
 
 Among other visits, Mr. Smith paid one to 
 Lord Spencer, at Althorpe, when he had a 
 day with his old acquaintances of the Pytchley 
 Hunt; Mr. G. Payne being now the Master. 
 He was most cordially received; and when 
 riding to draw the covert, Mr. Payne told him 
 that they had been most unlucky, not having 
 killed a fox for some weeks. As he was 
 mounted on one of Lord Spencer's horses, and 
 not on his own, he was obliged to decline 
 assisting them, which he was pressed to do. 
 They soon found; but after about half an 
 hour's running they crossed the line of ano- 
 
164 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 ther fox, on whicli the greater part of the 
 pack at once turned. He tokl Mr. Payne of 
 this ; bnt as he had not himself noticed it, he 
 would not believe it, and merely said, ^'We 
 are all right." Mr. Smith knew that they 
 were all wi*ong, and so he went on with the 
 few hounds that had kept to the hunted fox. 
 After running on capital terms for a mile or 
 so, he and these hounds viewed the fox, dead- 
 beat, run into a drain when only a few yards 
 from them. He was now at a loss ; but luckily 
 a man on foot came up, whom he left to guard 
 the di'ain, whilst a moimted farmer kindly 
 rode after the hounds and brought them back. 
 Mr. Smith returned to Althorpe, as he did not 
 think it fair, when mounted on a friend's 
 horse, to attempt to catch hounds running. 
 He learnt the next day that the hounds were 
 brought back, and ate their fox. 
 
 "When visiting his brother, the Eev. S. 
 Smith, at Weedon Lois, Mr. Smith hunted one 
 day Avith Lord Southampton's hounds. After 
 
Lord Southampton. 165 
 
 a very good run into the Pytchley country the 
 hounds came to a check, and the huntsman 
 was about to give it up. Lord Southampton, 
 knowing that Mr. Smith had hunted that 
 country, asked him where he thought was the 
 line of the fox. He pointed with his whip to 
 the most likely line ; and, on arriving there, 
 the hounds hit off the scent, and ran a few 
 miles further, still in the Pytchley country, 
 when they came to what the huntsman pro- 
 nounced to be a fatal check. Mr. Smith was 
 again asked by his lordship to point out the 
 line; which he did, indicating a large covert 
 well kno^vn to him. When the hounds reached 
 it, the himtsman looked so sulky, that his 
 lordship pressed Mr. Smith to hunt the hounds 
 for him. He declined this, but accompanied 
 the poor fellow through the covert, where they 
 shortly got on their hunted fox, and killed 
 him after a few minutes in the open. Lord 
 Southampton immediately jumped off his horse, 
 snatched up the fox, and thrust it into the 
 
166 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 iLuntsman's face, exclaiming, ^'Here's the fox 
 that you said was lost," &c. &c. 
 
 'Not to make this work too long, we must 
 now mention but one more run, and that is of 
 recent date. The Hampshire honnds met at 
 Thedden Grange, and fonnd in Sonthwood, in 
 the parish' of Shalden ; a spot perfectly well 
 known to Mr. Smith, as the scene of his 
 boyhood. He viewed the fox that the honnds 
 had fonnd, and at once told the Master (Mr. 
 Treadcroft) that it was a yixen (it was late in 
 the season) ; but the honnds were not stopped. 
 It ran straight for eight or nine miles to 
 Osden Common, which made the men langh 
 and jeer at his taking it for a vixen ; but the 
 result proved that he was right* When run- 
 ning through a large covert just beyond the 
 common, the great body of the hounds changed 
 to a fresh fox, and the Master wished to stop 
 the few that were going on with the hunted 
 one. Mr. Smith ad\dsed him not to do so, as 
 they were on their right scent; and the Master 
 
Anecdote of Lady Morgan. 167 
 
 rode off after the pack. Mr. Smith viewed 
 the hunted fox away from the covertj and fol- 
 lowed the three and a half couple of hounds, 
 which killed it in the second field. He took 
 the fox on his horse, and overtook the pack at 
 a check, and threw it down to them. On 
 breaking up there were seen three very small 
 cubs. 
 
 Fox-hunting l ore is not a very common 
 topic in a mixed company at a London dinner- 
 table; neither do ladies in general mix in such 
 if they should arise. Eut there are exceptions 
 to most rules ; and so it fell to the lot of Mr. 
 Smith to be cross-questioned on the subject by 
 no less a celebrity than Lady Morgan. He 
 was dining at his sister's in Eaton-square, and 
 he had to take down her ladyship. During 
 the dessert some man opposite asked him if he 
 had a good entry of young hounds ; to which 
 he replied that he had about fifty couple sent 
 out to walks. Lady Morgan at once brought 
 the conversation to a check by exclaiming, 
 
168 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 *• One hundred hounds !" and turning to Mr. 
 Smith, said, " "Will you allow me to ask you a 
 question ? Will you be so good as to inform 
 me, after your experience, whether these 
 hounds inherit most of their fathers' or their 
 mothers' good qualities?" Seeing all eyes 
 turned on them, Mr. Smith wished to change 
 the subject, or at least defer it till they met in 
 the drawing-room ; but her little ladyship was 
 not to be put off, so he met her question by 
 another, Why she was so anxious to know 
 this ? She re^Dlied, that the fact was, she had 
 studied human nature for many years, and the 
 result of her observation and experience was, 
 that all the most distinguished men then living 
 were descended from clever mothers. She ran 
 over a long list of names, including the Duke 
 of Wellington, Sir Eobert Peel, BuonajDarte, 
 the Eothschilds, and many more, all of whom, 
 according to her, had very wonderful mothers 
 indeed. How much longer her list would 
 have been it is impossible to say, had not the 
 
Madame Montejiore. 169 
 
 hostess risen to leave the table. On meeting 
 again in the drawing-room, Mr. Smith was 
 at once assailed for his ^^ experience;" and he 
 got rid of his questioner as quickly as he 
 could by saying that the great object in breed- 
 ing hounds was to supply any defect in either 
 father or mother by crossing with another 
 that had not that defect, but that, contrary 
 to her ladyship's theory, young hounds in- 
 herited the qualities of the father rather than 
 of the mother. 
 
 Probably it was Lady Morgan's modesty 
 that hindered her from enumerating any of her 
 own sex as indebted to clever mothers, or she 
 might very fairly have quoted Madame Monte- 
 fiore, the sister of the late Mr. Eothschild, 
 who was certainly one of the most clever and 
 accomplished ladies that Mr. Smith has ever 
 known. She was the intimate friend of him- 
 self and his wife, and they visited her both in 
 England and abroad. She had a house near 
 Cuckfield ; and hearing that they were about 
 
170 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 to pass that way on a journey, she pressed 
 them to stop there for a day or t^vo, although 
 she was not able to be present to receive them. 
 They went, and found that every possible at- 
 tention had been ordered to be paid, which 
 was most fully carried out, and the only draw- 
 back was the absence of their kind friend. 
 They passed a Sunday there ; and not knowing 
 whether there was a pew attached to the 
 house, they were rather at a loss ; but they 
 found an agreeable occupation in reading some 
 beautiful Jewish prayers, a book of which was 
 placed in every room. They were very much 
 gratified with their visit. They were intimate 
 with other members of the Eothschild family ; 
 and the present Earon Lionel took Mr. Smith 
 into the country to see his pack of stag- 
 hounds. The visitor was much pleased with 
 the clever pack and all the appointments, and 
 he expressed his regret that they were not in 
 Devonshire to himt the wild stag ; they would, 
 he said, fly over any bank, &c. ^'^o doubt,'' 
 
Letter of Mr, N. M. BothschilcL 171 
 
 replied tlie Baron, " there are plenty of banks 
 in that country, bnt we have a mnch better 
 one in London." "And -which/' said Mr. 
 Smith, "will never give yon a fall." 
 
 The friendship of the Eothschilds was of 
 great service to Mr. and Mrs. Smith when they 
 made a tonr on the Continent. Pnrnished 
 with a letter of introduction from the head 
 of the house to his brothers at Frankfort, &;c. 
 they met with every possible courtesy from 
 those gentlemen ; and they found the name of 
 "Eothschild" as potent as that of an emperor 
 in removing the various difficulties that then 
 beset the untravelled English. The letter was 
 as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have the pleasure of intro- 
 ducing to you Thomas Smith, Esq., a very 
 respectable gentleman, friend of mine, who 
 is travelling with his lady for pleasure. You 
 will receive them, both him and his lady, 
 in the kindest manner; render them every 
 assistance in your power, and contribute by 
 
172 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 your civilities and attentions to make their 
 journey agreeable to tliem. Offering my anti- 
 cipations, I remain, brothers, yours truly, N. 
 M. Eothschild." 
 
 It need not be said that the gentlemen thus 
 addressed most fully carried out the recom- 
 mendation it contained. Such, of course, was 
 to be expected; but it was really ludicrous 
 to see the effect that it produced on other 
 bankers in Germany. At first they abso- 
 lutely refused to receive the English money 
 which the party tendered ; but the very name 
 ^' Eothschild" opened their eyes on the instant, 
 and they became even troublesomely forward 
 in offering accommodation of every imaginable 
 kind. They went, with their brother-in-law, 
 Mr. Marx, in the Batavier to Eotterdam; and 
 then proceeded to Frankfort, where M. Eoths- 
 child put his box at the opera at their dispo- 
 sal, and gave them an English dinner of roast 
 beef, &c. every day, saying truly that they 
 would not see much of that when they got 
 
Visit to the Continent, 173 
 
 further into Germany ; and, knowing that Mr. 
 Smith was a sportsman, offered him the range 
 of his extensive forests; bnt unfortunately his 
 guest was not able to avail himself of this. 
 Thence they proceeded up the Ehine, halting 
 at all the remarkable points, and so into Swit- 
 zerland, where they stayed several days at 
 Berne, and still longer at Geneva, on a visit 
 to Madame Montefiore, at her villa in the 
 Campana Diodati. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Returns to England, and resumes the Mastership of the 
 Hambledon hounds — Purchases the Fir Hill -estate, Drox- 
 ford— His " Good-bye Day." 
 
 OjS" his return to England, Mr. Smith was 
 much urged by the gentlemen of the Hamble- 
 don Hunt to lake the Mastership again. It 
 was not his wish to undertake so troublesome 
 a task ; but as no one else seemed likely to do 
 itj he agreed to act for a single year, on the 
 express condition that they would provide a 
 proper successor in that time. He then rented 
 Eir Hill, Droxford, where he erected a tem- 
 porary kennel, and Mr. Long gave him two 
 lodging-houses for the hounds. These houses 
 formed a great inducement to him, and he 
 would not have undertaken the Mastership 
 without them; but when the time came for 
 removing them, they seemed likely to be more 
 plague than profit. It appeared quite impos- 
 
Mastership of the Ilamhledon, 175 
 
 sible to tlie builder of them to remove them to 
 Droxford, which was four miles off, and the 
 "way lay through narrow cross roads, so he 
 absolutely refused to attempt it ; so Mr. Smith 
 undertook the task himself, and he succeeded. 
 The houses did not receive the least injury, 
 and they were the source of much wonder and 
 amusement on their journey. 
 
 Finding no one come forward to take the 
 hounds at the expu-ation of the year, Mr. 
 Smith bought the estate of Fir Hill, and took 
 to the pack in earnest. He went on with 
 them for some years, having several very good 
 runs and tolerably fair sport all through. In 
 the last year of his Mastership twenty-nine 
 and a half braces of foxes were killed, hunting 
 three days a week. His last meet, which he 
 held on a bye-day, and styled a ^^ Good-bye 
 Day," was deemed worthy of special record in 
 the Sporting Beview^ and is reprinted here, 
 by the permission of its author (Colonel, now 
 Lieut. -gen. Elers Napier). 
 
176 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 " gea:n'd fimsh" of thomas s:\nTH, esq. 
 
 AND 
 
 THE LAST DAY OF THE SEASON WITH THE 
 HAMBLEDOX HOUNDS. 
 
 " The Hambledon hounds ■will meet on Monday at Horn- 
 dean Gate ; Wednesday, at Shidfield ; Friday, at Corhamp- 
 ton Down ; Saturday (a ' good-bye day'), at Broadhalf- 
 penny Down, at a quarter before eleven." — From the Hamp- 
 shire Chronicle of March 27, 1852. 
 
 ^'What the dence have we here?'' said I, 
 placing the newspaper, in which I had just 
 read the above announcement; on the breakfast- 
 table before me. 
 
 ^^ Saturday," continued I, in a half soli- 
 loquy, and half addressing an old friend who 
 happened to be staying with me at the time ; 
 *^ Saturday was generally a 'bye day' with the 
 Hambledon — but then it was never advertised; 
 besides, I think that my friend Smith is taking 
 a good deal upon himself, thus to foretell that 
 it will be a ' good' bye day. Suppose, after 
 
The '' Good-bye'' Day. 177 
 
 all, it sliould prove a blank; what a laugh 
 there will be at his expense !" 
 
 '^ ^0," continued I, smoothing down my 
 chin (we didn't then wear beards,- more's the 
 pity) — ''no, Tom Smith — or ' Gentleman' Smith, 
 as he is most appropriately often called — is too 
 old a bird to expose himself to be pelted with 
 'chaff;' depend upon it, there is more in this 
 paragraph than 'is dreamt of in our philo- 
 sophy ;' " and I forthwith handed the myste- 
 rious document to my companion. 
 
 " You may be a philosopher," said Stave- 
 ley, with a most provokingly intelligent smile, 
 "but, old fellow, you have most assuredly 
 proved yourself no conjuror ; it is evident that 
 this is a little jeu de mots, implying that it is 
 to be likewise a 'good-bye' or farewell day. 
 But although, of course, aware of his being a 
 'mighty hunter,' I had no idea that your 
 friend Tom Smith was such a wit as to be 
 capable of perpetrating this atrocious pun !" 
 
 "Tom Smith," replied I, "is capable of 
 
178 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 anything ; lie is an autlior, an artist, an archi- 
 tect ; he is, in fact, everything, but more par- 
 ticularly — as all the T\^orlcl knows — a first-rate 
 sportsman, ■<ind a capital fellow to boot." 
 
 ^^ And have you long known this incom- 
 parable mortal ?" inquired my companion. 
 
 '^ Yes, many years ; and our acquaintance 
 commenced in rather a curious manner, which 
 I will tell you, if you feel inclined to listen to 
 a 'yarn.' " 
 
 Staveley expressed himself desirous of hear- 
 ing my story ; which I commenced as follows, 
 in the old " story-telling" strain : 
 
 '' Many years ago, I used to hunt with the 
 Hambledon hounds; I was in those days 
 younger, and rode rather wilder than I now 
 do in my old age. "Well, I had then a most 
 remarkable mare — I called her ' Yery Lively' 
 — and lively enough, in all conscience, she 
 was. ]^o day was too long for her, and no 
 jump too high, provided she was allowed to 
 take it in her ovrn way — always at a fly ; 
 
Tlie " Good'hye" Day. 179 
 
 never had. she made a mistake, and. never till 
 the day I became acquainted with Tom Smith 
 had she ever felt the touch of either whip or 
 spur. 
 
 *^ On that day the hounds — on good terms 
 with their fox — were going across a close 
 country at a slapping pace. ^Yery Lively,' 
 jostled by an awkward fellow at a weak point 
 in a stiff fence, made her first faux pas — it 
 was certainly only ^a very little one,' as said 
 Captain Marryatt's lady's-maid; however, to 
 recover her, I had to lift her with both bit 
 and spur. This indignity her proud spirit 
 could not brook ; she threw up her head, took 
 the bit between her teeth, and for a time was 
 beyond all management and control. 
 
 ^' There was but one practicable outlet to 
 the field, across which she was flying at the 
 very top of her speed — and that was a stiff 
 five-barred gate, over and under which the 
 whole pack was streaming as I approached. 
 All my efforts to turn or stop were of no 
 
180 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 avail. I saw, on iiearing the gate, that I had 
 only a single remaining chance. I gave her 
 her head ; I gave her, at the same time, both 
 whip and spur. She shot past the foremost 
 horseman, who had just pulled up — and then 
 like a rocket shot over the gate, taking also 
 the whole pack at a single stride — with three 
 hounds struggling at the time over the top- 
 most bar — and without touching a single 
 hair ! 
 
 "By the time I had succeeded in some- 
 what pacifying my irate and fiery steed, the 
 quondam ' foremost horseman' was by my side. 
 
 " ^ It is not often, sir,' observed he, ^that 
 I like to see a man go before me over a gate ; 
 but I should have been very sorry to have 
 been before you just now !' 
 
 " Well, this was my fii'st acquaintance with 
 Tom Smith; and I should like much to see 
 this his last ' good-bye day,' if such indeed it 
 is meant to be. What say you? Are you 
 game for a gallop with the Hambledon 
 
The " Good-hye'' Day. 181 
 
 hounds next Saturday from Broadhalfpenny 
 Do\Yn ?" 
 
 Staveley readily entered into my plan. Our 
 arrangements were soon made, and at tlie 
 appointed day we found ourselves punctually 
 at the meet. A glorious sun — quite a ^^ soleil 
 d'Austerlitz" — shone brilliantly on the nume- 
 rous field then assembled at Eroadhalfpenny 
 Down. Men came from far and near, to wit- 
 ness the last '^ finish" of their yeteran sports- 
 man chief — to hear the last '' whoop" of the 
 man Avho had so often afibrded them recrea- 
 tion, health, and sport — who had so often been 
 the means of baulking their doctors of the 
 accustomed fee ! "We mustered about a hun- 
 dred and fifty strong, in scarlet and black and 
 green. All the ^'beauty and fashion" of 
 Hambledon — no contemptible disj^lay of both 
 — were on the ground; and several ladies, 
 appropriately equij)ped for the chase — amongst 
 whom shone the fair '^ Huntress of South 
 Hants" — came likewise to j)articij)ate in 
 
1S2 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 the toils and pleasures of the expected 
 sport. 
 
 Many a long day had passed since I had 
 had a turn with my old Eambledonian friends; 
 and so engaged was I in greeting a host of 
 well-remembered faces, that I had little leisure 
 to bestow for scrutinising the present estab- 
 lishment of the '' Hambledon hounds." I, 
 however, missed an acquaintance of '^ auld 
 lang syne" — Squires, and also the second whip 
 of former days. Champion, the present head 
 whip, had all the appearance of being of the 
 proper sort : light, wiry, active-made, and 
 was said to be a first-rate rider. The hounds 
 — about twenty couple — struck me as rather 
 small, but seemed to be well matched, and 
 in capital condition. The horses of the esta- 
 blishment showed work ; and though they 
 proved up to the mark, yet what can be ex- 
 pected on a subscription little exceeding GOO/. 
 a year, wherewith to keep forty-five couple of 
 hounds, nine horses, and two whips ? 
 
 A 
 
Tlie " Good-hye" Day, 183 
 
 Wliatever man can do, Tom Smith has 
 done ; and that he has given general satisfac- 
 tion who could deny, on witnessing his last 
 brilliant farewell field ? That he has met 
 with one or two cavillers, is no less true ; for 
 hoAv difficult is it to please '^ all the world and 
 his wife to boot I" and what saith the poet on 
 the opinion of the multitude is most correct : 
 
 " He that depends 
 Upon your favours swims with fins of lead, 
 And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye ! Trust ye ? 
 With every minute you do change a mind ; 
 And call him noble that was now your hate — 
 Him vile, that was your garland." 
 
 Too often in the hunting-field do we find 
 this precept applicable to a few, with whom 
 one unfavourable season will efiace the recol- 
 lections of previous umivalled sport. The 
 veteran's proud spirit could ill brook the cavils 
 even of those few, who may have had some 
 imaginary cause of discontent; wherefore he 
 resigned the onerous post he had been solicited 
 to occupy — which he had so ably filled : and 
 
184 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 I sliall now endeavour briefly to describe the 
 
 glorious finale — the last splendid run, afforded 
 
 to a most select and numerous field, by the 
 
 late Master of the Hambledon hounds, on this 
 
 his last concluding day. 
 
 ***** 
 
 A more appropriate locality could not have 
 possibly been selected than Eroadhalfpenny 
 Down: the spot fixed for the '^rendezvous" 
 of the large field, assembled on the 3d of 
 April 1852 to "witness the performances of 
 Tom Smith's closing reign; in a most wild 
 and picturesque-looking valley, embosomed 
 amidst the green turfy slopes of the downs, 
 partially clad with venerable woods, brown 
 heather, or glistening imder the influence of 
 the golden and perfumed furze : 
 
 " Delightful scene ! 
 Where all around was gay — men, horses, dogs ; 
 And in each smiling countenance appeared 
 Fresh blooming health and universal joy." 
 
 Time is up! The '^ Master" arrives, and 
 
TJie " Good-bije'' Day. 185 
 
 moiints a powerful, sporting-looking chestnut 
 mare, ^ow, 
 
 " Huntsman, lead on ! Behind, the clustering pack, 
 Submiss attend, hear with respect thy whip 
 Loud-clanging, and thy harsher voice obey." 
 
 Whatever may have been Somerville's^ 
 such, however, is not Tom Smith's style of 
 leading his hounds to the covert side. All 
 was done most quietly, and as a matter of 
 course, till his fine manly and deep-toned voice 
 was heard arousing the echoes of Highden 
 Wood. He appeared to me to di-aw hastily 
 through this extensive covert, from whence, in 
 times gone by, I had seen many a good fox 
 unkennelled, and had enjoyed many an ex- 
 hilarating run. Highden proved blank ; with 
 the same unaccountable and apparently care- 
 less haste did we next try Tiglace Gorse and 
 Wood. 
 
 I could not help remarking on this appa- 
 rent remissness to an old habitue of the hunt 
 — a remissness so completely at variance with 
 
186 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 wliat I remembered of Tom Smith's usual per- 
 severing and unremitted endeavours to find 
 Lis fox. 
 
 ^^ Have a little patience," said the gentle- 
 man whom I addressed ; '•' I'll be bound for it 
 he has some object in view, and knows right 
 well what he is about. I shouldn't wonder if 
 he has an eye to Stoke Down, and to the fox 
 there, which beat him a short time ago." 
 
 My fi'iend's prognostications proved cor- 
 rect ; and to Stoke Down Gorse we now trot- 
 ted rapidly away. Here I recognised at once 
 Tom Smith of former days. Amidst an appa- 
 rently boundless extent of stiff unyielding 
 furze immediately dashed in the huntsman 
 and his whips. All their efforts were, how- 
 ever, long of no avail : there was, apparently, 
 not even the slightest appearance of a drag — 
 nothing, imder the withering influence to 
 scent, of a hot sun and dry easterly wind, to 
 encourage the gallant pack in breasting the 
 formidable thorny clievaiix de frize impeding 
 
Tlie '' Good-hye'' Day. 187 
 
 their onward progress through, the stunted and 
 prickly gorse. 
 
 ^Nearly an hour had elapsed; not a chal- 
 lenge had been given, not a tongue was 
 thrown; all — save when some complaining 
 hound got entangled amidst the labyrinth of 
 furze — all continued within the dense thorny 
 covert, silent as the grave. The forenoon was 
 passing rapidly away, the heat of the sun was 
 becoming momentarily more great, thereby, of 
 course, decreasing our chances of a run, even 
 should we be successful in a find; and al- 
 though the hounds were mute, a few croakers 
 began abeady to give tongue, and the face, or 
 rather faces, of the field became overclouded 
 with disappointment and " hope deferred." 
 
 Not so our gallant and persevering chief, 
 spite of continued failures — whatever might 
 have been his reasons — ^he seemed convinced 
 that Stoke Down Gorse contained a fox; a 
 gallant one, and one destined to give him a 
 last splendid run. 
 
188 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 The imfortimate ^' whips," whose legs had 
 been martpisecl by wading so long through 
 this ocean of nnyielding thorns, had just re- 
 mounted their nags, after pulling off their 
 boots in order to clear them of the prickly 
 furze with which they were filled ; the hoimds, 
 with drooping, blood-tij^ped sterns, sneaked 
 out, all looking most rmhappy and abashed. 
 I concluded we had — after, as I thought, 
 every possible effort — again drawn blank, and 
 that we were now about elsewhere to try our 
 luck. 
 
 Such, however, was not the case. Trotting 
 back along the edge of the '^fretful" and much 
 ^^ fretted" gorse, Tom Smith still persevered, 
 and, like a skilful general looking out for some 
 weak point in the enemy's stronghold, ap- 
 peared determined to make one effort more 
 to dislodge him from his place of strength. 
 I happened to be close behind him at the 
 moment when I observed him to check his 
 horse, as '^Destiny," a favourite bitch, sud- 
 
The " Good-lye'' Bay, 189 
 
 denly threw up lier nose and appeared to sniff 
 the '' tainted" breeze — but tainted only, as a 
 less experienced observer might have ima- 
 gined, with the powerful aroma of the flowery 
 gorse — for not even a whisper responded to 
 that whiff — 
 
 " Or in triumpliant melody conf est 
 The titillating joy." 
 
 Far otherwise, however, thought the veteran 
 chief, who intently watched and followed his 
 ^^ Destiny's" unerring steps. The hound evi- 
 dently feathered on the drag, and was eagerly 
 cheered on into the furzy brake by Smith, 
 who rode into the very midst of it himself. 
 Then next occurred an anxious moment of 
 suspense. 
 
 "Destiny" now threw her tongue ; "Bar- 
 rister" and " Barmaid" instantly resj)onded to 
 the joyful sound. The fox had evidently been 
 moved. Tom Smith eagerly exclaimed, "By 
 Jove ! here must be a fox, for I see the furze 
 quivering not two yards from my horse's feet." 
 
190 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 ^'I'll bet a tliousand pounds Tre've found 
 hinij" added lie, as lie cheered in tlie now 
 assembled pack. 
 
 A find indeed it was, and a more beautiful 
 one a sportsman could never wish, to see. We 
 were near one extremity of the gorse, around 
 which, in every direction, was scattered the 
 numerous field I have described. What if, 
 after all this trial of patience, crowned finally 
 with success, our fox should unfortunately be 
 chopped, and our anticipated sport nipped in 
 the very bud? With less skilful manage- 
 ment, such a contingency might probably 
 have occurred ; but Tom Smith, having shown 
 how by sheer perseverance he could find his 
 fox, now showed how — ^having found him — 
 he would insiure us a gallant run. 
 
 IN'ot a moment was to be lost ; the obedient 
 pack he kept so well in hand, that they fol- 
 lowed at his horse's heels, as the latter bored 
 through, or sprung over the opposing furze, 
 on which the rider now perseveringly plied 
 
The " Good-hye" Day, 191 
 
 his heavy whip. I shortly observed, inrnie- 
 diately in his front, a tremulous movement 
 midst the summits of the blossoming gorse — 
 
 an universal opening cry next proclaimed sly 
 Eeynard to be a-foot. Tom Smith had fairly 
 whipped him up, unkennelled him from his 
 snug warm berth ; he broke gallantly through 
 his suiToimding foes, full in view away, with 
 every hound well laid on, and a hundred and 
 fifty horsemen thundering in his rear. Straight 
 down wind he went; then led us at racing 
 speed for upwards of a mile, along the mag- 
 nificent, smooth, and turfy slope of Stoke's 
 undulating Down. 
 
 The pace was too good to last ; so probably 
 thought friend Eeynard, who, even dui'ing this 
 short but rapid spurt, drew after him a ^'tail" 
 fully as long as that of Dan,' the great Hi- 
 bernian fox of old. Turning, therefore, sharply 
 to the left, he next — cutting the turf — tried 
 the fallows and high lands. Here, under a 
 blazing sun, with a dry easterly wind sweep- 
 
192 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 ing oyer a hard parclied-up soil, lie probably 
 flattered himself that he could give us all the 
 slip. He had, however, reckoned without his 
 host; for Tom Smith was of another mind. 
 The scent, it is true, was often lost^ but as often 
 hit off again by most masterly forward casts. 
 
 In vain did sly Eeynard try every artful 
 dodge. The turf he liked not, the fallows 
 would not do. The hounds stuck to him in 
 covert, through Wallop, Stoke, and Erookes' 
 Woods. He tried to ring it back to Stoke 
 Down Gorse ; and next — apparently as a 
 last resource — seemed to make for "Waltham 
 Chase, taking in his way Soberton race-course 
 Down. 
 
 His previous cii'cuitous flight, together 
 with a check or two which had recently oc- 
 curred, enabled the greater part of the field 
 to come up, as the hounds hit him well off 
 again, on the northern side of the race- course, 
 when a scene took place such as is seldom 
 recorded in the annals of the chase. 
 
The '' Good-hye'' Day. 193 
 
 From the Droxforcl and Hambleclon road, 
 the race- course — a beautiful piece of turf — 
 slopes down for about a mile into the hol- 
 low, where lies imbedded the rural little 
 village of Soberton. Over this smooth vel- 
 vety slope the hounds now rattled along at 
 their topmost speed, closely followed by the 
 whole field en masse^ and having more the 
 appearance of a furious charge of cavahy 
 than aught else I can describe. Thus they 
 thundered along in the ^'race of death" which 
 was shortly to ensue ; for our fox — which 
 proved not to be a vixen, as some of the 
 *' knowing ones" had predicted — after a chase 
 of fifty minutes, at a clipping pace, was run 
 into and Idlled in an open field, close to the 
 southern extremity of Soberton race-course, 
 where this splendid '^ charge" had taken place. 
 
 Never, perhaps, was there a more brilliant 
 finale to the reign of any Master of hounds. 
 
 The steady perseverance manifested in 
 drawing for his fox; the thorough scientific 
 
 
 
194 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 knowledge of his craft, and of the habits of 
 that animal, so clearly evinced by the nature 
 of the '^find;" the self-possession and cool- 
 ness he had so opportunely shown in prevent- 
 ing him from being chopped when first on 
 foot ; his numerous and judicious casts when 
 there appeared not to be a particle of scent ; 
 the successful manner in which he had con- 
 tended throughout the day with what to some 
 would have proved the most bafiiing diffi- 
 culties, and managed to keep his pack on the 
 very best of terms with their quarry, — all tend 
 to show that the author of the Diary of a 
 Huntsman and of the Life of a Fox could 
 in an exquisite degree combine practice with 
 theory in that most difficult science of the 
 chase; a pursuit followed by so many, but 
 in which are found so few proficients, such 
 as the late Master of the Hambledon Hounds 
 has ever proved himself to be; and on this 
 occasion all agreed that he had fairly sui'- 
 passed himself. 
 
The " Good-bye'' Day. 195 
 
 A liimdred voices were loud in their con- 
 gratulations, a hundred hands pressed forward 
 to grasp that of the veteran leader of the 
 chase, a hundred applications were, in most 
 cases vainly, made for some relic of the fox, 
 to preserve as a memento of so memorable 
 a day. 
 
 In the midst of all his triumph, the ^' cliief" 
 forgot not the dictates of that gallantry for 
 which he had ever been so famed; he had 
 promised the '^last brush" to one of the two 
 young ladies who were present at the end of 
 the run. But the fair '^ Huntress of South 
 Hants" — fair in every sense of the word, and 
 one of the most graceful, accomplished, and 
 dashing horsewomen I ever beheld — jj^'^^^st- 
 ing that she had not fairly won it, most 
 courteously, and amidst miu-murs of aj)plause, 
 handed the much- envied troj)hy to her sister 
 Amazon of the chase, whom she averred had 
 been in before her at the death. 
 
 Thus smiled on by beauty, and amidst the 
 
196 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 imamnioiis plaudits of this numerous and bril- 
 liant field, was sounded the '^ whoop" of 
 *' Thomas Smith, Esq., late Master of the 
 Hambledon Hounds." 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 Publishes " The Life of a Fox, written by himself " — Visits 
 the Duke of Beaufort at Badminton, and Lord Fitz- 
 hardinge — The bull- dogs and the bear. 
 
 About 150 of tlie members and residents of 
 the Hambledon Hunt joined in presenting Mr. 
 Smith with a piece of plate, on his retirement. 
 Being once again his own master, he took 
 the opportunity of hunting with various packs 
 of hounds far and near, and enjoyed much ex- 
 cellent sport, though he could not help think- 
 ing that a mistake was now and then made 
 even by very clever huntsmen. This oc- 
 casioned him to compile a ^ small work on 
 hunting, which he stj^led The Life of a Fox^ 
 luritten hy Himself It is illustrated from 
 his own drawings ; and one plate represents a 
 gathering of foxes from various himting coun- 
 tries that had been visited by the writer, where 
 
198 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 each fox relates by what mistakes of the himts- 
 man he had saved his life. The justice of the 
 strictures was acknowledged by many Masters 
 of hounds ; and some of them even thanked 
 the author for ha^dng thus cured their hunts- 
 men of faults which they had not been able 
 to correct. The autobiography of ^^ Wiley," 
 the herOj is made the vehicle of conveying a 
 good deal of information on the habits of the 
 fox, which shows the wiiter to be a man of 
 acute observation. 
 
 Among visits that Mr. Smith paid were 
 several to the Duke of Eeaufort and Lord 
 Fitzhardinge, which deserve mention. 
 
 At Badminton he spent a week, and hunted 
 with the Duke's hounds. Long, the huntsman, 
 told the Duke that only two or three couj)les 
 of the hounds could feel the scent; which 
 seemed to be the case, as they had then 
 hunted five days Tvdthout killing. Dis Grace 
 asked Mr. Smith to speak with Long about 
 it in his presence. Accordingly he said to 
 
Visit to Badminton, 199 
 
 liim, '' If two or tliree can limit a low scent, 
 why not have a whole pack to do so ?" ^' But 
 how can such a pack be got ?" said Long. 
 Mr. Smith replied, '^By breeding only from 
 hounds that can hunt a cold scent; you'll 
 then often have a fair day's sport, when other 
 packs can do nothing; and in a short time 
 you'll have beauty as well as nose." The 
 Duke then proposed to cross with the blood- 
 hound, but was told by his visitor that it 
 would not answer. He himself had crossed 
 with Lord Ailesbury's famed bloodhound "Wis- 
 dom; and even the third cross did not do. 
 Although they had nose and deeper tongue, 
 they never tried to be at head during a run, 
 and they followed over at fences, so that they 
 would be ridden over; in fact^ they had not 
 the dash of the fox-hound. This was an 
 opinion that he had long before expressed to 
 Lord Fitzhardinge, who quite agreed with him. 
 Mr. Smith had two or thi-ee good runs with 
 the Berkeley pack; and he was much better 
 
200 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 pleased with tliem than with the two bull- clogs 
 in the dining-room, from which he once had a 
 very narrow escape. His lordship one morning 
 took his gun to shoot wild geese ; but as one 
 man has a better chance than two if together, 
 his visitor preferred to spend the morning in 
 the stable and the kennel. He was crossing 
 the moat on his way to the garden, when he 
 suddenly heard and saw the two bull-dogs 
 rushing straight at him. He instantly threw 
 his red pocket-handkerchief to a distance, 
 clapped his hands, and hallooed them towards 
 it. The noise was fortunately heard by the 
 old butler, who called off the brutes, and pre- 
 yented their doing further mischief than tear- 
 ing up the handkerchief instead of its owner. 
 "When his lordship was told of this, he shook 
 his head, and said, ^^You have had a narrow 
 escape;" which indeed seemed to be the case, 
 judging from instances that he mentioned of 
 the ferocity of these dogs. "Why he kept such 
 savages about him as he represented them to 
 
Lord Fit zhar dingers practical Jokes. 201 
 
 be, it is hard to say ; for though he was noto- 
 riously fond of practical jokes, this seemed 
 carrying that sort of thing rather too far. But 
 the yery next day he played off another joke. 
 He and his yisitor, on their "way to the stables, 
 passed a hutch in "which a large bear was 
 lying, confined by a chain ; and he called Mr. 
 Smith's attention to it, getting him to come 
 quite close. Then he quietly loosened a large 
 heavy block, which lay on higher ground, and 
 it rolled down on the bear, which, being 
 struck on the paws, growled furiously, and 
 darted out to the extreme length of its chain, 
 to the amazement, if not terror, of one of the 
 party. Yet, in spite of these drawbacks, the 
 visit to Eerkeley Castle was a most agreeable 
 one, and Mr. Smith was frequently afterwards 
 invited. 
 
 As may be guessed from the expression 
 of Mr. Smith, that '^he had reduced fall- 
 ing to a science," it was at the cost of many 
 a broken bone that he gained that knowledge ; 
 
202 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 but the most severe accident that ever befell 
 him was not in the hunting-field, but at the 
 Eotley railT\^ay station. He arrived there one 
 evening from London, and it being very dark, 
 he did not perceive that the train had stopped 
 before reaching the platform. On stepping 
 out, he fell, his shoulders coming heavily on 
 the further rails, and he was taken up sense- 
 less. Eecovering a little, he was laid on the 
 floor of the carriage, and conveyed to Bishop's 
 Waltham, when he insisted on being placed 
 in his rough pony-carriage and taken home, 
 knowing from experience that the motion 
 would prevent the blood congealing. The 
 doctor thought that both his collar-bones were 
 broken ; and so they were, but that had been 
 in hunting years before. This accident con- 
 fined him to the house for three months. 
 
 One remarkable accident occurred to him 
 in his seventy-fifth year, which may be no- 
 ticed here, although it is not the last that has 
 befallen him. The homids were running a 
 
A dangerous Fall, 203 
 
 fox, a few couple ouly leading, wlien they 
 went oyer the fence into the enclosure at 
 Wickham Lodge. !N'early all the field went 
 on to the gate, but one man stayed with him ; 
 and they both went over the fence together. 
 Unluckily one horse fell, and threw his rider 
 close before Mr. Smith. He, to avoid him, 
 pulled his horse on one side, and so came in 
 contact with a branch of an oak-tree, which 
 caught him in the chest, and knocked him 
 backwards over the tail of his steed. He fell 
 heavily on his head and shoulders, and suf- 
 fered great pain; but he mounted his horse, 
 and joined the other men. They lu'ged him 
 strongly to go home, but he told them that 
 this was contrary to his practice; and he re- 
 mained with them to the end of the day. 
 However, he could not hunt again for several 
 weeks ; which was no wonder, as a distin- 
 guished steeple-chase rider out that day stated 
 that this was one of the most dangerous of 
 falls. 
 
204 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 For this and for other -wonderful escapes 
 Mr. Smith sincerely trusts that he may never 
 close his eyes at night without retiu-ning his 
 humble thanks to the Almighty, who has so 
 mercifully preserved him, enabling him to 
 exceed the allotted age of man, without hav- 
 ing to say, '^ Few and evil have been the days 
 of my pilgrimage." 
 
 As to gim accidents, which sportsmen so 
 frequently suifer from, Mr. Smith has had 
 several narrow escapes; but he never met 
 with any other damage than the charge of 
 small-shot which he received when a boy. 
 One narrow escape was when shooting with 
 Mr. Campbell Wyndham in Eottom Coppice. 
 He hajDpened to be placed near a noble lord ; 
 and whilst they were chatting in a low tone, 
 his lordship's piece went off, and the charge 
 passed over his companion's shoulder. His 
 lordship, not at all disconcerted, shouted out, 
 '' Mark, cock I" and put his finger to his lips ; 
 thus enjoining secrecy on his companion. 
 
Gun Accidents. 205 
 
 Though Mr. Smith knew that the ^'accident" 
 was the result of mere carelessness, he com- 
 forted himself with the idea that it might 
 have been worse, as happened to Lord Evers- 
 ley at Easing Park. Mr. Smith was invited 
 to be of the party ; but he did not arrive till 
 the second day, when he found that his lord- 
 ship had left, having been accidentally shot in 
 the eye by one of his fellow sportsmen. Mr. 
 Smith wrote to condole with his lordship ; and 
 in a few days received a note from him, in 
 which he said that he was recovering from the 
 accident, but added, '^They did not tell you 
 the best part of the story, which was, that, 
 after I had been shot myself, I brought down 
 the bird shot at 1" 
 
 The next day he saw a young sportsman 
 in a plantation of high fii's, who was kneeling 
 on one knee, intently waiting to knock over 
 any hare or rabbit, and quite forgetting that 
 he was within shot of a gun on each side. 
 Mr. Smith roused him by asking whether he 
 
206 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 also wislied to be shot in tlie eye, in preference to 
 receiving the charge on his thick leather leggings. 
 A nearly fatal accident occurred quite re- 
 cently to another friend, and which is men- 
 tioned here as a warning to those who delight 
 in novelties. Last August Mr. Smith received 
 a haunch of venison from Lord Gage, and a 
 day or two after came a letter, dated from 
 Firle Park, in which his lordship said : ^^ I, 
 directly after shooting the deer, wished to try 
 the merits of the new gun-cloth ammunition ; 
 and I shot at a water-lily in my water three 
 times with it, each shot of which dropped in 
 the water short of the mark aimed at, al- 
 though I rested my gun against the tree to 
 steady the aim. I then took my son's gun 
 to fire the fourth charge, when it burst at the 
 breech, and both locks were diiven away ; one 
 of which passed close to my son's head, and 
 the stock was blown to atoms ; one part passed 
 over my shoulder, and tore off a large piece of 
 the bark of the tree." 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 Life at Fir Hill — Serves the office of High Sheriff of Hants — 
 Various suggestions and improvements. 
 
 Having finally retired from tlie mastership 
 of hounds, Mr. Smith naturally expected to be 
 allowed to withdraw himself altogether from 
 public life. ^N'ot that he desired to live idly, 
 as the following pages will show, being quite 
 prepared to fulfil all the ordinary duties of a 
 country gentleman ; but he was disappointed. 
 The higher powers called on him to serve the 
 office of High Sheriff of his native county of 
 Hants for the year 1858 ; and he entered with 
 all his accustomed energy on this new field of 
 duty. On his very first attendance at the 
 courts at Winchester he was forcibly struck 
 by the amount of crime that seemed indis- 
 
208 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 putably traceable to the utter want of decent 
 sleeping accommodation among the cottagers ; 
 and the practical result of his exertions was 
 the formation of a society for building addi- 
 tional bedrooms to cottages, so that no cottage 
 should have less than three ; Avhich has already 
 done much good in his district, and well de- 
 serves to be imitated in others. A plan of the 
 least expensive of these cottages is given. 
 
 On the same occasion, whilst as High 
 Sheriff he was awaiting the arrival of the 
 Judges at the railway station, two recruiting 
 parties came in, which, as he learned on in- 
 quiry, had obtained only two recruits in six 
 weeks; and on being asked the reason, 'they 
 replied that '^ the people didn't like soldiering 
 now." This Mr. Smith mentioned to the 
 magistrates, when spending the evening with 
 him, according to custom, and he suggested 
 that the boys in parish- schools should be 
 taught the rudiments of drill by the police, as 
 likely to give them a taste for the army. The 
 
Hint on Eecruiihig, 209 
 
 Duke of Cambridge heard of this from some 
 one ; and Mr. Smith shortly after received an 
 ">flB.cial letter from the Horse Guards, thanking 
 him for the suggestion, which, as it said, 
 H.E.H. the Commander-in-Chief considered 
 the most valuable and practical suggestion 
 that had been offered on the subject of recruit- 
 ing for the last half century. 
 
 Shortly before the time that the Yolunteer 
 movement was begun, but when uneasiness had 
 been already created by the swaggering speeches 
 of the French Colonels, Mr. Smith was present 
 at a dinner given at Alresford to the Master of 
 the Hampshire Hounds, and the company paid 
 him the usual compliment of drinking his 
 health as an old Master. In returning thanks 
 he recommended the gentlemen and farmers of 
 the Hunt (about 150 were present) to practise 
 rifle-shooting, so that they might be prepared 
 to form a mounted troop of fox-hunters. The 
 matter was a good deal talked of; and the re- 
 sult was the formation, some six months after, 
 
 p 
 
210 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 of the now well-known First Hants Light 
 Horse, or, it is more commonly called, the 
 Droxford troop ; Colonel Bower, to whom the 
 great success of the corps is justly to be attri- 
 buted, being a resident in that village, and his 
 efforts being efficiently seconded by Mr. Charles 
 Sartoris, of Warnford Park. Mr. Smith holds 
 the post of guide in this corps ; and though he 
 served in his father's company nearly sixty 
 years before, he has shown that he is an '^ effi- 
 cient member," and so earns the Government 
 grant ; for on a comparatively recent occasion 
 he hit the target at 900 yards with the short 
 rifle of the corps, and afterwards hit the target 
 twenty times following, scoring 32 points. 
 Proof positive of good eye and good nerve at 
 75 ! The late Lord Herbert of Lea, who had 
 often himted in the Craven when Mr. Smith 
 was Master, took great interest in this mounted 
 corps, and he wrote to his friend, promising to 
 visit him at Droxford on his way home after 
 the session of Parliament, in order to witness 
 
Model of a Locomotive Battery. 211 
 
 its system and drill. Illness, however, pre- 
 vented this, and he went abroad for the winter. 
 He returned to England in the following July, 
 and wrote to Mr. Smith from Dover, saying 
 that the state of his health rendered it impos- 
 sible for him to visit Droxford. This must be 
 one of the very last letters written by this 
 most amiable nobleman, as it bears date but 
 three days before his death ; and it is hardly 
 necessary to say that the relic is most carefully 
 preserved. 
 
 It has been stated that in early days Mr. 
 Smith was destined for the military profession ; 
 and though he was obliged to adopt another 
 line in life, he has ever retained a lively in- 
 terest in matters connected with "the pride, 
 pomp, and circumstance of glorious war." The 
 account of the doings of the Confederate ram 
 Merrimac, and the Monitor, led him to turn his 
 attention to the u.se of iron in warfare; and the 
 practical result was the construction of the 
 model of a locomotive battery to travel on 
 
212 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 common roads. It consists of a cupola, con- 
 structed of iron, armed with one heavy gun, 
 but large enough to hold, beside the gunners, 
 ten riflemen armed with breech-loaders. He 
 sent the model to Lord Palmerston at Eroad- 
 lands, who passed it on, with the expression 
 of his high approbation, to the War Office. 
 Then it was examined in the Ordnance Depart- 
 ment ; and Mr. Smith soon after had a letter, 
 stating that the battery was a most decided 
 novelty, but that circumstances did not call for 
 its adoption at present. The model was after- 
 wards, by Her Majesty's command, taken to 
 Osborne for her inspection, and it has since 
 been exhibited in the Hampshire Loan Collec- 
 tion at Southampton in August 1866, where it 
 excited much attention. The reader will gain 
 some idea of what the locomotive battery is 
 like from the accompanying sketch. Its size 
 is proposed to be 12ft. high, 18ft. wide, 18ft. 
 long, which would allow it to move along any 
 ordinary road by means of Boy dell's endless 
 
Tramway on Ryde Pier. 213 
 
 railway. Such batteries being stationed near 
 the coast might easily be placed in threes, so 
 as to command every road threatened with in- 
 yasion, and again shifted, if necessary, to follow 
 the motions of the enemy. 
 
 It may here be mentioned that in the same 
 Exhibition were two spirited pictures by Mr. 
 Smith; one being a sj)orting piece, representing 
 the stag at bay in the New Forest, already 
 alluded to, and the other a scene of yillagers 
 preparing for the marriage of the clergyman's 
 daughter next day. 
 
 A visit that Mr. Smith paid to Eyde, where 
 an invalid relative of his was resident, led him 
 to devise the tramway on the pier that has 
 since been carried out, and adds so much to 
 the comfort and convenience of all who resort 
 there. He sent the plan to Captain Brigstock, 
 an active director of the Pier Company, who 
 soon wrote to say that it was highly aj)i3roved 
 of, and Avould be carried out forthwith; but 
 that the feeling among the porters, piermen, 
 
214 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 &c. was such that if the projector appeared 
 on the pier, he woukl stand a chance of being 
 throAvn over. This feeling, if it ever existed, 
 has long died away, as the tramway has been 
 found as advantageous to these men as it is to 
 the public, enabling them to earn a better liv- 
 ing, and with less labour, than formerly. 
 
 JVIr. Smith having in early life given much 
 attention to agriculture, and having always 
 retained his interest in the subject, was led to 
 think that the sewage matter of towns might 
 be turned to good account in place of the im- 
 ported guano, the stock of which bids fair to 
 be soon exhausted. Accordingly he prepared 
 a plan for so dealing with the sewage of Lon- 
 don, which he submitted to the Speaker, at 
 the time that a committee was sitting on the 
 subject of the purification of the Thames. The 
 Speaker in return sent him a number of official 
 reports on the subject of the application of the 
 sewage of towns, and expressed his concur- 
 rence in his views. His plan was very like 
 
Thames Embankment and Ptailicay. 215 
 
 what lias since been adopted. He proposed to 
 have a drain 30 feet wide between the Thames 
 and the honses on its bank ; to intercept the 
 sewage, and convey it to a few miles from 
 London, where it might be prepared as manure 
 and sold; also to replace the present shabby 
 waterside premises by handsome buildings, 
 with a broad road in front, having a stone 
 wall to keep out the river, and with space also 
 for a railway, if desired ; in short, as may be 
 seen from the accompanying plan, a foresha- 
 dowing of the Thames embankment and rail- 
 way at present in progress. 
 
 When, some years since, it was proposed 
 to make a sunken road through Hyde Park, 
 Mr. Smith sent a suggestion to Lord Carlisle, 
 the Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, 
 on the subject. His proposal was, that the 
 earth excavated should be deposited in the 
 Serpentine by means of a movable tramway, 
 and be spread over the bottom ; thus reducing 
 the depth of water to four and a half feet, and 
 
216 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 so removing all fear of fatal accidents from im- 
 mersion during frosts, by which, the expense 
 of the Eoyal Humane Society's receiving- 
 houses, icemen, medical attendance, &c. "would 
 be saved, and yet sufficient depth of water left 
 for summer-bathers and pleasure-boats. And 
 if the road should not be made, earth for the 
 above purpose could readily be found by re- 
 moving small mounds, thus levelling the park, 
 and improving its general appearance. 
 
 Waltham Chase, which is in the neighbour- 
 hood of Mr. Smith's residence, was enclosed a 
 few years ago, when allotments were made to 
 the cottagers ; but they were not able to turn 
 them to much account for want of a plough. 
 Mr. Smitli saw at the Colchester Agricultural 
 Show a newly introduced one-horse plough, 
 which seemed to him just suited to their cir- 
 cumstances. It was made by Eansom, of 
 Ipswich, and was called the Buffalo. He 
 bought one, which he tried on his own land, 
 where it was drawn by his old white cob, 
 
Improvement of Pasture-land, 217 
 
 thirty-five years old, and it ploughed an acre 
 a day. He then lent it to the cottagers, 
 where it did equally well. He sent an ac- 
 count of its performances to Eansom, who 
 afterwards informed him, that in consequence 
 of his letter being published, he had sold up- 
 wards of 2000 of these ploughs in eighteen 
 months. 
 
 The renovation of worn-out pastures is a 
 matter that Mr. Smith has pursued with great 
 success. His plan is as follows. A turf 
 three inches thick is turned over by a plough, 
 to the hinder part of which two iron tires are 
 attached, which break up the hard ground at 
 the bottom of the fuiTOw to the depth of four 
 inches : a man follows, who drops in suitable 
 manure. When the pasture has been thus 
 gone over, the tires are removed, and the 
 plough replaces the tui'f. Eolling shortly re- 
 moves all trace of the plough, and the improve- 
 ment of the pasture is remarkable. 
 
 Mr. Smith's garden at Dr oxford is sur- 
 
218 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 rounded by nearly all the trees in the village ; 
 consequently the birds hardly allowed a single 
 bunch of currants or any other fruit to ripen. 
 To keep off these marauders he has devised 
 the following plan, which is not only effectual 
 in saving the fruit from being devoured, but 
 also allows him to have it in perfect condition 
 much longer than his neighbours; the cur- 
 rants, for instance, generally remain nearly till 
 Christmas. He built a wall ten feet high, 
 with southern aspect, against which cherry- 
 trees are trained. At the foot of the wall are 
 strawberries. Then come, trained on wire, 
 gooseberries, currants, and raspberries in rows, 
 with narrow paths between. Iron rods j)laced 
 here and there serve to support a sloping roof, 
 front, and sides of galvanised iron wire netting, 
 three quarters of an inch mesh ; and the whole 
 is secured with a door and lock and key. The 
 ^^ safe," as it may be termed, is 60 feet by 10 
 feet; and the cost of the whole was under 10^. 
 Two inventions by Mr. Smith, which must 
 
Clip]pmg Horses, 219 
 
 be of especial interest to sportsmen, remain to 
 be noticed, viz. clipping horses, and the " Iron- 
 Dnke" bit. 
 
 In the year 1814 he had an old chestnut 
 hnnter, whose coat was so long, that after a 
 day's hunting it was almost impossible to get 
 it dry till the next day. He therefore desired 
 his groom to cut off the long hair from the 
 underpart of the body ; but the effect was so 
 frightful, that, directly he saw it, he seized 
 another pair of scissors and assisted the groom 
 in clipping the horse all over ; not having the 
 use of a comb, of course it was notched dread- 
 fully. A few days after this he rode the 
 horse to meet the Hampshire hounds at Brook- 
 wood, causing great amusement, especially 
 when Foster, the huntsman, exclaimed, '^ Why, 
 Mr. Smith, the rats have been eating your 
 horse's hair off." He replied, ^^!N'ever mind; 
 he'll go the faster for it," which was verified, 
 for he certainly did; and Admiral Halkett 
 bought him for eighty-five guineas. This be- 
 
220 Memoir of Tom Smith. 
 
 coming knoAyn to Lord Eobert Grosvenor, lie 
 had his old black hunter properly clipped, 
 which before Avas supposed to be worn-out by- 
 age ; in consequence, as his lordship was often 
 heard to say, of the clipping, he afterwards 
 carried his rider as well as when he was 
 young. This brought the system into fashion ; 
 and certainly every groom ought to touch his 
 hat to Mr. Smith, as it is a wonderful saving 
 of labour, and allows one man to do three 
 horses in the time he would have to give to 
 two, beside the clipped horses looking so much 
 better. 
 
 The well-named ^^ Iron-Duke" bit enables 
 light weights effectually to control the most 
 spirited horse without injuring it; and it may 
 well be called also the ^' safety bit" for ladies 
 and children, as no horse will pull against it. 
 Like others of Mr. Smith's inventions, it was 
 devised off-hand, to meet a present emergency. 
 He had a desperately vicious horse, which 
 ran away with him on Eroadhalfpenny Down. 
 
The''Iron-DuJce'' Bit 221 
 
 Finding tliat he had no control over the beast, 
 he leant forward, when he at once discovered 
 the cause, namely, that his tongue protruded, 
 so that it formed a cushion, and thus prevented 
 the bit resting on the sides of his mouth. The 
 horse ran straight to and over the fence of 
 Highdown "Wood, imtil it was stopped by a 
 high ash stem. Mr. Smith then dismounted, 
 tore off the strings of his waistcoat, and tied 
 the bit under the tongue. When they got 
 again on the down, the horse started off, but 
 was instantly stopped without the slightest 
 difficulty, though he groaned with rage at 
 being thus beaten ; and from that time a lady 
 or ^;hild could stop him, even when with 
 hounds. Mr. Smith gave the proper direc- 
 tions for making the bit to Mr. Xachford, and 
 it very soon came into use. Among other 
 gentlemen. Sir Hemy Peyton tried it ; and so 
 highly did he approve of it, that he ordered it 
 for all his twelve horses, both for riding and 
 driving, and he told the maker that it was the 
 
222 Memoir of Tom Smith, 
 
 best bit be bad ever seen, and that bis letter 
 migbt be published. 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter 
 to Mr. Smith from Mr. Miles, who wrote that 
 clever work, On the Horse's Foot: ^^It has 
 long been an object with me to get a bit 
 which will give me perfect control of my horse 
 without inflicting torture on the poor beast; 
 and that I have accomplished in your bits. 
 The number and variety of bits now by me 
 which I have tried bear ample testimony to 
 the sincerity of my wish; and I shall cer- 
 tainly continue to make use of your bit both 
 for riding and diiving, and shall advise all 
 my friends to do the same," &c. 
 
 This gentleman was a perfect stranger to 
 Mr. Smith; and it may be right to remark 
 that the latter has no interest in the bit, ex- 
 cept the hope and belief it may be useful. 
 
 The foregoing are but a sample of various 
 suggestions and improvements that have had 
 their rise in the quiet of a Hampshire vil- 
 
Postscript. 223 
 
 lage. More might be added ; but probably 
 these will suffice to show that Thomas Smith of 
 Droxford has done some good in his gene- 
 ration. 
 
 POSTSCEIPT. 
 
 Mr. Smith's recipe, after a fall with hounds, 
 was put to the test on Saturday, l^ovember 
 24th last. During a good run with the Ham- 
 bledon hounds, and when within three miles 
 of the finish, his horse swerved directly after a 
 leap, and carried his rider against the branches 
 of a large tree, which struck him on the face, 
 and knocked him backwards, clean over the 
 horse's tail. He was stunned, and felt great 
 pain, but insisted on being helped on his 
 horse, stating that he always after a fall found 
 it best to keep the blood in circulation by 
 riding, and never omitted to drink a small 
 glass of vinegar, which he was now enabled 
 
224 Memoir of Tom Smith. * 
 
 to get at a cottage close by. Lulling liis pain, 
 lie rode after and overtook the hounds within 
 thi-ee miles; and the fox was actually killed 
 close under his horse's nose, when the attempt 
 to halloo "Whoop" convinced him that his 
 ribs were fractured. This mishap gave him a 
 month of idle time, which he has endeavoured 
 to turn to account by assisting in the pre- 
 paration of this book; and now that he is 
 again in the saddle, he is quite ready to 
 agree that it is an ill wind that blows no 
 good. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 \l 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 iiCBSON AND SON, GKEAT KORTHERN PRIITTINa WORKS, 
 
 TAIfCKAS KOAD, S.yf. 
 
^•- 
 
Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 Cumnnings School of Veterinary Medicine at 
 Tufts University 
 200 Westboro Road " 
 North Grafton, MA 01536