AMOUS Fox Hunter 7NISCENCES OF THE LATE Thomas MssmTON Smith, John E, EardleyWilmofc Ba~ / THOMAb Beg" to solicit the favour <. Which include many original designs and new material unobtainable elsewhere. Masters of Hounds and Gentlemen waited upon in any part of the country by appointment. ' -» {^ •-^ so •-CJ n CO BIiACK, STEEXi, ^ OXFORD MEZiTOSr Waterproofed by the "Bain but not Air-proof" process. MAKERS OF THE CEIjEBRATED KNICKERBO CKER- BRE ECHES. 32, BROOK P" '^'^r of South Molton St.), London. A^ "*' werpool. Telegraphic Ad ' ^. LONDON.' ANDERSONS' HUNTING WATERPROOFS GIVES PERFECT PROTECTION TO THE CRUTCH AND KNEES. PRICES 12/6, 14/6 & 18/6. tNT.STA.HALL.ANOERS0^IS•L0N0O^. " Since last hunting season Messrs. Anderson, Anderson, and Ander- son, the Waterproof Manufacrurers, of 37, Queen Victoria Street, London, have improved upon their well-known ' Bailey ' Waterproof Hunting Apron, so that the wearer can put the garment on much more easily and quickly than heretofore. The improvement consists in having a longer strap fixed on the right side of the apron, so as to pass through a square, tongueless ])uckle (attached from the left side) with brass roll, aud then bringing it back to buckle in front towards the right side. The method and position of fastening the apron will doubtless be fully appreciated compared with^ the old method when once tried. There are besides other minor improve- ments connected with the strapping round the legs."— /-and and Wafer, November 12, 1892. ANDERSON, ANDERSON, & ANDEKSON, THE WATERPROOF MANUFACTURERS, 37, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET. E.G. / (^ T£. BROWN & SON'S BOOT PREPARATIONS SOLD EVERYWHERE. Patent Leather Made Ij E.BROWN&SON /<7- TNfm MANUFACTORY CARRICK ST London MELTONIAN BLACKING .VIELTONIAN CREAM (As UBC'l in the Uoyul Uousehold) renders the Boots Soft, Durable, and "Waterproof. WHITE OR BLACKi ^ cannot be Equal led for Renova- ting all kinds of 01ac6 Kid Boots and Shoes ROYAi, NONPAREIL DE 6UIGHE '■"^"'*1 SE*!*" PARISIAN POLISH (LIGHT OR DARK). | The best for ('or varaishing Dress Boot and Sboea) is more elas Cleaning and Polishing Rus- sian nnd Brown Leather Boots, Tennis Shoes, &c. tic and easier to use than any other. 7, GARRICK STREET, LONDON, W.C, And 26, RUE BERGERE, PARIS. r -/^iJ-^Hl t / // -/////.J c^T/!^^^^r//y'^^/^i/.?!/i^'' A FAMOUS FOX-HUNTER REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE THOMAS ASSHETON SMITH, ESQ OB THE PUESUITS OF AN ENGLISH COUNTRY GENTLEMAN BY SIR JOHN E. EARDLEY-WILMOT. BART, FIFTS AND CHEAPER EDITION WITH FOBTBAIT AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY Limited §t gunstan's ^onst Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.G. 1893 {All rights reserved'] ( PREFACE TO FIFTH EDITION. It is many years since this book was Avritten, and more than one generation of sportsmen has grown up since that time. I believe, however, that there are very few hunting men who have not heard of the prowess of Assheton Smith with hound and horn, and that all lovers of the chase will welcome a reprint of the Memoir of him by my father, the late Sir J. E. Eardley-Wilmot, Bart.* The First Edition appeared when I was a school boy at Old Charter- house in the City, and I remember being sent to the office of the Sporting Magazine to copy out the verses on the celebrated Billesdon Coplow Run, and spending several hours at the work. Alas^ the best part of half a century has passed since that day. , In conclusion I may add that I was named after the subject of the Memoir. William Assheton Eardley-Wilmot. * Sir J. E. Eardley-Wilmot died on the 1st February, 1892, at the good old age of 81. I PREFACE, After the death of Mr. Assheton Smith, his Widow entertained a strong desire to rescue his character from the reflections which had been cast upon it by one of the leading journals. Feeling that justice had not been done him, she requested the author, who may rather be called the compiler, of the following narrative, to draw up a Memoir. For this purpose, she authorized him to ask permission of the Editor of the Field to make use of the able and interesting articles which from time to time appeared in that publication, descriptive of the life and pursuits of Mr. Assheton Smith, and which she considered gave the •best and most accurate representation of the character and qualities of her husband. This being willingly accorded, the author promised his assistance, and had many conver- sations with her on the subject of the Memoir, in which she evinced the deepest interest. In fact, it appeared almost wholly to occupy her thoughts during the few months she lived after the death of Mr. Smith. Only a short time before she died, but when as yet her illness had not assumed an alarming aspect, the author went expressly to Torquay by her desire, to receive her instruc- VI PREFACE. tions respecting it ; but on liis arrival she was too ill to see him and he never afterwards saw her again. Some letters and memoranda in her own writing, showing how anxious she was for the realisation of her wishes, have been delivered to him since her death, by one of her nearest relatives, who was with her during her last illness. He has tlierefore undertaken the task as a solemn duty committed to him, to be discharged as zealously as if her life had been spared, but with sincere regret that she has not been allowed to witness its performance. In endeavouring faithfully to record what materials he has been able to collect, respecting the life and character of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of British sportsmen, he has had much gratification in being able, from his per- sonal knowledge of him, to pay this humble tribute to his nobler qualities as a man and as a Christian. The text of the articles in the Field has been incor- porated into the following pages, not always word for word, or in the order in which the anecdotes appeared, but as they blended best with the current of the narrative. The author returns his grateful acknowledgments to several friends of the late Mr. Assheton Smith for authentic particulars respecting him ; and for their kind assistance in a labour rendered somewhat arduous, in consequence of the very long period of time which has elapsed since Mr. Smith was in the zenith of his reputation as a rider and master of hounds. His thanks are especially due to the Eev. Henry Fowle, of Chute Lodge, near Andover, who lived with Mr. and Mrs. Smith for many years on the most intimate terms of friendship, and heard many of the raciest and most characteristic anecdotes from the mouth of the callunt sportsman himself. PREFACE. Vll The genealogical acoonnt of the ancestors of the Ted- worth family has been derived from "Sir. William Craven, of Clifton, to whom the author also expresses his obli- gations. Bath, Decemler, 1859. 9ALL TABLE AT TEDWOKTH HOUSE. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGB Preliminary observations. — Birth and parentage of T. Assheton Smith. — Anecdotes of his childhood. — He is sent to Eton. — His fight with John Musters. — Subsequent pugilistic encounters. — Entered at Christ Church, Oxford. — Becomes famous as a cricketer. — Begins to hunt in Leicestershire with Hugo Meynell. — Billesdon Coplow, 1800 1 CHAPTER II. He succeeds Lord Foley at Quorn in 1806, and hunts Leicester- shire until 1816. — Anecdotes of his Quorn career, and of his associates. — Succeeds Mr. Osbaldeston in Lincolnshire, and keeps the Burton country until 1824. — Ceases to be master of hounds for two years, during which he hunts at Belvoir and in the neigh- bouring countries. — Resides in 1826 at Penton Lodge, Andover, and creates a new hunting country in that region. — His marriage. — Takes possession of Tedworth on the death of his father. — Famous run over Salisbury Plain 23 CHAPTER III. r Stud at Tedworth. — Mr. Smith's frequent falls ; his adroitness in encountering them. — Favourite hounds at different periods ; his powers of fascination over them. — His skill in managing refractory horses. — Lord George Bentinck 44 CHAPTER IV. Rebuilding ofTedworth; Mr. Smith goes to reside there in 1830. — Description of his kennels and stables. — More favourite hounds. — The great annual meeting at Tedworth. — He represents Andover and Carnarvonshire in Parliament. — His corps of Yeomanry reviewed by the *' Iron Duke." — Some account of Vaenol and Mr. Smith's estates in North Wales. — Slate quarries of Llanberris 60 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. His love for science and ship-building. — He builds several sailing and steam yachts. — His claim to be the practical originator of the "wave line" considered. — Counter-claim set up by Mr. Scott Russell. — Opinions of Mr. Robert Napier and Sir Roderick Mur- chison on the subject 82 CHAPTER VI. Grand meet at Rolleston in 1840. — Mr. Smith builds the great conservatory at Tedworth. — Tries hydropathy. — Anecdote of the fox-hunter who tried it. — Worcester and Porthdynllaen Railway, — Mr, Smith fined for an assault. — He hunts the TedvvorthHounda until a short period before his death. — His severe illness at Vaenol in 1856, and partial recovery. — Relapse and death in 1858 9^ CHAPTER VII. PAGB His character. — Personal appearance and habits. — Impetuosity of temper. — His generous disposition. — Skill in games and sports. —Kindness to animals and liberality to his servants. — His strong sense of justice. — High character as a master of hounds, and as a daring horseman. — Testimony of his contemporaries 123 CHAPTER VIII. Mr. Smith's favourite huntsmen and whips, Dick Burton, Tom Day, Tom Wingfield, and George Carter. — Carter's recollections of his master.— Mr. Ferneley's picture of the Tedworth Hunt.— Beneficial iufluence of hunting on our national character. — Death of Mrs. Smith, and her disposal of the family estates 162 APPENDIX. I. — Cricket matches 193 II. — Nottingham elections, 1818 and 1820 199 III. — Billesdon Coplow Poem 201 IV.— The Melton Hunt, 1813 207 V. — Quorn in 1816 ; and fox-hunt at Leicester 211 VI. — How to get a reluctant fox out of covert 212 ILLUSTRATIONS. I. — Portrait of Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq., from A P.VINTIXG BY CooPER Froutispiece. 2.— Hall Table at Tedworth House Paga vii 3. — Portrait of *' Gayman " 24 4.— Part of Principal Entrance to Stables at Tedworth 61 5.— Foxes' Heads on Kennel Door at Tedworth 63 ^ 6.— Mr. Smith's Steam Yacht " Sea-Serpent," from a Drawing in the Library at Tedworth 129 ^ 7. — Thomas Assheton Smith. Esq.. on " Ayston," with Dick Burton, his huntsman, and some favourite Hounds, T-aoM the Painting by Ferneley 173 On ! ye wno knew his healtWul day, And saw him make triumphant way O'er frowning fence, o'er hill and dale,— Saw him the swollen brook assail. And with what ease he could efface The various obstacles of Chase, Say— Who could beat him in its race ? Avon, from the Sporting Magaxhi* Venatu invigilant pueri, silvasque fatigant ; Flectere ludus equos, et spicula tendere cornu At patiens operum parvoque assueta juventus, Aut rastris terram domat, aut quatit oppida hello Canitiem galea premimus ; nee tarda senectus Debilitat vires animi, rautatque vigorem.— ViRa J?. . REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE THOMAS ASSHETON SMITH. CHAPTER I. PBELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. — BIRTH AND PARENTAGE OP T. ASSHETON SMITH. — ANECDOTES OF HIS CHILDHOOD. — HE IS SENT TO ETON. — HIS FIGHT WITH JOHN MUSTERS. — SUBSEQUENT PUGILISTIC ENCOUNTERS. — ENTERED AT CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD. — BECOMES FAMOUS AS A CRICKETER. — BEGINS TO HUNT IN LEICESTERSHIRE WITH HUGO MET- NELL. — BILLESDEN COPLOW, 1800. Nunc Athletarum studiis, nunc arsit equorum. — HoRAT. Most of the ingredients in national character are universal in their characteristics, and belong to no particular time or place. The statesman, the orator, the poet, the warrior, standing out in relief on the records of every country, give to those who come after them, throughout the universe, high aspirations fr.r noble thoughts and noble deeds. On the other hand, all nations have some pursuits and some features peculiarly their own, strongly marking out and distinguish- ing their inhabitants by an unmistakable individuality, and influencing them either for good or evil. It would be curious to examine how far the occupations of men tend to elevate or degrade their tone of thought or action. This was a science reduced to practice by the Spartans, among whom moral education was always closely blended with B 2 REMINISCENCES, ETC. physical exercise. Their history proves that athletic sports may strongly influence the character of a nation. While the lovers of the chase require no social nor philo- sophical motives to bespeak their attention, this considera- tion may induce even those who are only familiar with fox- hunting by description to look with favour on the following memoir. The manly amusement of fox-hunting is entirely, and in its perfection, exclusively British. Its pursuit gives hardihood, and nerve, and intrepidity to our youth, while it confirms and prolongs the strength and vigour of our ijaan- hood ; it is the best corrective to those habits of luxury and those concomitants of wealth which would otherwise render our aristocracy effeminate and degenerate ; it serves to retain the moral influence of the higher over the lower classes of society, and is one of the strongest preservatives of that national spirit by which we are led to cherish, above all things, a life of active energy, independence, and freedom. It might be added that, in a political point of view, its beneficial effects are not small as regards the employment of labour, the market of home-grown produce, and the maintenance of our superior breed of horses, most valuable for the purposes either of war or peace. Addison, who was a Secretary of State as well as a cele- brated essayist, thus advocates the healthful benefits of the chase when the Spectator pays a visit to Sir Roger de Coverley : " For my own part, I intend to hunt twice a week during my stay with Sir Roger ; and shall prescribe the moderate use of this exercise to all my country friends as the best kind of physic for mending a bad constitution and preserving a good one." The physician Galen also recommends hunting as one of the healthiest of diversions ; and Cervantes, in his " Don Quixote," thus emphatically upholds the pursuit : "Hunting," said the Duke to Sancho Panza, " is an image of war ; in it there are stratagems, artifices, and ambuscades, to overcome your enemy, without hazard to your person" (he is speaking BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 3 of hunting a more dangerous animal than reynard) ; " in it you endure the extremities of heat and cold ; idleness and sleep are despised ; the natural vigour is confirmed, and the bodily frame rendered active and supple, * Toil strings the nerves and purifies the blood ; * in short, it is an exercise which may be enjoyed without prejudice to anybody, and with pleasure to many. There- fore, Sancho, when you are a governor exercise yourself in hunting, for assuredly you will find your account in it." The gentleman of whom we propose to give some anec- dotes was a model ot the British fox-hunter. He was for exactly half a century a master and owner of hounds. Of iron nerve and constitution, he was, by universal acknow- ledgment, the best, as he was the foremost, rider of his day. "We shall see, however, in the course of the following pages, that fox-hunting was not his only pursuit. As a most useful country gentleman, a good classical scholar, an excellent man of business, warmly devoted to science, and a generous distributor of his wealth, he turned to a good and useful account those mental, physical, and worldly advantages wherewith Providence had liberally endowed him. Thomas Assheton Smith was born in Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, London, on the 2nd of August, 1776. His grandfather, Thomas Assheton, Esq., of Ashley Hall, near Bowden, in Cheshire, had assumed the name of Smith on the death of an uncle, Captain William Smith, who died without issue. Captain Smith was a son of the Right Hon. John Smith, Speaker of the House of Commons in the first two parliaments of Queen Anne, and who had been in the preceding reign Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Ashley Hall estate had come into the family by the marriage of Katharine, daughter and heiress of William Brereton, Esq., with Ealph Assheton, Esq., of Kirkby, near Leeds, second son of Sir Bichard Assheton, of Middleton in Lancashire, b2 4 REMINISCENCES, ETC. The estate was sold in 1846 by the subject of the present memoir to Mr. (now Lord) Egerton, of Tatton Park. Mr. Assheton Smith was also a descendant of the feudal lords of Assheton-under-Lyne, in Lancashire, described by Dr. Ormerod, of Sedbury Park, the historian of Cheshire, as "the knightly family of Assheton-under-Lyne," whose ancestor, Ormus Magnus, the Saxon Lord of Heletune, and founder of the Church of Ormskirk, married Aliz, daughter of Herveus, a Norman nobleman, grandfather of Theobald Walter, Lord of Amounderness, and Chief Butler of Ire- laud. Mr. Assheton Smith's mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Watkin Wynn, Esq., of Voelas, North Wales. His father died at the family mansion of Tedworth, Hants, on the 12th of May, 1828, aged seventy-six. The family consisted of eight children, three sons and five daughters. The eldest son died in early infancy. The third, William, a gallant officer in the Royal Navy, and who distinguished himself by his good conduct as lieutenant of the Temeraire in the glorious battle of Trafalgar, met a premature death by drowning, in the early part of the year 1806, in the heroic attempt to rescue some fellow-creatures from a similar fate. Thus the subject of our memoir, Thomas, the second son, alone survived to inherit the family estates. Of his five sisters three were married ; viz. Jane, who became Mrs. Satterley ; Elizabeth, who married Major William Buckler Astley ; and Emma, who became Mrs. Illingworth, and subsequently Mrs. Jervis. Two died unmarried ; viz. Fanny and Harriet. An only daughter of Major Astley married Captain Duff, whose son, George William, inherits, by the will of the late Mrs. Assheton Smith, the landed property and slate-quar- ries in Caernarvonshire. Mr. Smith never alluded to the melancholy death of his brother William without evincing deep emotion. On his epitaph, in the church at Tedworth, we find this record of his act and life : — JUVENILE DAYS. 9 Co tf)t iHtmorg OF WILLIAM ASSHETON SMITH, SECOND {surviving) SON op THOMAS ASSHETON SMITH, Esq. of tedwokth. he was bred to the sea, and was lieutenant of the temeraire * in the battle of trafalgar ; in which by his bravery and conduct he contributed to that glorious victory. on his return to england he was appointed to the namur i when being at anchor near st. helen's A BOAT WITH FOUR MEi>f IN IT, BELONGING TO A SHIP, GOT ADRIFT IN A VIOLENT GALE. HIS HUMANITY, EQUAL TO HIS BRAVERY, URGED HIM TO LEAP INTO ANOTHER BOAT FOR THE PURPOSE OF SAVING THEM. BUT IN THE GENEROUS ATTEMPT HE WITH SEVEN MEN LOST THEIR LIVES, ON THE 16tH of JANUARY, 1806, IN THE 24tH year OF HIS AGE. 0> TO RECORD THE VIRTUES OP A BELOVED AND GAI LANT SON THIS MARBLE IS BET UP BY HIS AFFLTCTEB FATHEE. Of the boyhood of Mr. Sirltli there exist but scant} re- cords. An anecdote, however, which he related of himself, at a late period of his life, shows that when quite a child he evinced that inflexible and stubborn resolution which was throughout life a ruling principle of hi^ character. While walking in the shrubbery at Tedw^orth, with the friend who has kindly contributed many smecdotes to the present memoir, the more valuable because committed to memory * The Temeraire was in the hottest part of the action, and engaged with two French ships at the same time 6 REMINISCENCES, ETC. and carefully cherished during a long and uninterrupted intimacy, he pointed out an old yew-tree which had wit- nessed the infliction of corporal chastisement on him by his father for some fault of which he persisted in declaring he was innocent. " It was under that tree," he said, " that I then made a solemn vow never to do anything from violence or compulsion, and on that principle I have always acted in after-life." I have reason to believe, adds his friend, that he observed this vow as religiously as did the youthful Hannibal the famous oath imposed upon him when only nine years old by his father Hamilcar. Acts of parental severity were, in conformity with the lesson he learnt on this me- morable occasion, condemned by Mr. Smith, and his maxim was that kindness and reason will always effect more with children than the use of the birch. He occasionally adverted to the above circumstance in another way. There was a pic- ture of him over the anteroom at Tedworth, painted when he was about four years old. His white felt wide-awake is in one hand, the other resting on the back of a large greyhound, the only dog of that description Mr. Smith said he ever had. The countenance of the youngster rather shows that something has gone wrong with him. Mr. Smith's friends used jokingly to remark this to him, and he said that, just before this picture was taken, his father met his nurse and himself near the yew-tree before mentioned, when the nurse said, " I can do nothing with Master Smith, Sir ; he will do nothing he is told." His father without another word laid the child across his knee, and gave him a severe whip- ping. This, Mr. Smith remarked, appeared to him so extremely unjust, — namely, to inflict punishment before his parent heard what he had to say, that he from that hour determined never again to do what he was told under a threat of compulsion. The first accident Avhich ever befell him was some time before the above flagellation, and al/nost in his earliest childhood. His mother found him lying on his nurse's lap, CAREER AT ETON. 7 and looking like a tench just taken out of the water, in a gasping state. " What is the matter with the child ? " she inquired. ^^ Nothing ; he is doing nicely,'' replied the nurse. Upon examination, however, Mrs. Smith found that he had succeeded in disgorging a large pin which he had swallowed, and which he was munching as boys do lolljpops. In 1783, when only seven years old, he was sent to Eton, at that time, as it is now, indeed, the best school in England for making a man at once a scholar and a gen- tleman. He was the youngest boy in the school when he went, and he continued there until 1794, a period of eleven years. It was here that he first acquired that ardent love for athletic exercises, for skill and pro- ficiency in which he was afterwards so eminently dis- tinguished. He excelled especially in cricket, and his fondness for this noble game he long retained in after-life, as these pages will fully testify hereafter.* Boating was also one of his favourite diversions. His Eton career is, however, rendered most memorable by his famous battle with Jack Musters, still spoken of by Etonians as one of the most hard-fought and severe contests ever recorded in the annals of youthful pugilism. So equally were these young champions matched, that their protracted struggle ended in a drawn battle. They shook hands, and, to the credit of both be it recorded, the most perfect harmony and high feeling towards each other existed between them ever afterwards. Both were masters of hounds, and both were celebrated as first-rate horsemen as well as sportsmen. t * Vide Appendix, No. I. t Mr. Musters is well known to every reader of Lord Byron as the successful rival of the poet for the hand of the beautiful Mary Chaworth, whom he married on the 17th of August, 1805. He was one year younger than Tom Smith when the remarkable encounter between them at Eton took place, their ages being respectively 17 and 18. The battle lasted an hour and a half, and both were so punished at the close, that in the last round they could not distinguish each other. Mr. Musters, on coming of age in 1798, had his own pack of hounds. It was said of him that he could ride, fence, fight, play at tennis, swim. 8 REMINISCENCES, ETC. Mr. Smith's skill ia pugilistic eucounters, and his de- termined courage in standing up, even against superior strength, served him in good stead on various occasions afterwards, especially when, as master of hounds, he came in contact with " roughs," who imagined they might bully him with impunity. Two or three anecdotes relating to this subject may well find a place here. Orator Hunt was a bold rider, and, like Mr. Smith, well able to use his fists. During the Oxford career of the latter, Mr. Warde's hounds were once drawing South Grove, when some remark of Mr. Hunt's provoked a sneer from Tom Smith. Fierce words ensued on both sides, and they were in the act of dismounting to settle it then and there, when fortunately a fox was hallooed away, an attraction which neither could resist. " I always regretted this interruption," said an eye-witness of the scene, " for depend upon it this fight would have been well worth seeing, although Hunt had the advantage in weight and height ; but for all that," he added, " I would have backed the squire." Mr. Smith's father was once riding about his farm, when lie heard the report of a gun. Galloping up to the spot, to ascertain who was the trespasser, he found Orator Hunt, who had just shot a hare. While the latter and old Mr. Smith held no very friendly parley, Hunt's brother, who was deaf and dumb, came up and offered the old squire the hare. This was, in Mr. Smith's mind, an addi- tional insult, and, not knowing that the man was dumb, he mistook his attempts to make himself understood for mockery, which he was about to resent, when his brother, seeing his mistake, observed sarcastically, " Are you not ashamed thus to insult a deaf and dumb man?" This appeal to his feelings, which were always most sensitive, shoot, and play at cricket with any man in Europe. In almost, if not all of these accomplishments, he would have found his match in the subject of our memoir. He died at Annesley Park, Notts, on Septera-- ber the 8th, 1849. PUGILISTIC PROWESS. 9 immediately cooled the old gentleman's ire ; the trespass ■was at once forgotten, the amends made, and the squire and the dumb sportsman kept bowing to each for five minutes, like a couple of Chinese mandarins. The Orator, however, continued to shoot away as merrily as ever after Mr. Smith's departure, while the keepers did not dare to inform their master, for fear of a second explosion. When hunting in Lincolnshire, in 1818, Mr. Smith was solicited to stand for the borough of Nottingham ; an undertaking at that time as hazardous as for a Tory to stand for Westminster against such an idol as Sir F. Burdett then was. The very peril, however, was an in- ducement for Tom Smith to come forward ; and a recep- tion such as was to be expected awaited him. The town was placarded with " No Foxhunting M.P.," and the electors carried their virulence so far as to dress up a guy with a red coat and a fox's brush appended to it, which they burnt in ef^gy before the hustings. Mr. Smith's appearance there was the signal for a most tremendous row ; and not a word of his speech, when he came forward to address them, would they hear. Thei^, however, he remained, in defiance of their yells and hooting, till at last with a stentorian voice, heard above the uproar, he cried out, '' Gentlemen, as you refuse to hear the exposition of ray political principles, at least be so kind as to listen to these few words. I will fight any man, little or big, directly I leave the hustings, and will have a round with him now for love." The eflfect of this argumentum ad homines was electric. It had touched a sympathetic cord. Instead of yells and groans, there were rounds of cheers ; and from that hour to the end of the contest, in which, after a hard struggle, he was beaten,* not a single attempt at molestation was offered to him. On another occasion, when about to enter one of the banking-houses at Leicester, he hitched his horse's bridle • For further details of the contest vide Appendix, No. II. 10 REMINISCENCES, ETC. over the iron rails in front of the bank. While his master was inside, the horse stood across the street. A coalheaver coming by with his cart gave the nag a flanker with his whip, which nearly sent him into the bank window. This brought out the squire. " Why did you strike my horse ? " was the inquiry. " Because he was in my way," was the reply. " Defend yourself," was the rejoinder ; and the coalheaver doffed his smock frock while the squire but- toned up his coat and turned up his cuffs. At it they went with a hearty good will. For the first time in his life Tom Smith found he had got his match and something more to contend with ; for the fellow stood six feet and weighed fourteen stone. There was no flinching on either side, and they followed one another up and down the street as closely as a loving couple in a country dance. The noise, however, Boon brought the constables, and the combatants were sepa- rated amidst the cheering of the crowd. " You will hear of me again," said the squire to his resolute antagonist, as he mounted his horse and rode quietly away. So they parted, each having had apparently pretty well enough. Mr. Smith went out to dine with his friend Edge, to whom, although much punished, and it is reported with a beefsteak over his eye, he told the story with great relish. On the following morning the squire's groom was seen inquiring where the coalheaver lived. His residence having been pointed out, the man knocked at the door for some time. At last it was opened by his wife. " Does the man live here who fought the gentleman by the bank 1 " in- quired the servant. " He did live here, if he is still alive," replied the poor woman, "after the terrible beating he got yesterday." Groans were heard from a bed on which the man was lying, having the fear of an arrest for striking a gentleman before his eyes. " Mr. Smith has sent me to give you this five-pound note, and to tell you, that you are the best man that ever stood before him." " God bless his honour," exclaimed the fellow, jumping up from LIFE AT ETON. 11 the bed, for he was more frightened than hurt, and being greatly relieved by this unexpected and fortunate turn of events. Thank him a thousand times. I dearly arned the money, for his blows are like the kick of a horse ; but tell him for all that, to show my gratitude, I will fight him again any day for love." This anecdote speaks well for both. It turned out on inquiry that this man was the champion of the surrounding country and the terror of the neighbourhood. Therefore we may hope that the bruising he met with from a gentleman, whom, doubtless, before the " mill," he held very cheap, did him good. Many years afterwards, when Mr. Smith was upwards of seventy years of age, he evinced the same daring spirit. A rough country fellow threw a stone at one of his hounds, for which the squire struck at him with his hunting whip. "You dared not strike me if you were oflf your horse," said the clodhopper. In a moment the squire had dismounted and had raised his hands in artistic attitude, upon which the cowardly rascal fairly took to his heels and fled, amidst the jeers and ridicule of his companions. This scene occurred at Chapmansford, before a large field of sportsmen, who will well recollect the circumstance. To return to his early boyhood. He was fond of adding to the statement of his having been eleven years at Eton, the remark, " and while there 1 learnt nothing." Here, however, the squire did not do due justice to Etona Mater. No sharp-witted lad can pass through the wholesome disci- pline of a public school and pick up nothing. Even allow- ing that such a character as that of Mr. Smith would have distinguished itself tinder the application of any species of scholastic discipline, yet in his case the emulation, and high tone, and chivalrous feeling to be found in a public school, must have been eminently advantageous. Mr. Smith was always strongly in favour of the fagging system, as teaching boys to do many things useful to them in their future career, and giving them an independence of 12 REMINISCENCES, ETC. thought and action of the greatest service to them after- wards in their professional struggles. His maxim was, that if a boy were not well thrashed when he was young, he would most probably need it when he became a man ; and he ridiculed the idea, that because a youth had brushed clothes, or cooked a mutton-chop for his master at Eton or Winchester, his feelings or demeanour as a gentleman would be injuriously influenced when he grew up. It is notorious that those who most cheerfully endured the hardships in the Crimea, and roughed it best, were public schoolmen. Even as regards scholarship, Mr. Smith could not have quitted Eton without benefit. Where otherwise did he acquire that taste for classical literature which characterized him through life 1 Where did he get his love for Horace, so as to be able to quote long passages with enthusiasm 1 Horace and Pope were his favourite authors, and he knew the whole of the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard by heart. He was also an enthusiastic admirer of Shakspeare, and fre- quently cited parts of his plays with great emphasis and feeling. The magnificent lines in Hamlet, where Polonius gives his parting advice to Laertes, beginning, " These few precepts in thy memory, look thou character," he often repeated with much force and vehemence of delivery, "suiting the action to the word," and said they were the finest that ever were written. He laid particular stress on that passage : " This above all, to thine own self be true ; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." In the sentiment here so nobly conveyed may be traced the mainspring of his conduct in after-life. There was, however, one part of Polonius' advice which the squire did not strictly follow out in his own person, nor exactly put faith in ; namely, on the subject of dress : ** Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy. For the apparel oft proclaims the niau.** HOW HE LEARNED ARITHMETia 13 He was never very studious of his personal appearance, except as to neatness in his youthful days, although he looked thoroughly the gentleman. Until quite late in life he hardly ever wore a great coat. One of these lasted twelve years ; no small proof that its services had not very often been required. His friends persuaded him at length to ex- change this for one made of the fashionable material of the present day, warm and woolly, but light ; this, however, he said did not suit a sportsman of the olden time, and he seldom donned it except in the most inclement weather. He always maintained that the temperature of the body and an equal flow of animal spirits are better maintained by active movement than by additional clothing ; and as for physic, he " would not even throw it to the dogs ; " remem- bering the lines of Dryden : " Better to hunt in fields for health unbought. Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught." What, however, Mr. Smith did not learn at Eton was arithmetic. This most useful science he acquired to great perfection during the time he was laid up at Melton Mow- bray, in consequence of a severe fall while hunting, when he broke his ankle. While limping about the town, and be- wailing the hard fate which kept him from the hounds, he happened to enter the post-office, and seeing the young woman who assisted in it, and who was very good-looking, casting up a bill rapidly, he said : " I wish you would teach me arithmetic." The bargain was soon struck, and with the help of his pretty instructress, by whose side he was as gentle as a lamb, added to Joyce's arithmetic, he completed his education in this branch of science in six weeks, and was ever after remarkable for his skill in figures and calcu- lations. Not only was this knowledge rendered available by him in acquiring practical knowledge of shipbuilding, but it served him also in the management of his estates^ the accounts of which he always minutely inspected himself. 14 REMINISCENCES, ETC. During his annual visit to Yaenol, in the autumn season, he scarcely ever missed for a single day going down to the port and looking over the books in which were entered the transactions of his slate-quarries. He always used to say that no gentleman could be much imposed upon who super- intended and looked into his affairs as closely and regularly as he did. In 1794 young Smith quitted his favourite haunts at Eton to become a gentleman commoner at Christ Church, Oxford. Long before this period, however, he had served his youthful apprenticeship in the hunting-field : Puer Ascanius raediis in vallibus acri Gaudet equo ; jamque hos cursu, jam praeterit illos. — ViRG. His first rudiments in this noble sport had been acquired, when he was quite a child, with some rabbit beagles at Sedbury Hill ; and he soon afterwards accompanied his Other's pack of foxhounds on a pony. These hounds for many years hunted alternately hares and bag-foxes, and showed some famous sport in both capacities. Even at this period his father was justly proud of his son's superior horsemanship, though the old gentleman confessed to a friend, from whom the following anecdote is derived, that he was not a little jealous of it. The father of Mr. Assheton Smith, relates our informant, stated that once at his club a party of sportsmen were speaking of the riding of Sir Henry Peyton and his son, and some one present remarked that no father and son could beat them ; upon which the old gentleman observed : " I will back a father and son against them for £500. "When requested to name his couple, he replied : "/ am one, and Tom Smith (as he invariably called his son) the other." Whereupon the bet was declined, with this handsome compliment, that " the Tom Smith had long since been an exception in every match, his superior horsemanship being so generally acknow- ledged" ANECDOTE OF HIS FATHER. 15 And yet the late Sir Henry Peyton and his son,* the present baronet, were incontestably first-rate riders as well as sportsmen. Nimrod, speaking of the Peytons, places the father in the front rank, and after describing his good qualities, remarks that nothing more is wanting to complete the portrait of a perfect horseman ; while of the son, he says : " I scarcely know in what terms to speak of him. Were I to declare that from all I have seen and all I have read of him he is the boldest and best horseman England ever pro- duced, I should be afraid of looking upon the wall and seeing Assheton Smith, John White,t and half a score more crack names staring me in the face, and ' Hold hard, Nim- rod,' in big letters. But, really, taking him over the country and over the course, he must be as near excel- lence as human ability and physical energies can place any one."t On another occasion, although of course long subse- quently to his leaving Oxford, Mr. Smith's father said that he went on a visit to his son, then residing at Quorndon Hall and keeping the hounds ; Mr. Smith, sen., was mounted on a splendid horse belonging to his son, and they had a splendid burst over the cream of the country, with a whoop at the end. While Tom Smith was holding up the fox to throw into the hounds. Lord Alvanley observed, " How I wish your father had seen this finish." " Depend upon it he has," replied Tom Smith, without looking up ; "and I advanced," related the old squire, who told the anecdote himself, " and made his lordship a low bow." " Was your father a good rider 1 " asked a neighbour * A writer in the Sporting Magazine, October, 1834, signing himself " A Eambler in Green," calls Mr. Peyton " the best horseman in England." t " What a one Captain White's Merry Lad was for rails in a corner, he popped over for all the world like a deer ! " — Silk and Scarlet, t "Hunting Reminiscences," p. 267. 16 REMINISCENCES, ETC. once of the son. *' He was what was then considered such," was the reply ; " but on a very different principle to what I have adopted, and simply this, — he clung on by his hands^ and / by my legs'' * The old man always spoke with gratitude and admi- ration of the extraordinary alacrity evinced by his son on one occasion, when news was brought to him in the hunting- field that his father was dangerously ill. There were no railroads nor telegrams in those days ; but Tom Smith, simply by hm^se power, without changing his dress, and only stopping on the road to get a fresh hack, taking the first that presented itself, arrived at Tedworth almost as soon as they thought the intelligence had reached him, and at a most critical time. Doctors were differing as to the expediency of bleeding the invalid, which Dr. Cline t recommended. Tom Smith at once decided with Cline ; and thus, in all human probability, saved his father's life, for he rallied immediately after this course of treatment had been adopted ; the coma from which he was suffering being the result, as Cline had suspected, of his having been upset in his phaeton at Yaenol some time previously.}: We have no very minute details of young Smith's career at the University, where he remained four years. He hunted regularly while at Christ Church ; and mostly with old John Warde's hounds in Oxfordshire and Northampton- shire. He also excelled as a batsman in the cricket-field on Cowley Marsh and Bullingdon, was a fearless swimmer, and could pull a sturdy oar upon the Isis. During the long vacation his father used to make up cricket- matches for him on Perriam Down, celebrated as the most agreeable meetings * This is what he always termed his "gripe on a horse." + He went round by London, whence his own chariot with four post-horses brought Dr. Cline down. ;J: Before Dr. Cline arrived, the doctors who attended him, supposing he was suffering from debility, had ordered him nutritious food and stimulants ; but as there proved to be slight concussion of the brain, he was getting rapidly worse in consequence of this treatment. SKILL AS A CRICKETER. 17 in Hants, for the hospitality of Tedworth was open to the players and their friends ; while the fair sex had their share of the day's amusement by the festivities being closed with a dance. For the purposes of social enjoyment nothing can exceed a good cricket-match in the grounds of an English country gentleman, provided always the skies be auspicious. The sport has far more variety and excitement, and far less formality, than archery ; and if the ladies cannot have a share in the actual game, they have their interest in the contending sides, and there is always, or ought to be, an abundance of spectators to make the time pass agreeably. Another great advantage of cricket is, that the game can be participated in by all ranks of society ; by which means a healthy and kind feeling is kept up between the higher classes and those beneath them ; the peer and the peasant, by meeting together, learn to value and respect each other, without any inconvenience arising from familiarity on either side. This remark is applicable to fox-hunting, but in a minor degree, in consequence of the more expensive and therefore more exclusive character of the latter pursuit. On leaving Oxford, Tom Smith became a member of the Marylebone Club, and a regular attendant at Lord's.* In the appendix to this Memoir will be found some • The Marylebone cricket ground was opened in 1787, and called Lord's, after Mr. Thomas Lord, the lessee. The first match played on the "new ground," as it was termed, took place on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd June in that year, between five of the White Conduit Club, with six picked men, and eleven of All England. The game was won by the latter. The club had originally met in White Conduit Fields, but afterwards the cricket ground was on the present site of Dorset Square, where the above match took place. It was transferred to its present site in St. John's Wood about the year 1810. The late duke of Dorset was one of the oldest supporters of the game, but had nothing to do with Dorset Square. His grace had succeeded to his title when a boy at Harrow, and is said to have always had a double thrashing when punishment was awarded to him by his schoolfellows, — one for hia oflFence, and the other because he was a duke. C 18 KEMIXISCEJCCES, ETC. details of the most celebrated cricket matches in which he was engaged from 1802 to 1820. It appears that he played on the side of the gentlemen in the first match they ever undertook against the players of England. It is remarkable that the side on which he played was almost invariably successful ; and he may be said to have been one of the best batsmen of his day. Mr. Smith's devotion to cricket, however, only served him for diversion during the summer months, while the hounds were idle. At the fall of the leaf he was promptly in the saddle again. He used to say, many years after- wards, that on the 1st of November his Hampshire wood- lands "stripped for business." He always loved to begin early, for he remarked that when foxes have been once rattled they are not so easily found by fox takers or keepers. Before he devoted himself to fox-hunting he was a first-rate shot ; but in the latter part of his life he seldom handled a gun, though the extensive turnip-fields about Tedworth afibrded excellent partridge shooting to his friends, and his keepers always turned out capital dogs. Mr. Smith used, while a youth, always to shoot the first week of a season at Sutton, a large farm belonging to his father near Winchester race-course, which the old gentleman subsequently sold, as was said at the time, to pay for the Quorn establishment. A circumstance that tells well for the seller ought not to be omitted. His man of business told him th^ a Mr. Meyler (whose property joined his, and who was afterwards killed by a fall from his horse in the New Forest) would give him a fancy price, considerably more than the estate was worth. To his honour, Mr. Smith, senior, desired the attorney to ofier it to this person first, and at its market value. He, however, declined it, and it was bought by Mr. Wickham. " His son was riding, the first time I ever saw him," relates a friend who met him out with Mr. Warde's hounds at South Grove, about this period, " in a green coat, on Black Marquis, a famous and favourite horse of his father's, and, THE BILLESDEN COPLOW RUN. 19 as usual, alongside of the hounds. Coming to a formidable ditch, the old horse, to his rider's great surprise, stopped short, when, without turning him, he made him take the fence standing, observing : * You and I will be soon better acquainted.' And so it proved, for Marquis refused nothing else in the run." As early as the year 1800, when the subject of our memoir was only twenty-four years old, we find him sig- nalized in song, as a most successful and daring rider. In the celebrated run from Billesden Coplow, on the 24th February, in that year, when Mr. Meynell * hunted the Quorn country, four gentlemen only, with Jack Raven the huntsman, were up at the finish (when they changed foxes at Enderby), although the best horsemen of the day were out. There were several copies of verses written on the occasion, which quizzed many, and commended few. Those who love hunting, and can enjoy it, will not be displeased with a quotation from one of the songs. **Two hours and a quarter, I think, was the time ; It was beautiful — great — indeed 'twas sublime : Not MeyneU himself, the king of all men, Ere saw such a chase, or will ere see again. > Tom Smith in the contest maintained a good place ; Tho' not first up at last, made a famous good race. * Mr. Me3mell was considered the first fox-hunter of his day. He bought the mansion at Quorndon of Earl Ferrers, and, after a residence there of nearly fifty years, he disposed of it to the earl of Sefton in 1800, upon the death of his eldest son, which took place May 17th in that year. Mr. Meynell died at Bradley, in Derbyshire, December, 1808, in his seventy-fourth year, universally lamented. He was the first who established order and discipline in the hunting-field, more by his good- humoured pleasantry than by the assumption or exercise of any authority over others. When two young and dashing riders had headed the hounds, he remarked, *' the hounds were following the gentlemen, who had very kindly gone forward to see what the fox was about." His grand meet at Quorndon Hall, in 1791, given to the first nobility and gentry of England, was second only to that given to Mr. Assheton Smith at EoUeston, in 1840. C2 20 REMINISCENCES, ETC. I'm sure he's no reason his horse to abuse. Yet I wish he'd persuade him to keep on his shoes . You must judge by the nags that were in at the em/, "What riders to quiz, and what to commend." * The hand of our hero, so long afterwards renowned for its handling the slack rein like a skein of silk, nnist have served him well even at this period, in so tremendous a flight, and before a whole host of the best riders in Europe. A few years later, in a song on a chase run by the Duke of Rutland's hounds, written by Lord Forester, Tom Smith is recorded as having been the only man who could stop the hounds when they were running head '' over Belvoir's sweet vale." Well, indeed, might it be remarked of him, " that amidst the multitude of Smiths, there was only one Asshe- ton Smith." Until Mr. Smith made his dehut as a master of foxhounds in Leicestershire, he continued to hunt in Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire. John Warde, the " father of fox- hunting," as he is styled by Nimrod, and " glorious John," by his brother sportsmen, hunted the Craven country at that time, and used to come up in March every year for two or three weeks to Weyhill, where the hounds had a tempo- rary kennel. Until Mr. Smith, however, cleared the coun- try in 1828, after he came into possession of the Ted worth property, at the death of his father, much sport was impos- sible. The riding of Dick Knight, huntsman to the Pytchley at the time Mr. Smith had the Quorn, was of a character very similar to that of our squire. An annual visitor to Northamptonshire was in the habit of riding as close to Dick as he could, but was invariably beaten in a run. At the commencement of one season, the gentleman was on a new horse, a clipper. He said to Knight, " You * These verses are an extract from Mr. Bethel Cox's poem. The one best known and most celebrated was by the Rev. Robert Lowth, son of Dr. Lowth, formerly bishop of London. As it has become very scarce, it has been thought worthy of insertion at full length in the Appendix, JOHN WARDE AND HIS PACK. 21 won't beat me to-dav, Dick!" "Won't I, sir," was the reply. " If you do, I'll give you the horse," said the gen- tleman. The one rode for the horse, the other for his honour. At last they came to an unjurapable place, which could only be crossed by going between the twin stems of a tree, barely wide enough to admit a horse. At it went Dick, throwing his legs across his horse's withers, and got through. The horse was sent to him next morning. While Mr. Warde hunted the Craven country, Mr. Smith once went during a hard frost to see his celebrated pack. The ground was covered with snow and was as hard as cast iron, but at the pressing solicitation of Mr. Smith, the old Squire of Squerries* permitted Neverd, who then hunted his hounds, to take them to Winding Wood, a covert of Mr. Dundas's, just to find a fox, but with positive orders not to let them leave covert. Tom Smith was riding Blue Ruin, a favourite hunter of ]\Ir. Warde's (who also rode out), and as soon as they found their fox, he slipped a couple of guineas into the huntsman's hands and told him to hand over his horn. No sooner was this done than the fox broke covert, and away went Smith sailing by the side of the hounds. The scent, as is often the case in a frost, was breast high, and regardless of the state of the ground, the young squire, as usual, took every fence that presented itself After a very sharp run, the hounds swung back into the wood where they had found. Here the horsemen found old Warde in a towering passion, exclaiming that his hounds would be cut to pieces, and his favourite horse spoilt. " Only give me five minutes more and I will kill your fox," said Mr. Smith ; which being assented, or rather submitted, to, for denial was useless, was soon accomplished. Tom Smith brought out the brush, and presented it with this flattering speech : " Your hounds, sir, are the best I ever rode by the side of, and I will give you three hundred guineas * The family seat in Kent. 22 REMINISCENCES, ETC. for Blue Ruin." This pacified the placable old master, who often afterwards related the anecdote with no little zest. He, however, refused to sell his favourite hunter. Mr. Warde was a master of hounds for fifty-two years; he was twenty- two years in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, thirteen in Northamptonshire, six in the New Forest, and eleven in Berkshire. The famous Bob Forfeit was his huntsman in Oxfordshire. Mr. Smith had the highest opinion of his breed of hounds, and took some of them with him into Lincolnshire. Mr, Warde's mastership of hounds exceeded in length of time that of Mr. Smith by the interval the latter hunted at Belvoir, after he left the Burton coun- try.* There was an excellent song written in 1823, when Mr. "Warde hunted the Craven country, of which the fol- lowing is one of the stanzas : — " Here ia health to John Warde, and success to his hounds : Your Quornites may swish at the rasper so clever, And skim ridge and furrow, and charge an ox fence ; But will riding alone make a sportsman ? No, never ! So I think we'd just send them some tutors from hence. In the van place Charles Warde, Fulwer Fowle, you'll accord, With Villeboisf and Wroughton, might teach them the ground ; And if they'd be ruled, or deign to be schooled. They might yet take some hints from John Warde and his hounds." * Two years, viz. from 1824 to 1826 ; Mr. Smith was a master of hounds from 1806 to 1858, barring these two years. t " In a difficult bad-scenting plough, and wet woodland country, few men that ever I saw," writes one who often hunted with the Craven, " could hunt a fox better or ride closer to his hounds than old Ben Foot, huntsman to the late Mr. Villebois, who formerly lived with Sir Thomas Mostyn. One day, when we were running a ringing fox with a flash- ing scent in Stipe, a well-known covert, just as Foot got his hounds well settled, a farmer hallooed a fresh fox at the other extremity of the covert. Upon this Foot stopped his horse, and fell a * moralizing' tlius ; * How hignorant, sir, some folks be ! Now can't he see that we be engaged to this fox ? ' " 23 CHAPTER II. HE SUCCEEDS LORD FOLEY AT QUORX IN 1806, AND HUNTS LEICESTER- SHIRE UNTIL 1816. — ANECDOTES OP HIS QUORN CAREER, AND OF HIS ASSOCIATES. — SUCCEEDS MR. OSBALDESTON IN LINCOLNSHIRE, AND KEEPS THE BURTON COUNTRY UNTIL 1824. — CEASES TO BE MASTER OF HOUNDS FOR TWO YEARS, DURING WHICH HE HUNTS AT BELVOIR AND IN THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. — RESIDES IN 1826 AT PENTON LODGE, ANDOVER, AND CREATES A NEW HUNTING COUNTRY IN THAT REGION. — HIS MARRIAGE. — TAKES POSSESSION OF TEDWORTH ON THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER. — FAMOUS RUN OVER SALISBURY PLAIN. "Never did I heai' Such gallant chiding ; for besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seems all one mutual cry. I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder." Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1806 Mr. Smith left Nortliamptonsliire, and collecting a first-rate pack from different kennels, the best portion having been purchased for 1,000 guineas of Mr. Musters, of Colwick Hall, on that gentleman's giving up the Nottinghamshire country, he succeeded Lord Foley at Quorn. Here, with a fine stud and with splendid hounds, he kept the game alive for ten years, during which time the sport he showed was unrivalled. His feats of horsemanship, his excellent management of the hounds, and the fields he drew together, will live in Leicestershire as long as fox-hunting is dear to Englishmen as a national sport. It may be almost said, that, even at this remote distance of time, the wood- lands and open of that unrivalled country still echo with the music of his gallant pack. During his stay in Leices- tershire, Mr. Smith resided at Quorndon Hall, and had a no 24 REMINISCENCES, ETC. less celebrated sportsman than Mr. Thomas Edge, of Strel- ley Hall, Nottinghamshire, as his messmate for some time. It was said of Edge, although he weighed twenty stone in the saddle, that no man could beat him for twenty minutes. His brother John was no less fast after hounds. Tom Edge had three splenciid horses, Banker, Gayman, and Remus. For the first and third of these conjointly, Lord Middleton offered him two thousand two hundred guineas, which offer was refused, as was that of Mr. Compton, who not only offered Mr. Edge 1^000 guineas for Gayman, but fifty pounds for one day's mount on him from a particular covert. Gayman carried his owner every Monday for nine seasons in succession. " Mr. Edge and Mr. Smith were an uncommon silent pair. Mr. Edge (who was always styled Mr. Smith's ' better half,') seldom spoke unless Mr. Smith said something to him. Mr. Smith would never let him have more than a pint of port a day ; he said he would get too fat. Mr. Edge used to pound away on that great big horse of his, Gayman : queer-looking creature it was, thin neck, large head, raw hips, and a rat-tail, for all the world like a great seventeen-hand dog-horse. " — {Silk and Scarlet, p. 61.) Gayman was bred by Mr. Moore, of Appleby, whose son Tom sold him, when six years old, to his brother-in-law, Mr. Edge, for 250 guineas. This horse used to be styled in the Quorn Hunt, " the skeleton cart-horse ; " and his masters, " the Ajax " of the heavy weights. Tom Edge's weight, however, did not cause him to do like the heavy farmer in the story, who used to remain a quiet spectator on high ground while the hounds were running hard below. His ideas ran chiefly on the inconvenience of a heavy weight, especially as he was losing the sport in consequence of it ; and he used to exclaim, rubbing his hands, '' Bless me, how the}' are a physicking on him !" After giving up Leicestershire, where he was succeeded by MR. smith's QUORN MANAGEMENT. 25 Mr. Osbaldeston, Mr. Smith took his stud in 1816 to Lincoln to work the Burton Hunt. He held this capital country for eight years, until 1824, when he was suc- ceeded by Sir Richard Sutton, and, after an interval of two years, duiing which he hunted chiefly at Belvoir, went into Hampshire. The celebrated Nimrod,* who was an eye-witness, thus testifies to Mr. Smith's management of the Quorn : — " Lord Foley was succeeded in the possession of the Quorn hounds by that most conspicuous sportsman of modern times, Thomas Assheton Smith, who kept them eight or nine seasons. As combining the character of a skilful sportsman with that of a desperate horseman, per- haps his parallel is not to be found ; and his name will be handed down to posterity as a specimen of enthusiastic zeal in one individual pursuit, very rarely equalled. Mr. Smith did not become a master of fox-hounds because it was the fashion to be a master of fox-hounds, neither did he go a hunting because others went a hunting, neither did he ride well up to his hounds one day and loiter a mile behind them the next. No : from the first day of the season to the last he was always the same man, the same desperate fellow over a country, and unquestionably possessing, on every occasion and at every hour of the day, the most bulldog-like nerve ever exhibited in the saddle. His motto was, * I'll be with my hounds ;' and all those who have seen him in the field must acknowledge he made no vain boast of his * Charles Apperley, author of "The Northern" and "German Tours" in the Sporting Magazine. Kimrod's popularity as a writer on Bporting topics has never been equalled. When a ship once arrived at Calcutta from England, Colonel Nesbitt, who then hunted the Calcutta hounds, hastened down to the beach and asked, "What news?" "There are new ministers in," was the reply. "Hang the new ministry," said the colonel ; "is Nimrod's Yorkshire Tour arrived?" *'A man," says Nimrod, relating the anecdote himself, " must be dead to fame to be insensible to such a compliment as this." INIr. Apperley was the son of a clergyman in Shropshire. 26 REMINISCENCES, ETC. prowess. His falls were countless ; and no wonder^ for lie rode at places which he knew no horse could leap over ; but his object was to get, one way or another, into the field with his hounds. As a horseman, however, he has ever been superexcellent. He sits in his saddle as if he were part of his horse, and his seat displays vast power over his frame. In addition to his power his hand is equal to Chifney's, and the advantage he experiences from it may be gleaned from the following expression. Being seen one day hunting his hounds on Kadical, always a difficult, but at that time a more than commonly difficult, horse to ride, he was asked by a friend why he did not put a martingale on him, to give him more power over his mouth. His answer was cool and laconic : ' Thank ye, but my left hand shall be my martingale.' Mr. Smith was the first gentleman who ful- filled the character of huntsman to his hounds in this far- famed country. In this occupation his desperate style of riding was of very material service to him, as he never had his eye off his hounds, unless when left behind by a fall, though he was quickly in his place again after that. The best of horses, Jack-o'-Lantern, Tom Thumb, Big Grey, and Gift, good as they were, would, however, sometimes stand still with him in a burst, and then he would be obliged to wait for a whipper-in to come up to take possession of his horse to proceed with ; but this, of course, was not an every-day occurrence. As a huntsman, then, he may be said to be eminent in chase ; decidedly so, because nothing stopped him in his casts ; and we know how many foxes are lost by an ugly fence being in the way at this critical time. Leicestershire is a country of all others in which wide and bold casts are successful."* — [Hunting Reminiscences, p. 42.) Mr. Smith had the assistance, either as kennel huntsmen * An animated description, from the pen of Mr. Bruce Campbell, of one of Mr, Smith's matchless hunting feata with the Quorn hounds in 1816 will be found in the Appendix, No. V. HIS HUNTSMEN AND WHIPPERS-IN. 27 or wKippers-in, of some of the most skilful of their craft. Jack Shirley, who had been huntsman to Lord Sefton, Dick Burton, Joe Harrison, and Tom AYingfield, all in turn were worthy of their new master. "Jack Shirley was one of Mr. Meynell's whips ; he was an otvdacious fellow, big and stout, with a rough voice. He was a great man with Mr. Smith and Sir Richard Sutton in Lincolnshire."* He used to ride young horses for ten shillings the day when he whipped-in for Mr. Smith, and when he asked his master's permission, it was always granted with these words, " Provided they do not kick hounds." The squire was very angry with Jack on one occasion, for riding a young horse with a mar- tingale. Shirley was Mr. Smith's second whip in Leicester- shire. Tom Wingfield was " good in his casts," and a huntsman after Beckford's own heart. His son lived nineteen years with Mr. Drake. Tom had lived with Mr. Meynell as second whip, and he was head whip to Mr. Smith in 1807, when Dick Burton first came to him, then quite a lad. Joseph Harrison had hunted the hounds at Quorn for Lord Foley until Mr. Smith purchased them. Tom Day came to him afterwards from Sir George Sitwell, who hunted Derby- shire and Yorkshire. " What a capital hand over the country," exclaims Kim rod, '' Ivas Jack Shirley in those days, and what a capital anecdote did Mr. John Moore tell me of him from his own experience. He was riding Gadsby, a celebrated hunter of Mr. Smith's, but then a good deal the worse for wear, over one of the worst fields in all Leicestershire for a blown horse, between Tilton and Somerby, abounding with large ant-hills and deep holding furrows. The old horse, said my informant, was going along at a slapping pace, with his head quite loose, down hill at the time, whilst Jack was in the act of 28 KEMINISCENCES, ETC. putting a point of wliipcord to his thong, having a large open clasp knife between, his teeth at the time." * The following quotation from the same high authority respecting another feature in Mr. Smith's mastership of the Quorn will not be unacceptable. " Every person, who has been in Leicestershire knows the necessity of having good command over the field, a very serious and often hazardous duty devolving on the master of the pack. Here Mr. Smith was also successful. He set out by declaring that he was not the best-tempered man in the world ; and he hoped, if at any time he said what might be deemed harsh to his brother-sportsmen, they would attribute it to his zeal to show sport, and not to an intention to give oflfence. We have the pleasure of stating then, that, with one or two exceptions, producing no serious results, he passed through his fiery ordeal, continued for the number of seasons I have mentioned, and quitted his proud station as master and huntsman of the Quorn hounds in (1816), esteemed as a sportsman and valued as a man. There may be some who may tell me his language was sometimes coarser than occasion could justify, and it is not for me to decide the point. All I will say is, his language was never that of a bully, for a braver man never stepped on the earth, nor one who displayed in clearer colours the thorough courage of a true-bred Briton. Indeed, I may ask with the poet — 'Is there the man into the lion's den Who dares intrude to snatch his young away ? ' and answer, ' Thomas Assheton Smith is he ! ' " Nor was the renown thus acquired by this eminent fox- hunter obtained in an age of few first-rate riders, or * "Hunting Reminiscences," p. 297. Jack Shirley accompanied his master into Lincolnshire. Mr. Smith used frequently to amuse his field, when the hounds were running "slow," by calling up Jack, who was a great favourite, to lore a hole in an impenetrable bullfinch. Many a pint of blood did he lose in this service. BY- GONE CELEBRITIES. 29 among a scanty crop of illustrious sportsmen. These were the days of Meynell, Warde, Osbaldeston, the two Raw- iinsons, one of whom afterwards took the name of Lindow, John Moore, Tom Moore, Captain (since Sir David) Baird, Maxse,* Colonel AVyndham, Sir James Musgrave,t the two Edges, Lord Kintore, Davy, Sir Henry Peyton, Sir Harry Goodricke, John White, John Cradock, Lord RanclifFe, Lauucelot Ptolleston, and last, though not least, that splendid rider, Valentine Maher.J With more than one of these names the record of some famous run is associated. White, of whom the old song says, *' White on the right, Sir, midst the first flight, Sir, Is quite out of sight, Sir, of those in the rear," was the only man who stuck close to Mr. Smith on the Belvoir Day with the Duke of Rutland's hounds, when the fox led them nineteen miles point blank, and every other rider was beaten off. Lindow was the owner of the celebrated Clipper, con- sidered "the best hunter in England ;" and it was on his back that he and Mr. Smith, who was mounted on Garry Owen, after a tremendous run with the Quorn, found them- selves alone with the pack, while Tom Wingfield, the whipper-in, was visible at some distance alongside of them, flying down the wind to stop some earths which he knew ^ Mr. Smith always admired the riding of Mr. Maxse, who was one of the most forward of the heavy weights. Maxse had a famous horse, Cognac, whom he hunted for nine successive seasons. His master was over sixteen stone. + Sir James Musgrave's horse, Baronet, was a mean-looking animal, with only one eye, but so capital a hunter, that it was said of him, that if titles could be conferred on the brute creation, this "Baronet" would have been raised to the peerage. X Lord Alvanley betted Maher a hundred guineas that the latter could not jump a brook without disturbing the water ; and Maher made Lord Alvanley the same bet. Maher got over, but Lord Alvanley's horse threw some dirt back from the bank into the water, and it was given against him. Mr. Valentine Maher died in ' S42. 30 REMINISCENCES, ETC. of. Botli horses at lengtli fairly stopped, but the Clipper held out the longer of the two. Lindow always stood up in his stirrups when the pace was most severe : this, accord- ing to Nimrod, although it has an awkward appearance, tends very much to relieve the rider. " I have seen," writes Dick Christian,"' " those two Rawlinsons from Cheshire ride wonderfully in the vale. There was no beating them. It put Goosey (the Duke of Rutland's huntsman) quite out to see them going as they did." Sir Harry Goodricke had the Quorn for two seasons, and was just entering on his third when he died, 21st September, 1833, at Ravensdale Park, county of Louth, Ireland, of a cold caught whilst otter-hunting. He was then in his 37th year. Sir Harry was perhaps the most popular master of hounds ever known in England. He received no sub- scription, and is said to have spent £18,000 in his two seasons, inclusive of the new kennels at Thrussington, on which he expended .£6,000. He had two famous horses, the Old and the Young Sheriff. He was painted by Ferneley on the latter, with the hounds in full cry. Young Sheriff was bought in at Tattersall's for 400 guineas. The following are the chorus and one of the stanzas of the song written at Quorn in 1831, to celebrate his taking the mastership of the hounds : "Then round with the bottle and let us not tarry, While we hail, while we honour, the man of our choice ; In a bumper come pledge us — The gallant Sir Harry, Whom we love in our hearts, as we hail with our voice. Other masters we've had in the days of our glory, Osbaldeston and Sefton, Tom Smith and the Grseme (Graham), Southampton the last, not the least in the story, Giving Melton its mainspring, and Leicestershire fame." Mr. Smith used to say that the two best runs he had in * "Silk and Scarlet," p. 50. MR. smith's rOSDYKE LEAP. 31 Leicestershire were — one of forty-seven minutes, from Coplow to Hallaton, and the other one hour and twenty- seven minutes, from Cream Gorse to Stockerston, the fox being killed on both occasions. His fame and success in Lincolnshire were in no wise inferior to what had attended him at Quorn. Many of the Melton men followed him, knowing that he was sure of good sport wherever he went ; but scarcely one of them was prepared for the formidable drains of dykes in the Burton Hunt, and their horses were unfit for the country. Shortly after their arrival there, they found a fox near the kennels, and he crossed a dyke called the Tilla. Tom Smith rode at it, and got in, but over, and was the only one who did. Fourteen of the Meltonians were floundering in the water at the same time, which so cooled their ardour, that they soon returned to Melton, dropping off one or two at a time, always excepting Sir H. Goodricke, Captain Baird — one of the best riders of his day, — and one or two others. Mr. Smith once took a most extraor- dinary leap in Lincolnshire. The hounds came to a cut or navigable canal, called the Fosdyke, over which were two bridges, one a bridle bridge, the other used for carts,* running parallel to each other at a considerable dis- tance apart. At one end of these bridges there is usually a high gate leading into the field adjoining the canal, and along each side of them is a low rail, to protect persona going over. Smith rode along one of these bridges, and found the gate at the end locked, whereupon seeing the gate open at the end of the parallel bridge, he immediately put his horse at the rails, and jumped across and over the opposite rails, on to the other bridge, to the surprise and gratification of all who witnessed the feat. Sir William Miles, the present respected member for West * They cross the canal into the lands of different land-owners, which accounts for their being so near each other. 32 REMINISCENCES, ETC. Somersetshire, hunted with Mr. Assheton Smith in Lincoln' shire during the seasons of 1818, 1819, and 1820. Although the latter had at that time a liberal allowance from his father, yet as he hunted six days a week and received no subscrip- tion, he was obliged to be as economical as possible. His able management of both stables and kennels, which was even at that period universally known and acknowledged, enabled him to make his income go as far as most men could. He rode at that time, according to Sir William Miles, as hard as he ever did, and many and heavy were the falls he got, as he was " never content unless first ;" and the country, then undrained, showed up his horses terribly. Mr. Smith purchased while at Lincoln John Warde's hounds, — good noses, but " no pace," and when mixed with the old pack they tailed terribly ; " but nothing," adds Sir William, " with Tom Smith, that was his own, could be bad, however much the performance might militate against recognised rules." " A good head of hounds " is a common expres- sion ; but running very hard one day, and Sir William, who was a bold and resolute rider, being close to him, he ex- claimed, " Look, Billy, what a beautiful stream .'" Thus readily converting the ordinary phrase of *' How they tail ! " into a more poetical equivalent. Mr. Smith hunted a dog and bitch pack in Lincolnshire ; the former showed most sport, the latter were faster, but wilful. He took away the hounds from the Burton kennels, and built stables and kennels in a field which he had purchased at Lincoln, adjoining his dwelling-house. The kennel was abandoned by his successor. Sir Richard Sutton, and the premises were bought by Mr. Charles Chaplin, who after- wards kept his horses there. Sir William Miles thus sums up his opinion of Mr. Smith : " Nothing ever daunted him, and if hunting had not been his mania, he would, I think, have succeeded in anything he undertook." It was after his first season in Lincolnshire, that HIS MABBIA6E. 33 Mr. Smith brought the late Lord Kaglan (then Lord Fitzroy Somerset) from Ostend to England in his yacht, after the battle of Waterloo, where the gallant officer had lost his arm. It has been stated that, at an earlier period of the same year, he took the duke of Wellington over to Calais, and that he afterwards brought the first intelli- gence of the victory to England, but the truth of these statements he invariably disavowed. The duke was always a warm personal friend of Mr. Smith ; he admired his manly straightforward bearing and good sense, and, as regarded his horsemanship, always said of him that he would have made one of the best cavalry officers in Europe. He was a frequent visitor at Ted worth, as Mr. Smith was at Strathfieldsaye, and his Grace was one of the most constant attendants at the meet of the Ted worth Hunt. The above remark by the duke calls to mind another saying respecting Mr. Smith, which was, that many of the most distinguished riders in the Peninsular war owed their horsemanship to his example. From 1826 till 1828, Mr. Smith established his quarters at Penton Lodge, near Andover. He had ceased to be a master of hounds after he gave up the Burton country in 1824, but hunted regularly with the duke of Putland's, and other packs in the surrounding countries. At Penton he commenced operations with a scratch pack, which he sooM got into good order ; but, until the death of his father, no very active steps were taken to bring the country into the condition in which it is now. On the 29th of October, 1827, Mr. Assheton Smith was united in marriage to Maria, second daughter of William Webber, Esq., of Binfield Lodge, Berks. He was then fifty-one years of age. In the following year, upon the death of his father, he removed his hunting establishment to Tedworth, and soon afterwards set about making very extensive alterations. The old house was pulled down and rebuilt, Mr. Smith being in a great measure his own ai^chi- 34 REMINISCENCES, ETC. tect. While the plans were being prepared by the surveyor whom he employed to carry out his designs, the professional adviser said it was not possible to retain the old dining- room as it stood ; but Mr. Smith was firm, and said it must be done ; he drew a plan of his own, and accordingly it re- mains to commemorate the architectural skill of its late owner. But the chief improvement, which it is our business to narrate, was the metamorphosis of that formerly intractable woodland country about Tedworth into a fine fox-hunting district. The quick eye of Mr. Smith had long perceived the vacancy between the New Forest and the Craven coun- try," and he now began to put his long-cherished designs into execution. Before his time, except during AYarde's solitary month, no hound had ever opened in those big chases, from year's end to year's end. During his residence at Penton, the country had not been preserved long enough^ always to insure a find, and the patience of the master had been often severely tried in drawing during a whole morn- ing. Occasionally a two-o'clock fox would give them a ride home by the light of the moon ; for, when he was found, he was very likely to be — " A traveller, a stranger, stout, gallant, and shy, With his earths ten miles oflF, and those earths in his eye." A tale is still told with glee by the veterans of that sporting district, and listened to with instinctive dread by the cock-tails. It relates, that a " straight-necked wild'un," found at Doyly, ran to the other side of Newbury ; that he was lost at dusk in some old buildings ; that they left oflF twenty-two miles from home j that the horses were all knocked up ; and that the squire borrowed a pony at the George Inn, at Hurstbourne Tarrant (where he left his beaten nag), the owner of the animal at the same time * Mr. Warde being asked what were the boundaries of the Craven country, replied, " It is a simple triangle, bounded by London, Oxford, and Bath." Rather a latitudinarian definition. MR. SMITH AT PENTON. 35 giving him an admonition to take care that it did not kick him off. It was not much bigger than a large Newfoundland dog. The transition from two splendid horses and a capital hack in the morning, to the back of this diminutive sheltie in the afternoon, was somewhat ridiculous, but did not affect the squire's mode of riding for his masterly hand persuaded the little animal to carry him to his own door within the hour, the distance being: a dozen miles, good measure. Nimrod graphically describes a great meet at Weyhill, in December, 1827, the year after Mr. Smith came to Pentou. First, speaking of the country, he observes, " there is no- thing but beds of flints ;" and as for the Hampshire wood- lands, " they are the worst country in the known world." George Gardener was at that time Mr. Smith's head whip- per-in. There were 300 horsemen in the field. He then goes on to say : " Not only was the appearance of the hounds, as hounds, splendid indeed, but their performance was equally good.* The scent was wretchedly bad, but they stooped to it like rabbit beagles ; and unfortunate as our day's sport in other respects was, any one would have had a treat in seeing this highly-bred pack pick their way, as it were, inch by inch, over one stubble-field. I must own I was delighted, and I wish some huntsmen I could name had been present to take a lesson from their huntsman, Mr. Smith, whose patience and judgment were conspicuous on this trying occasion. I may say trying, because his fox was but just before him, and he had the eyes of a very large field upon him. But he never lifted his hounds a yard, though the line of country was apparently before him ; and thus did he hit off his fox, for he did not take that line." t Nimix)d adds, respecting what he terms the foundation of an " independent dynasty " by Mr. Smith in Hants ; — " When I first heard of his hunting the Andover country, * Mr. Smith had Sir R. Sutton's pack this year, t Sportinrf Mwjazine, December, 1827, p. laO. 36 KEMINISCENCES, ETC. I set it dowu as a mere frolic of the day, never dreaming that he intended persevering in doing so. It now appears that he is in real earnest, and the gentlemen of his neigh- bourhood must be highly pleased with the compliment he has paid them, in selecting so magnificent a pack of hounds to hunt their country." Mr. Smith once at Tedworth, a wondrous change came over the spirit of that region. No one but a man of the most iron will and undeviating purpose would ever have dreamed of converting the immense tracts of woodland, dense and ungovernable, whicli thirty years ago covered the face of what is now called the Tedworth country, into ride- able fox coverts. When Mr. Smith first proposed to the landed proprietors of the neighbourhood to hunt the coun- try, he received permission with a smile, accompanied with a caution, that he would find it impossible on account of the enormous size of the woods — several of them containing on an average more than a thousand acres each ; and also on account of the badness of the scent : two of the fox- hunter's greatest drawbacks. The gentry and farmers, however, soon finding the man they had to deal with, ren- dered him every assistance ; the former letting him their coverts at a reasonable rent, the latter preserving foxes, of which up to this time there had been a great scarcity, as if they were prize pigs. Under such good auspices, and with means and appliances to boot, Collingbourne, Doyley, Doles, Wherwell, and Faccombe, which had hitherto been without any straight rides, and consequently of little use compara- tively for hunting, were rendered " negotiable " in the hands of the squire, some at his own expense, the others by his influence with the proprietors. The extent of wood levelled to the ground by his orders was almost miraculous, and the green rides opened, as if by magic, in those hitherto im« permeable fastnesses, will remain a lasting memorial of the good to be achieved by spending money for any judicious purpose among the labouring classes. Andover at that HIS NEW PACK OF HOUNDS. 37 time assumed the appearance of a manufacturing town in miniature, or rather of a great timber mart. Numbers were employed in felling the magnificent sticks of oak and elm. Here might be seen knots of sturdy labourers grubbing up the stumps of trees which had stood in those forests for ages ; there a busy crowd piled up or carried away the un- derwood : the thick glades, which had till then never seen the light of day, now resounded with the axes of the wood- men and the crash of the falling timber ; while the aged and decrepit might be seen bending under the loads of faggots, freely given to them, to cheer hearths which had till the time of Mr. Smith but scantily felt the genial warmth of fire. Even in renting the rides^ the squire proved himself a first-rate tenant, for both these and the adjoining fences were always kept in order, while the admission of air through the thick plantations tended greatly to promote the growth of the timber. By these means, woods which had hitherto been seldom approached by hounds, except to whip oflT, cheerily re-echoed the horn of the hunter. The only hounds Mr. Smith had of his original pack, at the time of his coming into Hants, were Bounty and Soly- man ; and the pack he collected was formed of drafts from at least a dozen different kennels. In the first season, owing to the scarcity of foxes, and the wildness of the pack, he killed only four and a half brace o± foxes. In the following year he purchased Sir Bichard Sutton's famous pack, and at the same time was presented by him with a capital hunter, Bob Boy, which Sir Bichard paid him the compliment of saying, " perhaps he might ride, but no one down there could." In the squire's hands he was as quiet as a lamb, and soon verified the remark which old Jack Shirley (who rode him up) had made, " that he would be found a bad 'un to beat." An intimate friend of Mr. Smith relates that it was his good fortune to witness a verification of the above remark, at Burderop Park, in 1827. Lord Kintore at that time hunted that country 38 REMINISCENCES, ETC. known to sportsmen as the Vale of White Horse, and on the day in question was mounted on his celebrated Apollo mare, with Provincial reserved as his second horse. The hounds went away at a racing pace towards Broad Hinton, and Mr. Smith on Rob Roy, tliough quite a stranger to the country, took his usual place, and cut out the work. His Lordsliip in vain tried to catch him, until a check occurred in a lane ; into this the peer jumped over a gate, and out of it over another. " When liis Lordship wishes to hit off his fox, he must return into this lane," said Mr. Smith to the relator of the anecdote. Lord Kintore and Mr. Smith frequently spoke highly of each other's riding on this memorable day. Every one recollects the famous story of Lord Kintore coming once to a "stopper" in the Vale of W^hite Horse, which defied the whole field. Seeing a countryman on the other side, " Catch my horse," exclaimed hi3 Lordship, and drove at it. Both were thrown ; but the rustic did as he was told, and having picked up both the steed and his rider. Lord Kintore galloped away, leaving his friends in mute astonishment on the wronor side of the fence. It must be recollected that Lord Kintore, on the above occasion at Burderop Park, had out his two best horses (Provincial ^vas bought in at Tattersall's not long before for 400 guineas), whereas Mr. Smith was riding Sir Richard Sutton's gift horse, which no one else could ride. The horses he brought into Hants from Lincolnshire were — Lovinski, Beiram, The Grey, Screwdriver, Young Jack-o'-Lantern,* and last, though not least, Ayston. Screw- driver was a fine dark chestnut, seventeen hands high : Mr. Smith got him a bargain, in consequence of his having come into Stamford six times without his rider. Screw- driver was not his original name, but the first time the * There were three members of the Lontern family all celebrated, — Old Jack-o'-Lantern, Young Jack-o'-Lantern, and Charlotte Lantern. Mr. Smith always said that Young Jack was the best horse of tlie three. PICTURE OF MR. SMITH ON AYSTON. 39 squire mounted him, as he showed signs of being unruly, one of his friends asked him what " screw " he had there. The end of the run, however, showed the " screw " almost the only nag up, and from that day he went by the name of Screwdriver. Jack-o'- Lantern was a blood-looking bay, with crooked fore legs, the son of a chestnut of that name ; he was an old horse when he came into Hants, and as perfect a hunter as man ever rode. " I remember," relates an eye- witness, "a tremendous day, early in the season, the weather hot and the ground deep, when, after two hours in South Grove, the fox went away to Milton Hill. Here, for the first time in his life. Old, for he could no longer be called Young, Jack-o'-Lantern, stood still, and the squire said he would never ride him again, and he never did." The most extraordinary horse of all was Ayston, a yellow bay, all over a hunter, and with excellent shoulders, but " l^igeon-toQiX" and so bad a hack that he had to be led to covert j " doubtless thoroughbred," as the squire used to say, " inasmuch as I bought him warranted not so." But, even with the above disqualifications, in a hard run with plenty of fences, and through dirt, the horse was never foaled that coyld beat him. His master would at no time have taken a thousand guineas for him. Ferneley has faithfully repre- sented him in the fine sporting picture that still adorns the billiard-room at Tedworth, and in which the squire's seat on horseback is true to the life. He is surrounded by some ol his favourite hounds — Watchman, Commodore, Romulus, Dimity, and others. " On two occasions (out of many)," says a contemporary, " I can instance the superiority of this gallant horse. The squire had been riding him with a hanging fox around the deep rides at South Grove * all the morning, while all the field were standing still ; at last they got away through the heavy clays and perpetual * For a singular device of Mr. Smith's to get reluctant foxes out of covert, see Appendix, No. VI, 40 REMINISCENCES, ETC. ploughs towards Grafton. One of the sportsmen, Mr. Hawkins, viewed our fox emerginf!: from the Vale on to the grass downs towards CoUingbaurne Woods, some way ahead. Some of them cut across, and got on to these downs, and had a steady pull at their horses. Meanwhile the squire, as usual, was riding as honest as a schoolboy in the "Vale with his hounds. Presently they came up with the horsemen on the turf, and old Ayston cut down every nag among them in fair galloping across the downs, notwithstanding his previous episode in South Grove and the Vale." At another time this same gallant animal cleared the deer hurdles in Conholt Park, nearly six feet high, and pounded the field. Mr. F , who had ample opportunities of forming a judgment, says, " he was, in my humble opinion, the very best hunter I ever saw ; " and an old sportsma-n observed in his hearing, " that the man did not live who could make a fence sufficiently strong to stop Ayston, with the squire on his back, and with a fox sinking before his hounds." It was with Ayston, that the squire astonished the natives on his visit to Lord Moreton, when he took with him his capital huntsman and whipper-in, Dick Burton and Tom Day. Ayston tripped on one occasion when he was going to covert, and Mr. Philip Pierrepont, who was alongside of him, said to Mr. Smith, " If I were you, Tom, I would ride that horse no more." " It I were going to ride for my life," was the answer, " I would ride him and no other." The village of Ayston, in Leicester- shire, from which this favourite hunter was called, is in the best hunting part of the country. Mr. Smith used to relate the following anecdote of the purchase of one of his best horses, but whose name, how- ever, is not recorded : — " When I had the hounds in Leicestershire, an Irishman rode up one morning to meet them on a splendid horse. I saw directly he could not ride; and as one of my whips was on a slow one, but a capital fencer, I ofiered him the whip's horse to ride for the OBSTINACY OF MR. SMITH. SEX. 41 run, and that I would get on his : I soon found I was on a first-rate one. He jumped the park wall where we found the fox, and carried me in splendid style. After a capital run no one was up with the hounds but Lord Jersey and myself. At last his horse declined, and I took the fox from the hounds about five hundred yards further on. On joining me his Lordship said, ' You are on the best horse in the country.' I said, * Keep this to yourself for a few minutes.' The field came up, and with them the Irishman, who had been going in comfort on the good fencer. ' Do you like my horse well enough,' he said, ' to give the price you talked of in the morning V (The sum was not openly named.) ' I do,' I replied, in a careless tone. Lord Jersey pulled off his hat coram omnibus, and said, * Tom, I congra- tulate you ; you have the best animal in Leicestershire.' " Even the success which Mr. Smith experienced at Ted worth before his father's death, limited as it was when compared with the sport he created afterwards by the clearing of the woods, completely took the old gentleman by surprise. He had firmly entertained the idea, that to drive a fox out of the vast woods adjoining Ted worth was a feat beyond the power of man to accomplish ; and he was accordingly at first strongly opposed to his son's leaving the grass countries to establish a pack of hounds for the purpose of hunting the bleak downs and interminable copses of Wilts and Hants. For this reason, extraordinary as it may appear, he was the only landowner, when Tom Smith came, in 182C, to reside at Penton, who refused his son permission to draw his pet home covert, Ashdown Copse. " Where does Tom Smith meet next week ? " said he, one evening, to a neigh- bour, when dining with him at Tedworth, " I think," was his guest's reply, "that he will bring his hounds to Ash- down Copse on Monday." " Then, if he does," said the wrathful old squire, " I will bring an action against him, by Jove. And pray, Sir, what makes you smile, may I ask ? " he added, observing his friend slightly amused at the threat. 42 REMINISCENCES, ETC. " It is no joke, I promise you." " Excuse me, sir," replied his guest, " but I was thinking, if Tom Smith were cast for damages, who would have to pay the bill." Shortly after this the prohibition was withdrawn. Mr. Assheton Smith's father was remarkable, like his son, for inflexibility of purpose, but in him it bordered too closely upon a defect too often found to be its concomitant, obstinacy. He always entertained a great objection to Mr. Telford's proposal to span over the Menai Straits by means of a suspension bridge, which he afiirmed must necessarily interfere with the navigation ; and when serving on a com- mittee of the House of Commons, as member for Andover, he found the feeling of his colleagues favourable to the project, he threw his hat upon the floor, and vowed most solemnly, that even if the bridge were completed, he would never cross it as long as he lived. This vow he kept, always making use of a boat in order to reach the opposite shore. When George lY. returned from his visit to Ireland, he stayed at Plas Newydd, as the guest of the Marquess of Anglesea. On that occasion, Mr. Smith, sen., took the chnir at a public meeting at Carnarvon, when it was deter- mined to present an address to the king, and a committee, comprising twelve of the leading gentlemen of the district, was appointed to convey it to Plas Newydd. In the course of the proceedings, a discussion took place as to the proper dress in which the committee should appear before royalty. While some proposed court dresses, and others uniforms, the chairman, who had on a cutaway coat, with breeches and leather gaiters, said, that whatever others might do, he, at all events, should go before his Majesty in the dress he had on. No notice was then taken of what he said, but when the deputation met at Yaenol for the purpose of crossing to PJas Newydd (which they did in his boat), to the surprise of all, they found their chairman in exactly the same dress which he had worn at Caernarvon. When they were introduced to the king, Mr. Smith, as chairman, ad- FAMOUS RUN OVE ^ SALISBURY PLAIN. 43 vanced first, when his Majesty, taking both his hands in his own, and without appearing even to notice his uncourtly appearance, accosted him with the greatest kindness, saying, " Your son Tom accompanied me in his yacht to and from Holyhead." Mr. Smith afterwards acknowledged that the kind manner of the king made him feel ashamed of himself, and fully sensible that he had been wrong. " The Christmas Foxhunter," writing in the Sporting Magazine, for March, 1835, gives an excellent description of a famous run which had taken place in the December pre- vious, from the osier beds at Amesbury to Salisbury Plain, a distance of sixteen miles, and had lasted an hour and fifteen minutes. The hounds had foiind their first fox among the osier beds, and he had given them a clipping run, but escaped by " speed and bottom." A second fox being found not far from the same spot, he crossed the Avon at Ames- buiy, taking the river like an otter, and shaking his brush to the wind, made for Salisbury Plain. The horsemen were obliged to go half a mile back to a bridge, as the river was nowhere practicable, while the fox was visible before them, two miles ahead. Thus, many were altogether thrown out. The ground was very dry, and the hill from Amesbury, with the killing pace the hounds were going, tried those who got away severely. Mr. Smith rode Golden Pippin, and was §rst in sight of the Plain ; as he passed Stonehenge, the animal was half inclined to stop and contemplate the architectural beauties of that wondrous pile, but his accom- plished rider persuaded him otherwise. Many horses de- clined here, and it was at this place that one of the sports- men met with a severe fall. Having passed Stonehenge, the hounds being in full cry, heads up and sterns down, Gay Lass leading, and Barmaid and Dairymaid close to her haunches, the fox passed through the village of Barwick to Wishford, took the river Willy, and ran up the hill to Grovelly Copse, where they killed him. The run was over the lightest and most picturesque part of the country. 44 CHAPTER III. STUD AT TEDWOKTH. — MR. SMITH'S FREQUENT FALLS; HIS ADROITNESS IN ENCOUNTERING THEM. — FAVOURITE HOUNDS AT DIFFERENT PERIODS ; HIS POWERS OF FASCINATION OVER THEM. — HIS SKILL IN MANAGING REFRACTORY HORSES. — LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. Gaudet equis, canibusque, et aprici gramine campi. — HORAT. Mr. Smith's stud at Tedwortli was in general far superior to what it had been at any previous time. While in Lei- cestershire and Lincolnshire he had not been in the habit of giving high prices, and used to say that, till he came into Hants, he rarely gave above £50 for a horse. He did, how- ever, now and then exceed this limit, and has been known, at that period, to have given as much as 200 guineas for a horse ; but, wliatever prices he paid, he contrived to find or make first-rate hunters. It is not often that racers make hunters, but Mr. Smith bought Shacabac out of Mr. Lechmere Charlton's stables, and made a very good one of him. Early in life he hunted regularly with Lord Sefton, who succeeded the famous Meynell in Leicestershire. Lord Sefton's huntsman was Stephen Goodall, who, though an excellent sportsman, was incapacitated by his weight from living with his hounds when running hard. " I always like, Mr. Tom Smith," said Goodall to him, " to see you out on a grey horse, for then I know where the hounds are, and the shortest way to get to them ; and am satisfied, when you MR. Davy's opinion of mr. smith. 45 are there, / shall not be missed." Stephen had a great objec- tion to being weighed, but Mr. Harrison got him once into a patent weighing-chair, without his being aware of it, and saw the finger pointing over nineteen on the dial. In the famous Billesden Coplow run, above mentioned, Mr. Smith was allowed to have the best of it down to the brook at Enderby, where his horse fell in. He told a friend that he bought the horse he that day rode, called Furze-cutter, for £26, and sold him after the run to Lord Clonbrock for £400 ; " a pretty good comment," he remarked, " on the place I maintained on that day." It may not be inappropriate here to record the following anecdote, related by a Mr. Davy, whose prowess has been recorded by Nimrod, and of whom Mr. Smith said, *'he was the only man of whose riding I was ever jealous."* A large field were assembled at Ashby Pastures, and a fox went away with the pack close at his brush. A long green drive ran parallel with the fields, down which all the horsemen rode save one. A high blackthorn hedge screened the hounds from their view, and they were riding for hard life. All at once some horse was heard on the same side as yie hounds, rattling over the gates, and crashing through the bullfinchers at such a pace, that Davy and another remarked, "Some fellow's horse has purled him and run away." The illusion, however, was soon dispelled by the bounds swinging across the drove, and Tom Smith, on Jack-o'Lantern, sailing by their side ; having beaten every man among them, though they had only to gallop over plain grass, while he had to encounter both gates and fences, and of the stiffest character. This, Davy confessed, was one of the greatest triumphs in horsemanship he had ever witnessed. He also mentioned, that on another occa- sion, after a very sharp run late in the season, the hounds * ** Mr. Davy's hand on a horse was proverbial," says old Harkaway in the Sjporting Magazine for August, 1834 ; " like Paganini, he could play on four strings or one." 46 REMINISCENCES, ETC. were running into tlieir fox in an orchard on the top of a hill at Rolleston (Mr. Greene's). Up the hill, in his usual place, rode the squire, when some very formidable posts and rails met him, which Jack-o'-Lantern got over without a fall by breaking the top rail. "' Yon may guess what sort of fence it was," said Davy, " when I tell you not a man would face it even then." " Nothing ever turned Mr. Smith. If you had come near the Coplow, I would have shown you that big ravine he jumped ; twelve feet perpendicular, blame me, if it isn't, and twenty-one across ; it has been nearly the same these forty years. They had brought their fox nearly a miie and a half from the Coplow, and he went to ground in the very next field. He was riding Guildford, a very hard puller, and go he would. The biggest fence he ever jumped in Leicestershire was a bullock fence and hedge with ditch and back rails, near Rolleston ; he was on Jack-o'-Lantern." '•' Besides Jack-o'-Lantern, the squire had at that time some other capital horses, and among them Filch, Gadsby, and Gift. The last-named was, in fact, a gift from Long Wellesley, who said that no man could see a run on him. " He only wants a rider," said Tom Smith. " Will you ride him, then, at Glen Goss?" rejoined Long Wellesley. " Willingly," exclaimed the squire ; and, as usual, picked up the fox, after getting eight falls over gates, when Long Wellesley begged his acceptance of him. The history of the education of Jack-o'-Lantern was thus related by Tom Edge, an intimate friend of the squire, and for many years, as has been already mentioned, his mess- mate at Quorn : " We were riding to covert through a line of bridle gates, when we came to a new double oaken post and rail fence. ' This is just the place to make my colt a good timber jumper,' said the squire, ' so you shut the gate, * Dick Cliii.'.tiuii, in " 8ilk and Scarlet," p. 57. jack-o'-lantern and screwdriver. 47 and ride away fast from the fence.' This was accordingly done, when the squire rode at the rails, which Jack taking with his breast, gave both himself and his rider such a fall, that their respective heads were looking towards the fence they had ridden at. Up rose both at the same time, as if nothing very particular had happened. ' Now,' said Tom Smith, 'this will be the making of the horse ; just do as you did before, and ride away.' Edge did so, and Jack flew the rails without touching, and was a first-rate timber fencer from that day. What made this feat the more remai'kable was, that it did not come off in a run, but in what is called ' cold blood.' " Jack-o'-Lantern was a particularly gentle and good- tempered horse. When Mr. Lindow had broken his collar- bone, and was quite unable to hold the Clipper even with " the clipper-bit," Mr. Smith changed horses with him for the day. The meet was at Scoling's Gorse, near Melton, which has long since fallen under the plough. Mr. Lindow rode Jack with one arm in a sling, and the Clipper wai brought out with bit-checks, some eight inches long, and the huge attendant curb chain. Every one thought Mr. Smith bewitched, because he would not mount until the curb chain was taken off, and after pledging themselves that he would never be able to pull him up till he reached the sea coast, they heard early in the afternoon, that "Mr. Smith had run away with the Clipper, and that he could never go fast enough for him any one part of the way." * Screwdriver, who has been already mentioned, once fairly dislodged the squire into the middle of a gorse cover. He was finding his fox in some very high gorse, near Conholt Park, and was sitting loosely on Screwdriver — irho, by the way, even after Mr. Smith took to him, always retained his untamable temper — when the wilful animal * " Silk and Scarlet," j). 2i)5 48 REMINISCENCES, ETC. started aside, kicked violently, and flung him over his head. Nothing, owing to the height of the gorse, could be seen of the squire, but Screwdriver kept kicking and plunging in a circle round him. " Let go the bridle, or he will be the death of you," said a nervous well-meaning farmer. " He shall kick my brains out tirst," was the reply of the still prostrate sportsman, who was soon up and righted in the saddle.* Although his falls were numerous, owing to his never allowing his hounds to get away from him, yet he was very seldom seriously hurt. Only on two occasions had he a bone broken : once at Melton, when he consoled himself by learning arithmetic from the pretty damsel at the post office ; and afterwards when one of his ribs was fractured, owing, as he said, to his having his knife in a breast-pocket. His presence of mind, when falling, never deserted him ; he always contrived to fall clear of his horse, and never to let him go. The bridle-rein, which fell as lightly as breeze of zephyr on his horse's neck, was then held as in a vice. In some instances, with horses whom he knew well, he would ride for a fall, where he knew it was not possible for him to clear a fence. With Jack-o'-Lantern he was often known to venture on this experiment, and he frequently said there was not a field in Leicestershire in which he had not had a fall. "I never see you in the Harborough country," he observed to a gentleman who occasionally hunted with the Quorn. " I don't much like your Har- borough country," replied the other, '^ the fences are so large." " Oh ! " observed Mr. Smith, " there is no place you cannot get over with a fall."t To a young supporter of his pack^ who was constantly falling and hurting himself, * " Nothing is so low," said Mr. Smith, "as moviug about after a fall, and calling out, * Catch my horse ; pray, catch my horse ! ' " His own plan was never to let go of the bridle under any circumstances. t Mr. Stanhope, who hunted with Sir Belliugham Graham in Leices* tershire in 1833, rivalled Mr. Smith in the number of his falls. MR. smith's falls, 49 he said, "All who profess to ride should know how to falir " Mr. Smith got many falls. He always seemed to ride loose, quite by balance, not sticking with his knees very much. He always went slant-ways at his jumps; it is a capital plan. The horse gets his measure better — he can give himself more room : if you put his head straight, it is measured for him ; if you put him slantish, he measures it for himself; you always see Mr. Greene ride at fences that way. He was first coming out when Mr. Smith was master, and he put him up to many a clever thing in riding. He had another dodge when he rode at timber ; he always went slap at the post ; he said it made the horse fancy he had more to do, and put more power on."* "No man," writes Nimrod in 1841, "knows so well as Mr. Smith does how to fall^ which accounts for the trifling injuries he has sustained ; and I once saw an instance of his skill in this act of self-preservation. He stuck fast in a bullfinch, on his tall grey horse, his hinder legs being entangled in the growers, and there was every appearance of the horse falling on his head into a deep ditch below him. A less cool man than Mr. Smith might have thrown himself from the saddle, in which case, had the growers given way at the moment, for the animal appeared sus- pended by them, his horse might have fallen upon him ere he could have got out of his way. Mr. Smith, however, sat quiet, and by that means the well-practised hunter got his legs free, and landed himself in the field without farther difficulty. At one time it appeared to me as if nothing could prevent both falling headlong into the ditch." f An instance of one of his diagonal leaps is thus re- corded : — The hounds coming in the course of a run to an immensely high and steep bank, with a stile on the top of * " Silk and Scarlet," p. 57. t "Hunting Reminiscences." p. 297 50 REMINISCENCES, ETC. it, many gentlemen did not like its looks. Mr. Smith, throwing his whip into his left hand, and at the same time taking out his pocket-handkerchief (this was done by way of giving the thing an air of negligence), said, *' So you won't have it, gentlemen ?" Then taking the fence diagonally, he, by his peculiarly light hand, made his horse leap in this way, first on the bank, then over the stile and down on the other side. Nobody else could take the fence in the same manner, or would attempt it in any other. In later years, as his income increased, price was no object to him in the purchase of his horses. Among those for which he gave large sums were Election, Netheravon, Fire-king, Black Diamond, Ham Ashley, and King Dan, who will live long in the memory of those who witnessed their symmetry and prowess. He gave Lord Rosslyn four hundred guineas for Rory O'More, one of the best animals he ever possessed. Fire-king also well repaid his price, whom the members of the Tedworth Hunt will long re- member as willing to run away with everybody, and able to do so even with the squire. " Perhaps the most remarkable Irish hunter of the present century was Mr. Assheton Smith's Fire-king — a sixteen-hand, very large-limbed, light-fleshed, and deep- girthed thorough-bred chestnut. He was bought by Mr. William Denham of Kegworth, from Mr, Robert Lucas of Liverpool, in January, 1840, for £5 only, and was just as unmanageable a savage as ever wore a bridle. However, Mr. Denham contrived to beat all Derbyshire on him, both with fox-hounds and Lord Chesterfield's stag-hounds ; Will Derry, who was riding one of his lord ship's thorough-bred 300-guinea chestnuts, frankly acknow- ledging on one occasion, that he could not live with him any part of the run. He also distinguished himself in Leicestershire in two runs, one from Cream Gorse, and the other from Sir H. Goodricke's Gorse. Next day Mr. Assheton Smith rode up to 'Mr. Denham, at Croxton HIS CARE IN SELECTING HOUNDS. 51 Park races, aud made him an offer of £200 for him, which his owner declined, unless Mr. Smith would make it guineas. On this the latter jocularly remarked, that he was the most independent horse-dealer he had ever met with; and was told, in rejoinder, that had he been independent, he would not have taken 2,000 guineas for the horse, as he was sure that no man could expect to have more than one such in his life. He was very much blemished at the time, so much so, in fact, that Mr. Smith could hardly credit the assurance that he was sound, after having been 'repaired so often.' At this juncture Lord Chesterfield rode up, and Mr. Smith, on hearing his lordship indorse Mr. Denham's statement, that he had never in his life seen a horse that could go better, if so well, to hounds, closed the bargain for guineas. At first they had rather a weary time with him at Tedworth. Mr. Smith sent him home on hunting days seven or eight times before he could ride him with confidence ; and there is a legend, that he not only ran clean away four miles with George Carter, but that the latter assured his master, when he proposed another mount, that he would rather run on foot than get on him. His master, however, cliarmed the chestnut into a softer mood at last. On loth December in the following year (1841), he wrote to Mr. Denham, to say that he had got him to go ' as quiet as any horse in his stable !' adding, 'I have hunted a great number of years, I have kept hounds and hunted them for thirty-eight years, and I am quite sure I never had sucli a horse as he is before, and fully believe I never saw such a one.' " " Nor was Mr. Smith in any way sparing of expense in securing the very best blood for his pack. In addition to Sir R. Sutton's hounds, he bought those belonging to Sir Thomas Boughey, and, later, the pack of the Duke of Grafton. In particular he prized most highly the stock of * "The Post and the Paddock," pp. 260, 261- . e2 52 REMINISCENCES, ETC. Mr. Warde, and, as a proof of this, on one occasion he deputed Mr. F to ofifer Mr. Horlock, who had pur- chased Mr. Warde's pack for £2,000, 1,000 guineas for twenty couples, which Mr. Smith was to pick out from the kennel, without any other aid to guide him than his own well- practised eye, in making the selection. One of the most surprising, and at the same time inter- esting, scenes to witness was the " fascination " he seemed to possess over hounds, and the strong attachment they always evinced towards their master. " I recollect," relates one of his friends, " his once having out five couples of drafts whom he had never seen before. Sharp, his kennel huntsman at that time, gave him their names written down ; he then called each hound separately, and after giving him a piece of bread, returned the list to the hunts- man, saying, '/ know them now;' and so they did him." On other occasions when the fixture was *' Oare Hill," and the hounds were awaiting his arrival, Dick Burton used to say, "Master is coming I perceive by the hounds;" and this, too, long before he made his appearance. When he came within three hundred yards, no huntsman or whip in the world could have stopped the pack from bounding to meet him. In the morning when let loose from the kennel, they would rush to his study window or to the hall door, and stand there till he came out. But we must not omit to make particular mention here of some of his especial favourites in the kennel at different periods. Conspicuous among these stands Solyman, a very fine and large grey hound ; indeed, Nimrod says he was the largest ever bred in England, standing twenty-seven inches high, and with bone equal to many ponies. Mr. Smith was fond of remarking that he would as soon take this hound's word about a fox as any man's in England. Thi'' saying is like what Mr. Osbaldeston said of his horse Vaulter. that he never told a lie in his life. Solyman had, FAVOURITE HOUNDS. 53 however, his peculiar days (like other clogs), and sometimes would do very little. Another great favourite was Van- quisher, from Sir E,, Sutton's kennel, a beautiful hound, who always kept close to his master's horse, never drawing before the fox was found, and then continuing close to the fox till he was killed. Next comes Trimmer, a grey fine-shaped hound, also from the same kennel. This hound, he used to say, was the most perfect and complete in all his good qualities, such as finding, hunting, and chasing, of any hound he ever rode after. Trimbush was another especial favourite ; and Nigel, not unlike in size and colour (black- pied) to Trimbush, was equally valued. Nigel always showed the greatest animation, even when very old, directly a fox was afoot. He seemed to undergo a sudden meta- morphosis at once from age to youth, and became full of life and spirit. Rifleman was also the double favourite both of the master and mistress, and had almost the privileges of a parlour boarder. Towards the end of the squire's hunting career, Commoner, Conqueror, Flamer, and Lexicon invariably went out when- ever he joined the field. He said it cheered him to see their old honest faces, although their day for afibrding sport was over. There is always, he said, a gravity and impor- tance of demeanour in the countenance of a good hound, as if he knew his superiority over the rest of the canine species. Har was very careful in not speaking to them when they were at fault, so as to draw their attention off their work, for, like Beckford, he could then see an expression of rebuke in their faces, as much as to say, " What do you want 1 let me alone." One of the old hounds still remains (1860), the patriarch of the pack, and as finely shaped a fox- hound and as good a one as ever man rode after. This is old Nelson, well worthy of the name he bears. On the first day he came, he singled out Mr. Smith, attached him- self to him, and ever afterwards was the first to salute him when he entered the field. He had belonijed to tlie Duke of 54 REMINISCENCES, ETC. Rutland, and was of the same size as many of tbe best bounds in tbe pack ; in fact, a perfect model for a foxhound, answering in every way to Mr. Meynell's well-known de- scription — " short back, open bosom, straight legs, and com- pact feet ;" and to that by Beckford, equally familiar to sportsmen, " Let his legs be straight as arrows, his feet round and not too large, his chest deep and back broad, his head small, his neck thin, his tail thick and bushy ; if he carries it well, so much the better."* Yet notwith- standing Beckford, than whom there cannot be better autho- rity, for his work may be said to be the fox-hunter's text- book, speaks of a thin neck as recommending a hound, Mr. Smith used to like " throaty hounds," for he said " that by getting rid of the throat, the nose goes along with it, for a throaty hound has invariably a good nose." It may not be out of place here to describe the animated and interesting scene which invariably occurred when the squire joined his hounds at the meet. Directly he appeared, every hound rushed towards him, and if ever there was a hearty welcome given to man by " dumb animals," theirs was that welcome. It could not be said, however, to be given by " dumb animals," for each hound had a peculiar winning note of its own to express its joy, and no one could for a moment doubt the reciprocal delight both of master and hounds. This was the more singular as ]Mr. Smith never fed his hounds in the kennel, but, directly the hunting was over for the day, he mounted his hack and galloped home, while the hounds returned quietly with the whip- pers-in. It did not add little to the character of this sylvan scene, to see the well-mounted field, and the cordial greeting which the knot of scarlets gave to the master of the hounds. No time, however, was lost in salutations, for business was to be done. So alongside of his hack the squire's hunter was * " On Hunting," p. 29. HIS AGILITY IN CHANGING HORSES. 55 brought, and without dismounting, he vaulted from one to the other, almost without rising from the saddle of the steed he quitted. This was always looked upon as an extraordi- nary feat of agility, and it could not have been performed without great muscular strength.* Mr. Smith continued this practice almost up to the time of his death ; and only two years before that event took place, he was stopping on horseback at the door of one of the clubs in St. James's Street, when a horse was brought up which his owner com- plained of as being most difficult to manage. The squire had him led up alongside, and, although quite strange to him, jumped on his back in the usual style, when, to the astonish- ment of every one, after a turn or two with the refractory horse up and down the street, he brought him back as quiet as a lamb. In fact, he seemed to possess the same fascinat- ing power over horses which he has been already shown to have had over hounds. Much of this power is doubtless to be attributed to his wonderful delicacy of touch in handling a horse. The above instance is not the only one where animals, violent and irritable in other hands, have been known to be comparatively quiet in his. There was, however, one excep- tion, and this was in a beautiful brown thoroughbred horse called " Cracker," who took an unaccountable dislike to the squire's red coat, although on all other occasions he was per- feptly tractable. It is related by one of his friends, that he saw this hunter, on his master's attempting to mount him, kick him down in the most savage manner. Mr. Smith was not the man to give in even after such opposition as this, but at length, after many entreaties on the part of his wife, he * "In June, 1S58, a few months before his death, Mr, Smith was in Rotten Eow and at Tattersall's, as usual, on Blemish ; and when he rode into the ring one morning, and saw Rarey driving his zebra round it, he made his servant bring his horse alongside, and quite gloried in showing the celebrated American how he could still change horses in a run without dismounting." — Si/k and Scarlet, p. 284. 56 REMINISCEXCES, ETC. consented, with great reluctance, to part with him, although for many good qualities as a hunter he was a great favourite. The horse became afterwards the property of a celebrated vendor of pale ale. The influence which Mr. Smith appeared to wield over horses, materially contributed to his excellent management of them. He used to say that as soon as he mounted a strange horse, the animal would turn his head round, and seemed to smell at his left boot, and after that they v/ere acquainted. It must have been an interesting sight to have seen him witness a private rehearsal between Rarey and Cruiser, which he did in the last summer of his life, when he ex- pressed himself much pleased with Rarey 's extraordinary power in taming vicious animals. When Lord Kennedy made a match for £500, for Cap- tain Douglas to ride a steeple chase against Captain Ross's Clinker, over five miles of the severest hunting-ground in Leicestershire, — namely, from Barkby Holt to the Coplow, — his lordship purchased Radical of Mr. Assheton Smith for 500 guineas for the purposes of the match. This noble animal was a most difficult horse to ride, and Mr. Smith's remark was, " whoever rides him must be as strong as an elephant, as bold as a lion, and as quiet as a mouse." He himself rode Radical in a double snaffle, or rather, a snaffle and a gag rein, his favourite bit at that time, as he said it was the lightest or severest, as the case might require. He after- wards adopted a double bridle, known as the Bentinck bit, being an invention of the late lamented Lord George Ben- tinck. This was a very severe instrument, and only suited for such light hands as those of Mr. Smith. In those of others it often caused accidents, as, owing to its unusual severity, few horses would go against it. To return to the match, Radical was beaten by Clinker, when Lord Kennedy oflfered to double the stakes on condition that Mr. Smith would ride Radical. On this being mentioned to him, his reply was, " Much as I esteem the implied compliment, I THE HORSE DOCTOR'S UGLY FALL. 57 will not turn rough-rider to please any man living." The truth was, he always held steeple chases in aversion, on the ground that they unfairly and cruelly taxed the powers of a horse, and, moreover, because they were patronised by such as preferred seeing others break their necks to the risk of breaking their own. Clinker was afterwards beaten by Clasher, who was ridden by Mr.Osbaldeston, Dick Christian riding Clinker. The ground selected was that from Great Dalby to Tilton, a distance of five miles. Mr. Osbaldeston afterwards crowned the victory he had already obtained, by defeating Captain Ross himself, the former being mounted on Pilot, and the captain on Polecat. Mr. Smith was once riding Radical, soon after he liad made him handy, in the Market Harborough country, when he observed, even while the hounds were drawing, a fellow, dressed like a horse jockey at a fair, following close after him over every leap he took. On inquiry he ascertained that the man was a horse doctor, who had made a bet that his horse would jump anything that should be cleared by Radical. Matters went on pretty smoothly until they found, when the squire's rival for some time followed close, until they arrived at a hog-backed foot-style with a tre- mendous drop, and with steps into a road. This Radical cleared, but his unfortunate follower's horse, striking the top bar with his knees, came headlong into the road with his rider, who was carried home senseless. The next day, as the squire was riding through the village, he was mobbed and hooted by the old women, as being the man who had nearly killed their hard-riding farrier. This anecdote is not unlike that told of Burton, the Nuneaton tanner, who always made a dead set at Mr. Smith in a similar way. The tanner was habitually attired in a light-coloured green coat, from which he received the name of Paroquet, and he rode remarkably well. The squire at last, being determined to shake him off, sent Jack-o'-Lantern at an almost imprac- ticable flight of stiff rails, the top bar of which he broke, 58 REMINISCENCES, ETC. and, to his vexatiou, made the passage easy for the tough man of hides, who was soon cnce more at his side, and wag not destined to receive his tanning at all events that time. There was another strong reason why horses and hounds became so docile and tractable with Mr. Smith, and that was his just treatment of them, which brutes are sensible enough to comprehend and appreciate. It is a fact well recorded, that he was never known to strike a horse or hound unfairly or to lose his temper with them. " How is it," asked a friend, " that horses and hounds never seem to provoke you V " They are brutes and know no better, but men do," was the pithy reply. He used to say that horses had far more sense than dogs. There is another fact which Mr. Smith himself used to mention with no common pride. Notwithstanding the gallant manner in which he always rode — never turning from any fence that interfered be- tween him and his hounds — he never had a horse drop dead under him, or die from the effects of a severe day's riding. This was a boast which no other master of hounds could make, who had ever hunted half as long, or ridden half as hard, as the squire of Tedworth. Nevertheless, the boast must be qualified by the circumstance, that it is not every fox-hunter or master of hounds who could afford a fresh horse as frequently as Mr. Smitli. We are reminded by the mention of the name of the late Lord George Bentinck, that this respected nobleman lived on terms of intimate friendship with Mr. Assheton Smith, by whom he was much admired for his high character, his manly bearing, and his unswerving rectitude in matters connected with the turf By his influence the squire was persuaded to have some brood mares at Tedworth, and for a short time to be a member of the Jockey Club. Mr. Smith, however, soon declined this new pursuit ; he loved the straightforward honesty of a fox-hunt, but observed that the chicanery of racing was ungenial to him. Nevertheless he once actually rode and won a race. This was on the Win- LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 59 Chester course. He had put a hard-pulling raking-horse, called Spartacus, into the Hunters' Stakes there, who so overpowered his rider (" I think," said Mr. Smith, himself relating the anecdote, " it was young Buckle ") that he bolted, and was consequently distanced. The squire chal- lenged the winner for £50, owners to ride (Bob Lowth was the adverse jockey), and he won easily each heat. During the time he was a member of the Jockey Club, Lord George Bentinck wrote and asked him to come to Newmarket to support his lordship on some intricate question relating to the turf. This Mr. Smith declined to do, alleging, as an excuse, his having been a member so short a time, and not wishing to identify himself with any discussions rela- tive to racing, in which he did not profess himself an adept. Not loug afterwards Mr. Smith invited his lord- ship to hunt at Tedworth, and, as Lord George had then sold all his hunters, offered to mount him on Election, then perhaps the A 1 of his whole stud. The reply was, " Dear Mr. Smith, — I have always been accustomed to drink out of a large cup, and cannot stoop to a little one. I decline hunting on another man's horse when I have no longer hunters of ray own. Your letter reminds me that you are the only one of my father's old friends who, when solicited, would not support his son in his endeavour to reform the Augean stable," Mr. Smith had forgotten the incident above alluded to, but it had remained altd mente repostum in the breast of his lordship. The anecdote is characteristic of both. Lord George was a frequent visitor at Tedworth, wa3 a gallant rider, and could view a fox (so said the squire) farther than any man living. He once, during a fast run, charged Wilbury Park pales on Wintonian, a racer who had never faced timber before. Fortunately they broke, and the horse made a gap large enough for a flock of sheep to pass through, but his rider escaped a fall. 60 REMINISCENCES, BTa CHAPTER IV. REBUILDING OF TEDWORTH ; MR. SMITH GOES TO RESIDE THERE IN 1830. — DESCRIPTION OF HIS KENNELS AND STABLES. — MORE FAVOURITE HOUNDS.— THE GREAT ANNUAL MEET AT TEDWORTH. — HE REPRESENTS ANDOVER AND CARNARVONSHIRE IN PARLIAMENT. — HIS CORPS OF YEOMANRY REVIEWED BY THE " IKON DUKE." — SOMB ACCOUNT OF VAENOL AND MR. SMITH'S ESTATES IN NORTH WALES. — SLATE QUARRIES OF LLANBERRIS. Nec tibi cura canum fuerit postrema. — Virg. Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo. — Virg. During the period occupied in the rebuilding of Tedworth, viz., two years (from 1828 to 1830), Mr. Smith continued to reside at Penton. In the latter year he moved his esta- blishment to the new mansion. During the previous season he had commenced his stables and kennels, which were built entirely after his own plan. They Avere spacious, airy, and every way well suited to the purpose for which they were designed. Every hunter had his loose box ; he was never tied up, and thus had plenty of room to move about in. There was also a spacious covered ride, a furlong in circum- ference, for the horses to take their exercise in. Tlie writer, on a visit to Tedworth, in the autumn of 1845, saw fifty horses in the stables, including hunters, carriage-horses, and hacks, all in first-rate condition, and each apparently as familiar with the squire as a pet dog would be.* Among these he recollects that Netheravon and Black Diamond excited his highest admiration. The kennels are situated about ten minutes' walk from the house, and close to the Home Farm. They were origi- nally built by Mr. Smith on rising ground above the stables; but owing to the hounds constantly suffering from kennel * The name of each horse was in printed letters over his box. TEDWORTH STABLES AND KENNELS. 61 lameness, although every precaution of draining, ventila- tion, and paving was resorted to, the situation or subsoil PABT OF PKIXCIPAL EXTKANCE TO STABLES AT TEDWOETH. (chalk upon strong clay) ^yas deemed unhealthy and con- demned. Mr. Smith, with his usual discernment, had re- marked that the lame hounds, when removed below the hill to his Home Farm, and turned into the calf-pens there, soon recovered. This induced him at once to fix on that spot, well sheltered by trees and buildings from the north and north-east, for the site of the present excellent kennels. He drew the design for them on half a sheet of paper, which was afterwards put to a scale, and carried out exactly according to the plan by his own carpenter and bricklayer. A writer in the Sporting Magaziiie, speaking of the boil- ing and feeding-houses at Tedworth, remarks that they ar^ 62 REMINISCENCES, ETC. removed from the kennel to avoid effluvia ; but this plan, he says, is open to the objection, that the backs of the hounds are exposed to the wet in rainy weather, when coming for their food, and standing to take it. In Beckford's time, the boiling-house and feeding-rooms of kennels for foxhounds were placed in the centre. There were two kennels, the hunting and ordinary kennel. The floor of the lodging- rooms sloped, and was always bricked. There was a hayrick in the grass-yard, for the hounds to rest themselves against. Somerville, in his poem on "The Chase," recommends a high situation ; but, as Beckford observes, if this be selected, there can be no brook running through the kennels, which is very desirable on many accounts. Passing up the shrubbery and skirting the edge of the farm-yard, you come at once upon a slope of undulating green sward, and here, under the eye of one of the whippers- in, scores of loose hounds might be seen taking their exer- cise. On the top of the hill, open towards the south-west, ranged the kennels, four in number, and as snug in their accommodation as the greatest lover of hounds could desire. Here flourished Tomboy, Tarquin, Trimbush (of whom we have already spoken). Tigress, and Traffic, of Burton blood. Tomboy was notorious for always bringing home the fox's head, no matter how distant the kill. Those who were out that day will well recollect Traffic and the hunted fox rolling off" the thatch of a house together, at the close of a quick run from CoUingbourne Wood to Fosbury, and back to Dean Farm ; while others will not forget the courage of Trimmer in lugging a marten cat out of a hurdle pile in Doyly Wood single handed. A sporting farmer once seeing these, and numerous other hounds as good, running in a cluster and close behind their fox, exclaimed joyously, " They goes at 'un like my wether sheep into a tie of turnips, all first."" Mr. Smith at first had the flooring of his kennels paved with flint-stones ; but, on one occasion, when his hounds were sufiering from shoulder lameness, he found it necessary to KENNELS AT TED WORTH. 63 move them so quickly that a roomy cart-shed was provided for them. The flooring!: of this shed was of chalk well KENNEL DOOE AT TEDWOKTH. rammed down, on the principle of the old Eoman barn-floors mentioned in Virgil's Georgics, cretd solidanda tenaci. Here the hounds soon recovered, and upon the flint-stones in the kennel being removed, a great deal of moisture was found collected underneath, although there was no land- spring near. This convinced the squire that Virgil was right, and from that time the yards of the kennels were laid with hard clay or chalk. The hounds were strangers to shoulder-lameness ever afterwards. Their sleeping apart- ments were raised four feet from the ground, each hound, like his master, going upstairs to bed. They were thatched 64 REMINISCENCES; ETC. with reeds, for the sake of warmth in winter and coolness in summer, each lodging-house being made to hold twenty couples of hounds. The yardsannexedtothe respectivekennels are raised in the centre, with gutter-bricks all round them, converging to the sides, so that the water, which is laid on by pipes with taps to them, is instantaneously carried off, and there is no underground drain near to catch and detain the moisture. Close by is the huntsman's house, so that all riot and disturbance are quelled immediately on any outbreak. The old cart-shed is still retained for young hounds, and as a place of litter for puppies. Adjoining the kennels is a spacious paddock, enclosed all round with a lofty wall, in which the hounds can run at large when inspected by the huntsman or by strangers. Built into the wall about the centre of it is a pavilion, with a raised platform, and having a door of admission only on the outside, for the accommo- dation of ladies on coming to see the hounds. Let us cross from the kennels to the beautifully smooth lawn in front of the dining-room at Tedworth. The spec- tator, standing at one of the windows, looks into an open part of the park, studded here and there with noble timber. It is the first morning in November, somewhat dark and lowering, but the clouds, sailing through the sky steadily from the south-west, give indications of a good hunting- day. The leaf has not yet wholly fallen, but the gust is sweeping it in eddies from each group of trees over the stately hall. The woods which fringe the distant hills are clothed with their richest mantle of russet and gold. The best pack in the kennel are already rolling themselves and disporting upon the grass ; the huntsman and whippers-in are not far off, splendidly mounted, and, with their equip- ments, a sight to look at. In every direction are pouring in horsemen of every age and calling, coats of every colour, but the '' pink " far predominating, and a sprinkling of the loveliest women in the world, either on horseback, or in THE OPENING MEET. 65 *'The East looks grey ; the early lark Mounts upwards to the sky, And to the rosy-fingered morn Pours forth its minstrelsy. Right merrily the huntsman winds The horn along the vale, And Echo to the neighbouring hills Imparts the gladsome tale." — Old Song, It is the opening meet of the season, and Tedworth's hospitable mansion is thrown open to every comer. In the midst is the squire, cordial and affable, on one of his well- known steeds, offering to all a hearty welcome, ready with a sporting joke for some, and a jovial laugh for others. Here may be seen a throng of eager sportsmen, discussing with enthusiasm the prospects and pleasures of the season now about to commence ; there a group encircling a lovely horsewoman, to be the subject of many a toast by-and-by, when the claret circulates freely after the toils and perils of the chase. In the meanwhile what capital cheer within the hall, what barons of beef, what interminable venison pasties ! Breakfast ended — and no superfluous time is wasted in dispatching it — away go the field to a wood not very far off, near to which is the residence of one of the keepers, whose pretty little daughter Mr. Smith is accused of pre- senting not unfrequently with a new dress, only because Reynard is always to be found at home there. Scenes like these gladden the heart, — truly they deserve a better hand than ours to paint ; nevertheless it may be that more than one sportsman may look at the copy, not without some " pleasures of memory," for the sake of the original. But although Mr. Assheton Smith was, at the period of his life we are endeavouring to sketch, warmly devoted to fox-hunting, and indeed made it his special pursuit, he was not neglectful of the duties which, as a landed proprietor and English country gentleman, he had to discharge. He gat in Parliament for Andover for several years, and up to F 66 REMINISCENCES, ETC. the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832. His politics were of the old Tory school, and, in consequence of his strenuous opposition to that measure, he lost his seat. While in the House of Commons, he regularly attended the debates, and never lost an opportunity of recording his vote for his party. He subsequently represented Caernarvonshire in more than one Parliament, but his name is seldom to be found in the debates. He was always more a man of action than a man of speech, and his example might well be followed by many of the legislators of the present day, who discuss measures over and over again, long after the nation has made up its mind about them, and at the same time show no disposition to deduce from their arguments any tangible and useful results. Before railroads almost annihilated time and space, Mr. Smith used frequently to hunt his hounds at Tedworth in the morning, and then post in his light chariot with four horses to Westminster in the evening, announcing to the field that he must be allowed to meet at noon next day. Having voted in the division, he did not fail to be at the covert side at the hour appointed. It was at the time when he lost his seat for Andover, viz., 1832, that, in consequence of the riots which took l)lace in that year, he raised a corps of Yeomanry Cavalry at his own expense. He was Captain, and the troopers were chiefly his own tenant» or farmers of the neighbour- hood. They were viewed on one occasion in Tedworth Park by the late Duke of Wellington, who spoke in high terms of their efficiency and soldierlike appearance. After the inspection and review, the troops were entertained at Tedworth House. These volunteers, who could well have helped to defend Old England against invasion, if necessary, were most of them good men over a country, and as such much more likely to do service in the time of emergency than a body of cavalry who are obliged to go round by the road, because they can neither skim ridge and furrow, nor clear a dark fence at the end of it. It is well known that THE "iron duke"' A FOX-HUNTER. 67 the Duke himself, in choosing his aides-de-camp, always preferred fox-hunters, because he said they knew how to ride straight to a given point, generally had good horses, and were equally willing to charge a big place or an enemy. "We have spoken already of his Grace's fondness for fox- hunting. He was no less liberal in supporting it. On one occasion, when the subscription to a good pack fell off, and some lukewarmness showed itself among the contributors, being asked to give his assistance, he said laconically, " Get what you can, and put my name down for the difference." That difference was .£600 a year ! Yet, notwithstanding the great Duke was a fox-hunter, no man presumed to doubt his master mind, either as a general or as a states- man. Mr. Smith's character has found its detractors because of his devotion to the chase. But, as has been well remarked, the very manner in which he was able to follow the pursuit, by his position, his wealth, his influence, and his superior talent as a master of hounds, had the effect of raising the science of fox-hunting to that degree of perfection which places it beyond the reach of imitation in other countries, and serves to retain for it all its national charac- teristics. Nevertheless, it will be seen, in the course of this memoir, that the squire was not a fox-hunter and nothing else. It was the man who did credit to the pursuit, rather than the pursuit which did credit to the man. In the management of his fine estates, both in Hants and Caernarvonshire, he found full occupation for the discharge of his duties as a country gentleman. His tenants vied with each other in eUciting commendations from their landlord, for the good order and skilful husbandry with which their lands were farmed. They well knew that the acute and observing eye of the squire would quickly discover any signs of careless- ness and bad management ; while, at the same time, they took care that when the hounds came their way, there f2 68 REMINISCENCES, ETC. should not be any complaint of the want of foxes. Daring the panic created by the introduction of free trade, a worthy farmer remarked to Mr. Smith, at its commencement, that the cultivation of corn would soon cease. " So much the better," observed the squire, smiling at his tenant's apprehension ; "for then I shall hunt over a grass country." On a similar occasion. Lord Southampton said to a farmer who was too fond of over-riding his hounds, " I think, Sir, that Sir Robert Peel's Bill will stop you, though I cannot." The cottages in the village of Tedworth were models of neatness and comfort. These Mrs. Smith used herself to overlook, and the healthful and cheerful faces of the inmates well testified the care taken of them. No one could notice the tidy garden around each homestead, with the honey- suckle or rose festooning around its porch,* and the scarlet Pyracantha climbing its walls, without feeling that here that truly English picture was fully realized, of a country gentleman living in the midst of his people, spending his money, where it ought to be spent, upon his own estate, and winding himself closely into the attachment and hearts of his dependants. At the time we speak of, the schools did not exist in the condition they are in now. These were added to the village in 1857. Not many hundred yards from the Hall is the old church, lying under the Downs, and with scarcely a habitation near it, except the house of the minister. From the churchyard, the eye, passing over the mansion, and the trees surrounding it in the valley, takes in a range of hills, stretching themselves one above another in the direction of Marlborough, and which the horseman may traverse for many miles without ever leaving the turf. On this extensive domain there was scarcely a man, woman, or child, who could not receive employment if they wanted it, * There is scarcely a cottage without its porch and double seat within. VAENOL. 69 and there was always a fair day's wage for a fair day's labour. The summer months were generally passed by Mr. Smith on his property in Caernarvonshire, and he returned to Ted worth for cub-bunting in the early autumn. Let us follow the squire and his establishment into North Wales. He was for some time a member of the Royal Yacht Club, and from the earliest period of life fond of sailing : with nautical science he was indeed quite as familiar as he was with fox-hunting. In the Straits of Menai, on the banks of which stood Vaenol, his residence in Wales, he had ample scope for indulging his sea-going propensities. Vaenol had originally belonged to the Williams family of Fryars, Anglesea ; but Griffith Williams, in the reign of Queen Anne, having no issue, bequeathed the estates to the crown. That sovereign granted them to the then speaker of the House of Commons, and they thus became the property of the Smith family, who had had previously no connexion with the Principality. The grounds sloj^e down to the water's edge, and the squire could embark immediately on board his yacht, which lay at anchor at no great distance from the shore. Oj)posite Yaenol, on the other side of the Straits, is Plas Newydd, {Anglice, " the New Palace,") the property of the Marquis of Anglesea, formerly graced by the presence of her Majesty when Princess Victoria, and of her august mother. Mr. Smith himself lived there for some time, while Vaenol was undergoing alterations. The mansion is now tenanted by the Dowager Lady Willoughby de Broke. During the period of the Princess Victoria's residence at Plas Newydd, she condescended to visit the squire of Ted worth at Vaenol, and presented him with a portrait of herself and of the Duchess of Kent, one of the few engraved only for private circu- lation. This souvenir of the royal visit was highly prized by Mr. Smith, and it filled a conspicuous place on the walls of the mansion in Wales to the time of his death. His loyalty to his Queen had in fact something of the romantic in it. Her name 70 REMINISCENCES, ETC. is to be found at all points of his immense property. The handsome hotel at Llanberris, from which the tourist com- mences his toilsome ascent to the cloudy summit of Snow- don, was built by him, and named " The Victoria ; " that quarry whence comes the green slate, now so much in fashion for ornamental buildings, was, for its superior quality, called Victoria ; three of the best steam-yachts of the many he built, and of which we shall presently speak more in detail, were named " Fire-Queen." Her Majesty is said to have asked Mr. Smith why he called the first of these the " Fire-Queen." The reply of the veteran was characteristic. " May it please your Majesty, I had a yacht called the ' Fire-King,' which was superior to any I had before : this is superior to that, and I call her ' Fire- Queen.' " At no great distance from Vaenol stands the port of Dinorwic, already formed by Nature for security, but con- siderably enlarged by Mr. Smith in 1828, and now affording shelter in tempestuous weather to as many vessels as are to be found passing up and down the Menai Straits. Here is safe anchorage for sixty or seventy craft of two hundred tons burthen each, awaiting their cargoes of some of the best slate in the world. The mountain where this useful and valuable material is to be found is owned on the one side by Col. Douglas Pennant, and on the other by Mr. Assheton Smith ; they are quarrying away as fast as they can to meet each other, though it will take a century to do it. It has the appearance of a colossal plum cake, out of which two boys are each trying to take the largest slice he can. The harbour of Port Dinorwic is beautifully situated in the very centre of the straits, equidistant from the open sea at Caernarvon Bay and from Pufiin Island. From an eminence above the port are seen the magnificent structure of Stephenson and Telford's elegant and graceful work. Opposite is the pillar erected to commemorate the gallantry of one of the bravest of the house of Paget. To the left, SLATE QUAKllJES OF DINORWIC. 71 as the traveller gazes up tlie straits in tlie direction of Orme's Head, is the pretty town of Beaumaris, and imme- diately above it the extensive woods encircling the noble mansion of Baron Hill. Nature has indeed been bountiful to the inhabitants of this picturesque locality. Here at every turn is abundant scope for the imagination of the painter and the poet in the dark overhanging masses of every shade and colour ; whiU» the man of business and commerce, as he stands at the door of the Victoria Hotel at Llanberris, hears with interest and admiration the incessant echo of the hammers, and watches the busy movements of the workmen, clinging apparently to the almost perpen- dicular sides of the cliffs. At the port, the excellent arrangements for transporting and shijDping the slates do not escape his notice; although he must be rather surprised to see " Duchesses " and " Countesses " * so roughly handled. The following accurate and graphic description of Mr. Smith's quarries has been furnished for this memoir by Mr. Millington, son of the gentleman who has for many years most ably and zealously superintended the works. " The Dinorwic slate quarries are situated on a mountain called the ' Elidir ' (one of the Snowdonian range, and con- tiguous to Snowdon), v/hich rises about 2,000 feet above the level of the sea : they derive their name of Dinorwic, or Dinorwig, from an ancient manor in which they are situated, and lie partly in the parish of Llanberris, and partly in that of Llandemilen, in the county of Caernarvon. The period at which slate was first found in these quarries is unknown, but the regular and systematic working com- menced about sixty years ago, and they have been gradually increasing in extent. The great increase, however, has taken place since 1828, when the late Mr. Assheton Smith succeeded to the property at the death of his father. On entering into possession, he carried on the works in a most * Slates known by these titles. 72 REMINISCENCES, ETC, vigorous and enterprising manner, opened many fresh quarries, and extended those ah-eady in work, so that in the space of thirty years they have quadrupled in extent. There are now employed about 2,400 men and boys ; and the amount expended monthly in wages and materials ex- ceeds £9,000. "There are various descriptions of slates produced, varying in quality, as best or fine slate, seconds or strong slate ; and also in colour, as grey or light blue, dark blue or purple, red, and also green ; the last named, however, being found in but small quantities. The body of slate rock is of very considerable extent. The present workings (May, 1859) cover a space of not less than one square mile ; the highest elevation of the quarries now open is about 1,500 feet above the level of the Llanberris lakes, and about 1,800 feet above the level of the sea. The depth of the slate rock has never been ascertained, but it is supposed to be between 1,500 and 2,000 feet. The rock in these quarries has been worked to the depth of 300 perpendicular feet. The roofing slates are split and dressed in numerous sheds, situated on the rubbish banks adjoining the quarries. The slabs are manufactured at powerful steam and water mills in the immediate neighbourhood. Convenient tramways, about twenty-three miles in extent, are laid along the various workings and quarry banks ; upon these small waggons are run, into which the slates and slabs are loaded and taken to the inclines, whence they are let down by wire ropes to the railway terminus. The inclines are laid up the precipitous side of the mountain, and are eighteen in number, averaging 600 feet in length. At the railway terminus adjoining the quarries, the small loaded waggons are placed upon large trucks (each holding four), and are then formed into trains, and drawn by locomotives to the shipping port. From the quarries to the port, the railway, called 'the Padarn Railway,' is rather more than seven miles in length, and was constructed by the late Mr. THE QUARRIES DESCRIBED. 73 Assieton Smith at a very considerable outlay about the year 1843, solely for the purposes of the works. The place of shipment is a commodious harbour, called ' Port Dinorwic,' a private port, used only for the shipment of slates from the Dinorwic quarries, and is situated in the Menai Straits, half-way between Bangor and Caernarvon. It was commenced on a small scale by the late Mr. Smith's father, but was enlarged and extended to its present size by Mr. Smith himself, who also added to it two commodious and convenient docks. About 120 vessels can lie alongside the quays and in the docks, securely sheltered from all winds. Slates are shipped largely from hence to most of the sea-ports of England, Ireland, and Scotland, to the Baltic and German ports, and extensively to the United States of America. A branch of the Caernarvon and Bangor railway connects this port with the Chester, and Holyhead, and London and North-Western lines, by which means slates are conveyed in large quantities to the manu- facturing and midland districts of England." The genius that could invent and organize the vast im- provements recorded in the above narrative must have been of no mean order ; while we admire the spirit and enter- prise that thus furnished constant employment all the year round to so many thousands. The tourist is permitted to ride up the inclines, and thus to visit the quarries. This is aa adventure requiring no little nerve : for although every precaution is taken to prevent danger, and such is the strength of the machinery, that an accident has scarcely been ever known to occur ; yet the stoutest heart may well throb, as the traveller, in making the ascent, looks down when midway up into the dark watery gulf of Llanberris, many hundred feet beneath him. This feeling will not be diminished in his descent, although made with the utmost care, and with no greater velocity than the ascent. The cable which serves to raise and let down the carriages is of many folds of twisted copper wire, and the weight of those 74 REMINISCENCES, ETC. coming down serves to raise those going up. This cable is no less than a thousand yards in length. There can be imagined no grander scene than is beheld from the railway leading to these inclines. Immediately in front is the majestic range of Snowdon, and a few miles distant to the right of the traveller, as he makes his pilgrimage upwards, is Bethgelert, famous for its being the centre of many a lovely valley, and for its romantic legend of the death of Gelert, most faithful of hounds : — ** And till great Snowdon's rocks grow old, And cease the storm to brave. The consecrated spot shall hold The name of Gelert's grave.'* Quitting the harbour of Dinorwic, where thousands of slates are stacked in every direction ready for embarkation, we either mount immediately the first incline, at the top of which is the railway terminus, or taking the route across the open country, we pass through the centre of the slate dis- trict into the bowels of the black rock (Allt Du), over- hanging the Upper Lake of Llanberris. On our arrival at the quarries we make the best use of our time, in acquiring information as to the mode in which the works are carried on. The slate is cut by piece- work, the *• bargainers," as they are called, taking each a certain number of feet in width, and to such a nicety can they blast the sides of the quarry, that they have been known to con- tinue " on their lines" for twenty-five years without en- croaching an inch on the adjoining bargainer's tenure. The steam-engine (by David Brothers, Sheffield) has been at work ten years, and not unfrequently both day and night, and yet it was never known to be out of order. The quar- rymen have such faith in it that they affirm it would work just as well on slates as on coal or coke. The machine for dressing the slates, styled the guillotine, the invention of Morin, from the same country as came its formidable name- ORGANIZATION OF OPERATIVES. 75 sake, is almost as dangerous to handle ; this instrument, after cutting away clean the four sides of the slate, pushes the latter from the block into the basket. Not far from the guillotine is the large graving tool for planing billiard tables. Every now and then the bugle sounds from the door of a small white hut, conspicuous about the centre of the moun- tain, not as at Tedworth, to cheer gallant steed and hound, but to warn the workmen and spectators that the blasting- coil is about to be set fire to. Scarcely have they time to get behind the rocks, when splinters of slate are falling in all directions, and huge fragments of mountain are hurled into the lake below. The office of Mr. Ellis, the manager. Las been made bomb-proof to prevent accidents. In July, 1857, 220,000 tons were levelled at one blast from the Wellington quarry, and at a very trifling cost. The blast- ing takes place once an hour, when grace, as it is called, is given to the men for ten minutes, during which each labourer is allowed to take out and light his pipe. Smoking is not permitted except at these intervals. A number of boys begin their education as future quarrymen in collecting the odds and ends of broken slate, picking out those pieces which may be useful, and wheeling them in their tiny car- riages along a tramway to the huts, where they are clipped and turned to account. Occasionally a shout of glee is a sign that they have lit upon a piece of quartz, which they offer to visitors in exchange for copper. The number of tons annually carried away by the railway averages 1,200,000. The quarries abound with a vast number of workshops, ■where almost everything is manufactured " on the pre- mises," from the first loaf the quarryman eats, to the slab which forms his gravestone, and tells in rude Welsh poetry his past good qualities and his future hope. A large proportion of the young men now employed upon the mountain were born almost in the quarries ; some from the condition of daily labourers have risen to a consi- 76 EEMINISCENCES, ETC. derable degree of affluence ; others have emigrated to the gold-fields of Australia, where their skill in quarrying, and their hardy and temperate habits, have stood them in good service ; while there are to be found those still at work among the slabs, who have returned with nuggets enough to buy mountain homesteads, and are industriously increasing their means by following their old employment. Like the inhabitants of all mountainous districts, the Welsh are ardent lovers of their own unconquered country, and whether acci- dent, duty, or ambition casts their temporary lot in other lands, a home in their own locality is a vision they never lose sight of. Mr. Smith had an excellent plan of encouraging integrity and good conduct among his workmen. About thirty years ago, he began the system of allotting portions of mountain- land to the most deserving. The selection according to merit was entrusted to the quarry manager already mentioned, who was born among them, and has held his office of trust for forty-five years. From eight to fifteen acres were meted out to each at a nominal rent, with the understanding that he should build a cottage for himself. In this way nearly two thousand acres of land are now under continuous cultivation, which formerly were covered with furze and heather. The occupiers are allowed to sell their estates to their fellow-labourers : some few have availed themselves of this permission, but for the most part they remain on their little farms after ceasing to work, and enjoy in their old age a comfortable retirement. Mr. Smith was influenced by another motive in scattering the houses over the district, instead of collecting them into a large town. He thought that his men would incur less temptation to resort to the public houses after their day's work, especially in the dark winter evenings, if they had a long distance to go from their homes for the purpose of obtaining drink. This dispersion of his labourers has proved very successful. As we pass through the village of Llandinorwig, and onward through a MORAL TRAINING OF LABOURERS. 77 locality dotted far and wide with the cottages of a rapidly increasing population, encamped like sentinels around the new church,, we observe with pleasure the healthful and ruddy countenances of the children, and the neat appear- ance they everywhere present, even on working days. Each happy troop bears about it ample evidence that the parents are stayers at home. When the present steward first began his duties, the number of workmen in the quarries amounted only to 300 : at the present time they exceed 2,000, and during the life- time of Mr. Smith, not one of them had ever been taken before the magistrates for dishonesty. Such a fact speaks volumes : it is a signal contradiction of the reproach often uttered, that kindness to the poor meets with no return : it redounds to the honour of the employer who rewarded in the manner above mentioned the industry of his workmen, and to that of the men, who thus profited by the advantages held out to them. It is a pleasing sight to behold the groups of labourers on the mountain-side at dinner-time ; scarcely a man of them all but has in his brawny hand a newspaper or other periodical wherewith he jwiles away his time until his hour of rest has elapsed. Intelligence has made ample strides in these remote regions. Mr. Smith's principle of education always was, to prepare a youth for the position in society he was to fill on attaining manhood. He had the child of his labourer taught his duty to God and man, and gave him sufiicient learning to enable him to discharge both duties efi&ciently ; but he always held, that the superfluous knowledge with which children are crammed in the present day, only tends to fill their minds with ideas unsuited to their station in society, and to render them discontented with their condition. This theory he reduced to practice. The elements of a Christian education he furnished to his little colony in schools, built upon his estate, and provided with teachers at his own expense. Not satisfied with this, he built a church, 78 REMINISCENCES, ETC. considered one of the handsomest in North "Wales, contain- ing free sittings for 600 souls ; also a parsonage house, to which he annexed twelve acres of glebe land, two more being given for a churchyard, and he moreover endowed the incumbent with a comfortable income. A fund is charge- able on the Welsh farms for necessary repairs. The conse- cration of the church took place on the 24th of September, 1857, when a collation was given to upwards of five hun- dred people : indeed, the door of hospitality was open to all who chose to enter. The value of these donations amounts at the lowest estimate to £16,000, the church and parsonage alone costing £8,000. Mr. Smith was never known to refuse a site for church or chapel on his land, if the request was made in a proper manner. An elder of the CaLvinistic body has related that they never applied to him for a site for chapel or schools but it was at once cheerfully granted. This was the more liberal as he was himself a staunch member of the Church of England. Both he and Mrs. Smith invaria- bly went to church on foot, and made it a rule, except in case of illness, never to have either carriage or horse out on a Sunday. On one occasion, however, the squire was known to refuse a gift of land for church purposes ; but in that case the over-oflScious citizens had plans drawn out, the site deter- mined on, and estimates prepared before the lord of the soil was consulted, so that his refusal under such circumstances cannot be much wondered at. Dr. Cotton, the dean of Ban- gor, who was much beloved and respected by Mr. and Mrs. Smith, seldom resorted to him in vain for aid in works of charity. On one occasion, the dean being fond of a joke, as most Welshmen are, asked him for an old pair of boilers. Mr. Smith told him he had not got such a thing by him ; and so the matter ended for the time. In a few weeks the dean went again to renew his request, saying, " You have so many steamers, you must have an old pair of boilers you can give me ;" whereupon the squire said, LLYN PEEIS AND LLYN PADARN. 79 ** Come, dean, tell me what you really want 1 what is it 1 " — fiiid on the dean owning that he did not want the boilers, but the boilers' worth, a cheque for the required sum was immediately handed to him. Mr. Smith was fond of taking parties from Yaenol to see the quarries, and always had his joke with the young ladies who inquired if it was not dangerous to ascend the inclines, by asking his agent, who frequently accompanied him, how long it was since the last accident. His favourite spot on such occasions was the Braich quarry (Anglice, arm of the mountain), which commanded a magnificent prospect of Llanberris Pass. A signal was hoisted on the house, when he intended going from the port by the train. This was responded to from the top of the first incline, and a com- fortable omnibus, with as much glass about it as could enable those within to see the most of the view, there awaited the arrival of his guests, and conveyed them along the edge of the lake, until they were obliged to dismount for the purpose of commencing the steeper part of the ascent. Close to the inclines, and nearly opposite Dolba- darn Tower, stands a pretty cottage, built by Mrs. Smith for the reception of her friends after the fatigues of their visit ; here they found abundance of good cheer, as well as a most lovely prospect. In the vicinity of the Llanberris quarries are the lakes of Llyn Peris and Llyn Padarn, only separated from each other by a narrow neck of land over which runs the road to the village ; a small gurgling stream connects the two sheets of water, and the railway emerging from the mountains at the lower end of Llyn Padarn, takes its name from it. These lakes abound in that beautiful fish the char, to take which by rod and line has baffled the most talented disciples of Izaak Walton. The trout, which are also very numerous, do not here grow to any size, and, curiously enough, they are generally to be found of the same weight, and as level as a pack of fox-hounds. About four years ago twenty of the^^^e 80 REMINISCENCES, ETC. fish were caught at one haul in the engine-house reservoir, their combined weight being twenty-two lbs., and they were so exactly alike, that it was impossible to detect any difterence in their size ; we were told they were as red and as good as salmon. These trout were taken more than 2,000 feet above the level of the two large lakes, and the net in which they were caught is still to be seen hanging in one of the work- shops. Dragging, however, or casting, is not the only sport which the quarrymen enjoy. Occasionally they come upon the drag of an otter, and then a most motley pack of otter hounds, followed by a field of eager hunters, all on foot, and armed with poles, expel the enemy of the finny tribe from his haunts, and the chase is ended in the lake, which if the otter once gains, further pursuit is useless. The entire region round about might very appropriately be called Slate country ; everything is slate, from the lofty chimney of the engine-house and the kitchen table of the cottage to the fences and gate-posts of the fields, and the footpath itself, which marks out the traveller's track to- wards Snowdon. The sleepers used on the rail way are blocks of slate, rough hewn for this purpose by quarrymen of advanced age, who can prepare the sleepers when they are no longer fit for any other work. Slate is uppermost in the mind of almost every man you meet. A stranger dining at the hotel at Bangor, and sitting next to a " native," who descanted on the merits of his district, was requested by him to pass the " slate " instead of the salt. We cross over the road between the two lakes with Dol- badarn Tower, once the residence of Llewellyn, the last Prince of Wales of British line, close above us to the left, and pause for a few minutes to look up the inky waters of Llyn Peris, one mile in length, to the Pass of Llanberris, above which the frowning mountains seem to stretch their shadowy arms across to arrest the traveller in his course. At this moment a large quantity of broken slates are thrown VIEW FROM THE VICTORIA HOTEL. 81 over the rubbisli heap, which projects far into the lake, and the crash is as great as if all the crockery in the world had been broken at once. The embankment from the Welling- ton quarry threatens in time to reach the opposite shore, and is sadly destructive of the picturesque. In some parts this lake is forty fathoms in depth. We are presently in the splendid saloon, or coffee-room, of the Victoria Hotel, which neither Mr. nor Mrs. Smith lived to see completed, measuring fifty feet long by thirty- six wide, and lofty in proportion. From hence to the top of Snowdon is a distance of five miles, extending entirely over the Vaenol estate ; one half of the mountain belonged to Mr. Smith while the other half is owned by Sir E,. Wil- liams Bulkeley. The ascent is made with less labour to the traveller from Llanberris than by way of Capel Cerig or Beth-Gelert. The windows of the hotel command a fine view of the slate quarries ; and when evening sets in, and the works above have all at once become silent, it is curious to watch the quarrymen who live along the line of railway returning home. This they accomplish by the aid of thirty velocipedes, which are placed on the railway and worked by the men themselves, by means of a windlass. Each velocipede contains eight persons, and proceeding along the line, in the direction of the port, it deposits the labourer at the nearest point to his respective dwelling. The last man remaining re- turns towards the quarry, to take up a fresh load_, or leaves his velocipede on the line until the next morning. Formerly there were twenty-six boats upon the lower lake to do the same duty, but since the railroad has been made they have f;\llen into disuse. As each sturdy labourer works himself homeward along the line, some well-known national air is borne across the waters, and dies away in echoes among the rocky caverns high over our heads. The workmen are classified in a threefold division of quarrymen, rockmen, and labourers ; all are employed at piece-work, and are paid their wa^es once a month. 82 REMINISCENCES, ETC. This lengthened account of Mr. AsshetoK Smith's Welsh property will, perhaps, be less interesting to the sporting reader than what has been related of him as a rider and a master of hounds. But as the object of this memoir is to describe him, not only as a sportsman, but as fulfilling the duties of a landed proprietor, a man of wealth and influence, and a country gentleman, in an exemplary manner, it is hoped that that portion of it, which endeavours faithfully to delineate him in these capacities, will not be regarded as generally the least worthy of perusal. In the following chapter we shall examine his claims to be considered as a man of practical science. CHAPTER V. HIS LOVE FOR SCIENCE AND SHIP-BUILDING. — HE BUILDS SEVERAL SAILING AND STEAM YACHTS. — HIS CLAIM TO BE THE PRACTICAL ORIGINATOR OF THE ''WAVE LINE" CONSIDERED. — COUNTER CLAIM SET UP BY MR. SCOTT RUSSELL. — OPINIONS OF MR. ROBERT NAPIER AND SIR RODERICK MURCHISON ON THE SUBJECT. " Tu regere imperio populos, Komane, memento, Hse tibi erunt artes." — ViRG. ''Certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate." — LuCRET. In a letter from Mr. Kobert Napier, the eminent ship- builder of Glasgow, addressed to the compiler of these Reminiscences in May, 1859, it is stated that Mr. Smith first turned his attention practically to the building ol steam-vessels in 1829. Mr. Napier prefaces his information with the following words : — " It will give me great plea- sure if I can be of service to you in regard to the late Mr. Assheton Smith, for whom I entertained the highest respect on account of his upright, kind, disinterested con- YACHTS BUILT FOR MR, SMITH. 83 duct in all matters, and for his earnest and persevering exertions to promote and improve steam navigation." Before Mr. Smith communicated his design of buildins: a private steamer to Mr. Napier, he had been for many years a member of the Royal Yacht Club, during which period no fewer than five sailing yachts were built for him. The last of these was the Menai. A proposition made by him to admit steam-vessels to the privileges of the club was not favourably received, and some of the members went even so far as to taunt him with the insinuation that he intended to make any steamer he might build subservient to business purposes. jNIr. Smith was, naturally enough, very indignant at so unjust an accusation, and subsequently withdrew his name from the club. The history of the first steam-yacht he built^ also called the Menai, shall be told in Mr. Napier's own words. " In the year 1829, I received a letter from Mr. Smith (at that time a stranger to me) requesting me to meet him at his house (Penton) near Andover, which I did. He then in- formed me he had quarrelled with some of the members of the Royal Yacht Club, and was determined to leave the club, and build a steam-yacht, but that Mrs. Smith was very much against his doing so, and that / must overcome the objections to steam. To this I demurred, as I had never seen Mrs. Smith. He repeated, / must do it. At that mo- ment dinner was announced, and I was introduced to Mrs. Smith. During dinner, Mr. Smith made many judicious remarks about steam and steam-vessels, others the reverse — the latter I explained when he was wrong. This was the only thing I did to overcome Mrs. Smith's objec- tions. Before parting, he asked me to come in the morn- ing to breakfast (from Andover), which I did. Mr. Smith then decided on building a steam yacht, with copper boilers, and gave me the order, saying, when I wanted money he would send it. This vessel cost him about .£20,000, and during its construction he sent money as wanted ; but he never G 2 «4 REMINISCENCES, ETC. came to see it, nor did he send any one, but left the whole to myself till she was delivered to him at Bristol. What struck me most in this and the many other transactions I had with Mr. Smith, was the complete confidence he placed in me from first to last, to which I responded by doing everything I could to meet his wishes, and on the lowest terms I could, as I knew he did not build his vessels for mercantile purposes, but purely for the improvement of steam navigation. So sensible was Mr. Smith that I wished to serve him in the most liberal manner, that he seldom would look at my accounts beyond a glance at the sum total. This I did not like at first, as I knew he was very particular in his business dealings with others. As another proof of his kindness and confidence, I may mention that he more than once volunteered to become my security when I was making heavy contracts for vessels or machinery with the Govern- ment or East-India Company. The following are the dates, names, tonnage, and power of the eight steam-vessels sup- plied by me to Mr. Smith, viz. : — Date. Names of Vessels. Tons. Horse power. 1830. . Menai about 400 . 120 1838. . Glow-worm 300 . 100 1840. . Fire-king 700 . 230 1844. , No. 1. Fire-queen 110 . 30 1845. . No. 2. Ditto 230 . 80 1846. . No. 3. Ditto 300 . 120 1849. . Jenny Lind 220 . 70 1851. . Sea Serpent 250 . 80 "In 1843 I built for him the Water Cure, a very small iron sailing vessel with two sliding keels. It is but justice to state that every one of the foregoing vessels was con- structed entirely according to Mr. Smith's own designs, and that with the exception of the Water Cure they were all successful, and realised the objects he had in view. The Menai and Fire-king were built of wood, all the others of HIS PLAN OF HOLLOW WATER LINES. 85 iron. The Menai bad three keels, thus ; this was to pre- vent rolling, which it did to a great extent. Mr. Smith was always for hollow water lines, and was determined to l)rove their value on a large scale for sea-going steamers. For this purpose he ordered the Fire-king (1840) to be built according to his own models with long very fine hollow water lines. This vessel was built at the Duke of Rutland's ship-building yard at Trorn, and lay on the stocks for about two years, during which time she was visited by many ship-builders and others interested in steam-vessels, by whom the model was uni- formly condemned. After she was finished the speed and the ease with which she went through the water astonished every one ; and while the vessel's success wrought a com- plete change in the minds of all, it fully established the value of ]Mr. Smith's lines for all vessels, especially where great speed is required. I call them Mr. Smith's lines, for, although Mr. Scott Russell claimed them as his, I know that Mr, Smith, in 1829, wanted the Menai built with hollow lines, and that the Fire-king was the Jlrst steam-ship that practically proved the value of hollow water lines for great speed, &c."* Mr. Napier thus more fully describes in another letter Mr. Smith's determination to adopt his own favourite lines : " It is a fact that Mr. Smith, when he ordered the Menai from me in 1829, wanted her built with hollow water lines, similar to the lin^s of his sailing yacht Menai. But there * Mr. Napier says elsewhere, " Mr. Smith had natural abilities of a very high order, with intuitive knowledge of a most varied and extensive kind, which, without any pretension to scientific ac- quirements, seldom, if ever, failed in enabling him to gain the objects he had in view. In everything his aim was to be the best and have the best." 86 REMINISCENCES, ETC. being no siich thing tlien as a steamer Laving liollow water lines, and Mr. John Wood, who was to build the vessel, being opposed to hollow lines, I advised Mr. Smith, in this his first steam-yacht, which was to cost him a large sum, not to run the risk of any failure, but to adopt Mr. Wood's water lines, he being at that time justly esteemed for his excellent taste, and for building the fastest steamers afloat. Mr. Smith reluctantly consented to allow Mr. Wood to make a model according to his own lines, with the proviso that he should himself make such alterations in them as he might judge best. This was done ; the line was modified by Mr. Smith, and the vessel built otherwise wholly according to his plans. "After using this steamer for some years, he wished to encourage building vessels of iron, and ordered the Glowworm with water lines approaching nearer to his long-cherished plan of hollow lines, than the tvj^o Menais were. This vessel succeeded so well that Le determined, cost him what it might, he would have a sea-going vessel built with his favourite hollow water lines. Accordingly the Fire-king was built strictly in all respects according to his own plans, with hollow lines and a flat bottom. After the Fire-king all his other steamers were built with these lines." In the very interesting account given by Mr. Napier, in the foregoing letters, we find him fairly and honourably acknowledging that, in planning these several vessels, he did but carry out Mr. Assheton Smith's designs ; and this is the more extraordinary as, even allowing that the latter had taste and capacity theoretically for scientific pursuits, the practical application of his knowledge to so intricate and delicate a subject as the construction of steam-vessels and their arrangements would seem to have been almost impos- sible. It is certain that long previously to the building of the Fire-kifig Mr. Smith had studied the question of resist- tance to the waves by the prows and keels of vessels ; and riUORITY IN THE DISCOVERY DISPUTED. 87 he used in conversation (for it was a favourite subject with him) to describe the difference of the hollow water lines from the old system of ship-building, by holding his two hands back to back. " This," said he, " illustrates the hollow water-lines, whereas this," placing them palm to palm, and slightly bending the fingers, '' exhibits the usual mode ; " and he added that his first conception of the prin- ciple had been the result of observation made by him when a boy at Eton. The question of priority in this discovery has been some- what warmly discussed. There is no doubt but that Mr. Scott Russell obtained a prize from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in 1838, for a paper written by him, and published in the Transactions of the society for the preced- ing year. It is no less certain that he had built an experi- mental iron vessel in 1835, seventy-five feet long, called the Wave, to test the value of " wave " lines as applicable to ship- building. But the Wave was never intended for practical purposes ; nor do we find, until the success of the Fire-king, in 1840 (she was laid down in 1838), was fully demon- strated on trial, that even so extensive and eminent a ship-builder, and one who could not have to wait long for opportunities to test the practical value of his theory, ever ventured to build a vessel upon the new principle. The fact appears to be, that the discovery of the theory dates antecedently to Mr. Scott Russell. Mr. Assheton Smith always maintained that he was cognisant of it long before he made the experiment with the Fire-kmg. He had, at all events, previously to this altered the bows of one of his sailing yachts, viz., the Menai ; and it was his confidence of success after this trial which induced him to risk so large an expenditure on the Fire-hing, which, had the vessel been condemned, would have been almost entirely thrown away. We find, however, that as far back as 1830, the theory of hollow water lines was tested on the Scotch canals in 8S REMINISCENCES, ETC. much the same way as Mr. Scott Russell afterwards ex- perimented, lu 1830, Mr. Wood, of Port Glasgow, con- structed a boat for the Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, on the "hollow line" iprmciple forward ; and in the same year Mr. Brown, boat-builder, of Brown Street, Glasgow, built two for the Clyde and Forth Canal on the same plan. This was four years before Mr. Scott Russell says, in a letter which we now proceed to give, that he discovered the wave of translation. It is probable that the attention of scientific men had been directed to this question for some time before the experiments were applied to the Scotch canal boats ; that Mr. Assheton Smith and Mr. Scott Russell, both men of great sagacity and practical talent, saw, it may be at the same period, but without communication with each other, the soundness of the theory projected. Mr. Scott Russell was the author of several valuable papers, and built a model vessel to demonstrate the principle ; but Mr. Smith was the first to show, by the example of his sailing yacht Menai and of the Fire-king, that the supe- riority of the hollow water lines was an established fact. So little apprehensive was Mr. Smith of the failure of his plan, that he made public a challenge in BeWs Life, to the effect, that the Fire-king (whose speed had not been tried at that time), should run against anything then afloat from off Dover Pier, round the Eddystone Lighthouse and back, for 5,000 guineas, or a still higher sum if required ; the challenge to remain open for three months, that the Ame- ricans might see it, and the editor of BelVs Life referred to, if accepted. That challenge was not accepted, and not a farthing would the editor charge for inserting so gallant an offer. On the first trial of the Fire-king in the Garloch, Mr. Scott Russell was on board, and was among those who expressed his admiration of her lines, and of the way she went through the water. In 1857, Mr. Smith, hearing that Mr. Scott Russell had claimed what he always called his lines, authorized Mr. Napier to ascertain upon what MR. SCOTT Russell's letter. 89 ground he rested that claim. Mr. Napier wrote according to Mr. Smith's direction, and the following was Mr. Scott Russell's reply : — "37, Gkeat George Street, Westminster, May 6, 1857. " My dear Sir, — I wish you had sent me Mr. Assheton Sniith's letter, as I should like to have known exactly what he now thinks on the subject of your letter, because his own statements to me personally have never amounted to any claim for himself of priority over me, or of ray having taken anything from him. On the contrary, what he has stated to me is this, that he had long entertained a belief that hollow water lines were the best, but that he had never been able to try the experiment until the first trial of the Fire-king, in 1839, and this was after he had seen a full account of my * lines' published in the Athenceum. You, on the contrary, seem to think that I had derived my knowledge of the subject through being present at the trial of the Fire-king, in 1839. I am glad you have written to me on this subject, because you must, in your own mind, have been doing me great injustice in supposing that I learned anything at the trial of the Fire-king that was new to me ; on the contrary, I was delighted with the Fire- king, as an independent proof made by other parties of the advantage of hollow water lines. I have therefore referred back to the records of my early proceedings, which were published at the time in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and also in the accounts of the Proceedings of the British Association for the Advance- ment of Science ; and I find the following dates established beyond dispute : — " * 1834 — I discovered the wave of translation in the Bummer of 1834, and I gave an account of its nature to the British Association at their meeting in Edinburgh in that year. 1835 — I commenced the building of my first vessel 90 KEMINISCENCES, ETC. on the wave principle in 1834, and completed it in 1835. It was an iron vessel 75 feet long, and was called The Wave. In 1835, I tried this " wave vessel" against three other vessels at equal speeds, and proved her resistance to be less than any of them.' I had this vessel moved at seventeen miles an hour and I find the following record of the first trial of the wave vessel in 1835 : 'It is a remark- able fact, that even when deeply laden and when urged to a velocity of seventeen miles an hour, there is no spray, no foam, no surge, no head of water at the prow, but the water is parted smoothly and evenly asunder.' " I communicated these results publicly to the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Dublin, in the following year, 1836. In this year I built an iron steam-vessel 120 feet long by 12 feet wide, and of 30-horse power, on the wave lines, with numerous trans- verse bulk-heads, and with longitudinal stringers, and without frames. This vessel possessed the same qualities of perfectly smooth passage through the water, and of least resistance. From this time I made no further trials for my own satisfaction, but considered the wave principle esta- blished as a permanent truth. I reported the results to the meeting of the British Association, 1837. In April of this year, a full account of the wave principle, with drawings of the lines and the details of experiments, was published in the Transactions of the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, 1838. In this year the large gold medal of the Royal Society was awarded to me for the foregoing paper. Now, if you will be good enough to refer to the above paper, which you will find in the college library, you will there see the engraving of the vessel called The Wave; you will see the long hollow bow, the full after-lines, and the greatest section abaft the middle, and all the qualities of least resistance and of least disturbance, clearly and unmistakably given, along with most accurate and laborious proofs by actual experiment of the true measure of resistance at various MR. DRUMMOND SUPPORTS MR. SMITH's CLAIMS. 91 speeds up to seventeen miles an hour, made in 1834. When you have duly considered all this, I shall hope to receive from you a statement that hitherto you have done me less than justice, doubtless from not possessing the means to verify dates. That, however, is no reason why I should do Mr. Assheton Smith injustice. He has informed me that he had for many years believed that hollow water lines were best. He assures me that he did so long before he saw any published account of my experiments. When- ever I have had occasion to give the history of the progress of the wave principle, I have mentioned Mr. Smith's con- struction of the Fire-king, as a confirmation of the truth of the wave principle, and as having additional value from its being made by an independent party. In return for these dates I have given you, you will oblige me if you will look up the exact date of the first trial of the Fire-hing, at which I was present. I know it was 1839-40, but you have the means of being quite exact. Hoping to show you the Big Ship when you come to London, " Believe me to be most truly yours, " J. Scott Russell.'* > This letter was forwarded by Mr. Napier to Mr. Smith, who returned it to him in a letter dated Tedworth, May 13th, 1857, in which he says, "Mr. Scott Eussell's letter surprises me excessively^^ and proceeds to refer to the presence of the latter at the Fire-king's trial. There the matter rested, as far as Mr. Smith was concerned, for he adds, " I'll take no further trouble in the matter." But an able letter was inserted in the Times by his friend Mr. John Dnimmond, in which Mr. Smith's claims to be considered the practical inventor of the hollow lines was established. After the death of Mr. Smith, his widow, whose sole interest and wish appeared to be to vindicate the memory of her husband from the unjust aspersions which had been cast upon him as regarded his general pursuits, and feeling 92 REMINISCENCES, ETC. that full credit had Dot been publicly given to him for his scientific improvements in ship-building, applied, only two months before her death, to Mr. Napier for a copy of the correspondence which had taken place in 1857. Hence Mr. Scott Kussell's letter just cited came into the pos- session of the writer of this memoir, together with the one from Mr. Assheton Smith, from which we have just given an extract, and also with a letter from Mr. Napier himself to Mrs. Assheton Smith, which we will now proceed to transcribe : — "West Shandon, ith April, 1859. " Dear Mrs. Smith, — Your much esteemed kind letter of the 26th ult. I duly received, but could not till this morning lay my hands on the accompanying correspondence in 1857, regarding Mr. Scott EusselFs claims to the hollow lines of the Fire-king. There are two of the letters. I cannot find Mr. Smith's first letter, requesting me to write to Mr. Russell, and the copy of the letter I did write. There is, however, enough to show your friend how matters stand with Mr. Scott Russell. All that Mr. Smith says to me about the trial of the Fire-king, in his letter of 13th May, 1857, is quite true, and I am sure Mr. Lloyd, the Admiralty chief engineer, who was on board at the trial, would cor- roborate the same. You will notice from Mr. Scott Russell that he claims the merit of the hollow lines, and that in 1834 he had read some papers on the subject before the British Association, and had also had a vessel, seventy-five feet long by six feet broad, built and experimented upon, (fee. All this may be true, that these theoretical experiments had been tried ; but so far as known to me, I never heard of a single practical result that ever flowed from these scientific experiments ; and although Mr. Scott Russell says Mr. Smith had seen an account of his lines in the Athenceum, I never heard Mr. Smith say so, except with great disapprobation of Mr. Russell attempting to say the hollow lines were his plan. MR. R. Napier's testimony. 93 " I am certain that hollow lines were a favourite plan of Mr. Smith long before he ever built a steam-yacht ; for when contracting for the Menai steam-yacht, he told me that he had put a new bow with hollow lines on to his sailing- yacht the Menai, which had increased her speed greatly, and he wished the same kind of bow put into the steamer. If the plan of this new bow that was put on the Menai could be got from the ship-builder it would settle the matter at once, I think, in favour of Mr. Smith for hollow lines, and that he wished them introduced into his steam- yachts before the Fire-Icing. On that occasion, however, Mr. Wood, the ship-builder, being opposed to hollow lines, and Mr. Smith at that time having had no experience oi steam-vessels, gave in to Mr. Wood, and adopted the lines he recommended. But when Mr. Smith decided on build- ing the Fire-king, he resolved the lines should be hollow, according to his own plan, and she was built exactly according to his views, with sharp hollow lines. His plan being in opposition to anything that had been done, created a great sensation among ship-builders and scientific people, many of whom inspected the vessel while building ; and, singularly enough, almost everyone condemned the plan, and continued of that opinion till the day of her trial on the Garloch, when her unexpected great success changed not only the opinions but the practice of all connected with steamers ; for from that day a rapid change took place in the form of all steamers requiring speed, by giving them hollow instead of round lines, &c. From all that I know of these hollow lines, I am decidedly of opinion that the theory of them may belong to this or that person ; hut that the practical introduction and adaption of hollow water lines to steamers entirely belong to your late husband, and cannot, I think, be honestly gainsaid by any one. Such being the fact, I would advise that the theorists be allowed to fight for the honour of discovering the lines, which I know does not belong to Mr. Scott Kussell. If I can be of any further 94 REMINISCENCES, ETC. use in this matter, it would give me great pleasure to receive your commands. " I am, dear Madam, " With most sincere regard, " Yours respectfully, " E. Napier." The following letter from Sir Roderick Murchison ascribes originality of invention to both Mr. Assheton Smith and Mr. Scott Russell, and thus analyses the merits of each claimant : — "16, Belgrave Square, Nov. 25th, 1859. " My dear Sir, — In your letter of the 5th of November, you seek to obtain my opinion on the scientific knowledge possessed by the late Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith, and par- ticularly as respects the discovery of the ' wave principle ' in ship-building, which he claimed as well as Mr. J. Scott Russell. " In reply, let me first say that, when my old friend and myself were associated in Leicestershire, about forty years ago, neither of us talked much on any subject save ' the noble science,' in the pursuit of which Tom Smith had then been long 'facile princeps.* " But when, after a quarter of a century of stone-break- ing on my part, our intimacy was renewed, and I visited him both among his slate rocks of Caernarvon and at his seat in Hampshire, he often proved to me in conversation, that he could well handle, and even master, scientific sub- jects after his own shrewd practical manner. "Among these subjects he spoke of his having been the first to carry out what he considered to be the wave line form in ship-building. His attention was, as he assured me, called to this form by reflecting upon the simple experi- ment pointed out to him, when he was a boy at Eton, by Mr. Walker, the lecturer on natural philosophy, — that when a flat stone was thrown into the Thames it made a gentle curve in sinking to the bottom of the river. SIR RODERICK MURCHISON's LETTER. 95 " Assuming that, in this case, the stone took the line of least resistance in water, he inferred, that the nearer he could approach to such a curve in the form of ships, the greater would be their speed. Following out his conviction he made, as his yachting acquaintances well know, many a costly experiment, and at length attained what he con- sidered to be perfection. " Whilst, however, there can be no doubt that Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith worked out this result entirely by his own ingenuity and indomitable perseverance, it is now admitted, I believe, by men of science that Mr. J. Scott Russell is the person who, by analysing the nature, forms, and movements of waves, arrived by philosophical induction at the correct application of the ' wave principle ' to ship-building. The peculiar form which he has applied to steam and sailing vessels was, in truth, the result of very extensive experimental investigations into the theory of waves and the forms of ships, made during many years at the cost of the British Association for the Advancement of Science ; the details of these enquiries being published in the Transactions of that body ; the most important reports having been made in the years 1837 and 1844. Even, how- ever, as early as 1834 Mr. Scott Russell read a memoir on hydrodynamics before the Association, to show, that the theory of the resistance opposed by fluids to the motion of floating bodies was in a very imperfect state ; and in the following year he brought before us an account of a new form for the construction of ships, by which they should experience least resistance by the water in their passage through it. Again, in 1843, his views were illustrated and supported by 20,000 observations made on more than one hundred vessels of different shapes, accurate drawings of all of which were then exhibited. " The principle established by these experiments led Mr. Scott Russell to fix upon the wave form, or that of least resistance. This form, however, is not constant, and Its 96 REMINISCENCES, ETC. contour must be varied in accordance with certain rules to Buit the velocity required. The author then observes, * there is a second point in the wave system which is another element of its general usefulness ; it partakes of the nature of a mathematical maximum or minimum. It is the pecu- liarity of a maximum and a minimum that deviations on either side of it to a moderate extent occasion deviations of magnitude that are comparatively very small. Thus it is that the wave line being considered the curve of least resistance, there are near to it an infinite number of ap- proximate curves which are curves of small resistance, though not of least resistance, and out of them the con- structor is free to choose those which shall best accomplish any other object at the sacrifice of the smallest amount of resistance.' " ' To the scientific investigator, it gives precisely that latitude which he desires, to leave him free to work out the intentions of the owners and the uses of the ships he may have to build.' " From what has been stated it would appear that the original thought and successful experiments of Thomas Assheton Smith, and the elaborate scientific enquiries and deductions applied by Scott Kussell, stand on grounds widely separated from each other. " Believe me to be, dear Sir, " Yours very truly, " Roderick I. Murchison. " P.S. — Being wholly unskilled in ship-building, I cannot say anything on the hollow lines of Mr. Assheton Smith's vessels, on which he much prided himself" This question of the " lines " has occupied a considerable space, but is valuable as illustrating the character of Mr. Smith, and the inflexible firmness of purpose and self- reliance with which he prosecuted his plans. What remains ORIGINATES STEAM GUN-BOATS. 97 to be told is even more remarkable. He was the originator of the gun-boats now generally introduced into the English and French Navies. Had Mr. Smith's advice and sjigges- tions been taken advai^age of when first offered, we should not have presented the absurd spectacle we did, when lying helplessly idle off Cronstadt during the Russian war. Some years ago, when the Duke of Wellington was stay- ing at Tedworth, Mr. -Smith communicated to the great Captain his notions respecting gun-boats. The Duke listened, as he always did, with attention to the squire's remarks, but gave no opinion at the time respecting the subject of them. Next morning, as they were both walking on the terrace after breakfast, the Duke said, " Smith, I have been thinking that there is a good deal in what you said last night about those gun-boats, and I should advise your writing to the First Lord of the Admiralty," then Lord , which advice Mr. Smith accordingly followed, but received no answer. Some time after, when walking down Regent Street, he met the First Lord, whom he knew person- ally, and asked him, in the course of conversation, if he had received his letter containing suggestions for the introduc- tion of gun-boats. The First Lord replied that he had, but tb*at the Admiralty could not pay attention to all the recommendations made to them. Upon this, Mr. Smith took off his hat, and turning away from him with a stately bow, observed, "What his Grace the Duke of Wellington has considered worthy of attention, I think your Lordship might at least have condescended to notice." Yet within ten years from this interview, a fleet of our formidable "vixen craft" successfully traversed the ocean, and did good service in China. Little perhaps did the spectators, who proudly gazed not long since upon the goodly swarm of those dark hulls at Spithead, know that the projector of them was a fox-hunter, and that to a fox- hunter's clear head and far-seeing eye was the gallant Wildman mainly indebted for "the single little vessel" n 98 llEillNISCENCES, ETC. (the Staunch) with which he demolished four large junks in the Chinese seas. Yet it has been said that Mr. Smith was a fox-hunter and nothing more. The verdict of true Englishmen will be very different. His motto in many pursuits was, " Deeds not Avords." He did not make long speeches for the good of his country, but many a record of silent worth will place him high on the list of its benefactors. CHAPTEE YT. GRAND MEET AT ROLLESTON IN 1840. — MR, SMITH BUILDS THE GREAT CONSERVATORY AT TEDWORTH. — TRIES HYDROPATHY. — ANECDOTE OF THE FOX-HUNTER ^YH0 TRIED IT. — WORCESTER AND PORTHDYNLLAEN RAILWAY. — MR. SMITH FINED FOR AN ASSAULT. — HE HUNTS THE TEDWORTH HOUNDS UNTIL A SHORT PERIOD BEFORE HIS DEATH. — HIS SEVERE ILLNESS AT VAENOL IN 1856, AND PARTIAL RECOVERY. — RELAPSE AND DEATH IN 1858. ** Euunt equites et odora canum vis." — Virg. " Veteris stat gratia facti," — ViRG. From 1830 to 1856 — viz. to the period of rather less than two years before his death — Mr. Smith continued to hunt his hounds regularly at Tedworth, generally until the latter end of March, when the heat and the London season made him hang up his liunting-whip till the autumn. His summers he spent either at Vaenol, or on board his yacht. In 1840, he went into Lincolnshire on a visit to Sir Eichard Sutton, who had for some time been disabled from following his favourite sport by a severe accident. He was requested by Mr. Greene of llolleston, one of his best pupils in his Leicestershire days, to take his hounds once more into his old country on his way thither, Mr. Hodgson, who then hunted that country, placing the best fixture at his disposal in the handsomest manucr, Mr. Smith accepted GRAND MEET AT ROLLESTON. 99 the invitation, and it would be vain to endeavour to com- memorate adequately the scene which took place when he met tlie field at Shankton Holt on Friday the 20th of March. IMore than two thousand horsemen were assembled on the occasion. Men of the highest birth and station, men who had served their country in deeds of most daring gallantry by sea and land, men who in political or social life were the most brilliant in repute, thronged to do honour to the first fox-hunter of the day. They had come from remote counties, and were pouring in along the grassy slopes and vales, or skirting the well-known gorse covers. As Dick Christian remarked, " the first lot were at Shank- ton Holt when the tail end wern't out of Rolleston gates." Cold must have been the heart of him who could behold without emotion the crowds of grey-headed horsemen hurrying forward to shake hands with their old friend and fellow-sjjortsman, each calling vividly to memory some scene where he had acted the most conspicuous part. More than twenty years had rolled away since he had resigned the lead in that magnificent country. There had been splendid riders since his day ; and while time had thinned the ranks of the veterans, younger men had either achieved or were achieving fame — Frank Holycake, now Sir Francis Goodricke — well known for his splendid feats on Brilliant — Colonel Lowther, Lord Wilton, Lord Archibald St. Maur, George I^yne, Little Gilmour, Lord Gardner, George Anson [nemo ex hoc nnmero mihi non donatus ahihit), and a host of sportsmen well deserving of the reputation they had won in many a fearless exploit by " flood and field," but who were strangers to the doings of this hero of the Quorn, except through anecdotes familiar to them as " household words." Of Sir Francis Goodricke, the first mentioned of these distinguished sportsmen, the author of " Silk and Scarlet '* thus speaks : — " He was first man at one time for a twenty minutes* h2 100 REMINISCENCES, ETC. tliiug, was Mr. Holyoake. To see him ride Brilliant, shoving the fox along ! This horse was a rich dark chestnut ; such a countenance, such an eye ; he had him from Newmarket." Sir Harry Goodricke, Sir Yincent Cotton, and Mr. Holy- oake lived together at Quorn, and were called '' The Sporting Triumvirate." Mr. Holyoake succeeded by will to the entire property of his brother-sportsman. Sir H. Goodricke, whose name he took, and was afterwards created a baronet. He himself rode Young Sheriff for several seasons. Clinker originally belonged to him, but was subsequently bought by Captain Eoss. Sir Francis Goodricke has long since left the hunting-field under the influence of deep and very sincere religious impressions ; the zeal which uniformly displayed itself with such ardour in his case in the pursuit of a favourite diversion, is now directed with even greater strength and intensity into a far higher and nobler channel. In the meantime the hounds were there, as fine a pack as in days of yore, when the squire's well-known " Hold hard ! " or his more emphatic " Hi, hi ! " * checked those who pressed on too eagerly to the front. After some little delay a fox was found, but the finest huntsman in the world could never have hunted him. The whole country for miles around was studded with men and horses, the people having thronged on foot from all parts to see so grand a spectacle. What must have been the feelings of him to whom this cordial and memorable greeting was given? As far as hunting went, he for once had no sport; but deeply touched and gratified with his reception, he made light of the dis- appointment, and, as Dick Christian observed, "was quiet throughout the day." It was a great holiday, and as such written with red ink in the sportsman's calendar, and ever * It is said, in allusion to Mr. Smith's manner, which on this day was somewhat subdued by the warm greeting of his friends, that Mr. Haines, an old sportsman who always looked after Glen Gorse, remarked, " Ah, there is the old Hi, hi ! but, alas ! the hetnphasis ia wanting." DICK KNIGHT AXD THE SQUIRE. 101 afterwards mentioned with deliglit and enthusiasm by the old stagers of the Quorndon, the Pytchley, the Cottesmore, Atherstone, and every county for fifty miles round. Many of these had followed him when leading the van over Leicestershire, or had ridden by his side in the front rank with the Pytchley, in Northamptonshire. The lines written on one of the best of his hunters were not yet forgotten : "On Ajax, a nag well in Leicestershire known, See the gallant Tom Smith make a line of his own : Though in dirt fetlock deep, he ne'er dreams of a fall, And in mounting the hill, why he passes them all." They called to mind also the far-famed exploits of Dick Knight, when each country drew its parallel between its favourite huntsman. Perhaps a little of the ancient jealousy still remained, well described in the following couplets, which referred to the squire's lather, who hunted with the Pytchley ; but on this day, at all events, " the renowned Tom " was incontestably without a rival : ** Now Dick Knight and Smith Assheton we spy in the van, Ridiug hard, like two Furies, to catch as catch can ; ' Now, Egmont ! ' says Assheton ; * Now, Contract ! ' says Dick, — 'By Jove ! those proud Quornites shall now see the trick.' " That such a compliment should have been paid to the quondam master of the Quorn is the more remarkable, as h^ cannot be said to have been altogether personally popular either in Leicestershire or generally in the hunting-field. There is no doubt that he wanted the " suaviter in moclo " which commended the leadership of Lord Foley, Mr. Mey- nell, Sir Bellingham Graham,* Sir Harry Goodricke, and others ; and therefore by those who did not know the sterling qualities of the head and heart which were encased * Sir Bellingham Graham always called a bad seat " a wash-ball seat ; " from a round piece of soap, which is always slipping about in a washhand-basin. Beeswax, Paul, and Jerry were three of his best horses. 102 REMINISCEXCES, ETC. in this somewhat rough exterior, he had been more admired than liked. " Was, then, the great gathering at Rolleston," asks Nimrod, " a compliment paid to Mr. Smith exclusively, or, in part, to the noble diversion of fox-hunting 1 " " To Mr. Smith entirely," he replies, unhesitatingly, to his own question. " It was a spontaneous testimony to the pre- eminence of an individual, and a day appointed to do him honour, rather than the public celebration of a national sport." Dick Barton gives a characteristic account of this grand event. "In the year 1840 I left Ted worth with Mr. Assheton Smith's hounds for the great day at Rolleston. I went to Mr. Drake's kennel the first day. On the second, I arrived at Mr. Hodgson's kennel, at Oadby, with the liounds. On Friday, the 20th March, met at Rolleston. The day was almost a failure as far as scent went. We did not find a fox until four o'clock, and then the scent was bad : one hour and twenty minutes, and we lost him, pointing for Rockingham Castle. Upwards of two thousand people were out, and among them Prince Ernest, brother to the Prince Consort (he had come over from Deane, the seat of the Earl of Cardigan). There never was such a glorious meet, and never will be again. One little incident I will mention. The horse, Antwerp, which Mr. Smith intended to ride, got some skin knocked off his hips going by the train. I told Mr. Smith of the accident, as he was dis- figured. He said, ' I will ride him and no other ; can't you get some paint of the same colour V So I did, and painted the ])lace, and he did ride the horse that day. I rode a grey horse, called Jem Crow, which Mr. Smith bought out of the New Forest. On Saturday, the 21st, I went to Sir R. Sutton's kennel, at Burton, with the hounds. We hunted five times, and killed four foxes. On Tuesday, April the 7th, the Duke of Rutland gave Mr. Smith a day in his country. We met at Ropsley Rice Wood, and had a very good day, but did not kill. On Thursday, the Oth, I DICK burton's narrative. 103 went with the hounds to Lord Lonsdale's kennel, at Cottes- more : he gave Mr. Smith one day. On Saturday, the 11th, we met at Owston Wood, and had a good day's sport, but got beaten. We had very large fields out every day. On Monday, the 13th, I .started \Yith the hounds back to Mr. Drake's kennel ; and on the 14th reached Tedworth. I had not much rest." Dick Burton adds the luliowiug particulars respecting his master's and his own career in Leicestershire: "I lived with Mr. Smith at Quorn ten years. I left him Veiore he left Quorn. I then went to live with Mr. Osbaldeston, and stayed with hini twelve years ; and then I came back again to Mr. Smith at Penton.* I lived with him alcogeuier twenty-two years. The following horses were ?-[r. Smith's favourites when he hunted Leicestershire: — ..iini-ter, Lazarus, Tom Thumb, Eobin Hood, Shacabac, Gifr, Agonistes, Penknife, Gadsby, jSTe'vmarket, Old Jack-o'Lan- tern, Young Jack-o'Lautern, Fitch, and Charlotte Lantern. I do not know what were his best horses in Lincolnshire. There has nob been so good a sport? li, an at Quorn since Mr. Smith left, although 2\lr. OsbaldestoD was a first-rate sports- man, and I think had one of the best packs of hour.ds I e^er saw or followed over any country : they were as stout as the day v/as long, there was no tiring them. The grey horse that I stand by, in the picture painted by Mr. Fer- n^ley, was called The Big Grey. In Mr. Ferneley's small picture at Tedworth, my brother Will is without his coat, and I think stands with a pair of couples in his hand. .Manager t (the hound with him) was heavier than Bill was at the time. * Dick Burton first came to Mr. Smith in 1807, when quite a lad. He once met with a severe accident, a gentleman and his horse coming violently in contact with him, just as he was close upon his fox. + " Manager was so fast a hound, that they buckled a shot-belt round bis neck and filled him three parts full of boiled lights, but he defied them and their handicaps."— (StV/c and Scarlet, p. 280.) Mr. Ferneley 104 REMINISCENCES, ETC. The Bill here spoken of is Will Burton, who died at Qaorn, of consumption, soon after the picture was joainted by Mr. Ferneley. Mr. Smith set great store upon the lad, as of great promise, and used to say, observes the author of " Silk and Scarlet," that, as he looked year after year at Will's figure in the picture, in the ante-room at Tedworth, he would have given £10,000 to save him. An interesting account of the grand day at Rolleston was furnished by " The Adelphi " to the Sporting Magazine, of June, 1840 (vol. xxi. 2nd series), though the Brothers make a trifling mistake in saying that it had occurred on the 20tli April. Dick Burton's account is more correct in placing the date at the 20th March ; for, after several days in diffe- rent counties, he says he brought the pack back to Ted- worth on the 7th April, 1840. It could not very well be on the 7th May, and we know that ^Ir. Smith very, seldom took his hounds out after Lady-day. On the celebrated day at Rolleston, a person counted 1,700 horsemen through one gate alone. Out of the 2,000 that arrived, one-third were in pink. In addition to these, there was a very goodly dis- play of carriages-and-four filled with ladies, besides pedes- trians without number. The hounds with Dick Burton were drawn up on the lawn, while the vast group of horse- men formed a circle, with the carriages and assembled crowd outside. Mr. Smith had brought eighteen couple of his best hounds, all being, as '' Tlie Adelphi" observe, "of great substance, particularly in the legs, open-chested, and in splendid condition." The greeting between Mr. Smith and his old friends the farmers was most cordial. Mrs. Assheton Smith accomi^anicd her husband on this visit. mentioned his having in 1815 painted Will Burton, who, he say«, was a wonderful boy at hounds, with Manager, perhaps " the finest hound he ever painted." Manager was afterwards drafted and sent to Ireland to the late Lord Lismore, then Mr. O'Callaghan. Mr. Ferneley, who was one of our best painters of sporting subjects, has died at a good old age, since the publication of the second edition of these Reminiscences. THE ROLLESTON MEET, BY "THE ADELPHl" 105 After the friendly salutations were over — and their enthu- siastic character astonished no one but the Illustrious Stranger present* — Mr. Smith took his hounds to Shankton Holtjt where he drew only the bottom of the covert ; thence to Norton Gorse, Stanton Wood, Glooston Wood, and Fallow Close, all blank. It was an unfavourable day for scent, a bright sun, with north-easterly wind, not a cloud to be seen, and the cold intense. A fox having been found by Mr. Hodgson, in Yowes Covert, as already stated, away went the hounds towards Horringhold, leaving Blaston to the right. Here Mr. Smith took a strong flight of rails into a road, quite like a " young un." The fox soon afterwards crossed the Welland, and went away for Eocking- ham Park, where, it being late, they whipped off. " We never saw," observe " The Adelphi," " a handier pack, one more completely under the command of their huntsman, or quicker in getting to him at a cast." Of Mr. Smith's horses, they remark : " they were large and powerful, ex- * Prince Ernest of Saxe Coburg. + " Mr. Smith " (says the author of " Silk and Scarlet ") ** was wonderfully fond of Shankton Holt. I have seen him get away from it with three foxes in one day : it was a great nursery for them in his time. He liked Staunton Wood and Langton Caudle uncommonly ; he always said the wildest foxes lay there — away directly. He used to say that an hour and a half from Widmerpool to Blackberry Hill, near Belvoir, slap across the vale, was one of the best runs he ever had in Leicestershire." — Silk and Scarlet, p. 58. The same writer also relates this singular freak of a fox : "When Mr. Smith was at Belvoir, in 1840, with his hounds, he ran a fox through Ingoldsby, Osgodby Coppice, Truliam Park Wood, and Nor- wood, right to Grimsthorpe Oaks. Will Goodall, who was then the duke's huntsman, gets into the wood, and sees the fox in one of the rides. Off he slipped quietly to Mr. Smith and told him. He was casting across the park. When Will brought the hounds, blame me if the fox was not standing there, still waiting for him. Mr. Smith came to the spot and saw him too : it would be four minutes, and he had never stirred. I never had heard of such a thing, and Dick Burton and Will told me the same." — Silk and Scarlet, p. 63, 106 RKillXISCENCES, ETC. tremely well auited to the country, aud getting cleverly over every description of fence, but did not show the blood we should have thought requisite to gallop over the Hamp- shire Downs." Doubtless Mr. Smith, who was familiar with both countries, had selected the horses for his Leicestershire and Lincolnshire visits which he well knew to be best suited to the requirements of each country. Mr. Greene,* of Rolleston, whose guest Mr. Smith was on this occasion, had frequently followed him close in Leicester- shire, and was a pupil every way worthy of his master. An excellent run has been recorded by the author of " Silk and Scarlet," from Botany Bay, skirting the Coplow, but without touching it, when they killed the fox in a field near a covert at Schlawson windmill ; the distance was thirteen miles. Mr. Smith rode Gadsby, and Mr. Edge, Gay man. Besides these two, only Mr. Greene, on Sysonby, and Fryatt, of Melton, on Hastings, were up. JMr. Smith pulled his watch out, and five minutes elapsed before any other horseman was up. Fryatt sold Hastings the next day for 400 guineas. "On another day," says Dick Christian, " Mr. Greene's horse, Sysonby, gave Mr. Smith and Shacabac a rare showing up in the Harborough country ; it was a strange, wild day ; they found in a patch of wild gorse near Gumley. The wind blew the scent, and the hounds flashed over it. Mr. Smith rode Gadsby first, and then Shacabac. They had an hour and twenty minutes, racing all the way : there was only himself and Mr. Greene left. All on a sudden Shacabac starts a grunting and stops. JMr. Greene got off Sysonby, and said, * You get on my horse, they are running to their fox.' On Mr. Smith v/ent with Sysonby, and just at that time Mr. Greene fell in with Gadsby, and got on him and finished. There they were at the kill, with the same horses they had * This excellent and highly respected sportsman lias died since the second edition of these Ileniinisceuces was published. THE GREAT CONSERVATORY AT TEDWORTII. 107 started on, only riders changed." Mr. Greene was tlie first native master of hounds in Leicestershire. In 1845, the state of Mrs. Smith's health causing her liusband great anxiety, he was apprehensive of being obliged to take her to a foreign climate for the winter. Both were, however, unwilling to leave a spot where each had so many objects of interest and enjoyment : he his favourite sport, and she her schools, her poor, and the management of the house and grounds, the details of which, at Ted worth, Mr. Smith intrusted entirely to her. The squire, therefore, determined to bring Madeira to England, rather than be obliged to repair to the former in quest of health ; with this view he erected a magnificent conservatory, 315 feet in length, and 40 feet in width, where, with a temperature always raised to a certain heat, Mrs. Smith might take walking exercise during the winter months. A Wiltshire farmer, on first seeing this building, observed, he supposed the squire had it made in order to hunt there when a frost stopped him in the field. Along the whole length of this Crystal Palace in miniature was a broad walk laid with the finest gravel, and ranged on each side were thousands of the most beautiful plants, remarkable even at Christmas time for the richness of their hues, and their fragrance. The conservatory is approached from an ante-room of the house by a corridor, glazed on one side, and 965 feet in length, forming, with the conservatory, nearly a quarter of a mile of glass, and warmed throughout with double pipes containing hot water. It was a melan- choly spectacle to see the squire the winter before his death, when he could no longer join his hounds, mount one of his favourites — Euxine, Paul Potter, or Blemish — with the assistance of a chair, and take his exercise for an hour at a foot's pace up and down this conservatory, often with some friend at his side to cheer him up, and wile away the time until he re-entered the house, for he was not allowed at that period to go out of doors. Even in this feeble con- 108 REMINISCENCES, ETC. dition, quantum mutatus ah illo Hectare, once on hoi'se- back be appeared to revive ; and tbe dexterity and ease with which be managed, like a plaything, the spirited aniraal under him, which had scarcely left its stable for months, was most surprising. Before the conservatory, however, was built, in 1845, on account of the health of Mrs. Smith, her husband him- self, vigorous and hardy as he was, had been overtaken by indisposition. He was occasionally subject to attacks of asthma, for which he had tried homoeopathy, under Dr. Quin. In 1834, " Dash wood," in the Sporting Magazine (September, 1834), speaking of him "as the most extra- ordinary huntsman perhaps whom England had ever pro- duced," adds that he was at that time "in indiflferent health, and not again expected to be able to take the field." Nevertheless, in the following year, when the great run took place from Amesbury to Salisbury Plain, he must have been in a great measure restored. In 1843, the fame of the founder of the water-cure, Vincent Preissnitz, had ^reached England ; and Mr. Smith having read Captain Claridge's account of the cures performed by hydropathy, consulted Dr. Weiss, who had studied the treatment under Preissnitz, at Grafenberg, and was now in England, conducting an establishment for patients at Stansted Bury, in Herts. His own account of the relief he derived from the water-cure has somewhat of the fabulous about it. He used to relate, that he went to bed labouring under a severe attack of asthma, and having received directions from Weiss to wrap round his chest the wet bandage, or umschlag (since so cele- brated in assuaging pain and in healing sores), which he accordingly did, he slept soundly, notwithstanding the chill which the damp application first occasioned, and in the morning he jumped up with the exclamation that his asthma was gone, and that he was perfectly cured. From this time Mr. Smith became an enthusiastic follower of Preissnitz ; he not only carried out the treatment in his THE SQUIRE TRIES THE WATER-CURE. 109 own person, barring his three or four glasses of good sherry, which he never abandoned, but he sedulously recommended the water-cure to every sufferer within his reach. The writer was one of those whom he urged to submit to the discipline, and he has never seen cause to repent of it. Many instances occurred, where persons in the lower class of life were without adequate means to leave their homes or business in order to carry out the treatment ; these Mr. Smith generously furnished with the necessary funds for that purpose. He was so convinced of the merits of hydropathy, that he introduced it into his stables, and used to have his horses sheathed in wet bandages after a severe run, or when any symptoms of swelling or disease showed themselves. His own habit was, after hunting, to undress and go to bed for an hour, or until dressing time, and then go into his bath, b}^ which process he was thoroughly invi- gorated and refreshed. One day, during the height of his zeal for hydropathy, he was returning with a friend across the downs from hunting, after a fine run and a " whoop," when he fell in with a shepherd who was ministering some nostrum to a sick ewe. " What is the matter with that sheep ? " inquired the squire. " Giddy, Sir," was the reply. " If you would just try the effect of cold water on her, she would soon recover." " Cold water," sneered the rustic (as Mr. Smith rode off), " why what on earth else has she been drinking ever since she were waned ? " (weaned). But, although an ardent disciple of hydropathy — and we have seen that in that very year, 1843, he christened a sailing yacht by the name of " The Water-cure " — he used to relate with great zest an anecdote respecting the treatment, which, as it was concerning a fox-hunter, may not here be inappropriate. The story goes that a lover of the chase who was some- what addicted to the pleasures of the table, and loved more glasses of port wine than was quite good for him, consulted a hydropathic Galen respecting some syaiptoms in his "kitchen 110 REMINISCENCES, ETC. department" which were beginning to give him alarm. The doctor recommended the application of the wet bandage to his stomach at bedtime, there to remain until the following morning, adding, " I will see you to-morrow, when I shall be better able to judge of your s3^mptoras." At night the patient, having saturated the folds of linen in cold spring water, began the application as directed, but the shock to his internal economy being greater than he had bargained for, he bethought himself of taking off the chill by re- dipping the bandage into water in which there was a cer- tain portion of his favourite beverage. Having thus made things ratlier more comfortable, he awaited the doctor's visit the next morning. " Show me your bandage," was almost the learned man's first exclamation. It was no sooner produced than the doctor regarded its discolora- tions for a moment with feelings of lively satisfaction, and then solemnly addressing his patient, who had some diflS- culty in retaining his gravity, exclaimed, " I thought so, Sir, this is the port you have drunk for the last twenty years coming out." But, although the squire loved this story, he was always a very staunch advocate of the water-cure, which he said could well bear a laugh against it. He was sixty-seven years of age when he first tried it, and must have had no common vigour, but indeed the constitu- tion of a man in the prime of life, for it to have done him the good which it effected. He used to say that till he became a hydropathist he hunted four days a week, and six after- wards. On these two days thus added to his meets, Carter, his huntsman, used to hunt with a separate pack ; and some- times, when master and man talked over their day's sport together in the evening, the squire used to say, " Well, you can give a better account of your fox than I can of mine," for he never grudgingly gave credit where credit was due. The year 1845 is memorable as having witnessed the innumerable schemes of railway enterprise which terminated in the ruin of thousands. Among the lines projected was PORTHDYNLLAEN RAILWAY. Ill one intended to run from Worcester through Montgomery- shire and Merionethshire to Porthdynllaen, a harbour well situated on the Carnarvonshire coast, not far from Pwlheli. The advantages possessed by Porthdynllaen as a port of departure for Ireland had not escaped the penetrating ob- servation of Mr. Smith, and although the commissioners appointed to examine the harbours on the Welsh coast had reported in favour of Holyhead, he still remained convinced of the superiority of the former ; while he ascribed its rejec- tion to the working of undue influence. With this conviction, and also foreseeing that the line would open up the mineral and other resources of the principality, hithei-to very im- perfectly developed, he warmly espoused the design of the Worcester and Porthdynllaen Railway, to which he promised every assistance in his power, furnishing the promoters with an introduction to the leading landowners in North Wales, and allowing his name to appear in the prospectus as a patron of the undertaking. At the same time he was wary enough not to join the Provisional Committee. The line was duly surveyed, and, except a very formidable tunnel at Llangunnog, looked very well on the ordnance map. Scarcely, however, had the plans and sections been deposited —and those who remember the 1st of November, 1845, will not forget the difficulties under which this was accom- plished — when the panic set in ; and the Worcester and Porthdynllaen, with, we venture to say, hundreds of other schemes, went to the bottom. A month or two later there were sundry little bills to be paid, the claims of engineers and their staflf (in those days a surveyor could not be got under five guineas a day), solicitors, &c. Few of the Pro- visional Committee of the Porthdynllaen line were worth powder and shot ; but the limb of the law, anxious to " bag" his costs, considered Assheton Smith as well worth the experiment of a charge. He, therefore, sent his son, a youth of about twenty years of age, who also acted as his clerk, to Hyde Park Gardens, to serve the squire with a writ for 112 REMINISCENCES, ETC. work and labour done by him the attorney for him the squire aforesaid. Mr. Smith's footman, hearing that the bearer of the hostile missive had something important to communi- cate to his master, introduced him into his private study, when Mr. Smith, on hearing the object of his message, under the influence of irritated feelings at the annoyance, immediately knocked him down. The young man was glad to effect his exit from the wrathful old gentleman of sixty- nine, and sent him a summons to appear at Marylebone Police Court for the assault on the following day. Mr. Smith, upon receiving this, went to the Temple to consult a friend learned in the law upon the subject of his appearance before the magistrate. After hearing the squire's story, which he with difficulty got through, being somewhat out of breath with indignation at being called upon for payment, and with having to mount four pair of stairs in order to reach the lawyer's sanctum, the expounder of Blackstone on the rights of persons ventured to suggest to him that he had some- what exceeded the bounds of decorum, and asked whether it would not be advisable, considering Mr. Smith's position in society, to ofler the attorney's clerk a five-pound note and get him to withdraw the summons. Upon this counsel being tendered to him, the squire's anger, which had been hitherto kept under with some effort, burst forth, and look- ing up at the ceiling, to the astonishment of the man of law, he exclaimed, " Good God, Sir, your chambers let in the rain !" The fact was, that in the plenitude of his ire the perspiration trickled in large drops over hu face, and this he mistook for the moisture of the heavens. Precipi- tately leaving the chambers, he faced the charge next day before Mr. Broughtou, nearly committed a second assault, was fined five pounds, and appeared on a subsequent morn- ing in the columns of the Morning Post, under the heading of " An irate Provisional." The above anecdote proves that Mr. Smith occasionally gave way to his temper. He used to say that " his father THE SQUIRE'S HASTY TEMPER. ll3 was the worst-tempered man in the world except himself;" but in this saying he was a little hard upon both. In the hunting-field as a master of hounds he had many things to contend against : sometimes against the wilful perverseness, sometimes the ignorance, of men who headed or rode over his hounds ; sometimes the expressions of envy on the part of those whose riding he eclipsed, or whose want of nerve made them follow while he led. On these occasions it is not to be wondered at if he was unable to curb his temper. An instance of this sort once occurred on the borders of the Pytchley country, when a well-kuown jDarson, who had the misfortune to be rather deaf, came through a hedge (and he was afraid of very few) plump into the middle of the hounds. Smith called out, "Hold hard, T ! you cant hear and you wont see." The reverend sportsman was not so hard of hearing as to fail in understanding the squire, who always uttered what he did say pretty audibly ; he pulled up his horse, and knowing that he had committed an error, at once made an apology for it.* But although Mr. Smith was somewhat choleric and impetuous, his ebullitions of temper were soon over, and he always in a truly generous spirit hastened to make amends where he felt that he had been wrong. He was like his favourite Horace : Irasci celer, tamen utplacahilis esset. In the instance of the attorney's clerk he consided that an attempt to extort money from him was made under the guise and menace of legal proceedings, and this he resented though in an imprQper manner. Once when he hunted Lincolnshire, * Mr. Meynell, to whom allusion has already been made as the foremost sportsman of his day, adopted the following adroit method of reproving the eagerness of gentlemen riding too forward : he would put up his whip in a peculiar way, and immediately one of his whippera-iu, taking the hint, would gallop alongside the delinquent. Thereupon Meynell would lash out at his servant, rating him for pressing the hounds, and having his eyes on his breeches-pockets. The well-applied rebuke was heard and felt by the fast gentleman, and his further spoiling Ae da} 'b sport prevented. 114 REMINISCENCES, ETC. and his hounds had drawn Kettlethorpe Wood, belonging to Sir William Ingleby, without finding a fox, Mr. Smith observed a man at a gate, in a shooting-jacket and with a gun over his shoulder, who opened it for him, and at whom, taking him to be the gamekeej^er and imagining him to have been beating the covert, he railed in no measured terms, saying he would tell his master of the blank which had occurred. The man listened quietly to the squire and touched his hat. After they had got through and were trotting off to Lee Wood, belonging to Sir Charles Ander- son, at no great distance, Mr. Uppleby said to Mr. Smith, "Do you know who that was?" "No, indeed," was the reply, "and I don't care." When told that it was Sir William himself, and that he was merely passing through the wood in which he strictly preserved foxes, on his way to his shooting grounds, Mr. Smith was anxious to go back and apologise ; but his friends said there was no occasion for this, for Sir William, they observed, was rather eccentric, and would be amused at being taken for one of his keepers. After Mr. Smith gave up the Burton country, he resided in the Yale for several seasons, being frequently the guest of the Duke of Rutland, and joining the various packs in the neighbourhood from Belvoir Castle. '■ I've known him," says Dick Christian," " come all the way from Belvoir to Gumley of a morning, two and thirty miles, to cover, and back again at night." To accomplish these long distances he was up early at the castle and breakfasted alone. On one occasion he was not satisfied with the breakfast pre- pared for him, and complained to the footman who waited that he did not think he had the attention given to him to which he was entitled. The duke's servant received the rebuke in silence, but on the following mornins:, when the sportsman came down to breakfast, he was surprised to see all tlie footmen in the castle enter the room in their state * " Silk and Scarlet," p. 57. MR. SMITH AS AN OCTOGENARIAN. 115 liveries, and take their station around the table. The duke, to whom his guest's complaint had been reported, feeling satisfied that every proper attention had been paid to Mr. Smith, for whom he always entertained a sincere regard, took this significant mode of reproving his testy humour. At another time he complained of the scarcity of muffins, upon which the servants received orders, when next the guests assembled at the breakfast table, to pour in upon him a perpetual stream of muffins. Each footman, in turn, accordingly presented to the bewildered squire an unceasing succession of hot plates, the chorus being, "Muffins, Mr. Smith." Until Mr. Smith had reached his eightieth year, which he did in May, 1856, he showed no signs of physical or mental decay. His head was as clear and • his hand as firm as they had been twenty years before. If he felt himself not quite well of a morning, he used to ])lunge his head into cold water and hold it there as long as he could. This, he said, always put him to rights. He had returned to four days' hunting in the week, it is true ; but on these days the farmers were delighted to see him vault on horseback as usual, and galloj^ down the sheepfed hill-sides with all the joyous alacrity of a boy of eighteen. " You yet might see the old man in a morning, Lusty as health, come ruddy to the field, And then pursue the chase." — Otway. This enduring character of his riding is what renders it so essentially different from that of other men. He was still the same Assheton Smith, who had hunted in the last cen- tury ; who had, for nearly fifty years, been a master ol hounds ; who had actually been in the saddle for a period of seventy years — the ordinary term of man's life — who might have hunted with Pitt and Fox, had they been sports- men — and who had outlived three generations of fox-hun- ters. With most other men the best of the s[)iiit dies, or at all events waxes somewhat faint, when the prime of 1 2 116 REMINISCENCES, ETC. active manhood has past. It seemed never to desert Tom Smith. That adamantine frame, the rohur et ces triplex circa j^ectus, appeared proof, not only against fatigue, but against heavy falls which would have shaken younger men all to pieces. Only two years before his death, on his return from a hard run, he was telling some ladies that he had encountered three falls on that day, and felt none the worse for it. " Then, Mr. Smith," said one of them, " you ought, when you die, to bequeath your skin to the British Museum to be stuffed, as a particularly tough specimen ;" an idea at which the squire laughed heartily. At another time, as he lay on the ground after a tremendous purler, a sympathising friend rode up and expressed a hope that he was not hurt. " Thank you," said the squire, not very grateful for his inquiry, as the hounds were in full swing at some distance from the spot, " nothing ever hurts Tom Smith." " The last great run Mr. Smith was in," says Dick Christian,* " was one of an hour and forty minutes, seven or eight seasons since, from Ham Ashley to Hungerford ; and he was so pleased with the chestnut he rode, that he gave Mr. Samuel Reeves 175 guineas for him. He christened him from the covert ^here they found, and ranked him ever after with the Amport, Rochelle, and Ayston of his Hamp- shire affections." The time, however, was about to arrive when even that vigorous and hardy constitution, which had stood proof against such severe handling, and seemed to defy every *' draw " upon it from toil, accident, or weather, was to succumb. He was approaching the shore of that dark strait, Scilicet omnibus, Quicunque tense munere vesciraur, Enavigandae. — Horat. In September, 1856, while at his summer residence in * "Silk and Scarlet," p. 283. HIS SERIOUS ILLNESS IN 1856. 117 North Wales, Mr. Smith was seized with an alarming illness, which caused the greatest apprehension to his friends. The skill, however, of Dr. Stokes, of Dublin, who was sent for, added to the unremitting attentions of Mr. Richards, ol Bangor, his usual medical adviser, who well knew his pa- tient's constitution, brought him round after many weeks of protracted suffering, chiefly by the use of stimulants, to which he had never previously resorted, and which he was now reluctantly persuaded to try. Mrs. Smith was herself at this period in a very weak state of health, but devoted herself most assiduously to the care of her husband, and her attention greatly tended to his recovery. Even now, when he was in a most prostrate and debilitated condition, the sight of his horse saddled at the door, ready to carry him to the Port, only a mile distant, seemed at once to cheer and revive him ; and the man who had been five minutes before gasping for breath on the sofa, under the powerful hold of his old enemy — asthma — when once astride the animal trotted off apparently by mechanical impulse, as if he had more need of his hounds than of a phy- sician. Although he rallied from this attack in an astonishing manner, he was no longer the same man. The erect gait was bent, and the eagle eye had lost its lustre. He returned to Ted worth as usual ; but, at the annual meet on the 1st of November, 1857, the hounds met without the accustomed centre-figure of their master, who slowly rode up to them without his scarlet. He remarked, quite seriously, that if he had worn his hunting-gear, and his pack should observe that he could not follow them, they would show their sorrow by refusing to hunt the fox. A universal gloom pervaded the field ; he looked wistfully and lovingly at his old favourites, the heroes of many a well- fought field ; and, as he quickly went back into the hall, shrinking almost from the outer air, while the horsemen and pack turned away slowly towards the shrubberies, every one 118 REMINISCENCES, ETC. felt with a heavy heart that the glory of the old fox-hunter had at length departed. The talented author of " Silk and Scarlet " thus graphi- cally describes his last appearance at the covert side : " The covert side knew him no more after October, 1857, when he just cantered up to Willbury on his chestnut hack, Blemish, to see his hounds draw. Carter had orders to bring the choicest of the 1858 entry, and he and Will Bryce arrived at the usual rendezvous with five couple of bitches by the Fitzwilliam Hardwicke and Hermit. He looked at them for a short time, and exclaimed, ' Well, they are as beautiful as they can be.' He then bade both his men good-bye, and they saw him in the field no more." This was only a week or two previously to the grand annual meet already mentioned. I passed a week with him at Tedworth in the course of the following winter. Although it was the month of De- cember, the season was mild, and, as there had been very little shooting, I had some excellent sport with my gun in the spacious turniiD-tields which look down upon the village. One day we came iipon a fox lying quietly and unconcerned among the turnips, as if he was aware that his old enemy was disabled, and we had some difficulty in making him stir from the spot. The keeper told me, that there had been a mor- tality among the foxes that season, inconsequence of the long continuance of dry weather, and that the one in question was diseased, or rotten, to use his own expression. I mentioned the circumstance at the dinner-table in the evening. A few intimate friends had been invited, and Mr. Smith had asked me to take his seat at the bottom, if it could be so called, of the round table at which he usually dined, he taking his seat in a position nearer the fire. He had been very silent during dinner, and kept his head down, appearing not to listen to what was going on, but to be intently occupied with the contents of his plate, which he was devouring with much relish. When the anecdote of the fox was HIS POLISHED MANNERS. 119 mentioned^ a lady present, looking at him askance, remarked to me, " Why didn't you shoot him ? " In an instant the squire raised his head, the lightning flashed in his eye, and he exclaimed, pointing to me, " It he had, he would not have been there." It was at this time he took his daily ex- ercise for an hour in the conservatory, as has been already related. Hitherto Carter, his huntsman — as good a one as ever crossed a country — had been in the habit of seeing his master every evening in the dining-room at nine o'clock, to talk over the sport of that day, and to settle what hounds were to run on the morrow, and what horses were to go out. Now a short occasional interview in the morning suf- ficed, when Mr. Smith had taken his usual basin of soup with brandy in it, and when the pack was not out. Never- theless, his intellect was unimpaired, and his head for figures as good as ever. He was investing largely at this period in Consols, as the Welsh property was rapidly increasing in value, and within the last few years he had paid ofi^ every incumbrance on his estates.* What I was particularly struck with was the extreme neatness of his personal appearance, so unusual in an invalid, and the care he took never to come among the ladies, except en grande toilette, at those times even when almost without company, for when he was most suflfering, he could never be prevailed upon to enter the drawing-room in his rohe de chamhre. His gallantry and the respect he showed to the fair sex were always remarkable. To them the loud and often boisterous sportsman was gentleness itself. When dressed for the evening, in his white silk stockings and well-fitting pumps (for he was not a little jDroud of his foot), he looked the pat- tern of an old English gentleman. He studiously avoided giving trouble, and seemed annoyed at being obliged to ask any on(^ to perform any little service for him. In this way * His father had left a large fortune to each of his sisters, chargeable on the property in Hants and 0««rnarvon.shire, which he had entirely paid off. 120 REMINISCENCES, ETC. he lingered on till the autumn of 1858, when he died rather suddenly at Vaenol, on the 9th of September, after a second attack attended with the same symptoms which had shaken him so severely in 1856. He had only a few weeks pre- viously to this event completed his eighty-second year. He bequeathed to his widow the whole of his vast possessions. No other person was named in his will, which was found written on half a sheet of writing paper, except a few old servants, to whom he bequeathed legacies. Mrs. Smith inherited the estates both in England and Wales, to do exactly as she pleased with them, without any direction, recommendation, or suggestion of a wish on his part as to their ultimate disposition. The funeral took place at Ted- worth, and his remains were interred in the village church- yard ; the mausoleum in the grounds intended for both husband and wife, and also for Mrs. Smith's mother, Mrs. Webber, who had died a short time previously, not being then finished. There had never been any issue of his marriage. The following minute account of his illness in 1856 has been furnished by an eye-witness and very old friend, who has also kindly communicated the particulars of Mr. Smith's last attack, received from the wife who so devotedly attended him. " When Dr. Stokes arrived from Dublin, in September, 1856, he gave little hope to those about Mr. Smith that he would last long, but strongly advised a free use of stimu- lants, which Mr. Smith firmly resisted for some time, iyaj- ing he had always been a very temperate man, to which he believed he owed his vigorous constitution. However, he yielded to the solicitation of his friends, and when appa- rently at the last gasp, found relief from half a wine-glass of brandy. During this autumn, his kind neighbour and highly esteemed friend. Colonel Douglas Pennant, two or three times sent his pack of beagles for Mr. Smith's amusement. Even the sight of them turning into the gate appeared to PARTICULARS OF HIS ILLNESS. 121 give him new life. On one occasion, he had been very ill all the morning, and was threatened with one of his fainting attacks, when, looking up in agony into his wife's face, he gasped out, ' I am going.' Nevertheless, brandy, ether, and other stimulants revived him. About an hour after- wards the hounds arrived, and, much to the astonishment and dismay of all about him, he crawled, with the help of his valet and butler, to the hall-door, and was soon in the saddle. Once there, he looked immediately ten years younger. Observing a horse belonging to Colonel Pennant which he fancied, he dismounted from his own, and though told the other was rather restive, he determined to mount it and follow the hounds. His groom had strict orders to keep very close to him, with a vial of brandy in his pocket. Some anxious friends followed on foot, and from a piece of high ground watched his movements. They were soon terrified by seeing him thrown off. He was not hurt, and wished to continue the chase, saying, ' it was curious how he had lost his gripe on a horse,' which he always said was the secret of his riding ; but at last was persuaded to return home in the carriage. There is great reason to believe that stimulants prolonged his life, but his sufferings were very great. He used to say the feeling of * sinking away ' was the most l)aiuful of all j and yet he never murmured, but used often to repeat, ' It is the will of God,' and, as soon as he was relieved from momentary pain, make a slight bow, and exclaim, ' Thank God ! ' His valet, Attwell, who had been with him many years, nursed him with the tenderest care night and day ; but poor Mr. Smith was so anxious not to disturb him unnecessarily at night (when he had to take medicine at stated hours), that he tried several ways of making the light reflect on his watch, so that he might reach the medicine-bottle himself. Many of these failed ; at last, he and his clever carpenter, John Jones, devised a mechani- cal contrivance which answered admirably. When he had been unusually restless, and had been obliged to call up his 122 REMINISCENCES, ETC. servant, he used to say to him in the morning, ' I am sorry to have disturbed you so often ; you will find a sovereign on my table, take it.' " His death was at last rather sudden. He was very ill when he left Loudon in August, 1858 ; but bore the day's journey to Vaenol better than was expected, and in a week seemed to rally considerably. In the meanwhile, all his anxiety seemed to be centred on Mrs. Smith, who had been very ill for some months, insomuch that he had written to beg her sister, INIrs. Heneage, and her family, to give up their tour in Scotland and come immediately to Vaenol, which they did, and found her in a most anxious state, but the squire far better than he had been for some time. However, on the Thursday after their arrival, Mr. Smith complained of feeling very weak, and said he should not go down stairs, which was so unusual an act of self-indulgence that Attwell for the first time gave him up ; and, sure enough, he never left his room again On the Saturday morning he fell into a stupor, from which the medical men and those about him had no hope of his rallying. When this sad conviction was gently broken to his wife, it was unexpected by her, for she had seen his sufferings so much greater that she could not, and would not, believe he was to pass away without one kind word to her. After remaining in this state throughout the day, he suddenly opened his eyes, and in his usual power- ful and firm voice he asked for something to drink, to the amazement of all about him. The next day he was better, and wrote a cheque for money that he ought to have given the day before, remembering it of his own accord. The three following days he remained placid, apparently not suffering much, and at times insensible. In a moment of consciousness, evidently aware of his approaching end, he said to his devoted wife, ' Take care of that man,' pointing to his faithful valet ; and when Mrs. Smith left the room, he said to her maid, ' Watch over your mistress ; take care of her.' LAST MOMENTS — CHARACTER. 123 " About nine o'clock on Thursday evening, Mrs. Smith left him to lie clown for an hour, leaving her sister to watch by his side, and exacting a promise that she would not take her eyes from his face. A faithful and kind watcher she proved, for in less than an hour she fancied she perceived a slight change in his countenance, and called her sister, who immediately came to his bedside ; but before his valet and the doctors could be summoned, he had breathed his last in a gentle sigh. Thus departed, in an enviably peaceful death the spirit of him who for eighty-two years had led a most stirring and energetic life. His virtues were many ; pos- sessing a noble, generous, kind heart, always prompt to hear the tale of woe, and only too ready to relieve it : his num- berless acts of liberality known to few : but his cheque- book bearing testimony to munificent deeds. His faults were those to be expected from his education : his father was a very stern man, and yet over-indulgent in some things ; and his mother a weak, vain, selfish woman, little caring for her children, and leaving them early to their own devices. He therefore too early became ' lord of himself, that heritage of woe.'" His character, however, merits a more ample and mjnute description, and this we shall reserve for the following chapters. CHAPTER YII. HIS CHARACTER. — PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND HABITS. — IMPETUOSITY OF TEMPER. — GENEROSITY OF DISPOSITION. — SKILL IN GAMES AND SPORTS.— KINDNESS TO ANIMALS AND LIBERALITY TO HIS SERVANTS. — HIS STRONG SENSE OF JUSTICE. — HIGH CHARACTER AS A MASTER OF HOUNDS, AND AS A DARING HORSEMAN. — TESTIMONY OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES. His saltern accuinulem donis, et fungar inani Munere. — Virg. The chief points in the character of Mr. Assheton Smith have already been so prominently displayed in the course of this narrative, that it may appear superfluous to add 124 REMINISCENCES, ETC. anything to tlie portrait. Some minor traits, however, have been either purposely passed over, or imperfectly sketched, in order that we might follow him with less inter- ruption, through his lengthened career. But we should, however, be doing him much less than justice if we omitted them altogether. There are some details, in themselves insignificant, which impart much interest to biography, and serve to bring it more closely home to men's " business and bosoms." We naturally wish to become well acquainted with the personal appearance and demeanour, the habits of life, and the friendships of the individual, whose life we have been perusing, and the want of these particulars pre- sents a gap which we cannot afterwards fill up. After the lapse of even a brief space of time, so rapidly do other prominent figures come upon the stage, that the most vivid personal reminiscences of any individual, however illustrious in any pursuit, or profession, or grade of life, necessarily fade away from the memory. Let us, therefore, while our remembrance of the lamented squire of Tedworth is fresh and vivid, while we still have him before us in our " mind's eye" as distinctly as when he lived, while the hoof-mark is fresh and deep upon the soil, subjoin a recapitulation of his various characteristics, gleaned from all available sources. Mr. Asshetou Smith was of the stature best adapted to exertion and endurance, about five feet ten inches in height, with a frame athletic, well-proportioned, and muscular, but rather slight than the contrary. His weight was latterly about eleven stone ten ; in his Leicestershire days, Dick Christian says he was not above ten stone. He was fond of weighing himself, and had scales both at Tedworth and at his seat in Wales. His features were plain, and not in any way indicative of high breeding, but intelligent, the whole countenance denoting a powerful and resolute will. A rival once in Leicestershire said, " he is snake-headed, with a dash of the bulldog." He used to say of liimself that he PERSONAL HABITS AND PECULIARITIES. 125 was the plainest man in England, generally adding, in allu- sion to his famous pugilistic encounter at Eton, "that fellow, Jack Musters, spoilt my beauty/' His ordinary dress was a blue coat with brass buttons, and a buff waist- coat ; during the hunting season he dined in scarlet, the inside of the coat being lined with white silk. In his mode of living he was particularly abstemious as regarded drink- ing ; but in eating he indulged more freely, and his appetite was surprising. The immense exercise which he was daily in the habit of taking, and his early hours in the morning, required an adequate supply of nourishment, and after his severest day's work he was never " off his feed." The copious plate of hashed mutton, which was his constant breakfast before going out to hunt, even to the last hastily eaten while his horse was at the door, and digested in the saddle, was a proof how well he was able to set all rules of diet at defiance : unlike the more careful and no less cele- brated Meynell, whose hunting breakfast was a pound of the best veal condensed to as much souj) as would fill a small tea-cup. In Tom Smith's bachelor days, relates an old friend who saw a good deal of him at that period, his usual dinner was mutton soup of the best description, and a couple of glasses of claret. " I once rode with him to Hun- gerford," he adds, " in a bitter cold frost, and our luncheon was tea and toast." The fact was, his hearty breakfast served him for the day, and he seldom took anything, until quite latterly, between that meal and his dinner. In his friendships he was warm, generous, faithful, and noble-hearted ; on the other hand, like all men of ardent temperament, he had his dislikes, and never took any pains to conceal them. Where he had once conceived an aver- sion, he could be seldom brought to overcome it. This peculiarity he inherited from his father, who used to say of himself, " No man was ever in my company twelve hours without fully perceiving whether I liked or disliked him." " And no man," rejoined the friend to whom the remark 126 REMINISCENCES, ETC. was made, " if" you disliked him, would wish to be with you for five minutes." As has been already i-emarked, the son was hasty and excitable } impiger, iracundus, et acer, like Achilles, but not inexorabilis. He was of a liberal and benevolent disposi- tion, and as his means enabled him to gratify his inclination in this respect, he gave without ostentation, not unfre- quently in quarters where his liberality could never be s23oken of abroad, and where the situation in life of the parties precluded their asking for assistance. To the poorer classes he was always open-handed. About the year 1847, after a severe frost, so sudden and rapid a thaw succeeded that a whole line of villages in the valley of Salisbury Plain was inundated, and the poor in- habitants were exposed to the greatest dangers and priva- tions. Mr. Smith was the first to ride down, and leave £100 with the clergyman for the immediate relief of the sufferers. The noble example thus set was so successfully followed, that in a short time funds were raised, not only sufficient for the purpose intended, but a surplus remained, which was handed over to Salisbury Infirmary. At another time an old colonel, broken down by years and misfortune, was reduced to the last climax of distress by having an execution in his house, and all his little property put up to auction. Mr. Smith desired his agent, Mr. Northeast, who always most effectually carried out his master's generous impulses, and well repaid the confidence placed in him, to buy the whole and return it to the late owner ; not as a gift, but as a loan, lest it should again be seized and sold. " I was one day riding not far from Tedworth," writes the Rev. Henry Fowle — the friend and fellow-sportsman to whom the author is indebted for many of the in- teresting anecdotes related in these pages, — " in a contrary direction to where the hounds were fixed to meet, when I met the squire, and the following conversation occurred. * Why are you not going out with me to-day ? ' said he CI iS M > o » en t> P5 H so ft) o s S GENEROUS DISPOSITION. Ifi/ * I have jnst heard of the death of an old friend and re- lative,' was my reply (mentioning his name), ' and I am now going to see his son and hear when the funeral is to take place.' ' Your relative, it is true, always opposed me in the Craven Hunt ; but he was a bold rider and a gallant sportsman. I hear his grandson is just going out to India, so pray tell the boy's father I will give him .£100 for his son's outfit, which will make your visit less painful to him.' " On another occasion, during a violent storm on his return from hunting, Mr. Smith was standing under a tree for shelter in the village of Chute. A poor man came out from his house, or rather hovel, for it was in a miserable condition, with a sack which he asked permission to put over the saddle, while the squire retired under his roof for shelter. Both offers were accepted, and the man was liberally rewarded for his attention. His surprise, however, was not disagreeable the next day on the arrival of a brick- layer and carpenter, who, at Mr. Smith's expense, entirely rebuilt his cottage for him. It was a remark of Dr. John- son, that no man could be under a gateway with Edmund Burke during a shower of rain, and not be at once con- vinced that he was talking to the most extraordinary man it had ever been his good fortune to encounter. Whatever may have been the feelings of this poor labourer respecting his visitor of the previous day, it may be safely asserted, that no other man could be named, who ever did a more generous act for so insignificant a favour. On being once thanked by a friend for a liberal donation to a young man about to seek his fortune in Australia, Mr. Smith asked, " Is the young fellow a lad of spirit 1 " and on being assured that such was the case, he put his hand in his pocket, and said, " Then here is ten pound more for him." During the short time he was on the turf, he was once at Newmarket, wheie he had two horses training, Cracker and Cantator. While attending a meeting of the Jockey Club, to which he then belonged, a bill for £300, drawn by an 128 REMINISCENCES, ETC. unfortunate brother-sportsman, was handed round the room, but at such a discount that it was offered to any one for £30. On Mr. Smith's inquiring the name of the drawer, and finding that it was that of an old schoolfellow of his, he requested to see the bill, and having immediately drawn a cheque for <£300, which he handed to the holder, put the bill behind the fire. The following incident may appear too trifling to record, but it is characteristic of his kindness of heart. When he was a patient of the famous Dr. Jephson, of Leamington, the doctor happened to mention that he had experienced great difficulty in procuring grapes, at that time out of season, for a fair invalid, having sent in vain for them to London, Birmingham, and other places, when Mr. Smith, with whom the lady was only slightly acquainted, exclaimed, " Why did you not tell me of this before ? I would have sent your dear patient a cart-load," Within as short a time as possible, a large hamper of fine grapes arrived for her from Tedworth. Although Mr. Smith's name was not often to be found heading public subscriptions, or in the lists of charities, he was never known to refuse an application for aid to pro- mote a truly charitable purpose. Mrs. Smith has been heard to say, that she never asked him for money for the advancement of religion or to promote the comfort and welfare of the poor, but it was cheerfully granted to her, and to any amount. The almshouses at Tedworth were kept in comfortable repair entirely at his expense, in order that the funds fgr the maintenance of the aged inmates might not in any way be diminished. In 1857, only a few months before his death, a new village school was completed near the Hampshire Cross, a handsome building, capable of holding a hundred children. The sight of the girls in their red cloaks on a Saturday afternoon, and of the noisy urchins rushing from the porch to commence their various pastimes,' would suffice to gladden the heart of a "Times" commissioner. GREAT SKILL IN ALL ATHLETIC SPOKTS. 129 Mr. Smith's well-knit and manly frame, combined with great activity in the use of his limbs, rendered him successful in all athletic sports. In his youth he had been a first-rate swimmer, rower, and shot. To his powers as a cricketer, the Appendix to this volume bears ample testimony. His emi- nence as a fox-hunter has, however, thrown into the shade the fact of his having excelled in these diversions. He said he should like to ride, shoot, play cricket, and box with Mr. Osbaldeston, but he would begin with the last, in order to disqualify his opponent from obtaining the victory in the otKer three exploits. From his love of boating at Eton, KB. AS8HBT0K SMITh's BTBAM-TACHT, " SIA SBBPBXT." From a Drawing in the Library at Tedtcorth. doubtless, sprang his taste for yachting in after life. Every- where at Ted worth might be traced indications of his favourite E 130 REMINISCENCES, ETC. scieuce. Along the ledge of the shelves in the library were ranged, and there still remain, the models of some of ISIr. Smith's favourite steam-yachts, Fire Queen, Glow-worm, Jenny Lind, and Sea Serpent. Of the last, a beautiful water-colour drawing hangs over the mantle-piece. Of his qualities as an amateur shipwright we have already spoken, and the science he displayed in the various vessels he built, both sailing and steam-yachts, evinces no ordinary skill and aptitude for mechanics ; his acute obser- vation frequently enabhng him to make suggestions of great value in the construction and improvement of ships. He used to say that his knowledge of building sailing-vessels was derived from observing how low wild ducks swam in the water. The quickness of eye and steadiness of hand, which made him a good shot and a good cricketer, served him also at billiards. He mentioned that in Paris he was backed to play a celebrated marker, whom he beat, upon which he was challenged by the same individual to play for a very large stake. This he wisely declined, never having been a gambler. Once at Tedworth, after a large party had finished a game at pool, a constant evening's amusement at the beautiful slate table there, he came into the billiard- room, and challenged to play the winner. This happened to be the present Duke of Wellington, then Marquis of Douro, no common performer. The game went pretty even, the one player in constant practice, the other quite the reverse. At last the squire put his adversary's and his own ball into the pocket. He had then to play at the red ball, which was just below the middle pocket. "Who says I cannot pocket the red ball in the middle pocket?" observed the striker. A friend, who stood by, knowing his man, made a bet to that eflfect ; and the way in which Mr. Smith did it showed at once what a player he must have been when in practice, and astonished every one present. He hit the further end cushion with his ball, ARTISTIC TASTE FOR LANDSCAPE. 131 which, on its return, gently deposited the red in the middle pocket, winning the game for the player, and the bet for his friend. The squire loved hospitality, and at Tedworth, during the season, there was a constant succession of visitors. His table, his equipages, his appointments, the domestic ar- rangements of his establishment, were all in first-rate style, and in excellent keeping. To Mrs. Smith's suggestions for the laying out and improvement of the grounds he almost always deferred ; once, however, the squire was determined to have his own way, even as regarded landscape. This occurred at Yaenol, when an artist was commissioned to take a sketch for a picture from a certain spot which Mr. Smith had selected, and which proved that he had an eye for the picturesque. With his usual quick perception, the owner of the property inquired whether a clump of large trees standing immediately before the house, did not obstruct the view ; upon the artist's replying that he did not think their removal would be an improvement, and appealing to'the ladies of the party, among whom of course was Mrs. Smith, for the preservation of the timber, he hastily drew him aside and whispered, " Pray hold your tongue ; I want these trees down, but if you say another word I shall not get leave." Leave was granted, and in less than half an hour, ropes, ladders, saws, and axes, were at work. Mr. Smith knew that ladies do sometimes change their minds, and by the rapidity of his movements he placed the permission beyond the " power of revocation." The event proved the correctness of his decision ; the undulations in a park of 500 acres can now be seen, and the gap, formerly filled by the trees, lets in as fine a prospect as can be seen in North Wales. During the last year of his life, a friend riding with him and Mrs. Smith, by the Tedworth Lodge, observed to the latter, how much nobler an appearance the chestnut trees would present, if all the scrubby bushes lying under them were removed. e2 132 REMINISCENCES, ETC. Mrs. Smith acquiescing in the remark, the squire, without farther comment, said to two men who were painting the fence, " Put down your brushes, and get axes, and let me find all these bushes cut down on my return from my ride." This was accordingly done, much to the improvement of the kmdscape. The squire's love for science influenced even the arrange- ments of his household. At Ted worth, at Vaenol, and at his London house, he devised a railroad from his kitchen to liis dining room, along which the dishes passed and re- passed, and thus he obviated the necessity of his servants quitting the room, and the consequent delay. At Yaenol, the train arriving v/ith its savoury load opened a trapdoor at the end of the dining-room ; this closed of itself imme- diately after the admission of the course, and thus no incon- venience arose from the smell of cooking v/hich frequently penetrates open doors and passages in the largest houses. The wei"-ht of the empty dishes going down, as in the case of the slate waggons at Llanberris, brought upon the platform within the dining-room, by means of diminutive connecting ropes, the hot and smoking trucks coming up. Tins process, if not the only one of the kind in England, was at all events invented and introduced entirely by Mr. Smith. Latterly, in London, when suffering from asthma, he had an ingenious mechanical contrivance, by which he was raised to his bedroom on one of the upper stories, as he always entertained a great objection to sleeping on the ground-floor. His attachment to all animals (we are afraid foxes would demur to being placed in the category), especially to horses, dogs, and birds, was remarkable.* We have already in- * An editorial note, appended to Mr. Bruce Campbell's memoir of the late Mr. John Musters, in the Sporting Magazine for January, 1850, thus eloquently upholds the humane character of the genuine fox- hunter ; — "Mr. Musters is another proof that kindliness and consider- ation for animals are alike characteristic of the man of courage and the FONDNESS FOR ANIMALS. 133 stanced his care and kind treatment of the gallant hunter who carried him close to the hounds. He never would permit his coachman to use the whip with his carriage- horses, and if the injunction happened to be forgotten, he would start up in his carriage and severely reprimand him. His lady's pet dogs were always sources of great interest ; Flash, Dandy, and Fop, shared his regard and were privileged favourites. Poor Dandy came to an un- timely end, being badly bitten by one of the fox-hounds whom he had in his wantonness attacked, and his sad fate was severely felt and lamented. Mrs. Smith was no less fond of animals than her husband, and there was always a favourite hunter whom she coaxed and fed. Once hearing that the son of a friend had a tame magpie at school, which he resisted all solicitations to sell, although his pocket-money was entirely exhausted, she immediately sent him a sovereign. Birds were objects of especial in- terest to the squire ; he loved to remark their habits, and his country amusements afforded him ample opportunities of observing their instincts. He had at different times several pet robins, whom he constantly fed in the con- servatory, and his favourite rooks, who used to come close to the library windows during the severe weather, were never sent empty away. These incidents may seem too insignificant to mention, but men are more thoroughly kpown by trifles than by serious actions ; in the former the disposition is far more faithfully reflected than in the latter. At one end of the conservatory he had a beautiful cockatoo, which was sure of a kind word from him at every turn of his horse when he took his daily rides there, during the last winter of his life. He took no small delight in watching true fox-hunter. An idea has prevailed that the pursuits and associa- tions of the chase were not commonly united with proper feelings for animals, temperate habits, and gentlenrianly accomplishments. Mr. Campbell's memoir of Mr. Musters shows that such traits are the bett indications of the genuine and successful sportsman." 134: REMINISCENCES, ETC. the innumerable flocks of starlings that always in the severe season roosted in the laurel plantation abutting on Ashdown Copse, and used to say, how wonderful it was, that when these countless myriads all on a sudden turned as it were on a pivot, without any previous signal, they never by any chance in their gyrations struck against one another, or interfered with their respective evolutions in the air. These birds were by his strict orders never molested. The natural kindness of disposition which thus mani- fested itself towards inferior creatures, shone out as a fea- ture in his character, only with greater strength and in- tensity, in his treatment of those around him. No master, peremptory as he was in his commands, and exacting in having his orders at once executed and to the very letter, was more beloved than he was by his servants. If he was violent and tyrannical, as has been sometimes represented, how was it that for a long course of years the same indivi- duals composed his household, and that the retainers on his estates in Hampshire and North Wales had grown grey- headed in his service ? In his friendships he was a man of strong affections, as has been already observed, and of a childlike tenderness of heart. Dictatorial, impetuous, and overbearing as he occasionally was, and these failings sprang as much from his self-confidence as from his ardent tem- perament, it is recorded of him that he never lost a friend. He had survived almost all his contemporaries, but among those who enjoyed his intimacy latterly, out of his own family, were the Duke of Bedford, the Hon. Philip Pierre- pont. Sir John Pollen, Mr. John Drumraond, the Rev. Henry Fowle, the late Mr. Charles Bell Ford, Admiral Montague, and Sir Richard Sutton ; of these Sir Richard, so many years his comrade and fellow-s|»ortsman in the hunting field, held the place nearest to his heart. When he heard of his death, in 1856, he was overwhelmed with grief, and burst into a flood of tears ; and afterwards, when he com- menced telling a story about Sir Richard, he suddenly threw LETTERS OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 135 Up his hands in strong emotion, exclaiming, " Oh, my poor friend !" and could not proceed. The regard he entertained for the late Duke of Wellington has already been adverted to, and his friendship was warmly reciprocated. Once a report getting abroad that Mr. Smith was dead, his Grace, who was then in London, dispatched the Marquis of Douro immediately from Strath fieldsaye to Ted worth, to make inquiries, and finding to his satisfaction that the squire was enjoying his usual robust health, the Duke wrote to him the following letter : — London, Nov. 12, 1851. " My dear Smith, — They have killed you again in these last days ! But I have been happy to learn that the report is without foundation. " They treat you in this respect as they do me. I con- clude that it is in your capacity of Field Marshal of Fox- hunting. " Ever yours, most sincerely, " Wellington." Another note written by the Duke is characteristic oi the writer : — London, 3Iay 11, 1840. " My dear Smith, — I have received your note. I attend in Parliament four days in the week. At the Ancient Musick on Wednesdays. There remain Sunday and Saturday. " Every animal in the creation is sometimes allowed a holiday, excepting the Duke of Wellington. There the days are, take any Saturday or Sunday that you please. " I should certainly like to have occasionally a day's leisure, while the Ancient Concerts are going on, and the pressure of business is so heavy in Parliament. " But ray convenience, likings, or dislikings, have nothin^y to do with the matter ; they are not worth discussing. I 136 REMINISCENCES, ETC. would prefer doing anything, rather than have a discussion on the subject. " Eemember me most kindly to Mrs. Smith, and believe me ever yours most sincerely, Religion is a topic upon which Mr. Smith was generally silent, and certainly, beyond a regular observance of the Sabbath, he made no particular external profession of it. But one who knew him best, said that he had a most simple and devout faith, his favourite motto being : " Whatever happens, all is for the best ; " and whenever he saw anyone in sorrow or distress, he always said, " We must submit to God's will, whatever it is." During his severe sufferings in both his attacks of illness, he evinced the most tranquil patience and resignation, and whenever he felt easier, or in any way relieved, his exclamation was, " Thank God for everything ! " On one occasion, a friend happened to say, heedlessly and jokingly, in a letter to him, that he felt much distressed in mind, and was almost inclined to commit suicide. Mr. Smith replied to him with a severe admo- nition never to speak lightly upon so serious a subject. A strong sense of justice was one of Mr. Assheton Smith's prevailing characteristics. He constantly took the part of 23ersons who were total strangers to him, when sub- jected in his opinion to injury and oppression. He threw himself warmly into any case of injustice recorded in the public journals, both using his interest on behalf of the sufferer and contributing money for his relief. Once, when he saw an Irishwoman beating her child on the high road, he tried to expostulate with her in order to dissuade her from that method of correcting it ; but finding his en- treaties had no effect, and that the virago opened on him for his interference, he left the spot, but not without giving five shillings to a labourer, who happened to be present, to see that the violence was not repeated. As a proof of his ACUTE DISCERNMENT OF CHARACTER. 137 acute observation and discernment of character, I will mention the following anecdote. He had two small green boxes in his study at Tedworth, in one ot which he kept his letters and papers, and in the other, what money he had in the house. The first of these was one morning missing, the thief having by mistake taken the wrong box, both being exactly alike. Mr. Smith, considering that the fact of his keeping his cash in one of these boxes would be more likely to be known to the servants w^ho were in the habit of waiting upon him in his study than to anyone else, caused a search to be made throughout the premises, and the missing box was at length disco v^ered open in one of the shrubberies. Mr. Smith, upon this, had his whole phalanx of men-servants drawn up in line before him, and put the question direct to each. All having strictly denied any knowledge of the transaction, were dismissed by their master to their several duties. But shortly afterwards one of the footmen entering his study to put coals on the fire, Mr. Smith went straight up to him, and, collaring him, said, " It is you, sir, who took the box ; here is a five-pound note, take it, return me my papers, and begone this moment." The man, guilty and thunderstruck, and at the same time overpowered by his master's kindness, immediately owned to having committed the theft, and said, trembling, that it was the first time in his life he had dope so dishonest an act. Mr. Smith said afterwards that he had remarked this man's countenance, as he stood before him with the other servants, and that his suspicions of the njan's guilt, then excited, were strengthened into certainty by the peculiarity of his manner as he entered the room with the coals. ]\Ir. Smith was always most precise and regular in his appointments. When he gave Mr. Ferneley his first sitting on Jack-o'Lantern, at Quorn, in 1807, he said he should allow the artist thirty minutes. He sat patiently during that time, looking occasionally at his watch, and the instant 138 REMINISCENCES, ETC. it had expired, as Mr. Ferneley relates, he was " off the saddle." The sketch was first seen by Tom Jones, his groom, who said it was an excellent likeness. He always rode Jack-o'Lantern with a slack rein. This portrait was painted the first year Dick Burton came to him, Dick being at that time only fifteen years old. To claim for Mr. Assheton Smith the very highest rank as a fox-hunter may appear superfluous, since that pre- eminence has been already conceded to him by every sportsman. His fame, as far back as the beginning of the present century, is matter of history. The Emperor Napo- leon I., who somewhat disconcerted the vanity of the great orator, Erskine, by the inquiry, " Etes-vous legiste 1 " honoured Mr. Smith by addressing him 2i^, '^ Le premier chasseur d' Angleterre^ He was called by the Parisians, "Ze grand chasseur Smit'' There has not been a book published in his time which does not allot to him the highest place as a master of hounds, a huntsman, and a rider. To say nothing of the celebrated Nimrod, whose pages are familiar to all lovers of the chase, the testimony of Mr. Delme Eatcliffe, in his work on the " Noble Science of Fox-hunting," is perhaps the most complete : " I could nowhere find a more fitting model for the rising generation of sportsmen He was an instance of the very rare union of coolness and consummate skill as a huntsman, combined with the impetuosity of a most desperate rider ; and not only was he the most determined of all riders, but equally remarkable as a horseman. His practice as a hunts- man was that which is best followed in any, but especially in a good country, — that of leaving hounds very much to themselves, although ever on the spot to render assistance if required." Among the best of the songs in which his feats are mentioned is a capital one by Lord Forester, " On a Run with the Duke of Rutland," the third verse of which runs thus : — THE BEST HORSEMAN IN ENGLAND. 139 ** The hounds had not been there a minute, When the duke cried, * Hark ! halloo ! away ! ' Not a hound was there left behind in it, — You'd swear they would show him some play. Th' hard riders jump'd off in a crack. Not one of them minding his neck, And for Belvoir were running him back, When Tom Smith rode the hounds to a check." I cannot resist the temptation of here inserting the language of ISTimrod, it is so hearty, genuine, and unmis- takable. " I have a long list in letter S," says he, in his alphabetical catalogue of eminent riders, " and of course lots of Smiths. But Theodore Hook says,' they should be num- bered : ' and there can be no hesitation as to the best claim to 'number one,' namely, T. Assheton Smith, Esq., of Ted- worth House, Hants, late owner of, and huntsman to, the Quorn hounds, and at present (1841) hunting a very good pack of his own in Hampshire. Now I am not going to give merely my own opinion of Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith, as a horseman and rider to hounds, but shall lay before my readers that of all the sporting world, at least all who have seen him in the field ; which is, that taking him from the first day's hunting of the season to the last, place him on the best horse in his stable or on the worst, he is sure to be with his hounds, and close to them too. In fact, he has undoubtedly proved himself the best and hardest rider England ever saw, and it would be vain in any man to dis- pute his title to that character. But we might as well attempt to make a blind man an optician, a lame man a dancing-master, or a one-armed one a fiddler, as to suppose that any gentleman could arrive at this ultra state of per- fection in a very difficult art, which horsemanship un- doubtedly is, unless nature had been prodigal of the requisites. Setting aside the daring, undaunted, the not-to- be-denied * determination of Mr. Smith to get to hounds, * No word 80 thoroughly describes his character as the English word "pluck." 140 REMINISCENCES, ETC. despite of any and all difficulties which may have opposed him, — the result of strongly-braced nerves and great physical powers, — let us look at him in his saddle. Does he not look like a workman 1 Observe how lightly he sits ! No one would suppose him to be a twelve-stone man. And what a firm hand he has on his horses ! How well he puts them at their fences, and what chances he gives them to extricate themselves from any scrape they may have gotten into. He never hurries them then ; no man ever saw Tom Smith ride fast at his fences, at least at large ones (brooks excepted), let the pace be what it may ; and what a treat it is to see him jump water ! His falls, to be sure, have been innumerable ; but what very hard riding man does not get falls ? Hundreds of Mr. Smith's falls may be accounted for : he has measured his horses' pluck by his own, and ridden at hundreds of non-feasible places, with the chance of getting over them somehow. Bravo ! Mr. Smith, you must be number one, for, by Heavens ! there will never be such another Mr. Smith as long as the world stands." — (Hunting lieminiscences, p. 294.) To go back to writers contemporary with the feats of which they spoke, when criticism and censure would have soon exposed and overwhelmed any attempt at exaggera- tion, let us listen to the testimony of " Dorset," writing in the Sjyor ting Magazine, November, 1836. After expressing his astonishment at the difficulties Mr. Smith contended against and overcame in Hants, where, to use his own forcible expression, he "screwed odd ends of a country together," he thus proceeds : " Of Mr. Smith, as a huntsman, it is needless to speak here, or indeed anywhere. He ranks with the first pro- fessors of this noble science ; and as the first horseman of the age, as well as the most accomplished huntsman of the present day, his name will be enrolled historically in the deathless pages of the chronicles of the chase, and among those who have advanced and aided the political MODEL OP A PERFECT HUNTSMAN. 141 economy of his country in one of its most important departments." The testimony of both Dick Christian and " The Druid," in " Silk and Scarlet," is perhaps the most unreserved of any. "No man," says Dick, "that ever came into Leicester- shire could beat Mr. Smith, I do not care what any of them say ; " while " The Druid," after giving some very inte- resting anecdotes of him, whom he styles " the great master of the nineteenth century," thus speaks of him "at the finish :" — "However hasty in temper and action he might be in the field or on the flags, he was the mightiest hunter that ever ' rode across Belvoir's sweet vale ' or wore a horn at his saddle-bow." "It was a great speech of Mr. Smith's" (says the former writer) " if ever he saw a horse refuse with his whips, * Throw your heart over, and your horse will follow.' He never rode fast at his fences. I have heard him say scores of times, 'When a man rides at fences a hundred miles an hour, depend upon it he funks.'" Sir William Miles confirms this statement. " Mr. Smith," he remarks, "always said, 'Go slow at all fences except water. It makes a horse know the use of his legs, and by so riding he can put down a leg wherever it is wanted.' " « On my last visit," says " The Druid," " I found Dick Christian firmer than ever in his hero-worship of Mr. Assheton Smith, Sir James Musgrave, and Captain White." " I first knew Mr. Smith in 1798," writes Dick Christian to the author, " when he hunted in the Pytchley country. I then lived with Sir Gilbert Heathcote. He certainly was the best man that ever came into Leicestershire. He used to say, ' Dick, what kills is the loace^ Yes, and no man put this oftener to the test than himself" Beckford says, in his celebrated " Thoughts on Hunting," that it is as diflBcult to find a perfect huntsman as a good prime minister, and he proceeds to enumerate the requisite qualifications for excellence in the former, as follows ; — " A 142 REMINISCENCES, ETC. clear head, nice observation, quick apprehension, un- daunted courage, strength of constitution, activity of body, a good ear, and a good voice." The same writer says also, " If he is active, and presses them on while the scent is wood, always aiming to keep them as near the fox as he can ; if, when his hounds are at fault, he makes his cast with judgment, not casting the wrong way first and blun- dering on the right at last, as many do ; if, added to this, he is patient and persevering, never giving up a fox while there is a chance of killing him, he then is a perfect hunts- man." * We may observe that every one of these qualities was to be found in Mr. Assheton Smith. He was parti- cularly careful in making his casts,* often three in number, each one wider than the other, and spreading like a sky- rocket. He was generally averse to lifting his hounds, which he said made them idle and too dependant on the huntsman. He preferred seeing tliem work out the scent and improve gradually upon the line ; — here a hit and there a hit, now a challenge from a trusty old hound ( " Hark to Ringwood ! he has it " ), when the willing pack rush with headlong eagerness to their leader ; then a general dash, which bursts forth at the same moment into hard and determined running. No huntsman ever laid hounds on the line with greater quickness than Assheton Smith. Yet he w^ould sometimes lift his hounds, when he was desirous of getting away from the large fields of sportsmen out in Leicestershire ; to effect which he would also resort to the following stratagem. It is usual after drawing a cover, if no fox be found, to proceed to the one next adjoining, but Smith would, in order to get rid of what he called the " Spring Captains " (for he was never very * This same authority thus enumerates the five following species of fox-hunters: the "dress" fox-hunter, the "mahogany" fox-hunter, the "health-hunting" fox-hunter, and the "genuine" fox-hunter. As the name so well describes uach, analysis of their respective merits is unnecessary. f " Cecil," in the Sporting Magazine, March, 1840. HIS BREED OF HOUNDS. 143 partial to young sportsmen),* gallop off at a splitting pace to some wood five or six miles off, over every hedge and ditch that came in his way. His system of hunting differed essentially from that of Mr. Osbaldeston in this respect, that he was as silent as possible until the fox was found, whereas Osbaldeston thought to make him break cover by the noise he made.t Mr. Osbaldeston's system was the more popular of the two, as that of Mr. Smith put too great a restraint upon the field. The latter did not even always carry a horn, especially in his earlier career. He always pat the most entire confidence in his hounds, and often mentioned the story of the Belvoir huntsman, who followed his pack to the door of a barn, when every one in the field supposed the fox had gone on. " If he is not in here^^ said he, " my hounds deserve to be hanged," and sure enough they found Reynard hid under the boltings of straw, and killed him. It was a splendid sight to see Mr. Smith throw his hounds into cover, although he was some- times in the habit of drawing too quickly. At the great meet in Leicestershire, in 1840, he did not half draw Shankton Holt, and if it had not been for Mr. Hodgson, who waded into Vowes Gorse in his jack-boots, he would not have found a fox there. If Mr. Smith had a fault as a huntsman, it was that he was too impatient, owing to the irritability of his temper. When he went into Leicestershire, he found Lord Foley's hounds not of large size, but he soon raised the standard : dog hounds to twenty-five inches in height and bitches to twenty-three. Some sportsmen considered his dog hounds, although of enormous power, too heavy for his light and Alpine country, and too large for his great woodlands, but all * "Do you think you can catch him ? " said a master of hounds to a young aspiring sportsman. "No," was the reply. "Then let my hounds catch him if they can." — Beckford, p. 175. t Among the ancients it was considered an ill omen if any one spoke while hunting. lAi REMINISCENCES, ETC. acknowledged his bitch pack to be perfect. " They're beauties." he would say to himself; pointing to Dairy-maid, Pastime, and Blowsy, " and John Mills * might well write their lives." " AVhen Mr. Smith bought Lord Foley's hounds, he liked them small, and he used to call the ' Pytchley,' when John \Yard had them, ' the great calves.' There was hardly a dog hound in Mr. Smith's first pack much above twenty- three inches. Afterwards he thought that the small hounds could not jump over the long green briars which w^ere too thick to admit of their creeping through, and he did not rest till he had raised his bitch standard to as much over twenty-three as he could get it, and his dogs to be as near twenty-five as possible." — {Silk and Scarlet, p. 281.) The late Duke of Beaufort drew largely from Mr. Smith's packs, with the assistance of his huntsman. Will Long. The squire was fond of breeding from hounds of various qualities ; well knowing that the combination of strength, swiftness, and nose thus obtained form the perfect hound. + * Author of "The Life of a Fox-hound." t Somerville, the poet of "The Chase," thus graphically describe* the merits of our native hounds : " Id thee alone, fair Land of Liberty, Is bred the perfect hound ; in scent and speed As yet unrivall'd His glossy skin, or yellow-pied, or blue, In lights or shades by Nature's pencil drawn, Reflects the various tints ; his ears and legs Fleck't here and there, in gay enamell'd pride Rival the speckled pard. His rush -grown tail O'er his broad back bends in an ample arch ; On shoulders clean, upright and firm he stands ; His round cat foot, straight hams, and wide-spread thighs, And his low-drooping chest, confess his speed, His strength, his wind, or on the steepy hill Or far-extended plain Observe with care his shape, sort, colour, size ; Nor will sagacious huntsmen less regard His inward habits." FOX HUNTING DIVINES. 145 As to mixture of colour, lie was fond of that in which the blue or grey predominated, although he was of the same opinion as Foote, namely, that a good dog could not be of a bad colour. How he loved the thrilling melody of his pack ! * — " Match'd in mouth like bells, each under each, — and how he would turn round in his saddle, even before he was half over his leap, to catch all he could of the joyous ecstasy of their voices — Vocat ingenti clamore Cithseron, Taygetique canes, domitrixque Epidaurus equorum, Et vox assensu nemorum ingeminata remugit. — ViRG. As an instance of the enthusiasm Mr. Smith always evinced for his favourite diversion, and of the value he set upon a participation in it, an anecdote may be mentioned of the Kev. Francis Dyson, now rector of Cricklade. Mr. Dyson's father was the clergyman at Tedworth, and gave his son a title to orders as his curate on his being first ordained. Mr, Smith was so pleased with his first sermon, that, on coming out of church, he slapped the young man on the back, and said, " Well done, Frank ! you shall have a mount on Rory (Rory O'More) next Thursday." Young Dyson had many a run afterwards out of the squire's stables, for his performance in the field pleased as much as those in the pul})it. Among Mr. Smith's sporting congregation were not a few of the clergy, and these were never far in the rear of the squire. He was once entering the house of a certain divine, where his hounds met that morning, accompanied * The sportsman will remember the story of the Londoner. " There, there's music for you," said an enthusiastic farmer to a cockney ; " what splendid melody ! Don't you hear it ? " "No," replied the other, " I can hear nothing for those confounded dogs.'" Sir Roger de Coverley having received a valuable hound from a friend, returned it with many expressions of civility, saying that it was an *' excellent bass, but at present he only wanted a counter-tenor." — Spectator, No. 116. L 146 REMINISCENCES, ETC. by the late Lord George Bentinck. " What profession Is this gentleman of 1 " said his Lordship, as they entered his drawing-room. " A parson," replied the squire, and point- ing to the pictures of eminent sportsmen which adorned the walls, added, " Don't you see the portraits of his favourite bishops ? " Dr. Coplestone, bishop of LlandafF, had loved fox-hunting in his youth, and always looked on these " clerical eiTors" with some indulgence. When he was provost of Oriel, a needy curate, wishing to ingratiate him- self with the Oxford dignitary, pointed out to him, as they sauntered together down High Street, a worthy parson of Jesus College, who was riding leisurely along on his way to meet the hounds, and remarked, with a shrug of religious horror, " Sic itur ad astra ! " " It is not the white breeches," replied the provost, with great discernment and liberality, " that the Church need be afraid of, but your long-coated, black-gaitered gentlemen." * Doubtless Mr. Smith had great advantages in the pos- session of vast physical strength, extraordinary nerve, and of a constitution that never bent under fatigue. These are important adjuncts to success in the hunting field, but they are not the ruling elements, and Mr. Smith shared them with many other men. Cassius complained with envy, that the weakly temperament of Caesar overcame the world. The secret of Mr. Smith's great success lay in his unbounded ardour for his favourite pursuit, and the unre- mitting energy he brought to bear upon it. The prevailing symptom of our age is a lack of abid- * Apropos of fox-hunting divines, we may here mention a misad- venture which once befell a heavy parson during a very severe run on Salisbury Plain. His hoise had come down across some cart-ruts, in a manner which Dick Burton would describe as a huster. His reverence was much shaken, and did not come to himself for a few seconds ; ■when he did, he seated himself upon the greensward, and mildly observed : "I wish those confounded Romans had pecked in the ruts before they left this part of the country ! " MR. smith's boldness AND DECISION. 147 ing earnestuess. AYe have become so refined in our tastes, and tliere is such a reduction of intellect, educa- tion, habits, and consequently of character, to the same level, that the word enthusiasm has almost become one of reproach. An ardent or enthusiastic man is pointed out as a madman ; and yet it might be said of Tom Smith, as it was of the heroic admiral, " I wish w^e had five hundred men as mad as he." By this quality, be its estimate what it may, he achieved his renown ; and, what is more extraordinary still, his ardour never flagged nor abated. "Whether it be ambition or any other passion stimulating the senses or quickening the understanding, most men gradually tire of the pursuit. The attainment and fruition of an object gradually lessen our excitement, and we seek a renewal and revival of our activity in varied interests and in fresh pleasures. But we find Mr. Smith year after year following the same pursuit, in the highest degree animating, although having no very great novelty or variety to recommend it, with unabated ardour, with almost increasing zest. Can it be wondered at, with such constancy of purpose as this, and talent to execute co -ex- tensive with it, that he carried the science of hunting as near to perfection as it is capable of, and retained for it its national distinctiveness ? It would be difficult, perhaps, to separate from each other any of the numerous ingredients which, combined with and assisting the enthusiasm we have described, went to raise Mr. Smith to the high rank he will ever possess among British sportsmen. Bacon says, in his admirable essay on State Government, that boldness is the first in civil despatch, boldness second, boldness third ; meaning that, for all practical purposes, all other qualities are immeasurably subordinate to this. In like manner it may be said of fox-hunting, that boldness * in riding makes up three-fifths of eminence in it. The fourth and fifth parts * " Jb'irst attribute of a good huntsman is courage ; next, hands and seat." — Beckford. L 2 148 reminiscences; etc. wanting may, however, mar tlie other three. But this was not so with Mr. Smith. He was fully master of the details and minutise of the sport, and his judgment was equal to his couraf^e. His observation was so quick, and his intuitive knowledge of the animal he pursued so ready, that he never hesitated a moment at a check what to do, and always could sive a good reason for what he did. " Quickness of deci- sion," observes an excellent judge, " is the life and soul of fox-hunting." Mr. Maxse was heard to say, that the reason why Mr. Smith showed such famous sport in Leicestershire was, that when his hounds came to a check, he would just as soon ride over any high gate or tremendous fence, if he thought that the scent lay that way, as make his cast over the open field.* " As a huntsman," said one who well knew what a com- bination of qualities is necessary for the attainment of ex- cellence in that department of the science of fox-hunting, " I fearlessly put ]Mr. Smith in the first class. He has even to this day'' (in 1841, when the squire was sixty-five years old) " all the requisites to make him such : zeal, quickness of perception, untiring perseverance, a ready judgment when in difficulty, and horsemanship quite unequalled for daring and duration by any man of this or any other age. For example, what said his brother-sportsmen of him only last season in Lincolnshire 1 Why, that there was no man who could get over, or out of when in, the wide and deep drains of that country, so cleverly as Tom Smith did. When too wide to be cleared, as I was informed by an eye-witness, he would force his horse into them diagonally, then, alight- ing from his saddle and scrambling up the bank, he would pull his horse after him ; and this when past his grand climacteric." t * ** The first thing and sine qtid non of a huntsman is to ride up to his head hounds." — Bfxkford, p. 177. t Nimrod's *' Hunting Reminiscences," p. 298. HIS IDEA OF A HUNTSMAN. 149 The following anecdote was related by Mr. Child, a Hampshire yeoman of the right sort, who always had a fox for Mr. Smith in Wilster Wood : " The first time Mr. Smith ran a fox into the Newbury Yale, I and some friends, seeing he pointed for the meadows near East Woodhay, got for- %vard to a tremendous leap, that had often stopped the whole Craven Hunt. It was a stile, bank, and hedge, and a liberal allowance of water on the far side. Down came the squire on Screw-driver, and took ifc in bis stroke. This did not so much surprise us, but what did ^^'as, that he never once turned round to look at it ; whereas, had one of our fellows got over it, he would have looked at it for a week and talked of it for a year." His notion of a huntsman was that he should always be with his hounds. On this principle he invariably acted ; for he well knew that unless a master of fox-hounds, hunt- ing them himself, had head, hand, and heart, and could be close to his hounds when they were close to their fox, he could not do his duty as it should be done. One day wdien he had the Q.uorndon, after a sharp affair of forty minutes, the fox, quite beaten, ran into a small covert with a lane half round it. The field kept the lane j the squire exclaim- ing : " They will have him in five minutes ! " leapt into tlie adjoining paddock, at the farther end of which there was a tremendously thick bullfincher. Unused to denial, he rode at it, and fell with his horse on a heap of rough stones on the other side, tearing his white cords most piteously. He was up again in a moment, and as unconcerned as if he had fallen out of his arm-chair, and did kill his fox within the five minutes. Mr. Smith had a great contempt for a man who attempted to hunt a pack of fox-hounds and could not ride to them ; and he never scrupled to express his opinion whenever any such instances came under his own observa- tion, as no man was more fairly entitled to do. The following anecdote of his courage was related by 150 REMINISCENCES, ETC. Nimrod, at the time when the circumstance occurred. It was during the last year Mr. Smith hunted Leicestershire. He had a run of nineteen minutes point blank, known to the present time by the name of the "Belvoir Day." It happened that the pace was so good, and the country so severe, that no one was with the hounds towards the last except the squire of Tedworth and Mr. John White, a well- known sportsman of that day. These two came to a fence so high and so strong that there was apparently only one place at all jDracticable, and this was in the line Mr. White was taking. Mr. Smith consequently was obliged to turn his horse to this place, expecting to find White well over ; but instead of this he found him well " bullfinched," that is, sticking fast in the hedge. " Get on ! " says Mr. Smith. " I cannot," replies Mr. White : " I am fast." " Ram the spurs into him ! " roared out the squire, " and pray get out of the way." " If you are in such a hurry," rejoined Mr. White, '' why don't you charge me 1 " Mr. Smith never spoke, but did charge him, and sent him and his horse into the next field, when away they both w^ent again as if nothing had happened, the squire of course soon making to the front. Another remarkable run with Mr. Smith's hounds, when in Leicestershire, is also thus chronicled by Kimrod : " I will mention a day's sport which I had when Mr. Smith had the Quorn hounds, which I have no doubt is fresh in the recollection of many w^ho witnessed it, for it was a brilliant one, and such as no other country in the world could have shown on that day. It was on the 17 th of April, and as Tom Wingfield (the whipper-in) observed, ' a kind of day more fit for growing cucumbers than for hunting.' It was, however, allowed to be the second best day's sport of the year. We had had one good burst of sixteen minutes with- out a check, best pace, heads up, and sterns down. The fox of the day, however, was found in Holt Cover, and took HIS INFLUENCE OVER HORSES. 151 US away twelve miles in fifty-eight minutes, with only one trifling check of eight minutes, before he died. The coun- try he went over could only be compared to Newmarket Heath, enclosed with strong fences. That there was dis- tress among the horses it is needless to observe, after the above description. Mr. Smith rode his famous Jack-o'-Lan- tern in his usual style. Seeing Mr. Lindow on The Clipper, encouraging the hounds to a scent at a gateway, he was be- ginning to rate us, saying that ' the hounds had been pressed upon, and that we only wanted a puff for our horses.' At this moment the chase was resumed, and Lindow turning round, aptly remarked, 'that he had had his x^'^ff^ ^r he would not have been there.' The fox lived about eight minutes longer, and Mr. Smith, seeing two couples of his young hounds leading, appeared transported with delight. He never turned his horse's head so much as ten yards to the right or to the left for an open gate, or for a gap, but rode by the side of his pack, cheering them to their fox (which he knew must die) in a manner and at a pace that I shall never forget." It is well known what a number of brooks there are in the Quorn and Belvoir counties, and most sportsmen, if they were never out with Mr. Smith, have at all events heard what a capital hand he was at getting over them. He once charged the river "VVelland, which divides the counties of Leicester, Northampton, and Rutland, and is said to be alto- gether impracticable, at the end of one of the most desperate runs ever known. This knack he had of getting across water is to be attributed to his resolute way of riding to hounds, by which his horses knew that it was in vain to refuse whatever he might put them at. A remarkable ex- ample of this occurred in the Harborough country. He was galloping at three-parts speed down one of the large grass fields which abound in that district, in the act of bringing his hounds to a scent, and was looking back to see 152 KEMIXISCE^X'ES, ETC. if they were coming. Exactly in the middle of the field, and in the line immediately before his horse, was a pool of water, into which the animal leaped, thinking it useless to refuse, and of course being unaware that he was not intended to take it. This horse would doubtless have jumped into the Thames or the Severn in a similar manner, had they been before him. His wonderful influence over his hunters was strongly exemplified at another time, but in rather a different manner. He had mounted, on his celebrated horse Cicero, a friend, who complained of having nothing to ride : " A sportsman so keen, that he rides miles to covert, To look at a fence, he dares not ride over." The hounds were running breast-high across the big pasture- lands of Leicestershire, and Cicero was carrying his rider like a bird, when a strong flight of rails had almost too ugly an aspect of height, strength, and newness, for the liking of our friend on his " mount." The keen eye of Assheton Smith, as he rode beside him, at once discerned that he had no relish for the timber, and seeing that he was likely to make the horse refuse, he cried out, " Come up, Cicero!" His well known voice had at once the desired efiect, but Cicero's rider, by whom the performance was not intended, left his "seat" vacant, fortunately without any other result than a roll upon the grass. " I have said," remarks Nimrod, " that Mr. Smith's make and shape, together with a fine bridle-hand, have assisted him in rising to perfection as a horseman ; and I will pro- duce one or two proofs of the use he made of these by no means subaltern endowments. I have seen him riding horses which scarcely required a bridle, such as his large Grey Horse, Jack-o'Lantern, Gift, Tom Thumb, Gadsby, and others equally temperate and agreeable ; and I have seen and heard of him riding some that no other men could HIS NERVE IX A DIFFICULTY. 153 iiave ridden as he rode them. Mr. Lindow's Clipper was, for example, so hard a puller with hounds that the bit, called ' the Clipper bit,' \vas made purposely to suit him ; and a most severe one it is. On a proposal being one day made, that Lindow and Smith should exchange horses for the day, the latter, previously to mounting the Clipper, put his curb-chain into his pocket. ' Good-bye to you ! ' said his friend, as the hounds were finding their fox, 'we shall never see you again.' He rode, however, in his usual place, — alongside the pack." * " I once saw," relates a friend, " a fine specimen of Mr. Smith's hand and nerve in going off of a frost, when the hone was not quite out of the ground. "We were running a fox hard over Salisbury Plain, when all at once his horse came on a treacherous flat, greasy at top, as sportsmen say, but hard and slippery underneath. The horse he rode was a hard puller, and very violent, named Piccadilly ; and the least check from the bridle, when the animal began to blunder, would have to a certainty made him slip up. Here the fine riding of the squire shone conspicuously. He left his horse entirely alone, as if he were swimming ; and after floundering about and swerving for at least a hundred yards, Piccadilly recovered himself and went on as if nothing had happened. I saw him," he adds, " on the same horse on another occasioCj when a fox was sinking, and his horse so beaten that he could scarcely ride at a fence, charge a stiff" wattled hedge. The horse got over, but came down on his head, nevertheless was quickly righted again. The same fence, with a ditcli from him, was to be encountered again at going out of the field ; and here the squire's address was no less remarkable than had been his cool courage. Whon within about twent}^ yards of the fence he had a pull at his horse, and after a slight pause * ''Hunting Reminiscences.*'" 154 REMINISCENCES, ETC. sent him at the fence as if he were riding at water. The impetus carried him over the ditch, and he landed safely in the next field, bringing the best part of the fence along with him. A timid rider, or one with less presence of mind, in either of the above positions, would inevitably have met with what is known in sporting parlance as * a case.' " He was once drawing for a fox on his famous horse Fire- King (his horse and yacht of that name did him alike good service), when he came to a precipitous bank at the end of a meadow, with a most formidable drop into a hard road. •' You cannot get out there, sir," said a polite farmer. " I should like very much to see the place where we'''' (patting Fire-King) " cannot go," was the reply ; and down he rode, to the astonishment of the field. This circumstance occurred at Martin, near Wexcombe, and is spoken of to this day as a most dangerous leap. Mr. Smith's character as a master of hounds has been ably and faithfully drawn by Mr. IsTewdegate, member for North Warwickshire, himself an excellent sportsman and daring rider : " Mr. Smith was, in the field, sometimes very rough-tempered, and cared not whom he offended. He thus made many personal enemies, or rather exasperated those who were jealous of his pre-eminence ; but he was almost always just in his anger, and only fell foul of those who were spoiling sport. He had one great characteristic : he was determined that hunting should be a sport worthy of gentlemen, and of which ladies need not be ashamed. As master of a country he would not countenance, nay more, he very actively discountenanced, gambling, drinking, and debauchery. He was not foolish enough to set himself up as a severe moralist, but he was steadfastly opposed to what might be called the ostentation of vice. He was, in fact, a good man, with all the qualities of a first-rate soldier ; and these, I believe, produced the cordial friendship GREAT RIDING PERIOD WITH THE QUORN. 155 wliicli the late Duke of Wellington always extended to him.* "There can, I think, be little doubt that Mr. Smith would have made a first-rate cavalry general. In all his conduct, at home and in every country, he manifested a sincere desire to promote the best interests of all classes within his reach, and did this effectually, but without the slightest ostentation ; while his quickness, foresight, and determination were undoubted. His devotion to hunting was, no doubt, exaggerated ; but beneath it lay the purpose of fostering the manly qualities of his fellow-countrymen of all classes ; an object of the deepest importance at the period of peril to this country which existed when he first became distinguished as a sportsman (1805 to 1815). I heartily wish we had a Tom Smith now." "The greatest riding period with the Quorn," observes the author of the Post and Paddock, " is generally allowed to be that of Lords Jersey, Germaine, and Forester, and Messrs. Cholmondeley (afterwards Lord Delamere), Assheton Smith, Lindow, and his twin brother, Mr. Rawlinson, who was as famous over Leicestershire on Spread Eagle as he was on the turf with Coronation. It used to be said that Mr. Eawlinson's riding was the better for his horse, but that Mr. Lindow sold his horses better." " Mr. Meynell," says Dick Christian, in his " Post and Paddock " lecture, " was like a regular little apple-dumpling on horseback ; Mr Assheton Smith and Lord Forester, they were the men for me. Lord Jersey, too, my word ! he was very good ; and Sir Charles Knightley, he was one of Lord Jersey's stamp. How he would go, to be sure ! he icould be with the * "I own," said Sir Hussey, afterwards Lord, Vivian, himself a distinguished soldier, (upon the order of the day for the third reading of the proposed Game Bill,) "I am proud of sporting ; and the greatest commander the world ever had has declared that he found men who followed the hounds brave aud valiant soldiers." 156 REMINISCENCES, ETC. hounds, to see tliem do their work. Blame me, but IVe seen him, at the end of a run, all blood and thorns. Mr. Smith never galloped his horses at fences, he always drew them up. He had little, low-priced horses when he first came into this country, but he rode them so as no man ever will again, and they would do anything ; get into bottoms and jump out of them like nothing. And how handy he made them ! Those were different days ; you might find at Melton SjDiuney and run to Billesden Coplow, and not cross a ploughed field. I have seen Mr. Ilolyoake go like dis- traction for fifteen minutes, but Mr. Smith and Mr. Greene, and Mr. Gilmour, and Lord Wilton, they are the men to go when others are leaving off." * Horses sometimes get second wind. Mr. Robert Can- ning's Conqueror once showed symptoms of distress, and began to kick his belly with his hind legs. " You are not going to stop, are you 1 " said his master. The animal rallied at the well-known voice, and took a large fence out of the very field where this circumstance occurred. Sometimes fox-hunters will resort to an ingenious device to conceal the fact that their horses are beaten. Not long ago, in Leicestershire, during a run in which the pace had been very severe, a rider was observed walking very leisurely towards a stiff fence, but without any intention of taking it, with a horse's shoe in his hand. " What is the matter?" said a friend, " why don't you screw him at it 1 " " Can't you see," was the reply, " that he has cast a shoe 1 " " Why," observed a third, who had just come up, " my good fellow, your horse has got four shoes 07i" Among the foremost of Mr. Smith's field, the last season he hunted in Leicestershire, was Colonel Wyndham, of the Scotch Greys, who had returned to England after the battle * It was about this period of Mr. Smith's career that Lord Middleton presented him with four first-rate hunters, as an acknowledgment of the excellent sport he had enjoyed with his hounds in four successive seasons. COLONEL WYNDHAM. 157 of Waterloo. AYyndbam was a very powerful man, and could, even in those days, get no change out of sixteen stone, but no fence ever stopped him. When he could not get ove7', he got through ; where a bullfinch * seemed impe- netrable, the horsemen would cry out, " Where's Wynd- ham % " and he soon made a gap bi'g enough for almost a whole regiment to pass. Nor was it less extraordinary how, with the Leicestershire pace, and with his heavy weight, he got to his fox. On one occasion, when Tom Smith thought he had it all his own way, and the hounds were running into their fox, Mr, Smith turned round to see how far he was ahead of the field, and to his surprise saw Wyndham close at his heels. " How the d 1 did you get here % " exclaimed the squire, who had some diflSculty in retaining the lead. That lead his fellow-sportsmen occa- sionally endeavoured to snatch from him, but very seldom with success. Sir F. Goodricke, then Frank Holyoake, a very dashing rider, and others, rode against him in a memo- rable run, but Smith went clean away from them all, and Baronet, Sir James Musgrave's horse, on which Holyoake was mounted, was killed in the attempt. A steak from this renowned horse was afterwards served up at Melton, and after William Cooke had partaken of it, his friends jokingly asked him if he knew what he had eaten. When informed it was a slice of his old friend Baronet, instead of being disgusted, as they expected, he immediately replied, " Give me another cut oflf the same steak." Once, after a severe run in Leicestershire, when the fox was sinking, and Mr. Smith found his horse in a like plight, '' Oh, if I had * An ox-fence consists of a wide ditch, a blackthcin hedge, and a flight of rails. A thorn-fence is one composed of a ditch and a thick, busliy, or blackbird hedge, leaning over to the grass ; it is called a Bull- finch, or Bullfincher, " Doubles " are the most difficult and dangerous jumps of all. Here there is a ditch and rail, then another ditch and another rail. Dick Christian calls the " bullfinch" a " regular stitcher." They are thickest between Ashby Pastures and Barkby Holt. 158 REMINISCENCES, ETC. but a fresh horse," he exclaimed, " I would soon settle him.*' "Get upon mine," said Mr. John Cook, who was riding Lancet, a famous horse, of great value. This offer was at once accepted, and the whoop soon followed. Instead of the expected panegyric when the horse was restored to the owner, the remark of the squire was, " I heard that he was a plater, but he is as slow as a donkey." The fact was, he was annoyed at his own horse being beaten. The " Post and Paddock," however, records, in the fol- lowing terms, an occasion on which Mr. Smith was fairly conquered: "George Marriott once, on old Prince, in a well-remembered run, played first to Mr. Smith. The hounds had just found at Whetstone Gorse, when Sir Robert Leighton said to Marriott : ' Don't ride to day, as Mr. Canning wants to settle about a match for you to ride with the old horse against all comers at sixteen stone for a thousand guineas.' ' You are too late,' replied George ; 'he would break my neck if I tried to stop him now.' Away they both went, side by side. Sir Robert and George, till they reached a wide brook, which old Prince cleared in a stride, pricking his ears up as usual, while his companion floundered and fell in. The old horse went for fifty minutes without a check, and Mr. Smith could only take a second place with him." Mr. Assheton Smith found a formidable rival in Mr. Adamson, who hunted the Vine hounds. On one occasion, when Mr. Smith was out, these two had shaken off every other man in the field. *' Each seems to say, Come let us try our speed ; Away they scour, impetuous, ardent, strong, The green turf trembhng, as they bound along." Bloomfield. At last Adamson s horse declined, and Tom Smith played solo to his pack. Occasionally Mr. Smith read a severe lecture to his field in pithy terms. A groom in the service of a worthy MR. smith's field LECTURES. 159 baronet was riding his master's hack home, when it broke away with him, and ran slap through the body of the pack, who were trotting up to draw " Carthanger " in Conholt Park. Old Cruiser, a splendid hound, was the victim, and lay sprawling on his back. The servant, having at last stopped his runaway horse,* came back, intending an apology, when he was thus addressed by Mr. Smith : " If you think, sir, you have not done quite mischief enough already, pray ride through my hounds again ; but if you think you have, go home as quickly as you can." At another time, " Bob," the second whip, hallooed a hare away by mistake for a fox from Everley Gorse. The squire and the hounds were soon at the spot, and, of course, not a hound would speak. " I do not know, sir, whether you are ashamed of yourself, but my hounds, you see, are heartily ashamed of you," was the remark. A ludicrous circumstance once occurred at Chute Gorse, illustrative of the discij^line Mr. Smith always maintained in the field, and of the especial care he took to keep all persons back from heading a fox when he was drawing a gorse. All were, as usual, in their right places, when he espied a white smoch frock in a gap, just at the spot where he expected the fox to break, and at this intruder he hallooed, and waved his hat, using at the same time rather unparliamentary language. "Do ride up," said he to a friend at his side, " and make that scoundrel come back." " Jle will not attend to anything I can say," was the reply. "Then, by Jove, if he does not walk off I will horsewhip him," said the now furious squire. Up, accordingly, he rode, and just as he was raising his whip he discovered, amid the laughter of the field, in which he heartily joined, that the object of his indignation was a mauk or scarecrow to frighten away the rooks. * A horse once ran away, during the chase, with a bold and deter- mined sportsman ; he placed his hands over the eyes of the animal, and thus stopped him. ICO REMINISCENCES, ETC. " Will you not wait for Captain Coldstream 1 " said an officious yeoman, as Mr. Smith was moving on to draw Clatford Oakcuts. " I have had three hundred captains out before now, sir," was the response, "but never better sport for it." On another occasion, he exclaimed, " Why do you lie there, howling and exposing yourself?" addressing a rustic, whom his horse had slightly kicked. " My dear Tom," remarked his more feeling friend, Mr. Henry Pierrepont, "the man is hurt, and why so rough to him ?" "On yrindple^' rejoined the squire ; " if I had int'ied him, he would have been there for a week, but now you see he is up and well already." During the winter of 1815, or the following spring, in a run from Barkby Holt, while in the heat of the chase, Parson B., a well-known character in those days, fell in taking a large fence. A bold dragoon coming too quickly after him, drove out of the body of the reverend divine what little wind was left in it, by making a stepping-stone of the prostrate man. Mr. Smith, who beheld this trans- gression, instantly attacked the offender in no measured terms, when he excused himself by saying that it was not his fault, but that of his horse, as he had on only a snaffle bridle. " Then, sir, the sooner you go home and get a double one the better," replied the Nimrod of unques- tioned authority ; thus giving good advice to every one who could trust himself to a single rein instead of two. " I like to see Squire Smith with the horn on his saddle," said Marsh, the sporting shoemaker ; " for he does things as should he. If he kills a fox, he kills hira, and if he loses him he loses him. He does not do as Ben Foot (the Craven huntsman) does — go muttering after him all day long, and worriting him to death at last." Persons in Marsh's sphere of life form a very accurate estimate of men and things, and as they can feel no jealousy, there is no faintness in their praise. PRICES PAID FOR HOUNDS. 161 For good hounds Mr. Asslieton Smith would give any price. He offered 400 guineas to Lord Forester for his bitch Careful, also 100 guineas to Mr. Conyers for Bashful, but in both cases their owners refused to part with them. Mr. Conyers was almost a match for Mr. Assheton Smith in enduring fatigue, and sometimes would ride more than sixty miles inclusive to and from covert. He was no great hand at taking a fence, but when on his grey horse Canvass, whom he rode for seventeen seasons, he was seldom behind. Canvass was purchased of Lord Chetwynd for 150 guineas, and Mr. Assheton Smith afterwards offered Mr. Conyers 300 guineas for him without success. Mr. Mytton's hounds did not fetch a high price ; their master had played such tricks -with them, that it was said they could hunt anything, " from an elephant to an earwig." Lord Middleton, in 1812, gave 1,200 guineas for the pack he purchased. Mr. Horlock gave Mr. Warde 2,000 guineas for his when he gave up the Craven country. Lord Suffield gave Mr. Lambton 3,000 guineas for his hounds without seeing them. These prices present a striking contrast to the story told by Beckford of an auctioneer, who, having sold off all a country gentleman's property, came at length to his hounds. "What shall I say, gentlemen?" said the knight of the hammer, " one shilling a piece ? " On sportsmen present making an exclamation of horror, " Why," he remarked, " that is more than I would give for them." 162 CHAPTEE VIII. MR. SITITH's favourite HUNTSMEN AND WHIPS, DICK BURTON, TOM DAY, TOM WINGFIELD, AND GEORGE CARTER. — CARTER'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HIS MASTER. — MR. FERNELEY'S PICTURE OF THE TEDWORTH HUNT. — BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE OF HUNTING ON OUR NATIONAL CHARACTER. — DEATH OF MRS. SMITH, AND HER DISPOSAL OF THE FAMILY ESTATES. Si petis exemplar mentis, vitaeque virilis. Cum fortes animos Anglia voce ciet. Sive feraris equo, seu magna incepta sequaris Dux tibi, quicunque es, vir sit hie, "ire viam." Nee male, Venator, campi rapis ardua cursu ; Addunt se comites Mars, nemorumque Dea. WiCCAMICUS. The previous pages of this volume have amply set forth the kindliness of Mr. Smith's nature, and have shown that, in spite of his peremptory will in exacting strict obedience on the part of his retainers and servants, he never failed to secure their warm and zealous attachment. Before con- cluding these reminiscences, it is therefore due alike to bis memory and to the merits of those who so heartily devoted themselves to his service, to make more particular mention of some of his favourite huntsmen and whips — admirably skilled in their craft — beyond what has already appeared incidentally respecting the two Burtons and Shirley. When Mr. Smith purchased Sir Bichard Sutton's hounds in 1827, they were brought up to Penton Lodge by Jack Shirley and George Gardener, Sir Bichard's huntsman and whip. Gardener remained as whip at Penton, and Dick Burton returned to his old master, with whom he had lived teD years in Leicestershire. A neater or better horseman FAVOURITE WHIPS — DICK BURTON. 163 than Dick could not be seen, nor one more active either in the kennel or field. His quickness in getting hounds to cap and halloo from such big spinnies as Collingbourne, Doles, and Doyly woods was marvellous ; and his hark halloo, or as he pronounced it, ^' yaich holler,'^ hit a hound as hard as whipcord. Tigress was his especial plague, who, though first-rate in chase, was " such a one for hare," and always lianging. Once, when the hounds were running short with a sinking fox, a person clad in a long black coat, with a very missionary look about him, and evidently thinking scorn of the fun, inquired of Dick what the dogs were then doing. " Why, sir," said Dick, throwing a keen glance up and down the inquirer's person, " they are preaching his funeral sermon." At another time, after a capital run, those who were lucky enough to be up, came to a sudden, and as they feared, a fatal check ; when Dick perceived a shepherJ's boy with his hat off, pointing forward. Dick rode up, laid hold of the boy and placing him before him on the saddle, galloped on to the point, where the fox was viewed, and killed him just getting into a large covert. Nothing but quickness would have saved the run. Dick lived twenty- two years with Mr. Smith ; his other masters were Mr. Osbaldeston, Lord Southampton, Earl Ducie, and Lord Henry Bentinck. He is now (1860) enjoying a green old age, *' frosty but kindly," at his old haunts near Quorndon. When Dick heard that Mr. Smith had been to see E-arey and his tamed zebra, he observed, *' Ah ! if Mr. Earey had known my old master at twenty-five, to have tamed him would have been much more wonderful a task. I recollect him in those days," added the old huntsman, " riding a horse in Leicestershire called Agonistes. He gave him four falls before we found a fox. The last fall was over four strong draw-rails into a slow hole. The gentlemen laughed at him. Mr. Smith says, 'If I find a fox in Keythorpe spinnies, I will beat every one of you.' They found, had M 2 164 REMINISCENCES, ETC. fifty minutes without a check, and killed. He did beat every one of them. He went as straight as the crow flies." Mr. Smith was once running a fox hard by Tangly, when the hounds turned up a footpath into a field ; just before them was an old woman carrying a bundle of sticks. Seeing the hounds in full cry close to her quarters, the old girl lashed out right and left with her heels. "Ware hounds !" shouted Dick Burton. " What, ain't you steady from riot at your time of life ? I jest wonder what you'd have done when a filly!" When Dick and Tom Day whipped in for Mr. Smith, nothing could be more perfect than the tout ensemble of master and men. All had the same jaunty balance seat, all were light good hands, all first-rate horsemen ; and a fox, when they conspired against him, had about as much chance of escape as a felon, when Brougham or Scarlett held the adverse brief. Exceptions, however, occurred sometimes, and one must be noted, when the imjyeriosa libido of the master saved the fox's life. The hounds had been running with a holding scent in Collingbourne woods, when at the extremity pointing for South Grove, they came out of cover with a swing, and after one swerve round, away they went like a flock of pigeons for some time mute, as if they had not time to say a word ; and then every tongue in the pack joined chorus. " See how they range, • Dispersed, how busily this way and that They cross, examining with curious nose Each likely haunt." — Somerville. Unfortunately Mr. Smith did not see them break covert, and when he came up, they were running hard as if in view, and with a hare before them. Immediately he blew his horn, and Dick had to ride for his life to stop them ; and when he headed them, it required something stronger than rate and whipcord to turn them. The squire sat still GEORGE CARTER. 165 blowing his horn, but the old hounds, instead of going back to him, kept trying to get forward, and then when rated remained where they were. " How is this 1" said a sports- man present to Dick, when at last he got them back. " If that was not a fox, sir," was the reply, " I and those old hounds (pointing to Trimbush, Trimmer, Watchman, and Vanquisher) ought to be hung up to the kennel door without judge or jury." It was afterwards remarked to Mr. Smith, that the hounds were a long time coming back. ' Yes," said he, " I see how it is, but it is too late to rectify it." It was very seldom that he showed this want of con- fidence in his hounds.* In the well-known picture of Mr. Smith by Ferneley, Dick Burton appears the pattern of a smart huntsman. George Carter came to Mr. Smith with the Grafton hounds, when purchased in 1842. At Ted worth he hunted the young and old hounds on the Wednesdays and Saturdays, Mr. Smith hunting on the other four days. '^ George Carter brought up sixty couples of the Grafton hounds. Among these were Sensitive, Saffron, Goneril, and Watchman; Nigel, Collier, and Bertram, were also great favourites. Bifleman and Beginald were two of Mr. Smith's most famous hounds. They were by Sir R. Sutton's Trimmer." t " Champion and Chorister, by Banter, were also two noble hounds belonging to Mr. Smith. Saffron was father of. some of his best stock. He was sold to Mr. Morrell for the Old Berkshire." t Carter was generally confined to the big woods, Wed- nesday's fixture being always AYherwell Wood, containing upwards of 3,000 acres, in which George said he had passed time enough to qualify him for a settlement as a * One of the first characteristics of a good huntsman is to distinguish between difi'erent scents. Dick Burton was always famous for his acute discernment in this respect. t **Silk and Scarlet," p. 284. J Ibid. p. 305. 166 REMINISCENCES, ETC. parishioner. Whenever any hound in Mr. Smith's pack misbehaved himself, he was handed back to Carter's aca- demy. The pack, which, as " the Grafton," were notorious for being hard-runners, improved wonderfully under the judicious management of Carter ; and when in his latter years he was left to breed them according to his own selection of sires, they became more level to the eye, and, like the sisters described by the poet, — Facies non omnibus una, Nee di versa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum. — OviD. Mr. Smith was much pleased with an original expression of Carter's, who liked to see his hounds draw a covert clean, and as much in line as possible. Mr. Smith finding him once not very well pleased, asked him what was the matter. " If you please, sir," said he, " they are zedding " (a word of his own signifying a zigzag line) " about after their fox." George was not a dashing rider, but was seldom far from his hounds. It was his favourite remark, " / ride to hunt ; master hunts to ride.'' In the last days of the poor old squire, he sometimes came out and hunted Carter's pack, which a Wiltshire farmer observing, remarked to his com- panion : " They be at it double handed'^ to-day, neighbour ; how's that ?" " Why," replied the other, " Carter, he finds the fOx ; and our squire, he loses 'un." No man ever displayed more patience and temper with young hounds than Carter. When a puppy spoke there was no rating, and when a fox was viewed at finding, there was no hallooing ; all was done quietly. As a rule. Carter held that you could not, in a close-lying large covert, say too much in cheering hounds before a fox was afoot, or too little afterwards. He once did a clever thing under Doyly large covert. The hounds had been running hard for some time, • Double-handed is a term used by farmers when very busy in their harvest, at which period two pitchers and two loaders are used. ANECDOTES OF CARTER. 1G7 and all at once flung outside ; when an officious farmer cracked a whip in their faces. "What are you doing?" said Carter. " I saw a hare break just before at that spot," he replied. " Pray let them alone," said George ; " they Lave noses, and what is their use if they cannot distin- guish?" In the meantime the hounds, after one flash round, settled on their fox, and a good run was the result. Had he listened to the farmer, this chance would have been lost, as the fox had slipped away before he saw the hare. One or two more anecdotes of George will not be inappropriate. He was sitting with Will Long and Tom Sebright, enjoying the fun at Stockbridge races, when a notorious fox-killing keeper, named Watkins, thus addressed him : " Come, Mr. Carter, I will spend five shillings on a bottle of wine, if you will drink it with me." " I will spend half a crown on a rope," replied George, " if you will promise to hang yourself on the next tree." Jack Fricker and W. Bryce are the present whips under Carter (1860). Jack is a very promising sportsman, and when George was ill, did credit to the horn on his saddle. Indeed, if there is anything in education. Jack could not escape being eminent, inasmuch as from a child he was under Dick Burton and Mr. Smith, and afterwards took his degree, a first class, under Geor^^e Carter, a combination of advantages which might well be envied by the most aspiring youth at our universities, or by the most distinguished pupils of old Meynell. George Carter was always a famous runner and dancer, and used particularly to distinguish himself at the servants' Christmas Ball, given every year at Tedworth. He could, they said, put more steps into a figure than any man within the limits of Tedworth Hunt. He performed an extraor- dinary feat, when a young man, in the following manner : — An overflow of the river had enabled the deer to escape out of some gentleman's park in Warwickshire, with whom 168 REMINISCENCES, ETC. Carter tlien lived. He and four other young fellows started on foot on the slot of a buck, and determined to take him. They first came up with him in a slough half full of water, out of which he bolted, and took flight pretty straight across the country, with his pursuers at a respectful distance. On, however, they went, seldom viewing him, but never losing his track. Carter at last became the "leading hound," and marked him up to some pales, along which was a deep wet ditch, tangled with briars and rushes. Carter saw by his track that he had hesitated to jump the pales, and had gone down the ditch to the right and then to the left. This satisfied him that the buck was some- where *• harboured ; " and, looking very closely, he at last espied his nose and eyes just peering out of the water. Without waiting for " hound No. 2," who was just coming up, in he went, and a fearful struggle took place. Carter clinging to him as if wrestling ; and at last, with the assist- ance of the rest of the party, they secured him, and walked him back in triumph among them to the Park, whence they had started in the morning, after an animated chase of nearly twenty miles. George used to say a good thing sometimes in a quaint, quiet sort of way. A certain nobleman in the Ted worth Hunt, a good friend to foxes, was sometimes so excited, as to ride too near, and press hounds. One day when the venandi immensa cupido was very strong upon him, he rode too close to them at a check, when Carter thus imparted his ideas to a friend who rode beside him : " I heartily pray that the day may come when his Lordship may hunt a pack of hounds of his own ; and have another Lord, just exactly like himself, as one of his field." Carter's religious faith, and fidelity to his old master, were strongly but very quaintly exemplified in the following manner. After Mr. Smith's death, when it was generally expected at Tedworth that he would be buried in the Mausoleum, George sought an interview with an old TOM WINGFIELD. 169 friend of the family, and with much earnestness made the following proposition : — " I hope, sir, when I and Jack Fricker and Will Bryce (the Whips) die, we may be laid alongside master in the Mausoleum, with Ham Ashley and Paul Potter,* and three or four couple of his favourite hounds, in order that we may be all ready to start again together in the next world ! " Quae cura nitentes Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. ViRG. ^n. vi. Mr. Smith had a very high opinion of Tom Wingfield, who was with him in Leicestershire. He had been first whip to Lord Sefton on the death of Jack Kaven. Mr. Smith used to say he was the cleverest fellow he ever had with hounds, but not of an amiable temper. He was still alive in 1860, and in his eighty-fifth year; he then resided at Ashbourne in Derbyshire. An anecdote of Tom Wingfield was related with no little zest by the squire himself. When both master and man were bordering on eighty years of age, they happened to meet, after a long lapse of time, when the following con- versation arose : " May I be so bold as to ask, sir," said Tom Wingfield, " whether you can manage them there big places as well as you used to in Old Jack-o'-Lantern's days 1 " "I hear no complaints," was the squire's reply, "^nd I believe my nerve is as good as ever." " Ah, sir," said Tom, with a sigh and a sorrowful look, '* it is not so with me ; for although my sight is dim, them there big places looks twice as big to me as ever they used to.'' " Is that a favourite horse," inquired a young aspirant to honours of Tom Wingfield, when out once with Sir Thomas Mostyn's hounds in the Brill country. Before replying, Tom threw his keen single eye over the person of the youth, and observing how green he was about the boots and * Two excellent hunters. 170 REMINISCENCES, ETC. the breeches, and how redolent of Alma Mater (he had just entered at Oxford), " They be all favourites," he said quietly. " Can you say so much of your laming books ?" Chorister was one of Mr. Smith's most valuable hounds, and was painted by Mr. Ferneley in his great picture of the Ted worth hunt, which we shall have to mention presently. " The squire had been absent from Quorn for a short time," related the artist to the author, " and on his return was looking through his stables, when the appearance of some of his horses did not please him. He began to find fault with his groom, Tom Jones, when the old man, to divert his master's attention and avoid further reprimand, said in his odd way, ' Did Wingfield tell you Chorister's dead 1 ' ' Chorister dead ! Chorister dead ! ' exclaimed Mr. Smith ; and away he rushed at once to inquire about the hound, a very beautiful yellow-pied." " He was wonderfully fond," Mr. Ferneley added, '* of his hounds." The recollections of these eminent huntsmen respecting their master would be incomplete without the following nar- rative, by George Carter, of his services under Mr. Smith, who, in 1859, still headed the Tedworth pack: — " I came to Tedworth on the 1st April, 1842, and on my arrival with the Grafton hounds, both old and young, when added to Mr. Smith's old hounds and young ones, I never saw so many together before nor since. We had upwards of two hundred couples. In the spring we drafted them to about one hundred and four couples, and that number we kept to begin the season with. Mr. Smith had a dog pack and a bitch pack, and in each he had twenty-six couples. I hunted the old hounds and the young, and my pack amounted altogether to about fifty couples. Mr. Smith hunted Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays ; I hunted Wednesdays and Saturdays, and that we did for fourteen years ; and very often, if Mr. Smith had a short day on Thursday, he would hunt the same pack on Satur- day. He would go six or eight miles north of Tedworth, GEORGE carter's NARRATIVE. 171 and I went ten or twelve miles south. This we did many years. " David Edwards was Mr. Smith's first whip ; he hunts the Cheshire pack at the present time. ^Villiam Cowley was his second man. George Rutt rode Mr. Smith's second horse, and John Fricker rode his third ; he generally had out three horses a day. " His favourite horses when I first came to him were Rory, Cracker, Election, Hailstone, Hungerford, Pantaloon, Bochelle, Netheravon, Ham Ashley, and Fire King. About the latter part of Mr. Smith's time, he rode a favourite horse which he bought of Sir Richard Sutton, and called Paul Potter. There was also a little chestnut mare which was a great favourite. Mr. Smith called her Blemish. She was a very nice animal. " Mr. Smith did not think so much about favourite hounds as some gentlemen. He certainly had a few favourites, such as Royalist, Conqueror, Purity, and Charity.* There was also a favourite dog hound which we called Nigel. He once found a fox in a spinney and killed it himself. We had a stud hound, a Belvoir-bred dog, Bertram by name, a won- derful good one. We now have an old dog. Nelson, which l^rs. Smith wished me to keep as long as he lived, quite a favourite of Mr. Smith. This hound would choose to go to him, and did to the last, and was the only one Mr. Smith knew at last. • " I know but little of Mr. Smith's good runs, as I very seldom went out with him ; but for ten or twelve years he had excellent sport for such a nasty flinty country. I must tell you that he had first-rate sport, by the number of foxes killed in a season. We never began club-hunting * These hounds are represented around Mr. Smith, who is on Eob Roy, in the picture by Saxby, presented to Mrs. Assheton Smith by the county of Hants. The squire's likeness in this picture is, how- ever, not so good as in that by Cooper, from which the frontispiece to these Reminiscences has been engraved. 172 REMINISCENCES, ETC. until September, and left off by Lady-day. We have killed sixty and seventy brace of foxes in a season. I went every niglit to see Mr. Smith at nine o'clock, p.m., and that I did for fifteen seasons. I should think no man in the world rode more miles than Mr. Smith did, for he would ride miles round a covert when other people were standing still." Side by side with George Carter's narrative may be inserted the Tedworth entry of young hounds for May, 1859. Names. Benedict *\ Bonny LassJ Fair Maid 1 Frolick J Pilot Rocket Eufus Romulus Rosebud Rachel Juniper Jewess Barnabas Broker . . Nimrod Nelson Notable Brilliant 1 Betsy / Comrade . . Favourite"! Fickle / Roderick . . Lionel . . . . } Sires. Paradox Ditto Ditto Nautilus Nigel Nigel Ditto Lord Yarborough's Nimrod Ditto, Nestor Ditto, ditto Blazer Leveller Ditto Dams. Birdlime. Folly. Florence. Rosebud. Jessie. Beldam. Boundless. Fatal. Benefit. Crafty. Frantic. Rosy. Termagant. There were at that time thirty couple of dog hounds 4a the kennels at Tedworth, and twenty-five and half couple THE TEDWORTH HUNT PICTURE. 173 of bitches : the height of the dogs ranging from twenty- three and a half to twenty-four inches, and that of the bitches averaging about twenty-two and a half. In the days of Solyman, Conqueror, and Watchman, the hounds were much larger, but Mr. Smith found that the Hamp- shire country required a smaller hound than the Leicester- shire. While on the subject of hounds, we are naturally drawn to advert to the splendid picture of the Hunt at Tedworth, painted at Penton in 1829, by Mr. Ferneley, who came expressly from Leicestershire into Hants, and was the squire's guest for a fortnight, for this purpose. Mr. Smith, as has been already mentioned, is on Ayston, with Dick Burton, his huntsman, standing at the side of the Big Grey ; Tom Day, the first whip, on Beformer ; and Bob Edwards, the second whip, holding Anderson, Mr. Smith's second horse. The numerous hounds in the picture are all portraits. Among those most famous are Bifleman, stand- ing close to Dick Burton, who has a pair of couples in hi,, hand. Watchman, Dimity, Chorister, Dabchick, Trimbush, Tomboy, Traffic, Beginald, Bubicon, Boundley, Bosy, Com- modore, and Clinker. Trimbush is looking \ip at Mr. Smith, while Chorister stands under his horse's head, and Bifleman with the huntsman is at his side. In front of the picture are Commodore and Watchman, while Barity is gamboling towards her master. Under the tree, in the background, sSts Bemus, a well-known hound. On the left is Tedworth House. The sportsman in the green coat just about to mount his horse in the distance is Mr. Northeast, the agent of the Tedworth estates, famous for his judgment and expe- rience in the breeding of Southdown sheep. Speaking of this picture, and of the principal figure in it, Mr. Ferneley says, in a letter written on the 23rd of October, 1859 : " It gives me much j^leasure to hear of the publication of a memoir of so excellent a sportsman and so good a man. It is now fifty-three years since I first saw him ; he was riding 174: REMINISCENCES, ETC. his horse Jack-o'-Lantern. I saw him near Frisby Gorse, trying to get his horse over a flight of rails six or seven times, but he refused, and Mr. Smith had to take him to another place before he could succeed." Mr. Ferneley adds : " He was the^?^5^ red-coat I painted, and on Jack-o'-Lan- tern. The picture was bought by Mr. Mayler, and at his death it was sold, and I do not know what became of it. This was in 1806, the year Mr. Smith first took the Quorn hounds. I also painted his portrait, with his hounds, for the Earl of Plymouth. In the same picture were portraits of Lords Plymouth, Aylesford, and Dartmouth, Messrs. P. Mills, J. Bradshaw, Paris, J. W. Edge, Hinton, &c. This was in 1819; and I fear never again will Leicestershire boast the assembling together of such thorough sportsmen, as well as kind noble-hearted men." In another celebrated picture Mr. Smith is conspicuous, viz., in that painted for Sir Pichard Sutton by Mr. Frank Grant. Although Sir Richard and his sons, together with the Duke of Rutland, Colonel Lowther, and others, occupy the most prominent position in the pic- ture, yet the circumstance of their all wearing hunting- caps, while Mr. Smith has the usual well-known hat, makes it appear as if the hounds were his, and those around him his huntsmen and whippers-in. The horsemen in this pic- ture are all portraits of eminent sportsmen. A fine engraving of it has been made by Bromley. Another ex- cellent likeness of Sir Richard Sutton* on horseback hangs in the ante-room at Tedworth. '' In Lord Plymouth's celebrated Quorn picture by Ferne- ley, Mr. Smith is standing by the side of Gift, a light chestnut (he had him from Sir R. Sutton), with Dick Bur- ton holding the rein ; and he is talking to Mr. Mills on his iron-grey. Barkby Holt, in the spring of 1815, is the meet ; * Sir Eichard Sutton's and Mr. Assheton Smith's were the onl> hounds belonging to private gentlemen ever known to hunt six days a week. I MR. SMITH AS A MASTER OF HOUNDS. 175 and the eye, passing the church at Hungerton and Quenby Hall, rests upon the fir-clad Billesden Coplow. Dick Burton now alone survives of that memorable party (1860). Tom Edge is on the back of Gayman. Jack Shirley is looking at his favourite hounds from the back of young Jack-'o-Lantern. Young Will Burton is lingering on the outside to see the throw-off, before he takes his mas- ter's hack home."* He was then only fourteen years old, and died a few months afterwards. Let us proceed to enumerate some remaining qualities in Mr. Assheton Smith's character as a huntsman and master of hounds. He was scrupulous in all that appertains to the etiquette of hunting. He was jealous of his rights, and would allow no hounds but his own to draw a covert, however outlying, which he believed to form part of his country : on the other hand no man was more courteous than he was, on any occasion of packs clashing. His com- mendations of a master of harriers, Mr. Willes of Hunger- ford Park, on a memorable occasion were unbounded. The squire's hounds had met some fifteen miles off, but had run their fox into the country of the merry harriers j the blue mottles were immediately locked up in a barn, and their field joined the fox-hounds. No sooner had they met than Mr. Assheton Smith rode up to Mr. Willes, and shaking him heartily by the hand, said : — This is the most sports- manlike conduct I ever knew in my life ; I saw you order your hounds home as we came over the hill. You must come and dine with us to-day and stay two or three more, for such things require to be talked over." Some masters of fox-hounds have a dislike and contempt for harriers, but this famous sportsman knew that in skilful hands they were very useful in keeping foxes at home and making them avoid hedgerows. Mr. Assheton Smith hunted the Ted worth country for * " Silk and Scarlet." 176 REMINISCENCES, ETC. tliirty-two years, during "wliicli period no subscription of any sort or kind was ever asked for ; but only a request made to land-owners to preserve foxes. He was hardly ever known to dig a fox, and would not have a terrier in his kennel, his opinion being that a good fox might save nimself if he could. Unless he was " a dirty ringing rascal," he would never allow him to be disturbed, after he went to earth,* yet had he killed as many foxes, perhaps more than any man of his time, and all were fairly hunted, without any mobbing or unfair riding for the sake of blood. The strict order he kept the field in greatly facilitated this, as he was always in his place to see what was going on ; and it was a treat indeed to watch his hounds trying in vain, over a well-fenced grass country, to run away from him. His average of noses was fifty brace, as George Carter can testify who rode with him for seventeen seasons. One season he killed seventy brace, the last " worry " having taken place on a winding-up day under a broil- ing sun. We have given pretty good proofs of his popularity with all classes, and his liberality to keepers, which last indeed almost amounted to profuseness. He always was prone to dis- credit complaints of the disappearance of geese and turkeys in consequence of the abundance of foxes, but where claims for poultry really slaughtered by Keynard were fairly made out, he made ample compensation : indeed, the gentlemen of the Tedworth Hunt always took care that the farmers should be no losers by the care they took in keeping up the breed. His respect for the animal who contributed so essentially to his health and diversion made him lean to his side. If a fox came to his death unlawfully, and it became known to the squire, he would dwell upon it with feelings of the greatest indignation. Once at the breakfast-table at Tedworth, he was intent on reading the newspaper, when * Beckford used to say that digging a fox was cold worlc. MK. HORLOClv'ri TESTIMONY. 177 suddenly he uttered an expression of horror, and visible concern overspread his countenance. The ladies present, supposing some great European calamity had occurred, hastily asked him what was the matter, when he replied, looking over his spectacles, " By Jove, a dog fox has been burnt to death in a barn ! " The country which he found so bare of foxes he has left most amply stocked. When no longer able to hunt his hounds himself, he curtailed his hunting days, and pre- sented twenty couple of first-rate hounds to the Craven, a neighbouring pack. For the last two years of his life, the hounds may be said to have been kept entirely for the amusement of his friends, for although he did go out occa- sionally in 1856, subsequently to his first severe illness, it was rather as a spectator than a master of hounds. At the time of his decease, there were ninety couple of hounds in his kennel, fifty more at walk in Wales, and thirty in Wilts. They used to come up in a caravan by railway to Andover. When Carter first entered Mr. Smith's service, so great was the number of hounds in the kennel, that much nicety of judgment and discrimination was requisite ; for it was no easy matter to decide which hound to choose and which to reject, where every one was valuable. The two veterans (for neither master nor man was at that period exactly in the bloom of youth) succeeded by their united skill in kennel discipline, in forming a pack of fox- hounds which have been unrivalled in the world. 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GLENELG, P., Devil ajvl the Doctor, Is. GLOVER, R., Light of the World, n. ed., 2s. 6 J. GLiiCK. See Great Musicians. Goethe's Faustus, in orig. rhyme, Ijy Huth, 5s. Prosa, by C. A. Buchheim (Low's German Series), 3s. 6d. GOLDSMITH, 0., She Stoojys to Conquer, bv Austin Dobson, illust by E. A'. Abbey, Sis. See also Choice Editions. GOOCH, Fanny C, Mexicans, 16s. GOODALL, Life and Land- scape on the Norfolk Broads, 12Gs. aud 210>-. &EMERSON, Pictures of East An-glian Life,£o 5s. jmd £7 7s. GOODMAN, E. J., The Best Tour in Nor^cay, 6s. N. & A., Fen Skating, 5s. GOODYEAR,AV. H., Grammar of the Lotus, Ornament and Sun Worship, 63s. nett. GORDON, J. E. H., Physical Treatise on Electricity and Mag- tietism. 3rd ed. 2 rols. 42s. Electric LighUng, 18s. School Electricity , 5s. Mrs. J. E. H., Decorative Ehciricity, illnst. 12.^ GOWER, Lord Ronald, Hand- hoolc to the Art Galleries of Belgium and Holland, 5s. Northhrook Gallery, 63^^ and 103s. Portraits at Castle Howard. 2 vols. 126s. See also Great Artists. GRAESSI, Italian Dictionary , 3s. 6(i. ; roan, 5s. GRAY, T. See Ch( Eds. Great AHists, Biograj^hie.^y illustrated, emblematical bind- ing, 3s. 6d. per vol. except wher© the price is given. Barbizon School, 2 rcls, Claude Je Lorraiu. Correggio,2s. GJ. Cox and De Wint. George Cruikshank. Delia Robbia and Cellini, 2s. 6d. Albrecht Diirer. Figure Paintings of Holland. Fra Angelico, Masaccio, &c. Fra Bartolommeo, &c. Gainsborough and Constable. Ghiberti and Donatello, 2s. Gd. Giotto, by H. Quilter, 15s. Hogarth, by A. Dobson. Hans Holbein. Landscape Painters of Holland. Landseer. Leonardo da Vinci. Little Masters of Germany, hj Scott ; ed. de luxe, 10s. 6d.' Mantegna and Francia. Meissonier, 2s. 6d. Michelangelo. Mulready. Murillo, by Minor, 2s. Gd. Overbeck. Raphael. 12 A Select List of Books Great Artists — continued. Rembrandt. Uevnolds. Ptomney and Lawrence, 2s. 6cl. Eubens, by Kett. Tintoretto, by Osier. Titian, by Heath. Turner, by Monkhouse. Vandyek and Hals. 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