I06 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



while a young- man ; but on settling down for good in 

 Essex he seems to have no longer carried a spare neck 

 in his pocket, but adopted a style of riding like that 

 affected by John Warde, the "father of foxhunting." 

 He smuggled his horse over a country rather than 

 crammed him along, and as his years and weight in- 

 creased, this style of riding became more and more 

 pronounced, until at last he put on so much fiesh as to 

 render straight going out of the question. On more 

 than one occasion he had paid visits to Devonshire, 

 and the practice of " turning over," so common over 

 the great earthworks of the west, appears to have com- 

 mended itself to him ; at any rate, he adopted it, and, 

 with his intimate knowledge of his own country and the 

 run of his foxes, it enabled him to see most of the fun 

 without doing much jumping. Riding to hunt, he would 

 generally see the best of even a quick five and twenty 

 minutes, and if after a very fast thing, some of the 

 thrusters would remark, "We've done the old fellow this 

 time, I fancy," the "old fellow" would be seen sitting 

 in his saddle quite calm and collected, without having 

 turned a hair. Those who knew the knack he possessed 

 of getting to hounds were never surprised at seeing him 

 appear at any moment. It was a case of Assheton Smith, 



