BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 105 



of the successful issue of his obstinacy. When once 

 he had undertaken to do a thing he never stopped 

 working till he saw that the thing was done. It was 

 this trait in his character which made the Duke of 

 Wellington say of him that he would have made the 

 first cavalry officer in Europe. 



From Eton Tom Smith — for so he was always 

 called till he became the Squire of Ted worth, on the 

 death of his father — went to Christ Church, Oxford, 

 where he spent four years in playing cricket in the 

 summer, and hunting with John Warde's Hounds in 

 Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire during the winter. 

 His prowess in the cricket-field may be judged from 

 the fact that he was chosen to play in the first 

 " Gentlemen v. Players " match. Upon leaving 

 Oxford he was able to devote all his energies to 

 fox-hunting, though it was not till 1806 that he 

 first carried the horn. It is interesting to note that 

 at this time, when he left Oxford, his walking weight 

 was lost, and his height 5 ft. 10 in., and that at his 

 death his weight was 11 st. 10 lbs., though to the last 

 he was as hard as nails, as might be expected in the 

 case of a man who, for eighty-two years, lived up 

 to the motto — 



" Toil strings the nerves and purifies the blood." 



In 1806 Tom Smith succeeded Lord Foley as 

 Master of the Quorn, over which he reigned till 

 1816. He was only thirty years of age, and it was 

 feared that he had undertaken a task beyond his 



