146 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



time held his first Mastership of hounds, for he 

 used to worry the hares on the family property 

 with all the curs he could collect in the neigh- 

 bourhood. He occasionally got a peep at the 

 Hampshire Hounds, but he was first regularly 

 blooded in the New Forest, then hunted by the 

 celebrated John Ward, who took a great fancy to 

 him, and a cordial intimacy sprang up between 

 the two. He then went to Devonshire on a 

 sporting tour, hunting with Lord Portsmouth's 

 foxhounds, Sir Arthur Chichester's staghounds, and 

 Mr, Treby's otter hounds. In 1824 he purchased 

 Mr. Shard's pack, and hunted the Hambledon 

 country, where, with only thirty -two couple of 

 hounds and a subscription of under £600, he showed 

 excellent sport for many years, till he was succeeded 

 by Mr. John King, who came from Devonshire. 

 In 1828 he accepted the Mastership of the Craven, 

 and his first step was to vindicate the right of the 

 Craven to certain coverts, which had been lent to 

 the adjoining hunts, viz. the Vine, Sir John Cope, 

 Mr. Assheton-Smith, and Lord Ducie, The task 

 was a delicate one, which might have created many 

 feuds, but such was the tact with which Mr. Smith 

 conducted it, that only Mr. Assheton-Smith dissented 

 from the position which he had taken up. Here 

 for a short time there was danger of a long rupture. 

 A covert called the South Grove Covert belonged 

 to King's College, of which Mr. Smith's brother 

 was a Fellow ; the result was that King's College 



