assbeton Smitb p" 



was soon dispelled by the hounds swinging across the 

 drive, and Tom Smith, on Jack-o'-Lantern, sailing by 

 their side ; having beaten every man among them, 

 though the}' had only to gallop over plain grass, while 

 he had to encounter both gates and fences of the stiffest 

 character. This Davy confessed was one of the greatest 

 triumphs in horsemanship he had ever witnessed. 



But perhaps 'Tom Smith's' most extraordinary jump 

 was one which he made when hunting the Burton 

 country in Lincolnshire. In the course of a fast run 

 hounds came to a navigable canal called ' The Fos- 

 dyke' over which were two bridges, side by side, but 

 separated by a slight gap, one for carts, the other for 

 pedestrians and equestrians. At one end of these 

 bridges there was a high gate leading into a field 

 adjoining the canal, and along each side of the bridge a 

 low rail to prevent people from falling over. Assheton 

 Smith rode along one of the bridges and found the gate 

 at the end locked. Seeing the gate open at the end of 

 the parallel bridge, he put his horse at the rails and 

 jumped across and over the opposite rails on to the 

 other bridge — about as ticklish and dangerous a leap as 

 a man could well take. 



He would change from his hack to his hunter without 

 dismounting — vaulting from one to the other almost with- 

 out rising from the saddle of the horse he quitted ; this was 

 a feat requiring great muscular strength and agility, yet he 

 continued it almost to the day of his death. Nature had 

 indeed given him the very beazi tWealofthe physique needed 

 for the great sport to which he devoted himself His height 

 was five feet ten inches, and in his Leicestershire days he 

 never scaled more than ten stone, though in later life he ran 

 up to eleven stone ten pounds. His frame, though slight 



