1H6 IkUxQB ot tbe lbuntina«-jfielD 



father's sudden death quite altered the course of his 

 life. Finding his mother left but scantily provided for, 

 with twelve orphan children dependent upon her, Tom, 

 like a good honest English lad and a dutiful son, gave 

 up his cherished hope of a military career and took 

 charge of his father's farm. 



Passionately fond of hunting, but unable to afford a 

 mount, Tom was indebted to a friend for his first 

 introduction to the Hampshire Hunt, of which the 

 great John Warde was then Master. The friend was 

 sweet upon Tom's sister, and finding ' metal more 

 attractive' than fox-hunting at Shalton Lodge, urged 

 Tom to take his two hunters and groom, for he was a 

 young man of fortune, and have a week's sport with the 

 Hampshire Hunt. Thomas jumped at the offer and 

 made his first proper appearance in the hunting-field, 

 in full fig and excellently mounted. Then it was that 

 he made the acquaintance of John Warde, whose proud 

 boast it was in after life, when stories of his young 

 friend's prowess reached his ears — ' I entered Tom Smith 

 to hounds.' And never, surely, had pupil better 

 master, or master apter pupil. 



But it was with the Hambledon Hounds that Thomas 

 Smith began his hunting career, and it was with, them 

 that, after brilliant successes in the Shires and elsewhere, 

 he finally closed his long and honourable connection 

 with the Chase. Hambledon, as all cricketers know, 

 claims to have been the cradle of cricket, and in those 

 days Hambledon men were as keen for the willow as 

 the pigskin. Tom Smith was as much at home at the 

 wicket as in the saddle, and therefore was hailed as an 

 ideal Secretary of the Hunt. 



But he had qualities which fitted him for a higher 



