188 lk\ngs of the fbunttuG^ffielt) 



take the moment he broke covert. He might have 

 been brought up among the wild creatures of the 

 woodlands, like Rudyard Kipling's ' Mowgli,' so intimate 

 was his acquaintance with their ways. It used to be 

 said of him, it was not the hounds that found a fox, 

 but Tom Smith who found it for them, and, having 

 found, hunted it for them also. ' If I were a fox,' said 

 Mr Codrington of the New Forest, ' I would sooner 

 have a pack of hounds behind me than Tom Smith with 

 a stick in his hand.' 



Critics said that he was not an elegant horseman, that 

 his seat in the saddle was too loose. But even ' Nimrod,' 

 who objected to his methods of hunting, and did not 

 admire his horsemanship, was compelled to admit that 

 'on a middling nag he had few equals.' And as he 

 never had a long purse at his command, it was very 

 seldom that Tom Smith rode anything but a ' middling 

 nag.' But the man who could ride at and clear a park 

 wall, six feet two-and-a-half inches on the taking-offside 

 and eight feet on the landing side, as he did when 

 Master of the Craven, could have had few equals as a 

 horseman on any kind of nag. 



As an instance of his courage and dash, take the 

 following feat on his horse the General : — 



The Hambledon hounds met at St Margaret's, near 

 Titchfield, found on Mr Delme's rough ground, and 

 shortly ran to the wide river between Titchfield and the 

 Southampton Water. The bridge was a mile-and-a-half 

 distant ; and therefore Mr Smith swam his horse across 

 close after the hounds, as did also Captain Yorke. When 

 about half-way across they found their horses sinking, 

 with only their heads out of water. They therefore 

 slipped off their backs and swam to the shore, when the 



