'XTbe ©tbcv Zom Smitb' 191 



On resigning the Mastership of the Hambledon, Tom 

 Smith hunted the Craven country, and it was there that 

 ' Nimrod ' saw him, and whilst, as I have said, objecting 

 to his method of hunting, was compelled to admit that 

 he was an extraordinary huntsman and could kill foxes 

 with any man in England. Then came the crucial test 

 of Tom Smith's ability as a Master. He was asked to 

 succeed Lord Chesterfield with the Pytchley. 



Of his lordship's reign it may be said that, magnificent 

 though the style was in which he hunted the country, 

 and courteous and genial as he personally was, his 

 mastership was far from being a complete success. 

 Surrounded by men who delighted to turn night into 

 day, and who neither in manners nor habits suited the 

 idiosyncrasies of the country gentlemen, the hunting 

 atmosphere absorbed a taint which soon began to make 

 itself felt. Late to bed meant late to rise, and so great 

 was the unpunctuality of the meets that a feeling of dis- 

 satisfaction grew to be universal. To be kept waiting 

 upwards of an hour for the Master was calculated to 

 provoke impatience, if not anger; but when the delay was 

 caused by the non-arrival of one (Nelly Holmes, after- 

 wards Lady Rivers), who, though afterwards a lady of 

 title, was at no time an ornament to the social morale, 

 the burden was no longer to be endured. And Lord 

 Chesterfield, who was quick to take a hint, promptly 

 announced his intention of resigning. What happened 

 thereupon is thus narrated by Mr Nethercote, in his 

 interesting ' History of the Pytchley Hunt' 



' After the resignation of Lord Chesterfield, the 

 P}'tchley country went a-begging for several months, 

 and it ■ was not until late in the season that Mr T. 

 " Gentleman " Smith, of the Craven Hunt, was induced 



