'U]K ®tber XTom Smitb' 195 



ment, and his plan, which embraced an open-air 

 raihvay along the causeway, is still extant. He was 

 the inventor, too, of a locomotive ironclad battery — a 

 cupola-shaped affair armed with heavy guns and 

 mounted on wheels, which would enable it to be 

 transported without difficulty from point to point of the 

 coast, a sort of moving Martello tower, in fact. The 

 invention was exhibited to the Queen at Osborne in 

 1866, and Her Majesty was much struck with its 

 ingenuity. On the subject of the utilisation of sewage 

 Tom Smith was also an authority, and indeed, as a 

 scientific agriculturist, his opinion was always listened 

 to with respect. 



That he could write fluently and racily is proved by 

 his ' Life of a Fox,' and his ' Extracts from the Diary 

 of a Huntsman.' The former is a capital brochure, 

 lively, humorous, and admirably illustrative of his 

 wonderful knowledge of the nature and habits of the 

 animals he hunted. Delme Radcliffe has fallen foul 

 of some of the theories propounded in Smith's ' Diary 

 of a Huntsman,' and no doubt some of them are open 

 to criticism. But for the most part his views are sound, 

 sensible, and admirably expressed. The interest of 

 these works is enhanced b)' the author's illustrations, 

 for he was no mean artist, and, it is believed, has the 

 distinction of being the only man who ever painted a 

 whole Hunt, sixty-five portraits of men and horses. 



It happened in this way. He was riding to Hinton 

 House, the place of meet, along with Mr G. Richards, 

 vvhen from the opposite hill he saw the whole party 

 grouped before the house. It was a dull frosty day ; 

 but a gleam of sunshine suddenly broke through, and 

 it occurred to him that this was a good subject for a 



