362 ikiwQB oX tbe Ibitntino^f lelb 



polite and courteous, had yet a look in his handsome 

 and determined face which kept ' thrusters ' in awe. 



Mr Arthur Wheildon, himself an ex-M.F.H., gives 

 the following description of a thrilling adventure he had 

 with Charles Payne and his first whip Tom Smith, 

 one of the famous Brocklesby breed : — 



' We found at Sutton Green Covert a good fox, which 

 crossed at once the river Dee. I was then a complete 

 stranger to the country, and, finding myself at the end of 

 one of those large meadows, with the river Dee in flood 

 staring me in the face, did not know which way to 

 turn, when Charles Payne beckoned me to follow him, 

 which I did, to the ferry boat. This, however, could 

 scarcely contain Payne, myself, the two whips, and our 

 horses, being full to the gunwale, and rocking to and 

 fro fearfully ; and the recent fate of Sir Charles SHngsby 

 (1869) came vividly before my eye, for we were all 

 but foundering, the old woman at the wheel, dead beaten, 

 having left us to our fate in the middle of the stream, 

 shouting out that she could do no more. Then that 

 good fellow Tom Smith, pluckily jumped into the 

 middle of the flood, scrambled ashore, and pulled us 

 safely over. 



' Anyone who has ever seen the river Dee in flood 

 will acknowledge that Tom Smith's jumping in to the 

 rescue of his comrades was as plucky a thing as was 

 ever done ; and if there were a Victoria Cross for daring 

 deeds nof done on the battlefield, Tom Smith ought to 

 have had it.' 



It was in Charles Payne's time that the Empress of 

 Austria, who rented Combermere Abbey during the 

 season of 1880-81, occasionally came out with Sir 

 Watkin's hounds. Her pilot was Colonel Rivers 



