THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



Abelard, spoke : " Hark ! " said Dick, holding up his cap, that, 

 he mio-ht hear the better; "that's Ahelard. A reprieve, by the 

 Lord ! " I need hardly add that he was right, for Abelard was 

 the best hound in the pack, and his blood is in most of the 

 best kennels in England ; the blood of the Pytchley Abelard, 

 indeed, is a passport to any hound.' 



' But we have omitted the best anecdote of Dick Knight,' 

 said Mr. Somerby, ' and my young friend here must have that. 

 Dick was a great favourite with his noble master, and, like all 

 favourites, now and then presumed upon it. Having taken a 

 tremendous leap, one day, on Contract, Lord Spencer, who 

 was next to him, pulled up at it, and paused. " Come along, 

 my lord," roared Dick ; " the longer you look, the less you will 

 like it." 



' The incident that led to the masterly execution of these 

 prints was a spirit of jealousy between Mr. Assheton Smith 

 and Dick Knight, when they met together, on one particular 

 occasion, in the field, the former riding a celebrated hunter 

 called Egmont, and the latter the equally celebrated Contract. 

 In fact, it was Quorn versus Pytchley. The prints were first 

 published by Jukes, a great printseller in London, who is 

 said to have realised fifteen hundred pounds by the copy- 

 right, which was made a present to him by Mr. Loraine 

 Smith. 



' Loraine Smith, on another occasion, sketched himself in 

 the act of fording a river after hounds, with his coat-skirts 

 tucked up to his shoulders, and thereby getting a considerable 

 start of the rest of the field, with the exception of Lord 

 Maynard, who chanced to follow him ; and the lines written 

 underneath the print : — 



' " By following Smith, a cute chap at a pinch, 



Who knows all the depths of the brooks to an inch ; 

 Lord Maynard, too, followed, and both did embark. 

 Only wetting their tails just below water-mark."' 



' I conclude,' said Mr. Raby, ' that Mr, Loraine Smith is a 

 good man across a country.' 



' Few better, for his weight,' replied Mr. Somerby ; ' his 

 great excellences, as a rider to hounds, are, his judgment, and 

 fine eye to direct him in taking his line. On the 12th De- 

 cember 1792, he went to the end of, perhaps, the finest run 

 that Leicestershire had afforded up to that period, called the 



51 



