TOM ASSHETON SMITH 87 



It is thus very little more than exercise for either. Of 

 course it may sometimes happen that the hounds find 

 early and run in a contrary direction to where the fresh 

 horse has been ordered to go ; but the line of country 

 usually drawn from certain places of meeting is pretty 

 generally known, and therefore it will not often occur 

 that the fresh horse cannot be found. Moreover, it 

 will occasionally happen that a second horse, although 

 out all day, is not to be met with when wanted, in the 

 event of a run with a straight-going fox. 



Lord Sefton was the first, and I believe the only 

 master of hounds who had not only two packs but also 

 two huntsmen — John Raven, who occupied that ap- 

 pointment to Mr. Meynell, and Stephen Goodall. In 

 fact his lordship was, from what I can learn, perfectly 

 liberal in everything conducive to sport, or in any way 

 calculated to add eclat to fox-hunting, but did not con- 

 tinue verj'^ long at the head of affairs. In 1810 his lord- 

 ship sold Quorndon Hall, which he had purchased 

 from Mr. Meynell, with all its appurtenances, to the 

 late Lord Foley, who was also a distinguished friend and 

 contemporar>^ of Mr. Meynell. This last nobleman's 

 career as a master of hounds in Leicestershire was very 

 short ; other amusements at that time rising in the 

 estimation of many of the wealthy fashionables of the 

 day unfortunately attracted his lordship from the chase, 

 and Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith made his debut in 

 1812. 



That gentleman's name and high reputation as a 

 sportsman are so well-known in fox-hunting circles that 

 any eulogiums from me would be superfluous. I must, 

 however, observe that he was the first gentleman who 

 essayed to hunt his own hounds in the far-famed Quorn 

 country, and, moreover, that it was his first appearance 

 in that character in any country. It was a bold at- 

 tempt undoubtedly, but that was always a dis- 

 tinguishing feature throughout his life. His idea of the 

 practicability of a fence was that it could be got over 

 with a fall ; his object was to be in the same field with 



