THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 15 



Mr. Smith, who has since arrived at the height of dis- 

 tinction as a huntsman and master of hounds, but who 

 might then have been styled " a youth to fortune and 

 to fame unknown," suddenly emerged from the retire- 

 ment of rural avocation, and became somebody of 

 greater importance to the good cause than any hght 

 which had yet dawned upon that sphere. 



With a very indifferent, and, I believe, so inadequate 

 a subscription, as to call for many demands upon his 

 purse, and proportionate sacrifices on his own part, he 

 undertook the management of the hounds, receiving 

 them literally at a day's notice from Mr. Nunes. He 

 had, from boyhood, followed the chase wherever it was 

 to be followed, through the country where he was born 

 and bred ; not an earth existed, not a woodland or a 

 spinney, with which he was not familiar. As a horseman, 

 he could cross the most difficult country, as a man should 

 go who attempts to hunt his hounds ; and, consequently, 

 with a pack of hounds and a stable of horses, which he 

 would probably himself now term a scratch concern, to 

 say nothing of his assistants in the field, he contrived 

 to kill foxes and shew sport, in a way which has had no 

 parallel, either before or since his time, in those parts. 



This is only one of many instances which I could 

 quote in support of my doctrine, as to the obvious 

 utility of a due acquaintance with a country, and not 

 less especially with the kind of hound best adapted to 



