272 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



" Gild refined gold, or paint the lily, 

 Or add fresh perfume to the violet." 



In speaking of the great captain of the age, it would 

 be difficult to overstrain the voice of eulogy. There 

 would be nothing beyond the licence of plain speaking, 

 in affirming, that James Robinson is seven pounds 

 better than any rider on the turf ; neither is it neces- 

 sary to approach in the remotest degree to flattery, 

 in adverting to certain points in any man's character, 

 for which he has been so pre-eminently conspicuous, 

 that the fame consequent upon excellence of any kind 

 has become inseparable from his name. I could not 

 find a better accompaniment for this work, and might, 

 perhaps, be fully justified in giving, as public property, 

 an historical sketch of the life and adventures of Mr. 

 Assheton Smith, seeing that I could nowhere find a 

 fitter model for the rising generation of sportsmen ; but 

 it is not for me to attempt the life of one who " still 

 lives," as I hope he long may, " a prosperous gentle- 

 man," It is, indeed, almost superfluous to add, that 

 the individual to whom I allude, is the identical " Tom 

 Smith," so distinguished during his career in Leicester- 

 shire, that his renown had reached even to the ears of 

 Napoleon, by whom, on reception at the French court, 

 he was saluted as " Le p)remier chasseur d'Angleterre." 

 AU are familiar with a series of prints from the pencil of 

 Mr. " Smith of Loraine," descriptive of a celebrated 

 run, where Dick Knight, the huntsman of the old Pytch- 

 ley, is represented accomplishing, in most enviable style, 



