188 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



being ordained, was appointed to assist his father, the 

 clergyman at Tedworth : 



" Mr. Smith," says Sir J. Eardley Wilmot, " was so pleased with 

 his first sermon, that, on coming out of church, he slapped the 

 young curate on the back, and said, 'Well done. Frank! you 

 shall have a mount on Rory O'More next Thursday.' Young 

 Dyson had many a run afterwards out of the squire's stahles, for 

 his performances in the field pleased as much as those in the 

 pulpit. 



" Once, when the hounds were running short with a sinking fox, 

 a person clad in a long black coat, and evidently thinking scorn 

 of the fun, inquired of the Whip what the dogs were then doing. 

 1 Why, Sir,' said Dick Burton, throwing a keen glance down the 

 inquirer's person, ' they are preaching his funeral sermon.' " 



In 1840 Tom Smith proposed to pay a visit to his 

 old friend Sir Eichard Sutton, whose hunting had been 

 stopped by a severe accident. On hearing of this move- 

 ment, Mr. Greene of Rolleston, who had been one of his 

 best pupils in his Leicestershire days, requested him, in 

 his way to Lincolnshire, to bring his hounds once more 

 into his old country, Mr. Hodgson, who then hunted 

 Leicestershire, having handsomely placed the best meet 

 at his disposal. The veteran, for he was then sixty- 

 four, accepted the challenge, bringing with him eighteen 

 couples of his finest hounds, of great substance, open- 

 chested, and in splendid condition. 



" It would be vain," writes Sir J. Eardley Wilmot, " to endeavour 

 to commemorate the scene which took place when Tom Smith, sur- 

 rounded by his hounds, met the field at Shankton Holt on Friday, 



