192 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



hunting gear, and his pack should observe that he could not follow 

 them, they would show their sorrow by refusing to hunt the fox. 

 A universal gloom pervaded the field ; he looked wistfully and 

 lovingly at his old favourites, the heroes of many a well-fought 

 field ; and as he quickly went back into the hall, shrinking almost 

 from the outer air, while the horsemen and pack turned away slowly 

 towards the shrubberies, every one felt with a heavy heart that the 

 glory of the old foxhunter had at length departed." 



The state of Mrs. Smith's health having for many 

 years caused her husband great anxiety, in 1845, in 

 order, as he said, " to bring Madeira to England," he con- 

 structed for her at Tedworth a magnificent conservatory 

 or crystal palace, 315 feet in length and 40 in width, 

 in which, enjoying the temperature of a warm climate, 

 she might take walking exercise during the winter 

 months. A Wiltshire farmer, on first seeing this build- 

 ing, observed, he supposed it was for the 'Squire to hunt 

 there whenever a frost stopped him in the field. 



" It was a melancholy spectacle," writes Sir J. Eardley Wilmot, 

 " to see Tom Smith the winter before his death, when he could no 

 longer join his hounds, mount one of his favourite hunters Euxine, 

 Paul Potter, or Blemish with the assistance of a chair, and take 

 his exercise for an hour at a foot's pace up and down this conser- 

 vatory, often with some friend at his side to cheer him up and while 

 away the time until he re-entered the house, for he was not allowed 

 at that period to go out of doors. Even in this feeble condition, 

 ' quantum mutatus ab illo Hectare,' once on horseback, he appeared 

 to revive ; and the dexterity and ease with which he managed, 

 like a plaything, the spirited animal under him, which had scarcely 

 left its stable for months, was most surprising." 



