122 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



on a splendid horse belonging to " Tom Smith," as 

 the old gentleman always called the young one, and 

 they had a splendid burst over the cream of the 

 country, with a whoop at the end. While Tom 

 Smith was holding up the fox before throwing it to 

 the hounds, Lord Alvanley observed, " How I wish 

 your father had seen this finish ! " " Depend upon 

 it, he has," replied Tom Smith, without looking up ; 

 " and I advanced," related the old gentleman, who 

 told the anecdote himself, " and made his lordship a 

 bow." 



* " Was your father a good rider ? " a neighbour 

 once asked of the son. " He was what was then 

 considered such," was the reply ; " but on a very 

 different principle to what I have adopted, and 

 simply this he clung on by his hands, and I by my 

 legs." This is what he always termed his gripe on 

 a horse.' 



Old Squire Smith of Tedworth was still alive 

 when his famous son established himself and pack 

 first of all at Pent on, near Andover. The old gentle- 

 man was strongly opposed to his son's leaving the 

 grass country to establish a pack of hounds for the 

 purpose of hunting the bleak downs and intermin- 

 able copses of Hants and Wilts. For this reason, 

 extraordinary as it may appear, he was the only 

 landowner, when Tom Smith came in the year 1826 

 to reside at Penton, who refused his son permission 

 to draw his coverts. ' Where does Tom Smith meet 



