26 THE BROCKLESBY HOUNDS. [1816 



A curious story is told of Jack Robinson, huntsman to 

 Lord Scarborough's hounds, and the reception he gave 

 Will Smith, who rode over from Manby one hot morning 

 in August, when Lord Scarborough's hounds were at 

 Grove. Jack Robinson was not a strict teetotaler, and six 

 or seven horns of ale on a cub-hunting mornins: were not 

 an unusual allowance. On the morning that Smith paid 

 him a visit, his early potations seemed to have made him 

 a bit sleepy, for when the Brocklesby huntsman arrived at 

 the theatre of operations he would neither hear nor see 

 anything of hounds. However, he espied a scarlet object 

 at a gateway, and galloping up a ride to investigate, dis- 

 covered Robinson fast asleep on his back, and his horse 

 graziug quietly hard by. " Halloo, old boy ! " said Will, 

 "where are your hounds?" "Hounds!" said Jack, not 

 half awake, "all right, I expect. How should I know? 

 They were here half an hour since — that you. Will, is it ? 

 All right, old fellow ; I was just a bit drowsy." Will made 

 sure that he had got his brother huntsman awake, and 

 then cantered oft' home, " never more ashamed in my 

 life." 



Will Smith tried several daring experiments while at 

 Brocklesby. On one occasion he clipped a hound, and he 

 once took out a pack of bitches, all in season. Yet as a 

 hound-breeder he was particularly successful, and the 

 Brocklesby sires at that time were in great demand by 

 other kennels. According to Mr. Robert Vyner's "Notititia 

 Venatica," published in 1849, Smith possessed the recipe 

 of a certain cure for hydrophobia, which had been handed 

 down from father to son for several oenerations. 



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"Whether it is infallible or not, I cannot pretend to say ; but it is a well- 

 kuowa fact that it has been frequently used with supposed success ; and 

 amongst other patients who have availed themselves of it, we may mention 

 Jem Shirley, huntsman to Sir J. Cope, who was bitten by a mad dog some years 

 since in Ireland." 



Will Smith is spoken of as a man of superior education, 

 of gentlemanly manners, a first-rate sportsman, and a 

 ftimous judge of hounds. He was a contemporary of 



