90 THE HUNTING FIELD 



name; his father, our readers may remember, had the mis- 

 fortune to break his neck at a trilling place the very last day of 

 a season. 



Mr. Davis, speaking of Smith, the father, in the " Hunter's 

 Annual," where, of him and his two sons, as Whippers-in, 

 caf)ital likenesses are given, says : — 



" Of the natural requisites for a Huntsman of foxhounds, so 

 much has been said before, and really so much seems to be 

 expected, that a man to shine in this department is one to be 

 chosen out of ten thousand, and then his youth ought to be 

 spent in the education fitting his peculiar line of life. It has 

 been said of Smith, that if schooling had done as much for 

 him as nature had endowed him with, that no situation in 

 life would be too high for his powers. It is highly honour- 

 able to him and his family, that he is the third generation 

 filling the office of Huntsman to the Brocklesby Hunt. In 

 1816, the Lord Yarborough of that day presented the grand- 

 father of the present Huntsman with a handsome silver cup, 

 capable of holding the liberal quantity of upwards of two 

 quarts, on which was this inscription — ' The gift of Lord 

 Yarborough to his huntsman, after having been more than 

 fifty years in his service ; made as an acknowledgment of that 

 indefatigable and unremitting attention to the business of his 

 vocation, which may be recommended for a pattern to those 

 who succeed him, and can never be surpassed.' " Of the 

 estimation in which the late one was held by the country, 

 we add a description of the present made to him by his sporting 

 friends : — A large salver, with a bold and richly embossed edge 

 and border, and a broad chased wreath encircling a plain 

 shield in the centre, on which is engraved — " This salver and 

 a teapot, coffeepot, sugar-basin, and cream-ewer (purchased 

 by subscribers of five shillings each), were presented to 

 Mr. William Smith by his friends and the sportsmen in the 



