FAMOUS MASTERS 8i 



sport ; for his father, who was also a noted fox- 

 hunter, gave the son every encouragement in hunting. 

 Smith at this time held his first Mastership of hounds, 

 for he used to worry the hares on the family property 

 with all the curs he could collect in the neighbourhood. 

 He occasionally got a peep at the Hampshire Hounds, 

 but he was first regularly blooded in the New Forest, 

 then hunted by the celebrated John Ward, who took a 

 great fancy to him, and a cordial intimacy sprang up 

 between the two. He then went to Devonshire on 

 a sporting tour, hunting with Lord Portsmouth's 

 fox-hounds, Sir Arthur Chichester's stag-hounds, and 

 Mr. Treby's otter-hounds. In 1824 he purchased Mr. 

 Shard's pack and hunted the Hambledon country, 

 where, with only thirty-two couples of hounds, and a 

 subscription of under ;^6oo, he showed excellent sport 

 for many years, till he was succeeded by Mr. John 

 King, who came from Devonshire. In 1828 he 

 accepted the Mastership of the Craven, and his first 

 step was to vindicate the right of the Craven to certain 

 coverts, which had been lent to the adjoining Hunts, 

 viz., the Vine, Sir John Cope's, Mr. Assheton Smith's, 

 and Lord Ducie's. The task was a delicate one, which 

 might have created many feuds, but such was the tact, 

 with which Mr. Smith conducted it, that only Mr. 

 Assheton Smith dissented from the position, which he 

 had taken up. Here for a short time there was dangei 

 of a long rupture. A covert called the South Grove 

 Covert belonged to King's College, of which Mr. Smith's 

 brother was a fellow; the result was that King's 

 College authorities served Mr. Assheton Smith with a 



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