124 SPORTING STORIES 



in " full hunting rig " — velvet cap and scarlet coat — before 

 he was twelve, and drove a coach and four when he was 

 but a year older. 



Scarcely less precocious was the great Thomas Assheton 

 Smith, whom Napoleon introduced to his staff as le premier 

 chasseur d' Angleterre. While he was yet a schoolboy the 

 fame of his skill and daring in the saddle had spread pretty 

 far, as the following anecdote will show. One day his 

 father was at his club in London among a party of sports- 

 men, who were speaking of the splendid horsemanship of 

 Sir Henry Payton and his son. " There isn't another 

 father and son in the kingdom who could beat them ! " 

 exclaimed one enthusiast. Whereupon Thomas Assheton 

 Smith the elder quietly remarked, " I will back a father 

 and son against them for ^500." " Name ! name ! " cried 

 half a dozen voices. " I am one, and my son Tom the 

 other," was the reply. No one took the bet. 



Sir Richard Sutton, one of the grandest all-round sports- 

 men of the nineteenth century, whose prowess in the 

 hunting-field was only equalled by his skill in the stubbles 

 and the pheasant coverts, was entered to hounds by 

 " Squire " Osbaldeston at the age of ten, and, mounted on 

 Tom Sebright's grey pony, showed his mettle with the 

 Burton in a way that gladdened his famous mentor. 



Tom Sebright himself, by the way, whose name is 

 inseparably associated with the Fitzwilliam hounds, was 

 entered at the age of fifteen as second whip with " Jack " 

 Musters, who at once noted his firm hand and quick eye to 

 hounds. It was early to begin the active duties of the 

 hunting-field, but others have begun even earlier. Jem Hills, 

 for example, afterwards the famous huntsman of the 

 Heythrop, who was only ten when he commenced whipping- 

 in to the Duke of Dorset's harriers, and George Carter, 

 who for more than forty years carried the horn with the 

 Fitzwilliam, was also but ten when he was installed as 

 second whip to Mr Selby Lowndes's hounds. Will Dale, 

 successively huntsman of the Fitzwilliam, the Brocklesby, 

 and the Duke of Beaufort's, made his d^but in the hunting- 

 field at the age of ten, when he helped to turn hounds 

 to his father, who hunted the Surrey Union ; and he was 



