THE PYTCHLEY. 133 



^Ir. Smith came to the Pytchley late in the year, as it was 



difficult to get any one to follow a man who had done things so 



liberally as Lord Chesterfield. He was induced to undertake it 



at the request of the gentlemen and landowners of the country. 



Of course his turn-out was very difi'erent to his predecessor's, and 



the men behaved badly — at first refusing to go on with him ; but 



Mr. Smith was not a man to be stopped by trifles, and when 



he took out the hounds with only some stablemen and helpers, and 



killed a cub the first day, things worked more smoothly. He was 



such a thorough sportsman that a good judge has said he would 



(were he a fox) sooner have many huntsmen after him with a 



pack of hounds than Mr. Smith with a big stick. In fact, he 



appeared to have an intuitive knowledge of the run of a fox, 



and thus could generally kill him, though he was apt at times, 



probably from this cause, to go off with only a few couple of 



hounds. On one occasion the Pytchley men left him when he 



would persist in working out a cold scent rather than stop the 



hounds and draw again, and were much chagrined afterwards 



to hear that he had a brilliant finish, and killed his fox as the 



reward of his perseverance. At the end of two years Sir Francis 



Goodricke, better known as Frank Holyoake, took them for 



one season, after which Mr. George Payne returned, lived at 



Sulby, where there is a good covert, and hunted the hounds 



hunself, showing capital sport, and having altogether as jolly a 



time as ever was known with the Pytchley. There is still a 



big place shown which he jumped into the park at Stanford 



HaU, over some upright rails, with a big drain on the landing 



side ; and I have heard that while here he hunted Queen Mab, 



a somewhat celebrated mare, but sent her to Dilly's at Lyttleton 



to be trained, because he could not get her over water, when 



she won Queen's Plates and other good races. I cannot answer 



for the truth of this, but I can just remember the mare, and 



that she looked all over like making a Northamptonshire hunter. 



For six years Mr. Payne carried the horn, and became so popular 



that he might have been returned to Parliament free of expense, 



