i62 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



more than enough has been written. A vain, talkative 

 little man, he was, say his contemporaries, a fine 

 judge of a horse or hound, and on the whole he was 

 a good huntsman. He could not have been quite 

 first-rate, for he was a careless man in covert, but, 

 once the fox was away, he was after him as quick 

 as thought and riding alongside the leading couples. 

 He had three first-rate whippers-in in Jack Stevens, 

 Jim Shirley and Dick Burton, and any one of the 

 three, but more particularly the first and last named, 

 could be well trusted to make up any deficiencies in 

 their master. But whatever his faults, Osbaldeston 

 was a true sportsman and he was much missed when, 

 in 1834, he resigned the hunt and was succeeded 

 by Mr. Wilkins, a Welshman, who afterwards changed 

 his name to De Winton. 



Then, after the first mastership of Mr. George 

 Payne of Sulby, came the brief and splendid reign 

 of Lord Chesterfield. The latter kept two packs 

 of hounds, buying the Quorn hounds from Mr. Erring- 

 ton. His men were well mounted, and the magnifi- 

 cence of the whole turn out of the hunt was such 

 as has never been seen before or since. Will Derry 

 was his huntsman, and the sport shown was good on 

 the whole. Nevertheless there was perhaps more 

 show than substance. The Master was late at the 

 fixtures, and the members of the hunt were often 

 kept waiting. But the resources even of Lord Chester- 

 field were embarrassed by this profuse expenditure. 

 The hunt was only one of many drains on his purse. 

 Crockford, the race-course and the Four-in-hand Club, 

 but especially the first, crippled the Earl's resources, 

 and he in his turn made way for Mr. T. Smith. 



Of all the sportsmen of his time, this Mr. Smith — 

 " the other Tom Smith " as he was called to distinguish 



