CHAPTEE II. 



Farming — Vice-President of the Winchester Agricultural 

 Show — Fox-hunting — Cricket — Devon Stag-hounds — 

 Marriage — Residence at Hill House, Hambledon — Yisit 

 to Scotland — Lord Fife's practical jokes — Mr. Owen, of 

 Xew Lanark — An unpleasant mistake — Adventure in a 

 coal-mine — " Out of debt, out of danger." 



It fortunately happened tliat in the very first 

 year of his farming Mr. Smith was able to be 

 of great service to his family by his energy 

 and good management. Wheat was enor- 

 mously high at the time of harvest; and 

 foreseeing that this could not long continue, 

 he exerted himself as few you:^g men would 

 have thought of doing to get his crop to 

 market. A threshing-machine had been em- 

 ployed a year before by Sir Thomas Miller, at 

 Froyle ; but it was no favourite with farmers 

 or labourers, and nobody, in that part of the 



