98 Memoir of Tom Smith. 



never could be broke of it. The object of this 

 declaration might be to get the hunting of his 

 lordship's extensive domain; but if so, the man- 

 oeu^Te failed, and the Marquis had no reason 

 to repent his trust in the other Mr. Smith. 

 The Craven hounds never again took notice of 

 the deer, but worked so steadily that, though 

 they had no cub-hunting that season, they 

 killed ninety foxes in ninety-one days' hunting. 

 It was luckily the best scenting season pos- 

 sible, and with scarcely any frost; but what 

 with his exertions at starting, and his anxieties 

 about the deer, giving him frightful dreams, 

 the Master lost two stone in weight; which 

 was better for his horses, if not for himself. 



One day the hounds had killed a fox after 

 a good run in Savernake Forest, and were 

 about to retiu'n home, when Lady Elizabeth 

 Bruce, the daughter of the Marquis of Ailes- 

 bury, who had been in at the death, rode 

 back to say that the forest-keeper had just 

 shown her a fox lying in the fork of an oak 



