MR. ASSHETON SMITH 89 



the duties of a M.F.H. Whether the suggestion 

 was made to him that he should take the country, 

 or whether it was his own idea, is a matter of uncer- 

 tainty, on which a careful search has failed to throw any 

 light. 



However, be that as it may, he gave Mr. Musters a 

 thousand guineas for some of his hounds, procured more 

 from Belvoir, laid other kennels under contribution, and 

 started the season 1806-7 with plenty of hounds and 

 horses. His fame soon became noised abroad, and we 

 find that for the first time the Duke of Rutland and his 

 two brothers, Lord Charles and Lord Robert Manners, 

 "honoured" Mr. Smith by meeting his hounds at Syston 

 in December 1806, but that was not the last occasion on 

 which they hunted with the Ouorn. Fair sport appears to 

 have been enjoyed on that occasion, and a brace of foxes 

 were killed, the first at Syston, while the second, found 

 at Barkby Holt, ran to Ashby Pasture and back to the 

 Holt, where he was killed. Then, on Monday the 9th of 

 January 1809, the hounds rolled over a game fox after 

 a run of an hour and fifty minutes, at the end of which 

 all but about half-a-dozen out of a large field were 

 fairly beaten off. One of the keenest hunting men in 

 the Ouorn country at this time was a farrier named 

 Thomas Varnam, of Kibworth, who shod a great many 

 horses for the Ouorn men. He was a fine horseman, 

 and did a good deal of rough riding ; but in Mr. Smith's 

 second season his horse fell with him and he was killed 

 on the spot. 



In April 180S Mr. Smith had a good run, finding his 

 fox at Stewart's Hay at two in the afternoon. Thence 

 the line lay by Martinshaw, Enderby, Aylstone Gorse, 

 ultimately crossing South Fields and the New Walk, 

 and finally, after a run of three hours and a half (the 

 last seven miles without a check), the fox took refuge 

 beneath a shed in the woodyard of Mr. Harrison, 



