MR. ASSHETON SMITH 93 



era of Melton. His memory was remarkably tenacious, 

 and when he was once started on his favourite subject of 

 the men with whom he had ridden side by side over 

 Leicestershire, there was, a contemporary of his once 

 said, "no holding him." He was a brilliant horseman, 

 and nothing pleased Sir James Musgrave, himself a 

 bold rider, better than to give him a mount on a horse 

 which had never been over a fence, without telling him 

 the horse's antecedents. 



Tom Heycock was an excellent sportsman, and for a 

 time Mr. Smith was friendly enough with him ; but here 

 is an incident related by a frequenter of the Ouorn at 

 the time : — 



Nothing pleased Tom more than to tell how Sir James Mus- 

 grave challenged him to show the field how " the thing ought to 

 be done " at a long check near a very awkward brook, which there 

 was no chance of jumping, when a hard rider had shown them 

 very decisively " how it ought not to be done." He began with 

 " the Pony," and Mr. Assheton Smith, who had been very civil to 

 him up to that point, was terribly annoyed by his taking one of 

 his " sensation jumps " over a gate close in his wake. The great 

 maestro was wont to do these things to get cheered, and was so 

 cross at having to divide the applause this time, that he never 

 spoke to Tom again except with a growl, and took no earthly 

 notice of him at the great Rolleston meet of 1840. This was 

 when he left Tedworth for a time to pay a visit with his 

 hounds to Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, which is mentioned 

 on another page. 



Some ground for believing that Mr. Smith occa- 

 sionally rode to the "gallery" is afforded by a passage 

 in his Life : — 



An instance of one of his diagonal leaps is thus recorded : The 

 hounds, coming in the course of a run to an immensely high and 

 steep bank, with a stile on the top of it, many gentlemen did not 

 like its looks. Mr. Smith, throwing his whip into his left hand, 

 and at the same time taking out his pocket-handkerchief (this was 

 done by way of giving the thing an air of negligence), said, " So 



