PLANNING A NEW MANSION. 01 



waiting dinner for me) of giving the Squire the 

 slip, leaving him alone in his glory. My heart 

 smote me on riding away from a brother master in 

 distress ; but time was pressing, and even a fox- 

 hunter should never keep ladies waiting. 



Mr. Smith was blessed with the means of con- 

 ducting his hunting establishment on the most 

 enlarged and magnificent scale ; but as in the 

 hunting field, so in all the minor concerns of life, 

 the master mind was ever conspicuous, whether in 

 building a house or building a kennel, laying out 

 gardens or erecting conservatories, the plans gene- 

 rally originated with himself. He not only pos- 

 sessed the money power of doing all these things, 

 but the power of mind and intellect was not want- 

 ing to bring them to the most perfect conclusion. 

 In all his undertakings, of whatever description, 

 difiiculties were no sooner started than overcome ; 

 in fact, the word impossihility w^ould appear scarcely 

 to have been known in his vocabulary. 



I remember being in company with him and an 

 architect when he was planning his new mansion 

 at Tedworth, to make room for which, the old house 

 was to be pulled down, with the exception of one 

 favoured apartment, the dining-room, which, from 

 old associations, he was resolved should not be 

 interfered with. The architect endeavoured to con- 



