TttE CRAVEN TOM SMITH. 73 



liis fox handsomely with a good pack of hounds. 

 The other Tom Smith, of Hambledon and Craven 

 notoriety, could kill his fox without a good pack — 

 I was going to say, without any hounds at all ; that 

 is, I have seen him, when the scent failed, doing 

 the work hounds ought to have done, through his 

 extraordinary knowledge of the running and wily 

 movements of the animal he was pursuing. 



As a horseman and rider to hounds, I always 

 considered the Craven Tom Smith, although a 

 heavier man, quite equal to his namesake, and in 

 this opinion I am not singular. Had the former 

 possessed the money power of the latter — for 

 money makes the mare to go — i. e. you can 

 scarcely, except by accident, obtain a good weight- 

 carrying hunter under a sum very heavy to a man 

 of moderate fortune — there is little doubt he 

 would have obtained equal celebrity ; being a man 

 of great natural abilities, as well as a first-rate 

 sportsman. No Master could have taken a country 

 under greater disadvantages than the present Tom 

 Smith when entering on his^ arduous duties with 

 the Pytcheley. He commenced cub-hunting with 

 a scratch pack of hounds — if my recollection 

 serves me — at the end of October, when other 

 packs had finished this preliminary work, succeed- 

 ing a nobleman whose establishment had been con- 



