262 Silk and Scarlet. 



breed from him, and if Mrs. Smith had Hved he was to 

 have been kept in a kennel near the house. 

 His Last Great The last great run Mr. Smith was in, 

 Runs. ^as one of an hour and forty minutes, 

 from Ham Ashley to Hungerford, and he was so 

 pleased with the chestnut he rode, that he gave Mr. 

 Sam Reeves one hundred and seventy-five guineas i^v>r 

 him. He christened him from the covert where they 

 found, and ranked him ever after with the Amport, 

 Rochelle, and Ayston, of his Hampshire affections. 

 The last named was perhaps the best of the three, and 

 on one occasion when he tripped on the road to covert, 

 and Mr. Pierrepoint said, ^ If I were yon, Tom, Fd ride 

 that horse no more!' he replied, ^^ If I were going to 

 ride for my life Fd ride him and no other /" and he 

 did so for several seasons. His last hunting gallop 

 was on Shamrock in the October of 1856, three miles 

 in twenty minutes from Sinicote Park to Siding Cut, 

 and he crossed the downs as gaily as a boy. The 

 cover side knew him no more after the October of '57, 

 when he just cantered up to Wilbury, on his chestnut 

 hack Blemish, to see his hounds draw ; and he was on 

 her, at the door of his covered conservatory rides, 

 facing over Wilbury Liberty, when he took his last 

 look at his hounds. Carter got his orders to bring the 

 choicest of the 1858 entry, and he and Will Bryce 

 arrived at the usual rendezvous with five couple of 

 bitches by the Fitzwilliam Hardwicke and Hermit. 

 He looked at them a short time, and said, " Well ! 

 they're as beautiful as they can be /' bade both his men 

 good bye, and they saw him no more. That June he 

 was in Rotten Row and at Tattersall's as usual on 

 Blemish, and when he rode into the Ring there one 

 morning, and found Mr. Rarey driving his Zebra 

 round it, he made his servant bring his horse along- 

 side ; and quite gloried in showing the celebrated 

 American how nimbly he could still change horses in 

 a run witliout dismounting. Such was the last public 



