BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 3 



of hunting a more dangerous animal than reynard) ; " in it 

 you endure the extremities of heat and cold ; idleness and 

 sleep are despised ; the natural vigour is confirmed, and the 

 bodily frame rendered active and supple, 



* Toil strings the nerves and purifies the blood ; * 



in short, it is an exercise which may be enjoyed without 

 prejudice to anybody, and with pleasure to many. There- 

 fore, Sancho, when you are a governor exercise yourself in 

 hunting, for assuredly you will find your account in it." 



The gentleman of whom we propose to give some anec- 

 dotes was a model ot the British fox-hunter. He was for 

 exactly half a century a master and owner of hounds. Of 

 iron nerve and constitution, he was, by universal acknow- 

 ledgment, the best, as he was the foremost, rider of his 

 day. "We shall see, however, in the course of the following 

 pages, that fox-hunting was not his only pursuit. As a 

 most useful country gentleman, a good classical scholar, an 

 excellent man of business, warmly devoted to science, and 

 a generous distributor of his wealth, he turned to a good 

 and useful account those mental, physical, and worldly 

 advantages wherewith Providence had liberally endowed 

 him. 



Thomas Assheton Smith was born in Queen Anne Street, 

 Cavendish Square, London, on the 2nd of August, 1776. 

 His grandfather, Thomas Assheton, Esq., of Ashley Hall, 

 near Bowden, in Cheshire, had assumed the name of Smith 

 on the death of an uncle, Captain William Smith, who died 

 without issue. Captain Smith was a son of the Right Hon. 

 John Smith, Speaker of the House of Commons in the first 

 two parliaments of Queen Anne, and who had been in the 

 preceding reign Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Ashley 

 Hall estate had come into the family by the marriage of 

 Katharine, daughter and heiress of William Brereton, Esq., 

 with Ealph Assheton, Esq., of Kirkby, near Leeds, second 

 son of Sir Bichard Assheton, of Middleton in Lancashire, 



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