8 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



Mr. Smith's skill ia pugilistic eucounters, and his de- 

 termined courage in standing up, even against superior 

 strength, served him in good stead on various occasions 

 afterwards, especially when, as master of hounds, he came 

 in contact with " roughs," who imagined they might bully 

 him with impunity. Two or three anecdotes relating to 

 this subject may well find a place here. 



Orator Hunt was a bold rider, and, like Mr. Smith, well 

 able to use his fists. During the Oxford career of the latter, 

 Mr. Warde's hounds were once drawing South Grove, when 

 some remark of Mr. Hunt's provoked a sneer from Tom 

 Smith. Fierce words ensued on both sides, and they were 

 in the act of dismounting to settle it then and there, when 

 fortunately a fox was hallooed away, an attraction which 

 neither could resist. " I always regretted this interruption," 

 said an eye-witness of the scene, " for depend upon it 

 this fight would have been well worth seeing, although 

 Hunt had the advantage in weight and height ; but for all 

 that," he added, " I would have backed the squire." 



Mr. Smith's father was once riding about his farm, when 

 lie heard the report of a gun. Galloping up to the spot, to 

 ascertain who was the trespasser, he found Orator Hunt, 

 who had just shot a hare. While the latter and old 

 Mr. Smith held no very friendly parley, Hunt's brother, 

 who was deaf and dumb, came up and offered the old 

 squire the hare. This was, in Mr. Smith's mind, an addi- 

 tional insult, and, not knowing that the man was dumb, 

 he mistook his attempts to make himself understood for 

 mockery, which he was about to resent, when his brother, 

 seeing his mistake, observed sarcastically, " Are you not 

 ashamed thus to insult a deaf and dumb man?" This 

 appeal to his feelings, which were always most sensitive, 



shoot, and play at cricket with any man in Europe. In almost, if not 

 all of these accomplishments, he would have found his match in the 

 subject of our memoir. He died at Annesley Park, Notts, on Septera-- 

 ber the 8th, 1849. 



