14 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



During his annual visit to Yaenol, in the autumn season, he 

 scarcely ever missed for a single day going down to the port 

 and looking over the books in which were entered the 

 transactions of his slate-quarries. He always used to say 

 that no gentleman could be much imposed upon who super- 

 intended and looked into his affairs as closely and regularly 

 as he did. 



In 1794 young Smith quitted his favourite haunts at 

 Eton to become a gentleman commoner at Christ Church, 

 Oxford. Long before this period, however, he had served 

 his youthful apprenticeship in the hunting-field : 



Puer Ascanius raediis in vallibus acri 

 Gaudet equo ; jamque hos cursu, jam praeterit illos. — ViRG. 



His first rudiments in this noble sport had been acquired, 

 when he was quite a child, with some rabbit beagles at 

 Sedbury Hill ; and he soon afterwards accompanied his 

 Other's pack of foxhounds on a pony. These hounds for 

 many years hunted alternately hares and bag-foxes, and 

 showed some famous sport in both capacities. Even at this 

 period his father was justly proud of his son's superior 

 horsemanship, though the old gentleman confessed to a 

 friend, from whom the following anecdote is derived, that 

 he was not a little jealous of it. The father of Mr. 

 Assheton Smith, relates our informant, stated that once 

 at his club a party of sportsmen were speaking of the 

 riding of Sir Henry Peyton and his son, and some one 

 present remarked that no father and son could beat them ; 

 upon which the old gentleman observed : " I will back a 

 father and son against them for £500. "When requested to 

 name his couple, he replied : "/ am one, and Tom Smith 

 (as he invariably called his son) the other." Whereupon 

 the bet was declined, with this handsome compliment, that 

 " the Tom Smith had long since been an exception in every 

 match, his superior horsemanship being so generally acknow- 

 ledged" 



