16 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



once of the son. *' He was what was then considered such," 

 was the reply ; " but on a very different principle to what 

 I have adopted, and simply this, — he clung on by his hands^ 

 and / by my legs'' * 



The old man always spoke with gratitude and admi- 

 ration of the extraordinary alacrity evinced by his son on 

 one occasion, when news was brought to him in the hunting- 

 field that his father was dangerously ill. There were no 

 railroads nor telegrams in those days ; but Tom Smith, 

 simply by hm^se power, without changing his dress, and only 

 stopping on the road to get a fresh hack, taking the first 

 that presented itself, arrived at Tedworth almost as soon as 

 they thought the intelligence had reached him, and at a most 

 critical time. Doctors were differing as to the expediency 

 of bleeding the invalid, which Dr. Cline t recommended. 

 Tom Smith at once decided with Cline ; and thus, in all 

 human probability, saved his father's life, for he rallied 

 immediately after this course of treatment had been 

 adopted ; the coma from which he was suffering being the 

 result, as Cline had suspected, of his having been upset in 

 his phaeton at Yaenol some time previously.}: 



We have no very minute details of young Smith's career 

 at the University, where he remained four years. He 

 hunted regularly while at Christ Church ; and mostly with 

 old John Warde's hounds in Oxfordshire and Northampton- 

 shire. He also excelled as a batsman in the cricket-field on 

 Cowley Marsh and Bullingdon, was a fearless swimmer, and 

 could pull a sturdy oar upon the Isis. During the long 

 vacation his father used to make up cricket- matches for him 

 on Perriam Down, celebrated as the most agreeable meetings 



* This is what he always termed his "gripe on a horse." 

 + He went round by London, whence his own chariot with four 

 post-horses brought Dr. Cline down. 



;J: Before Dr. Cline arrived, the doctors who attended him, supposing 

 he was suffering from debility, had ordered him nutritious food and 

 stimulants ; but as there proved to be slight concussion of the brain, 

 he was getting rapidly worse in consequence of this treatment. 



