OBSTINACY OF MR. SMITH. SEX. 41 



run, and that I would get on his : I soon found I was on a 

 first-rate one. He jumped the park wall where we found 

 the fox, and carried me in splendid style. After a capital 

 run no one was up with the hounds but Lord Jersey and 

 myself. At last his horse declined, and I took the fox from 

 the hounds about five hundred yards further on. On 

 joining me his Lordship said, ' You are on the best horse 

 in the country.' I said, * Keep this to yourself for a few 

 minutes.' The field came up, and with them the Irishman, 

 who had been going in comfort on the good fencer. ' Do 

 you like my horse well enough,' he said, ' to give the price 

 you talked of in the morning V (The sum was not openly 

 named.) ' I do,' I replied, in a careless tone. Lord Jersey 

 pulled off his hat coram omnibus, and said, * Tom, I congra- 

 tulate you ; you have the best animal in Leicestershire.' " 



Even the success which Mr. Smith experienced at Ted worth 

 before his father's death, limited as it was when compared 

 with the sport he created afterwards by the clearing of the 

 woods, completely took the old gentleman by surprise. He 

 had firmly entertained the idea, that to drive a fox out of 

 the vast woods adjoining Ted worth was a feat beyond the 

 power of man to accomplish ; and he was accordingly at 

 first strongly opposed to his son's leaving the grass countries 

 to establish a pack of hounds for the purpose of hunting 

 the bleak downs and interminable copses of Wilts and 

 Hants. For this reason, extraordinary as it may appear, 

 he was the only landowner, when Tom Smith came, in 182C, 

 to reside at Penton, who refused his son permission to draw 

 his pet home covert, Ashdown Copse. " Where does Tom 

 Smith meet next week ? " said he, one evening, to a neigh- 

 bour, when dining with him at Tedworth, " I think," was 

 his guest's reply, "that he will bring his hounds to Ash- 

 down Copse on Monday." " Then, if he does," said the 

 wrathful old squire, " I will bring an action against him, by 

 Jove. And pray, Sir, what makes you smile, may I ask ? " 

 he added, observing his friend slightly amused at the threat. 



