44 



CHAPTER III. 



STUD AT TEDWOKTH. — MR. SMITH'S FREQUENT FALLS; HIS ADROITNESS 

 IN ENCOUNTERING THEM. — FAVOURITE HOUNDS AT DIFFERENT 

 PERIODS ; HIS POWERS OF FASCINATION OVER THEM. — HIS SKILL IN 

 MANAGING REFRACTORY HORSES. — LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 



Gaudet equis, canibusque, et aprici gramine campi. — HORAT. 



Mr. Smith's stud at Tedwortli was in general far superior 

 to what it had been at any previous time. While in Lei- 

 cestershire and Lincolnshire he had not been in the habit 

 of giving high prices, and used to say that, till he came into 

 Hants, he rarely gave above £50 for a horse. He did, how- 

 ever, now and then exceed this limit, and has been known, 

 at that period, to have given as much as 200 guineas for 

 a horse ; but, wliatever prices he paid, he contrived to find 

 or make first-rate hunters. It is not often that racers 

 make hunters, but Mr. Smith bought Shacabac out of 

 Mr. Lechmere Charlton's stables, and made a very good 

 one of him. 



Early in life he hunted regularly with Lord Sefton, who 

 succeeded the famous Meynell in Leicestershire. Lord 

 Sefton's huntsman was Stephen Goodall, who, though an 

 excellent sportsman, was incapacitated by his weight from 

 living with his hounds when running hard. " I always like, 

 Mr. Tom Smith," said Goodall to him, " to see you out on a 

 grey horse, for then I know where the hounds are, and the 

 shortest way to get to them ; and am satisfied, when you 



