48 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



started aside, kicked violently, and flung him over his head. 

 Nothing, owing to the height of the gorse, could be seen of 

 the squire, but Screwdriver kept kicking and plunging in a 

 circle round him. " Let go the bridle, or he will be the 

 death of you," said a nervous well-meaning farmer. " He 

 shall kick my brains out tirst," was the reply of the still 

 prostrate sportsman, who was soon up and righted in the 

 saddle.* Although his falls were numerous, owing to his 

 never allowing his hounds to get away from him, yet he 

 was very seldom seriously hurt. Only on two occasions 

 had he a bone broken : once at Melton, when he consoled 

 himself by learning arithmetic from the pretty damsel at 

 the post office ; and afterwards when one of his ribs was 

 fractured, owing, as he said, to his having his knife in a 

 breast-pocket. 



His presence of mind, when falling, never deserted him ; 

 he always contrived to fall clear of his horse, and never to 

 let him go. The bridle-rein, which fell as lightly as breeze 

 of zephyr on his horse's neck, was then held as in a vice. 

 In some instances, with horses whom he knew well, he 

 would ride for a fall, where he knew it was not possible for 

 him to clear a fence. With Jack-o'-Lantern he was often 

 known to venture on this experiment, and he frequently 

 said there was not a field in Leicestershire in which he 

 had not had a fall. "I never see you in the Harborough 

 country," he observed to a gentleman who occasionally 

 hunted with the Quorn. " I don't much like your Har- 

 borough country," replied the other, '^ the fences are so 

 large." " Oh ! " observed Mr. Smith, " there is no place 

 you cannot get over with a fall."t To a young supporter 

 of his pack^ who was constantly falling and hurting himself, 



* " Nothing is so low," said Mr. Smith, "as moviug about after a 

 fall, and calling out, * Catch my horse ; pray, catch my horse ! ' " His 

 own plan was never to let go of the bridle under any circumstances. 



t Mr. Stanhope, who hunted with Sir Belliugham Graham in Leices* 

 tershire in 1833, rivalled Mr. Smith in the number of his falls. 



