104 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



The Bill here spoken of is Will Burton, who died at 

 Qaorn, of consumption, soon after the picture was joainted 

 by Mr. Ferneley. Mr. Smith set great store upon the lad, 

 as of great promise, and used to say, observes the author of 

 " Silk and Scarlet," that, as he looked year after year at 

 Will's figure in the picture, in the ante-room at Tedworth, 

 he would have given £10,000 to save him. 



An interesting account of the grand day at Rolleston was 

 furnished by " The Adelphi " to the Sporting Magazine, of 

 June, 1840 (vol. xxi. 2nd series), though the Brothers make 

 a trifling mistake in saying that it had occurred on the 20tli 

 April. Dick Burton's account is more correct in placing 

 the date at the 20th March ; for, after several days in diffe- 

 rent counties, he says he brought the pack back to Ted- 

 worth on the 7th April, 1840. It could not very well be 

 on the 7th May, and we know that ^Ir. Smith very, seldom 

 took his hounds out after Lady-day. On the celebrated day 

 at Rolleston, a person counted 1,700 horsemen through one 

 gate alone. Out of the 2,000 that arrived, one-third were 

 in pink. In addition to these, there was a very goodly dis- 

 play of carriages-and-four filled with ladies, besides pedes- 

 trians without number. The hounds with Dick Burton 

 were drawn up on the lawn, while the vast group of horse- 

 men formed a circle, with the carriages and assembled 

 crowd outside. Mr. Smith had brought eighteen couple of 

 his best hounds, all being, as '' Tlie Adelphi" observe, "of 

 great substance, particularly in the legs, open-chested, and 

 in splendid condition." The greeting between Mr. Smith 

 and his old friends the farmers was most cordial. Mrs. 

 Assheton Smith accomi^anicd her husband on this visit. 



mentioned his having in 1815 painted Will Burton, who, he say«, was a 

 wonderful boy at hounds, with Manager, perhaps " the finest hound 

 he ever painted." Manager was afterwards drafted and sent to Ireland 

 to the late Lord Lismore, then Mr. O'Callaghan. Mr. Ferneley, who 

 was one of our best painters of sporting subjects, has died at a good old 

 age, since the publication of the second edition of these Reminiscences. 



