THE SQUIRE'S HASTY TEMPER. ll3 



was the worst-tempered man in the world except himself;" 

 but in this saying he was a little hard upon both. In the 

 hunting-field as a master of hounds he had many things to 

 contend against : sometimes against the wilful perverseness, 

 sometimes the ignorance, of men who headed or rode over 

 his hounds ; sometimes the expressions of envy on the part 

 of those whose riding he eclipsed, or whose want of nerve 

 made them follow while he led. On these occasions it is not 

 to be wondered at if he was unable to curb his temper. 

 An instance of this sort once occurred on the borders of 

 the Pytchley country, when a well-kuown jDarson, who had 

 the misfortune to be rather deaf, came through a hedge (and 

 he was afraid of very few) plump into the middle of the 



hounds. Smith called out, "Hold hard, T ! you cant 



hear and you wont see." The reverend sportsman was not 

 so hard of hearing as to fail in understanding the squire, 

 who always uttered what he did say pretty audibly ; he 

 pulled up his horse, and knowing that he had committed an 

 error, at once made an apology for it.* 



But although Mr. Smith was somewhat choleric and 

 impetuous, his ebullitions of temper were soon over, and he 

 always in a truly generous spirit hastened to make amends 

 where he felt that he had been wrong. He was like his 

 favourite Horace : Irasci celer, tamen utplacahilis esset. In the 

 instance of the attorney's clerk he consided that an attempt 

 to extort money from him was made under the guise and 

 menace of legal proceedings, and this he resented though in 

 an imprQper manner. Once when he hunted Lincolnshire, 



* Mr. Meynell, to whom allusion has already been made as the 

 foremost sportsman of his day, adopted the following adroit method of 

 reproving the eagerness of gentlemen riding too forward : he would put 

 up his whip in a peculiar way, and immediately one of his whippera-iu, 

 taking the hint, would gallop alongside the delinquent. Thereupon 

 Meynell would lash out at his servant, rating him for pressing the 

 hounds, and having his eyes on his breeches-pockets. The well-applied 

 rebuke was heard and felt by the fast gentleman, and his further spoiling 

 Ae da} 'b sport prevented. 



