116 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



active manhood has past. It seemed never to desert Tom 

 Smith. That adamantine frame, the rohur et ces triplex 

 circa j^ectus, appeared proof, not only against fatigue, but 

 against heavy falls which would have shaken younger men 

 all to pieces. Only two years before his death, on his 

 return from a hard run, he was telling some ladies that 

 he had encountered three falls on that day, and felt none 

 the worse for it. " Then, Mr. Smith," said one of them, 

 " you ought, when you die, to bequeath your skin to the 

 British Museum to be stuffed, as a particularly tough 

 specimen ;" an idea at which the squire laughed heartily. 

 At another time, as he lay on the ground after a tremendous 

 purler, a sympathising friend rode up and expressed a hope 

 that he was not hurt. " Thank you," said the squire, not 

 very grateful for his inquiry, as the hounds were in full 

 swing at some distance from the spot, " nothing ever hurts 

 Tom Smith." 



" The last great run Mr. Smith was in," says Dick 

 Christian,* " was one of an hour and forty minutes, seven 

 or eight seasons since, from Ham Ashley to Hungerford ; 

 and he was so pleased with the chestnut he rode, that he 

 gave Mr. Samuel Reeves 175 guineas for him. He christened 

 him from the covert ^here they found, and ranked him ever 

 after with the Amport, Rochelle, and Ayston of his Hamp- 

 shire affections." 



The time, however, was about to arrive when even that 

 vigorous and hardy constitution, which had stood proof 

 against such severe handling, and seemed to defy every 

 *' draw " upon it from toil, accident, or weather, was to 

 succumb. He was approaching the shore of that dark strait, 



Scilicet omnibus, 

 Quicunque tense munere vesciraur, 

 Enavigandae. — Horat. 



In September, 1856, while at his summer residence in 



* "Silk and Scarlet," p. 283. 



