LAST MOMENTS — CHARACTER. 123 



" About nine o'clock on Thursday evening, Mrs. Smith 

 left him to lie clown for an hour, leaving her sister to watch 

 by his side, and exacting a promise that she would not take 

 her eyes from his face. A faithful and kind watcher she 

 proved, for in less than an hour she fancied she perceived a 

 slight change in his countenance, and called her sister, who 

 immediately came to his bedside ; but before his valet and 

 the doctors could be summoned, he had breathed his last in 

 a gentle sigh. Thus departed, in an enviably peaceful death 

 the spirit of him who for eighty-two years had led a most 

 stirring and energetic life. His virtues were many ; pos- 

 sessing a noble, generous, kind heart, always prompt to hear 

 the tale of woe, and only too ready to relieve it : his num- 

 berless acts of liberality known to few : but his cheque- 

 book bearing testimony to munificent deeds. His faults were 

 those to be expected from his education : his father was a 

 very stern man, and yet over-indulgent in some things ; and 

 his mother a weak, vain, selfish woman, little caring for her 

 children, and leaving them early to their own devices. He 

 therefore too early became ' lord of himself, that heritage of 

 woe.'" His character, however, merits a more ample and 

 mjnute description, and this we shall reserve for the following 

 chapters. 



CHAPTER YII. 



HIS CHARACTER. — PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND HABITS. — IMPETUOSITY 

 OF TEMPER. — GENEROSITY OF DISPOSITION. — SKILL IN GAMES AND 

 SPORTS.— KINDNESS TO ANIMALS AND LIBERALITY TO HIS SERVANTS. 

 — HIS STRONG SENSE OF JUSTICE. — HIGH CHARACTER AS A MASTER 

 OF HOUNDS, AND AS A DARING HORSEMAN. — TESTIMONY OF HIS 

 CONTEMPORARIES. 



His saltern accuinulem donis, et fungar inani 

 Munere. — Virg. 



The chief points in the character of Mr. Assheton Smith 

 have already been so prominently displayed in the course 

 of this narrative, that it may appear superfluous to add 



