124 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



anything to tlie portrait. Some minor traits, however, 

 have been either purposely passed over, or imperfectly 

 sketched, in order that we might follow him with less inter- 

 ruption, through his lengthened career. But we should, 

 however, be doing him much less than justice if we omitted 

 them altogether. There are some details, in themselves 

 insignificant, which impart much interest to biography, and 

 serve to bring it more closely home to men's " business and 

 bosoms." We naturally wish to become well acquainted 

 with the personal appearance and demeanour, the habits of 

 life, and the friendships of the individual, whose life we 

 have been perusing, and the want of these particulars pre- 

 sents a gap which we cannot afterwards fill up. After the 

 lapse of even a brief space of time, so rapidly do other 

 prominent figures come upon the stage, that the most vivid 

 personal reminiscences of any individual, however illustrious 

 in any pursuit, or profession, or grade of life, necessarily 

 fade away from the memory. Let us, therefore, while our 

 remembrance of the lamented squire of Tedworth is fresh 

 and vivid, while we still have him before us in our " mind's 

 eye" as distinctly as when he lived, while the hoof-mark 

 is fresh and deep upon the soil, subjoin a recapitulation 

 of his various characteristics, gleaned from all available 

 sources. 



Mr. Asshetou Smith was of the stature best adapted to 

 exertion and endurance, about five feet ten inches in height, 

 with a frame athletic, well-proportioned, and muscular, but 

 rather slight than the contrary. His weight was latterly 

 about eleven stone ten ; in his Leicestershire days, Dick 

 Christian says he was not above ten stone. He was fond of 

 weighing himself, and had scales both at Tedworth and at 

 his seat in Wales. His features were plain, and not in 

 any way indicative of high breeding, but intelligent, the 

 whole countenance denoting a powerful and resolute will. A 

 rival once in Leicestershire said, " he is snake-headed, with 

 a dash of the bulldog." He used to say of liimself that he 



