132 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



Mrs. Smith acquiescing in the remark, the squire, without 

 farther comment, said to two men who were painting the 

 fence, " Put down your brushes, and get axes, and let me 

 find all these bushes cut down on my return from my ride." 

 This was accordingly done, much to the improvement of the 

 kmdscape. 



The squire's love for science influenced even the arrange- 

 ments of his household. At Ted worth, at Vaenol, and at 

 his London house, he devised a railroad from his kitchen to 

 liis dining room, along which the dishes passed and re- 

 passed, and thus he obviated the necessity of his servants 

 quitting the room, and the consequent delay. At Yaenol, the 

 train arriving v/ith its savoury load opened a trapdoor at 

 the end of the dining-room ; this closed of itself imme- 

 diately after the admission of the course, and thus no incon- 

 venience arose from the smell of cooking v/hich frequently 

 penetrates open doors and passages in the largest houses. 

 The wei"-ht of the empty dishes going down, as in the case 

 of the slate waggons at Llanberris, brought upon the 

 platform within the dining-room, by means of diminutive 

 connecting ropes, the hot and smoking trucks coming up. 

 Tins process, if not the only one of the kind in England, 

 was at all events invented and introduced entirely by 

 Mr. Smith. Latterly, in London, when suffering from 

 asthma, he had an ingenious mechanical contrivance, by 

 which he was raised to his bedroom on one of the upper 

 stories, as he always entertained a great objection to 

 sleeping on the ground-floor. 



His attachment to all animals (we are afraid foxes would 

 demur to being placed in the category), especially to horses, 

 dogs, and birds, was remarkable.* We have already in- 



* An editorial note, appended to Mr. Bruce Campbell's memoir of 

 the late Mr. John Musters, in the Sporting Magazine for January, 1850, 

 thus eloquently upholds the humane character of the genuine fox- 

 hunter ; — "Mr. Musters is another proof that kindliness and consider- 

 ation for animals are alike characteristic of the man of courage and the 



