HIS BREED OF HOUNDS. 143 



partial to young sportsmen),* gallop off at a splitting pace 

 to some wood five or six miles off, over every hedge and 

 ditch that came in his way. His system of hunting differed 

 essentially from that of Mr. Osbaldeston in this respect, 

 that he was as silent as possible until the fox was found, 

 whereas Osbaldeston thought to make him break cover by 

 the noise he made.t Mr. Osbaldeston's system was the 

 more popular of the two, as that of Mr. Smith put too 

 great a restraint upon the field. The latter did not even 

 always carry a horn, especially in his earlier career. He 

 always pat the most entire confidence in his hounds, and 

 often mentioned the story of the Belvoir huntsman, who 

 followed his pack to the door of a barn, when every one in 

 the field supposed the fox had gone on. " If he is not in 

 here^^ said he, " my hounds deserve to be hanged," and sure 

 enough they found Reynard hid under the boltings of 

 straw, and killed him. It was a splendid sight to see Mr. 

 Smith throw his hounds into cover, although he was some- 

 times in the habit of drawing too quickly. At the great 

 meet in Leicestershire, in 1840, he did not half draw 

 Shankton Holt, and if it had not been for Mr. Hodgson, 

 who waded into Vowes Gorse in his jack-boots, he would 

 not have found a fox there. If Mr. Smith had a fault as 

 a huntsman, it was that he was too impatient, owing to the 

 irritability of his temper. 



When he went into Leicestershire, he found Lord Foley's 

 hounds not of large size, but he soon raised the standard : 

 dog hounds to twenty-five inches in height and bitches to 

 twenty-three. Some sportsmen considered his dog hounds, 

 although of enormous power, too heavy for his light and 

 Alpine country, and too large for his great woodlands, but all 



* "Do you think you can catch him ? " said a master of hounds to a 

 young aspiring sportsman. "No," was the reply. "Then let my 

 hounds catch him if they can." — Beckford, p. 175. 



t Among the ancients it was considered an ill omen if any one spoke 

 while hunting. 



