MR. smith's field LECTURES. 159 



baronet was riding his master's hack home, when it broke 

 away with him, and ran slap through the body of the pack, 

 who were trotting up to draw " Carthanger " in Conholt 

 Park. Old Cruiser, a splendid hound, was the victim, and 

 lay sprawling on his back. The servant, having at last 

 stopped his runaway horse,* came back, intending an 

 apology, when he was thus addressed by Mr. Smith : " If 

 you think, sir, you have not done quite mischief enough 

 already, pray ride through my hounds again ; but if you 

 think you have, go home as quickly as you can." At 

 another time, " Bob," the second whip, hallooed a hare away 

 by mistake for a fox from Everley Gorse. The squire and 

 the hounds were soon at the spot, and, of course, not a 

 hound would speak. " I do not know, sir, whether you are 

 ashamed of yourself, but my hounds, you see, are heartily 

 ashamed of you," was the remark. 



A ludicrous circumstance once occurred at Chute Gorse, 

 illustrative of the discij^line Mr. Smith always maintained 

 in the field, and of the especial care he took to keep all 

 persons back from heading a fox when he was drawing a 

 gorse. All were, as usual, in their right places, when he 

 espied a white smoch frock in a gap, just at the spot where 

 he expected the fox to break, and at this intruder he 

 hallooed, and waved his hat, using at the same time rather 

 unparliamentary language. "Do ride up," said he to a 

 friend at his side, " and make that scoundrel come back." 

 " Jle will not attend to anything I can say," was the reply. 

 "Then, by Jove, if he does not walk off I will horsewhip 

 him," said the now furious squire. Up, accordingly, he 

 rode, and just as he was raising his whip he discovered, 

 amid the laughter of the field, in which he heartily joined, 

 that the object of his indignation was a mauk or scarecrow 

 to frighten away the rooks. 



* A horse once ran away, during the chase, with a bold and deter- 

 mined sportsman ; he placed his hands over the eyes of the animal, 

 and thus stopped him. 



