TOM WINGFIELD. 169 



friend of the family, and with much earnestness made the 

 following proposition : — 



" I hope, sir, when I and Jack Fricker and Will Bryce 

 (the Whips) die, we may be laid alongside master in the 

 Mausoleum, with Ham Ashley and Paul Potter,* and three 

 or four couple of his favourite hounds, in order that we may 

 be all ready to start again together in the next world ! " 



Quae cura nitentes 

 Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. 



ViRG. ^n. vi. 



Mr. Smith had a very high opinion of Tom Wingfield, 

 who was with him in Leicestershire. He had been first 

 whip to Lord Sefton on the death of Jack Kaven. Mr. 

 Smith used to say he was the cleverest fellow he ever had 

 with hounds, but not of an amiable temper. He was still 

 alive in 1860, and in his eighty-fifth year; he then resided 

 at Ashbourne in Derbyshire. 



An anecdote of Tom Wingfield was related with no little 

 zest by the squire himself. When both master and man 

 were bordering on eighty years of age, they happened to 

 meet, after a long lapse of time, when the following con- 

 versation arose : " May I be so bold as to ask, sir," said 

 Tom Wingfield, " whether you can manage them there big 

 places as well as you used to in Old Jack-o'-Lantern's 

 days 1 " "I hear no complaints," was the squire's reply, 

 "^nd I believe my nerve is as good as ever." " Ah, sir," 

 said Tom, with a sigh and a sorrowful look, '* it is not so 

 with me ; for although my sight is dim, them there big places 

 looks twice as big to me as ever they used to.'' 



" Is that a favourite horse," inquired a young aspirant to 

 honours of Tom Wingfield, when out once with Sir Thomas 

 Mostyn's hounds in the Brill country. Before replying, 

 Tom threw his keen single eye over the person of the 

 youth, and observing how green he was about the boots and 



* Two excellent hunters. 



