170 REMINISCENCES, ETC. 



the breeches, and how redolent of Alma Mater (he had just 

 entered at Oxford), " They be all favourites," he said 

 quietly. " Can you say so much of your laming books ?" 



Chorister was one of Mr. Smith's most valuable hounds, 

 and was painted by Mr. Ferneley in his great picture of the 

 Ted worth hunt, which we shall have to mention presently. 

 " The squire had been absent from Quorn for a short time," 

 related the artist to the author, " and on his return was 

 looking through his stables, when the appearance of some 

 of his horses did not please him. He began to find fault 

 with his groom, Tom Jones, when the old man, to divert 

 his master's attention and avoid further reprimand, said 

 in his odd way, ' Did Wingfield tell you Chorister's dead 1 ' 

 ' Chorister dead ! Chorister dead ! ' exclaimed Mr. Smith ; 

 and away he rushed at once to inquire about the hound, a 

 very beautiful yellow-pied." " He was wonderfully fond," 

 Mr. Ferneley added, '* of his hounds." 



The recollections of these eminent huntsmen respecting 

 their master would be incomplete without the following nar- 

 rative, by George Carter, of his services under Mr. Smith, 

 who, in 1859, still headed the Tedworth pack: — 



" I came to Tedworth on the 1st April, 1842, and on my 

 arrival with the Grafton hounds, both old and young, when 

 added to Mr. Smith's old hounds and young ones, I never saw 

 so many together before nor since. We had upwards of two 

 hundred couples. In the spring we drafted them to about 

 one hundred and four couples, and that number we kept to 

 begin the season with. Mr. Smith had a dog pack and a 

 bitch pack, and in each he had twenty-six couples. I 

 hunted the old hounds and the young, and my pack 

 amounted altogether to about fifty couples. Mr. Smith 

 hunted Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays ; I 

 hunted Wednesdays and Saturdays, and that we did for 

 fourteen years ; and very often, if Mr. Smith had a short 

 day on Thursday, he would hunt the same pack on Satur- 

 day. He would go six or eight miles north of Tedworth, 



