The Merry Past 



into my premises \ " " Beg your honour's pardon, 

 I was ounly looking for a bit of work to give me a 

 morsel of bread, and a divil a friend in the world have 

 I ! And sure I can handle a pitchfork or a spade 

 pretty, your honour ! " " What ! such a hearty 

 fellow as you get no work ! Then go and enlist — 

 they want such lads as you." " Sure, and that I 

 would, your honour, but I'll not be long enough for 

 them." " Well, but you'll grow, you're young." 

 " Grow, did you say ? Och ! by Jaisus, I don't 

 know how I'm to grow, except it'll be thinner that 

 I'll grow, walking about day and night, and a divil a 

 copper to comfort me ! " 



Possessed of a robust constitution, rising early in 

 the morning, pursuing the sports of the field, and 

 generally of temperate habits, Mr. Leche lived to 

 the age of eighty-three ; and as a proof that the charms 

 of conversation and the pleasures of a social glass 

 lived as long as he did, it is only necessary to observe 

 that the year before he died he sat down to dinner 

 with a friend of his at Chester at one o'clock in the 

 afternoon, and at two o'clock the next morning he 

 got into his carriage to go home. 



Another well-known Cheshire sporting character 

 was Sir Harry Mainwaring, who, in spite of the fact 

 that his sight was extremely feeble, was master of 

 the Cheshire hounds during some part of the early 

 portion of the nineteenth century. Sir Harry was 

 a most enthusiastic fox-hunter. 



Many stories used to be told of the queer results 

 of this master's defective vision. 



50 



