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he left off petticoats. Even his hunting breeches were 

 without Hning ; he wore one small waistcoat, always open 

 in the front from the second of the lower buttons, and 

 about home he was as often without a hat as with one. 

 His winter shooting gear was a light jacket, white linen 

 trousers without lining or drawers ; and in frost and 

 snow he waded through all water that came in his way. 

 These, however, are not exceptional marks of hardihood. 

 I know men of the present day who go as lightly clad 

 through all the seasons. But Mytton went further than 

 this. He would sometimes strip to his shirt to follow 

 wildfowl in hard weather, and once actually laid himself 

 down in the snow, with absolutely not a stitch on him 

 but his shirt, to await the arrival of the ducks at dusk. 



He would ride several days a week to coverts 

 fifty miles distant from Halston, and return thither to 

 his dinner, at which meal his appetite and digestion, 

 until his stomach was weakened by excessive indulgence 

 in wine, were something astounding. His escapes were 

 marvellous, and, so to speak, miraculous. He was run 

 away with by horses in gigs, and upset times without 

 number ; left struggling in deep water without the 

 faintest knowledge of swimming ; badly mauled in street 

 brawls and rows in gambling hells, yet he came out 

 of all without serious injury. Curiously enough, too, in a 

 duelling age he never issued a challenge or received one. 

 In his management of horses he was extraordinarily 

 reckless. Driving tandem once, he wished, he said, to 

 see if the leader were a good timber-jumper, and actually 

 put the horses at a closed turnpike gate ; the leader 

 took the gate in beautiful style, but, of course, left the 

 wheeler on his nose v/ith the shafts snapped in two. 

 Neither man nor horse, however, was hurt In the 



