112 fkings of tbe Ihuntino^flelb 



saddle, too, he ran prodigious risks of his life, not only 

 in riding at apparently impracticable fences with hounds, 

 but in falling from his horse when intoxicated. He 

 once galloped at full speed over a rabbit warren, to try 

 whether or not his horse would fall, which, of course, 

 it did, and rolled over him. 



His perfect contempt of danger was truly characteristic ; 

 but not content with the possession of it, he endeavoured 

 to impart it to his friends. As he was one day driving in 

 a gig a gentleman, who expressed a strong regard for 

 his neck, and hinted that he considered it in some 

 danger from the recklessness of his charioteer, Mytton 

 asked, ' Were you ever much hurt, then, by being upset 

 in a gig ? ' ' No, thank God,' said his companion, ' for I 

 never was upset in one.' ' What ! ' replied Mytton, 

 ' 7iever upset in a gig ? What a d — d slow fellow you 

 must have been all your life ! ' And running his near 

 wheel up the bank, over they both went, fortunately 

 without either being much injured. 



There are many stories of his robbing his friends in 

 the character of an amateur highwayman, but they are of 

 the ordinary type of such practical jokes. Once he 

 disguised himself as a beggar and begged at his own 

 house, when he was roughly used by the servants, and 

 would probably have been torn to pieces by his own 

 dogs, a modern Actaeon, had he not fled for protection 

 to his tame bear, Nell, who at once recognised her 

 master, and raising herself on her haunches, kept both 

 dogs and men at bay. With reference to this bear there is 

 another story. One day, hearing that George Underbill, 

 the celebrated Shropshire horse-dealer, was in the house 

 on his road from Chester fair, Mytton sent for that 

 worthy, had him conducted into the dining-room, made 



