^obn /ll>^tton 115 



no display, and, had he conducted all his affairs with the 

 same regularity and simplicity as his menage at his 

 ancestral seat, he would never have run through upwards 

 of half a million of money in less than fifteen years, as he 

 did. But it was not difficult to find where the screw was 

 loose in his expenditure. He kept his foxhounds 

 entirel}' at his own cost, and upon a very extensive 

 scale, for he hunted two countries without subscription. 

 His racing establishment was on a still larger scale, and 

 he often had from fifteen to twenty horses in training 

 at the same time. His average number of thorough- 

 bred stock, including brood mares and yearlings, was 

 about thirty-six, which probably cost him something like 

 ;^4000 a year. His game preserves, too, were a severe 

 drain upon his income ; for, besides such items as ^^1500 

 in one bill to a London dealer for pheasants and foxes 

 alone, there was the formation of miles of plantations and 

 coverts, which necessitated a permanent staff of fifty 

 labourers to keep them in order. The pheasants in the 

 preserves were as thick as sparrows at the barn door, and 

 the hares were running about like rabbits. The average 

 annual slaughter was from 1200 to 1500 brace of 

 pheasants and from 1500 to 2000 hares, besides an 

 enormous bag of partridges, for he always made a 

 point of killing fifty brace of ' birds ' to his own gun on 

 the first of September, and he and his brother-in-law, Mr 

 Walter Griffin, have been known to kill 600 head of 

 game in a single forenoon. He had immense grouse 

 moors, too, on which the sport was equal to an)' in the 

 three kingdoms. \s a game and rifle shot John Mytton 

 had probably no superior in his day. 



Moreover, though as far removed from a dandy as 

 a man well could be, the Squire of Halston was a 



