lo ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



ment at Ncasden, where they kept a stud for breeding 

 hunters and cart-horses and a pack of harriers, the 

 hunting estabh'shment of Cheslyn at Aylesbury, and of 

 Henry at Kilsby, in Northamptonshire, to say nothing 

 of two separate homes for the brothers and tlieir ladies 

 in London, mainly accounted for the serious deficiencies 

 in their accounts. Sir Charles Rushout was the principal 

 sufterer ; he had such implicit confidence in the Halls 

 that he actually committed his banking account into 

 their hands, with power to draw on it as they wished. 

 One specially hard case came to light, which was the 

 ultimate cause of the utter collapse of the firm. A 

 widow lady, w4io was one of their clients, was persuaded 

 by them to sell her all, about ;^I200 from the Three per 

 Cents., that they might put it out on mortgage at 5 per 

 cent. Cheslyn went with her to the Bank of England, 

 and the whole was sold out and handed over to him in 

 bank-notes. He placed the lady in a cab and drove with 

 her towards his ofiices to complete the mortgage; but in 

 Fleet Street he suddenly stopped the cab and told her 

 he saw a gentleman he w^as particularly anxious to talk 

 to, and would be with her in New Court in a quarter 

 of an hour. The unsuspecting widow sat in the cab 

 about half an hour, and then getting tired, dismissed the 

 driver, and went into the office and waited for over an 

 hour more, still not imagining for a moment anything 

 was wrong. She left word she could remain no longer, 

 and went home to her hotel ; next morning she again 

 appeared at the office, but, finding neither of the Messrs. 

 Hall had arrived, for the first time she became frightened 

 and communicated with her friends. The Halls never 



