42 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



but I never rode over a Cockney, and I am come 

 here to-day for that sole purpose." 



Mis treatment of a London Jew money-lender was 

 not amiss. Being wearied by delay, he hired two 

 coal-heavers to knock at his door every second hour 

 throughout the night, until the money was forth- 

 coming. But this anecdote furnishes a painful recol- 

 lection on the subject of money lending. A few 

 years back he borrowed ten thousand pounds on an 

 annuity at high interest, and lent nine of it to a friend 

 who has never been seen in Europe since ! This, 

 although a type of the man, is no matter for joking ; 

 but the following may be looked upon as frolics. 

 He had a parson and a doctor dining with him one 

 evening at Halston, and at a certain hour of the 

 night they mounted their horses to return to their 

 homes. Having a carter's frock, and a brace of 

 pistols loaded with blank cartridges, at hand, Mytton 

 mounted a hack, and by a circuitous route headed 

 and met them on the road, when letting fly both 

 barrels at them, and calling to them to " stand and 

 deliver," he declared they never rode half so fast in 

 their lives as they did from that place to Oswestry, 

 with himself at their heels. He once stopped and 

 robbed, on this same road, his own butler, who was 



