LIFE OF MYTTON. 45 



who was going to turn him out, a customer recog- 

 nised the Squire, and the joke happily resulted in no 

 serious consequences to those upon whom it was 

 tried. On another occasion he was told that the late 

 George Underhill, the celebrated Shropshire horse- 

 dealer, was in his house, on his road from Chester 

 fair. Sendingf for him into his dininof-room, he made 

 him excessively drunk, and put him to bed with two 

 buU-dog^s and the bear ! He once rode this bear into 

 his drawino-room in full hunting costume. The 

 animal carried him very quietly for a certain time ; 

 but, on being pricked by the spur, she bit her rider 

 through the calf of his leg, inflicting a severe wound. 

 The mention of this bear reminds me of another 

 amusino^ anecdote. Havinsf sent one of his stable- 

 boys with a hack to meet a friend who was coming 

 by a coach, the latter exclaimed, on riding into the 

 Halston stable-yard, "Ah! bruin V — alluding to the 

 bear. " Oh yes, sir," observed the lad, " we always 

 brews twice a- week at Halston." What I am now 

 going to relate I know not how to define, for in most 

 people's opinion it rather exceeds a joke. As we 

 were eating some supper one night in the coffee-room 

 of the hotel at Chester, during the race week, a 

 gentleman, who was a stranger to us all, was standing 



