50 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



make mine a savage. And yet how are we to de- 

 fine some of the darings and doings of tliis extra- 

 ordinary man ! For example, the following descrip- 

 tion ot an evening at Halston was given by me in 

 the "Sporting Magazine" some years back. After 

 describing a display of young foxes which were 

 brought into the dinner-room for inspection, I thus 

 proceed : — " We were now offered the company of 

 the bear, but to a man declined the honour. By 

 •way of a finish, however, we had one turn-up 

 ibetween a Spanish bull-dog and an animal called 

 Jilood — a cross between a Spanish bull-dog and an 

 iEnorlish mastiff ; when our host, thinkinor that Blood 

 •was getting bloody, and might kill the other dog, 

 ran at him and pinned him by the nose ; and, 

 although weighing more than seventy pounds, he 

 raised him from the ground with his teeth, holding 

 him suspended for at least a minute, without the 

 smallest assistance from his hands." Neither is this 

 a solitary instance of his contest with ferocious dogs. 

 Returning from hunting one day, he, with some 

 others, called to lunch at a farm-house called the 

 Berries, near Whitchurch, where there was a very 

 large and savage dog chained in the yard. " Pray 

 don't go near him, Mr. Mytton," said his owner, 



