LIFE OF MYTTON. 59 



if something like a schedule of his disbursements were 

 to be called for? The task would be an Herculean 

 one, but Horace would furnish a commentary upon it. 

 Some persons hunt, says he ; some race, some drink, 

 some do one thing and some another ; but Mytton, 

 in sporting language, was "at all in the ring." His 

 fox-hounds were kept by himself without any sub- 

 scription, and upon a very extensive scale, with the 

 additional expenses attending hunting two counties. 

 His racing establishment was on a still larger scale, 

 having often had from fifteen to twenty horses in 

 training at the same time, and seldom less than eight. 

 His average number, indeed, of thoroughbred stock 

 at home and from home, including brood-mares and 

 young things, was about thirty-six!"' His game 

 preserves were likewise a most severe tax upon his 

 income. Will it be credited that he paid one bill 

 of 1500/. to a London game-dealer for pheasants and 

 foxes alone ! The formation of three miles of plan- 

 tation which this game went, in part, to stock, must 



• Mytton thus wrote of himself in the year 1825 : — " I own Longwaist, 

 and some fifty other thoroughbred ones ; a few hunters, a few hounds, 

 course a little, and sometimes fight a main of cocks." Longwaist was a 

 purchase ftom Mr. Fulwar Craven, almost as great "a cliaracter " as 

 John Mytton himself. 



