74 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



full length, on the sofa. After looking at him for 

 some time, his old preceptor broke out into the fol- 

 lowing soliloquy : ' Only thmk, sir, what the Squire, 

 with his abilities, viight have been, and only see what 

 he is I ' 



" On Sunday last, as is his usual custom after the 

 duties of the morning, the Chaplain entered upon 

 those of the evening, and took his jslace behind the 

 beef. Here, Lord Chesterfield himself never dis- 

 played a better grace ; for amid the blaze and radi- 

 ance of nine gold and three silver cups — the fruits of 

 some well -contested races — his rosy face outshone 

 them all ; and it may be said of him, without offence 

 to any one, that he is equally orthodox in the bottle 

 as in the wood, being a Christian at all times, and one 

 of the best-natured persons in the universe." 



From my own experience of this extraordinary cha- 

 racter, I could fill a folio or two with his sayings and 

 doings, which were of the most ludicrous order, — 

 rendered doubly so by the easy, epicurean temper of 

 the man. For example : — As he was one Sunday 

 proceeding on horseback to his church, a leaf out of 

 his sermon-book accompanied his handkerchief, as he 

 drew it from his pocket, and, the wind being high at 

 the time, it was carried over the hedge into a field. 



