102 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



which he must have been aware would one clay or 

 other fall under the axe ; * and, secondly, to form 

 cover for the game, which, of course, he was resolved 

 should exceed that of any other man in the country, 

 and no doubt it did. 



As a general sportsman, few made themselves more 

 conspicuous than Mr. Mytton did. He was many 

 years a master of fox-hounds (having kept a pack of 

 harriers from his boyhood), but his fox-hounds were 

 not of a very high character. In fact, to produce 

 perfection in a kennel requires qualities the very 

 reverse of his, namely, circumspection, perseverance, 

 and patience. The establishment, as might be ex- 

 pected with himself at the head of it, was on a fully 

 competent scale ; consisting of two distinct packs of 

 hounds, and from twenty-five to twenty-eight horses. 

 On Mr. Cresset Pelham relinquishing them, in i8i ", he 

 commenced hunting the Shropshire and Shiffnal (now 

 called Albrighton) countries five days a week ; and 

 continued to do so, with a fair share of sport, until the 

 close of the season 1821 inclusive, making five seasons 

 in all. His huntsman was John Crags (^killed by a fall 



• A well-known auctioneer at Slirewsbury said of bim, at a very early 

 period of liis career, with a fatal gift of prophecy, " He'll put the haxe to 

 the hoaks and the hash." 



