162 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



Americans, lor their precision in sliooting, after this ! 

 It cannot be surpassed, if equalled." To this account 

 is added the fact of his having shot rats with a rifle 

 from the top of his house, and sundry other achieve- 

 ments rather too marvellous to relate.* Still he 

 riddled the vane of his own chapel ; and on one very 

 cold morning after a ver}' warjii night, jumped into 

 the pool merely to get a shot at some herons which 

 he had disturbed while pheasant shooting. 



But, as I have already said, no phase in Mytton's 

 character is so interesting as that which is illustrated 

 by his exploits in riding and driving. During the 

 period of Sir Bellingham Graham's hunting Shrop- 

 shire, he performed several gallant feats in the field. 

 Whilst suffering severely from the effects of a 

 fall, and with his right arm in a sling, he rode his 

 favourite horse, Baronet, over Lord Berwick's park- 

 paling at Atsham, near Shrewsbury, to the astonish- 

 ment of the whole field ; Sir Bellingham himself 

 exclaiming, 



"Well done, Neckor-Nothing ! you are not a bad 

 one to breed from ! " 



• For exnmple, he is represented as having more than once put a ball 

 .through a man's hat whilst on his head ! 



