224 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



were kept in that county. The owner of them was the late 

 WilHam Leech, Esq., of Garden, one of the finest places in Cheshire. 



Mr. Leech was one of those characters of which the breed is 

 nearly lost, and which, when gone, will never be again seen in this 

 country — the plain, unadulterated English country gentleman, who, 

 possessing full ten thousand a year, never left his seat, except he 

 was called to his county town, or went to visit his friends. Being 

 a single man, he did not even keep a carriage of any sort till far 

 advanced in years ; but the wl\ole pleasure of his life was centred 

 in the enjoyment of field sports in the morning, and the society of 

 his friends at night. In the present times, however, he would be 

 considered dead slow. He dined at three o'clock if by himself, or 

 if he had only a few of his intimate friends in his house ; and, strange 

 to say, though he kept fox-hounds, and hunted them himself for a 

 long series of years — possessing also abilities quite above the 

 common standard — he knew very little about fox-hunting. 



Cicero says of Antony, that " he had a witty mirth which could 

 be acquired by no art ; " and the compliment might have been as 

 justly paid to Mr. Leech. His company was sought after more 

 than that of any other man in his neighbourhood ; and so original 

 was his wit, and so happily was it applied, that he might have been 

 termed the very life and soul of every party he was in. Although 

 naturally abstemious, yet in a party he never failed to sacrifice most 

 freely to the god of wine, and his wit and good humour seemed to 

 increase with every glass he drank. The signal of enough — and he 

 generally went the length of his tether — was an attempt to sing the 

 first verse of a song, beginning with 



" Women and wine the heart delight." 



I wish I could recollect a twentieth part of the smart repartees 

 and witty sayings of Mr. Leech ; but in the interval of time they 

 are lost. One of his bottle-companions of the sacerdotal order asked 

 him to go to church and hear him preach. He afterwards wished 

 to know what he thought of his sermon. " Why," replied Mr. 

 Leech, "J like yo2t better in bottle than in wood." He was very 

 intimate with Sir Eichard Puleston ; and as Sir Eichard sometimes 

 borrowed his hounds, when he was himself without any in his 



