246 SPORTING STORIES 



asked him to hold hard in vain. At last, damme, madam, 

 he rode over my favourite bitch Ruby. I could stand it 

 no longer, but, jumping off my horse, said, ' Get down, you 

 rascal, and pull off your coat.' We fought for about an 

 hour and twenty minutes, the field forming a ring round 

 us, and at the end of it the big bully butcher of Brighton 

 was carried away senseless, while I had scarcely a scratch." 

 Scarcely the sort of story to amuse a lady at the present 

 day. As to its veracity, perhaps the less said the better. 

 George was given to romancing. 



Captain Millbank, R.N., was a first-rate fighter. The 

 crew of his barge had quarrelled with that of H.M.S. 

 Berwick and got soundly drubbed. Captain Millbank, 

 hearing of this, called his men a lot of cowardly lubbers, 

 dressed himself as a sailor next day, and in his barge 

 overtook the Berwick's barge, which he purposely fouled. 

 High words, of course, ensued, ending in the Captain 

 offering to fight their best man, which he did, not only 

 defeating him, but the whole boat's crew, one after another. 



The famous John Mytton of Halston had numerous 

 fights, although he never received any instruction in boxing ; 

 and old Captain Taylor of York used to relate with much 

 gusto how, when he was young, he and Jack Mytton 

 thrashed a cellarful of blacklegs in Chester, for which both 

 were locked up for the night. On another occasion, when 

 the Squire of Halston, then but nineteen, was coursing, a 

 burly miner would not desist from halloaing after the hare, 

 though several times requested to do so. A fight, and a 

 hard one, between Mytton and the miner ensued, the latter 

 at last giving in, when the Squire not only gave the man 

 the hare and half a sovereign, but told him to go up to 

 the Hall and have a bellyful of meat and drink as well. 



Another good man with his hands was Hope Johnstone, 

 who, in 1843, having quarrelled with the landlord of the 

 Black Bull at Northallerton, first thrashed him, then took 

 on Tom Dawson, Bob Haseltine, the guard of the mail, and 

 a recruiting officer one after another, and disposed of them 

 all. He was always ready for a " fecht " ; and, having really 

 an innate relish for the pastime, was as often seen with 

 a black eye as without. On one occasion at Doncaster a 



