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NOTE ON HENRY ALKEN'S "MYTTON"
ILLUSTRATIONS

'""I ^HE Memoirs of Jack Mytton," both as regards
the madcap adventures of the redoubtable
hero, the far-famed Squire of Halston, as recorded
by his biographer, and the spirited pictures drawn by
Henry Aiken, must be pronounced unique. Probably
even the imagination of a sporting novelist would be
unequal to the invention of hairbreadth escapes or
deeds so utterly reckless as the every-day feats of
the dauntless Mytton ; and no romances or fictions of
the hunting-field as yet given to readers who revel
in such moving incidents, afford the sporting de-
lineator equal opportunities for a similar display of
his spirited pencil.

The book was there — the hero a living personage,
whose daring escapades were familiarly discussed and
wondered over amongst his hunting contemporaries,
the lovers of sporting adventures. Nimrod himself
was the ideal literary hand, by every congenial quali-
fication predestined to chronicle those extraordinary

'" a

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

performances of which he happened to be an in-
terested eye-witness. This combination happened
most happily, it must be allowed. So much for
circumstances, which in the first instance led to these
dashing "Memoirs" making their appearance in the
columns of The Neiv Sporting Magazine in the
palmy days of sporting literature.*

As is easily understood, Nimrod's stirring narrative
was eagerly devoured at the time of publication, and
Ackermann, the enterprising pubHsher, conceived the
happy idea of presenting the veracious Memoirs in a
form worthy of their sporting character. For this
purpose the very man was at hand, and to Apperley,
as historian, was added, as artistic collabor-atetir, the
ingenious Henry Aiken to furnish illustrations; an
unsurpassable combination to which the present work
owes its origin. Both artists stand alone, and as yet
have found no successors in their respective branches,
with the brilliant exception furnished by the later

* "The Life of Mytton" began in October, 1834, in The New
Sporting Iifaga::hie, having been announced by Ninirod in the previous
number. His letter concluded thus : " I hope you will make a start
with poor John Mytton on the ist of October — a melancholy reverse,
by the way, of his usual start on that day in the Halston covers. But
how true the ma-xim, ^ Nil violentiinn est perpetuum'' — '7>V the pace
ihat kilts."

A LKEN' S ILL USTRA TIONS.

collaboration of Surtees with John Leech. The
original Henry Aiken was designing sporting pictures
for Ackermann at the date of Mytton's Memoirs; his
innumerable productions in this field stand unrivalled,
and in our own day are proportionately esteemed by
collectors and amateurs whose tastes incline to sport-
ing delineations. Like his literary confrere, Aiken
was on the spot at the right moment ; and never, it
may be safely averred, did this genius in sporting
illustrations enjoy so tempting a commission, or one
more congenial to his special talents.

The publishers of the present extra-illustrated
edition of the " Memoirs of the Life of Jack Mytton "
have invited me to record a few particulars concern-
ing the "illustrative embellishments," as Ackermann
characterised them, when that excellent sporting
publisher in the "early Thirties" enlisted the graphic
powers of Henry Aiken.

The numerous editions treasured by sporting col-
lectors attest the interest these pictures have excited.
Nowadays early editions with the amazing hand-
coloured plates are not only keenly sought after but
are rare, and proportionately costly. Aiken seems
to have designed some twenty leading pictures for
the embellishment of Nimrod's narrative ; the entire

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

gallery is now for the first time published together
as a complete series.

Ackermann favoured the sporting public with his
first illustrated edition in 1835; and the collection
proved successful beyond his expectations. The first
edition has long been rarissime ; it consists of but
no printed pages, and contains twelve plates by
Henry Aiken. So scarce is this version — a thin
little volume — that I do not remember to have seen
half a dozen copies in a lifetime. Its current value
may be estimated at fifteen guineas, though it would
not be possible to secure more than a fugitive copy
at that figure. The first series of twelve plates were
etched by the designer, Henry Aiken, and delicately
finished in aquatint in imitation of water-colour
drawings by another clever artist, E. Duncan. The
impressions were issued carefully coloured by hand
after the original aqicarclUs, and are by connoisseurs
esteemed highly superior examples of this class of
work, the closest facsintiles of the water-colour draw-
ings obtainable by the method of reproduction de-
scribed. But with all their excellence, they necessarily
fail to reproduce exactly those spontaneous and dash-
ing qualities, and the delightful feeling for landscape
which were the elder Aiken's specialities.

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

The popular appreciation which encouraged the
publisher's first venture, emboldened Ackermann to
follow up this little volume by a more ambitious
work, issued two years later. This second edition
appeared in 1837 ; the text was printed in bolder
type, making a more imposing-looking volume as to
bulk, with an engraved pictorial title-page, and em-
bellished with eighteen coloured illustrations. These
plates are also, for the most part, after original
drawings by Henry Aiken, etched by that competent
hand, and carefully finished in aquatint by E. Duncan
after the originals. As has been mentioned, the first-
named artist produced in all twenty "Mytton" designs
which have come into the writer's possession. Of
these some few were executed after suggestions by
T. J. Rawlins, as stated on the plates in question,
though to all intents and purposes the drawings thus
designated are characteristic examples of Aiken's
special art. Beyond these there were included two
designs by T. J. Rawlins, "A Nick, or the nearest
way home, with back view of Halston House," and
"Heron shooting — A cooler after a big drink!"
These plates were etched by Aiken with the others,
and have thus acquired a share of artistic merit, but
the actual designs are commonplace, stiff and poor

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

in comparison with Aiken's original water-colour
drawings, and the present publishers have felt that
the above-mentioned pair of plates are uninteresting
and spiritless, as lacking the strikingly noteworthy
characteristics of the Aiken series reproduced in the
present edition. The two Rawlins designs were
probably merely slight suggestions offered to be
worked out by Aiken's hand, and as these sketches
have not been preserved with the interesting original
S7iite of highly finished water-colour pictures (which
became the property of Ackermann in 1835-7), they
are accordingly excluded from the present series of
facsimiles after Aiken ; but it is supplemented by a
further subject representing one of Mytton's wildest
equestrian escapades, putting his horse at a leap
down a bank "high as a house." This capital draw-
ing, hitherto unpublished, was evidently designed for
the illustration of the first issue.

It may be of interest to notify alterations and
modifications as collated from a comparison of the
original drawings, herein reproduced, with the twelve
plates of the 1835 first edition, and the eighteen plates
of the second edition as published in 1837.

The frontispiece to the earliest edition was " ' The
Meet,' with Lord Derby's staghounds," applying to

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

page 14 of this first version, and given opposite to
page 25 of the second edition. Three strongly char-
acteristic plates, which vi^ere included amongst the
twelve first engraved versions of Aiken's "Mytton"
Series, are not repeated in the second edition or in
subsequent issues. These are restored in the present
comprehensive series, reproduced in facsimile direct
from the original water-colour drawings. These three
subjects are entitled : —

Mytton shooting in winter.
Blood and the bull-dog.
Mytton masters the savage dog.

Nine of the plates originally given in the first
edition were included in the second edition, as is seen
from the notes which follow, summarising the illustra-
tions which appeared in the 1835 and 1837 editions
respectively. 1S37 edition: —

" The Meet," with Lord Derby's staghounds.

Mytton wild duck shooting.

"What ! never upset in a gig?"

A new hunter — "Tally-ho ! Tally-ho !"

Stand and deliver.

The Oaks filly.

Light come, light go.

Mytton on " Baronet " clears nine yards of water.

" Damn this hiccup ! "

It must be pointed out that two of these earlier
plates in the first instance represented the redoubt-

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

able hero in a nightcap. Whilst lying out on the
ice at night, stalking flocks of wild ducks, Mytton,
in addition to his single garment, a shirt, is pictured
adorned with a nightcap, and a similar covering
appears on his head when setting fire to the aforesaid
solitary garment in the plate, showing that mistaken
worthy carrying out his novel theory of frightening

away that " d d hiccup ! " Subsequent knowledge

that Mytton was unfamiliar with the use of pocket-
handkerchiefs and of nightcaps alike, possibly induced
the artist to make alterations, and to remove the
nightcaps. In the first version of the fatal " hiccup"
adventure, an antique "four-poster" is represented
in the background ; as this tragic incident occurred
in France, whither the embarrassed and unfortunate
Mytton, who was " broken " in a triple sense — in
mind, body, and purse — had sought refuge from his
creditors, the antiquated "four-poster" figuring in the
earlier plate was, in the second edition, changed into a
French bedstead, as a concession to local consistency.
The frontispiece to the second edition and sub-
sequent issues is : — ■

" Well done, Neck-or-Nothing ! You are not a bad one to breed
from," as designed after a sketch by T. J. Rawlins, drawn and executed
by Henry Aiken.

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

The remaining " additional plates " which made
their first appearance in the 1S37 edition are as
follows : —

" I wonder whether he's a good timber jumper ! "

A hell of a row in a Hell ! Mytton shows fight.

Mytton swims the Severn at Uppington Ferry. " He that calls

himself a sportsman, let him follow me."
How to cross a country comfortably after dinner.
" A Squire trap, by Jove ! A little more and I should have

done it !"
" Now for the honour of Shropshire ! " The Shavington Day ;

a trial of rival packs, and consequently of rival horsemen.

There are, moreover, the two designs by Rawlins,
already particularised : —

A Nick, or the nearest way home. (With back view of Halston

House.)
Heron shooting — " A cooler after a big drink ! "

Making up the sum of eighteen plates (1837
edition).

So much concerning the rare and costly first and
second editions of 1835 "^^^ '^^2>7- ^ ^^ asked to
set down the history of the original drawings, now
for the first time reproduced in facsimile, of the
actual aquarel/es.

Speaking of my own early impressions, these
Aiken pictures struck my boyhood's fancy as truly
wonderful designs, and in their nature sprighdy be-
yond belief. It was in the "late Fifties" that, as a

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

youth, I happened to make their first acquaintance
amongst the contents of an old-fashioned sporting
library, and once seen they are never likely to be
forgotten.

Already familiar with the famous aquatinted en-
gravings, the writer, over a quarter of a century ago,
was delisrhted to discover in an Exhibition of Aiken's
drawings, held in Bond Street, the complete series
of water-colour pictures originally designed for the
illustration of Mytton's improving Memoirs. Tempt-
ing as were these additions to any collection of
Aiken's works, the value at which the series thus
exhibited was estimated seemed prohibitory to a
modest purse. Averaging .^25 per drawing, the
total came to ;^500, a sum which distinctly chilled
the writer's acquisitive propensities. I subsequently
discovered that the lucky proprietor happened to be
a private gentleman of my acquaintance, who pos-
sessed a most extensive collection of sporting pictures,
including the larojest oratherinof of Aiken's oricrinal
drawings probably in any collector's possession. These
interesting suites, it was understood, had been secured
en bloc direct from the successors of the original pub-
lishers. The series of " Mytton " drawings consti-
tuted the gems of the collection, and, on further visits

ALKEA'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

to my friend's residence, my appreciation of the
present stiiie was increased, and the desire of adding
them to my little gathering kept pace with this grow-
ing admiration.

This acquisitive proclivity was strengthened later
on, when the late proprietor, on the occasion of my
assisting in forming an extensive Sporting Exhibition,
was so obliging as to lend the Aiken series of illus-
trations to Mytton's Memoirs ; and further study of
the attractive points of these designs whetted my
appetite afresh. On the decease of this worthy
sporting amateur his collection was sold for the
facility of realising his estate for distribution, and by
purchase, the coveted Aiken series was added to my
sporting treasures of the pictorial order. From the
first there was the temptation to reproduce these
artistic curiosities by those literal facsimile processes
of recent development ; but for many years both the
drawings and the theory of their ultimate reproduc-
tion were left to slumber, while other productions
were occupying the writer's efforts. Finally my good
friends Messrs. Downey and Co. recognised the un-
common merits of the complete series, and to their
enterprise the present volume owes its appearance.

It is the first instance of a sporting work being

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

illustrated after this method of reproducing the
original drawings by direct facsimile in colours from
the original drawings, and it may be questioned
whether there is in existence a series of sporting
delineations equally spirited, typical, animated, and
suitable for the purpose as regards the memoirs of
sport, and retrospective aspects of sporting life in
the quaint " palmy days of the past."

Joseph Grego.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

First {Collected) Edition, Published in 1835.
(Printed pages no.)

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE
JOHN MYTTON, Esq.

With Twelve Illustrations by Henry Alken.

(Plates aquatinted by E. Duncan.)

Publisher's Address :

"These Memoirs appeared originally in The Nezv Sporting
Magazine, and attracted so much attention at the time of their
publication, that the Publisher has been induced to present
them to the public in their present form. The illustrative
embellishments by Alken will, he conceives, add considerably
to the interest of the volume."

PAGE

" The Meet," with Lord Derby's staghounds . . Frontispiece

•Mytton shooting in winter . . . . . . .11

\_* This plate was omitted from the second edition and subsequent editions.'\

Mytton wild duck shooting . . . . . .12

[*/« this plate Mytton wears a nightcap ; this was removed in second
edition.'^

"What! never upset in a gig?" 14

ALKEJVS ILLUSTRATrONS.

PAGE

" A new hunter — Tally ho ! Tally ho!" .... 15

Stand and deliver . . . . . . . • '5

The Oaks filly 16

*Blood and the bull-dog ....... 17

\^ This plate wai omitted from the seeoiui edition and uthseqitent editions.]

*Mytton masters the savage dog ...... 18

\^ This plate was omitted from the second edition and subsequent editions.]

" Light come, light go " 24

Mytton on "Baronet" clears nine yards of water . . 47

" Damn this hiccup ! " ....... 76

[In this first version Mytton is pictured wearing a nightcap, hi the back-
ground the bedstead is represented as an antique ^^four-poster."]

Second {Enlarged) Edition. Published in 1S37.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE
JOHN MYTTON, Esq.

[ With engraved pictorial title-page'\

" Numerous Illustrations by H. Alken and T. J. Rawlins."

[Containing 9 Plates from the 1835 edition, with 9 additional
Plates.] (18 Plates aquatinted by E. Duncan.)

"Well done, Neck-or-Nothing ! you are not a bad one to

breed from "...... Frontispiece

[New plate, i3j7. Designed after a sketch by T. f. Rawlins. Drawn
and etched by Heniy Atken.]

ALKEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGB

A Nick, or ihe nearest way home, with the back view of

Halston House . . . . . . . .16

\NeT.ij Plate, 1S37. Deugnt'dby T. I. Rawlins. Etched by Henry Aiken.}

Mytton wild duck shooting . . . . . . . 17

[Plate used in 1835 edition. By Henry Aiken. In the 1837 edition the
artist has removed Mytton s nightcap [as shown in the 1835 edition).]

"What! never upset in a gig?" . . . . . .21

[Plate used in 1835 edition. By Henry Aiken."]

" I wonder whether he is a good timber jumper ! " . . 22

[New Plate, 1837. By Hen >y Aiken.]

"The Meet," with Lord Derby's staghounds ... 25

[Plate used in 1835 edition (Frontispiece). By Henry Aiken.]

" Stand and deUver ! " 26

[Plate used in 1835 edition. By Henty Aiken.]

"Tally ho! Tally ho! a new hunter; first then, Tally ho!

Tally ho!" 27

[Plate used in 1835 edition. By Henry Aiken.]

The Oaks filly 30

[Plate used in 1835 edition. By Henry Aiken.]

" Light come, light go " ....... 42

[Plate used in iS^^edition. By Henry Aiken.]

Mytton on "Baronet" clears nine yards of water . . 82

[Plate used in 1835 edition. By Henry Alien.]

" Damn this hiccup ! " ....... 127

[Plate used in 1835 edition. By Henry Aiken. In the 1837 edition
the artist has removed Mytton s nightcap and altered the ' 'four-poster"
which figured in the earlier version, into a French bedstead.]

ALKE.VS ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

A Hell of a row in a Hell. Mytton shows fight I . . i86

[New plate, iS^-j. By Henry Aiken.]

Mytton swims the Severn at Uppington Ferry. " He that

calls himself a sportsman, let him follow me !" . . i88

[New plate, 1837. The dra^ving by Henry Aiken.']

How to cross a country comfortably after dinner . . . 190

[New plate, 1837. The draiuing by Henry Aiken.]

Heron shooting : — " A cooler after a big drink ! " . . 197

[New plate, iZyj. By T. I. Rawlins. Etihed by Henry Aiken.]

"A Squire trap, by Jove!" cries Mytton. "A little more

and I should have done it ! " . . . . . 201

[New plate, 1837. The drawing by Henry Aiken.]

" Now for the honour of Shropshire ! " The Shavington
Day ; a trial of rival packs, and consequently of rival
horsemen ......... 201

[New plate, 1837. The drawing by Henry Aiken.]

PREFACE

(TO THE FIRST EDITION).

"DISHOP BURNET'S narrative of the remarkable
passages in the life of the very celebrated Earl
of Rochester has been greatly valued, not only as an.
elegant composition, but as a lesson of instruction!
to all mankind. The latter of these honours, to a
certain extent, I may venture to claim as the result,
of this sketch ; at all events, such is, in part, its-
design ; and as no subject is so interesting to man as-
man, I have a good theme for my pen, inasmuch as.
there is one present to my mind whose equal, as a.
private English gentleman, the world never before
saw ; neither is it, for some reasons, desirable the;
world should ever again see. My only fear is, that
I may be deficient in strength of pencil to draw the
picture to the life, and to represent the anomaly in
human nature which the character of John Myttoii
presents — at one time, an honour to his nature ; at
another, a satire on humanity. What more car>
be done than to strike the balance with an even

PREFACE.

hand ? And as the brightness of the sun hides its
blemishes, let me hope the greater part of his faults
will be lost amidst the virtues with which they are
mingled. At all events, my purpose is not to hold
up the torch to the failings of my old and never-
forsaken friend — my chief object being to aceo7int for
them, and leave his virtues to speak for themselves.
I owe him pity on the score of human nature ; he
claims it by his own acts and deeds ; and, above all,
by one act of Him to whose will all men must bow,
and by whom all men's deeds will be weighed. Let
not the lash of censure, then, fall too heavy upon one
who himself carried charity to excess 1 Let the great-
ness of his fall be unto him as a shield ; let it be
remembered he died in a prison, an epitome of human
misery I A glance over his history, however, may not
be unprofitable ; it will " point a moral," if it do not
" adorn a tale."

But it may be objected that I am not the person
'fitted to perform this task ; for, " Where is the man,"
says Johnson, "who can confine himself to the exact
balance of justice when his own feelings are unwit-
tingly thrown into the scale .'' " It is true my regard
for the late Mr. Mytton was won and secured by
xnany sterling acts of kindness and frlendshiiD ; and it

PREFACE. xxj

is also true, that friendship is not alzvays the sequel
of obligation. I am proud to assert I do not come
within this exception ; and pledging myself to say-
nothing that is false, rather than all that is true, I
think I can produce these two results :— First, I shall
unload the memory of a man I shall never be ashamed
to call my friend of several weighty imputations which
now rest upon it unjustly ; and secondly, I shall show
that the boldest efforts of the human imagination
cannot much exceed the romance of real life.

NIMROD.

Calais, 1835.

CONTENTS.

PAGES

Henry Alken's "Mytton" Illustrations . . iii — xviii
Preface to the First Edition . . - . . xix— xxi
A Notice of Nimrod i — 14

PART I.

Pedigree of Mr. Mytton — His original name — His contest for
the county of Salop — His ancestor Thomas Mytton — Hal-
ston described — Extent of Mr. Mytton's property and its
various situations — His education, and letter to the Lord
Chancellor — Nick-named Mango — Enters the army — His
doings at Calais when in the Seventh Hussars — His first mar-
riage— His sister, her character — His person antl mind de-
scribed— His pugnacious disposition — His dress — His method
of following wild-fowl — His feats in riding distances on the
road, and his walking — His powers of digestion — His daring
exploits, putting his life to hazard — Upsets a friend in a gig
• — His wonderful escapes in carriages — His indifference to
pain — Is taken for a tailor with Lord Derby's hounds — His
treatment of a Jew money-lender — His extraordinary frolics
with his chaplain, his doctor, his butler, the bear, a horse-
dealer, the filly in training, dogs and foxes — An evening
at Halston — His contest with a ferocious dog — His general
character — His reason for selling an old family estate — His
establishment at Halston — Amount of his expenditure — His
fox-hounds, his racing establishment, his game-preserves, his
cellars and his wardrobe — "Light come, light go" — Tricks
played by travellers — His gambling — Only one John Mytton
— The bill for pheasants — His enjoyment of life — The Halston
Chaplain, ....... pp. 15 — 76

CO A' TENTS.

PART II.

With whom compared — Ilis amours — His popularity and its
decline — His excessive drinking, and its influence on his
character and health — His toilet — His generous conduct
towards his mother — His philanthropy — How to hire a
servant — His talents — His last contest for the borough of
Shrewsbury — The Electioneering Squibs — His politics — His
farming — His timber — His planting — As a sportsman — His
hounds, and a day with them — As a horseman— His shooting
— His racing — His horse Euphrates — His race-cups — His
start and progress on the turf — His handsome conduct
towards his jockey — His autograph — The Guy Stakes at
Warwick — Summary of his racing career — The stables and
boxes at Halston — Number of the stakes and plates won by
his horses — His second marriage^His conduct in the mar-
riage state — As a husband and a father, . pp. 77 — 148

PART III.

Mr. Mytton's character illustrated by anecdotes— His feats on
horseback — His frolics — With waggon-horses — With a bag
fox — With rats on the ice — After herons — With a badger
— With foxes in the bar of an inn — With "a bagman" —
With a trainer — With a broken-kneed horse — With a flannel
petticoat — With a horse-breaker — With a baker — With a
Shrewsbury tradesman— The row at a "hell" — His shooting
with a rifle — A cooler after the herons — Extraordinary
performances with hounds — Swimming the river Severn —
Tandem-driving by moonlight — In a gig with Nimrod —
His gig carried over the lodge gate — A parallel instance at
Wrexham — "Tom Leigh," of High Leigh, Cheshire — The
sale catalogue — The Shavington Day ; " Now for the honour
of Shropshire ! " pp. 1.19 — 176

CONTENTS.

PART IV.

The breaking up of his establishment at Halston — His arrival in
Calais, and his extraordinary proceedings there — How to
frighten away the hiccup — His mind becomes disordered by
his sufferings — Extraordinary scenes witnessed by his attend-
ants— Drinks eaude-cologne — Gets better, and goes into the
country with Nimrod — Recovers his health, but soon relapses
— Is removed to England — Visits Halston — Thrown into
Shrewsbury Gaol — His conduct there, and his former relation
to the gaoler — Removed to the King's Bench — Release, and
return to Calais— His conduct there — Goes back to England —
His death in the Bench — His funeral — His will— "Another"
John Mytton pp. 177 — 234

LIST OF PLATES.

TAGB

MVTTON TAKES A DROP "AS HIGH AS A HOUSE'' . Frontispiece

Mytton shooting in winter ... • • ■ 33

Mytton wild duck shooting 35

"What! Never upset in a gk;?" 37

"I wonder whether he is a good timber-jumper!". . 39

The "Meet" with Lord Derbv's staghounds ... 41

"Stand and deliver" 43

"Tally-ho! Tallv-ho ! a new hunter; first then,

Tally-ho! Tally ho!" 45

The Oaks filly 49

Blood and the bull-dog 51

Mytton masters the savage dog 53

"Light come, light go!" 63

Mytton on "Baronet" clears nine yards of water . in

A H— ll of a row in a Hell— Mytton shows fight. . 161

"Well done, Neck-or-Nothing ! You are not a bad

CNF, TO breed from " 163

Mytton swims the Severn at Uppington Ferry. "He

THAT calls himself A SPORTSMAN, LET HIM FOLLOW

ME !" 165

How TO CROSS A COUNTRY COMFORTABLY AFTER DINNER . 167

" Now FOR THE HONOUR OF SHROPSHIRE ! " THE SHAVINGTON
Day ; A TRIAL OF RIVAL PACKS, AND CONSEQUENTLY

OF RIVAL HORSEMEN I75

"A Squire-trap, by Jove!" cries Mytton, ".■\ little

MORE AND I SHOULD HAVE DONE IT ! " . . . -177

"D N THIS hiccup!" 185

XXVI

NOTICE OF NIMROD.

"DOS WELL could never have written the " Life of
Johnson" but for the long intimacy he had en-
joyed with his hero ; and the same might be said of
Nimrod and his " Life of John Mytton." But the
parallel can be continued no further. Boswell me-
thodically prepared himself for his work from his first
interview with the subject of it, whereas Nimrod and
Mr. Mytton lived for years on terms of friendship
without the least probability of one ever becoming the
biographer of the other. In the common course of
events, indeed, the Halston Squire, as much the
younger man, should have outlived his companion ;
while it was only at a comparatively late period in his
career that Mr. Apperley ever engaged himself upon
literary pursuits.

No man however, could have been more thoroughly

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

educated up to the position he was destined to occupy
than Charles James Apperley. He was the second son
of one Mr. Thomas Apperley, a gentleman of good
Herefordshire family, who, from his attainments
as a scholar, had been selected as tutor to the Sir
Watkin Wynn of that time, and hence his eventually
settling at Plas-gronow, in the county of Denbigh,
where Nimrod was born in 1778. Noticeably enough,
the father enjoyed some literary repute, as he was the
author of a book of " Moral Essays " which would
appear to have been very favourably received. As his
son said of him — " he corresponded with Doctor
Johnson, read Greek before breakfast, and, being him-
self a scholar, he fondly hoped he should have made
one of me ; but in the weakness of his affection, being
unable to say 'no,' his hopes were blasted. He
suffered me to follow fox-hounds in a red coat and
cap, like puss in boots, before I was twelve years old."
There is no doubt, though, that young Apperley was
well grounded at home both as a scholar and as a
sportsman, and in due course he proceeded to Rugby,
where his own natural taste for the classics was further
•developed, with all proportionate profit hereafter.
But there was some " devil " in the boy, and, as Sir
Richard Puleston said of him and another lad, as they

A NOTICE OF NIMROn.

rode up to the cover-side, after having been very
riotous on the previous evening in the servants' hall
of a neighbouring gentleman, " They are a nice
couple ; at all events they seem to enter well."

On leaving Rugby young Apperley received a com-
mission in Sir Watkin Wynn's Fencible Cavalry regi-
ment, called the Ancient British Light Dragoons, but
known in Ireland, where he joined, as " the bloody
Britons," from the active part they took in crushing
the Rebellion of 1 798. " The severity of the losses of
the ' Ancient British ' may be judged of by the simple
fact of my having been gazetted youngest cornet on
the 1st of April, 1798, and becoming nearly senior
lieutenant in little more than a year and a half ; "
and he was paymaster to the regiment at the time
it was disbanded. A year or two after this Mr.
Apperley married Miss Wynn, a cousin of Sir
Watkin's, and a daughter of Mr. Wynn, of Peniarth,
once M.P. for the county of Caernarvon ; and in 1801
he took a house at Hinkley, in Leicestershire. The
Quorn was then in its glory ; the renowned Mr.
Meynell had just given up the hounds, but Apperley
met him in the field, and no man ever did the thing
in better style than his successor Lord Sefton, who
built the famous " long stable," had two packs of

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

hounds and two huntsmen, and gave greater prices for
his horses than had ever been known. During the
three seasons the young Welshman spent at the
Httle town of Hinkley, he gathered an almost invalu-
able store of information. Nor was his next cast a
bad one, — when he moved to Bilton Hall in Warwick-
shire, which, until very recently, had been the pro-
perty, in right of his wife, of Addison the immortal
essayist. Here Mr. Apperley formed that style
which subsequently gave so great a charm to his
writings ; following, as he has recorded it. Doctor
Johnson's advice, who recommends those " who would
attain an English style — familiar but not coarse, and
elegant but not ostentatious — to give their days and
nights to the volumes of Addison." But Bilton had
other points in its favour, at least in the eyes of the
new tenant. It was within reach, although often " a
long reach," of four of the most renowned packs of
fox-hounds of the day, — the Quorn, the Pytchley with
John Warde then at their head, Sir Thomas Mostyn's
(afterwards Mr. Drake's country in Oxfordshire), and
Mr. Corbet's in Warwickshire. He was a member of
the Stratford-on-Avon Club, and for many consecutive
seasons had, in addition to those at Stratford-on-Avon,
horses at Chapel House near Woodstock, and also at

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

Middleton Stony near Bicester, with the object of
hunting with the Duke of Beaufort as well as the other
packs already named. Of course he had to ride great
distances, " to gallop often through the darkness of a
winter's night over twenty miles on a very indifferent
road, to a bed ordered at Banbury ; " and on one par-
ticular morning he rode fifty-one miles on two hacks, to
meet Sir Thomas and give a greeting to Griff. Lloyd.
From Warwickshire Mr. Apperley went to Bitterley
Court in Shropshire, and while there joined his friend
Colonel Gould as Captain in the Nottingham Militia.
In 1817 he was living at Breewood in Staffordshire,
and, coming on to London, conceived, under the pres-
sure of some pecuniary difficulties, the idea of writing
a book.

During this period, however, it should be said that
Mr. Apperley had been qualifying himself for such a
work in other ways. He was in good practice as a
gentleman jockey, was a member of the Kingscote
Club, and had now and then a horse in training — ■
Victorine amongst others. Then, he knew most of
the coachmen on the road, and when he got on the
mail he generally drove it ; but he never was " master
of a greyhound in my life," had an invincible dislike
to the rising fashion of battue shooting, and, though

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

he once promised to write a paper on fishing, he
never carried out his threat. The book upon hunt-
ing proposal was favourably received by Mr. Colburn,
the publisher, but " no sooner was I in Regent -Street,
on the road to my hotel, than my course was at once
changed. I chanced to meet a very old friend and
brother sportsman, to whom I communicated my in-
tentions, together with the result of my interview
with Mr. Colburn, when the following parley took
place : —

" ]\Iy Friend. You are wrong in thinking of writ-
ing a book. Go to the 'Sporting Magazine;' it will
answer your purpose much better.

"Myself. The 'Sporting Magazine'! That will
never do ; it is a mere Cockney concern, and no
gentleman writes for it.

" Jlly Friend. Never mind that. Take my ad-
vice, and go to the proprietor of it. li yoii write
for it, other gentlemen and sportsmen will soon do
so also.

" These words were prophetic."

The friend was the father of the writer of this
notice. Sporting literature was at that time at a
very low ebb — If, indeed, in any way recognised ;
and beyond Beckford's " Thoughts on Hunting" and

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

Daniel's " Rural Sports," there was hardly a work of
any repute to turn to ; while the "Sporting Magazine"
was certainly "a very Cockney concern." But Ap-
perley braved it, and the first letter, bearing the
signature of " Nimrod," appeared in the New Year's-
number of 1822. It was upon " Fox-hunting in-
Leicestershire," and written just upon twenty seasons
since its author had first hunted in that celebrated'"
county.

The success of these Letters was something extra-
ordinary,— they were so fresh, so genial, so full of
anecdote, and so happily combining the tastes of the
sportsman, the scholar, and the gentleman. From an
unknown work the " Sporting Magazine" became the
talk of town and country, and Nimrod's name was
in everybody's mouth. The price of the monthly
number was raised from two shillings to half-a-crown,
with occasional five-shilling parts, and the circulation
doubled in less than two years' time from his en-
gagement. A coach on the Southampton Road was
called the "Nimrod;" a "Nimrod" newspaper was
started; there were Nimrod breeches and Nimrod
blacking, and a huntsman christened his son after
the mighty hunter. The Letters on Hunting and
the Hunting Tours were varied by Papers on the

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

Road and the Letters on the Condition of Hunters,
where he went for the hard-meat system in prefer-
ence to the two or three months at grass ; and the
advantage of his practice is now universally acknow-
ledged, although it met with some opposition in the
outset. He began one of his first articles on the
Road — he was forty-four years of age when he took
to writing — in this way : "A whip has been much
oftener in my right hand for the last twenty-five
years than a pen ; " and the " Morning Post" spoke in
some regret of " a gentleman who appeared to have
passed half his life among hounds, horses, and coach-
men, and whose style was so excellent that it was a
pity it had not been more worthily directed." The
Editor of the " Quarterly Review," on the contrary,
was quick to appreciate the value of this happy
union of power and experience, and he invited
Nimrod to become a contributor to that work ; but the
latter v/as bound down to the " Sporting Magazine,"
and It was some years before he could comply with
a request that conveyed so high a compliment. Soon
after joining the "Magazine," Nimrod, as he was hence-
forth known, took Beaurepaire House, in Hampshire,
where he commenced farming rather extensively.
But what with the hunting tours in the winter, and

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

going about in the summer, it is no wonder that
agriculture did not pay ; and the death of Mr.
Pittman, the proprietor of the " Sporting Magazine,"
in December, 1827, tended to bring matters to a
crisis. The two had got on capitally together, and
Pittman played his trump-card with great spirit,
keeping him a good stud of horses, and otherwise
behaving very handsomely. A rupture, however,
soon followed on his decease, and in two years' time
Nimrod was off the "Magazine;" his contributions
closing with the "German Tour," which he made in
company with Mr. Richard Tattersall and his son.
Although fifty years of age, he wasted from eleven
stone seven to ten stone three pounds, in order to
ride for the Gold Cup at Dobberan, which he won
on rather an awkward-tempered horse called Wild-
fire. Nimrod presented the Cup in his cap and
jacket to the Grand-Duchess of Mecklenburg when
he was honoured with an invitation to dinner, and
before he left the country a facsimile of the Cup for
which he had ridden the winner was sent to him.
But the best of all the Tours was that through York-
shire, — there was so much fresh ground to break up,
such a deal of "character" to study, and so many
good stories to tell. When a ship reached Calcutta,

lo A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

Colonel Nesbit, the master of the Calcutta hounds,
hastened with others down to the beach to hear the
news. " There are new Ministers in," was the first
piece of intelligence. "Oh, hang the new Ministry!"
said the Colonel; "is Nimrod's Yorkshire Tour out
yet?" The only one of Nimrod's family who "took
after " him is the present Colonel Apperley, who went
out to India as a cadet, and for many years superin-
tended the remount for the cavalry.

The latter part of Nimrod's life was spent in the
neighbourhood of Calais, where he resided for up-
wards of twelve years, having left England some-
where about 1S30. Here he wrote more than ever,
although chiefly on his reminiscences and experience,*
but still indulging in an occasional trip to the old
country. Conspicuous amongst these visits was the
Northern Tour — throuorh Scotland — which he made
at the instance of his fast friend the late Lord Kintore,
and that appeared in the " New Sporting Magazine"
a work which he joined soon after it was started.
Durinof his exile he also contributed in turn to the
"Sporting Review" and the "Sportsman;" amongst his

* Nimrod told the writer, very shortly before his death, that he had
huuted with seventy-three or seventy-four different packs ot hounds.

A NOTICE OF NIMROD. ii

more memorable articles being the " French Tour,"
the "Life of John Mytton," the "Crack Riders of
England," " Hunting: Counties and Masters of
Hounds," " INIy Horses," a "Tour in the Midlands,"
a " Memoir of John Ward," and the " Life of a
Sportsman." The last named of these was the only
work of fiction Nimrod ever attempted, and this is
the fiction of fact, for almost all the incidents em-
bodied in the story occurred either to his friends or
himself. Profusely illustrated, it makes a very hand-
some volume, and indeed nearly all his papers of
any length have been republished in a separate form.

Another great hit during Nimrod's banishment,
was his engagement with the " Quarterly Review," on
which he entered so soon as he was in a position to
do so. The appearance of such papers in such a
place tended still to increase his reputation, and
Nimrod's name became more famous than ever.
But the authorship was not for a time known, and
the article on the "Chase" was, in the first instance,
attributed to Lord Alvanley ; though a critic, on run-
ning his eye over the " Road," confidently declared,
"Either the devil or Nimrod wrote this!" The
effect was quite sensational. Country rectors wrote
to the Editor in remonstrance ; and Bishops in

A NOTICE OF NIMROD.

encouragement, bidding Mr. Lockliart go on. A
leading Meltonian confessed to having gone three
times through the run over Leicestershire before he
could put down the number ; and another reader,
fascinated by the description of the race for the
Derby, exclaimed, " This fellow dips liis pen in
magic ! for I can hear the horses breathe, and the silk
jackets rustle, as they go by me."

Hitherto Nimrod had been regarded as rather a
class man ; but now they were all at him, and he wrote
frequently for "Fraser," for the "New Monthly," the
"Encyclopaedia Britannica," the "Morning Herald"
newspaper, and a variety of other publications. So
continually w'as he engaged, that the inconvenience
of living abroad became very great, and he returned
with his family to England in the beginning of the
year 1843. But, as he himself often said, this
was only like the hare doubling back to die in her
own country, for his decease occurred in Pimlico on
the 19th of the following May, after only a few days'
illness, and in the sixty-fifth year of his age.

As a successful writer on sporting topics Nimrod
will always stand alone. He made the most of an
opening that can never occur again. He has
naturally had his followers, but how many attempts

A NOTICE OF NIMROD. 13

at even the hunting tours have broken down ! and
how many a book has since been built upon his
foundations! In some proof of his influence it may be
cited that, during the twenty years he wrote, the
fortune of one sporting magazine was made, and three
others started in opposition, but that within a short
period of his decease these all centred again in one
proprietorship. The writer of this sketch had the
pleasure of knowing him intimately for years, and a
more delightful companion was never met with. His
works were a reflection of himself — abounding in
anecdote and quick observation ; his knowledge of
men and horses being coupled with a certain sim-
plicity of manner which has been well said to be an
attribute of true greatness. He was, moreover, a very
handsome man, with a particularly pleasing expres-
sion, admirably caught in Maclise's portrait. At an
earlier period, just on his advent in life, he has been
as happily portrayed by the pen : —

" Nimrod was one of the most fascinating persons
I ever saw ; his figure perfect, light and active, his
features handsome, his complexion clear, and glowing
with health, contrasted by his dark, closely-curling
hair, and eyes that sparkled with arch intelligence and
humour ; his countenance beaming with good-nature

14 A NOTICE OF i\I.\rROD.

and gaiety. He was truly a sianiy person ; always
prompt to oblige and promote the pleasure of his
friends ; full of harmless fun and humour ; much
readiness in conversation, with observation of cha-
racter, and the sort of descriptive power that has
since been recognised in his writinofs."

One of his essential qualifications was, no doubt,
this talent to amuse, but Nimrod can take his stand
on higher ground. His writings have done much to
raise the character of field-sports, and to better the
condition of that noble animal the Horse.

H. C

THE

LIFE AND DEATH

OF

JOHN MYTTON, Esq.

PART I.

Ubi plura nitent. — HoR.

T T may be unnecessary, perhaps, to go beyond five
centuries back for the pedigree of John Mytton. No
one, I believe, ever doubted his being quite thorough-
bred. In fact, no half-bred one could have done much
more than half what he did in the space of his short
life ; but, as I have before said of him, " nil violenhim,
est perpetimvi " — " 'tis the pace that kills " — and he
was no exception to the rule. It having, however,
been stated in the newspapers, that he had represented
the ancient borough of Shrewsbury in Parliament, I
shall merely show that, if the ancient relation of his
family to a town of which their ancestors had been

1 6 LIFE OF MYTTON.

inhabitants and burgesses upwards of five centuries
— in addition to their ample estates in its immediate
neighbourhood — s.illl goes for anything, who had a
better ritjht to the honour than he had ? Lookinsf
back into the history of Shrewsbury, we find the
borough to have been thus represented : —

A.D. 1373 (reign of Edward III.) Reginold de
Mutton (Mutton was the original name) and
Richard de Pontesbury, members.

1377. Reginold de Mutton and William de Longe-
nolne, members.

1472. Thomas Mutton and John Hord, members.

149 1. William Mutton and Lawrence Hoyser, mem-
bers.

1520. Edmund Cole and Adam Mutton, members.

1529. Adam Mutton and Robert Dudley, members.

1554. Thomas Mytton (now first so called) and
Nicholas Purcell, members.

1690. Richard Mytton and Hon. Andrew Newport,
members.

1698. Richard Mytton and John Kynaston, members.

1 70 1. Ditto ditto ditto.

1702. Ditto ditto ditto.
1705. Ditto ditto ditto.

LIFE OF MYTTON. ,7

1 710. Richard Mytton and Edward Cresset, Esq.,
members.'"'

1734. John Mytton, grandfather to the subject of
this memoir, stood a severe contest for the
Borough, but was defeated by Sir Richard
Corbet, Bart, and WilHam Kynaston, Esq. ;
and the late John Mytton, Esq., was elected
member January 14, 18 19, having been
opposed by Panton Corbet, Esq., who soon
resigned the contest. Numbers — Mytton,
384 ; Corbet, 287.

In so highly an aristocratic county as Shropshire,
and one celebrated for its electioneering contentions,
these extracts may be sufficient to exhibit the par-
liamentary pretensions of this ancient family, and of
my departed friend.

In 1480, Thomas Mytton was high sheriff for
Shropshire, and apprehended the Duke of Bucking-
ham, who had rebelled against Richard the Third,
and conducted him to Salisbury, where, as his

* This election was the result of a very severe contest. The following
was the final state of the poll : — Mytton, 224 ; Edw.ird Cresset (ancestor
of Cresset Pelham, Esq., late M.P. for the county), 222 ; Thomas Jones-
(ancestor of Sir Tyrwhitt Jones, Bart.), 177 ; Sir Edward Leighton, Bart,

>3'-

B

1 8 LIFE OF MYTTON.

historian relates, he was instantly tried, condemned,
and executed, according to the summary method
practised in those ages. His reward for this very
important service is recorded in the Harleian MSS.,
No. 433 ; in which is an abstract of the Letters
Patent, whereby " King Richard the Third grants to
his trusty and well-beloved Squire, Thomas Mytton,
and to his heirs male, the Castle and Lordship of
Cawes, and all appurtenances thereto, amounting to
the value of fifty pounds, and late belonging to our
rebel and traitor, the late Duke of Buckingham."
This Thomas Mytton married one of the daughters
of Sir John Burgh, and was an immediate ancestor
of the subject of this memoir.

As has been shown, the first conspicuous ancestor
of this family was Reginold de Mutton, of Weston
Lizard, Shropshire, now represented through the
Wilbrahams and Newports, by the present Earl of
Bradford ; and it is in 1549 that we first find it seated
at Halston, when Sir Robert Townsend is stated to
have rented Mr. Mytton's large mansion at Cotow, he
— Mr Mytton — having removed to his more recent
purchase at Halston, or, as it was then called, Holy
Stone, much celebrated in history as the scene of
bloody deeds in the reign of the first Richard. At

LIFE OF MYTTON. 19

this ancient mansion there was a preceptory of
Knights Templars, and afterwards of the Knights
Hospitallers, under a grant from Queen Elizabeth
(who confirmed the alienation of the property from the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, to whom it was
given by an Earl of Arundel who possessed it after
the Norman conquest), when purchased, or rather
exchanged for, by Edward Mytton of Habberley.
There was also formerly an abbey in the village of
Halston, taken down more than a century ago ; but
there is the church or chapel of Halston now standing
on the domain, exempt from episcopal jurisdiction,
and without any other revenue than what the chaplain
may be allowed by the owner of it.

Having described ancient, I proceed to modern
Halston ; and, unless very fastidious indeed, my
readers will agree with me in thinking that it
ought to satisfy the desires of every moderate man.
In the first place, its location is good. Away from
any great road, it is within easy reach of two —
the London and Holyhead, and the Shrewsbury
and Chester — without being subjected to the incon-
venience of either ; and the lodge gates open
upon an excellent cross turnpike-road, leading from

LIFE OF MYTTON.

Oswestry* to Ellesmere — distant three miles from
the former town and five from the latter. Being
situated on a flat, the domain is deprived of some
of the advantages the extremely beautiful country
by which it is surrounded affords, but still the to7it
ensemble is good. In the front of the mansion is
a lawn, of about sixty acres of prettily diversified
grass-land, and behind it is a tastily-laid-out flower-
garden, contiguous to a fine tract of meadow land,
separated from it by a deeply sunken fence ; and
a noble sheet of water, with the old family chapel
at the head of it, gives a good finish to the land-
scape. When I say that the oak is the weed of
that part of our island, I scarcely need add that,
in a domain of such antiquity as Halston, it is — •
I fear I must write was — to be seen in its full
majesty of form ; and no estate in the county
could produce finer oaks than those which adorned
the Halston woods. I can, indeed, speak to the
fact of one which was cut down, about eight years
back, containing ten tons of timber, without top or

• There is now, of course, a railway running through Oswestry, which
is a first-class station on the Welsh Coast line.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 21

lop ! The plantations, also, all made by Mr. Mytton,
and to the extent of three miles, nearly encircle
the domain, and afforded shelter to the superfluity
of game which it was his ambition to possess.

The mansion-house, without pretensions to mag-
nificence, is replete with every comfort and con-
venience for a country gentleman's establishment ; and
is much more commodious than it appears to be,
from the offices being for the most part detached.
It contains a hall, in which there was a billiard-
table, with a library on one side and Mr. Mytton's
dressing-room on the other; and an excellent dining
and two drawing-rooms, connected with each other
by double doors, complete the downstairs suite.
There also was — oh ! I write that word with sorrow
— a small but excellent collection of pictures, which
the catalogue of them showed had been collected with
great care, as ornaments to these, now naked, walls ;
and a thousand guineas were offered, in my presence,
for one of them,* but nobly refused by the owner
of it. The gardens are most excellent, and, to
complete the sketch of this, to me, sort of earthly
paradise, there is in the grounds surrounding the

* " Joseph Escaping from Potiphar's Wife."

82 LIFE OF MYTTON.

house, not only a rookery, but a heronry — very rare
in that part of the world, and every description of
shooting and fishing that the follower of such sports
could require. The surrounding country is also quite
upon a par with the "'provincials" — if not better
than most — for either fox-hounds or harriers.

The property of Mr. Mytton has been a good deal
exaggerated, both as regards the annual value of his
estates, and the sum accumulated in his minority,
which was to the extent of seventeen years. I have
good reason to believe that the former (though it
increased afterwards) was under ten thousand a year,
and that the latter amounted to about 60,000/.
Independently of the Halston and Habberly estates,
which are in entail, there were three other properties
in Shropshire, and one in North Wales of about
800/. per annum, with a manor and right of free
warren, — each very rare in the Principality, and the
latter very rare everywhere ; but alas ! they are lost
in the general wreck. The Welsh domain will be
described when I touch on the subject of shooting.

Having done with the mansion, we will now
proceed to the proprietor of it, who, being born on
the 30th of Sept. 1 796, was left fatherless before he
was two years old ; and, as if there was a disposition

LIFE OF MYTTON. 33

in his predecessors to drop into an early grave,
neither his grreat-frrandfather nor his grandfather
lived to see a son come of age. As I can only
just remember the father of Mr. Mytton, I am
unable to estimate, in this individual instance, the
loss of a father to a son in his infant state ; but in
most cases, with heirs to large estates, it is irre-
parable. It is written of the Gracchi that they were
educated " noii tarn in gremio quant in serinone
matris ;" * and, although it is not every mother that.
is a Sempronia, their history informs us they were-,
very little the better for it, if not a great deal the-
worse. We cannot marvel at this. When the plant:
is young and tender, a gentle force will incline
it to whichsoever way we may wish, but ere it has^
even attained its full growth it very unwillingly bends-
to our hand ; and thus it is with human kind. The
excessive tenderness of a fond mother is no match
for the wayward temper of a darling boy, and how
often is his ruin to be traced to this source ! In
the weakness of her affection she is unable to say
"No;" and she only finds out when it is too late.

* It is difficult to render this passage literally ; but it implies that
the Gracchi were not onl>' nursed, but in part educated, by theii
mother.

24 LIFE OF MVTTON.

that the object of her affection will neither bridle
his passions nor restrain his actions at her bidding;
nor indeed, as was unfortunately the case with
the memorable subject of this memoir, at that of
any other human being. But was not such always
the case ? The Lacedaemonian lawgiver, at all
events, was of this opinion, when he ordered the
two hounds to be brought into court to illustrate
his argument in favour of moral restraint. One
took after a hare, and the other ran to his dinner,
as each had in his youth been instructed to do.
" There," said the Spartan, " is the effect of early
discipline ; those animals were whelps of the same
litter, but the difference of education has made one
a good hound, that seldom misses his game, whereas
his brother is a cur, fit for nothing but to lick the
dishes." And thus it is in the stable.

" Fingit equum teiiera docilem cervice magister
Ire viam, quam monstrat eques," —

writes Horace, when he shows that the temper of
the horse depends upon his treatment when a colt.
It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that,
before he was ten years old. Master Mytton was as
finished a Pickle as the fondest mother and his own

LIFE OF MYTTON. 25

will could possibly have made him. Indeed his
neighbour, Sir Richard Puleston, with a felicity
of expression peculiarly his own, christened him
Mango, the king of the Pickles, and he proved
his title to the honour even to the end of his life.
But Master Mytton was withal a wonderful favourite
in his neighbourhood, because all his actions were
tempered with kindness, as indeed they were to his
very last hour. But how am I to describe the whole
career of his infant state, his scholastic progress, and
his academical honours ? Why the task is performed
in a few words. He was expelled Westminster * and
Harrow ; knocked down his private tutor in Berk-
shire, in whose hands he was afterwards placed ; was
entered on the books of both universities, but did not
matriculate at either, and the only outward and visible
sign of his ever intending to do so, was his ordering
three pipes of port wine to be sent addressed to him
at Cambridge. At the age of eighteen, however,
he went a tour on the Continent by way of some-

* Here he spent 800/. a yenr, exactly double his allowance. In some
proof of how utterly inadequate this was, it may be mentioned that he
wrote to Lord Eldon, as Lord Chancellor, requesting an increase of
income, as he was going to be married — being about fourteen years of
age at the time ! The reply of his legal guardian was sufficiently
laconic : — " Sir, if you cannot live on your allowance, you may starve ;
and if you many 1 will commit you to prison.''

«6 LIFE OF MYTTON.

thing like " the finish ; " and then returned to
Halston, and his harriers, which he had kept when
he was a child.

But we will now look on him when a man ! As
the proud recollections of the Roman fathers often
disturbed the dreams of their sons, it is possible
that our hero, although I never heard him speak
of him, might have cherished the recollection of
the renowned General Mytton, and wished to
signalise himself, as he had done, in arms. Be
this as it may, at the age of nineteen, he entered,
as a Cornet, the 7th Hussars, and joined them in
France with the army of occupation. But as by
this time all fighting was at an end, Cornet Mytton
made himself signal in sundry other ways. A
heavy purse and an open hand are by no means
necessary qualifications in a soldier ; and it was
very unlikely that he, above all men, having only
a few months to wait for being in full possession
of his property, should keep without the magic
circle, and not enter into all kinds of youthful
mischief. Some of his feats were of a nearly harm-
less nature, such as his racing exploits — himself the
jockey ; his borrowing 3000/. of a banker at St.
Omer one day, and losing half of it the next at

LIFE OF MYTTON. 27

a rascally E. O. table, which he demolished to atoms
as some satisfaction for his loss ; but his doings
at Calais at this period were of a more serious
nature. He lost the immense sum of sixteen thou-
sand Napoleons to a certain Captain, at billiards,
which sum he could not then pay. But the score
was wiped off in a more agreeable manner. It
being suspected to have been a cross, which no
doubt it was, the Colonel of his regiment, the late
Marquess of Anglesea, then Earl of Uxbridge, for-
bade his paying the money ; and with any other
man but John Mytton, such authority would have
been conclusive. He, however, afterwards entered
into correspondence with his opponent which led
to the publication of pamphlets and placards ; but
a later transaction, in which that person's conduct
was implicated, proved how right Lord Anglesea
was in his decision, and how wrong the victim
was in ever holding a communication with his
destroyer.

Quitting the army, and in his twenty-third year,
he entered for the first time into the marriage
state, and his wedding was thus announced in the
Shrewsbury papers : —

"On the 2ist May, 1818, at St. George's, Han-

28 LIFE OF MYTTON.

over Square, by the Rev. William Douglas, Prebend
of Westminster, John Mytton, of Halston, in this
county, Esq., to Harriet Emma Jones, eldest daugh-
ter of the late Sir Tyrvvhitt Jones, Bart, of Stanley
Hall, in this county, and sister to the present Sir
Tyrwhitt Jones, Bart. The bridegroom was at-
tended by the Earl of Uxbridge, the Earl of Den-
bigh, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart., Colonel
Sir Edward Kerrison, &c., &c. After the ceremony
they reLurned to the house of Lady Jones, in New
Norfolk Street, where a most elegant breakfast was
provided ; and from thence the happy couple imme-
diately left London for the seat of the Duke of
Marlborough at Blenheim. Among the company
present were the Duchess of Marlborough and Lady
Caroline Churchill, Sir Jolin and Lady Dashwood
and Miss Dashwood, Sir Edward and Lady Kerri-
son, Lord and Lady Say and Sele and Miss Twisle-
ton. General and Mrs. Gascoyne and Miss Gas-
coy ne, the Marquess of Blandford and Lord Charles
Churchill, Mr., Mrs., and Miss Leigh, Sir Tyrwhitt
Jones, Mr. and Mrs. Patton Bold and the Misses
Bold, and many other persons of distinction."

The issue of this marriage was only one daughter,
who for some time resided with Mrs. Corbet, of

LIFE OF MYTTON. 29

Sundorne Castle, Shropshire, widow of the ever-to-
be-revered John Corbet, who so many years hunted
Warwickshire. Mrs. Mytton, whose state of health
was always delicate, died a few years after her
marriage. Mr. Mytton had but one sister, who was
married to the present Sir John Hesketh Leth-
bridge, Bart., then an eldest son, in March, 18 17,
and she ceased to exist in the same month of the
year 1826, leaving two sons and four daughters.
She was not only truly elegant in her person, but
very highly accomplished, and of a singularly mild
and amiable disposition ; and those who wish for a
conhrmation of the eulogium I have passed upon
her, may satisfy themselves by referring to the
Gentleman's Magazine for October 1826, page 357;
where her character is very faithfully sketched in
some lines from the pen of a female friend, a
niece to the present Bishop of Norwich. Mytton
had a great respect for this amiable sister, but
would never take her advice, nor indeed that of
any living soul.

Both in person and in mind the gifts of nature
were amply bestowed upon Mr. Mytton. In fact,
he possessed what are called the animal faculties to
a degree seldom witnessed ; and had he been com-

30 LIFE OF MYTTON,

monly temperate In his mode of living, he might, bar-
ring accidental death, have attained a very advanced
age. The biceps muscle of his arm was larger than
that of Jackson's, the celebrated pugilist, and those
of every other part of his body were equally exu-
berant and powerful. Unfortunately, however, for
himself, and often so for his companions, he was, like
Cleanthes of old, proud of displaying his strength ;
but fortunately for mankind he would not, like
Cleanthes, be instructed in the art of boxing, or he
would have been still more formidable with his fists.
As it was, in a " turn up," he was what is called a
very awkward customer, and when he could get at
him he knocked down his man as if he had been
a nine-pin. But he was nearly ignorant of the
science of self-defence, and, as I have already ob-
served, never attempted to attain it. His bull-dog
courage, however, added to his tremendous blow,
enabled him to beat any ordinary man ; and so well
was his prowess known, that few ventured to en-
counter him. He had not a handsome face, but
by no means an unpleasing countenance ; and, with-
out having practised the graces, the air and char-
acter of the gentleman were strongly impressed on
his carriage. His shoulders were finely formed, with

LIFE OF MYTTON. ji

a very expanded chest — height, about five feet nine
inches ; weight, varying in the last twelve years of
his life, from eleven to thirteen stone.

I should think the best battle he ever fought
was in 1826, with a countryman — a Welsh miner—
who offended him by holloaing the harriers of Mr.
Nicholls, of Crumpwell, near Oswestry, to a fresh
hare, when they were on the scent of the hunted
one, and on the point of killing her after an
extraordinary run. The miner told him he would
find him " a tough un," which he did ; but after
twenty rounds he cried, " Hold hard, enough."
And now appears Mytton in his true character.
The hunted hare being eventually killed, he gave
the miner ten shillings, told him to go to Halston
and get " another bellyful," and to order the hare
to be cooked for dinner that day.

Never was constitution so murdered as Mr.
Mytton's was ; for, what but one of adamant could
have withstood the shocks, independent of wine,
to which it was almost daily exposed ? His dress
alone would have caused the death of nine hundred
of a thousand men who passed one part of the
day and night in a state of luxury and warmth.
We will take him from the sole of his shoe to

LIFE OF MYTTON.

the crown of his hat. He never wore any but
the thinnest and finest silk stockings, with very
thin boots or shoes, so that in winter he rarely had
dry feet. To flannel he was a stranger since he left
off his petticoats. Even his hunting-breeches were
without lining ; he wore one small waistcoat, always
open in the front from about the second of the lower
buttons ; and about home he was as often without his
hat as with one. His winter shooting gear was a
light jacket, white linen trousers, without lining or
drawers, of which he knew not the nse ; and in frost
and snow he waded through all water that came in his
way. Nor is this all. He would sometimes strip to
his shirt to follow wild-fowl in hard weather, and
once actually laid himself down on the snow in his
shirt only to wait their arrival at dusk. But Dame
Nature took offence at this, and chastised him rather
severely for his daring. On one occasion, however,
he out-heroded Herod, for he followed some ducks
'' in piiris naticralidns"' — Anglice, stark-naked — on the
ice,* and escaped with perfect impunity. He was
the only man I ever knew who I think, at one time

* This occurred at Woodhouse, the seat of his uncle, who related the
story to me in London, the circumstance having occurred since I last
visited Shropshire.

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 33

of his life, might have stood some chance of perform-
inof the errand Osbaldeston match over Newmarket,
from the ease with which he performed immense
distances on the road on his hacks. He would ride,
several times in the week, to covers nearly fifty miles
distant from Halston, and return thither to his
dinner. Neither could any man I ever met in the
field walk through the day with him at Ids pace. I
saw him, on his own moors in Merionethshire,
completely knock up two keepers (who accompanied
him alternately), being the whole day bareheaded
under a hot sun. (One of these keepers — whom I
procured for him in Cheshire — was rather a crack
walker, and a noted man with his fist.) He had
the stomach of an ostrich before it was debilitated
by wine, and even against that it stood nearly proof
to the last, but it appears he once met with his
match. Himself and a friend left London together
with eighteen pounds of filbert-nuts in his carriage,
and they devoured them all before they arrived at
Halston. To use his own words, they sat up to their
knees in nut shells. But it was often alarmino- to wit-
ness the quantity of dry nuts he would eat, with the
quantity of port wine which he would drink ; and
on my once telling him, at his own table, that the ill-

34 LIFE OF MYTTON.

assorted mixture caused the deatli of a schoolfellow
of mine,* he carried a dish of filberts into the
drawing-room with him, for the purpose of "clearing
decks," as he said. Among other peculiarities, he
never carried a pocket-handkerchief, for he never
had occasion for the use of one ; he very rarely wore
gloves, for his hands were never cold ; and although
he never wore a watch, he always knew the hour.

Mr. Mytton was a great favourite with the shop-
keepers of Shrewsbury and Oswestry, and among
others of a sporting hairdresser at Shrewsbury, to
whom he often gave a day's shooting. This man
was his chief purveyor of filberts, and having an
lunlimited order for the purchase of them about the
country, declared that, in one season, he sent to
Halston as viany as iwo carl-loads of I hem ! As
may be supposed, in return for pheasants and hares,
the barber's shop was now and then the scene of a
" lark." Entering it one evening, Mytton asked
what he could have to drink } but before an answer
could be given him, he snatched up a bottle of

* When mentioning this fact, I was quite unconscious that General
WiUiams, who was present, was brother to the youth I alluded to.
" You are speaking of a brother of mine," said the General. " Volat
irrevocabile verbum ; " I had nothing left but to apologise.

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 35

lavender water, and, knocking off the head of it,
drank it off at a draught, saying, "It was a good
preservative against the bad effects of night air." I
shall presently show that this was not his last per-
formance in this way.

That John Mytton saw his thirty-eighth year
must be attributed either to the good genius that
accompanied him, or to the signal interposition of
Providence, for scarcely a day passed over his head
in which he did not put his life to the hazard.
Some of his escapes, indeed, border closely on the
miraculous, but it would fill a volume were I to
enumerate them. How often has he been run away
with by horses in gigs ! How often struggling in
deep water, without being able to swim ! How was
it that he did not get torn to pieces in the countless
street-broils in which he was engaged ; * and lastly,
how did he avoid being shot in a duel ? The latter
question is soon answered — he 7icver Joiiglit one. In
fact, he was always considered somewhat of a man of

*In the literal sense of the term, he was once nearly divided 'm\.o two
John Myttons, at a race meeting in Lancashire, for which offence — as
well as an attempt to rob him — one man was transported. One party of
thieves wanted to pull him into a house, and the other out of it, so be-
tween both he was nearer being quartered than divided, and nothing but
the great strength of his frame saved him.

LIFE OF MYTTON.
3*

license In society, and although no one doubted his
standing fire, if called upon, it Is my firm persuasion
nothlng'would have Induced him to have aimed at a
man to destroy him. In the saddle, too, he ran
prodigious risks for his life, not only by riding at
apparently impracticable fences, with hounds, but
in falling from his horses when intoxicated. For
the former of these acts he was for many years so
notorious, that it was a common answer to the
question, whether a certain sort of fence could be
leaped, or whether any man would attempt it ?—
that U would do for Mytton. And his style of
driving was equally remarkable. Whenever the
country people saw a carriage or tandem going along
at a greater speed than usual, they would cry out,
.'There goes Mytton!" and run to the road-side
to give him a cheer. He once actually galloped at
full speed over a rabbit-warren, to try whether or
not his horse would fall, which of course he did,
and rolled over him. This perfect contempt of
danger was truly characteristic of himself; but, not
content with the possession of it, he endeavoured to
impart it to his friends. As he was one day driving
one of them in a gig, who expressed a strong regard
for his neck, with a hint that he considered it m

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 37

some danger, Mytton addressed him thus: — "Were
you ever much hurt, then, by being upset in a
gig ? " " No, thank God," said his companion,
" for I never was upset in one." " What ! " re-
pHed Mytton ; " never upset in a gig ? What a
d — d slow fellow you must have been all your
life ! " and running his near wheel up the bank, over
they both went, fortunately without either being
much injured !

Shortly after Mr. Mytton attained his majority,
he gave a horse-dealer, named Clarke, of Meole, in
Shropshire, an order to purchase for him some
carriage-horses. Putting one of them into a gig
tandem, to see, as he expressed himself, " whether
he would make a good leader," he asked the dealer,
who sat beside him, if he thoitght he was a good
timber-jtimperf On the dealer expressing a doubt,
Mytton exclaimed, " Then we'll try him ; " and a
closed turnpike-gate (at Hanwood) being before
him, he gave the horse his head, and a flanker
with his whip at the same moment, when he cleared
the gate in beautiful style, leaving Mytton and the
dealer, and the other horse, all on the nether side
of the gate ; and fortunately all alive, although the
gig was much injured. He once had a horse that

38 LIFE OF MYTTON.

would rear up in his gig at the word of command,
until the hinder part of it absolutely touched the
ground ; and, although he was much given to dis-
play this dangerous accomplishment, no accident
was the result.

I was myself once passing through the town of
Oswestry, only two hours too late to have witnessed
a most singular performance of a team of coach-
horses of his, which he had been exercising in a
break. Finding they had the better of him, he con-
trived to quit the carriage without injury, and the
horses being at liberty, ran at full speed into the
town. Unfortunately a gateway was in their course,
into which they dashed, and now for the finish.
The said gateway led into a parallel street, but,
narrowing as it lengthened, there was, towards the
further end of it, room for the horses, but not for
the carriage to pass. The consequence was, the
four horses, breaking all their harness by the shock,
tumbled head over heels into the street, and, strange
to say, not one of them was killed.

Perhaps the most extraordinary accident that ever
happened to this most extraordinary man was on his
return, after dark, from a race-course, in his travel-
ling carriage and four. The postboys mistook an

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 39

old road, which had been stopped-up, for the right
one ; and entered it, dowji hill too, at the rate of
fourteen miles in the hour, when they came sud-
denly in contact with some fallen trees, which were
placed across it as a barrier. The force of the
shock may be imagined ; the carriage was broken
to pieces ; the servant was pitched from his seat
to a very considerable distance, sustaining a fracture
of the skull from the fall ; and Mytton was a good!
deal hurt — any other man, perhaps, would have beeni
killed, as he was fast asleep at the time. The fate-
of the horses and the boys I do not at this moment
recollect; but the servant — who, by good conduct^
was promoted by degrees to the post of valet-de-
chambre to Mr. Mytton from being a boy in my
stable — has, I fear, never recovered from the effects
of this dire mishap. On another occasion, when
I was on a visit at Sir Bellingham Graham's, the
night being very dark, the postboy conducted Mytton
into a meadow, instead of taking a short turn in
the road ; and, after driving- him around it a grreat
many times without being able to find his way out,
he left him in his carriage, whilst he went back to
Sir Bellingham's for a lanthorn. As the household
were all gone to rest, the Squire of Halston must

40 LIFE OF MYTTON.

have had a good many turns round the meadow ;
hwt, fortunately for the posiboy, he never awoke.

Mr. M)'tton appeared, at least wished to be sup-
posed to be, indifferent to pain. A very few days
after he had had so bad a fall with his own hounds
as to occasion the dislocation of three ribs, and was
otherwise much bruised, a friend in Wales, uncon-
scious of his accident, sent him a fox in a bag, with
a hint that, if turned out on the morrow, he would
be sure to afford sport, as he was only just caught.
" To-morrow, then," said Mytton, " will we run him ;"
and although he was lifted upon his horse, having
his body swathed with rollers, and also writhing
with pain, he took the lead of all the field, upon
the horse he called " The Devil," and was never
headed by any man, till he killed his fox, at the
end of a capital hour's run. He was very near
fainting from the severity of this trial ; but I re-
member his telling me, he would not have been seen
to faint for ten thousand pounds.

Upon another somewhat similar occasion, he
showed his disregard of pain. He was on his re-
turn from the field, with two of his ribs displaced,
and evidently suffering much from a fall. To en-
able him to cut off an angle, he got into a fold-

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LIFE OF MVTTON. 41

yard, but could not get out of it unless by riding
over some high rails, which he did, in that state.

In the hilarity of high animal spirits he performed
some feats that were ludicrous, and others that were
painful to witness. Amongst the former was his
appearance with Lord Derby's stag-hounds, when he
was taken for a London tailor. Happening to be in
town in the hunting season, he had a desire to see
those celebrated hounds, and Tilbury sent out a horse
for the purpose. On his arrival at the place of
meeting in a cab, which he had driven at an awful
rate, he attracted the notice of the throng, to all of
whom, save one, he was a stranger. " What a buck
he is ! " said one. " Who the d — 1 is he ? " said
another. " He is a iailor ffom Lo)ido7i," S2.\d sewcraX,
all of which remarks were carefully re-echoed to him
by his friend. Mytton said nothing, but the tables
were soon turned when Lord Derby's carriage drove
up. " What, Mytton ! " exclaimed Lord Stanley, *
" who would have thought of seeing yo7i here .-* " —
putting out his hand to welcome him. " Why, to
tell you the truth, Stanley," said Mytton, " I have
ridden over many a good fellow in my own country,

• Now Earl of Derby.

42 LIFE OF MYTTON.

but I never rode over a Cockney, and I am come
here to-day for that sole purpose."

Mis treatment of a London Jew money-lender was
not amiss. Being wearied by delay, he hired two
coal-heavers to knock at his door every second hour
throughout the night, until the money was forth-
coming. But this anecdote furnishes a painful recol-
lection on the subject of money lending. A few
years back he borrowed ten thousand pounds on an
annuity at high interest, and lent nine of it to a friend
who has never been seen in Europe since ! This,
although a type of the man, is no matter for joking ;
but the following may be looked upon as frolics.
He had a parson and a doctor dining with him one
evening at Halston, and at a certain hour of the
night they mounted their horses to return to their
homes. Having a carter's frock, and a brace of
pistols loaded with blank cartridges, at hand, Mytton
mounted a hack, and by a circuitous route headed
and met them on the road, when letting fly both
barrels at them, and calling to them to " stand and
deliver," he declared they never rode half so fast in
their lives as they did from that place to Oswestry,
with himself at their heels. He once stopped and
robbed, on this same road, his own butler, who was

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 43

returning from the town with a sum of money he had
just received from the agent. The man had boasted
that no one should ever rob liim ; but on Mytton
suddenly putting a pistol to his head by the green
gates, he meekly gave up both the money and his
watch. Mytton was fond of, as well as very good
at, disguising himself, in wlich way he played off
another trick on the butler. Strolling one summer's
evening about his grounds, he came across a beggar
who was taking his road up to the house. The
Squire at once proposed that they should exchange
clothes, or, at least, their outer garments, and the
other being naturally nothing loath, the metamor-
phosis was quickly completed. Bidding the man stay
where he was, and with a tattered hat han-jinof over
his eyes, and otherwise capitally got-up, he returned
to the Hall, where but a few minutes previously he
had been seen sitting at the dinner-table. Here he
begged in vain of his own servants ; they only jeered
at him ; but, at length, on his asking for something
to drink, they offered him the dregs of a barrel,
which he indignantly refused. " You fare too well,"
said he, " and get saucy in your places, or you, who
can have so much eood wholesome beer whenever
you choose, would never give a fellow-creature such

44 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Stuff as this." Some of the household now began to
fight a little shy, but the butler, hearing the noise,
came out at once and ordered the sturdy mendicant off
the place, threatening to, if he did not actually, send
for the constables. But, in the interim, imprudently
venturing to put his hand on the beggar's shoulder,
Mytton sent him reeling, as he did one or two more
of the men who came to their superior's assistance.
They then let the dogs loose, when he at once rushed
off to the bear, who more readily recognised her
master, and, released from her chains, raised herself
on her haunches in his defence. This let out the
secret, as none but Mytton would have dared to have
done so much with Nell, as she was called ; and often
afterwards, greatly to the butler's and the other ser-
vants' annoyance, would the small-beer story be told
against them. Then, again, during harvest-time,
Mytton went, in the garb of a countryman, to Jones
at the Queen's Head, at Oswestry, and asked for
work. The terms being agreed to at so much a
week for the job, the master stood a pot of strong
beer to bind the bargain, and then the new hand
quickly called for another, which he seasoned with
brandy. It, of course, ended in his getting very
riotous, and, when just about to thrash the landlord,

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 45

who was going to turn him out, a customer recog-
nised the Squire, and the joke happily resulted in no
serious consequences to those upon whom it was
tried. On another occasion he was told that the late
George Underhill, the celebrated Shropshire horse-
dealer, was in his house, on his road from Chester
fair. Sendingf for him into his dininof-room, he made
him excessively drunk, and put him to bed with two
buU-dog^s and the bear ! He once rode this bear into
his drawino-room in full hunting costume. The
animal carried him very quietly for a certain time ;
but, on being pricked by the spur, she bit her rider
through the calf of his leg, inflicting a severe wound.
The mention of this bear reminds me of another
amusino^ anecdote. Havinsf sent one of his stable-
boys with a hack to meet a friend who was coming
by a coach, the latter exclaimed, on riding into the
Halston stable-yard, "Ah! bruin V — alluding to the
bear. " Oh yes, sir," observed the lad, " we always
brews twice a- week at Halston." What I am now
going to relate I know not how to define, for in most
people's opinion it rather exceeds a joke. As we
were eating some supper one night in the coffee-room
of the hotel at Chester, during the race week, a
gentleman, who was a stranger to us all, was standing

46 LIFE OF MYTTON.

with his back to the fire, talking very loudly, having
drunk too much wine. " I'll stop him," said Mytton ;
and getting behind him unperceived, put a red-hot
coal into his pocket !

But I have a better, inasmuch as it was a more
harmless, joke, to relate with respect to George
Underhill, the dealer. He rode over one day to
Halston, to dun Mr. Mytton for his demand upon
him, which, I believe, was rather a large one. After
having been made comfortable in the steward's
room, Mytton addressed him thus : — " Well, George,
here (handing him a letter) is an order for all
your money. Call on this gentleman, as you pass
through Shrewsburj', and he will give it to you in
full." Now this gentleman — also a banker — was
one of the governors of the Lunatic Asylum, and
the order for payment ran thus : —

HALSTON.

Sir,

Admit the bearer, George Underhill, into
the Lunatic Asylum.

Your obedient servant,

John Mytton.

The mention of the trick he paid the Jew money-

LIFE OF MYTTON. 47

lender bears a resemblance to one he paid a toll-
keeper near his own house, who had demanded and
received double toll from him on the score of its
being past twelve o'clock at night, whereas it was
only just eleven, and the toll had been once before
paid during the day. Although it was a bitter cold
night, Mytton waited till the gate-keeper was warm
in his bed, and then repassed the gate, of course
without paying again. Nor did the frolic end here.
No sooner was the fellow once more in bed, than
the word " Gate ! " again resounded in his ears ;
and finding out whom he had to deal with, he
gladly returned the money, and enjoyed the rest
of the night in repose.

The history of this bear may not be unworthy of
notice. Mytton purchased her (it was a female)
when very young, together with a monkey, from a
strolling showman who was passing through Elles-
mere, a town five miles distant from Halston, for
the sum of thirty-five pounds for the two. Having
been upwards of seven years in his possession,
and handled at an early age, the former was toler-
ably tractable for an animal so naturally savage ;
but she was not to be trifled with by strangers.
It was indeed in consequence of her injuring one

48 LIFE OF MYTTON.

of the servants of the establishment that Mytton
ordered her to be put to death, which, as fire-arms
were not resorted to, was said to have been a very
difficult undertaking. In self-defence she severely
wounded one of her assailants.

The death of the monkey was quite in character
with his life — bordering strongly on the ludicrous.
Like his master, Jacko was fond of his bottle, and
mistaking a jar of Day and Martin's blacking for
something of a more vinous quality, he drank so
freely of it as to produce an illness which deprived
him of his eye-sight, and eventually caused his
death. Many of his exploits have been related to
me, such as his performance, after hounds, on the
horse called " The Devil," but as I have no personal
knowledge of them, I am unwilling to give them
publicity. They bear too close a resemblance to
some old foe-Miller stories of the same amusino
animal; as do some similar tales of other " mounts"
on " The Devil."

It was said of Napoleon, that he wished to
banish the word ''impossible" from the French
Dictionary. Mytton must have had some such
desire ; for he once told me, at Halston, that he
had a filly in his racing stable which should win

>

en

< J
O ^

LIFE OF MYTTON. 49

the Oaks (she was named in those stakes), and
afterwards she Jierself should put ihun into his pocket.
On my ridiculing the idea, he said, — " Why not ?
Slie will now put both her hind feet into my
pockets, and why not her mouth ? " I accompanied
him to the stable, and to my horror witnessed the
latter exhibition. Mytton laid himself down at full
length under her belly, with his bare head between
her heels, and first taking up one foot, and then
the other, placed them both in the pockets of his
dressing-gown. William Dilly, his trainer, witnessed
all this as well as mj'self; but on his attempting
to take liberties with a horse called Oswestry, in
the next box, who was of a very different temper,
his worthy servant thus addressed him: "You will
do that once too often, sir, with this horse ; and,
good-tempered as she is, should your Oaks filly-
become alarmed, she will surely knock out your
brains." "Good advice, Mr. Dilly," said I, as 1
turned away from the awful scene, " but you may
spare your breath; John Mytton will be John-
Mytton ; he heareth not the voice of the charmer,
charm he never so wisely, and, like Homer's divini-
ties, is always in mischief."

But I must not do as Homer did by his heroes.

50 LIFE OF MYTTON.

make mine a savage. And yet how are we to de-
fine some of the darings and doings of tliis extra-
ordinary man ! For example, the following descrip-
tion ot an evening at Halston was given by me in
the "Sporting Magazine" some years back. After
describing a display of young foxes which were
brought into the dinner-room for inspection, I thus
proceed : — " We were now offered the company of
the bear, but to a man declined the honour. By
•way of a finish, however, we had one turn-up
ibetween a Spanish bull-dog and an animal called
Jilood — a cross between a Spanish bull-dog and an
iEnorlish mastiff ; when our host, thinkinor that Blood
•was getting bloody, and might kill the other dog,
ran at him and pinned him by the nose ; and,
although weighing more than seventy pounds, he
raised him from the ground with his teeth, holding
him suspended for at least a minute, without the
smallest assistance from his hands." Neither is this
a solitary instance of his contest with ferocious dogs.
Returning from hunting one day, he, with some
others, called to lunch at a farm-house called the
Berries, near Whitchurch, where there was a very
large and savage dog chained in the yard. " Pray
don't go near him, Mr. Mytton," said his owner,

f

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ca
a

ii;

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 51

" for he will tear you in pieces if you do." This
was enough for Mytton ; so pulling a silk hand-
kerchief out of the pocket of a friend, and lapping
it around his left hand, he advanced with it ex-
tended towards the dog, who immediately seized
it with his mouth. Reader— I fancy I see you
shudder ! but don't be alarmed ; and when you
hear the sequel, perhaps you will think that the
doe mieht have been the greater sufferer of the
two, provided blood had been drawn. Catching
him by the back of the neck, however, with his
right hand, Mytton instantly pinned the animal by
the nose with his teeth ; * and getting the other
hand at liberty, so pummelled his opponent that he
had scarcely any life left in him. As might be
expected, the dog never afterwards liked the look
of his brother bull-dog or even a red coat, but
slunk into his kennel on the approach of either one
or the other.

The terms good-natured and good-tempered are
very often confounded by being indiscriminately
applied to the same person or animal, whereas they

• The first mention of Mr. Mytton's name in any of Nimrod's writ-
ings is when, after Chester race week, he went back to Halston with his
friend, that "hard-riding, hard-dining, hard-going, hard-striking, hard-
biting, thorough-bred Briton ; " the hard-biting epithet having its appli-
cation in this anecdote.

52 LIFE OF MYTTOS.

admit of no inconsiderable distinction ; and we have a
striking instance here. Mytton, by nature, was kind
and beneficent to a degree very rarely witnessed. I
will not go so far as to say — what Crabbe's son says
of him — that " no sympathy was like his," yet, with
a pretended insensibility to the common sympathies
of our nature, he never saw misery that he did not
wish to relieve it. The conflicting elements of his
character, or, more properly speaking, some parts of
his conduct, may appear to give the lie to this ; yet
all who knew the man know that I have spoken the
truth, and the tears of the multitude that were shed
at his grave place it beyond dispute. In his temper
he was sudden and violent, and, like Achilles, impa-
tient of restraint ; yet his wrath endured but the
twinkling of an eye, and in forgiveness of injuries
he had no equal within my knowledge of mankind.
What a paradox then is here ! With all his native
goodness of heart, he appeared to wish to make the
world believe he cared no more than Dionysius for
the gods what the world thought or said of him ;
and although his good sense must have convinced
him that there is a profligacy of spirit in defying
the rules of decorum, he oftentimes acted as if he
considered every law, human or divine, of little

■od n?r

tie mo'

:"n two

him CI

m a mj

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'75

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 53

worth. But I say again — What a paradox is here !
The man who had no " i-egard to his good name "
left a good name behind him that will be remem-
bered and cherished in Shropshire for many, many
years to come, and for deeds that would have done
honour to an apostle. When I say that he was
charitable to the poor, and gave them two bushels
of wheat a week the year round, I give him credit
for little more than might be expected from a man of
his means, and of a nature generous to prodigality ;
but I have reason to believe no one knew half the
extent of his beneficent acts. 'Tis said of charity,
that it admits of no error but excess ; and to excess
did he often carry it, as I shall presently have occa-
sion to show. In fact, he was as extravagant in his
virtues as in his vices, — or, I would rather say, in his
failings. The perfection of man's moral nature is
said to be forgiveness of injuries, but Mytton went a
point beyond this. Even that hard injunction of the
Gospel, to love «;z enemy — the characteristic of a reli-
gion not of man, but of God, and that, as the author
of the " Adventurer " observes, " could have been
delivered as a precept only," for society could not
exist under its practice — was no paradox with him,
as I shall produce several instances to prove.

54 LIFE OF MYTTON.

But to return to his nature. Pythagoras, being
asked In what man could resemble the Divinity,
replied, " In beneficence and truth." Here, again,
we have a paradox. The man who sometimes
assumed the character of a fiend, and appeared to
strive against the native goodness of his heart,
answers to that of the Deity ; for inasmuch as his
beneficence was unquestionable, so was his veracity
unimpeachable. Setting aside jesting, in which none
dealt more largely — in fact, he was a sort of human
Sllenus — no man could with more safety be spoken
after than Mytton could. I am quite certain nothing
could have Induced him to have uttered a pre-
meditated untruth, for any unworthy purpose ; and
there was a good-humoured and affectionate sim-
plicity about him that rendered him a great favourite
in his neighbourhood. Again, he was no backbiter.
On the contrary, when he heard the " voice of
slander rankle on the ear," he always turned the
discourse, saying as my uncle Toby did, when his
Corporal was reckoning up all the rascals of his
regiment, " We will speak of this another time."
In his dealings with the world he was a man of
strict honour and probity ; and without justifying
his e\tra\'agance, I may be allowed to say that his

LIFE OF MYTTON. 55

chief concern, after the last estates he could sell were
disposed of, was not whether he himself might be
left destitute, but whether there would be enough to
pay his creditors in full. As a master he was kindest
of the kind, and a liberal and most considerate
landlord. Surely, then, this man must have been
either counterfeitinof a nature not his own, * or he
must have been, to a certain extent and on certain
points, a madman! No doubt he did the one ; and no
doubt he was the other !

The worst feature in poor Mytton's disposition-,,
and what may be termed the reigning error of his.
life, was, not only that he would not bow to reproof,,
much less kiss the rod, but he would suffer no maa
either to counsel or advise him. There was, how-
ever, none of " obsequmni ainicos, Veritas odium,
parit" that Terence speaks of, about him, for he
always received it in good part, being neither
flattered nor offended ; but he would not take ad-

* The following was related to me by the medical gentleman at
Oswestry who attended the accouchement of the first Mrs. Mytton :
— "Mr Mytton,'' said he, " w.is in the billiard room when I went to
inform him of the birth. ' What is it?' he inquired. On my telling
him it was a girl, he swore he would have it smothered ; but, throwing
himself on a sofa, gave vent to his feelings in a flood of tears, and his
anxiety for the well-doing of his wife would have done honour to any
man."

56 LIFE OF MYTTON.

vice even when given him by his sinccrest friends,
and with the purest and most disinterested motiv'es.
He always considered it an impeachment of his
understanding, generally exclaiming to those who
offered it, " What the d — 1 is the use of my having
a head on my own shoulders, if I am obliged to make
use of yours ? " But, unfortunately, at times his ears
were deaf to the voice of reason, as the following-
anecdote will show : — Previously to the disposal of
the first property that he sold, I happened to be at
Halston, and was about to accompany him to Lichfield
races, where each had horses to run. Just before we
set out, his aorent, the late Mr. Lono-ueville, of
Oswestry, arrived at the house, and wished to speak
to me. As nearly as I can recollect, the following
were his exact words : " I have reason to believe
you can say as much to Mr. Mytton as any man can ;
will you have the goodness to tell him you heard me
say, that if he will be content to live on 6000/. per
annum for the next six years, he need not sell the fine
old Shrewsbury estate that has been so many years
in his family, and at the end of that period he shall
not owe a guinea to any man ? " I fancy I see the
form and features of my old friend, with the manner in
which he received and replied to the flattering pro-

LIFE OF MYTTON. 57

position, and many others who knew him as well as I
did will also have the picture in their mind's eye.
Lollintr back in his carriaore, which was croino: at its
usual pace, and picking a hole in his chin, as he was
always wont to do when anything particularly occu-
pied his thoughts, he uttered not a syllable for the
space of some minutes ; when, suddenly changing his
position, as if rousing from a deep reverie, he ex-
claimed with vehemence, " You may tell Longueville
to keep his advice to himself, _/^r / would not give a
d — n to live on six thousand a year" Knowing his
regard and esteem for that worthy gentleman, it was
in vain to urge the subject any further, for there was
that in his manner which convinced me he was not
to be persuaded on this point by any man, — no, not
though one rose from the dead. Hence is his ruin
dated.

From the serious to the jocular is but a step,
and the mention of this circumstance leads to a joke.
A near relation was endeavouring to dissuade him
from parting with a certain estate, on the score of its
having been so long in the family. "How long.-*"
inquired Mytton. " Above five hundred years," was
the reply. " The d — 1 it has ! " he returned, " then
it is high time it should go out of ity

5 8 LIFE OF MYTTOiV.

With a perfect contempt for the splendour of
cold-hearted opulence, Mr. Mytton lived very mucli
like a gentleman at Halston, where everything was
in keeping with his fortune and station in life.
There was no unnecessary display — two men-ser-
vants out of livery, and two in livery, being the full
complement at the dinner-table, nor did he indulge in
the luxury of a man-cook. Although himself a per-
fect stranger to the science of economy, his establish-
ment was managed with considerable regularity ; and
notwithstanding the consumption of good things in
the servants' hall, for the number of stable servants
was great, it was not Halston that ruined him. It
was that " largeness of heart, even as the sand that
is on the sea shore," which Solomon possessed, but
unaccompanied by his means as well as by his wis-
dom, which ruined Mr. Mytton ; added to a lofty
pride which disdained the littleness ot prudence, and
a sort of destroying spirit that appeared to run
a-muck at Fortune. By a rough computation, and a
knowledge of the property he sold, I should set down
the sum total expended at very little less than half
a million sterling within the last fifteen years of his
life ! !

But how would this expenditure be accounted for

LIFE OF MYTTON. 59

if something like a schedule of his disbursements were
to be called for? The task would be an Herculean
one, but Horace would furnish a commentary upon it.
Some persons hunt, says he ; some race, some drink,
some do one thing and some another ; but Mytton,
in sporting language, was "at all in the ring." His
fox-hounds were kept by himself without any sub-
scription, and upon a very extensive scale, with the
additional expenses attending hunting two counties.
His racing establishment was on a still larger scale,
having often had from fifteen to twenty horses in
training at the same time, and seldom less than eight.
His average number, indeed, of thoroughbred stock
at home and from home, including brood-mares and
young things, was about thirty-six!"' His game
preserves were likewise a most severe tax upon his
income. Will it be credited that he paid one bill
of 1500/. to a London game-dealer for pheasants and
foxes alone ! The formation of three miles of plan-
tation which this game went, in part, to stock, must

• Mytton thus wrote of himself in the year 1825 : — " I own Longwaist,
and some fifty other thoroughbred ones ; a few hunters, a few hounds,
course a little, and sometimes fight a main of cocks." Longwaist was a
purchase ftom Mr. Fulwar Craven, almost as great "a cliaracter " as
John Mytton himself.

6o LIFE OF MYTTON.

have cost him an immense sum ; having had, for
several years, as many as fifty able-bodied labourers
in his employ ; while the keepers on the neighbour-
ing properties were commissioned to save all the
vermin they could for him, and week by week
men poured into Halston with sacks of badgers,
stoats, and polecats.

There is this line somewhere, though I cannot
recollect where —

" Dress drains our cellars dry , "

but such was not the case at Halston, and I believe
the satire applies to the ladies. It was hard to say,
however, which was the better stocked of the two,
Mr. Mytton's wardrobe or the Halston cellars. I
once counted a hundred and fifty-two pairs of
breeches and trousers, with a proportionate accom-
panim.ent of coats and waistcoats, in the former ; and
I think I, on another occasion, described the "hogs-
heads of ale, standing like soldiers in close column,
and wine enough in wood and bottle for a Roman
Emperor," in the latter. He made his own malt,
and John Mytton, Licensed Maltster, was painted
in large letters over the malt-house door. The
clothes he would put on his person just as they

LIFE OF MYTTON. 6i

came to his hand, or as his wild fancy prompted him ;
and I have seen liim nearly destroy a new coat at
once wearing. His shoes and boots, all London
make, and very light, were also destroyed in an
equally summary manner, in his long walks over the
country, through or over everything that came in his
way. It is impossible even to guess at his annual
expense in post-horses ; but every post-boy in Eng-
land lamented the fall of " Squire Mytton," their
very best customer. But he was rather hard on
them at times. Returning once from Warwick races
after sleeping at Birmingham, the pace, though
strong, was still not good enough ; and, after com
plaining in vain, Mytton abruptly ordered the post-
boys to stop. On their doing so he pulled one lad
off his horse, and his friend the other, and, packing
them into the chaise, the two travellers mounted in
their stead, and so finished the stage. The appearance
of the horses and the boys — for they had both been
badly used — told its tale, and the golden remedy had,
as usual, to be applied. On another occasion, with
the same companion, being late in getting to the
fixture with hounds, he ordered the post-boys to take
a short cut down a lane at Steele, near the Twem-
lows. There having, however, been just previously

62 LIFE OF MYTTON.

a very lieavy rain, this road was rendered impassable,
but Mytton would go on, until tlie chase at length
fairly stuck fast. There being no other conveyance
handy, the Squire jumped on one of the posters and his
friend on another, and with the traces hanging about
their heels, galloped up to the cover-side! If he was
a friend to post-boys, he was equally so to others
who served him, and often as he passed through
Birmingham, he never gave the waiter where he
stayed less than a guinea. I have reason to believe
that the money he has at various times lost (not at
play, for there I should say he was borne harmless *)
would have purchased a pretty estate. I am afraid
to say what was supposed to have been the amount
of bank-notes that were one night blown out of his
carriage on his road from Doncaster races, but I have
reason to believe it was several thousand pounds !
His account of the affair was this : He had been
counting a large quantity of bank-notes on the seat
of his carriage — in which he was alone — with all the
windows down ; and falling asleep, did not awake
until the night was far spent — his servant paying the

• He was a very dangerous man with a dice-box in his hand. Wine
gave him courage, which generally tells at hazard.

-^n

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£11

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LIFE OF MVTTON. 63

charges on the road. An equinoctial gale having
sprung up, carried great part of the notes away on
its wings, verifying the proverb of "light come, light
go." It was always his custom to have a large sum
of money in his travelling writing-desk, but it was
more than usually large at this time, in consequence
of his havinof broken the banks of two well-known
London Hells on the eve of his departure from
London for Doncaster. Like Democritus, however,
Mytton laughed at everything, and always spoke of
this as a very good joke. I have seen him, when he
has been going a journey, take a lot of bank-notes
out of his desk, and, rolling them into a lump, throw
them at his servant's head, as if they had been waste
paper ; but his chaplain used to say, he always knew
what the lump contained, and how far it would carry
him — a fact by no means so clear to me. I picked
up one of these lumps some years since in the plan-
tations at Halston, containing ^j/., which had been
there some days by its appearance ; and as he never
had pockets in his breeches, such occurrences must
have been frequent.

Perhaps there was one cause of expense incurred
by John Mytton that is not to be traced to any other
man ; but, as Charles the Fifth profanely boasted

64 LIFE OF MYTTON.

that " there was only one God and one Charles,"
surely there never was but one John Mytton. This
said John Mytton would never open letters secured
by wafers, unless he were acquainted with the hand-
writing. Thus were tradesmen's applications un-
answered till their patience became exhausted, and
law proceedings were, in consequence, resorted to.
But he cared no more for writs than he did for
anything else, as they, of course, were sent to his
solicitor, and all he knew of them, in his prosperity,
was, that he paid for them. So popular, however,
was he with the lower orders, that, in his prosperous
days, I do not think a bailiff in the four surrounding
counties would have arrested him, had he been in-
structed so to do.

It is impossible to separate the sort of vis coinica
that attached itself to the various acts of imprudence
of my, otherwise, truly noble-minded friend ; and
perhaps the anecdote of the London game-dealer,
and his 1500/. bill, is about as amusing as any. On
his arrival at Halston he presented it himself to his
debtor ; but it appeared from his subsequent conduct
that he little thought it would have been paid zvitliout
something like a scncdny itito its merits. Here, how-
ever, was John Mytton " sui generis" again. "Give

LIFE OF MYTTON. 65

me a pen and ink," said he, casting his eye over the
amount: and, scratching the words, ''Right, John
Mytton," with his usual expedition, under it, ex-
claimed, " There, take it to my agent, and get the
money." As may be supposed, the joy of this man
was excessive, but its outbreak was reserved until he
saw the agent at Oswestry draw a cheque at sight
for the entire sum. It was then no longer to be
restrained, and thus did the dealer in dogs, foxes,
pheasants, and monkeys, ei hoc genus omne, give vent
to the noble feelings of his nature. " Oh, my dear
sir," said he, " what can I do for you, in return for alli
this kindness ? " "I have done you no kindness,"'
said the agent ; " the only favour you can confer
upon me is, never to let me see or hear of you again."
This, however, did not satisfy the pheasant-merchant,
who was anxious, if not to make a display of his
gratitude, at all events to propitiate the good-will of
the agent, and once more addressed him, " Pray,
sir," said he, " are you a married gentleman .'' " On
being answered in the affirmative, the nature of the
donation was determined upon. " Then, sir," added
he, " allow me to present your lady wiJi a vionkey ! "
Well might the man of law have exclaimed —

" Quicquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes ; "

E

€6 LIFE OF MYTTON.

but wlien he was made acquainted with the nature
of the gift, the would-be giver was very soon de-
spatched, and I never heard whether he again made
his appearance, on a similar errand, at Halston.

The next anecdote that presents itself to my mind
arose out of my seeing him get out of his carriage at
a cover's side, and walk towards his hunter, to mount
him. " There he goes" said Tom Penn ; '' hes a
lily, ain't he? Give him two hundred thousand a
year, and I'll bet a hundred he's in debt in foive
{five) years." But it is necessary to say who this
Tom Penn is, or rather was, for he is also in his
• grave, having broken his neck in hunting. He was
•,pad-groom to Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart,
much looked up to, and consequently often consulted,
for his correct judgment of a hunter, by the help of
which, although an excellent servant, he was one of
the most impudent fellows that ever wore a livery ;
or, perhaps, more properly speaking, what is known
in the lower world as "a regular cool hand."

Now a question arises, not unworthy of discussion,
Did the late Mr. Mytton really enjoy life amidst all
this profusion of expenditure ; and was he, in the best
of his days, in a situation that many poor men would
£Ovet ."* This, I think, admits of a doubt. It is true,

LIFE OF MYTTON. 67

he had most of the requisites for a man of a noble
fortune that Horace granted to his friend Tibullus ;
but one thing was wanting — the " artcmqjie fruendil'
the art of e7ijoying it, to which he, Mytton, was a
stranger. Indeed, to a vitiated palate, always calling
for fresh gratifications, the wealth of Croesus might
fail in procuring that one thing wanting ; but there
was something about my friend that gave one the
idea that to him it was peculiarly denied. There was
that about him which resembled the restlessness of
the hyena ; and whether in the pursuit of his pas-
times, or the gratification of his passions, there was
an unsteadiness throughout, which evidently showed
that, beyond the excitement of the passing moment,
nothing afforded him sterling pleasure. All those
who watched his actions might perceive, that his
object was to have a taste of everything that was
alluring and delicious ; and, like the bee, to rove
from flower to flower, merely culling a little of the
sweets of each. Look, for example, at the various
sources of amusement Halston afforded, and the small
share of calm enjoyment they appeared to afford the
owner of them. What elegant dinners have I seen him
sit down to at his own table, with no more appetite
to partake of them than an alderman has when singing

68 LIFE OF MYTTON.

" Noi nobis, doviine" having an hour or two before
been eating fat bacon and drinking strong ale at some
tenant's or other farm-house on his road home from
his field pursuits. Again : if he had a good race-
horse in his stables, he would run him off his legs,
nearly to his destruction ; and he served his favourite
hunters in the same manner. All this could have
been reconciled with youthful enthusiasm and Welsh
blood ; but with Mytton it could be only traced to
one cause, which grew with his growth, but did not
quit him in his manhood, and finally plunged him
into the abyss of misery !

But if the proprietor of it himself was not satisfied
with the resources which Halston afforded, few of his
friends were so unreasonable as to have looked for
amusement and not found it ; for, indeed, the very
proprietor of it alone, with his various appendants
and his frolics, was a constant source of mirth. A
celebrated historian of the Augustan age, however,
now presents himself to my view, and wisely reminds
me, that decency is a principal virtue in an historian,
and that he should preserve the characters of the
persons, as well as the dignity of the actions of those
of whom he treats. Heretofore I trust I have written
nothinrr that can be construed into more than an

LIFE OF MYTTON. 69

allowable levity of style, inseparable from the chro-
nicling of the sayings and doings of such a character
as is before me ; and as one object is to display it in
every variety of colour — and the rainbow itself has
not more — I must here introduce a description of an
evening at Halston from my own pen, as published
originally in the " Sporting Magazine." As it com-
mences with an apology, I shall offer none here.

" ' What Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot
be wrong,' said a learned and accomplished gentleman
of the last century, when he put a period to a miser-
able existence. Now, as the great essayist here
named introduced his friend Sir Roger's chaplain
to the world, perhaps I may be allowed to introduce
Mr. Mytton's. He is a very old acquaintance of
mine, and I know he will pardon me for doing so.
I cannot exactly say he is to his patron what Maecenas
was to Augustus, or what Falstaff was to Henry ;
but rather what Crispus was to the Roman Emperor.
Crispus lived with four of them, joked with all
of them, and quarrelled with none of them, though
their ears were perhaps more tender than their hearts.
The Halston Chaplain, however, is entitled to a place
in the ' Sporting Magazine,' having given birth to as
much sport as ever was seen in a race, a cock-pit, or

70 LIFE OF MYTTON.

a fox-chase. In a style peculiarly his own, he says
more good things than any other man I ever met
with, and by his good-humour, and inoffensive jokes,
has often made the old Halston welkin ring.

" The connection between them commenced thus :
Soon after the Chaplain left the University, he re-
sided in the neighbourhood of Halston, and was
fixed upon as a sort of friendly preceptor to the heir-
apparent to the estate, both before and after he left
Westminster School ; and here, perhaps, one of the
best anecdotes has its source. It appears there was
some difficulty in persuading the young Squire to go
to Colleee ; and when we consider a little, our won-
der ceases. October is the best month for pheasant-
shootinsT ; Christmas lasts till Easter at Halston ; and
hunting, fishing, and shooting last all the year round.
The Chaplain, however, was employed to use all his
eloquence to induce him to go, and the following
dialogue passed between them :

" Chaplain. My good sir, you must go to Ox-
ford ; you must indeed, sir !

" Rlr. iMytton. I'll see you first.

" Chaplain. Upon my word, sir, you must go.
■Every man of fortune ought to go to Christ Church*
if only fur a term or so.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 71

"Mr. Myttott. Well, then, if I do go, I will go on
the following terms.

" Chaplai7t. What are they, sir ?

" Mr. Mytton. Why, that I never open a book.

" Chaplain. Not the least occasion — not the small-
est, I assure you.

" Mr. Mytton. Very well then, I don't mind going
provided I read nothing but the ' Racing Calendar '
and the ' Stud Book.'

" CJiaplain. Excellent books, sir ; they will do very
well indeed.

" The next amusing anecdote of the Chaplain
arose out of the following circumstance : — Going one
morning, as usual, to serve the family church at
Halston, Mr. Mytton contrived to take his sermon
out of his pocket, and substitute in its place the last
number of the ' Sporting Magazine.' When the
Chaplain had mounted the rostrum, and was pre-
paring to throw off, he found his mistake, and, of
course, had nothing to do but to apologise to his
hearers for the loss of his sermon, and, ' with a well-
bred whisper, close the scene.' It is also said of him,
that having a tender regard for his patron, and know-
ing the natural kindness of his disposition, he has
always avoided wantonly hurting his feelings ; so

73 LIFE OF MYTTON.

that, on some occasions, when it has been his inten-
tion to preach a sermon, which, to use his own words,
he feared might ' liit him hard,' he has been prepared
with another, ' in case the Squire should be in church.'

" There is another story of the Chaplain, which,
though it has been before recorded, yet it was not
placed to his credit, but to him alone it is due. About
five years back, he applied to his Diocesan to give
him a living, and the Bishop promised him the first
that was vacant. Having a pretty private fortune of
his own, and not aspiring to a mitre, the Chaplain took
the liberty of requesting that his Lordship would not
send him into the Welsh mountains, but give him an
English living. The Bishop, knowing him to be a
thoroughbred Welshman (and, indeed, no one would
take him for a half-bred one), demanded of him his
reasons for such a request. ' Why, my Lord,' said
the Chaplain, ' my wife does not speak Welsh.' —
' Your wife, sir,' said his Diocesan, ' what has your
wife to do with it ? She does not preach, does she ? '
— ' No, my Lord,' said the Chaplain, ' but she lectures /'
The Bishop, as may be expected, took all this in good
part, and the Chaplain was soon afterwards exalted to
a living in the wildest part of the Welsh mountains.

" No man was ever more free from guile than the

UFE OF MYTTON. yj

Chaplain of Halston and Rector of . Indeed,

some of his intimate friends have doubted whether he
has enoufjh of this subtle art to enable him to oro
through the world with ^clat. Beino- once on a visit
at an old lady's house, who prided herself on the ex-
cellence of her cook, he was requested to carve the
bottom dish. On being- asked to help the old lady
herself, he addressed her thus : ' Pray, madam, how
do you like it ? Here is some very imich done, — some
very little done, — and some not done at all.' On an-
other occasion he was diningf with an old orentleman
in Gloucestershire, who plumed himself on the cele-
brity of his ale. On hearing that the Chaplain was
a Welshman, and reckoned a good judge, he ordered
a fresh cask to be tapped, and pledged him in a
bumper of it after his cheese. No encomium being
passed on it, the old gentleman ventured to ask him
how he liked his ale. ' Why, sir,' said the Chaplain,
we should call it very good small beer hi Wales!
" I have before observed, that the Halston Chap-
lain can neither be compared to Maecenas nor to
Falstaff — being completely ' S2ii generis.' Some years
since, however, he put me in mind of a scene between
the latter and his prince. We had had rather a hard
night at Halston, and our host was taking a nap, at

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.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 75

" Mr. Owen ! — Mr, Owen ! " shouted an Oswestry
tradesman, who was following him, — " a leaf of your
sermon has flown over the hedge ; I'll get it for you if
you will stop." " Don't trouble yourself, sir," replied
his reverence ; " /'// connect it!'

Then his account, related to myself, of his lending
an hundred pounds to a relation, and which he had
given up for lost, until the said relation came to spend
three days with him, and boasted of the flourishing
state of his finances, is worthy of being recorded.

" Of course he paid you .■* " said I.

"Not a bit of it," replied the Chaplain; "but I'll
tell you how he served me. He got rather more
drunk than usual the last night, and, taking my hand
into his, thus expressed himself, — ' God bless you.
Will ; you are the only man in the world that ever lent
me a hundred pounds,' "

His cousin, the "hunting, racing, cock-fighting
parson," once addressed him thus : —

"Will, I think I shall give you that living of mine;
it is cf no use to me."

Will thanked him for his liberality, but hearing
nothing further about the matter for a long period of
time, he ventured to refresh his memory, when the
following answer was returned : —

76 LIFE OF MYTTON.

" Dear Will, — I have changed my mind about
giving you the living ; I find it J2ist keeps my hounds."

But of course the good Chaplain had in his time to
put up with some horse-play. Mytton once pushed
him into the fish pool on their return from church,
as he also ducked Will Staples, the whipper-in, and
Tinkler his stud groom. A more serious matter, how-
ever, was when he laid the wire of a spring-gun in
Mr. Owen's path on his way to morning service ; the
shock being so great that the victim of "the joke"
was unable to meet his congregation.

The Chaplain did not long survive his friend and
patron : and it is generally believed that the accumu-
lated distresses, the fallen state, and the miserable end
of the one, accelerated the death of the other. At all
events, I am informed that the words "poor Mytton^''
were nearly the last the Halston Chaplain uttered.

PART II.

"\T ZITH what extraordinary characters of ancient
and modern times would John Mytton stand
a comparison ? With Nero ? Yes ; for Nero fiddled
whilst Rome was burning, and Mytton would have
laughed had he seen Halston in flames. But Nero
murdered his mother, and Mytton made a noble pro-
vision for his.* With Timon of Athens ? Yes, as a
spendthrift ; but the one hated, and the other was
kind to all mankind. With Napoleon Bonaparte ?
Yes, for his historian says of him, " Extreme agitation
was the basis of his existence ; motion was his repose;
he lived in a hurricane, and fattened on anxiety and
care." But one drank coffee seven times a day, and
the other drank as many bottles of port wine ! With
the poet Byron ? Yes, inasmuch as each was at
Harrow School, and each fought eight pitched battles

• He added 500/. per annum to her jointure.

78 LIFE OF MYTTON.

durinof the time he reniauied there. With Savage
immortalised by his biographer, Johnson ? Yes, as
far as each had a distinctive mark of genius and
originaHty, which ranks higii amongst the quaHties of
the human mind, and each was very deficient in the
TO Trpeirov. But one was chiefly known by his poverty,
his misfortunes, and his wit ; the other inherited riches,
and might have set fortune's malice at defiance.

The strongest resemblance I can select is between
the characters of the celebrated Earl of Rochester and
the subject of this memoir ; although in the points
on which they differ the balance is favourable to the
latter. Let us select the most prominent features, and
see how far they tally and in what they differ : —

Rochester's person was well shaped, and no man
showed more good breeding in society. Ditto John
Mytton.

Rochester thought his constitution was so strong
that nothing could hurt it. Ditto John Mytton.

" Rochester," says Bishop Burnet, " had a violent
love of pleasure, and a disposition to extravagant
mirth ; the one involved him in great sensuality, the
other led him to many odd adventures and frolics, in
which he was often in hazard of his life." Ditto John
Mytton.

LIFE OF MYTTON. T9

Rochester was turned loose into the world at a very-
early age, and so was John Mytton. The one entered
the navy, the other the Seventh Hussars.

Rochester distinguished himself in an enaaofement.
Mytton was never in one.

Rochester once made himself a mountebank.
Mytton was always more or less one.

Rochester was drunk for five years continually.
Mytton beat him by seven.*

Rochester "pursued low amours, in mean disguises."
Mytton, in propria persona, seldom pursued any
other.

Rochester slunk away from his friend in a street-
row. Mytton would rather have remained to have
been pummelled to death.

The Duke of Buckingham left it on record that
Rochester refused to fight him. Mytton was never
put to that test.

Rochester wrote libels in which he did not stick to
truth. Mytton never said ill-natured things, much less
published them.

* I am sorry to say one of his oldest friends, and a regular " pot-com-
panion," made an affidavit — to serve a certain purpose — that he (Mytton)
had been drunk for twelve successive years ! I think it would have been
better that he had had recourse to the " Non mi ricordo."

8o LIFE OF MYTTON.

Rochester was eminent for the vigour of his col-
loquial wit. Mytton was deaf, and therefore could
not shine in conversation. He dealt, chiefly, in
practical jokes.

Rochester is mentioned by Wood as the best
scholar of all the nobility. Mytton might have
harangued an Athenian mob, if he had gone steadily
throuo^h Harrow or Westminster School.

Burnet says, " Rochester played many wild frolics,
which it is not for his honour that we should remem-
ber." Ditto John Mytton.

Burnet " touched as tenderly as occasion would
bear" Rochester's faults. Mytton's spiritual adviser
never touched his at all, if he could avoid it.

The good Bishop tells us. Dr. Balfour " drew
Rochester to read such books as were most likely to
bring him back to love learning and study." Mytton's
tutor recommended the "Racing Calendar" and the
" Stud Book " ; nevertheless, he was well read in the
classics, though perhaps not so well as Rochester
was. The natural talent of each was excellent ;
each was generous and kindhearted ; and "video
ameliora, proboque ; deteriora seqiior" — " I see what
is better, and approve it ; but follow what is
worse," would have been a suitable motto for both.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 81

But Rochester was profane, which Mytton never
was.

But I must draw this parallel to a close. Rochester
was charitable to the poor and kind to his servants,
so was Mytton — perhaps to a still greater degree.

Rochester made h'mself mad with drink. Ditto
John Mytton. Was not the best of husbands. Ditto
John Mytton. Trusted to a death-bed repentance.
Ditto John Mytton. Promised to amend his life if
he recovered from his severe illness. So did old
Nick — at least so the story goes; but John Mytton
never promised what he did not think he should per-
form. The one exhausted his life at the age of thirty-
three, and the other of thirty-eight ; and although
both entered the vineyard at nearly the eleventh
hour — for sackcloth and ashes suited neither of their
tastes— they both died in penitence and prayer.

Mr. Mytton's amours, like Jupiter's, are too nume-
rous for recital ; yet, having been for the most part of
the lowest description, they were chiefly injurious only
to himself, and had nothing to do with the heart.*'

* One evening in a Chester race week he once managed to handcuff,'
two girls on the pretence of trying on a pair of bracelets he had just
purchased, and then left them in the " couples" to be laughed at.

«2 LIFE OF MYTTON.

But there was this peculiarity in them : I am quite
sure Mr. Mytton never attempted the wife of a friend
— no, nor even his mistress ! Each would have been
as safe in his hands as the beautiful captive was in
those of Scipio, or the wife and daughters of Darius
in the tent of Alexander the Great. Indeed I never
heard of his laying siege to the virtue of any woman,
but if in the market, he was sure to be the best
bidder ; and I fear I must own that he once or twice
took it by storm. Some of his offers for capitulation,
however, were truly ridiculous, though all in character
with the man. For example, he once wrote a note
to a certain celebrated singer, whom he had only
seen for half-an-hour, at a musical festival, request-
ing the honour of an interview the next day, and
enclosing a cheque at sight, on the Oswestry bank,
for five hundred guineas ! The lady — who all
the world knows would have been quite satisfied
with a ten-pound note — having luckily never heard
either of John Mytton or the Oswestry bank, re-
turned the note with its valuable contents. This
reminds me of the following lines in a poem called
" The Passions," a fair specimen of heterogeneous
pathos : —

LIFE OF MVTTOX. 83

" Human appetites how strong,
When love exults on fancy's fairy plains,
Or hunger views the jiintton at the fire ! "

His popularity, independently of family associa-
tions, and recollections of ages long since gone by ;
the dashing personal character, and extreme and un-
affected good-humour of the late Squire of Halston ;
together with his fox-hounds, his race-horses, his
game, his wine, his ale, and many other things
besides, rendered him extremely popular in Shrop-
shire ; and if he had but been possessed of a fair
share of the to Trpeirov, so much esteemed by the
ancients, and so expressive of that exttrior propriety
of conduct, in the common intercourse of life, which
the world is very unwilling to dispense with, he
might have represented the county of Salop in
Parliament as long as he liked to have done so ;
it being the general opinion, that almost all the
independent freeholders would have supported him.
But this is the class of all others who dislike seeing
a gentleman sink in the social scale ; and when I
was last in Shropshire, I was sorry to find my old
friend's popularity was on the wane. His honour
and his honesty were still unsullied ; his heart was
as kind as it had ever been ; but the nearly constant

84 LIFE OF MYTTON.

State of intoxication in which he lived was, I could
perceive, become somewhat insufferable to his oldest
friends. Neither was this the worst. His asso-
ciating himself with a late well-known sporting
character, immeasurably inferior to himself in every
possible point of view, gave the finishing blow ;
and who can wonder at it ? for it must have been
not only repulsive to good taste, but extremely
mortifying to his friends, to see Mr. Mytton of
Halston, with his natural talents and accomplish-
ments, to say nothing of his connections, making
a bosom friend of a man who had once filled the
honourable post of a waterman to a hackney-coach
stand ! But there are moral as well as fabulous
Actseons in this world, who are surely devoured
by objects of their own choosing, and here we have
an instance of it. In what way, however, can we
account for a mind that had tasted the learninof and
elegfance of Athens and Rome findinof itself at ease
in such an unsuitable association ? Why, only by
its being reduced to a state of perfect apathy and
imbecility by the repetition of vicious and debili-
tatino- indulofences.

There is but one excuse for a man being almost
perpetually intoxicated, and prostituting the reason

LIFE OF MYTTON. 85

of the man to the appetite of the brute ; and that
is, the attempt to divert grief which he has found it
impossible to subdue. As a balm for wounds which
can never heal, or under the accumulated pressure
of pecuniary difficulties, the bottle will be resorted
to so long as the world shall stand ; and who can
condemn the wretch that tries the experiment ? But
the subject of this memoir had not such excuses to
plead for his excess in drinking, neither will I endea-
vour to find them for him. It was, however, to him
the Circean cup — the bane of his respectability, his
health, his happiness, and everything that was dear
to him as a man and a gentleman ; and can this be
marvelled at? It is written of Hercules, that he
acquired his immense strength by feeding on the
marrow of lions ; and how powerful must have been
the stimulus of the almost unheard-of quantity of from
four to six bottles of port wine daily, on that volcanic
excitability of mind which was, not only by nature,
Mr. Mytton's, but which had been acted upon, and
increased, by a severe affection of the brain at an
early period of life ! Thus, then, although I
offer no excuse for his drinking, his drinking — for
men are tried by wine, says the proverb, as metals
are by fire — furnishes excuses, I should rather have

J56 LIFE OF MYTTON.

said apologies, for his conduct, inasmuch as his reason
was, to a certain extent, lost in delirium, caused by
tlie fumes of wine on an already somewhat dis-
tempered brain. Many of his acts were not the acts
of John Mytton, but of a man, mad, half by nahire,
and half by ivine, and I think his best and dearest
friends are decidedly of my opinion.

From this account of its host, it may be supposed
that Halston was a scene of general dissipation and
riot. By no means. In short, I cannot bring to
my recollection a single instance of being one of
what may be termed a drunken party during my
frequent visits to the house. But this is accounted
for in more ways than one. The host had always
the start of his friends, in the first place ; and in the
next, lonof sittings were not in accordance with his
restless disposition. In the summer he would jump
out of the window, and be off. In the winter, he
was anxious to get to the billiard-table, which was
always lighted up after coffee, for the amusement
of himself and his friends ; and here he was in
his element. How then, it may be asked, did he
consume that quantity of port wine .'' Why, this
question is easily answered. He shaved with a bottle
of it on his toilet; he worked steadily at it throughout

LIFE OF MYTTON. 87

the day, by a glass or two at a time, and at least
a bottle with his luncheon ; and the after dinner and
after supper work — not losing sight of it in the billiard-
room — completed the Herculean task. No wonder,
then, that Alexander the Great has been called a
" fool to him " in his Bacchanalian feats, at all events,
he would have been a good playfellow for him at
Persepolis ; or that — as Cicero said of Piso — " his
breath smelt like a vintner's vault." He is, however,,
a memorable example of the comparatively harmless-
effects of very good wine, which he always had, andl
just of a proper age— about eight years old — for,,
assisted by exercise, such as he took, it was many
years before it injured him. But, alas ! wine at :
length lost its charms ; brandy — which he was a
stranger to when I was last at Halston — was sub-
stituted, and the constitution of John yiytton, perhaps
the hardest ever bestowed npojt man, was not proof
against that.*

But away, for a moment, with all recollection of

* It would be absurd to offer apology for these remarks, after the
inquest on the body of my departed friend, which went the round of the
newspapers. Besides, my object being to rescue his memoiy from
imputations that lie against it, and, in some cases, not unjiis/ly, it is in
mercy — a dreadful alternative, I admit — that I exhibit him to the world
as both a drunkard and a madman.

LIFE OF MYTTON.

his ill doings, and let us move onwards towards his
good ones ; for it is a loss to mankind when good
actions are forgotten. Be assured, reader, whoever
you may be, that if all the kind, good, and charitable
acts which poor, drunken, mad John Mytton per-
formed, were placed in counterpoise to his bad ones,
it would be more than inati dared to say which side
might kick the beam. At all events, like charity,
they would weigh heavily to his credit ; and it is
consoling to his friends to reflect, that although
great part of that fine property he once possessed
has passed away to others, and the too liberal pos-
sessor of it is in his grave, those deeds still remain
with him. Man, it is true, is naturally a beneficent
creature ; but be the benefit he confers never so
great, the manner of conferring it is the noblest
part ; and in allusion to my friend, let me illustrate
this by one simple fact : —

When Mr. Mytton was at Calais, only a few
months before his death, he chanced to be in a
silversmith's shop, when a French soldier entered it,
with a watch in his hand, which he said he wished to
dispose of for the benefit of a sick comrade, who
wanted some further comforts than a barrack afforded.
On the silversmith objecting to the orice demanded.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 89

Mr. Mytton threw down the money, and took up
the watch. " Merciez, Monsieur," said the soldier,
and something else besides, expressive of his grateful
feelings. " Take this to your comrade, also" said
Mytton, placing the watch in his hand. "Ah, Mon-
sieur Anglais ! " exclaimed the man — " qjie vous
dirai-je ? " *

Mytton replied, "RiEN."t Remember, reader!
this was not in his golden days, when money was as
dross ; it was one of the last acts of a noble soul,
performed out of almost the last of the wreck of a
splendid income.

The sentimental Sterne would have made a pa-
thetic story out of this little incident, whereas I
shall leave it to speak for itself; but Mytton felt
what Sterne only made others feel : neither does the
difference between them rest here. The one is said
to have whined over a dead ass, and starved a living
mother. The other would have laughed at the dead
donkey — perhaps have ridden him to death — but he
settled a handsome annuity on his mother! Such
instances, however, are of verj- ancient date ; Aris-
tides practised what Cato only preached.

• What shall I say to j-ou ? t Nothing.

90 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Another instance of his excessive philanthropy and
over-generous, all-forgiving temper, occurs to me at
this moment, which I may here introduce, though
perhaps not without somewhat retrograding in my
arrangement.

As I was passing through Shrewsbury, some years
back, on my road to Halston, I saw a servant of his
in the town, and asked him if he had accompanied
his master. " I have left Mr. Mytton's service, sir,"
said the man. " How so ? " observed I, with sur-
prise, knowing him to have been a favourite ser-
vant. His answer was, that in an evil hour he had
been induced to alter a figure in a bill of Mr. Lucas,
the veterinary surgeon at Atherstone, who had
attended one of his master's horses, and it having
been discovered by the agent, he had been discharged.
The morning after I arrived at Halston, I was told
there was a person wanted to speak with me in
the stable-yard, and there stood yohn, with a very
sorrowful countenance. His object was to induce me
to intercede for him with his master, and just as I
was in the act of discussing the point, Mr. Mytton
made his appearance. John protested it was the
only instance of his dishonesty (and, indeed, the man
bore an excellent character, having lived nine years

LIFE OF MYTTON. 91

previously with a clergyman in Shropshire) ; and
that he should not have thought of committing it but
for a certain ostler on the road, who persuaded him
to it ; and was about to proceed in the same suppli-
cating manner, when Mytton seized him by the
collar, and giving him one of his horse-like kicks,
told him to go into the servants' hall and put on his
livery again. John cared nothing for the kick ; but
on a very strong remonstrance from the agent — who
indeed went so far as to say he should throw up his
agency if such conduct were passed over — John was
once more drafted from Halston servants' hall.
Mytton's own notions of a good servant were some-
what peculiar. In once hiring a keeper he did not
go so much upon character and experience, as the
applicant's ability to thrash a certain sweep that was
in the habit of trespassing in the Halston covers.
A trial was accordingly agreed to, and the new man
put upon the watch. In due course the sweep made
his appearance, and after a long fight was well licked.
The keeper's engagement was ratified forthwith, as
the sweep was thoroughly satisfied — and the sweep
was Mytton himself.

I conceive no one knew the limits of I\Ir. Mytton's
natural talents. No doubt they were excellent ; and

92

LIFE OF MYTTON.

If, instead of having been prostrated to the excess of
wine, and its concomitant dissipation, they had been
cultivated and improved to the utmost, they might
have enabled him to have cut a figure in the senate
or as a scholar. He read with unusual rapidity, and
evidently retained what he did read ; for his literary
acquisitions were surprising, considering the life of
tumult he had led. He had always a quotation at
hand from a Greek or Latin author, and there was a
conscious feeling of ability about him, which he was
somewhat wont to display. But what says the poet ?

"Without a genius learning; soars in vain,
And without learning, genius sinks again;
Their force united crowns the sprightly reign ; "

and here was this union wanting. He also wrote his
letters, to use a sporting figure, at the rate of twenty
miles in the hour, generally at his dinner-table, send-
ing them out by his butler to be sealed, and very
often to be directed, for he never had a secret in his
life ; and the letters he received remained for general
inspection. I regret not having one of them to tran-
scribe, but his off-hand addresses to his constituents,
during his first contest for Shrewsbury in i8 19, were
particularly neat and appropriate, and were sent to the
press before the ink with which they were written

LIFE OF MYTTON. 93

was dry. How much, then, is it to be lamented,
that a man who had such resources for spending his
life in the pleasantest, as well as the most honour-
able occupations, should have thus abused his mental
powers, and subjected himself to misery of any kind
beyond that which is common to all ; and that repose
and retirement, the secret wish of mankind, should
by him have been considered valueless, if not irk-
some!

I may here reproduce some specimens of Mr.
Mytton's off-hand style of writing, in two of his
addresses to the Freeholders of Salop, on his last
unsuccessful attempt to become one of their repre-
sentatives in 1 831; but they fall far short of the
others both in matter and style. In fact, they bear
evidence of a mind in decay, and sinking with the
general wreck.

94 LIhE OF MVTTON.

ADDRESS (No. i).— 1831.
" To the Freeholders of the County of Salop.

" Gentlemen, — Domestic affliction of no slight or
common nature has latterly limited my intercourse
with you. My wishes for the prosperity of my
native county have ever in absence held their usual
sway. Having once had the honour of representing
your County Town in Parliament ; feeling that various
avocations precluded the conscientious performance of
my duty to my Constituents, I declined the represen-
tation at the dissolution of that Parliament. I have
now no wife — no family — no hounds — no horses —
(some will say, no steadiness of purpose) — but feeling
that I can devote myself to your service, should you
honour me with your support and confidence, I ven-
ture to offer myself to your notice as a Candidate for
the County, totally unshackled by prejudice or other-
wise, and a strenuous advocate for Reform.

" Relying upon the strength of the cause I shall
advocate, I throw myself upon your favour, and shall

LIFE OF MYTTON. 95

assuredly take the sense of the County. I shall look
to the vote of every Independent Freeholder. With-
out making further professions,

" Your faithful friend and servant,

"JOHN MYTTON.

* * c<

*

Peculiar private business may prevent my
personal attendance, but I look upon it as a favour-
able omen, knowing that when absent you are best
remembered.

"May A,th, 1831."

ADDRESS (No. 2).

" Friends ! Men of Salop, — In declining longer
to continue the unequal contest in which I am em-
barked, I trust you will not consider my word for-
feited. I have (and I trust with your approbation)
come forward to assert the rights of free men, and to
break the bonds of tyranny asunder !

" Show yourselves the proud Salopians !

" Gentlemen, — I pledge myself to come forward
at the next Election for this great County, which I
have already shaken to its foundation by my attempt

96 LIFE OF MYTTON.

to assert its independence, which shall be maintained
with the vigour of a tiger and the courage of a lion !
Let your voice, as the falls of Niagara, rush in force,
and with the greatest velocity bear the fragile barks
of corruption (which of necessity must be destroyed)
to some land, perhaps at present unknown, but let
them not be borne to the shores of Britain.

" I have asked no advice, — much has been offered,
and maturely weighed, during this contest ; but,
Gentlemen, did I not feel myself capable, upon re-
flection, of duly considering any subject which may
fall under my notice, I should feel myself unworthy
of looking for your approval. I came forth uncalled
for, unprotected by any great interest ; I retire from
this contest in confidence of victory in future ; I
adopt one line of conduct, and from that I will not
swerve.

" My thanks for the unbought Votes of nearly
Four Hundred Honest Men, are gratefully tendered
to them ; — the cause of Freedom in our devoted
County will assume a brighter complexion.

" Gentlemen, — You will find me at my post the
first moment that a Reformed Parliament will allow
it. My reception among you has indeed been
proud ; I beg to thank you for that exhibition of

LIFE OF MYTTON. 97

sincerely popular feeling in my favour, so strongly
and so universally evinced.

" I tender my best thanks to the Ladies, for the
smiles I have witnessed. Let me now entreat of you
to allow the proceedings of Monday to pass without
riot or disturbance, as it would only entail disgrace
upon the cause I advocate.

" I am, Gentlemen,

" Your Servant,

"JOHN MYTTON.

^'- Shrewsbury f May \^th, 1S31."

Nor are the two following squibs by any means
amiss. But Mr. Mytton's chance to represent his
native county was slight indeed, having only polled
311 votes; the "proud Salopians," much to their
credit, not by any means approving of the degrad
ing association with which they perceived him to be
leagued. There was a time, as I have already said,
when he would have cut a very different figure on
the poll.

9S LIFE OF MYTTON.

"MYTTON AND BEARDSWORTH.

" Arrived last week in this Town, an old broken-
down Racer, from the ' Union Repository,' Bir-
mingliam, with two Black Legs, fresh fired and
blistered. He is attended by an old Groom, grown
grey in the Service, who has jockeyed him, un-
bridled, through many unlucky courses, and who,
having lately considerably lightened his Weight,
(flatters himself he will Reform his style of running.
The old Horse starts for the County Stakes this
week ; to be run for on the Quarry Course. The
■odds are 500 to i against him ; nevertheless the
Brums {i.e., Brummagems) are in high spirits, he
being backed by a few respectable branches of the
MoB-ility here. Gentlemen are recommended not to
go too near the Horse, he being vicious and apt to
kick. It is understood, that should he not win, the
Proprietor will take the Horse back with him to
Birminofham, thinkintr to work him in a Slow Coach
and ' black jobs,' until he is fit for the knacker.

" Shreiusl'ury, May <)tk, 1831."

LIFE OF MYTTOX. 99

"A REFORM CANDIDATE'S SPEECH.

" Yes ! gentlemen, upon my soul,

I thank you much for what you've done ;

Though at the bottom of the poll,
I've too much ' Bottom ' yet to run.

" I told you all, when first I came.

You'd not find me the man to shirk ; —

To play ON — now I've lost the game.
Does seem like devilish up-HiLL w^ork.*

" Reform's my vessel, mann'd by Brums,
Who hoist ME for their ' Union Jack ;'

She'll fight till Captain Beardsworth comes
To steer her on some other tack.

" Yes ! he has nail'd me to the mast,

Without a rag of canvass going ;
And though we are capsized at last.

The Captain ' raised the wind ' that's blowing." t

* Sir Rowl.ind Hill, Bart., was tlie successful candidate.
tit is said that Beardsworth appeared on the hustings with a b.inlc-
note, of large amount, pinned on his breast.

LIFE OF MVTTON.

It is a great accomplishment to be able to tell
a story well, but here Mr. Mytton did not suc-
ceed. In the first place, his sense of hearing was
deficient, a great disadvantage in society. In the
next, it was often difficult to determine whether he
were in earnest or in jest, so fond was he of acting a
part in the comedy of life. Again, he was very epi-
grammatic in his discourse, his sentences containing
few words, and often leaving his hearers to guess
what he really meant. All, however, was in the
essence of good-humour ; and a more inoffensive
companion, in the strict acceptation of that term, no
man with his flow of spirits could possibly be. If, in
the moment of convivial mirth, he let slip a word
which he feared might wound the feelings of any
person, he instantly made reparation, nor would he
rest satisfied until it was fully acknowledged and
atoned for. It is warmth of heart like this that dis-
tinguishes the friend from the companion, and assimi-
lates friendship to love. As to his politics, although
he once was in Parliament, it would be absurd in me
to attempt to decide what they were, for, during all
the years I was acquainted with him, I never once
heard him give an opinion upon the subject. It
always struck me as not one of the maddest of his

LIFE OF MYTTON.

own acts, but certainly of his friends who encouraged
him, to spend ten thousand pounds to obtain a seat
in ParHament, in which he is said to have only sat
half-an-hour, and to the duties of which he was by
nature and habits utterly unfitted. I have reason,
however, to believe — for I never interrogated him —
he was what is termed a Church-and-king man ; in
other words, at that period, a Tory. But on this
subject he was also full of his jokes. For e.xample,
he had a famous race-horse called Anti-Radical ;
" But," said he, when speaking of him, " I always
call him Radical when he runs at Manchester."

Without appearing to care about it, or ever boast-
ing of his success, Mr. Mytton was the best farmer
in his part of the county, occupying between three and
four hundred acres of land. Strange to say, at one
of the Shropshire agricultural meetings he gained
every prize for clean crops of grain, save one, a field
of barley, his claim for which was rejected from a
cause highly t)'pical of the man, — It was found to
contain " wild oats I " As may be supposed, the
report of the judge was the subject of much merri-
ment to the company. His planting, as I before
observed, was on a still larger scale, his object having
been two-fold ; first, to replace the fine old timber,

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."

LIFE OF MYTTON. 103

from a restive horse in the stable-yard at Hal-
ston), assisted by Edward Bates, son of Sir Richard
Puleston's huntsman of that name, and Richard Jones,
both very excellent horsemen, and good men in their
places. When he had the Shiffnal country, which
he hunted alternately with his own, his kennel was at
Ivetsy Bank on the old Chester Road, and he used
frequently to ride from Halston to covers even
beyond Ivetsy to meet his hounds, and return home
to dinner, — making upwards of eighty miles on the
road, and he was known to do this on two successive
days. But the best runs Mr. Mytton's hounds ever
had were from covers in his own neighbourhood,
with wild travelling foxes that came down from the-
Welsh hills. His first pack showed fair sport, andl
were not more unsteady than others I could name..
He either sold the greater part of these hounds, or,,
more likely, lost them in a match at billiards with ani
Irish gentleman. Mr. Mytton subsequently pur-
chased another pack of fox-hounds from Mr. New-
man, of Hornchurch, Essex, which he hunted himself^
about Halston, for several successive years, making
up, by foxes purchased in London, for the confined
country to which he was restricted. I remember,
during this second term of it, once visiting the Halston

I04 LIFE OF MYTTON.

kennel in company with Sir Bellingham Graham,
where we saw about thirty couples of hounds. What
to call them I know not : some were as big as mj'
yard-dog, and here and there a neat little bitch ; and
whether to call them fox-hounds, harriers, or stao;-
hounds, would take a better judge than me. This
was all very well ; but we were next favoured with
another sight, not quite so favourable to Sir Belling-
ham. This was no less than five brace of foxes to
be turned out before this nondescript pack, a brace
of which I subsequently saw " shook " before them.
But the preparation for this business was not so bad.
In the evening, as we were sitting over our wine,
the butler announced that Mr. Tinkler, the stud-
groom, was in waiting. "Send him up," said Mr.
Mytton, and Mr. Tinkler appeared.

Tinkler. " What horses will be wanted to-morrow,
sir t

Mr. Myiion. " All."

Tinkler. " No, sir, not all, surely ?"

Mr. Mytton. " Every one."

Tinkler. " Not the little grey horse, sir ? His
back gets very narrow."

Mr. Mytton. " So much the better. I hate a fat
horse."

LIFE OF MYTTON. 105

Tinkler. " Not the brown horse you had from Sir
Bellingham ? His legs begin to get very round."

Mr. Mytton. " That is the very reason why I will
ride him, as it will make them fine."

Tinkler. " Not the Hit-or-Miss mare ? You will
want her for the Cheshire."

Mr. Mytton. " It will put her in wind."

Remonstrance was in vain. Ever)^ horse was sad-
dled, and the Squire, his three whippers, with Tom
Whitehouse, his jockey, were all mounted on the best
horses in the stud.

I cannot describe our arrival at the covert ; I cannot
speak of the hound that " spoke to him in the gorse ; "
I cannot even attempt to describe the crash when he
broke from the covert ; but — from the inside of a
wicker basket with a lid to it — (oh ! how tame, how
languidly, does my pen move over my paper as I write
it!) — away sneaked as fine a fox as ever wore a brush,
and certainly afforded us a very fine run of an hour,
when he fell a victim to the pack, which, I must say,
hunted him well.

Nothing is to be done in Shropshire without a lun-
cheon; but, on this day, we had two — first, at the inn
at Ellesmere, after our run ; and, secondly, at the
house of a very respectable yeoman, by the name of

Io6 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Wynne (of Cricketh), where the second fox was in
waiting. The second kincheon, however, saved this
fox's Hfe ; for, after the usual law was given him, and I
was in the act of mounting my horse, Mr. Wynne
came out to me and said, the Squire proposed one
other bumper toast, which he hoped I would return
and drink. The hounds were then laid on ; but
though they were sober, the faculty of smell had
deserted them, and they never touched upon their
game. The exertions of their huntsman, the Squire
himself, however, were great. Mounted upon Mag-
net, with his horn in his mouth, and at three parts
speed, he made his casts with the rapidity of a Shaw :
but one peculiarity attended them. If the fence into
one field was larger than that into another, that field
was preferred — not as most likely to hit off his fox,
but as most likely to floor some of his field, who, with
his three whippers and Tom Whitehouse, were hard
at his brush. As the pace was quick, and the country
heavy, I was beginning to calculate upon how long
the nags would live without a check, when an accident
occurred that put a stop to all. A hare got up in
view, which every /w7uid followed into Sir Edward
Kynaston's plantations, and thus ended the morning's
sport. When he again gave up, these hounds were

LIFE OF MVTTON. 107

sold for somewhere about the value of their skins ;
nor was this to be wondered at, when we remember
the tricks that had been played with them.

I could never discover whether or not Mr. Mytton
was, at heart, a sportsman — that is to say, whether
or not he enjoyed seeing his hounds at work, beyond
the mere pleasure any Master might feel at the finish
of a good run ; when, although he himself had little
enough of that infirmity in his composition, his vanity
might be flattered. I never heard him cheer an indi-
vidual hound when drawing or in chase ; nor, with
the exception of Hudibras, had he any favourite
hound, as most Masters have ; neither did he know
the names of all the hounds in his kennel. This last
assertion, however, requires some qualification. He
would tell his friends he did not know their names,
but whether such was really the case I cannot take
upon myself to say, knowing his disposition on trifling
matters to disguise his real sentiments.

As a horseman I need say little of Mr. Mytton,
his merits having been proclaimed in every county in
which he had hunted. In fact, taking him at every-
thing, he had not many equals, and very few superiors
in the saddle, for he could ride over a course as
well as over a country. His prodigious strength was

loa LIFE OF MYTTOS.

of great service to his horses, in proof of which they
very seldom tired with him ; and, malcinL,^ allowance
for the seemingly impracticable fences he would ride
at, he frot but few falls. ConsideriuLT his hard usaee
of them also, he was fortunate in his stud, several of
his horses lasting many seasons ; and his famous little
horse, Baronet, carried him nine seasons with hounds,
after he had used him as a charger in the Hussars !
He had his portrait painted, on this horse, having his
horn in his hand, and the hound Hudibras at his side.
Baronet was a mean-looking horse, with only one eye ;
but Nature had made amends for that in giving him
more than one life, or he would never have survived
the last seven years that he was in Mr. jMytton's
possession. He may be said to have been as stout as
steel ; and if there was rank amongst brutes, this
Baronet should have been raised to the peerage.
Having, however, mentioned this gallant animal in
connection with his hard-riding master in mv " Crack
Riders of England,'' 1 will here quote what I there
said of both. In speaking of the master, I say
" There is no man better entitled to a place amongst
hard, — aye, desperate — riders to hounds than Mr.
Mytton is, and a welter weight too. But how is it
that he can come under the latter denomination who,

LIFE OF MYTTON. 109

ten or twelve years back, was riding amongst the gen-
tlemen jockeys wider twelve stone ? The question is
best answered by the fact of his having been, by the
aid of excess in good living, upwards of fifteen, with
his saddle, for some years past ; and I think Sir Bel-
lingham Graham will confirm the truth of my assertion,
that he was nothing short of that weight, on his
capital Hit-or-Miss mare, when he so distinguished
himself in that famous run with his, Sir Bellingham's,
hounds, of an hour and forty minutes, from Babins-
wood, in Shropshire. But it has not been in this
run, nor in that run, in one country or in another
country, that Mytton has made himself signal ; and
yet I might hazard an imputation on my veracity
were I to recount ail the extraordinary deeds of this
most extraordinary man, in various situations with
hounds. Indeed, adding the hazards for his neck
that he has encountered in the field to those to which
he has subjected himself elsewhere, the most extra-
ordinary thing after all is, that he is at this moment
in existence. However, confining my remarks to his
riding, I am bound to pronounce him one of the most
daring horsemen that ever came under my eje ; and I
must likewise add that, all things considered, he has
had fewer falls, and tired fewer horses in chase, than

I lo LIFE OF MYTTON.

his larkinof and desperate system of crossing countries
would warrant the expectation of. But this has been
attributable to the immense muscular powers of the
man ; to a sort of iron grasp by which he holds his
horses in his hand at all times, and upon all occasions,
which, let your slack-rein gentlemen say what they
may, is no small support to a horse going Ids
(Mytton's) pace over a country, and particularly over
the uneven surface, the deep ditches, and blind grips
of his own county, Shropshire. Indeed, when I last
met him, I asked him whether it had ever been his
fate so to tire a hunter as not to be able to ride him
home, when he declared he never recollected having
done so. As to the height and width of fences
which have been ridden over by him, I repeat I am
afraid to recapitulate them ; but I have very respect-
able attestation to my having once measured a brook *
that he rode Baronet over, in cold blood, in my pre-
sence, on our way home from hunting, and found it
exceed, by some inches, nine yards from hind-foot to
hind-foot! He afterwards backed Baronet to clear
nine yards over hurdles placed at some distance from
each other ; but he performed the task so often

• The Perry, which runs through the Halston estate.

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LIFE OF MYTTON. m

with him before the appointed time, that the horse
then refused it, and lost his master's money. In
Lord Bradford's Parle he cleared one of his Lordship's
deer-hurdles, upwards of six feet high ! and, what is
more surprising, he covered the space of eight yards
in length at the same time. This was accomplished
on a horse called the Hero, which he purchased of
me for 500 guineas, and was the same that leaped the
gate with him in Mr. Jellico's grounds in Shropshire,
the height of which was seven feet. But far from
pleasing reflections are the result of looking back
upon these brilliant feats of horsemanship, rarely ex-
celled by any one. On the contrary, we cannot help
lamenting that a person so gifted to shine in the field,
as Mr. Mytton proved himself to be, should not
have taken more care to preserve, unimpaired, the
almost unequalled natural powers which he possessed,
— so essential to the figure he made."

Nothing need be better than the shooting at
Halston was ; every species of game having abounded,
as the following facts will prove. The average
annual slaughter was, — twelve hundred brace of
pheasants, from fifteen hundred to two thousand
hares, partridges out of number ! We have turned
into the preserves after luncheon, where the phea-

112 LIFE OF MYTTON.

sants were as thick as sparrows at a barn door,
and the hares rvmning about Hke rabbits. The
team consisted (not of highly broken pointers, but)
of four keepers and three stable-boys, who kept
singing out as the pheasants got up, — " cock — hen
— cock — heit — cock — //r;/." Pheasants and hares were
of course slaughtered in abundance, but don't let
us call this sporting. There was also a good deal
of wild fowl, and very excellent fishing. Mr,
Mytton always made a point of killing fifty brace
of partridges the first day of the season with his own
gun; and I was once at Halston when he killed that
number further on in the year. A neighbouring
gentleman had betted him fifty guineas against the
performance, but paid forfeit over night. This,
however, did not satisfy the Squire. His fame as
a shot was called in question, so he went forth
with his keepers, and performed the task in about
six hours !

Barring Scotland, few gentlemen had better moors
than Mr. Mytton had ; and when I say that the
annual income of his Merionethshire estate, on which
they were, was Soo/., and that it consisted of little
less than sheep-walk, its great extent may be ima-
gined, and, consequently, the extent of the moors.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 113

Thirty brace of grouse was the average daily amount
bagged during his annual visit to Mowddy — or,
Motdhy, as it is pronounced — where he had com-
fortable accommodation for himself and three or
four friends. The right of free warren likewise
gave him liberty over his neighbour's property, to a
certain extent, and Mowddy itself is one of the few
manors to be found in North Wales. The fishine
here is likewise of the first description, and the
mountain scenery not to be surpassed in the Prin-
cipality. But alas ! although the mountains will
stand fast till time shall be no more, this ancient
patrimony has passed into other hands.

But to return for a moment to Halston, and the
feats of the trigger of the late owner of it and his
friends. Amongst them, the following may not very
easily be exceeded. His brother-in-law, Mr. Walter
Giffard, of Chillington, Staffordshire, afterwards
Master of the Albrighton fox-hounds, and himself^
took the field at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of a
short and dirty winter's day, and between that hour
and the dinner-hour they bagged 600 head of game
from their own guns ! To decide a match of loo-
guineas a side, he and Mr. Giffard, on another of the
" short days before Christmas," killed 430 head

fi4 LIFE OF MYTTON.

of game, 333 of whicli were pheasants ; and their two

opponents, 424 head, all in the Halston preserves. On

another occasion, an intimate friend of his and mine,

together with himself, killed a Jiead of game every

three minutes for five successive hours ! I state this

" in verbo sacerdotis" so that the fact may be relied

upon, but I withhold the reverend slaughterer's name.

It always appeared to me, however, that racing

<was more Mr. Mytton's passion than either shoot-

ling or hunting ; and could he have been divested

•of that destroying spirit which accompanied him,

;he might have cut a very conspicuous figure on

■what may be called the country turf. He had the

•courage to purchase good horses,— for example, he

gave three thousand guineas for Longwalst — and

his never- failing memory enabled him to measure

their ability by that of others in a manner that

turned to his account. Previously, indeed, to the

loss of his trainer and rider, William Dunn, who was

killed by a fall in riding one of his horses at Chester,*

he had his full share of success ; but it appeared

to forsake him gradually after that period. The

• This wns in 1822, wlien Dunn was riding a tliree-year old colt called
"Mallet. The famous jockey William Scott rode, and also fell, in the
same race, but sustained no material injury.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 115

fact was, Dunn was not only an excellent trainer and
rider, but he had some power over his master to
restrain his running his horses to a stand-still, which
he would do if left to his own discretion, and more
for the sake of showing sport than from desire to win
money. The sideboard at Halston exhibited thirteen
gold cups, besides two silver ones, several of which
were the trophies of one horse — the celebrated Eu-
phrates, who, like one of the old sort (now become
very scarce), continued running and winning to his
thirteenth year ! The expenses of his stud, how-
ever, must have been enormous ; not only by con-
sequence of its number, but his subscriptions to
stakes amounted to an immense annual sum. He
seldom refused to subscribe to any that were put
before him, and the name of " John Mytton " often
appeared as many as six times to the same race.
Of the science of breeding race-horses he knew little
or nothing ; and the richness of the land at Halston
proved a fatal obstacle to success.

His good nature and kind-heartedness accompanied
him everywhere, and particularly to the race-course.
He often started his horses without a prospect of their
winning, for the purpose of affording sport ; over-
ruling the objections of his trainer by saying, " 'Tis

ii6 LIFE OF MYTTON.

a pity the country people should come so far from
home and not have some fun."* In fact, that
class of persons always built on diversion when
"Squire Mytton's" horses were on the turf, and
consequently, with them, the popularity of their
owner had no bounds. " Which is he ? " they would
cry out to one of their friends that knew him.
" That's /ic — that's Mytto7il' the friend would reply.
" Dang it !" you would hear a Staffordshire potter
or a Walsall nailor exclaim, "//« looks bike a good
7111 ; they tells me he can f eight natioii well."

Before he became too heavy, my friend occasionally
rode among the gentlemen jockeys f of the day ; and
here "John Mytton" appeared again, for, strange to
say, he did not like to see an intimate friend win,
although he himself could not win. I had a rare
specimen of this unaccountable frolic in my own
person once, when riding in the same race with him
at Lichfield. He knew he himself had no chance to
win, but was determined I should not ; and, by
making several runs at my horse, caused him to

* At Chester, he once actually went to his stable and fetched a horse
down to the course himself, which his trainer had not prepared to run,
and, mounting his jockey at the post, won the prize contended for.

t Mr. Mytton's colours were green and white, with a black cap.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 117

break away with me in the race, and the little chance
I had was lost by it. I say " the little chance," be-
cause, although I defeated seven of eight horses that
started against me, by at least twenty lengths, the
ninth came up and won cleverly at the last. This
proved to be the famous Habberly, who was in-
stantly purchased by Mr. Mytton for two hundred
guineas, but who had never started or been heard
of before that day. He was called and entered
as a cocktail ; but, as his subsequent running
proved. Eclipse was not more thoroughbred than
he was ; and no doubt the original owners of him
knew it.

Let us here take a cursory review of his start and
progress on the turf It appears that he entered
upon its fascinations at the earliest possible oppor-
tunity, viz., on attaining his majority in 18 17. In
the book calendar of that year there are three horses
attached to the name of "John Mytton, Esq.," the
names of two of which, " Hazard " and " Neck or
Nothing," are highly characteristic of the man, and
especially so at the commencement of his perilous
career on this slippery ground.

He made his d^btit at Oswestry on the 23rd of
September of the said year, on which day both the

1 1 8 L IFE OF M YT TON.

above-named horses ran (Neck or Nothing breaking
down); also a third, called Langolee, an Irish horse,
purchased by him when in France, and which lasted
him many years as a whipper-in's horse, and also was
used in the stud, to get hunters.

In the following year, iSiS, his name appears in
the Calendar as owner of the followinsf horses : Lan-
golee, Leopold, Pranks, and Jupiter.

Langolee walked over for a hunter stakes, and
beat Mr. Jones's Kill-Devil in a match at Shrews-
bury in September, which was his blooding of success
on the turf. This year his horses ran at Oswestry
(where " Captain Mytton " gave 50/. to be run for by
members of the Oswestry Yeomanry Cavalry), at
Wrexham, Holywell Hunt, and Tarporley Hunt,
over the new course on Delamere Forest.

In 1S19 he had Jupiter, Sybil, Tambourine by
Cervantes, Dot-and-go-one, Tattoo, Anti-Radical,
Fox-Huntress by Sultan, and Single-Peeper, in his
racing-stable ; during which year, however, he expe-
rienced the want of success peculiar to most young
turfites.

In 1S20 his string of horses were considerably
lengthened. In addition to Anti-Radical and Leo-
pold, he had gr. f. by Fitzjames, Mandeville, Theo-

LIFE OF MYTTON. 119

dore Majocchi (late Handel), Halston by Langton,
Claudius, Chance, The Polacca, George the Third,
Brunette, Paul Potter, and Victorine.

Anti-Radical won him some good stakes at Ches-
ter, Warwick, Lichfield, Oswestry, Tarporley, and
the gold cup at Manchester.

Mandeville won the gold cup at Nantwich and
Nottinofham, also 100 gs. at Manchester.

Halston won four stakes, value 200/.

182 1. Victorine, b. c. by Aladdin, Paul Potter,
The Chancellor, Halston, Doctor, Anti-Radical, The
Ruler, Vade-Mecum, George the Third, Shrews-
bury, Hudibras, Queen Caroline, Habberley, Single-
Peeper, Mandeville, Claudius, Theodore Majocchi,
were in his racing-stable.

Halston won the gold cup at Nottingham, also
stakes at Worcester and Chester, value 135 gs.

Anti-Radical again carried off the gold cup at
Manchester, also the Palatine stakes and the gold cup
at Burton ; and Habberley, then called Acastus, said
to be by Shuttlecock dam by Gayman, gleaned some
good things at the Anson Hunt, Manchester, Here-
ford, and Shrewsbury.

Mandeville also won four times, the stakes amount-
ing to about 200 gs.

I20 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Claudius won die gold cup at Cheltenham.

1822. He had Claudius, Mallet, Habberley, Net-
tle, The Ruler, Enterprise, Queen Caroline, Halston,
Mandeville, Theodore Majocchi, Anti-Radical, Circe,
Vade-Mecum, Banker, two br. colts by Filho da
Puta, Jovial, ch. m. by Milo, ch. g. by Young Alex-
ander, Paradigm.

Habberley won the Billesden Coplow stakes at
Croxton Park, the Half-bred stakes at Chester and
Manchester, 40 gs. at Shrewsbury, and 80 gs. at
Oswestry.

The Ruler by Rubens won the Sherwood stakes
at Nottingham and 60/. at Manchester. He was
induced, by a flattering account given him by the
owner of a trial, to offer 500 gs. for this colt at two
years old, worth about as many shillings.

Halston started ten times, and only won 50/. at
Oswestry. Mandeville won 65 gs. at Nantwich ;
Anti-Radical 60 gs. at Cheltenham. Banker by Smo-
lensko, after he became Mr. Mytton's property
(having been purchased this year of Mr. Charlton,
with whom he had won the cup at Winchester),
won the cup at Abingdon, and 70 gs. at Shrews-
bury. One of the Filho colts won 75 gs. at
Lichfield. Jovial by Golumpus won the Cocked Hat

LIFE OF MYTTON. 121

Stakes at Shrewsbury. The ch. mare by Milo the
silver cup at Oswestry. The gelduig by Young
Alexander the Cocked Hat stakes at Oswestry ; and
Paradigm by Partisan the WelHngton stakes at
Basingstoke.

1823. We find Habberley, Banker, Enterprise,
Whittington, Euphrates (purchased of Mr. J. Dilly),
Libertine, Ostrich, Clansman, Paradigm, Anti-Ra-
dical, br. c. by Bustard, Sir William 'purchased of
Mr. Beardsworth), Cae Avon, The Devil, placed
after his name.

Habberley won the Boston stakes at the Anson
Hunt at Lichfield. Banker won 60/. at Buxton.
Whittington, by Filho, won 235/. at Chester, Shrews-
bury, Walsall, and Stafford. Euphrates, then seven
years old, by Quiz, won the King's plate at Chester,
and the gold cup at Worcester. Ostrich, by Bustard
(son of Castrel), won 183 gs. in two sums at Knuts-
ford and Warwick ; and the colt by Bustard won
90/. in two sums at Oswestry and Holywell.

1824. He had Habberley, Euphrates, Ostrich,
Oswestry, Berghill, Comte d'Artois, Whittington,
and Ludford.

Euphrates won the gold cups at Cheltenham and
Lichfield, and the Oxfordshire stakes at Oxford.

122 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Oswestry, by Filho, won lOo/. at the Pottery, 75/.
at Buxton, and the Mostyn and the Halkin stakes at
Holywell. Berghill, by Bustard, won the Ludford
stakes, and 150/. in three sums at Ludlow, Shrews-
bury, and Wrexham. Comte d'Artois, by Bourbon,
won 70/. and the gold cup at Worcester, the gold
cup at Hereford, and the Hawarden Castle stakes
at Holywell. Whittington won the gold cup at
Oswestry, the gold cup at Wrexham, another at Staf-
ford, and 345/. in different sums ; while Ludford, by
Manfred, won 50/. at Holywell.

1825. Elizabeth, Cara Sposa (late Miss Fyldener),
Ludford, Oswestry, Comte d'Artois, Louisa, b. c. by
Amadis, Euphrates, Comrade, b. f. by Blucher, b. f.
by Cannon Ball, b. f by Ambo, Flexible.

Ludford won 100 gs. at Oswestry and Holywell.
Oswestry won the gold cup at Shrewsbury and 55/. at
Burton. Comte d'Artois 60/. at Shrewsbury. Louisa,
by Orville, 225/. at Chester, 70 gs. at Nottingham,
and 100 gs. at Derby. Euphrates won the gold cups
at Newton, Worcester, Lichfield, Wolverhampton, and
Oswestry ; also 50/. at the latter place. Comrade,
by Partisan, won 60 gs. at the Pottery. The Blucher
filly 225/. at Holywell, and 50/. at Wenlock. The
Cannon Ball filly 50/. at Oswestry. Flexible, by

LIFE OF MYTTON. 123

Whalebone, 120/. at Shrewsbury, 50/. at Oswestry,
210/. at Holywell ; a pretty good year's work.

1826. Flexible, Whittington, Fisherman, Euphrates,
Balloon, Longwaist, Bowsprit, Louisa Ashbourn, ch.
c. by Sam, b. c. by Amadis, Harriet Wilson, Lark,
and Comrade.

Flexible won the Darlington cup at Wolverhamp-
ton, and 70/. at Cheltenham. Whittington 60/. at
Chester. Euphrates carried off the gold cup at
Lichfield, the gold cup and 50/. at Oswestry, the
King's plate and 70/. at Chester. Longwaist, by
Whalebone, won the gold cups at Newton, Buxton,
Worcester, and Warwick, also 40/. at Chester.
Bowsprit, by Rainbow, won 50/. at Ludlow. Ash-
bourn, by Cheshire Cheese, 60/. at Oswestry. Colt,
by Amadis, 230/. at Nottingham; and Harriet Wilson,
by Manfred, 40/. at Shrewsbury.

1827. Fisherman, Flexible, Lechmere, Ellesmere, an-
other Halston, by Banker, Euphrates, Mexican, Lark.

Ellesmere, by Filho, is the first winner of the above
lot, viz. of 125/. at Nottingham. Halston won 275/.
at Chester, 175/. at Ludlow, and the Chillington
stakes at Wolverhampton. Euphrates won the gold
cup and 50/. at Oswestry, and the King's plate at
Lichfield. Lark, by Rubens, 55/. at Nottingliam.

124 LIFE OF MYTTON.

1828. Spruce, Hedgford, Euphrates, Halston b. c.
by Master Henry, The Crofts, br. f. by Filho.

Spruce, by Skim, won 100/. at the Anson Hunt.
Hedgford, by Filho or Magistrate, the cup and 50/.
at Chester, and 50/. at Nottingham. Euphrates won
the cups at Ludlow, Worcester, Oswestry, and Wrex-
ham, also the King's plate at Chester. Halston, the
Palatine stakes at Chester, 100 gs. at Newton, 75 gs.
at Worcester, 200 gs. at Burton, the Avon stakes at
Warwick, 155 gs. at Oswestry, the Taffy and Peng-
wern stakes at Holywell.

1829. The numbers were considerably reduced.
Brown filly by Filho, The Crofts, Halston, Hedgford,
and Euphrates, being the whole of the horses he had
in training.

The Crofts, by Whalebone, won 125/. at Oswestry,
and 50/. at Wrexham. Halston, the Tradesman's
cup at Chester, the cup at Knutsford, 350/. the
Pengwern stakes, and 115/. at Holywell. Hedgford,
63/. at Chester. Euphrates the gold cups at Ludlow
and Wolverhampton, and the King's plate at Lich-
field.

1830. This year brings us to a close, Halston and
Hedgford being the only race-horses he had left ; the
former winning 50/. at Holywell, and the latter the

LIFE OF MVTTON. 125

Cheshire stakes at Chester, iio/. at Newcastle, and
50/. at Wrexham.

I find I must here retrace my steps a Httle, and
this for two reasons. First, I shall follow the eood
example set by himself in bearing testimony to the
worth of a good servant ; and, secondly, shall tran-
scribe a letter of his own, which sets forth the writer
of it in his true character. It will be recollected I
asserted that Mr. Mytton's success on the turf some-
what declined after the death of his trainer and rider,
William Dunn. Let it not be supposed, however,
that I intend in the least degree to disparage the good
conduct or abilities of his subsequent trainers or
riders, but to impute it to that " tide," as Shakspeare
calls it, in every man's affairs, wherein fortune has a
share, which, despite of everything and everybody,
will now and then set against him. I have good
reason to believe that Mr. William Dilly and my old
servant, Thomas Horsley, did all that could be done
for Mr. Mytton as trainers of his horses ; and the fair
ability of his jockey, Whitehouse, is very generally
acknowledged. His master's opinion of him, however,
is here unhesitatingly given in one of the prettiest
letters, if I may use such an epithet, that I ever
perused.

126 LIFE OF MYTTON.

" To the Editor of the Salopian jfo2irTial.

" Sir,

" Having lately heard it asserted, as the general
opinion, that the defeat of my celebrated horse, Long-
waist, may be attributed to the dishonesty of his rider,
I feel called upon, as his owner, to express my most
firm and unshaken confidence in his integrity, till now
unimpeached, and, in truth, unimpeachable.

" Nothing but anxiety to rescue the fame and cha-
racter of a highly -valued servant and deservedly-
admired rider, would induce me to trespass on your
valuable columns ; but feeling that the character of
Whitehouse is as unspotted and as valuable to him-
self as that of the highest of our nobles is to him,
I cannot resist making my confidence in his worth
and integrity thus public.

•Who steals my purse, steals trash ; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands :
But he that filches from me my good nnme,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
But makes me poor indeed.'

" I am, Sir,

" Your obedient servant,

"JOHN MYTTON.*

"//a/sfon."

• The following is a copy of his autograph : strongly indicative of

LIFE OF MYTTON.

127

As a pendant to the above, I may here introduce
the following tickler that he wrote to the Editor of
the "Old Sporting Magazine" in the spring of 1831,
in answer to some observations that had been made
about Mr. Beardsworth and the horse Birmingham.

"GUY STAKES AT WARWICK.

" Sir,

" If there is one thing more absolutely requisite
than another in a letter which »s intended for the
public eye, it is accuracy ; or, to speak more plainly,
Truth — a qualification that your Correspondent, The
Young Forester, has in your Magazine of this
month (February) unhappily overlooked.

"In page 247 he says, 'The stake at Warwick
has been awarded to the owner of Cetus, who was
second, in consequence of the present owner of Bir-
mingham having refused to pay some paltry 25/, for-

the rapidity with which he used his pen on all common occasions : —

128 LIFE OF MYTTON.

feit for a stake at Winchester, where the horse was
engaged in the name of the person whom Mr. Beards-
worth bought him of.' — This is notoriously untrue ;
and, by the manner in which the writer speaks of the
transaction altogether, it is to be feared it is wilfully so.

" The next paragraph I apprehend, too, is incor-
rect ; but which I will not speak so positively about,
because I know but little of racing, and therefore am
unwilling to compete with so precocious a youth as
this appears to be.

" He says, ' It has long been one of the best ac-
knowledged rules of racinor that no horse is entitled
to be a ivinner until all the arrears due for such animal
have been paid up.' Is he sure of that ? Where is
the rule to be found ? Has he not made a mistake ?
and instead of the words 'to be a winner,' should he
not have said ' to start ? ' This talented gentleman
may not see the difference. Great wits, they say,
have short memories — perhaps they are short-sighted
too I In my humble judgment, there is a great deal
of difference. By making use of the word ' start,'
you afford the owner an opportunity of paying the
stake in arrears, if applied for, instead of letting the
onus hang over his head till he has defeated his
antagonists.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 129

" And now I would ask, did Sir Mark Wood ' most
honourably ' make any application to the Stewards
or Clerk of the Course before Birmingham started at
Warwick for the paltry 25/. forfeit at Winchester ?
The Young Forester answers this question partly,
asserting, ' he apprised both trainer and master, pre-
viously to the race, of the objection he had to make.
Now if he had done so, I should say they (that is, the
trainer and master) were not the proper persons to
apprise. The Stewards (or at all events the Clerk
of the Course) were the proper persons ; but, unfor-
tunately for the The Young Forester's veracity,
here is another untruth : Sir Mark Wood did not
'most honourably' apprise Mr. Beardsworth (the
owner), previously to the race, of the objection he
had to make.

" ' Save me from my friends, ' he says, ' has been the
cry through many ages :' but instead of Mr. Beards-
worth echoing it, I guess the Jockey Club and
Sir Mark Wood are more likely to apply it to this
doughty genius, and conjure him, if he is determined
to attempt to take their part, that he will assert only
that which is true.

" I am, Sir, your humble Servant,

"John Mytton.

"Hahion, Feb. 19 1S31." i

I30 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Mr. Mytton and his confederate disputed the
decision which gave the race to Cetus, and brought an
action against the stewards for the recovery of the
stakes, but in this they were again worsted.

A summary of Mr. Mytton's actual racing career
may be comiDrised in a few words. He had too many
horses in the iirst place, and too many of them not
good enough to pay their way. It is evident he was
anxious to have good ones in his stables by the prices
he gave ; but he bought several of that sort a/ler
their day was gone by : for example, Comte d'Artois,
Banker, Longwaist, &c. &c. He had, however,
several good winners, old Euphrates at their head ;
and Whittington, Oswestry, and Halston, were
esteemed very " smart " horses in the racing world.
Indeed, it is believed that in some hands the}- would
have been trump cards. As for himself, as a
racing man, he was too severe upon his horses ;
they rarely came out fresh, after Chester and one or
two other places ; and therefore, this fact admitted, he
had, I think, as much success as he could have ex-
pected. He seldom backed his horses to any serious
amount; generally not at all.

His stables were, as has been before stated, upon
Delamere Forest, in Cheshire, and he had at difterent

LIFE OF MYTTON. 131

times for training grooms — William Dunn (also his
rider, who was killed) ; Maurice Jones, one of the old
sort; William Dilly, and Thomas Horsely. Jones
had always one answer to his master's question,
" Shall we win this race, Maurice ? " — " Well, I
can't say, indeed, sir ; but / think we shall be nigh
hajidy, please God.'" His home stud-groom, Tinckler,
was also one of the old sort, a careful nurser of young
racing stock, but too fond of green meat to contend
with young horses of the present day. Mr. Mytton
never bred a crood race-horse.

This anecdote of Maurice Jones reminds me of
another. I was once on a visit to the late Mr. Bay-
zand, of sporting notoriety, when he received a letter,
enclosing a bill of expenses for training, from " old
Sadler," as he was called, father to the more generally
known Isaac Sadler. It contained the following post-
script : " I have had a terrible summer of it ; won
nothing ; but, by the blessing of God, hope to do
better next year."

The stables and boxes at Halston have the doors
covered with a greater or less number of " plates,"
as the tips worn by race-horses in running are called.
They are painted light blue, with white in the centre,

132 LIFE OF MYTTON.

on which are printed most of the horses' names, and
the stakes won by them in every year, up to the close
of 1 82 7. Each stake or race won has a plate to re-
cord it, and these are arranged by half dozens in a
line across the breadth of the door. The career of
any particular horse is given on the door of the stable
or box he once occupied, and there are nine stables
and box doors covered with plates in the following
order :

On the door of the first set of stables are 27 plates in commemoration
of as manv races.

On the door

of the

: second stable

17

>j

third

ti

18

»

fourth

»

24

»

fifth

n

5

>i

sixth

i>

6

»

seventh

»

i6

II

eighth
ninth

26
26

Total . 165 races.

But there are many stakes not recorded in this
way ; and I was told none had been entered since the
year 1827.

The following horses, amongst others, won stakes,
plates, and matches, to the number specified against
their respective names, viz. —

LIFE OF MYTTON.

133

Langolee .

2

Single-Peeper .

I

Fox-Huntress .

I

Chance • . • 1
Sir Oliver.

1

I

Jovial

I

Milo Mare

I

Harriette Wilson

I

Mandeville

8

Ruler

2

Libertine . ,

I

Victoriiie . .

2

Mallet .

4

Whittington

14

Alexander

0

Habberley

13

Cara Sposa

2

Ashbourn

. I

Anti-Radical . .

17

Banker

4

Ostrich .

2

Comrade .

I

Colt by Bustard

2

84

Brought forivard
Euphrates
Flexible .
Longwaist
Tattoo
Handel .
Claudius . .
Paul Potter
Bowsprit .
Colt by Amadis
Oswestry .
Ludford . .
Geranium .
Cannon-ball Filly
Louisa

George the Third
Halston . .
Sir William
Chancellor
Nettle
Paradigm .
Berghill .
Comte d'Artois .

84

16

6

S

2
2
2
I
I

3
6

4
3

3
I

7
4
I
I
I
6
5

i6s

Turning from his more public life as a sports-
man to his domestic relations as a husband and
a father, a delicate hand is certainly required when
speaking ot Mr. Mytton's conduct towards his two
wives ; for the mind naturally revolts from retracing,
circumstantially, anything intimately connected with

134 LIFE OF MYTTON.

the sacred compact between man and wife. But, as
the reader will perceive, I should fail in my object, in
writing this memoir of my departed friend, if I shrank
from the arduous and painful task. I need no justi-
fication for the performance of it ; I find it, first, in
the fact of the notoriety given through the public
journals to the proceedings in Chancery on the final
separation of Mr. Mytton from that amiable lady
who survived him ; and, secondly, in numerous mis-
representations that have gone forth to the world,
which, to the utmost of my ability, I shall endeavour
to clear up. I wish, however, for one sip of Lethe
now, and that my readers could partake with me of
the same cup ; for as in criminal law good character
bears no weight against positive evidence, at least as
regards the verdict returned, so I much fear the nume-
rous virtues of my old friend will not here more
than balance the account, unless large credit be given
him on one score. The follies of mankind are
familiar to our view, and we can always find an
excuse for i/uiu ; but it is difficult to account
for that evil principle which prompts a man to
give pain to a woman whom in his heart he loves,
and whom he has every earthly reason to love. Sic
visum est diis, " 'Tis the will of the gods," said the

LIFE OF MYTTON. 135

ancients — a poor excuse, if not a little blasphemous ;
and I should rather lay it to poor human Nature,
who sometimes exhibits herself in most mysterious
guises, as was the case here, accompanied by errors
and failings over which, as we are not permitted to
command oblivion, delicacy and humanity would fain
draw the veil.

But this painful part of my subject, if my end is to
be attained, will not admit of concealment, and the
evil must at once be laid bare to our view. I reluc-
tantly admit, that Mr. Mytton's conduct in the mar-
riage state is in great part indefensible, and can only
be palliated by a due allowance, which must not be
denied him, for that sort of insane delirium under
which he so frequently laboured — no matter from
what cause — and to which so many of his otherwise
unaccountable acts — not the acts of John Mytton per
se — can alone be placed. Delusion is the true cha-
racter of insanity ; and when I say that great part of
his unjustifiable, and, by the world, I fear, hitherto
unpardoned treatment of two of the most exemplary
and virtuous women in existence, was jealousy,,
nothing more need be said to establish this point.
What says the poet ? and beautifully has he said
it —

136 LIFE OF MYTTOiV.

" It is jealousy's peculiar nature
To swell small things to great ; nay, out of nought
To conjure much ; and then to lose ils reason
Amid tlie hideous phantoms it has formed."

In the case before us, not only the groundlessness,
but the unreasonableness of his suspicions, were such
as could have emanated from no sound mind, which
never dreams of effects unconnected with a cause ;
and this is nearly the sole mitigation I have to offer
for one of the greatest blemishes human nature can
sustain. On this point he was mad ; on others, only
eccentric ; but as has been falsely said of wit, " thin
partitions do t/ietr bounds divide." The fate of each
of these ladies, however, has been a hard one. The
one dropped into an early grave ; the other would
have been torn from him by her friends, had she
not made up her mind to abandon him, lest, like
Semele in Jupiter's, she might have found her death
in his embraces."'"

But, setting aside this monomaniasm, what further

* So tender is woman's fame, that the very breath of columny will
taint it. It behoves me then to say, that, in their situation as wives,
two more correct in their conduct mi;jht have been searched for in vain,
than the ladies I am now alluding to. Any man but Mr. Mytton would
have been proud of exhibiting them in public, but had they lived in
the days of Pericles, or even been the wives of the Great Mogul, they
could scarcely have been more secluded than they were at H.ilsion.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 137

extenuation have I to offer ? I answer, as regards his
second lady, none, save madness. His first and him-
self were not well assorted. She had been nursed on
the lap of refinement and fashion, to which her be-
trothed was a stranger, and was, by consequence, ill
calculated to be the wife of a rough country squire,
who had never been at Almack's in his life, and who
had something like a sovereign contempt for all such
exclusive associations. Nor was this all ; and should
any young female's eye rest for a moment on this
page, let it well observe, that it may well mark, one
rock on which thousands of her sex have split, and
which she to whom I am alluding did not steer clear
of. The first Jllrs. Myttoii condncted herself with
coldjiess to her husband's old friends and companions,
the sons of the native gentry of his neighbourhood, in
every respect her equal. To a man of Mytton's tem-
perament, to whom an old friend was " as the core
of the heart, or the apple of his eye," this could not
have been without its effect ; and on one occasion is

Not even a race-ball would he let them be present at for some years of
his life ! To what motive but jealousy, or what is worse, suspicion^
could such conduct be attributed ? In justice to the deceased husband,
however, I must state that the health of the first Mrs. Mytton was very
delicate when she was married, which may account for her premature
death.

138 LIFE OF MYTTON.

said to have drawn tears from him, during a dinner-
party at his own house : and from my knowledge of
the man, I doubt not the fact.

There is a readiness to believe ill reports without
examination into their truth, and we are often found
guilty by those who will not trouble themselves to
look into the accusation. Is all true, then, that has
been reported, and credited by too many, of Mr.
Mytton's conduct to his first wife ? Certainly not.
Fame loves to double, and the world is not only
credulous, but loud, and too often scurrilous, in its
censure. Not content with the various embellishments
of vulgar rumour, absolute falsehoods were in general
circulation ; and amongst them the following : — He
was accused of having thrown her lap-dog — curse
those lap-dogs ! married women have no business with
such pests — upon the fire ; but, fortunately for the
memory of my departed friend, the act that gave rise
to the vile report I myself was a witness to. He
merely took it up in his arms, threw it halfway up to
the drawing-room ceiling, and caught it, without injury,
on its descent. The butler (who happened to be in
the room at the time) called out, " O Mr. Mytton !
you'll kill the dog!" and the lady screamed and cried;
and on this was the dreadful charge founded. In the

LIFE OF MYTTON. 139

hilarity of high animal spirits, Mytton was much
given 10 practical jokes, as all his friends know.
Thus, on the same lady once accompanying him to
the kennel, he shut the door upon her for an instant,
after he himself had got outside of it, and this was
magnified into his wishing, or, I believe, iiLtending,
that she might be devoured by his fox-hounds.
Again, he threw her into deep water ! Nonsense ;
he was never mad enough to do that. He merely,
one very hot day, pushed her into the shallow of his
lake at Halston, a little over her shoes. All this
was, no doubt, wrong by a young lady who had been
brought up so tenderly as Miss Jones had been
reared, but with a hundred young ladies I could
name, who had been differently treated in their child-
hood, nothing would have been thought of it beyond
a joke. And then we should look at the man. If,
independently of his own immediate connections, he
had a greater regard for one person than for any
other, I have reason to believe it was for his Halston
chaplain, and he was two or three times nearly being
the death of him — once absolutely confining him to
his bed for several weeks, from the consequences of
his having, by way of a " lark," knocked him over
some iron railing at his hall-door at Halston. Cruelty

140 LIFE OF MYTTON.

was not the property — no, not even the excrescence
— of his nature ; although, hi his practical jokes, I
admit he was rough, judging perhaps of other people's
corporeal feelings by his own/'

I have said he was without excuse for ill-conduct
to his second wife, and must again say, zv/iy ? Not
merely was her beauty the weakest of her charms, and
her disposition and temper most amiable, but all who
knew her will join with me in saying, that if a wife
had been selected for IMr. Mytton with a view of
reclaiming him, and making him a domestic character
and a kind husband, she might have been the woman
fixed upon for the experiment. Like Terence's lover,
then, he should not only have sworn never to have
forsaken, or unkindly treated her, forasmuch as she
was the object of his choice, and had been with diffi-
ctilty obtauied; but there was that suitableness of
temper (the " co7ivenmiii nio7'es" of the poet), which
the one valued so highly, and the other had not,
perhaps, met with before. In short, there was every

* How many times have I overheard such remarks as the fol-
lowing made on Mr. Mytton, by ladies, in my hearing, in distant
parts of England, and, indeed, now and then nearer home. " Oh,
he is a brute! he threw his wife's dog on the fire, and burnt
it alive. He tried to drown her, and wanted his hounds to eat
her alive." Pshaw !

LIFE OF MYTTON. 141

prospect of happiness from this union, and for some
years indeed it appeared to be realised ; but whether
it was that he once again nursed a vulture to feed on
his own heart, or whether it was not in his nature
to live comfortably for any length of time with a
woman, however suited to his taste, and however dear
to his heart, is a question not to be resolved by man.
He has, certainly, been exhibited as a pattern of
ruffianism in his conduct towards this amiable lady ;
and as some detail of it has already been before the
public, a repetition would be useless, as well as painful
to the humanity of my readers. But here comes the
paradox. He loved this woman to distraction ; he
would have given the apple of his eye for her at any
time ; he would have risked twenty lives to have
gotten her back again, and obtained her forgiveness ;
he raved about her in his madness ; and sent her his
dying benediction ! Were those brutal deeds, then,
the deeds of the kind-hearted John Mytton — kind to
every living soul but the woman whom he loved to
distraction ? Oh, no ; they were the deeds of a man
visited by the hand of the Almighty, afflicted with a
distempered brain, a monomaniac beyond all doubl.
Could he then, like Sylla, have got an act of oblivion
passed in his favour for this sad stain on his other-

142 LIFE OF MYTTON.

wise good name, he would perhaps have passed even
an earthly tribunal. But how fortunate is it, O man,
and especially for you who may be the loudest to
condemn him, that we have reason to hope there is
more mercy in heaven than in this often too reproach-
ful world.

But is it possible, it will still be asked, that Mr.
Mytton could have really loved either, or both of
his amiable wives ? Indeed, reader, he did, and,
woman-like, despite of his conduct, they both loved
him. Neither did they reproach him. He could
not comjjlain with the noble bard —

'• Though my many faults defac'd me.
Could no other arm be found.
Than Uie one which once embrac'd me,
To inflict a cureless wound ?"

But he might have joined his brother exile in his
plaintive song —

"All my faults, perhaps, thou knowest ;
All my madness, none can know ;
All my hopes, where'er thou goest.
Whither, yet with thee they go."

And I speak from experience on these points. In the
fatal illness of his first wife, I obeyed the call of
friendship, and went to him at Clifton Hot Wells,
where she died, and I can vouch for his sufferings on
that occasion. Who that has ever seen him look

LIFE OF MYTTON. 143

upon her portrait at Halston, and speak of her
afterwards, could doubt the truth of what I have
asserted ? And yet, could they both rise from their
graves, and were he to meet her again in all her
beauty, and with all her charms, as he had met her
before on their bridal day, I would not answer for
many years of domestic happiness, even with the
experience of the past to boot. " What is passion,"
says my Uncle Toby, " but a wild beast ? " and un-
less restrained by reason, or subdued by temperance,
it is as furious and violent as the brute beast himself.
We may throw a gem to a cock or a pearl to a
swine, but each would be better pleased with much
humbler fare sought for and selected to their wild
taste and pleasure ; and I need not apply the moral
here. It has been shown beyond a doubt, that it was
not in the power of woman — no, nor in the power of
himself — to have made John Mytton a good hus-
band ; indeed he ought not to have entered into the
marriage state at all.

We must, then, still proceed in the catechetical
mood. How could any woman venture on Mr.
Mytton as a husband after the publicit)' given to the
history of his proceedings towards his first wife ? I
answer, In the first place, many of the evil reports In

144 LIFE- OF MYTTON.

circulation were found to be untrue. Secondly, there
was a great intimacy, as well as congeniality, if I may
apply the word here, between the brothers of his
second lady and himself, who could see nothing but
what was congenial in their brother-sportsman and
friend. Again, Why was Venus (the Egyptian one)
represented standing naked on a lion, but to indicate
that love conquers even the fiercest beast ? Here,
then, was the lion in toils. The suing lover was on
his very best behaviour during the days of probation,
to which I was myself a witness, for he often made
my house his home, as it was within two miles of that
of the object of his choice. Again, " Credula res amor
est" — Lo\-e believes everything ; and not only the
young lady — and young she was, for, if my memory
serves me, she was only in her seventeenth year — but
we all believed there was a fair prospect of happiness
in the anticipated union. Neither was it suffered to
take place without due consideration. The pros and
the cons were nicely weighed and weighed again by
the anxious mother, and they appeared nearly to bal-
ance the scales. Still it was long before her mind was
made up, and in the intimacy of our friendship she put
the following home question to me : — " Had you a
daughter marriageable," said this amiable lady, and

LIFE OF MYTTON. 145

exemplary pattern of a wife and mother,* " would
you like to see her married to Mr. Mytton ? " I
very well remember my answer, which was this : " In
my opinion, Lady Charlotte, Mr. Mytton has no
business with a wife at all ; but should he marry your
daughter Caroline, there is a greater prospect of his
making a good husband to her than to any other
woman in the whole world." Now, not only did
my words prove true, but for several years he was a
good husband, and had it not been for " the grave
of reason " which excess of wine became to him, as
indeed it does to most other men, I doubt not he
would have continued in the same course. But
what an exemplary wife did Miss Caroline Giffard
become to him ! How well did .she bear her seclu-
sion from society ; what allowance did she make for
his libertine life ; how much did it cost her to es-
trange her heart from him who had stamped it with
its first impression ! "I cannot help loving him, with
all his faults,"' said she to me, one evening at Halston,
after recounting some of his acts, which only a mad-
man would have committed ; and were my life to
endure a thousand years, I could never lose my recol-

• Lady Charlotte Giffard, a daughter of the house of Devon.

K

146 LIFE OF MYTTON.

lection, unless I lost my reason, of that distressing
scene. But it is true, thought I, as I listened to the
sad tale, what is said of woman, that Heaven is
pleased to make distress become her, and dresses her
most amiably in tears.

But independently of conduct towards herself,
there were other circumstances which must have been
the source of much pain to this amiable lady. No^
thing is more precious to a woman's heart than the
good name and credit of him she loves. The unfor-
tunate turf connection, then, between Mr. Mytton and
the person I have just previously alluded to, sank
deep in that of the lady in question, and well might
it have stung her honest pride to the quick. The
best of men is not free from human infirmity ; but
of all the vices short of what is termed " the great
offence," to which a gentletnan can be addicted, no-
thing so far debases and lowers him in the eyes of all
who have an interest in his welfare, as his quitting the
rank to which he by birth belongs. 'Tis the last step
io a general dereliction of all crentlemanlike feeling-s,
and a sorry compliment to his former friends. " Tell
,me with whom you associate," said the sage, " and
I'll tell you what you are," was one of the noblest
Jessons, if not the severest rebuke, ever given to

LIFE OF MYTTON. 147

mankind. It is the voice of custom echoed by the
voice of reason.

I have but Httle to say of Mr. Mytton as a father,
but that little is in his favour. He was very fond of
his children, although, as may be expected, he had a
peculiar way of showing his affection for them ; such
as tossing them in the air as he did the lap-dog,
giving view-holloas in their ears at a very tender age,
throwing oranges at their heads, and indulging in all
such practical jokes ; but as the brute said of the eels
he was skinning, it was " nothing when they were
used to it," and I think his conduct towards them
was nearly sans reprocJie. He often spoke of them in
his exile ; and when he came in contact with other
persons' children about the age of his own, a close
observer would detect the workingrs of a stroncr in-
ward feeling which it was not in his power to conceal.
But why should he wish to conceal it ? There is a
chord in the breast of a savage that responds to the
voice of nature! John Mytton himself could alone
answer this question ; but as a celebrated character in
antiquity wished for a window in his breast that every
one might see into it, a peep into that of this man
would have exhibited qualities and virtues which
not only the world refused to give him credit for,

148 LIFE OF MYTTON.

but which he himself seemed resolved it should not
believe he possessed. Strange and unfathomable man !
Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue ;
God knows you paid her nothing in that coin ; you
seemed determined to make us think you kept no
account with her at all !

PART I IT.

/"CHARACTER, it is said, may be best illustrated
by anecdote, and no man's career ever afforded
a greater clue in this way than that of John Mytton.
As his Memoirs have passed through succeeding
editions, further material has offered itself with which
it is here proposed to deal, having always in view the
primary intention of the work. The best of these
stories are fortunately, as it will be seen, to be
gathered up about home.

On one occasion, on his returning from hunting,
and when within a couple of miles of Halston, Mr.
Mytton laid a trifling wager with one of the party
who accompanied him, that he would reach home the
first. He suffered his friend to take the lead until
they arrived on the Halston domain, and were going
at speed in a line with the lake, which is one of con-
siderable breadth ; when, suddenly pulling up his

ISO UFE OF MYTJON.

horse, and forcing him into the water, he landed
in safety on the other side. Thus, by cutting off
an acute angle, he gained a considerable advantage
over his competitor ; and, jumping the sunken fence
into the flower-garden, arrived first at his hall-door.
It must be remembered that he could not swim, even
across a duck-pond !

It has been already shown how regardless Mr.
Mytton was of weather, whether hot or cold ; and
with the thermometer at zero, he would be seen
walking to his stables before breakfast, with nothing
on his person but his shirt, dressing-gown, and slip-
pers. On one occasion he mounted a hunter in this
partial attire, and, accompanied by one of his guests,
equally wild as himself, rode bare-backed over the
country for three or four miles. Then, he once took
Staples, Sir Bellingham Graham's man, who was fresh
to " those parts," for a look at the country, on the
day before hunting. Mytton on Milo showed the
way, and Staples on the Hit-or-Miss mare followed,
over some miles of stiff country, and with the Perry
in their line. The stranger did very well until they
came to a particularly green meadow, when Mytton
drove on to his companion and landed him in a bog,
from which he with much difficulty extricated him-

LIFE OF MYTTON. 151

self. In some of these frolics, however, he ascer-
tained the good properties of his horses, which, per-
haps, he would not otherwise have been acquainted
with. For example, at the end of a capital run, in^
Shropshire, his whipper-in rode a horse called Oliver,,
over a brook which ]\Iytton"s own horse refused.
" Stop ! " said he to him ; " it is fit that the master'
should ride the best horse ; " and from that day tilli
the horse became blind, which was not for several!
seasons afterwards, no person but himself rode Oliver
with hounds.

Frolics of all sorts delighted him. On one occa-
sion a thought struck him that a good race might be
made between waofcron-horses ; and seeingf four of his
own at the moment, he ordered all their gearing,
except their bridles, to be taken off. He then
mounted one of them, and persuaded three of his
friends to jockey the others, and away they went! By
a preconcerted plan, however, Mytton placed the wag-
goner at a spot where the ground was somewhat on
the descent, with orders to cry out " Who-Jio ! " at a
signal to be given by himself. The word was given
accordingly, when the horses, knowing the voice, and
glad to obey the word, stopped so suddenly as to
occasion two of his three friends, who rode on the

152 LIFE OF MYTTON.

bare back, to roll from their seats, and fall headlong to
the ground.

In a long frost, Mytton was oiten at a loss for out
of-door sport, although he was far from being par-
ticular as to the means by which it could be procured ;
so little so, indeed, that I remember his once letting
out a fox, and a lot of his own hounds to hunt him,
when we was aware that no horseman, not even him-
self, had a chance to follow them over two fields, and
consequently they were seen no more till the next
morning. Being, however, during one very hard frost,
quite at a loss for a lark, he sent to Oswestry for
twenty pairs of skates, which he distributed among his
■servants, stable lads and others, most of whom, as
may be supposed, were quite new to this work. He
then had a number of rats turned down on the ice be-
fore terriers, one of each at a time, when tumbling was
the order of the day. But a circumstance occurred
which put a stop to the diversion, if such it could be
called ; and I only wonder that the person who was
the cause of it escaped with whole bones. The pur-
veyor of the rats was the cowman, who was paid by
the tails for his rats on all other occasions, and to en-
sure payment for these, had actually cut off their tails
before turning them down ! Mytton accidently dis-

LIFE OF MYTTON. 153

covered this by seeing blood upon the ice, and had
not the old cowman been a favourite servant, he
would have had to pay dearly for his cruelty.

I have already stated that there was a heronry at
Halston, in which there were annually from fifty to
eighty nests. Mytton expressed a wish to have some
of the young herons taken, in order to satisfy himself
of the asserted superiority of heron over rook-pie.
The nests being on the very tops of high trees,
neither his keepers, nor any other person about the
house, would undertake to get them. " Here goes
then ! " said Mytton ; and stripping off his coat and
waistcoat, he ascended a tree of prodigious height,
and safely brought down his prize.

Whilst in the Seventh Hussars, and quartered with
the army of occupation in France, he heard of a
badger that no dog in tliat country was able to draw.
Having offered a bet, which was accepted, that he would
produce a dog in a certain given time that wotdd per-
form the feat, he at once ordered his favourite servant
("old John," as he always called him, and who was
in his service from his boyhood) to go to a village
called Cockshut, in Shropshire, and bring back with
him one Burroughs's dog. Nor did the order end
here. " If Burroughs won't sell his dog," said

154 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Mytton, " bring him over dog and all, at his own
price ! " The dog, however, was bought for eight
pounds, and drew the badger in great style. He
was a small animal, half bull half terrier ; and having
been brought back to England .by Mytton, remained
at Halston, where he was well taken care of till he
died.

Many of his frolics were of a ludicrous, at the same
time, of a perfectly harmless nature. On going into
the bar of the Lion Inn, Shrewsbury, one evening,
when somewhat " sprung " by wine, he was told there
was a box in the coach-office for him which contained
two brace of foxes. He ordered this to be brought
to him ; when taking up the poker, he knocked off
the lid, and out came the foxes, to the great fright of
the landlady and some of her female friends. Mytton
gave them a holloa as they " broke," but they smashed
such a lot of glass and crockery- ware, that the joke
must have been an expensive one.

After a blank day with Sir Edward Smythe's
hounds, which then hunted the Shrewsbury country,
the Squire determined upon a lark when he got home.
He accordingly ordered some draft hounds, which he
had in his kennel at Halston, together with all the ter-
riers and bull-dogs about the house, to be taken to

LIFE OF MYTTON. 155

a certain spot, where he also ordered to be assembled
all the servants of his establishment mounted on
whatever they could catch, down to ponies, donkeys,
or mules. A fox was then turned out, and the scene
was, as might be imagined, a ludicrous one, although
signalised by an act of unintentional cruelty. A stable
boy, on a fast pony, happening to be first up when
the fox was laid hold of by the hounds, cut off his
brush * instanter, when the animal, in his struggles,
got out of the lad's grasp, and went some distance
before he was again run into. But Mr Mytton was
often in the habit of mounting his servants with his
hounds, chiefly for the sake of witnessing the falls
they got, from their want of skill in horsemanship.

On Crouch the trainer once making a call at
Halston, the Squire took him out shooting on
the plea of killing him some game. They presently
came to a brook, through which Mr. Mytton as
usual waded, bidding the other follow him. But

• The famous Jack Shirley purposely once did the same thing when out
with the pack of a noble lord, who was not his master. He took the fox
from the hounds, when alone with them, and having cut off and pocketed
his brush, threw him over a thick hedge. On the huntsman coming up,
Shirley particularly requested to have the brush if they should kill him ;
and on the hounds again running into their fox, great was the astonish-
ment of the " field " to find that he had none !

156 LIFE OF MYTTON.

Crouch, who had filled out from a jockey boy
hito a round little tub of a man, naturally hesi-
tated— he had no change of clothes with him,
would be out of his depth, and so on. " Jump
up, then!" said Mytton, "and I'll carry you over;"
and with great reluctance Crouch at last did
jump up. But, alas! the Squire only performed
half his promise, for on getting into the middle of the
stream he pitched the little man clean over his head
into it ! And he was equally fond of creating amuse-
ment, even at the expense of his own person. For
example : During his successful contest for the
borough of Shrewsbury, in 18 19, he threw himself
from the car in which he was being " Chaired " home
from the hustings, through a window, into the Lion
Inn, at the imminent hazard of his life. But the
turmoil of a contested election was a fine field for
John Mytton. On one occasion the principal cham-
pion of the opposing party stood opposite to his inn,
challenging any man to contend with him. Mytton
listened to his bravado for a while, till his Welsh
blood being excited, he set to, and thrashed the
fellow to his heart's content in five rounds. He
then put something into the beaten man's fist, as
he said, " to make him comfortable for the evening."

LIFE OF MYTTON. 157

Mytton was very much beloved by the labouring-
classes within a large circle round his house, and he
would enter their cottages without invitation or cere-
mony. His horse having fallen with him one day,
and broken his knees very badly, he applied to an
old woman by the road-side for some linen bandages ;
but being unable to furnish anything of the kind, he
thus addressed her : " Never mind, my good woman ;
bring your scissors here, and cut off the tail of my
shirt, and then you may cut up the sleeves of it,
which will make capital bandages." On another oc-
casion, after having been long exposed to cold on the
Hawkestone hills, with hounds, he entered a house
near Wem, taking his favourite hunter, Baronet, along
with him ; and having ordered a good fire to be made
to warm himself and Jiis horse, started for home again,
saying they were both all the better for it. He was
by no means particular as to what he helped himself
or his horse on these occasions ; and is said once to
have seriously injured a horse by dosing him as he
dosed himself — with wine ;* while he started a fashion

• It is stated by a correspondent thnt the horse I allude to, called
Sportsman, dropped down dead in his gig, in consequence of his owner
having given him a bottle of mulled port wine at Wrexham. I knew the
horse well, but cannot vouch for the cause of his death.

158 LIFE OF MYTTON.

since more generally adopted in some parts, of treat-
ing his hunters to a quart or two of warm beer.

Again ; he once rode at the Ellesmere canal, and
of course got a ducking. Finding himself very cold
on the road home, he exchanged his wet coat for a
flannel petticoat which he espied on a cottager's
garden hedge ; and slipping it over his head, travelled
on with his hounds, to the great amusement of the
villagers he encountered by the way.

In speaking of Mr. Mytton as a horseman, I have
stated the singular fact of his never having so com-
pletely tired his horses in the field as to have
been obliged to walk home, which I in great part
attribute to his strength of hand in assistino- them in
their work. It is true he rode none but good ones ;
but he really appeared to have a sort of magic
influence over their tempers — at all events, it seemed
as if they sympathised with him in his frolics — for
they were always tranquil under him, and would do
almost anything he required of them. He would
ride them up the hall steps and down the steps, and
through the house, without their appearing to be in
the least disconcerted or alarmed. The Lord Water-
ford doings in this way had long been anticipated by
John Mytton, who would often ride round his billiard

LIFE OF MYTTON. H9

table ; and one night after dinner rode a black pony
up stairs into his chaplain's bedroom. But the pony
refused to come down again, and so passed the night
in his reverence's quarters.

Mytton may be said to have lived in a storm, for
a row was his delight. Nevertheless, although there
was an apparent ferocity of temper about him at
times, it was blended with much kindness of heart,
and he scarcely ever thrashed a man that he did not
give him something afterwards as amends. I remem-
ber hearing of an unfortunate horsebreaker having
been carried, nolens volens, by a half-broken colt into
the midst of his hounds. Mytton flogged him
severely, and then gave him a guinea. A baker, for
much the same offence, received much the same treat-
ment, and had his basket of bread thrown amongst the
hounds, but this of course was eventually well paid
for. He would not, however, suffer any man to
take an improper liberty with him, and, in that
case, there was no compensation for a thrashing.
A Shrewsbury tradesman, when a little " sprung,"
ventured to call him "Johnny." Mytton floored
him on the spot.

He was the dread of the owners of the minor gam-
bling-tables who frequent country races, for he was

lOO LIFE OF MYTTON.

given to break their banks in more ways than one,
I have said, he was often a great winner ; but he
would demolish the entire apparatus if he suspected
any unfair advantage to be taken of himself, or of
any other person in the room. At Warwick races, in
1824, he and his companions not only broke a rouge-
et-noir table to atoms, but gave the proprietor of it
and his gang a sound drubbing into the bargain. He
was once, together with some others, surprised by the
Mayor of Chester, in the act of playing hazard, in a
room hired for that purpose, on the Sttnday evening
previous to the races ; but on seeing his Worship enter
he put his winnings into his hat, the hat on to his
head, and then walked away unnoticed, being taken
only for a spectator. He was losing heavily one
night at Chester, when he turned very faint. "Take
him away," said somebody, " he's too drunk to play."
" No, no," answered a friend at his side; "wash his
mouth out and give him another chance." They did
so, when he not only won all his money back, but a
good stake to boot.

I have spoken of Mytton as a shot, and I believe
no sportsman need be superior to what he was at one
time of his life. For myself, I only knew him as a
game shot, as the term is, never having seen him with

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LIFE OF MYTTON. i6i

either pistol or rifle in his hand. It has, however,
been represented to me that he was a most superior
marksman with a rifle, so superior indeed as to be
able to hit the edge of a razor at the distance of thirty
yards, and occasionally to split his ball ! " Credat
JudcEtis"- — I do not add '' noii ego;" yet I never
chanced to hear of such a wonderful performance.
But I will transcribe the rest of the story, and leave
my readers to make the best of it.

"He would," writes my informant, " cross the yard
at Halston, and shoot from one of the iron gates on
the drive, or carriage road, to the coal-house wall, a
distance of fifty-five yards, and put his ball through
the peg-hole of a trimmer (used for pike-fishing).
The trimmer-cork, in this instance, was placed on the
tame fox's cub, or kennel, with the flat side towards
Mytton's aim ; and it invariably fell to the ground on
each time of being fired at, the ball actually going
through the aperture where the peg of the trimmer is
put in, and not above an inch and a half diameter,
covered with a piece of white paper, pasted thereon,
to ascertain the fact ! This he has done over and
over again, to the amazement of all who have wit-
nessed it, and with his rifle io his sJiotdder, and not
on a rest, as might be imagined by some. Talk of

L

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 !

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LIFE OF MYTTON. i6j

With the same hounds, he signalised himself
greatly in a run from Bomer Wood to Haughmond
Hill, when the river Severn brought the field to check.
Three or four of them managed to get their horses
into a boat, but Mytton scorned such assistance.
" Let all who call themselves sportsmen," he ex-
claimed, " follow me ! " and, dashing into the stream,
gained the opposite bank, and was one of the very few
who saw the fox killed. It must again be observed
that Mytton was no swimmer, and the Severn is broad
and deep, and the banks none of the best Still he
did not always disdain the aid of a boat, and on his
own hounds once crossing the Severn at Ouatford
the Squire jumped into the boat alone, and quickly
shoving her off landed on the oiDposite side and sent
her adrift ! The rest of the field had to go round by
Bridgnorth. Then, he fell into one of the deepest
parts of the same river out of a ferry-boat when
luckily not alone, as he was saved by his companion
catching him by one of his legs, as he was just being
sucked under the boat.

On another occasion he nearly lost his life in the
Severn, also in a run with his own hounds, near Bridg-
north. All the field but himself crossed it by a horse
ferry-boat, but he gallantly plunged into it, notwith-

,6^ LIFE OF MYTTON.

Standing that the river was much swollen by rain at the
time. His mare, Cara Sposa, was carried a long way
down the stream by the current, and although she at
length gained the opposite side with him, the bank
would not admit of her landing herself. His whipper-
in, Ned Evans, however, who had crossed by the
boat, fortunately came to his assistance, and pulled
him up the bank, leaving the mare in the water.
Nor does the story end here. Jumping upon the
whips horse, Mytton got to his hounds, and the mare
was eventually brought ashore without much Injury.

Still I have reason to believe the hair -breadth
escapes on wheels even exceeded those in the saddle,
which, perhaps, may be in some measure accounted
for by his early predilection for tandem-driving— the
most hazardous business of any, even in the best
of hands— and Mytton was no coachman.* The
following feat certainly out-herods Herod ; but my
readers shall have it exactly as I myself had it,
accompanied with the following remark— Nothing,
we are led to believe, is impossible with God ;
nothing was improbable of the late John Mytton.

• When I say he was " no coachman," I mean he knew nothing of tha
science or svstem of driving four horses. He would, however, now and
then take hold of a teamin the Holyhe.id mail, and I w.is told that when
he did, he never attempted to liuk.

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 165

" He was one day," says my correspondent, " en-
gaged to dine with a friend at some distance from Hal-
ston, and came, as usual, in his tandem. After dinner,
the conversation turning on the danger of that mode of
harnessing- horses, from the httle command the driver
can have over the leader, Mytton at once expressed
his dissent from this doctrine ; and being under the
influence of the ' rosy god,' offered to bet a pony
(25/.) all round, that he would that night drive his
tandem across the country, into the turnpike road, a
distance of half a mile, having in his progress to get
over a sunk fence, three yards wide ; a broad deep
drain ; and two stiff quick-set fences, with ditches
on the further side ! This bet was taken by several
of the party present to the tune of 150/. and up-
wards ; and after the necessary preparations, all turned
out to see the fun, although in justice it should be
said, as Mytton was then under age, it was not only
proposed to him that the bets made should be off,
but he was strongly persuaded not to make the
attempt. This, however, with him had always a
contrary effect ; and twelve men, with lanterns on
poles, having been procured, to aid the light of the
moon, on the appointed signal being given, away
went Mytton.

1 66 LIFE OF MYTTON.

The first obstacle was the sunk fence, into which,
as may be expected, he was landed ; but the opposite
side being on a gradual slope, from bottom to top,
the carriage and its inmate, by dint of whipping, were
drawn out without receiving any injury. Nowise dis-
concerted, he sent his team at the next fence — the wide
drain — and such was the pace he went at, that it was
cleared by a yard, or more ; but the jerk pitched
Mytton on the wheeler's back. Crawling over the
dashing-leather, he resumed his seat, and got his
horses again into the proper direction, and taking
the two remaining fences in gallant style, got safe
into the turnjjike road, and won his wager. This
occurred at Mr. Walford's of Cronkhill, about four
miles from Shrewsbury."

The above appears somewhat of a miraculous
adventure ; but that Mytton was equal to the at-
tempt, no one who knew him as well as I knew him
would doubt. Indeed I have alreadv stated a fact (I
think in my "Shropshire Tour") bearing some rela-
tion to it. He was driving me from Shrewsbury to
Chillington to dinner, and after one or two trifling
occurrences, such as knocking down a bullock, and
breaking a shaft of the gig on the road, we found
ourselves in an awkward predicament. By having

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 167

taken a wrong turn, on approaching the house, we
found ourselves in a field with no means of o-etting
out of it, except by a gate by which we had entered
it ; and we were already behind time for dinner.
"We'll manage it," said Mytton ; ''this horse is a
capital fencer, so do you get over the fence (a hedge
and ditch) and catch him." He then merely un-
buckled the bearing-rein, gave the horse a cut with
his whip, and over he came, gig and all, without the
slightest accident.

Having shown a friend over his stud at Halston,
and also his hounds, he told him he had something
still better worth his seeing in reserve for him ; and
on opening his coach-house doors he thus addressed
him: "You see that gig. Last night it was carried
clean over my lodge gate, and it is not a bit the
worse for it, nor, as you have seen, is the horse that
carried it over." Now this sounds rather mar-
vellous ; but the inhabitants of the town of Wrex-
ham, in Denbighshire, can well remember a somewhat
similar circumstance occurring at a villa close tO'
that town, some twenty years back. A horse, the
property of Mr. Watkin Hayman, ran away with
his gig from the door, and carried it over a high
palisade gate, without injury to either himself or the

1 68 LIFE OF MYTTON.

gig. I went the next day to see the gate, and the
only impression left upon it was the fracture of one
of the spikes, or points, of the top rail. But Mytton
would wantonly seek accidents from gigs and phae-
tons ; and latterly, I never entered into one with him,
but on condition of his havino;- nothinof to do with the
reins. I remember seeing him get out of his phaeton
at the hall door at Halston, and instead of letting a
servant drive it round to the stables, start the horses
off by themselves at a gallop ; and, strange to say,
they conducted the carriage safely into the yard,
although they had two rather sharp turns to make,
and one o-ate to gfo throug^h. This was in the life-
time of the first Mrs. Mytton, who had more than one
providential escape from this same phaeton.

In his love of frolics I never knew or heard of but
one person anywise his equal. This was the well-
known " Tom Leigh," as he was generally called, of
High Leigh, in Cheshire, — a gentleman of very large
fortune, and altogether a truly singular character. He
had a regular pitfall in his grounds, into which he
would walk a stranger who came to visit him, and
sundry other manceuvres, which he called sport.
Even the parson of the parish v,-as not e.xempt from
being made the subject of a lark, as the following

LIFE OF MYTTON 169

anecdote will show. Imasrinino- himself to be a good
judge of horse-flesh, he invariably brought his new
purchases to the Squire of High Leigh, partly for his
approbation, and partly in proof of his own skill in
the selection of them. On one occasion the nasf was
ordered into the stable, and his Reverence also well
taken care of for the night, the next being a hunt-
ing morning. " Now, Doctor," said the Squire, as
soon as breakfast was over, " we will go into the
stables and see this famous new horse of yours, of
which you have talked to me so much." But he was
not to be found. The parson declared he himself put
him in a particular stall ; and tJiere in truth he was,
but the Squire having ordered him to be cropped and
docked over-nio^ht, his owner had not the slightest
recollection of him. As may be supposed, a hearty
laugh was raised at his expense, and there was an end
of all future, somewhat boring, exhibitions of inferior
animals to a man who had some of the best horses
that money could procure, and who was really a judge
of them. But I was never an admirer of practical
jokes, especially when, as in this instance, the suffer-
ings of an animal form a feature in them. Neither
were many of the frolics of poor Mytton creditable to
him. In the first place, they are always inconsistent

I70 LIFE OF MYTTON.

with manhood ; and in the next, knowing no bounds
with him, they often led him into excesses which en-
dangered his character as a man, and verified the cen-
sure passed upon them by Horace : —

"Lusit amabiliter ; donee jam savus apertam
In rabiem verti coepit jocus."

Still, some idea might have been formed of his zeal
in the pursuit of every description of true sport, from
the catalogue of effects sold at Halston when the
establishment was broken up. The furniture of the
net house, for instance, included three bush nets, 26
and 28 yards long, 5 deep ; two small mesh nets for
bushes ; three larger mesh nets ; two drag nets, with
large tunnels ; four trammel flue nets of various sizes ;
one minnow net ; one minnow net and pole ; three
gutter nets ; two casting nets ; two drum nets ; one
cleaching net ; one large salmon net ; one gudgeon,
or fine meshed brook net ; four landing nets of
various sizes ; six fishing poles ; four bait cans ; two
large fish cans ; two angling chairs ; two coracles, or
small fishing boats ; two eel spears ; two trout spears ;
one salmon spear ; fishing cases and rods of every
description.

In the engine house and aviary there were six
pheasant nets ; three rabbit nets and several purse

LIFE OF MYTTON. 171

nets ; two pairs of lark nets ; one partridge net ;
various rabbit traps, in lots ; one hundred and twenty-
eight vermin traps of every description ; one badger
cub ; two fox cubs ; thirteen dog kennels ; fourteen
ferret boxes ; three cages for wild animals ; nine bird-
cages ; sixteen pair of quoits ; two sets of bowls ;
sundry cricket-bats and balls.

The euns ran to six rifles of various bores ; nine
double-barrelled guns ; four single ; with some dozens
of powder-flasks, shot belts, and gun-cases ; and the
saddle-room would, no doubt, have told as significant
a tale.

As something of a finish, for to this it was fast
coming, Mytton never made himself much more con-
spicuous in the field than he did upon what was
well known in the hunting circles of Cheshire, Shrop-
shire, and Staffordshire, as " The Shavington Day."
This was an arranged trial of speed, nose, and bottom,
between the fox-hounds of Sir Harry Mainwaring,
of Peover Hall, Cheshire, commonly called "the
Cheshire hounds ; " the pack kept jointly by Sir
Edward Smythe, of Acton Burnal Park, Mr. Smythe
Owen, of Candover Hall, and Mr. Lloyd, of Aston
Hall, Salop, better known as " the Shropshire
hounds;" and that of Mr. Wicksted, whose kennel

1 7: LIFE OF MYTTON.

was at Betley, near Newcastle-under-Lyne, from
which he luinted what is called " the Woorc countrj'"
(once hunted by the late Sir Thomas Mostyn, pre-
viously to his taking Oxfordshire) and likewise a part
of Shropshire. The interest evinced for many sur-
rounding miles, in this extraordinary, and I believe I
may add Jiniqitc undertaking, was immense ; and it
was supposed that, independently of the contents of
carriages, there were considerably more than a
thousand horsemen in the field, with about seven
hundred of these in scarlet.

Mytton, as usual, was resolved to make himself
remarkable in more ways than one ; and on the pre-
ceding evening he arrived at Whitchurch, to be near
to the scene of action, and where he had ordered the
best dinner that could be provided for himself and
two friends who accompanied him. But the dinner at
Whitchurch and its evils were not " sufficient for the
day;" he had his carriage round in the evening, and
drove to the village of Wrenbury, the rendezvous
of the different packs, where a main of cocks was
being fought. Having seen what was going on there,
he returned to his quarters at Whitchurch, and after
drawlnof a commercial traveller from his bed, and
dosing him with wine, retired at length to his own.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 173

The place of meeting was Shavington Hall, the
seat of that hearty old buck, that real specimen of
an Irish nobleman, Viscount Kilmorey, — who,
although but little of a fox-hunter himself, was a
great promoter of the sport, by his strict preservation
of foxes ; and who left an excellent name behind him
as one of " the right sort." The time fixed was
eleven o'clock, and at that hour a sight highly enjoy-
able to sportsmen presented itself, and indeed to all
descriptions of persons who witnessed it ; for as is
well known, there is nothing which adds more to
fine scenery, in which this park abounds, than a well-
attended pack of hounds at work in the covers.

The modus operandi was this : — Six couples out
of each pack were selected for the trial, attended
in the field by their respective huntsmen — namely,
Will Head, afterwards with Lord Hastings, for the
Cheshire ; Will Staples, huntsman to Sir Edward
Smythe, Mr. Lloyd, of Aston, and Mr. Smythe
Owen, for the Shropshire ; and Charles Wells, once
huntsman to the Oakley, for Mr. Wicksted. Will
Head acted as leading man of the day, by reason of
this being in the country which his hounds claimed as
their own, as well as the Cheshire being the senior
pack.

174 LIFE OF MYTTON.

These were the best days of the Tomkinsons, the
Gleggs, the Brookes, Jack Forcl, and sundry other
first-flight Cheshire men, so that it may be imagined
that a spirit of rivalry amongst men would accom-
pany the trial of speed in hounds, and that Mytton
would be amongst the foremost to distinguish him-
self. That he came prepared to do so was evident
by the fact of his having had the famous Hit-or-Miss
mare reserved for this particular occasion, orders
having- been given to his crroom to " have her right
fit to go ; " while he mounted Captain Owen, of
Woodhouse, on the Devil.

Precisely at the hour of twelve the business of the
day commenced; the " United" packs were thrown
into what is called the Big Wood, in Shavington
Park, from which a fox almost immediately broke,
and, having stood before them for thirty minutes,
at a very severe pace, was lost near the village of
Cloverly. Mytton very soon got the lead, and very
soon lost it, and nearly his life at the same time ; for
coming to a deep sunk fence, or ha-ha, at which
there was a high and stiff rail, on the rising side, he
halloed out,

" Now for the honour of Shropshire ! "
And gallantly charged it. This challenge, as it were,

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LIFE OF MYTTON. 175

indicated two things — first, that he considered the
ience something like a stopper ; and, secondly, that
he was determined not to be beaten by any man in
the field so long as his mare could keep on her legs.
But the drop, or the crowd in getting at it, proved
too much for her, and she gave him a severe fall, —
in addition to his being much hurt by another per-
son's horse, that had followed him, coming upon him
and crushing him ; there being a dozen or so down
together.

The place, in fact, was a regular " Squire trap,"
and although Mytton quickly remounted and went
on — bleeding and bare-headed, for his hat was too
much crushed to be worth picking up, the horse in
his wake having alighted on it — he was so much
shaken by the fall as to be unable again to take
his usual place, and he did little more than follow
a leader during the remainder of the day. They
had, however, two pretty things, a second fox being
found in Lord Combermere's park, but the hounds
were stopped after running for about twenty minutes,
as this proved to be a vixen ; and a third fox was
chopped in cover. The Shropshire, with Chanter
and Orator, claimed to have the best of the "hunt-
ing ; " but Will Head, for the Cheshire, was always

176 LIFE OF MYTTON.

with his hounds, and the honours may be said to
have been divided.

The Shavington Day was on the 7th of April,
1829, when Mr. Mytton's active career as a sports-
man was rapidly coming to a close. By the end of
another season he was off the turf; and in the year
after that had turned his back upon Halston.

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PART IV.

T HAD not seen Mr. Mytton for at least two years
previously to my quitting England, but I had
heard some unpleasant reports touching his pecuniary
affairs ; yet it was not until I read the advertisement
in the " Times" of the sale of all his effects at Halston,
that I found his race was run. As the greatness of
every man's fall is measured by the height from
which he fell, my heart bled as I waded througli the
melancholy detail of objects so familiar to my mind,
so dear to himself, and also associated with brighter
days of my own. " Poor fellow ! " said I, to a
mutual friend who was at my side. " Better he
had never lived, than to have to taste those bitter
moments which in future must be his portion. He
who towered like the cedar will now be trampled
upon like the bramble, and perhaps neglected by
those whom his bounty once fed." What became of
him, however, after the sale of his effects at Halston
• — for ever}'thing was sold except Euphrates, the
race-horse — it is not material to inquire ; and I only

M

178 LIFE OF MYTTON.

know that, being in fear of arrest by creditors, he
sojourned for some time at a small hotel in Rich-
mond,* from which place are to be dated circum-
stances and events deeply affecting his future short
.but melancholy term of life.

On the 5th of November 1S31, during my resi-
'dence in the town of Calais, I was surprised by a
violent knocking at my door, and so unlike what I
had ever heard before in that quiet town, that, being
at hand, I was induced to open the door myself;
when, to my no little astonishment, there stood John
Mytton ! "In God's name," said I, "what has
brought you to France?" " \Miy," he replied, "■J7ist
wliat brought yoiiTsclf to France; (parodying the old
song) three couple of bailies were hard at my brush."
But what did I see before me ? The active, vigorous,
well-shapen John Mytton, whom I had left some
years back in Shropshire ? Oh, no ! Compared with
him, 'twas the " reed shaken by the wind ; " there
stood before me a round-shouldered, decrepit, totter-

* Before going there, I believe he was a good deal at one of the
fashionable bachelor hotels in Bond Street, where he might be seen
sitting down to dinner with bailiffs, money-lenders, and ragamuffins of
all sorts, who haunted and followed him wherever he went.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 179

ing old-young man, if I may be allowed such a term,
and so bloated by drink that I might have exclaimed
with Ovid —

" Accedant capiti cornun, Bacchus erisj' *

But there was a worse sight than this. There was
a mind, as well as a body in ruins ; the one had par-
taken of the injury done to the other, and it was at
once apparent that all was a wreck. In fact, he was
a melancholy spectacle of fallen man — of one over
whom all the storms of life seemed to be eng^endered

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in one dark cloud.

After drinking some wine, he took his leave of me
abruptly, saying he was going in a carriage to Guines,
a small town eight miles from Calais, where he had
been quartered, when in the Hussars, with the army
of occupation ; but, taking me affectionately by the
hand, said, " I shall come to you to-morrow, for I
have a great deal to say to you." The morrow came,
and he himself came, accompanied by Mr. Vaughton,t
and I hope neither of us may have occasion to witness

* " If you had but horns on your head, you would be Bacchus."
+ A brother sportsman from Warwickshire, at this time residing in
France.

1 80 LIFE OF MYTTON.

such another scene. His pecuniary affairs appeared
not to g^ive him a moment's uneasiness. As reg-arded
them, fancy or something worse had dressed the
future prospect with the gayest colours ; he had
seventy thousand pounds to receive, he said, after all
his debts should be paid ; had engaged McDonald,
the jockey, to be his trainer and rider of his new stud
of race-horses ; and had purchased a capital house in
Curzon Street, May Fair, where, of course, there
were a knife and fork for me, and bail for ten thousand
pounds! Neither did he appear to care twopence for
what had occurred at Halston. It was to be reinstated
in its former splendour, and once more was I to be
his CTuest. It would have been cruel to have un-
deceived him here. Like the good citizen of Argos,
he might have upbraided us for so doing, and exactly
in his words : —

" Pol me occidistis, amici,
Non servastis," ait, " cui sic extorta voluptas,
Etdeniptus per vim mentis gratissimus error."*

But the sore was not yet laid bare. A very elegant
writer has observed, " There are some strokes of cala-

* " It would have been better, my friends, that you should have
destroyed me, than to have deprived me of the most agreeable delusion
of the himian mind,"

LIFE OF MYTTON. l8l

mity that scathe and scorch the soul, that penetrate
the vital seat of happiness, and blast it, never again
to put forth bud or blossom ; " and this we could per-
ceive was his case. He was writhing under one of
them, the madness of wounded affection, and though
vanquished he would not yield. " I'll have my wife
back again, by G — d," said he. " Look at these marksl'
pointing to a wound on each wrist, which it appeared
he had purposely kept from healing ; " they hajid-
ciffed me;''' but, so help me G — d, I'll have her
yet." Here a violent hysteric affection put an end to
the scene ; but it was evident that not only had the
" iron entered into his soul," but that the foundation
of his happiness was sapped, and that, in his then
course of life, either his reason or his health must
give way.

One week's experience of his proceedings — for he
was never sober throughout the day — confirmed me in

* He alluded to a desperate attempt he had made to regain possession
of his wife, after she had returned to her family at Chillington Hall ;
when it was found absolutely necessary for the constables to handcutt
him, before they could make themselves secure of his person. It has
been staled that he knocked down eij,'ht persons in the rencontre. No
doubt he went "big witli d.iring determinations," but he was foiled by
a good look-out.

1 82 LIFE OF MYTTON.

the above view of his case, and I thought it my duty
to take some precautions. The first stej^ was to inter-
rogate his valet as to what instrument he had in his
possession by which he could put an end to what, it
he ever suffered himself to take a clear and sober view
of it, must have been a barren and cheerless exist-
ence ; and the next to inform his friends of my fears.
Barring his mother, his uncle, Mr. Owen of Wood-
house, near Shrewsubry (one of his guardians), was
his nearest relation ; to whom I stated my apprehen-
sions that his nephew would either go mad, or die,
and very shortly too, and wished for his advice as to
how I should act in case my suspicions should prove
well grounded. His answer, as regarded myself, was
kind, and that of a crentleman ; but as concerned his
nephew it was conclusive. He had never, he said,
taken his advice in any one instance, therefore he
declined offerino- it on the occasion on which I sousfht
it ; and muchsoever as he lamented the ruin that had
befallen him, it was a consolation to him to reflect
that he had not in the smallest degree contributed to
it. (This letter is dated November 25, 1831, just
twenty days after his nephew's arrival at Calais.)

It may be easily imagined that the arrival of my
old friend at Calais, in the state in which he then

LIFE OF MYTTON. 183

appeared, was anything but what I could have desired.
My pen was at that time employed on a very interest-
ing subject, and I knew, from past experience, how
many times in the day I should be interrupted by him.
But I had shared his prosperity, and I was not going
to desert him in his adversity. He did not, however,
want for society at Calais. He gave dinners at his
hotel ; and as Epicurus's wise man would cultivate
friendship, as he would the earth, y^r what it produces,
there were plenty such wise men to be found in
Calais.'" This, however, was not the worst of it.
Still wiser men followed him from London, as I
shall straightways take occasion to show, as also how
fortunately their designs were frustrated.

Although my house, with its humble fare, was
always open to Mr Mytton, I never made one of his
dinner-parties ; but one evening, about nine o'clock,
he came into my dining-room, accompanied by a man
in a rough great-coat, whom he introduced as alivery-

• Here the character of the man appears in its true colour. One
gentleman, previously unknown to him, borrowed his coat, with the
Anson hunt button on it, — rather unceremoniously, as he said, — to go
to a ball. He ordered his valet to line the gentleman's own coat sleeves
with fish-hooks against he called for it the next day.

i84 LIFE OF MYTTON.

stable keeper in Edgware Road, but who, in my eye,
had every appearance of a London thief. On hearing
Mr. Mytton say something of a draft or bill, I asked
this person what was the amount of his demand on
Mr. Mytton, when he replied, " Under loo/." To
cut this story short, then, I shall only state, that I
cautioned my friend against giving bills in a foreign
country, and also requested his old acquaintance,
Mr. Longden, then residing at Calais, to caution him
— for our suspicions were equally aroused — but we
were both equally repulsed with " Mind your own
business," or words to that effect ; and the rascal suc-
ceeded that evening, after he left my house, in getting
his signature to a bill for 200/. ! * And even this was
nearly being not the worst of it. A gang of swindlers,
of which this fellow was one, were in the town with
stamps suitable to 5000/., for which amount they
intetided to get him to sign bills, with the promise of
remitting him the money for them.

But this was only the commencement of that me-
morable evening's work. After repairing to the hotel

* The payment of this bill was stopped by placards in the streets of
London, in which the names of other gentlemen who had been swmdled
by the same party appeared.

I-.;

o
u

s

T

Q

LIFE OF MYTTON. 185

where the bill was signed, Mr. Mytton and his friend
sallied forth to a " finish," and somewhere about
midnight returned to the hotel ; and now comes the
climax.

But, reader, one word with you first. You have
heard, no doubt, of many memorable deeds performed
by fire. You have read that somebody set fire to
Troy, Alexander to Persepolis, Nero to Rome, a
baker to London, a rascally Caliph to the treasures
of Alexandria, and the brave Mutius Scaevola to his
own hand and arm, to frighten the proud Porsenna
into a peace ; but did you ever hear of a man
setting fire to his own shirt, to frighten away the
hiccup ? Such, however, is the climax I have
alluded to ; and this was the manner in which it
was performed. " D — n this hiccup," said Mytton,
as he stood undressed on the floor, apparently in
the act of getting into his bed; "but V\\ frighten
it away ; " so, seizing a lighted candle, he applied
it to the tail of his shirt, and, it being a cotton one,
he was instantly enveloped in flames.

Now, how was his life saved ? is the next question
that might be asked. Why, by the active exertions
of his London customer, and of another stout and in-
trepid young man that happened to be in the room,

l86 LIFE OF MYTTON.

who jointly threw him clown on the ground, and tore
his shirt from his body piecemeal. Then here again

comes John Mytton : " The hiccup is gone, by !"

said he, and reeled naked into his bed.

It is easily to be supposed that the irregular life
Mr. Mytton was at this time leading had its due
weight with his valet, and, although he had been some
four or five years in his service, he had left him that
night to his fate, and was pursuing his own pleasures
in Calais. The following morning, however, between
the hours of seven and eight, he came to inform me
of what his master had done, and wished me to
come instantly to see him. " What doctor have you
got?" said I. "7\'^^);/^," replied the man. "Send for
Dr. Souville immediately," added I, "and I will come
to your master as soon as I am dressed."

Shall I ever forget the scene this morning presented?
There lay Mr. Mjtton, not only shirtless, but sheet-
less, with the skin of his breast, shoulders, and knees
of the same colour with a newly-singed bacon hog.
He saluted me, as usual, with a view-holloa, but I
told him that was no time for joking, and asked liim
why he committed so silly an act, and one that might
very probably be the cause of his death ? In fact, had
the flames caught his body one inch lower down, his

LIFE OF MVTTON. 187

intestines would have been burnt, and he must have
perished. His answer was — the answer of a madman
— that he zvished to show me hoiu he cojild bear pain.
The scene closed with the arrival of the doctor,
who applied the usual palliatives, but whose opinion
as to the result it was then almost useless to ask for.

Any man but John Mytton would have tried to
have aided the exertions of his doctor to alleviate
sufferings which very shortly became severe, but he
absolutely added fuel to the fire. The more he
smarted, the more he drank ; but like the Spartan
boy, he never squeaked. " Can't I bear pain well ? "
he would say to me six times in the day, and in truth
he did bear it well. But although it sometimes hap-
pens that the spirit is willing whilst the flesh is weak,
here the flesh was the stronger of the two ; for the
mind of the sufferer very soon became affected. I
have, however, omitted to mention one act he com-
mitted the day after his accident which, if committed
by any other man but himself, would have been
evidence to have shown that he was already mad.

" Is not going to dine with you to-day ? " said

he to me. On my answering in the affirmative,
he observed that I mio;ht have asked himself to
have met him. " It would cost you your life,"

LIFE OF MYTTON.

resumed I ; " you must be stark mad to think
of going out in the state you are at present." He
gave me one of those looks which generally implied
mischief, and which were well understood by his
friends; but said nothing more at the moment. Just
after we were seated at our dinner, however, in
walked John Mytton ; but although he sat out the
meal and half an hour besides, he fainted twice,
and was glad to return to his bed. But even
this is a trifle to what he afterwards did. He
had been five weeks in his bed, when he declared he
would dine with me on New Year's Day. Nothing
but the strait waistcoat would have restrained him,
and he came ; and moreover, because there were not
four horses to the carriage to take him back to his
hotel — not three hundred yards — he would walk, with-
out even a great-coat, but supported by two persons ;
and although the air was cold and damp, he was not
a whit the worse for it. What would some people
give for such a constitution as his ! and how difificult
was it even for him to destroy it !

Of all the uncertainties of our present state, said
Dr. Johnson, the most dreadful and alarming is the
uncertain continuance of reason ; and although there
may be " a pleasure in madness madmen only know,"

LIFE OF MYTTON. 1S9

it is harrowing to the feelings of others to behold it.
My prediction respecting Mr. Mytton was fulfilled ;
he became, to a certain extent, deranged in about a
fortnight after the burning, and it was quite evident
he would very shortly become a maniac. Symptoms
at length gave apprehension of his becoming at times
dangerous ; the strait waistcoat was ordered, and
the men were in readiness in the house to apply it.
"Wait," said I, "and let me try, once more, if I
can arouse him to a sense of his situation;" and,
entering his chamber alone, the following conversation
passed : —

" Mytton," said I, "I come to tell you that your
doctors assure me you will be a corpse in three days,
unless you give up drinking brandy." " So much
the better," he replied ; " I wish to die." " That is
not the speech of a man of your good understanding,"
I observed ; " you may yet see happy days, if you will
give up drinking brandy. Will you promise me you
will give it up ? " He said he would not ; but on
my telling him there were men in the house ready
to put his person under restraint, he said he would
promise to drink only what his doctors might allow
him ; and this was all I wanted. The keepers and
the waistcoat were dismissed.

igo LIFE OF MYTTON.

His mind soon experienced the benefit of tliis
wholesome change ; but the irritation from the burn-
ing brought his hfe into peril. In fact, Dr. Souville
told me he did not expect him to live, apprehending
typhus would ensue ; and, as an old Warwickshire
brother sportsman ''' who saw him, said of him, " No
other man but Mytton would have survived." He
would faint on being moved from his bed to his
chair, and he had every symptom of sinking nature.
Under these circumstances I had a duty to perform
which I did not shrink from ; but never should I
have dreamt of making public the result, were it not
that I consider it honourable to the man, and it can-
not fail of being satisfactory to his friends. Sitting
opposite to him, then, by the fireside, I thus, in pain,
addressed him. " I think it right to tell you, your
life is in danger ; I know you too well not to be con-
vinced that you will not scoft' at what I am going to
suggest. Would you like to see our clergyman,
Mr. Liptrot ? He is a liberal-minded, worthy man,
without an atom of humbug about him." "Draw
your chair by the side of me," said Mytton. On my
placing it on his right, he requested me to place it on

Mr. Henry Wyatt.

LIFE OF MYTTON. lOl

his left, and to sit myself down upon it ; when,
putting his left hand into mine, he struck his breast
violently with his right, and with as much vehemence
as in his then weak state he could command, ex-
claimed, " I never intentionally injured any person in
my life, and I hope God will forgive me." These
words were followed by a flood of tears ; yet how
exactly do they resemble those of Manfred to the
Abbot of St. Maurice : —

" I hear thee. This is my reply ; whate'er
I rnay have been, or am, cloth rest between
Heaven and myself : I shall not choose a mortal
To be my mediator."

The offer of sending for the clergyman was declined,
but without further remark.

Cicero says, No man in his sound mind is quite
destitute of religion : and even unsound as poor
Mytton's, to a certain extent, always was, I am quite
sure he was not destitute of it, although his proud
spirit was loth to own a dread of anything, either
human or divine. But supposing he had never
owned it to man, we are not to imply that he did not
own it to his God ; for although the fall of Solomon
is told, we know nothing of his repentance. I shall
have occasion, however, to show, that the subject of

192 LIFE OF MYTTON.

this memoir was a sincere, though perhaps a late
penitent; and I rejoice at having it in my power to
do so, as I should have been sorry to hear that he
"died and made no sign."

There is a scrap of Latin which has often met my
eye, and is as often applied to nations as to indivi-
duals, but I cannot say I know the author of it :
" Quos Dctis (or quevi yupiter) vult perdere^ prijis
dementat ;'' which is as much as to say, that those per-
sons whom the Almighty wishes to destroy. He pre-
viously causes to grow mad (which is, I believe, the
literal and only meaning of demento, a word not in use
in elegant Latin). I know not on whose authority the
conduct of man's Maker is thus, I think, impiously
speculated upon ; but should a fiat so dreadful have
been really pronounced, let us hope it will plead in
favour of some of the acts of poor John Mytton, for
which, with a heart like his, nothing short of madness
could possibly account or justify.*

• It never before fell to my lot to watch the motions nnd actions of
persons labouring under a temporary aberration of the mind, much more
to receive letters from them. Amongst the numerous ones which my
poor friend wrote to me in that mel.TnchoIy situation, the following con-
vince me that, however discordant may be the instrument of thought

LIFE OF MYTTON. 193

On the morrow of the day on which I had the con-
versation with Mr. Mytton on the serious condition in

(the brain) at the time, though some keys may jar, there are others which
yield the usual tones to the same touch : —

" Dear Ramrod (for Nimrod),

" You shall not stay longer with old Jack Longden in my sitting-
room, but come up stairs to see a Hero, late Chillington, die the death
of a saint."

Here was the ruling passion, strong even in madness and in death,
for he was very ill at the time. Hero was the horse he bought of
me, which he afterwards called Chillington ; and he married a
daughter of the ancient house of Chillington. There were as many as
half-a-dozen dashes under some of these words. Again, there was the
following, in which the fatal passion for the Circcan cup — that cup
which, like Nabal's, turned a heart of flesh to a heart of stone — too
plainly appears : —

" Dear Ram.,

" Jam satis terris nivis atque diras grandinis misit Pater, et
rubente" porto. Here goes a bumper to old Ram.

(Signed), John Mytton."

This extraordinary production is dated " The Gallies," and directed
thus :— " Fall at a rasper ! To Mytton's best friend." The quotation
from Horace is worth notice, inasmuch as every word is rightly spelled,
the punctuation correct, and the capital " P" in Pater as in the original.
There were six dashes under the word " rubente," and four under
" porto," but the inverted commas ceased at " rubente ! " The following
postscript was added to it : —

" Nummi si nolo custodi rendere vinctus
Prsemii num mi (eheus miseri !) restat ahenea turris.'"

" Prison or pot to prison — can it be a debt, as it's not self-contracted,

N

194 LIFE OF MYTTON.

which he then appeared placed, he asked me, as he
lay in his bed, to get a sheet of paper and write what
he dictated. I did so, and it consisted of the following
lines : —

" Condemn'u in youth to meet the grave,
I hope to be receiv'd above ;
Render my soul to Him who gave,
My latest breath to you, my love."

He then requested they might be placed in his view
on the door of his chamber (where they remained
for a considerable time). " And," said he, " when I
die, I trust to your sending them to my wife." I told
him I would do so ; and had he died at that time, I
should certainly have complied with the request.

non sponle sua, nee voluntate meorum filiorum." Here it appears his
Latin is not quite so correct, but he alludes to the impression, that he
■was not aware on what account his liberty was denied him. This last
■ epistle was succeeded by another the same day, which shows that the
brain became more disturbed. " Dear Ram," H — 1 to pay ; come here
.instantly, they are all found oul— poison. Ever J. M." I have a hundred
such notes, the dates of all which I marked, and I suppose Mr. Roberts,
the proprietor of his hotel, had as many. On perusing several of them, I
.could have exclaimed with Shakspeare, —

" Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! "

LIFE OF MYTTON. 195

It would be both useless and tedious to describe
the various scenes that passed in the chamber of my
poor friend, who was guarded day and night by three
persons at a time, after he recovered his strength ;
but some of these scenes would put the powers of de-
scription at defiance. His conversation, for example,
with these persons, who were English smugglers, was,
at times, ludicrous in the extreme, and highl)- charac-
teristic of the man.'" Previously to this precaution,
however, rather an awful scene was witnessed by me.
A servant from his hotel came to inform me that
Mr. Mytton had got six carving-knives in his pos-

* There was nothing that medical skill or humanity could suggest left
untried to relieve the sufferings of Mr. Mytton.' Several of his friends
sat up, or lay on a spare bed, the whole night in his room, and of course
I took my turn. It happened one night tliat I was accompanied on my
watch by a waiter from some hotel in London, who was sent over to
Mr. Roberts' hotel for the purpose of learning the French language.
"Nimrod!" exclaimed Mr. Mytton; but I feigned sleep. "Nnnrod!"
he repeated, " I want to talk to you ;" but I was still asleep. " Come,
then," said he to the waiter, " sit by me, and talk to me. You have
heard of my hounds.'"' " Your hounds, sir.'" said the man, a thorough-
bred cockney ; " I can't sny as I ever did." " Why, you d — d fool, where
have you lived all your life .? Did you never hear of Euphrates?" "I
can't s.iy ns I did, sir," replied the man. "What !" said Mytton, '■'never
heard of Euphrates the racehorse? I'll have you smothered to-morrow,
by G — d ! Get back to your great chair, and go to sleep !"

196 LIFE OF MYTTON.

session, and was by himself in his room. Mr. Vaugh-
ton and myself entered it, and such we found to be
the case, with the trifling difference that only two of
the six were carving-knives, the other four being
dinner or case-knives. He was lying on his bed,
with the six knives in his hands, when I placed my-
self at his side and Mr. Vaughton, a very powerful
man, stood at the foot. " Heyday, Squire ! " said I,
" what are you going to do with all those knives ? "
" Come and lay down by my side," said he, " and I'll
show you (of course, I begged to be excused). I
have made your fortune, and old Vaughton's too — a
hundred and fifty thousand pounds apiece for each of
you ; for I have found out that these knives will ex-
tract fire from flesh." "Ah!" said Mr. Vaughton;
" but how much better would they do that, if they
were warmed at the fire!" " To be sure," replied our
poor deluded friend ; and, giving them into his hands,
they were soon put outside the door. Now it will
no doubt appear a mystery in what way these knives
could have been procured ; and well it may. But
will it be credited, that they had been given to him
by his own servant, of whom I had only a few weeks
before required possession of everything, even to his

LIFE OF MYTTON. 197

nail-knife, by which a wound to his person could be
given ? Such, however, was the case ; and it is
scarcely necessary to observe, that the man was from
that hour forbidden to come near his person, and soon
afterwards was discharged.

The effects of education on first-rate talent shine
forth when little expected, as was the case with
Mr. Mytton, even when his mental aberrations were
nearly at their height.

In one of his paroxysms he talked eight-and-forty
hours without ceasing, and, as it may be supposed
under such violent excitement, a recollection of last
year's clouds would not be more difficult than a
record of the unconnected jargon which he at that
time uttered. But in his calmer moments, when he
saw me by his bed-side, he would quote Greek
and Latin authors with surprising readiness, and
when he found he was incorrect, would pause until
he recovered the text. In several of these quota-
tions it was beyond doubt apparent that the bereave-
ment of his family and the desolation at Halston
were present to his mind ; for in some particular
instances I could not be mistaken. In giving that
beautiful passage from Sophocles, wherein CEdipus

19S LIFE OF MYTTON.

recommends his children to tlie care of Creon, I am
quite certain he was applying it in his mind to the
first-named calamity ; and an epigram from the Greek
Anthologia, on the fall of Troy and the death of
Hector, which he would very often repeat, had a
sympathetic allusion to the ruin at Halston and his
own fall. But the following criticism could scarcely
have been expected from a mind in ruins. In reply
to the numerous messages he would send to the bar
of his hotel, some answer was generally to be manu-
factured, and " master has not got such a thing in the
house," was by no means an uncommon one. It
happened one day, however, that the attendant in
Avaiting brought him what he had sent him for, but,
delivered it into his hands with the usual announce-
ment— " Mr. Roberts hasiit got no such thing, sir,"
■ — he having procured it elsewhere.

" Why," said Mytton, looking the man in the
face, in my presence, " you are a Greek."

" No, sir, I arn't," he replied.

" But I'll be if you are not," continued

Mytton, " for in Greek two negatives make the
affirmative stronger ; " and roared into his ear, " ■^(mpi^

efiov ov Swaade iroieiv ouSev, says the Bible.

The fellow stared, and well indeed might Mr.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 199

Mytton's uncle say, as he did in his letter to me,
when lamenting his nephew's situation, and con-
trastinfj it with what it migrht have been — " Heu,
ubi lapsus ! "

But we will bring this scene to a close. Having
reason to believe that, either by his powers of elo-
quence or by the force of that sympathy in a British
sailor for the absence of grog, which is inseparable
from his character, and will be a formidable opponent
to Temperance Societies on the coast, he had pre-
vailed upon one or two of these otherwise honest
guardians to procure him spirits by stealth,* it was
determined by Mrs. Mytton, his mother, who had
for some time been in painful but unremitting attend-
ance on her son, that I should proceed to London,,
and state his case to Dr. Sutherland, as, in fact, we
were making no progress towards recovery. The-
result was two experienced attendants being sent
to Calais, by whose skilful treatment an alteration.
for the better was soon apparent, and their patient

• He would at this time frequently send for eau-dc-Colojne, under
the pretext of using it as perfume, or otherwise externally, on his
person. We soon, however, by the quantity consumed, ascertained that
he drank it !

LIFE OF MYTTON.

able to take his airings in a carriage. It is, however,
singular, that the only time that it was found neces-
sary to put my poor friend under absolute personal
restraint, was during the time I was absent from him
in London, and on my return, John Mytton like, he
spoke of it as a very good joke.

The scene now changes aq^ain, and somewhat of a
brighter prospect appears. Although Mr. Mytton
had every comfort, as well as everj' convenience, at
the Royal Hotel at Calais, — the landlord of which,
Mr. Roberts, is a person of superior education and
conduct, and was much esteemed by his unfortunate
guest, — yet when it was considered that he had been
occupying the same apartments so long, in sickness
and in sorrow, it was desirable, on the approach of
spring, that he should breathe a purer air; and a
chiteau was looked for in the neighbouring country.
But here arose a difficulty. The few persons who had
such things to let were alarmed at the idea of a gentle-
man and his keepers, and fearing the occupation of
them by such tenants might leave a stain on their
premises, refused to let them on any terms. What,
then, was to be done? His removal to England
would have been his removal to a prison ; so, at
the request of Mrs. Mytton, I consented to hire a

LIFE OF MYTTON. 201

chdteau, and to receive him as an inmate until his
recovery was completed. But I went beyond this :
I undertook to make a trial of managing him myself,
without the aid of his keepers ; and the first ten days
bade fair for success. He conformed to regular

o

hours ; enjoyed his meals ; did not exceed his bottle
of light wine ; was, I thought, never happier in his
life, and the recruitment of his health was beyond all
expectation. But, luckily for all parties, at the re-
quest of his mother, who was gone to England, his
keepers still remained in Calais, to await the issue of
the experiment ; for at the end of a fortnight he stole
away to Calais unobserved, got at the brandy bottle,
and then it was all over with my " brief authority."
It was with great difficulty that I could prevail on
him to return to dinner for three successive eveninsfs ;
and on the fourth he was outrageous, threatening to
murder a gentleman at table who had been most
kind to him in his illness. It then became necessary
to send to Calais for his keepers ; and by eight o'clock
the next morning, with the advice of his doctors, he
was under their care.

Provision was made for this somewhat anticipated
change. The chateau afforded ample accommodation
for the whole party ; but as, in all such cases, it is

202 LIFE OF MYTTON.

necessary to separate the patient from persons and
objects which are sources of mental excitement, Mr.
Mytton and his attendants had apartments separate
from mine, and which were arranged in the most con-
venient manner for all purposes of safety. The at-
tendance of these young men acted like a charm upon
their patient, who recovered his former serenity on
being told that he was again placed under the sur-
veillance of the police for striking a Frenchman in
Calais. But let all those whose constitutions are the
worse for wear, by indulging in midnight revels
and strong drink, and who may take a glance at the
Life of John Mytton, mark and digest what I am
now about to state. When he left the town of Calais,
he was gradually recovering his strength of body and
mind, but was very feeble on his legs, and could
scarcely enter a carriage without assistance. He
had not been at this chateau a month before, by
regular living and daily exercise in sea air, he was
able to walk six or seven miles in the middle of the
day without the slightest fatigue, and to take a walk
in the evening besides. His meals were eaten with
a relish, and without the aid of Cayenne pepper,
to the use of which he before knew no bounds ; and
his sleep was tranquil and refreshing. Now methinks

LIFE OF MYTTON. 203

it will be asked, How did he employ his time ?
Why, painful but striking is the answer to this
question. He to whom the whole world had ap-
peared insufficient to afford pleasure, and who had
spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in pursuit of
it, was now completely happy in the occupation of
picking up sea-shells in the morning, and washing
them in vineoar in the eveninor! So eao-er was he in
this his favourite pursuit, that he would scarcely finish
his dinner before he would enter upon the last-
mentioned office, and would absolutely stand for two
or three hours at a time brushing shells with a nail-
brush dipped in vinegar ! They were then laid with
great precision in drawers, which he would never
suffer any one but himself to open. All this, with the
perusal of the " Morning Herald," the " Age," and the
Calais (French) Journals, formed the business of the
day.

It is almost needless for me to state that at this
period the intellect of my friend was in a state of
great imbecility — the consequence of extreme exhaus-
tion, produced by extreme excitement. Nevertheless,
it was the opinion of his attendants, as well as of Drs.
Souville and Winder, who saw him two or three times
a-week, that, by pursuing the plan they were then

204 LIFE OF MYTTO.J.

acting upon, he would in time recover his strength of
mind as well as that of his body ; and there also was a
chance — as his old friend and neighbour in his own
county, Colonel Proctor, then at Boulogne, observed —
of his altering his former course of life, from the expe-
rience he micrht have of the benefits arising- from tem-
perance and exercise. But alas, poor man ! this chance
was denied him. At the end of the second month he
was, by false representations made to his mother, once
more let loose ; and from that hour to the last of his
life, his poor shattered bark was never out of a sea of
troubles. He had nearly been suffocated with brandy
on his voyage to London by the steamer, the day after
he left the chateau ; and, as was evident to all parties,
so soon as he was cauo-ht in En^^land he would be in
a gaol ! Why, then, was he taken to England "^ and
why was his life thus suffered to be sacrificed .-* Why,
merely to enable him to sign deeds conveying away
the last remaining acre of his unentailed property,
which he could not do when in the situation from
which he was taken, and which, it appears, when done,
did not secure his person from the griping fangs of
the law. He did sign them, however, and his own
death-warrant by the same act and deed. There
might be other reasons for getting him to England,

LIFE OF MYTTON. 205

which it may perhaps be unsafe for me to commit to
paper ; to my mind they were conclusive.

I shall take but a bird's-eye view of his career in
England ; but, carrying on the allegory, we may
compare his situation to that of small birds pursued
by hawks. Every bailiff in London was on the look-
out for him ; and, above all places in the world, he
went to Halston to avoid them ! Oh ! what must
have been his feelings on the first view of his deserted
hall — the scene of all his former splendour ? They
must have somewhat resembled those of " The Last
Man," when viewing the capitals of the world, and
himself alone left to mourn over them ; but as they
are incommunicable by words, I leave them to the
imagination, and likewise to the sympathy of the
reader,

" Such a house broke !
So noble a master fallen ! All gone ! and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm.
And go along with him."

Let US hope, however, that he was neither sober
nor in his senses — at all events, that some respite was
in mercy granted to his intellectual faculties, as a
guard to his heart, from the assaults of sufferings that
might otherwise have been beyond man's nature to
endure ! But his stay here was short ; he was hurried

2o6 LIFE OF MYTTON.

off to Shrewsbury gaol, whence, ui the course of time,
he was removed to the King's Bench Prison, in
London.

Now here again comes "John Mytton!" During
his sojourn in the first-named prison, he was visited
by several of his old friends — influential gentlemen in
the county — who offered their services in arranging
his difficulties, provided he would put his affairs into
their trust ; but he rejected all their overtures.
Either C:esar or nobody he was resolved to be so long
as he was above ground ; and how exactly did he
come under that denomination of persons of whom
Horace speaks, —

" Quern neque paiiperies, neque mors, neque vincula tei'rent ;"

and how plumply did he give the lie to the adage,
that adversity is the school of reform ! The toad
was ugly and venomous ; but /le saw no " precious
jewel in his head."

But there was something savouring of the serio-

o o

romantic in Mr. INIytton's being placed in durance, for
debt, in the prison of a town with which the deeds of
his ancestors were so deeply and brilliantly associated
— in a town in which his word would, but a short
time before, have been good for ten thousand pounds,

LIFE OF MYTTON. 207

and in which he once sat high in the people's hearts :
and also in relation to the altered situation in which
he himself once stood towards the keeper of that
prison. The governorship becoming vacant, the con-
test for it was a severe one, and it was solely by
the influence and exertions of Mr. Mytton that the
then gaoler, Mr. Griffiths, filled it. He, however,
not only did credit, but honour, to his benefactor's
choice, as no man in Shrewsbury was, I believe, more
respected than he, neither could any man exceed him
in the various and arduous duties he had to perform,
tempering mercy with justice ; and although Shake-
speare says, " Seldom when the steeled gaoler is the
friend of man," Mr. Griffiths was unceasing in his
kind attention to his patron, now become his prisoner.
Indeed Mr. Mytton not only acknowledged this to
me, but told me he was very comfortable in Shrews-
bury gaol !

On a writ of certiorari being executed, my poor
degraded friend was conveyed to London, in the cus-
tody of Mr. Griffiths, and transferred to that of the
Marshal of the King's Bench, where I saw him for
the first time since he left the chateau in France.
But what a change for the worse was here! He was
the same bloated, unhealthy-lookino;- son of Bacchus

2o8 LIFE OF MYTTON.

that he appeared on his arrival in Calais, and he had a
leg in a state nearly approaching mortification. In
fact, his surgeon told me he would owe his life — at
all events, the preservation of his leg — solely to the
kindness of a fellow-prisoner, who prevented his
drinking spirits ; and such, no doubt, was the case.

I am not able to say how long he remained in the
Bench, but on his exit John Mytton — iinus ex om-
nibus— appears again ; but to what account shall we
place the act I am about to mention ; for it appears to
me to want a name .'' It is not, however, without a
plea. The heart of man has been elegantly compared
to a creeping-plant, which withers unless it have sorne-
thing around which it can entwine ; but towards what
a frail trellage did that of this man yearn for its sup-
port ! Walking one day over Westminster Bridge,
the following dialogue occurred between himself and
a female of a class which the reader will not be at
a loss to name, but on whom he had never before
set his eyes.

Mr. Mytton. " How do ye do ? "

The Female. " Very well, I thank ye ; how do
you do ? "

Mr. Mytton. " Where are you going ? "

The Female. " I don't know."

LIFE OF MYTTON.

209

Mr. Myttoii. "Then come and live with me; I'll
settle 500/. a year upon you."

Here was no law's delay ; no worm in the bud ;
no concealment feeding on the damask cheek ; but
love at first sight, if any love there was. =1 The
bargain being struck, the broomstick jumped over,
the happy couple soon afterwards arrived at Calais, at
the Crown Hotel ; Mr. Roberts, under such circum-
stances, being compelled to decline the honour ot
their company. But the strangest part of the affair
is to come. This young woman, then only in her
twentieth year, whom no doubt some scoundrel had
seduced and abandoned, was not only possessed of
considerable personal charms, but proved to be very
respectably connected,""' and conducted herself towards
her protector so much better than could be expected,
considering whence she was imported, and that his
lusty love had gone "in quest of beauty," and not
" in search of virtue," that I saw a letter to her from
his mother, acknowledging her kindness towards her
son. But wife or mistress made no difference with

* The Inte Lord Arundel, who was at this time sojourning at the
Royal Hotel, on his road to Italy, confirmed to me the respectability of
her connections on hearing their names mentioned.

O

LIFE OF MYTTON.

Mytton. If he were not, generally speaking, a
madman to a certain extent, on the subject of a
woman, mid, above all, of a woman lie loved, he was a
monomaniac; and some extraordinary scenes were the
fruits of this extraordinary connection. The green-
eyed monster played his part as usual, and at times a
nod or a look was suspicion strong as holy writ.

I must hark back here for a moment. On the
morrow after Mr. Mytton arrived from London, he
was arrested for 25/. at the suit of the holder of one
bill out of four for 25/. each, which he had been most
improperly induced to accept in favour of a person
resident in Calais, who had not the slightest claim
upon his liberality, and conveyed to the prison of the
town. His solicitor being then with him, there was
no difficulty in releasing him to the extent of that
individual sum ; but it was considered expedient to
detain him in custody until it could be ascertained
what was become of the three other bills ; when it
was at length agreed that two of them should be
given up, and that his liability only extended to 50/.
Here, then, will appear the character of the kind-
hearted John Mytton in its true light. Almost any
man but himself would have been outrageous at this
breach of confidence and good feeling, but not so

LIFE OF MYTTON.

John Mytton. The first step he took after his
release from the prison was, to call upon the person
who had caused him to be thus disgraced, and to walk
arm-in-arm with him on the market-place, lest, as he
said, the affair might injure his character in the town,
he being a professional man. Reader, I'll bar you
from one book, and one book alone ; you shall then
search the pages of ancient and modern history, and I
challenge you to produce me a nobler instance of a
nobler heart than the one I have now given you.
The power of bearing and forbearing, which con-
stituted Epictetus's wise man, comes, perhaps, next
to it in theory.

But the storm soon gathers again. After sojourn-
inof a certain time at the Crown Hotel, in Calais, with
a score to his name of a thousand francs, he came to
my house in the country, to inform me he should go
to England on the morrow. It was in vain that I
told him he could not do so without first paying his
bill, which I knew he had not, at that time, the
means of doing. He, however, put himself into the
Boulogne coach the next afternoon, meaning to em-
bark from that town, having, perhaps fortunately,
informed the barber who shaved him of his intentions,
which intentions the barber, of course, conveyed

212 LIFE OF MYTTON.

instanter to the landlord ; and the following- day
found him in Boulogne gaol. Also luckily for him,
his agent arrived the same day ; but his creditor
had previously agreed to release him, on an under-
taking from Mr. Roberts, of the Royal Hotel, and
myself, to bring him back to Calais. The distraining
landlord has since paid the debt of nature ; but he
was quite free from blame with regard to the steps he
pursued ; and Mr. Mytton was kind as usual to him
on his return.

Shortly after this, Mr. Mytton and his chere amie
took their departure for Lisle; but what they did at
Lisle I did not trouble myself to inquire. Their re-
turn to Calais, however, forms another interesting
scene in this — I know not what to call it, but perhaps
the ancient Greeks would have called it hpajxa rov
^lov, or co7iiedy of life. Just as I was sitting down to
dinner one evening of a very hot day in August, I
espied a person at the bottom of my avenue, ap-
proaching my house on foot. " Is it possible," said
I, "that person can be Mytton?" Mytton, how-
ever, it was ; and shall I ever forget the state he was
in — shirtless, waistcoatless, neckclothless, with his
trousers and coat stained with blood, as well as in a
state of very great exhaustion from fatigue. Now

LIFE OF MYTTON. 213

then for his account of himself. He had set forward,
it appeared, in a diligence from Lisle to Calais, but
had quarrelled with Susan (his chlre amies name) at
St. Omer, and refused to proceed in her company any
farther. When she left him behind at St. Omer to
proceed to Calais, he had nearly four napoleons in his
pocket ; but getting into a street-row in that town
he had been well licked and robbed " of all save three
Belgic sous. With this small sum he started to walk
to Calais, twenty-seven long miles, and under a
burning sun ; but becoming dead beat before the sun
set, he put up at a small public-house, or cabaret, by
the road-side, and the account he gave of his proceed-
ings in it was a most ludicrous one. He wheedled
the old woman, he said, out of some supper; but
then what was to be done for something- to drink ?
"Why," he continued, " I can leave part of my clothes
in pawn in the morning, so got two glasses of gin and
water, gin being cheaper than brandy." On refreshing
himself at my house, and putting his person into some-
thing like a decent condition, he walked into Calais,
and made it up with Susan.

The comedy is now at an end, at least for the

• I should rather say he had lost this money out of his pocket.

214 LIFE OF MYTTON.

present, and something very like a tragedy succeeds
to it. Poor Mytton was, a few days after, again
arrested for 200/., being the amount of the score lie
had run up at a certain French hotel in London,
where himself and his partner had been sojourning
after the bargain had been struck on the bridge, and
Irom whence he had been obliged to bolt in a hurry,
as the bailiffs were in the house in pursuit of him.
But the landlord being a Frenchman, had recourse to
the privileges of a Frenchman, and I was once more
pained by seeing my friend looking through the bars
of a French prison window. Here he was suffered
to remain — the why and the wherefore can only be
answered by his solicitors in London, as the sale of
his estates had been completed — iox fourtecii days ; on
the thirteenth day, I thought it my duty to inform
his mother of his situation ; and in four days from
the date of my letter she was in Calais. It would be
painful to me to relate, as well as to my readers to
be made acquainted with, a detail of the acts and
deeds of this unhappy man during the rest of the time
he spent in Calais, where his mother remained to pro-
tect him as far as it was in her power to do so. But
it was brandy, brandy, brandy, morning, noon, and
night, which of course drove him to madness ; and a

LIFE OF MYTTON. 215

disposition to Insult the French people, made it neces-
sary to remove him. England was again determined
upon, where not only a prison, but the grave yawned
to receive him, and in a prison he died. Thus fell!
John Mytton ; by nature, what God must have in-
tended every man should be ; by education, or rather-
from the want of proper education, nearly at last what
man should not be. The seed was good ; but it felli
among thorns and was choked.

So soon as I was informed that Mr. Mytton was-
once more within the walls of the King's Bench Pri-
son, I felt assured he would never quit them but ort
his bier, — neither did he. But as the poet says,

" Better to sink beneath the shock.
Than moulder piecemeal on the rock;"

and I was happy when I heard the fatal subpoena had
arrived, for adversity had exhausted her vial, and it
was evident that, with the exception of the unsubdued
affection of his mother, there was, for him, no balm in
Gilead. It appeared that in about three weeks after
his incarceration, he was seized with paralysis of the
extremities, which bade defiance to the treatment of
Doctor Maton and Mr. Brodie, who indeed, from the
first, considered it a case without hopes. It may be,
however, a consolation to those who had a regard for

2i6 LIFE OF MYTTON.

him, to learn that his sufferings were not severe ; that
his mother was by his bed-side at the last, and that as
he had been conversing rationally with his medical
attendants within half an hour of his decease, his life
must have departed like the flickering flame of a lamp
which goes out by the last crackle. But it is astound-
ing to think, from the rapidity with which his lamp of
life must have burned, that he lived to complete his
thirty-eighth year. As I said of him before, Nil vio-
leiitum est perpctwmi ; Phaeton's car went but a
day !

A brother sportsman and a brother prisoner (well
known at Melton Mowbray) who, as I have before
mentioned, had been extremely kind to my poor friend
durine his first and second incarceration, and who was
a constant attendant on his sick-bed, wrote me, unso-
licited, some interesting particulars relating to his
illness and the last scenes of his eventful life, which
it gives me pleasure to make known. The " virtue of
suffering well," which Johnson allowed to Savage,
could by no one be denied to Mytton, whose bearing
and forbearing, as I have before shown, are per-
haps not exceeded by any man's ; but in the opinion
of his friend he took much to heart this second
confinement in the King's Bench, although his proud

LIFE OF MYTTON. 217

spirit would not suffer him to acknowledge it ; and
he thought it hastened his end. As to his dying
in peace with all mankind, how could he die other-
wise who never attempted to revenge himself on any
human being, but who, though his communication was
not " Yea, yea, or nay, nay," so far from demanding
the eye for the eye, and the tooth for the tooth,
would have actually given his cloak to him who stole
his coat ; whose heart was as warm as those of half
the world are cold ; and whose warmth of heart had
brought him into the prison in which he died ! And
how did he die ? As he appeared to live — in dread
of nothing, human or divine ? Certainly not ; although
it may tauntingly be said, he trusted to the delusive
support of a death-bed repentance. Let no man,
however, venture to pronounce sentence here, but
leave it to that bar at which justice will be tem-
pered with mercy ; where, unless I formed a very
erroneous opinion of the late Mr. Mytton — and who
had a much more intimate knowledge of him than
myself? — and a still more mistaken one of the
attributes of Him by whom he will be judged, he
will find acceptance before many who have carried
a much fairer face to the world. Few receive the
white garment and carry it without a stain before

ji8 LIFE OF MYTTON.

the judgment-seat. John Mytton certainly did not :
it was soiled and stained with the impurities of our
nature, with even more than can be placed to that
account ; and the world has no proof that they were
attempted to be washed out by his tears ; but I
appeal to my own experience of him, to that of his
brother prisoner and friend who attended him in his
last days, in the hour indeed when the heart knows
no guile, and in which the tongue seldom hazards an
untruth, whether he did not then own to man what
he had previously only owned to his God. Although
it appears he did not consider his life in imminent
danger, he had the church service read to him nearly
every day, and more particularly on Good Friday,
when he held a lono- conversation with his brother
prisoner on the sacrament, but which, although he
expressed himself very properly in his allusions to it,
it does not appear he partook of. Of both his wives
he spoke in the tenderest terms of affection, as also of
his children by each, and expressed a strong desire to
see his present wife and all his children together ; but,
alas! that wish was a vain one. Immediately after
his decease, a cast was taken of his features by the
celebrated phrenologist, Mr. Deville, in the Strand, at
the express request of his mother, in which zV 7S

LIFE OF MYTTON. 219

said the character of the man is very clearly
developed.

The first public notice of his decease that reached
this country was contained in a very neatly written
paragraph in the " Globe," in which the following
short but just character was given him : — " His princely
magnificence and eccentric gaieties obtained him great
notoriety in the sporting and gay circles, both in Eng-
land and on the Continent. His failings, which leaned
to virtue's side, greatly reduced him, and he has left
numerous friends to lament the melancholy fact of his
dying in a prison, which, contrasted with his former
splendour, furnishes a striking illustration of the
mutability of mundane affairs." This account went the
round of the papers, with the exception of " Bell's Life
in London," which inadvertently stated that he had
spent the fortunes of two wives, but which the Editor
immediately contradicted on my authority. That of
his first, which was ten thousand pounds, was settled
on his only daughter by her; what his second wife's
fortune was, I never heard, but whatever it might
have been, I have reason to believe it remained for the
benefit of his younger children.

It is too much the practice of the world, at least so
says the satire, to adore the rising sun, and to con-

LIFE OF MYTTON.

demn him when going down ; but neither errors nor
crimes (if such, reader, j'ou will have them), nor adver-
sity, could chill the grateful recollection of the splen-
dour that had once illumined Halston, and of the
many, otherwise, perhaps sad hearts which had been
warmed by its genial rays. But even independent of
this, there was a tenderness and compassion of nature
in both the sayings and doings of poor John Mytton,
which had fixed him firmly in the hearts and affec-
tions of the people within many miles of his house,
and there he remained fixed to the last. In proof of
this, his funeral excited very general, indeed, I might
say almost unequalled sympathy. The amazing
number of three thousand persons were present at it,
several appearing unable to stiile their feelings, and
only obtaining relief by their tears. And what
brought together this assemblage of persons of all con-
ditions, even to the poorest .-* Not, as Shakespeare
says, to

-tender down

Their services to Lord Timon ; his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging."

No ; but to shed a tear on the bier of a man whose
" laree fortune" and whose "gracious nature" were
no more ; of a man who had died in a gaol ; of one

LIFE OF MYTTON.

who, with " all his imperfections on his head," would
never die in their hearts or memory! But no more
of this. The subject is too painful to dwell on ; and
I should be untrue to myself if I did not admit,
that my own tears would have mingled with those
shed over the grave of John Mytton, and that they
have more than once mingled with the ink which
has traced his devious course and marked his miser-
able end.

The following account of the funeral appeared in the
" Shrewsbury Chronicle : " —

"FUNERAL OF
THE LATE JOHN MYTTON, Esq.

" We last week announced the death of this eentle-
man. His body was conveyed from London, where
he expired, to this town, with all solemnity. On pass-
ing through the town, many of the shops were closed ;
and crowds assembled to take a last look on his bier,
and pay the homage of a sigh to the memory of John
Mytton. We rejoice to say, that before his death the
consolations of religion had been eagerly resorted to,
and afforded him both comfort under affliction, and
hope in the prospect of eternity.

222 LIFE OF MYTTOX.

" A hearse with four horses (driven by an attached
servant of the deceased), a mourning coach and four,
and another carriage, formed the melancholy caval-
cade through Shrewsbury. On the road to Oswestry,
every mark of respect was paid ; and at the Queen's
Head, the corpse was met by a detachment of the
North Shropshire Cavalry (of which regiment the
deceased was Major), who escorted them to the vault
in the chapel of Halston, where the remains were
deposited at three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.
The procession was exceedingly well arranged under
the direction of Mr. Dunn, of London, assisted by
Messrs. Hanmer and Gittins, of this town, and
entered the domain of Halston in the followinof

&

order :

Four Trumpeters of the North Shropshire Cavalry.

Capt. Croxon and Capt. Jones.

Thirty-two Members of the Cavalry.

A Standnrd of the Regiment covered with Crape.

Forty-two Members of the Cavalry.

Adjutant Shirley and Cornet Nicolls.

Mr. Dunn (undertaker) and Mr. Gittins.

Two Mutes.

Carriage of the Revds. W. Jones and J. D. Pigott.

Two Mourning Conches and four, with the

Pall-Benrers,
Hon. T. Kenyon. A. \V. Corbett, Esq.

R. A. Slaney, Esq. M.P. J. R. Kynaston, Esq.

J. C. Pelham, Esq. Rev. H. C. Cotton.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 223

The Hearse, drawn by Four Horses, with

THE BODY,

In a Coffin covered with Blnck Velvet, with massive Handles.
richly ornamented, the Plate inscribed

• John Mytton, Esq. of Halston,

' Born 30th of Sept. 1796,

'Died 29th of March 1834.'

(The Hearse was driven by Mr. Bowyer, the Deceased's

Coachman, who, with Mr. M'Douyal, another Servant,

attended him in his last moments).

Mourning Coach with two Mourners, the Rev. E. H. Owen

(Deceased's Uncle), nnd the Hon. and Rev. R. Noel Hill.

Mrs. Mytton's Carriage.

Lady Kynaston's Carriage, with Mr. \V. H. Griffiths and Mr. Cooper.

Carriage of A. W. Corbett, Esq.

Carriage of the Rev. Sir Edward Kvnaston, Bart.

Carriage of the Rev. E. H. Owen.

Carri.age of R. A. Slaney, Esq. M.P.

Carriage and Four of the Hon. Thomas Kenyon.

J. Beck, Esq , in his Carriage.

Dr. CockeriU and Lieut. Tudor, in Carriage.

Carriage of T. N. Parker, Esq.

Carriage of W. Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P.

Carriage of Viscountess Avonmore.

Several Cars, &c., with Friends.

Mr. Broughall, Agent.

About One Hundred of the Tenantry, Tradesmen, and Friends on
Horseback, closed the procession. Among these were Messrs. Longue-
ville, Cartwright, Bolas, Hughes, J. Howell, S. Windsor, J. Williams,
Morris, Griffiths, Venables, D. Thomas, W. Francis, R. Edwards, Farr,
Blandford, Rogers, Davies, &c. &c.

The Mutes were old men, brothers, John and Edward Nicholas, of
Whittington ; the latter was mute at the funeral of the deceased's grand-
father ; John was mute at the grandfather's funeral, the father's funeral,
and that of Mr. Mylton.

224 LIFE OF MYTTON.

" A mourning peal was rung at Oswestry, and the
bells of Shrewsbury, Ellesmere, Whittington, Halston,
&c., tolled during the day. The number of spectators
was immense, and the road along which the proces-
sion slowly moved was bedewed with the tears of
thousands who wished to have a last glance. Every-
thing was conducted with the greatest order ; but
there was a great rush to enter the chapel on the body
being taken out of the hearse. The body was placed
on a shelf in the family vault, under the communion
table of Halston Chapel, surrounded by the coffins of
twelve of his relatives."

The family of Mytton, as has already been shown,
is an ancient one ; and the inhabitants of Shropshire
and Wales are attached to it from many old historical,
personal, and feudal recollections. Halston is called
in ancient deeds /fa/y stone or Holy stone. Near it
stood the abbey, taken down above a century ago.
Meyric Lloyd, lord of some part of Uch Ales, in the
reign of Richard I., would not yield subjection to the
English Government, under which the hundred of
Dyffryn Clwyd, and several others, were then ; and
havinof taken some EnarHsh officers that came there to
execute the law, killed several of them. For this fact
he forfeited his lands to the king ; fled, and took

LIFE OF MYTTON.

22^

sa7ictuary at Halston, where he was taken to the pro-
tection of its possessor, John Fitzallen, Earl of Arun-
del. In the Saxon era the lordship of Halston
belonged to Edrio ; at which time there were on it
two Welshmen and one Frenchman. After the Nor-
man conquest, Halston became the property of an
Earl of Arundel, and was given by that family to
the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In the 26th
of Henry VIII. the commandry was valued at
160/. 14^'. \od. a year. Upon the aboHtion of many of
the military religious orders, Henry VIII. empowered
John Sewster, Esq., to dispose of this manor to Alan
Horde, who made an exchange with Edward Mytton,
Esq., of Habberley ; which alienation was afterwards
confirmed by Queen Elizabeth. The church or chapel
of Halston is a donative, without any other revenue
than what the chaplain is allowed by the owner, and is
of exempt jurisdiction. Halston was the birth-place of
the famous General Mytton.

Immediately after the funeral his last will was read,
in which he had bequeathed all that he had to leave
equally amongst all his children, and to which the
Hon. Thomas Kenyon, of Pradoe, near Oswestry,
and R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P. for Shrewsbury, were

appointed executors. He had previously, at Calais,

p

226 LIFE OF MYTTON.

made a will to which Sir Edward Smythe, Mr. Owen
of Woodhouse, Shropshire (his uncle), and myself,
were appointed executors, in which his all was left to
his only child by his first wife. The alteration, how-
ever, was immaterial, his "all," poor fellow ! that is to
say, his disposable personal property, being nothing;
but it is consoling to think that estates amountingf to
4500/. per annum were out of his reach, by entail, and
still remain to his family. Thus is it possible, that by
the aid of a ten years' minority, and ban-ing a)i-
othcr " John Mytlou," Halston and its oaks "' may yet
flourish. t

One question may very naturally be asked, Why
was not that substitute for the law of Corinth, the

• It has been st.-,ted to me, that the amount of timber sold by Mr.
Mytton at various times was So,ooo/., but I will not pledge myself to the
fact.

t But there was another John Mytton, and Halston has passed into
other hands. Seges ubi Troja fuil, and prize Herefords have had the
place of horses and hounds. " The Worcester Journal" of January, 1838,
is answerable for the following : —

"John Mytton Redivivus ! — One day last week, young Mytton, a
youth about twelve years of age, the eldest son of the late lamented
Squire of Halston, was out in a very hard day with the fox-hounds, and
at the dusk of evening found himself in a turnip field, a considerable
distance from home, with his pony so dead beat that he could proceed
no larther. The youth had too mucli of the inherent spirit of his fatliei

LIFE OF MYTTON. 227

High Court of Chancery, appealed to, to endeavour
to stop the final dissipation of the unentailed portion
of this fine property, since it is quite evident that for
the last several years the unfortunate proprietor was
not equal to the management of it ; no, not more so
than a child of six years old ? This question is
answered in many ways. Mr. Mytton's nearest con-
nections were compelled, early in life, to leave him to
his fate, their endeavours to save him from ruin
having been always rejected by himself He would
not, like Savage, spurn the friend who presumed to
dictate to him, but he heeded him not. That he
was half mad without drink, and rendered quite mad
with it, no man who knew him latterly can for a

to leave his favourite, and therefore took out his handkerchief, tied it to
the bridle of his pony and then to his wrist, laid down by the side of his
wearied hunter, and went to sleep for the greater part of the night. On
the first blush of morning he got up, and finding his pony refreshed,
proceeded home, when his appearance dissipated the alarm which had
been created by his unaccountable absence. He went to bed for a short
period, and in two hours from his arrival at the hall of his ancestors was
out ferreting rabbits, quite hearty and well. On being asked if he had
not heard any one during the night, he said he had, and within a short
distance too ; and on being further asked why he did not call out and
make his situation known, he replied he was afraid to do that, as he
thought he should be well thrashed for being in the turnip field at that
time of night."

228 LIFE OF AfYTTON.

moment doubt ; and a waggon-load of evidence could
be produced to prove that fact. But let us suppose
a commission of inquiry, a writ De Ljuiaiico inqui-
rciido to have been issued ! Why, the result would
have been this ; he would have kept himself sober for
two days, and, like Sophocles before the Areopagus,
would have dumfounded his opponents. I am,
however, quite certain, that from the time he arrived
first at Calais to the day of his death, bordering on
three years, he had not the slightest insight into his
own pecuniary affairs, nor did he know, to thousands,
how he stood in the world ; and moreover, if he had
had ten thousand pounds put into his hands any one
day, he would not have had a shilling of it left by
that day week ! I can bring a host of evidence to
back me in this assertion ; and it was in vain that his
friends asked him to call for something like a state-
ment of his cash account from those who received
his purchase-money for estates sold for upwards of
fifty thousand pounds, subsequently to his arrival in
Calais.

Having now traced this extraordinary character, this
anomaly in human nature, this mixture of very right
and very wrong, this strange compound of contra-
dictory qualities, through the various stages of his

LIFE OF MYTTON. 229

eventful life, over which he may be said to have
posted with the rapidity with which he travelled on
the road, or rather with which he crossed a country
after his hounds, knocking down everything before
him, I shall bring his memoir to an end ; and if I
have followed him through a lonof train of errors or
follies which mark his eventful course, it has not been
for the purpose of exposing, but of accounting for
them. If I have bared the sore with one hand, I have
endeavoured to find a balm for it with the other, and
it would be needless to demand of me, " Who hath
required this at your hands ? " I had the concurrence
of those most nearly and dearly connected with him,
one of whom observed, with no less feeling than truth,
that the task I have undertaken would "do the
living service and rescue the character of the dead."
The man himself has passed away, yet his good deeds
remain ; as to his follies, we will cast them to the
winds, but unfortunately for his character when alive,
as well as for his memory now he is no more,

"There is a lust in man no charm can tame,
Of loudly publishing his neighbour's shame :
On eagles' wings immortal scandals fly.
While virtuous actions are but born and die.'

He has been represented as a monster for acts he has

230 LIFE OF MYTTON.

never committed, and why should the sun be thus per-
mitted, and " falsely thus," to go down upon his
shame? It is true there is one mournful blemish
on his character, which, as has already been said, I
wish could be washed in Lethe and forgotten, as I
offer no extenuation for it but insanity. But if I
can have given the lie to one single calumny which
an ill-natured world has cast upon John Mytton
unjustly, I shall be satisfied. He is the best man,
says one of the best judges of mankind, that has the
fewest faults ; but he that has none is not to be found
on this earth.* Poor Mytton's faults were the faults
of the head, not of the heart, than which no man had
a sounder or a kinder. They were numerous, I
admit ; but let not their number be augmented, nei-
ther let his many virtues be forgotten ; and above all,
remember the years in which he suffered adversity !
This part of his history, however, cannot be without
a useful moral. The contemplation of distress, no
matter how created, corrects the pride of prosperity,
softens the mind of man, and makes the heart better.
Indeed, it was by such representations to the public

* Vitiis nemo sine nascitur ; optimus ille
Qui minimus urgetur. — HOR.

LIFE OF MYTTON. 231

eye that the nature of man was first polished and
refined.*

The service done to the Hving only commences
here. By pointing out the fatal rock on which Mr.
Mytton struck, a beacon is erected which might warn
others, if they would see it, who are entering now on
the vog:acre of life ; and the vicissitudes of his latter
days, and the melancholy circumstances of his death,
are fearful lessons to the present possessors of what he
once was master of, namely, all that -might make life
desirable and happy. That memorable position then,
that good is often the consequence of evil, is once
more illustrated ; and, as the poet says, it often hap-
pens, when they little dream of it, that

" The sons of men may owe
The fruits of bhss to bursting clouds of woe."

Let me indulge in a tew more moral reflections, as
such themes do not often present themselves to my
pen. Man has been represented the miracle of nature,

* I one day told Mr. Mytton, in jest, I should write a history of his
life, if I survived him. " I shall write it myself," he replied, " like
Antoninus's Kaff ia-vrovS" In a frolic, I did write his epitnph some sears
since at Halston, and it was, I am sorry to say, prophetic. It ran
thus : —

232 LIFE OF MYTTON.

and truly John Mytton does not give the lie to this.
Perhaps no character in modern times can be found as
a parallel to his, which is on one side dark and deso-
late, yet, if we turn the reverse, it is not difficult to
determine to which side the balance inclines. But in
human nature beauty and deformity are so closely
linked, that, in my opinion, the character of no man
can be very nicely weighed. Not only are there vices
and virtues which bear so strong a resemblance to
each other that it is not easy to determine where the
former end and where the latter begin, but the
virtues of some men are so obscured by their vices, and
the vices of others so softened down by their virtues
(as in both respects was the case here), that it is next
to impossible to separate the chaff and cockle from
the ofood orrain. As for reconcilingf the contradictions
and inconsistencies we have now been recounting, it

" Here lies John Mytton ; his short career is past.
The pace was quick, and therefore could not last ;
From end to end he went an arrant burst,
Determined to be nowhere, or be first.
No marble monument proclaims his fate,
No pompous emblems of funereal state ;
But let this simple tablet say,
That, upon a much-lamented day.
There went to ground, beneath this mouldering sod.
An honest man — the noblest work of God."

LIFE OF MYTTON. 235

would be vain to attempt it, unless, as Johnson with
his usual force says, " by those inconsistencies which
folly produces and infirmity suffers in the human
mind." At all events, an analysis of such a character
as that now in our view, can only be effected by a sort
of debtor and creditor account of good and evil, hold-
ing the balance with a charitable hand. But it must
be said of Mytton, what Clarendon said of Cromwell,
and what had been said of another more than a thou-
sand years back, that his enemies (if he had any)
could not condemn him without commendinof him at
the same time. His cardinal virtue was benevolence
of heart ; his besetting sin a destroying spirit, not
amenable to any counsel, and an apparent contempt
for all moral restraint. In fact, like Charles the Fifth,
who impiously asserted " there was but one Charles
and one God," Mytton appeared to aim at similar
notoriety ; and every man pays a dear price for that.
To a prodigality of heart he added a prodigality of
hand, which no such fortune as his could suffice, and
I am very much of Tom Penn's opinion, "that if he
had had two hundred thousand a year he would have
been in debt in five years." But although his extra-
vagance might have reduced Mr. Mytton to want, he
would have remained a man of unblemished integrity

234 LIFE OF MYTTON.

in rags, and nothing would have engaged him in dis-
honest practices. Oh no! He had a spirit which, it
is true, was " marred in its l^eauty," but, in this respect,
never foraetful of its own nobleness. He was faithful

O

to his friends, an indulgent landlord, and a most kind
master; and, last but not least in the novelty, with all
this consideration for the happiness of others, he
appears to have possessed very little for himself.

But he is now, ill-fated man I safe in his urn ; and
let no one attempt to throw more stones at his monu-
ment. There are specks in the sun, straggling weeds
amongst the choicest flowers ; and until the sons of
Adam cease to be the sons of Adam, perfection must
not be expected from them. From a retrospect of his
■career let this moral be drawn : — Life has been com-
pared to wine ; it vmst not be draiVH to the dregs : and
all who may have it in their power, as he had, to drain
nature to satiety, will find out at last — as I myselt
have at last found out— that tranquillity of mind and
liealth of body, which form the happiness as well as
the security of life, are not to be enjoyed under the
tyrant rule of passion, and nozvhcre without something
like discretion to guide and direct us in our ordinary
■concerns and pursuits.

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