JOHN MYTTON.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7815, 7 June 1909, Page 1

JOHN MYTTON.

THE BIGGEST MADCAP FOOL IN ENGLISH HISTORY. , . i Of the harum-scarum hunting man, Jack Mytton is the blazing' example. This inspired rake-hell thought so little of money that he could tie tracedVin his morning walks by .dropped bundles of banknotes. He fought dogs with his teeth,- on equal terms, and .won;-drank six bottles of itort .daily j the first :while shaving; spent £10,000 mi getting:into Parliament, and occupied his seat only half an hour; consented to go t<) Oxford only on condition that he was never opened a book; jumped tollgates m his gig; owned and hunted two packs,- and once came m at the death, after many hours' riding, with three broken ribs ;■ set a spring trap for his chaplain one Sunday morning, and, having caught him, thought the frolic amply atoned- for by ~ah bottle-:of Madeira ; thrashed all who' offended him, and/ afterwards gave them. a:.guinea ; and when some kind of compromise was offered him by his lawyer which would save an estate from the hammer and produce him an income of £6000 a year, remarked, ", I wouldn't give a ——; to live on £6000 a year." ;;. ■ Ever since I can remember I .have been fascinated by the life of John Mytton. although there is no real pleasure to be taken m it. The spectaclei of the riotous spendthrift, the man whose only enemy is himself, as we say, is melancholy enough, however we consider it. Why not, then, leave poor Mytton's ghost unvexed ? Because, I would say,.he was.great.. In. his way he was among; the giants. • ;...... : It) is not so long since Mytton died— IS34—the same year m which died Charles Lamb. He was born In the year that saw Lamb contributing poems' to Coleridge's first volume, 1796, and it is not uninteresting to reflect how different were the two lives that, were simultaneously to pass m London and sat Ha'lstoo-,.. Mytton's. home m Shropshire. Mytton's father died when his son was two, and probably the boy's ruin was a result, for his mother was fond to folly,, and no one opposed his will. He.went to Westminster and Harrow, being expelled from both, and came of age to £60,000 m ready.money and lan income of £10,0.00. For a short time.He was a.cprnet m the 7th Hussars, but on | his majority he resigned, and took •to ] country pursuits. It was m 1819 that he brought himself to sit m Parliament j for half an hour: m 1820 came the dis-I solution, and he legislated np> more. He j married twice—his first wife died, and | his second left him. ; .