with a rifle Extraordinary performances after
hounds-Swimming the river Severn, &c.—
Marvellous exploit in a tandem by moonlight
-Ditto in a gig with the Author-His gig
carried over Halston lodge gate-A parallel
instance to it at Wrexham-Sale of sporting
implements at Halston-Heron shooting-The
Shavington Day; "Now for the honour of
Shropshire!"-Description of the racing stakes
at ditto-Number of the stakes and plates won
-Monody on his death, by Tom Moody.

LIST OF THE PLATES

No

TITLE. 1.-" Well done, Neck or Nothing; you
are not a bad one to breed from "
2.-A Nick, or the nearest way home
3.—Wild duck shooting

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

8.- Tally ho! Tally ho!" a new hunter.

11.-On Baronet clears nine yards of water

12. "D-n this hiccup!".

13.-A h-ll of a row in a hell. Mytton

shows fight.

PAGE

188

6

17

21

22

25

26

14.-Swims the Severn at Uppington Ferry.
15. How to cross a country comfortably
after dinner.

16.-Heron shooting: a cooler after a big

188

190

xiv

No.

LIST OF THE PLATES

TITLE. 17.-"A Squire trap, by Jove! A little

PAGE

18.. -"Now for the honour of Shropshire."

The Shavington Day; a trial of
rival packs, and consequently of
rival horsemen

201

THE

LIFE AND DEATH

OF THE LATE

JOHN MYTTON, Esq.

OF HALSTON, SHROPSHIRE

FORMERLY M.P. FOR SHREWSBURY; HIGH SHERIFF FOR THE COUNTIES OF SALOP AND MERIONETH, AND MAJOR OF THE NORTH SHROPSHIRE YEOMANRY CAVALRY

PART I

"Ubi plura nitent."—HOR.

IT 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 thoroughbred. 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 violentum est perpetuum”—“'tis the pace that kills," and he was no exception to the rule. It having, however, been stated in the newspaper accounts of his decease, that he had represented the ancient borough of Shrewsbury in Par

liament, I shall merely show that, if the ancient relation of his family to a town of which their ancestors had been inhabitants and burgesses upwards of five centuries—in addition to their ample estates in its immediate neighbourhood-still goes for any thing, who had a better right to the honour than he had? Looking 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 ame) and Richard de Pontesbury,

members.

1377. Reginold de Mutton and William de Longenolne, members.

1472. Thomas Mutton and John Hord, members. 1491. William Mutton and Lawrence Hosyer,

members.

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.

1701. Ditto

1702. Ditto