45^8 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



sportsman consisted of an excellent and jovial 

 a dinner as eight fellows ever sat down to in 

 their lives, but one also, on which I confess I 

 cannot look back without the strongest sensa- 

 tions of emotion, and even distress. To think 

 that in the brief space of seven short years, 

 one individual, and one only, of that merry 

 conclave should be left, over whom either 

 ' the gardener of the gravestone' had not per- 

 formed his office, or whom the black ox of 

 fallen fortunes had not visited with his rude 

 assaults, is indeed a reflection that must sober 

 the most mirthful ! Yet even thus is it with 

 regard to the party of that memorable even- 

 ing. Poor Mytton himself, and Ralph Ben- 

 son of Lutwyche, dead and gone ! Jack 

 Tarleton of Collingwood, Matt Steward of 

 Lockridge, John Longden of Ashbourrte, 

 Jamie Henderson, the ally of Theodore Hook, 

 the penner of this paragraph, all dispersed 

 before the pitiless pelting of the storm, sonr^e 

 jato exile, and all, at least in discomfort ! 

 there remains but the eighth, (My Lord of 

 Birmingham) as Beardsworth was then jo- 

 cosely designated, on whom the sunbeams 

 have not ceased to shine !" 



In the spring of 1831 family affairs caused 

 him to leave Halston, and in the autumn of 

 that year all the stock, furniture, pictures, 

 plate, every thing in that place of splendid 

 hospitality and matchless comfort, came to 

 the hammer ! 



For nearly three years preceding his death, 

 he was 



" A wanderer from his own good hall !" 



We now come to the melancholy end of 

 John Mytton, of Halston. Our readers will 

 reco lect where his death took place. One 

 of hi-i friends says — 



" Drear and desolate as that end was, still 



was it not without its consolation ; one wnote 

 affection 1 thought could have known no in- 

 crease, till sorrow and suffering had drawn 

 him still closer to her heart ; she, the fond, 

 the doting mother, was there, his ' minister- 

 ing angel !' The hands which had rocked 

 his cradle, spread and smoothed his dying 

 couch ! The eyes which had beamed with 

 the radiance of hope on the bright promise of 

 his youth, shed their dews of agony upon his 

 blighted manhood, in prison ! and in death !" 



The funeral of Mr. Mytton took place at 

 Halston on the 9th of April, and as the caval- 

 cade passed through Shrewsbury, many of the 

 shops were closed, and crowds assembled to 

 take a last look on his bier, and pay the hom- 

 age of a sigh to the memory of John Mytton ! 



THE BOURRA.- 



-A SPORTMAN's '' TURN OUt" IN 

 THE PENINSULA. 



There is scarcely any scene more exciting, 

 or occupies so much individual energy as in 

 the baggage department of an army on its 

 march. It would indeed be an excellent cure 

 for those who have been so indulged by lux- 

 ury and fashion, as to have created that dis- 

 ease which goes under the name of a nervous 

 malady. To be actually engaged in the tur- 

 moil of a ba2:gao'e route would do more for 

 the health of such a patient, than the pre- 

 scriptions of the most eminent physicians. It 

 is a spirit-stirring scene ; every one engaged 

 in it has enough to do to take care of himself, 

 and still there are scenes enough so comic as 

 to excite frequently irresistible bursts of 

 laughter. Such a scene can hardly be de- 

 scribed, and one wonders and pities to see 

 how many of the gentler sex are doomed to 

 unutterable privations in following the fate of 

 their husbands. Still in the midst of this 



