3ohn ^vtton n? 



considerably exceeded nine yards in width ; and on 

 another occasion he cleared a gate seven feet high. Of 

 his prowess in the hunting-field, many stories are told, 

 from which I select the two following, given by his 

 biographer ' Nimrod.' 



' During the period of Sir Bellingham Graham's hunt- 

 ing Shropshire,' says that celebrated sporting writer, 

 ' Mytton 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 

 hunter Baronet over the park paling of the late Lord 

 Berwick, of Atsham, near Shrewsbury, to the astonish- 

 ment of the whole field — Sir Bellingham himself ex- 

 claiming, " Well done, Neck or Nothing ; you are not a 

 bad one to breed from." With the same hounds he 

 signalised himself in a run from Bomer-wood to Haugh- 

 mond-hill, when the River Severn brought the field 

 to a check. Three or four of them managed to get 

 their horses into a boat, but Mytton scorned its assist- 

 ance. " 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 few who saw the 

 fox killed. It must be observed that Mytton was no 

 swimmer, and the Severn is broad and deep, with banks 

 none of the best. 



' On another occasion he nearly lost his life in the 

 Severn, in a run with his own hounds near Bridgnorth. 

 All the field but himself crossed in a horse ferry-boat, but 

 he gallantly plunged in, though the river was much swollen 

 by rain at the time. His mare — a fine hunter, called 

 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 



