122 MnQB ot tbe 1buntincj^3Fielt> 



quotation at hand from a Greek or Latin author, and 

 there was a conscious feeling of ability about him, to 

 which he was fond of giving expression. His off-hand 

 addresses to his constituents during his first contest for 

 Shrewsbury in 1819, were particularly neat, appropriate 

 and spirited, though they were composed on the spur 

 of the moment, and sent to the press before the ink in 

 which they were written was dry. As to his politics, it 

 is difficult to express an opinion, for he never uttered 

 a word on the subject. It was, however, a characteristic- 

 ally mad thing of him to spend ^10,000 to obtain a seat 

 in Parliament, to which he attached so little value when 

 he had won it, that only for one half-hour, on the day 

 on which he was sworn in, was he even seen in the 

 House of Commons. 



Extravagance and eccentricity would, no doubt, have 

 been overlooked by county society in the scion of an 

 ancient and honourable house, and John Mytton might 

 have held his place among those of his own order to the 

 end, but for his intemperate habits. The almost constant 

 state of intoxication, in which he latterly lived, became 

 insufferable to his neighbours of all classes, and even to 

 his oldest friends. So the Squire of Halston, being thus 

 voted ' impossible ' by the county families, betook himself, 

 like the equall}' mad and reckless Lord Barrymore of 

 Wargrave, to the society of his inferiors in station. 

 There is no need to dwell upon the steps of his gradual 

 downfall and final degradation. What hope was there 

 for a man who, when his agent pressed retrenchment 

 upon him, with the assurance that if for six years he 

 would but content himself with an income of ;^6ooo a 

 year, his fine estates might yet be saved, could de- 

 liberately answer, 'No, 1 would not give a straw for my 



