LIFE OF MYTTON. 87 



the day, by a glass or two at a time, and at least 

 a bottle with his luncheon ; and the after dinner and 

 after supper work — not losing sight of it in the billiard- 

 room — completed the Herculean task. No wonder, 

 then, that Alexander the Great has been called a 

 " fool to him " in his Bacchanalian feats, at all events, 

 he would have been a good playfellow for him at 

 Persepolis ; or that — as Cicero said of Piso — " his 

 breath smelt like a vintner's vault." He is, however,, 

 a memorable example of the comparatively harmless- 

 effects of very good wine, which he always had, andl 

 just of a proper age— about eight years old — for,, 

 assisted by exercise, such as he took, it was many 

 years before it injured him. But, alas ! wine at : 

 length lost its charms ; brandy — which he was a 

 stranger to when I was last at Halston — was sub- 

 stituted, and the constitution of John yiytton, perhaps 

 the hardest ever bestowed npojt man, was not proof 

 against that.* 



But away, for a moment, with all recollection of 



* It would be absurd to offer apology for these remarks, after the 

 inquest on the body of my departed friend, which went the round of the 

 newspapers. Besides, my object being to rescue his memoiy from 

 imputations that lie against it, and, in some cases, not unjiis/ly, it is in 

 mercy — a dreadful alternative, I admit — that I exhibit him to the world 

 as both a drunkard and a madman. 



