LIFE OF MYTTON. 203 



it will be asked, How did he employ his time ? 

 Why, painful but striking is the answer to this 

 question. He to whom the whole world had ap- 

 peared insufficient to afford pleasure, and who had 

 spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in pursuit of 

 it, was now completely happy in the occupation of 

 picking up sea-shells in the morning, and washing 

 them in vineoar in the eveninor! So eao-er was he in 

 this his favourite pursuit, that he would scarcely finish 

 his dinner before he would enter upon the last- 

 mentioned office, and would absolutely stand for two 

 or three hours at a time brushing shells with a nail- 

 brush dipped in vinegar ! They were then laid with 

 great precision in drawers, which he would never 

 suffer any one but himself to open. All this, with the 

 perusal of the " Morning Herald," the " Age," and the 

 Calais (French) Journals, formed the business of the 

 day. 



It is almost needless for me to state that at this 

 period the intellect of my friend was in a state of 

 great imbecility — the consequence of extreme exhaus- 

 tion, produced by extreme excitement. Nevertheless, 

 it was the opinion of his attendants, as well as of Drs. 

 Souville and Winder, who saw him two or three times 

 a-week, that, by pursuing the plan they were then 



