170 MY LIFE 



" very good work for an amateur." I reproduce his sketch 

 on a reduced scale as showing his delicacy of touch even in 

 hasty out-of-door work, though, owing to the old yellowish 

 paper, the pencil marks come out very faint in the process 

 print. 



While travelling by coach or staying at country inns in 

 Shropshire, we used to hear a good deal of talk about Jack 

 Mytton, of Halston, who had died a few years before, and 

 whose wild exploits were notorious all over the west of 

 England. He was a country gentleman of very old family, 

 and had inherited a landed estate bringing in about £10,000 

 a year, while having been a minor for eighteen years, there 

 was an accumulation of £60,000 when he came of age. In a 

 few years he spent all these savings, and continued to live 

 at such a rate that he had frequently to raise money. All 

 the grand oaks for which his estates were celebrated were 

 cut down, and it is said produced £70,000. About half his 

 property was entailed, but the other half was sold at various 

 times, and must have realized a very large amount; while 

 in the last years of his life, which he spent either in prison 

 for debt or in France, all the fine collection of pictures, many 

 by the old masters, and the whole contents of his family 

 mansion were sold, but did not suffice to pay his debts or 

 prevent his dying in prison. From the account given by his 

 intimate friend and biographer the total amount thus wasted 

 in about fifteen years could not have been much less than half 

 a million, but from the scanty details in his " Life " it seems 

 clear that he could not really have expended anything like 

 this amount, but that his extreme good nature and utter reck- 

 lessness as to money led to his being robbed and plundered 

 in various ways by the numerous unscrupulous persons who 

 always congregate about such a character. 



For those who have not read the account of his wasted 

 life one or two examples illustrative of his character may 

 be here given. Once, before he was of age, when dining out 

 in the country, he had driven over in a gig with a pair of 

 horses tandem — his favorite style. On some of the party 

 expressing the opinion that this was a very dangerous mode 



