172 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



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

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

 expressing the opinion that this was a very dangerous mode 

 of driving, Mytton at once offered to bet the whole party 

 £2$ each that he would then and there drive his tandem 

 across country to the turnpike road half a mile off, having 

 to cross on the way a sunk fence three yards wide, a broad 

 deep drain, and two stiff quickset hedges with ditches on the 

 further side. All accepted the bet. It was a moonlight 

 night, but twelve men with lanthorns accompanied the party 

 in case of accidents. He got into and out of the sunk fence 

 (I suppose what we call a Ha-ha) in safety, went at the 

 drain at such a pace that both horses and gig cleared it, 

 the jerk throwing Mytton on to the wheeler's back, from 

 which he climbed up to his seat, drove on, and through the 

 next two fences with apparent ease into the turnpike road 

 without serious injury, thus winning this extraordinary 

 wager. 



He was as reckless of other person's lives and limbs as he 

 was of his own, upsetting one friend purposely because he 

 had just said that he had never been upset in his life, and 

 jumping the leader over a turnpike gate to see whether he 

 would take " timber," the gig being, of course, smashed, and 

 Mytton with his friend being thrown out, but, strange to say, 

 both uninjured. 



He was a man of tremendous physical strength, and with a 

 constitution that appeared able to withstand anything till he 

 ruined it by excessive drinking. He was so devoted to sport 

 of some kind or other that nothing came amiss to him, riding 

 his horse upstairs, riding a bear into his drawing-room, crawl- 

 ing after wild ducks on the snow and ice stripped to his shirt, 

 or shooting rats with a rifle. Several of these stories we 

 heard told by the people we met, but there were many others 

 of a nature which could not be printed, and which referred to 

 the latter part of his life, when his wife had left him, and he 

 had entered on that downhill course of reckless dissipation 

 that culminated in his ruin and death. 



Never was there a more glaring example of a man of 



