MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE JOHN MYTTON, ESQ. OF HALSTON, SHROPSHIRE. WITH NOTICES OF HIS HUNTING, SHOOTING, DRIVING, RACING, ECCENTRIC, AND EXRAVAGANT EXPLOITS.
Hardcover
1837 · London
by APPERLEY, CHARLES JAMES
London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1837. The author was "Nimrod" the pseudonym for Mr. Apperley. Green ribbed cloth. Panelled spine with gilt designs and lettering. The spine has toned to a chocolate brown as is usual. Marbled endpapers. Engraved title-page with aquatint vignette, eighteen hand-colored plates drawn and etched by Henry Alken and T.J. Rawlins, aquatinted by E. Duncan. This second enlarged edition omitted three of the plates from the original 1835 edition and added nine new ones. Top border of the frontispiece has an old paper repair, a signature was cut out apparently. Seven of the color plates have tissue-guards, others do not. A few plates show some browning and toning of the paper along periphery, not affecting the color print. Fore-edge pp.127-130 browned. Text generally quite fresh and clean throughout. John Mytton (1796-1834) was a British eccentric and Regency rake. Many anecdotes and stories have recounted the unusual life of "Mad Jack". According to his biographer Nimrod, he once rode his pet bear "Nell" into his drawing-room in full hunt costume. He drank eight bottles of port wine a day, washing it down with brandy. He supposedly hunted ducks, late at night in winter, in the nude. He once set his nightshirt on fire while wearing it in an attempt to cure a case of hiccoughs! (See plate at p. 127). 206pp.. Second Edition. 1/2 Forest Green Morocco. Octavo. (Inventory #: 013297)