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n England has been home to many magnificent eccentricsnbut maybe none were so magnificently bonkers as John ‘Mad Jack’ Mytton. Bornninto a long lineage of Salopian squires in 1796, John’s father died when theninfant was only eighteen months hold, so his inheritance was held in trustnuntil he reached his majority, and in the course of the almost twenty years itngrew to be an enormous sum of money. His mother doted on the boy and denied himnnothing, so he was wilful and undisciplined from a very early age (the epitomenof the spoiled brat). At only the age of ten, a neighbour nicknamed him Mangon(the ‘King of Pickles’, ‘pickle’ being an old-fashioned word for a troublesome,nwild boy), a sobriquet he happily carried throughout his life.
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| John Mad Jack Mytton |
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nHe was expellednfrom Westminster and Harrow schools and knocked down a tutor at Berkshire,nentered into the lists of Oxford and Cambridge but found university lifenboring, and went on the Grand Tour of Europe to ‘finish’ his pitiful education,nbefore returning home to Halston, the family estate. He joined the army, as anCornet of the 7th Hussars, and went to France where he did not seenaction but began to gamble away vast amounts of money. He quit the army,nreturned home, and in 1818 was married, to Harriet Emma Jones, eldest daughternof Sir Tyrwhitt Jones, Bart., by whom he had a daughter, Harriet EmmanCharlotte. His wife suffered from delicate health and died after just two yearsnof marriage. In 1819, he decided on a parliamentary career and set aboutnbribing the voters of Shropshire with £10 notes, spending the equivalent ofnthree quarters of a million pounds in today’s money. He won the seat, went tonthe House but found it boring and left after half an hour, never to return. Hendidn’t stand again.
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| Mad Jack at the Gallop |
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nJack, as he was always called, was a powerful individual,nwith the physique of a prizefighter and the constitution of an ox. He wasnhardened to an extraordinary degree, and would often strip off his shirt andnlie in the snow when out duck hunting – on at least one occasion he went out ontonthe ice of a frozen lake when totally naked.
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| Mytton Shooting Wild Ducks |
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nHe would wear the thinnest ofnclothes at any time of the year, not caring if they were wet or dry, andnregularly rode over fifty miles a day. Out hunting hares one day, a Welsh minerninterrupted the chase and Jack took offence to the man. They squared up andnfought twenty bare-knuckle rounds before the miner surrendered. Jack gave himnten shillings, told him to go to Halston for ‘another bellyfull’ andncarried on with his hunt.
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| Heron Shooting |
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nWhen a new acquaintance informed him that he felt inndanger at the speed they were travelling, Jack asked him if this was the resultnof once being in a carriage that had turned over. No, replied the friend, henhad never been in such an accident.
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n“What!” replied Mytton,n”never upset in a gig? What a damned slow fellow you must have beennall your life!”n
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nHe then promptly ran the near wheel of the gig up the banknbeside the road and overturned it. Both passengers were unhurt.
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| What? Never Upset in a Gig? |
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nOnce, whilstnviewing some new horses, Jack asked the dealer if he thought one was anparticularly good timber-jumper. The dealer expressed doubt, so Jack exclaimed,n“Let’s try him then,” and gave the horse in question a flick of the whip. Thenhorse started and leapt clean over the turnpike gate before it. However, it wasnstill harnessed in tandem to a gig, in which Jack and the dealer were seated.nThe horse went over the gate but its companion and the gig, together with itsntwo occupants, were left on the opposite side.
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| A Good Timber Jumper |
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nOne evening, two friends ofnJack’s, a parson and a doctor, were dining at Halston, and after the eveningncame to an end, they departed for home. Jack donned a disguise, mounted a hacknand rode by a roundabout route to get in front of his friends. As theynapproached, Jack fired off the blank cartridges in his pair of pistols andncalled out, “Stand and Deliver!” The parson and the doctor took to theirnheels, and Jack chased them all the way to Oswestry.
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| Stand and Deliver |
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nHe bought a bear and anmonkey for thirty-five pounds the pairnfrom a travelling showman and kept both at Halston. One evening, much to thenconsternation of his guests, Jack, in full hunting pinks, rode the bear intonthe dining room. All was going well until Jack pricked the bear with his spurs,nwhereupon it threw him and sank its teeth into his calf.
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| Tally Ho! Tally Ho! |
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nA horse dealer, overnfor dinner, was got very drunk and put to bed. He woke the following morning tonfind two bulldogs on one side of him and the bear on the other. One evening,nout for a stroll after dinner, Mytton met a beggar on the estate. He swappedntop clothes with him and returned to the house, where the disguised squirenasked his own servants for charity, only to be given the bitter dregs from anbarrel. When he objected, the butler and two menservants attempted to manhandlenhim, but when he knocked them down they set the dogs on him. Jack ran to thenstable, where the bear recognised its master and rounded on the dogs. The gamenup, Jack revealed himself, much to his own amusement and the chagrin of thenstaff. Eventually, the bear had to be put down after it savaged one of thenservants. The monkey, like Jack, was fond of the sauce but died after drinkingna bottle of Day and Martin’s blacking, which it mistook for wine.
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| Disorder in the House |
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nJack was angreat drinker, getting through four or six bottles of port a day. He started onnhis first whilst shaving in the morning, and worked his way steadily throughnthe rest during the day. In everything he ran to excess – in his wardrobe onenbiographer counted one hundred and fifty-two pairs of coats and breeches, threenthousand shirts, one thousand hats and five hundred pairs of boots. Onenevening, when returning from the Doncaster races, Jack was counting hisnwinnings when he fell into a drunken slumber. Several thousand pounds innbanknotes blew out of the carriage window and were lost to the night. Jack’snreaction was ‘light come, light go.’
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| Light Come! Light Go! |
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nAlthough he was unable to swim, henwas not afraid of water and would frequently drive his horse into rivers, whichnhe would then cross for negligible wagers. When riding to hounds, the fox tooknto water and when the others were looking for a boat, Jack cried “Let allnwho call themselves sportsmen follow me,” and drove his mount in pursuit,ninto what was the River Severn at one of its broadest parts.
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| Let All Who Call Themselves Sportsmen Follow Me |
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nA second marriagenfollowed, in 1821, and although there were offspring the union ended badly innseparation in 1830. Years of gambling, hunting and drinking ate into hisnfortune. The vast, ancient forests of oaks at Halston were felled and sold tonsupport Jack’s excesses. Eventually, the debts mounted to too great a level andnJack fled to France, hoping to avoid the bailiffs and escape his creditors.nHalston and its contents were sold at auction and Charles James Apperley,nJack’s close friend and biographer, describes finding him in Calais,
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n“… anround-shouldered, decrepit, tottering old-young man … bloated by drink.”n
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| How to Cross Country Comfortably after Dinner |
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nJack had replaced port with French brandy and wines, and Apperley reportsnfinding him drunk one night, just before bed. Jack started with an attack ofnthe hiccups, when he called out, “Damn this hiccup, but I’ll frighten itnaway,” took up a candle and set light to his nightshirt. Apperley, anothernfriend, and Jack’s servant threw him to the floor and beat out the flames,nwhereupon Jack rose up, proclaimed, “The hiccup is gone, by God,” andnreeled naked into his bed.
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| Damn this Hiccup! |
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nThe next day, Apperley describes finding,
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n“…the skin of his breast, shoulders, andnknees of the same colour with a newly-singed bacon hog,”n
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nbut Jack wasnunbowed and greeted him with a hearty ‘view-holloa’. Apperley arrangednfor a sort of Regency re-hab for Jack, which went reasonably well in weaningnhim off the brandy, although straitjackets were employed frequently. Withnconstant supervision, his health improved and he found a new interest –ncollecting seashells, which he washed carefully in vinegar and sorted intonwooden cabinets. Eventually, Jack returned to England, where his creditors werenwaiting for him, and he tried to make arrangements to settle what debts hencould.
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| Mad Jack’s Hunting |
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nBut the madness had stayed with him. One morning, walking over WestminsternBridge, he met a young woman, utterly unknown to him.
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n“How do ye do?” says Mytton.n
n“Very well, I thank ye; how do you do?” comes the reply.n
n“Where are you going?” asks Mytton.n
n“I don’t know,” says she.n
n“Then come and live with me; I’ll settle £500 a yearnupon you,”nis Jack’s offer.n
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nSo, off they go to Calais – she is twenty, he isnthirty-six. The arrangement went well, for Susan, as she was called, lookednafter Jack. For the next two years, they moved around Europe, running up debtsnand where Jack rediscovered his love of brandy. France finally became too hotnfor the pair so they returned again to London, where Jack was thrown intondebtor’s prison. Three weeks later, he suffered an attack of deliriumntremens and died. He was thirty-eight.
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| A Squire Trap! |
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nHis funeral was greatly attended,nwith many members of the army attending, together with his former tenants andnservants, friends and well-wishers. Throughout his life, Mad Jack Mytton wasnloved, for he may have been bonkers but he was not malicious. His pranks and frolicsnwere outrageous but he meant no harm to anyone (other than, maybe, himself).nApperley, writing under the pen-name Nimrod, published a biography in 1835, innwhich he wrote,
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| Memoirs of the Life of John Mytton Esq – ‘Nimrod’ |
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n “He was faithful to his friends, an indulgentnlandlord, and a most kind master; and, last but not least in the novelty, withnall this consideration for the happiness of others, he appears to havenpossessed very little for himself. But he is now, ill-fated man! safe in hisnurn; and let no one attempt to throw more stones at his monument. There arenspecks in the sun, straggling weeds amongst the choicest flowers; and until thensons of Adam cease to be the sons of Adam, perfection must not be expected fromnthem.”n
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