Memoirs of the Life of the Late John Mytton, Esq

London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1851. A Desirable Item"
"A Most Valuable and Important Book"
Third and Best Edition
With Memoir of Nimrod

[ALKEN, Henry, illustrator]. APPERLEY, C.J. Memoirs of the Life of the Late John Mytton, Esq. of Halston, Shropshire, Formerly M.P. for Shrewsbury, High sheriff for the Counties of Salup & Merioneth, and Major of the North Stropshire Yeomanry Cavalry. With Notices of His Hunting, Shooting, Driving, Racing, Eccentric and Extravagant Exploits By Nimrod. With Numerous Illustrations by H. Alken and T.J. Rawlins. Third Edition, With a Brief Memoir of Nimrod by the Author of "Handley Cross" [i.e. Robert S. Surtees]. London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1851.

Third edition, the first to contain the Memoir of Nimrod by Surtees and complete with the additional text and plates from the second edition of 1837, third issue (with extra title, title, and plates dated 1851) in 1850 issue binding (with "Ackermann" at spine foot). Octavo (9 1/4 x 5 3/4 in; 235 x 146 mm). ix, [1], 218, [8, catalog] pp. Extra engraved title with plain aquatint vignette, and eighteen hand-colored aquatint plates including frontispiece, with tissue guards.

Publisher's original pictorially gilt cloth with blindstamped border to upper board, vignette blocked in blind to lower. All edges gilt. Westley's of London ticket on rear paste-down. Spine ends expertly strengthened. An excellent copy. Housed in a quarter green morocco clamshell case.

"This Third Edition is a desirable item to add to any collection as it is the first to contain the Life of Nimrod. Published at 25s, 'handsomely bound in cloth' (Tooley)

"A most valuable and important book for the sporting life of the period, aptly described by Newton as 'a biography of a man that reads like a work of fiction'" (Tooley).

"This is not a work of fiction, for John Mytton, a rather inglorious character for a biography, was a hard-living, hard-drinking country squire of Halston, Shropshire, capable of the utmost physical endurance, and ready to accept any wager to walk, shoot or ride against any man. Many of his feats are recorded and graphically delineated, including the climax of his folly in setting his nightshirt on fire to cure a hiccough (Martin Hardie).

The Plates:
1. Well done, Neck or Nothing...
2. A Nick, or the nearest way home.
3. Wild Duck Shooting.
4. What! Never upset in a gig?
5. I wonder whether he is a good timber jumper!
6. The Meet with Lord Derby's Stag Hounds.
7. Stand and deliver.
8. Tally ho! Tally ho!...
9. The Oaks Filly.
10. Light come, light go.
11. On Baronet clears nine yards of water.
12. D--n this hiccup!
13. A h-ll of a row in a hell...
14. Swims the Severn at Uppington Ferry.
15. How to cross a country comfortably after dinner.
16. Heron shooting...
17. A Squire trap, by Jove!
18. Now for the honour of Stropshire.

Tooley 68. Schwerdt 1, p. 39. Abbey, Life, 385 (2d ed.). Martin Hardie, pp. 185-186. Prideaux, p. 326.