Memoirs of the Life of the Late John Mytton, Esq. of Halston, Shropshire

London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1837. Alken Off To The Races With Apperley In The Saddle
Second Edition With the Six Extra Plates in a Fine Contemporary Binding

[ALKEN, Henry, illustrator]. NIMROD (pseud. of C.J. Apperley). 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. Second Edition. Reprinted with considerable Additions from the New Sporting Magazine. London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1837.

Second and enlarged edition, with additions to the text and six extra hand-colored plates. Tall octavo. ix, [3], 206, [2], pp. Extra-engraved title-page with aquatint vignette. Eighteen hand-colored aquatint plates with tissue guards.

Bound in contemporary full hard-grain crimson morocco featuring a single gilt fillet border enclosing floral and foliate gilt tooling with arabesque gilt stems surrounding a gilt vase on pedestal, to both covers. Gilt tooled and lettered spine. Silver clasp engraved "Mr. E. Whittingham / Ellenhall / Nov. 2 1844." Gilt-rolled edges. Wide gilt dentelles with elaborate border and corner-pieces, green moire silk endpapers. All edges gilt. A fine copy in a really fine silver clasped binding.

"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 Shropshire.

Abbey, Life, 385. Tooley 67. Schwerdt 1, p. 38. Martin Hardie, pp. 185-186. Prideaux, p. 326.