'Mad' John Mytton A Hand Coloured Engraving 19th Century

A Hand Coloured Aquatint depicting The scene depicts John "Mad Jack" Mytton , a legendary and eccentric Regency-era figure from Shropshire, England, known for his reckless spending, hard-drinking lifestyle, and outrageous sportsmanship. He is shown mounted on a bay horse surrounded by a pack of hounds, reflecting his role as a prominent huntsman. After a picture by William Webb with engraver William Giller, Circa 1841 (published by Rudolph Ackermann in 1847) His exploits well known : From his early teens, Jack was somewhat – shall we say ‘rambunctious’? While some of his escapades may well have been designed to make the other children associate his name with practical jokes and japes rather than his Deafness (children are, famously, horrible to one another), it's fair to say he may have gone a little far in his efforts to make a name for himself. He was expelled from his first school after a year for fighting a teacher, only to be expelled from his second school after three terms. At her wit’s end, his mother hired a series of live-in private tutors to teach her son. A series, you ask? Yes, well, that’s what happens when a student torments each and every one of his tutors with endless pranks.One tutor went to bed in the evening to find a horse in their room! Instead of taking this as an unexpected but delightful gift, the man promptly packed his bags and left. Of course, Jack was still admitted into a prestigious university - not for academic merit, but because of the vast fortune to which he was heir. In classic Jack form, he is said to have arrived at Cambridge with over 2,000 bottles of Port in tow – and left without a degree. At 21, he inherited the 132,000-acre family estate, spread across Shropshire and North Wales, along with an annual income equivalent to approximately £728,000 in modern terms. And that made the world Mad Jack’s oyster. Money was no object and when it ran out he could always borrow more. Nimrod describes him as “a perfect stranger to the science of economy.” He was master of two packs of foxhounds and also kept a number of racehorses in training, up to 15 or 20 at a time, with broodmares and youngstock to support as well. When advised that he should attend Oxford University, he said he would do so if he could “read nothing but the ‘Racing Calendar’ and the ‘Stud Book’”. Mytton had an exceptionally bad money habit, in fact. His biographer lists very precisely that he had 152 pairs of breeches and trousers, with coats and waistcoats to go with them. He spent lavishly on alcohol and imported game in huge numbers for hunting. These are a few of his exploits which can also be found in the book Life of John Mytton by Nimrod. Condition : Small foxing on mount and small bit on side print the white not effecting print itself. Can easily be remounted and taken into consideration in price. Provenance: Estate of W. Carey Wilson who was a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) who had a multifaceted career involving technical naval construction and frontline operations in the Pacific during World War II.