Yours ever,
B.
See
Quarterly Review
, vol. vii. p. 313. The article
alluded to was written by the Hon. J. W. Ward, afterwards Earl of
Dudley.
List of Letters
Contents
Eywood, Presteign, Hereford, Octr. 31st, 1812.
Dear Sir
,—
inclosed bill
will convince you how anxious I must be
for the payment of Claughton's first instalment; though it has been sent
in without due notice, I cannot blame Mr. Davies who must feel very
anxious to get rid of the business. Press C., and let me have an answer
whenever you can to this Place.
Yours ever,
B.
P.S.—I am at
Lord Oxford's
, Eywood, as above.
The bill was Byron's for £1500, and the enclosure ran as
follows:
"Lord Byron.
A Bill for £1500, drawn by Scrope B. Davies, lies due at Sir James
Esdaile and Co's., No. 21, Lombard-Street.
All Drafts intended for the Payment of Bills, to be brought before
Half past Three o'Clock.
Please to call between 3 and Five o'Clock."
The same day Byron writes a second letter to Hanson:
"Do pray press Claughton, as Mr. D.'s business must be settled at all
events. I send you his letter, and I am more uncomfortable than I can
possibly express myself upon the subject. Pray write."
List of Letters
Contents
Presteign, Novr. 8th, 1812.
Dear Sir
,—Not being able (and to-day being Sunday also) to procure a
stamp, as the Post town is very remote, I must request this letter to be
considered as an Order for paying fifteen hundred pounds to S. B. Davies,
Esq., and the same sum to your own account for the Tythe purchase. Mr.
D.'s receipt can be indorsed on the bond.
I shall be in London the latter end of the week. I set out from this
place on the 12th. As to Mr. C., the Law must decide between us; I shall
abide by the Contract. Your answer will not reach me in time, so do not
write to me while here.
let Mr. D. be paid and you also—come what may
. I always foresaw
that C. would
shirk;
but he did it with his eyes open. What
question can arise as to the title? has it never been examined? I never
heard of it before, and surely, in all our law suits, that question must
have come to issue.
I hope we shall meet in town. I will wait on you the moment I arrive.
My best respects to your family; believe me,
Ever yours sincerely,
Byron
.
Byron was prepared to make some sacrifices to extricate
himself from debt, or go abroad. The following letter to Hanson is dated
December 10, 1812:
"Dear Sir,—I have to request that you will pay the bearer (my Groom)
the wages due to him (12 pds. 10s.), and dismiss him immediately, as I
have given up my horses, and place the sum to my account.
Ever yours,
Byron."
Four days later, December 14, 1812, he writes again to Hanson—
"Dear Sir,—I request your attention to the enclosed. See what can be
done with Howard, and urge Claughton. If this kind of thing continues,
I must quit a country which my debts render uninhabitable,
notwithstanding every sacrifice on my part.
Yours ever,
B."
List of Letters
Contents
Presteign, Novr. 16th, 1812.
Dear Sir
,—The floods having rendered the road impassable, I am detained
here, but trust by the latter end of the week to proceed to Cheltenham,
where I shall expect a letter from you to tell me if I am wanted in
town.
I shall not be in time for the Prince's address; but I wish you to write
down for my
Parliamentary
robes (Mrs. Chaworth had them, at least
Mrs. Clarke the mother); though I rather think those were the Coronation
and not the House robes. At least enquire.
I hope Mr. D. is paid; and, if Mr. C. demurs, we must bring an action
according to Contract.
I trust you are well, and well doing in my behalf and your own.
Ever yours most sincerely,
B.
List of Letters
Contents
Cheltenham, November 22, 1812.
Dear Sir
,—On my return here from Lord Oxford's, I found your obliging
note, and will thank you to retain the letters, and any other subsequent
ones to the same address, till I arrive in town to claim them, which
will probably be in a few days. I have in charge a curious and very long
MS. poem, written by Lord Brooke (the
friend
of Sir
Philip
Sidney
), which I wish to submit to the inspection of Mr. Gifford,
with the following queries: —first, whether it has ever been published,
and secondly (if not), whether it is worth publication? It is from Lord
Oxford's Library, and must have escaped or been overlooked amongst the
MSS. of the Harleian Miscellany. The writing is Lord Brooke's, except a
different hand towards the close. It is very long, and in the six-line
stanza. It is not for me to hazard an opinion upon its merits; but I
would take the Liberty, if not too troublesome, to submit it to Mr.
Gifford's judgment, which, from his excellent edition of Massinger, I
should conceive to be as decisive on the writings of that age as on
those of our own.
for a less agreeable and important topic.—How came Mr. Mac-Somebody
, without consulting you or me, to prefix the Address to his volume
of "
dejected addresses?"
Is not this somewhat larcenous? I think
the ceremony of leave might have been asked, though I have no objection
to the thing itself; and leave the "hundred and eleven" to tire
themselves with "base comparisons." I should think the ingenuous public
tolerably sick of the subject, and, except the parodies, I have not
interfered, nor shall;
I did not know that Dr. Busby had
published his apologetical letter and postscript
, or I should have
recalled them. But, I confess, I looked upon his conduct in a different
light before its appearance. I
some mountebank has taken Alderman
Birch's name
to vituperate the Doctor; he had much better have
pilfered his pastry, which I should imagine the more valuable
ingredient—at least for a Puff. —
secure me a copy of Woodfall's
new
Junius
,
and believe me,
Dear Sir, yours very sincerely,
B.
B. McMillan.
This probably refers to Busby's apologetic letter in the
Morning Chronicle
for October 23, 1812.
Alderman Birch was a pastry-cook in Cornhill.
In the Catalogue of Byron's books, sold April 5, 1816,
appear two copies of
Junius
:
- "Junius's Letters, 2 vol. russia, 1806."
- "Junius's Letters, by Woodfall, 3 vol., Large Paper, 1812."
List of Letters
Contents
December 26, [1812].
The multitude of your recommendations has already superseded my humble
endeavours to be of use to you; and, indeed, most of my principal
friends are returned, Leake from Joannina, Canning and Adair from the
city of the Faithful, and at Smyrna no letter is necessary, as the
consuls are always willing to do every thing for personages of
respectability. I have sent you
three
; one to Gibraltar, which,
though of no great necessity, will, perhaps, put you on a more intimate
footing with a very pleasant family there. You will very soon find out
that a man of any consequence has very little occasion for any letters
but to ministers and bankers, and of them we have already plenty, I will
be sworn.
It is by no means improbable that I shall go in the spring; and if you
will fix any place of rendezvous about August, I will
write
or
join
you.—When in Albania, I wish you would inquire after
Dervise Tahiri and Vascillie (or Bazil), and make my respects to the
viziers, both there and in the Morea. If you mention my name to Suleyman
of Thebes, I think it will not hurt you; if I had my dragoman, or wrote
Turkish, I could have given you letters of
real service;
but to
the English they are hardly requisite, and the Greeks themselves can be
of little advantage. Liston
you
already, and I do not, as he
was not then minister. Mind you visit Ephesus and the Troad, and let me
hear from you when you please. I believe G. Forresti is now at Yanina;
but if not, whoever is there will be too happy to assist you. Be
particular about
firmauns;
never allow yourself to be bullied,
for you are better protected in Turkey than any where; trust not the
Greeks; and take some knicknackeries for
presents—watches,
pistols,
etc., etc., to the Beys and Pachas. If you find one
Demetrius, at Athens or elsewhere, I can recommend him as a good
dragoman. I hope to join you, however; but you will find swarms of
English now in the Levant.
Believe me, etc.
Robert Liston, afterwards Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836),
succeeded Adair as Ambassador at Constantinople in 1811.
List of Letters
Contents
Eywood, Presteign, January 8, 1813.
Dear Sir,—You have been imposed upon by a letter forged in my name to
obtain the picture left in your possession.
I know by the
confession of the culprit
and as she is a woman (and of rank), with
whom I have unfortunately been too much connected, you will for the
present say very little about it; but if you have the letter
retain
it—write to me the particulars. You will also be more
cautious in future, and not allow anything of mine to pass from your
hands without my
Seal
as well as Signature.
I have not been in town, nor have written to you since I left it. So I
presume the forgery was a skilful performance.—I shall endeavour to get
back the picture by fair means, if possible.
Yours ever,
Byron
.
P. S.—Keep the letter if you have it. I did not receive your parcel, and
it is now too late to send it on, as I shall be in town on the 17th.
delinquent
is one of the first families in this kingdom; but, as
Dogberry says, this is "flat burglary."
Favour me with an answer. I hear I am scolded in the
Quarterly;
but you and it are already forgiven. I suppose that made you bashful
about sending it.
The culprit was Lady Caroline Lamb, who imitated Byron's
handwriting with remarkable skill.
Much Ado about Nothing
, act iv. sc. 2.
List of Letters
Contents
February 3, 1813.
My Dear Hodgson,—I will join you in any bond for the money you require,
be it that or a larger sum. With regard to security, as Newstead is in a
sort of abeyance between sale and purchase, and my Lancashire property
very unsettled, I do not know how far I can give more than personal
security, but what I can I will. At any rate you can try, and as the sum
is not very considerable, the chances are favourable. I hear nothing of
my own concerns, but expect a letter daily. Let me hear from you where
you are and will be this month. I am a great admirer of the
R. A.
[
Rejected Addresses
], though I have had so great a share in the
cause of their publication,
I like the
C. H.
[
Childe
Harold
] imitation one of the best
. Lady Oxford has heard me talk
much of you as a relative of the Cokes, etc., and desires me to say she
would be happy to have the pleasure of your acquaintance. You must come
and see me at K[insham]. I am sure you would like
all
here if you
knew them.
The "Agnus" is furious.
can have no idea of the horrible and absurd
things she has said and done
since (really from the best motives) I
withdrew my homage. "
pleasure" is, certes, my object, but "
why
brief
, Mr. Wild?"
I cannot answer for the future, but the past
is pretty secure; and in it I can number the last two months as worthy
of the gods in
Lucretius.
I cannot review in the
"
Monthly;
" in fact I can just now do nothing, at least with a
pen; and I really think the days of Authorship are over with me
altogether. I
and rejoice in Eland's and Merivale's intentions
.
has grown great, and has got him new premises in the fashionable
part of the town
.
We live here so shut out of the
monde
that I have nothing of
general import to communicate, and fill this up with a "happy new year,"
and drink to you and Drury.
Ever yours, dear H., B.
I have no intention of continuing "
Childe Harold.
" There are a
few additions in the "body of the book" of description, which will
merely add to the number of pages in the next edition. I have taken
Kinsham Court.
business of last summer I broke off
, and now the
amusement of the gentle fair is writing letters literally threatening my
life, and much in the style of "Miss Mathews" in "
Amelia
," or
"Lucy" in the "
Beggar's Opera
." Such is the reward of restoring a
woman to her family, who are treating her with the greatest kindness,
and with whom I am on good terms. I am still in
palatia Circes
,
and, being no Ulysses, cannot tell into what animal I may be converted;
as you are aware of the turn of both parties, your conjectures will be
very correct, I daresay, and, seriously, I am very much
attached
.
She has had her share of the denunciations of the brilliant Phryne, and
regards them as much as I do. I hope you will visit me at K. which will
not be ready before spring, and I am very sure you would like my
neighbours if you knew them. If
come down now to Kington
, pray
come and see me.
"Byron often talks of the authors of the Rejected Addresses,
and always in terms of unqualified praise. He says that the
imitations, unlike all other imitations, are full of genius.
'Parodies,' he said, 'always give a bad impression of the original,
but in the Rejected Addresses the reverse was the fact;' and he
quoted the second and third stanzas, in imitation of himself, as
admirable, and just what he could have wished to write on a similar
subject"
(Lady Blessington's
Conversations
, p. 134).