The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1 by Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero

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I must not omit the custom of handing round, after dinner, on the
removal of the cloth, a human skull filled with burgundy. After
revelling on choice viands, and the finest wines of France, we
adjourned to tea, where we amused ourselves with reading, or improving
conversation,--each, according to his fancy,--and, after sandwiches,
etc., retired to rest. A set of monkish dresses, which had been
provided, with all the proper apparatus of crosses, beads, tonsures,
etc., often gave a variety to our appearance, and to our pursuits.

You may easily imagine how chagrined I was at being ill nearly the
first half of the time I was there. But I was led into a very
different reflection from that of Dr. Swift, who left Pope's house
without ceremony, and afterwards informed him, by letter, that it was
impossible for two sick friends to live together; for I found my
shivering and invalid frame so perpetually annoyed by the thoughtless
and tumultuous health of every one about me, that I heartily wished
every soul in the house to be as ill as myself.

"The journey back I performed on foot, together with another of the
guests. We walked about twenty-five miles a day; but were a week on
the road, from being detained by the rain. So here I close my account
of an expedition which has somewhat extended my knowledge of this
country. And where do you think I am going next? To
Constantinople!--at least, such an excursion has been proposed to me.
Lord B. and another friend of mine are going thither next month, and
have asked me to join the party; but it seems to be but a wild scheme,
and requires twice thinking upon.

"Addio, my dear I., yours very affectionately, C. S. MATTHEWS."]

[Footnote 7: A joke, related by Hobhouse, reminds us of the youth of the
party. In the Long Gallery at Newstead was placed a stone coffin,
from which, as he passed down the Gallery at night, he heard a
groan proceeding. On going nearer, a cowled figure rose from the
coffin and blew out the candle. It was Matthews.]

[Footnote 8: The Rev. Thomas Jones. (See page 79 [Letter 36], [Foot]note 1.)]

[Footnote 9: The only thing remarkable about Walsh's preface is that
Dr. Johnson praises it as "very judicious," but is, at the same time,
silent respecting the poems to which it is prefixed (Moore).]

[Footnote 10: No "Ode" under this title is to be found in Walsh's Poems.
Byron had, no doubt, in mind _The Golden Age Restored_--a composition in
which, says Dr. Johnson, "there was something of humour, while the facts
were recent; but it now strikes no longer."]

[Footnote 11:

"----Granville the polite,
And _knowing Walsh_, would tell me I could write."

"About fifteen," says Pope, "I got acquainted with Mr. Walsh. He used to
encourage me much, and tell me, that there was one way left of
excelling: for though we had several great poets, we never had any one
great poet that was correct; and he desired me to make that my study and
aim" (Spence's _Anecdotes_, edit. 1820, p. 280).]

[Footnote 12: See page 165 [Letter 86], [Foot]note 2.]

[Footnote 13: Dan Dogherty, Irish champion (1806-11), came into notice as
a pugilist in 1806. He was beaten by Belcher in April, 1808, near
the Rubbing House on Epsom Downs, and again on the Curragh
of Kildare, in 1813, in thirty-five minutes, after twenty-six rounds.]

[Footnote 14: Tom Belcher (1783-1854), younger brother of Jem Belcher
the champion, fought and won his first fight in London, in 1804, against
Warr. The fight took place in Tothill Fields, Westminster. Twice beaten
by Dutch Sam (Elias Samuel), in 1806 and 1807, he never held the
championship, which a man of his height (5 ft. 9 ins.) and weight (10
st. 12 lbs.) could scarcely hope to win. But he repeatedly established
the superiority of art over strength, and was one of the most popular
and respectable pugilists of the day. Under his management the Castle
Tavern at Holborn, in which he succeeded Gregson (page 207 [Letter 108],
[Foot]note 1 [2]), was the head-quarters of pugilism.]

[Footnote 15: Sir Henry Smyth, Baronet, of Trinity Hall, A.M. 1805, was
found between eleven and twelve at night, on May 11, 1805, "inciting to a
disturbance" at the shop of a Mrs. Thrower on Market Hill. Other members
of the University seem to have been equally guilty. The sentence of the
Vice-Chancellor and Heads was "that he be suspended from his degree and
banished from the University." The others were admonished only; so it
was clearly considered that Smyth was the ring-leader.]

85.--To Henry Drury. [1]

Dorant's Hotel, Jan. 13, 1808.

My Dear Sir,--Though the stupidity of my servants, or the porter of
the house, in not showing you up stairs (where I should have joined
you directly), prevented me the pleasure of seeing you yesterday, I
hoped to meet you at some public place in the evening. However, my
stars decreed otherwise, as they generally do, when I have any favour
to request of them. I think you would have been surprised at my
figure, for, since our last meeting, I am reduced four stone in
weight. I then weighed fourteen stone seven pound, and now only _ten
stone and a half_. I have disposed of my _superfluities_ by means of
hard exercise and abstinence.

Should your Harrow engagements allow you to visit town between this
and February, I shall be most happy to see you in Albemarle Street. If
I am not so fortunate, I shall endeavour to join you for an afternoon
at Harrow, though, I fear, your cellar will by no means contribute to
my cure. As for my worthy preceptor, Dr. B., [2] our encounter would
by no means prevent the _mutual endearments_ he and I were wont to
lavish on each other. We have only spoken once since my departure from
Harrow in 1805, and then he politely told Tatersall [3] I was not a
proper associate for his pupils. This was long before my strictures in
verse; but, in plain _prose_, had I been some years older, I should
have held my tongue on his perfections. But, being laid on my back,
when that schoolboy thing was written--or rather dictated--expecting
to rise no more, my physician having taken his sixteenth fee, and I
his prescription, I could not quit this earth without leaving a
memento of my constant attachment to Butler in gratitude for his
manifold good offices.

I meant to have been down in July; but thinking my appearance,
immediately after the publication, would be construed into an insult,
I directed my steps elsewhere. Besides, I heard that some of the boys
had got hold of my _Libellus_, contrary to my wishes certainly, for I
never transmitted a single copy till October, when I gave one to a
boy, since gone, after repeated importunities. You will, I trust,
pardon this egotism. As you had touched on the subject I thought some
explanation necessary. Defence I shall not attempt, _Hic murus aheneus
esto, nil conscire sibi_--and "so on" (as Lord Baltimore [4] said on
his trial for a rape)--I have been so long at Trinity as to forget the
conclusion of the line; but though I cannot finish my quotation, I
will my letter, and entreat you to believe me, gratefully and
affectionately, etc.

P.S.--I will not lay a tax on your time by requiring an answer, lest
you say, as Butler said to Tatersall (when I had written his reverence
an impudent epistle on the expression before mentioned), viz. "that I
wanted to draw him into a correspondence."

[Footnote 1: See page 12 [Letter 4], [Foot]note 1 [2]; and page 41
[Letter 14], [Foot] note 2 [1].]

[Footnote 2: Dr. Butler, Head-master of Harrow (see page 58 [Letter 22],
[Foot]note 1).]

[Footnote 3: See page 59 [Letter 22], [Foot]note 1 [2].]

[Footnote 4: Francis Calvert, seventh Lord Baltimore (1731-1771), was
charged with decoying a young milliner, named Sarah Woodcock, to his
house, and with rape. On February 12, 1768, he was committed for trial
at the Spring assizes, was tried at Kingston, March 26, 1768, and
acquitted. The story is the subject of a romance, 'Injured Innocence; or
the Rape of Sarah Woodcock;' A Tale, by S. J., Esq., of Magdalen
College, Oxford. New York (no date).

"I thank God," Lord Baltimore is reported to have said, "that I have
had firmness and resolution to meet my accusers face to face, and
provoke an enquiry into my conduct, 'Hic murus aheneus esto, nil
conscire sibi'"

('Ann. Register' for 1768, p. 234). His body lay in state at Exeter
Change, previous to its interment at Epsom (Leigh Hunt's 'The Town',
edit. 1893, p. 191).]

86.--To John Cam Hobhouse. [1]

Newstead Abbey, Notts, January 16, 1808.

My Dear Hobhouse,--I do not know how the _dens_-descended Davies [2]
came to mention his having received a copy of my epistle to you, but I
addressed him and you on the same evening, and being much incensed at
the account I had received from Wallace, I communicated the contents
to the Birdmore, though without any of that malice wherewith you
charge me. I shall leave my card at Batts, and hope to see you in your
progress to the North.

I have lately discovered Scrope's genealogy to be ennobled by a
collateral tie with the Beardmore, Chirurgeon and Dentist to Royalty,
and that the town of Southwell contains cousins of Scrope's, who
disowned them (I grieve to speak it) on visiting that city in my
society.

How I found this out I will disclose, the first time "we three meet
again." But why did he conceal his lineage? "Ah, my dear H., it was
_cruel_, it was _insulting_, it was _unnecessary_."

I have (notwithstanding your kind invitation to Wallace) been alone
since the 8th of December; nothing of moment has occurred since our
anniversary row. I shall be in London on the 19th; there are to be
oxen roasted and sheep boiled on the 22nd, with ale and uproar for the
mobility; a feast is also providing for the tenantry. For my own part,
I shall know as little of the matter as a corpse of the funeral
solemnized in its honour.

A letter addressed to Reddish's will find me. I still intend
publishing the _Bards_, but I have altered a good deal of the "Body of
the Book," added and interpolated, with some excisions; your lines
still stand, [3] and in all there will appear 624 lines.

I should like much to see your Essay upon Entrails: is there any
honorary token of silver gilt? any cups, or pounds sterling attached
to the prize, besides glory? I expect to see you with a medal
suspended from your button-hole, like a Croix de St. Louis.

Fletcher's father is deceased, and has left his son tway cottages,
value ten pounds per annum. I know not how it is, but Fletch., though
only the third brother, conceives himself entitled to all the estates
of the defunct, and I have recommended him to a lawyer, who, I fear,
will triumph in the spoils of this ancient family. A Birthday Ode has
been addressed to me by a country schoolmaster, in which I am likened
to the Sun, or Sol, as he classically saith; the people of Newstead
are compared to Laplanders. I am said to be a Baron, and a Byron, the
truth of which is indisputable. Feronia is again to reign (she must
have some woods to govern first), but it is altogether a very pleasant
performance, and the author is as superior to Pye, as George Gordon to
George Guelph. To be sure some of the lines are too short, but then,
to make amends, the Alexandrines have from fifteen to seventeen
syllables, so we may call them Alexandrines the great.

I shall be glad to hear from you, and beg you to believe me,

Yours very truly,

BYRON.

[Footnote 1: John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869), created in 1851 Baron
Broughton de Gyfford, was the eldest son of Mr. Benjamin Hobhouse,
created a baronet in 1812, and M.P. (from 1797 to 1818) successively for
Bletchingley, Grampound, and Hindon. From a school at Bristol, John Cam
Hobhouse was sent to Westminster, and thence to Trinity, Cambridge,
where he won (1808) the Hulsean Prize for an essay on "Sacrifices," and
made acquaintance with Byron, as related in Letter 84. In 1809 he
published a poetical miscellany, consisting of sixty-five pieces, under
the title of 'Imitations and Translations from the Ancient and Modern
Classics, together with original Poems never before published' (London,
1809, 8vo). (For Byron's nine contributions, see 'Poems', vol. i.,
Bibliographical Note.) In 1809-10 he was Byron's travelling companion
abroad (see 'A Journey through Albania, etc.' London, 1813, 4to).

In 1813 he travelled with Douglas Kinnaird in Sweden, Germany, Austria,
and Italy; in 1814 he was at Paris with the allied armies; and in April,
1815, was there again till the second Napoleonic war broke out,
returning to witness the second restoration of the Bourbons (see his
'Letters--written by an Englishman resident in Paris, etc.' Anon.,
London, 1816, 2 vols., 8vo). During 1814 he was much with Byron in
London. He notes going with him to Drury Lane, and being introduced with
him to Kean (May 19); dining with him at Lord Tavistock's (June 4);
dining with him at Douglas Kinnaird's, to meet Kean (December 14). He
was Byron's best man at his marriage at Seaham (January 2, 1815), and it
was to him that the bride said, "If I am not happy, it will be my own
fault." He was the last person who shook hands with Byron on Dover pier,
when the latter left England in 1816. Later in the same year he was with
him at the Villa Diodati, on the Lake of Geneva, and travelled with him
to Venice. To him Byron dedicated 'The Siege of Corinth', In the next
year he was again with Byron in the Villa La Mira on the banks of the
Brenta, and at Venice, where he prepared the commentary on the fourth
canto of 'Childe Harold', which Byron dedicated to him. Part of the
notes were published separately ('Historical Illustrations, etc.'
London, 1818, 8vo). In 1818 Hobhouse stood for Westminster, but was
defeated by George Lamb, the representative of the official Whigs. He
was an original member of "The Rota Club," afterwards known as
"Harrington's," to which Michael Bruce, Douglas Kinnaird, Scrope Davies,
and others belonged, and which Byron, writing from Italy, expressed a
wish to join. He had now embarked on political life. His pamphlet, 'A
Defence of the People' (1819), was followed in the same year by 'A
Trifling Mistake', which was declared by the House of Commons to be a
breach of privilege. In consequence, he was committed to Newgate. The
death of George III., and the dissolution of Parliament, set him free.
He contested Westminster, won the seat with Sir Francis Burdett as his
colleague, and represented it for thirteen years. He took the part of
Queen Caroline against the Government. At the Queen's funeral (August 7,
1821) he attended the procession which escorted her body (August 13)
from Brandenburg House to Harwich, and saw the coffin placed upon the
vessel.

His political career was long, independent, useful, and distinguished,
and he specially associated himself with such questions as the
shortening of the hours for infant labour, the opening up of
metropolitan vestries, and the subject of parliamentary reform. In 1832
he was made a Privy Councillor, and became Secretary at War in Lord
Grey's Ministry. This post, finding himself unable to effect essential
reforms at the War Office, he exchanged for that of Secretary for
Ireland (1833); but he resigned both his office and his seat a few weeks
later, being opposed to the Government on a question of taxation. In
1834 he joined Lord Melbourne's Government as First Commissioner of
Woods and Forests, with a seat in the Cabinet. In Lord Melbourne's
second administration, and again in Lord J. Russell's Government of
1846, he was President of the Board of Control. On his retirement from
public life, in 1852, he received high recognition of his official
services from the Queen, who conferred on him the Grand Cross of the
Bath and a peerage. Hobhouse was present at Her Majesty's first Council,
and is said to have originated the phrase, "Her Majesty's Opposition."

In 1822 he travelled in Italy (see 'Italy: Remarks made in Several
Visits from the Year 1816 to 1834', London, 1859, 2 vols., 8vo). There,
on September 20, at Pisa, he for the last time saw Byron, whose parting
words were, "Hobhouse, you should never have come, or you should never
go." In July, 1824, when Byron's body was brought home, he boarded the
'Florida' in Sandgate Creek, and took charge of the funeral ceremonies
from Westminster Stairs to the interment at Hucknall Torkard. He
prepared an article for the 'Quarterly Review', exposing the absurdities
of Medwin's 'Conversations' and of Dallas's 'Recollections'; but, owing
to difficulties with Southey, it was not published. It was the substance
of this article which afterwards appeared in the 'Westminster Review' in
1825. In 1830 he wrote, but, by Lord Holland's advice, withheld, a
refutation of the charges made against the dead poet as to his
separation from Lady Byron. He has, however, left on record that it was
not fear which induced Byron to agree to the separation, but that, on
the contrary, he was ready to "go into court."

The staunchest of Byron's friends, Hobhouse was also the most sensible
and candid. As such Byron valued him. Talking to Lady Blessington at
Genoa, in 1823, he said ('Conversations', p. 93) that Hobhouse was

"the most impartial, or perhaps," added he, "'unpartial', of my
friends; he always told me my faults, but I must do him the justice to
add, that he told them to 'me', and not to others."

On another occasion he said (p. 172),

"If friendship, as most people imagine, consists in telling one
truth--unvarnished, unadorned truth--he is indeed a friend: yet, hang
it, I must be candid, and say I have had many other, and more
agreeable, proofs of Hobhouse's friendship than the truths he always
told me; but the fact is, I wanted him to sugar them over a little
with flattery, as nurses do the physic given to children; and he never
would, and therefore I have never felt quite content with him, though,
'au fond', I respect him the more for his candour, while I respect
myself very much less for my weakness in disliking it."]

[Footnote 2: Scrope Berdmore Davies (1783-1852), born at Horsley, in
Gloucestershire, was educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge,
where he was admitted a Scholar in July, 1802, and a Fellow in July,
1805. In 1803 he was awarded by the Provost of Eton the Belham
Scholarship, given to those Scholars of King's who had behaved well at
Eton, and held it till 1816. A witty companion, with "a dry caustic
manner, and an irresistible stammer" ('Life of Rev, F. Hodgson', vol. i.
p. 204), Davies was, during the Regency and afterwards, a popular member
of fashionable society. A daring gambler and shrewd calculator, he at
one time won heavily at the gaming-tables. On June 10, 1814, as he told
Hobhouse, he won £6065 at Watier's Club at Macao. Captain Cronow, in his
'Reminiscences' (ed. 1860, vol. i. pp. 93-96), sketches him among
"Golden Ball" Hughes, "King" Allen, and other dandies. But luck turned
against him, and he retired, poverty-stricken and almost dependent upon
his Fellowship, to Paris, where he died, May 23, 1852. It was supposed
he had for many years occupied himself with writing his recollections of
his friends. But the notes, if they were ever written, have disappeared.

Byron, who hated obligations, as he himself says, counted Davies as a
friend, though not on the same plane as Hobhouse. He borrowed from
Davies £4800 before he left England in 1809, repaid him in 1814, and
dedicated to him his 'Parisina'. In his 'MS. Journal' ('Life', pp. 129,
130) he says,

"One of the cleverest men I ever knew, in conversation, was Scrope
Berdmore Davies. Hobhouse is also very good in that line, though it is
of less consequence to a man who has other ways of showing his talents
than in company. Scrope was always ready, and often witty--Hobhouse
was witty, but not always so ready, being more diffident."

Byron appointed him one of the executors of his will of 1811. In his
'Journal' for March 28, 1814 ('Life', p. 234), occurs this entry:

"Yesterday, dined tête à tête at the Cocoa with Scrope Davies--sat
from six till midnight--drank between us one bottle of champagne and
six of claret, neither of which wines ever affect me. Offered to take
Scrope home in my carriage; but he was tipsy and pious, and I was
obliged to leave him on his knees praying to I know not what purpose
or pagod. No headach, nor sickness, that night, nor to-day. Got up, if
anything, earlier than usual--sparred with Jackson 'ad sudorem', and
have been much better in health than for many days. I have heard
nothing more from Scrope."

Scrope Davies visited Byron at the Villa Diodati, in 1816, and brought
back with him 'Childe Harold', canto iii. On his return he gave evidence
in the case of 'Byron v. Johnson', before the Lord Chancellor, November
28, 1816, when an injunction was obtained to restrain Johnson from
publishing a volume containing 'Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
to the Holy Land', and other works, which he professed to have bought
from Byron for £500.

According to Gronow ('Reminiscences', vol. i. p. 153, 154), Scrope
Davies, asked to give his private opinion of Byron, said that he
considered him

"very agreeable and clever, but vain, overbearing, suspicious, and
jealous. Byron hated Palmerston, but liked Peel, and thought that the
whole world ought to be constantly employed in admiring his poetry and
himself."]

[Footnote 3: For Hobhouse's lines on Bowles, see 'English Bards, etc.',
line 384, and note.]

87.--To Robert Charles Dallas. [1]

Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Jan. 20, 1808.

Sir,--Your letter was not received till this morning, I presume from
being addressed to me in Notts., where I have not resided since last
June; and as the date is the 6th, you will excuse the delay of my
answer.

If the little volume you mention has given pleasure to the author of
_Percival_ and _Aubrey_, I am sufficiently repaid by his praise.
Though our periodical censors have been uncommonly lenient, I confess
a tribute from a man of acknowledged genius is still more flattering.
But I am afraid I should forfeit all claim to candour, if I did not
decline such praise as I do not deserve; and this is, I am sorry to
say, the case in the present instance.

My compositions speak for themselves, and must stand or fall by their
own worth or demerit: _thus far_ I feel highly gratified by your
favourable opinion. But my pretensions to virtue are unluckily so few,
that though I should be happy to merit, I cannot accept, your applause
in that respect. One passage in your letter struck me forcibly: you
mention the two Lords Lyttleton [2] in the manner they respectively
deserve, and will be surprised to hear the person who is now
addressing you has been frequently compared to the _latter_. I know I
am injuring myself in your esteem by this avowal, but the circumstance
was so remarkable from your observation, that I cannot help relating
the fact. The events of my short life have been of so singular a
nature, that, though the pride commonly called honour has, and I trust
ever will, prevent me from disgracing my name by a mean or cowardly
action, I have been already held up as the votary of licentiousness,
and the disciple of infidelity. How far justice may have dictated this
accusation, I cannot pretend to say; but, like the _gentleman_ to whom
my religious friends, in the warmth of their charity, have already
devoted me, I am made worse than I really am. However, to quit myself
(the worst theme I could pitch upon), and return to my poems, I cannot
sufficiently express my thanks, and I hope I shall some day have an
opportunity of rendering them in person. A second edition is now in
the press, with some additions and considerable omissions; you will
allow me to present you with a copy. The 'Critical', [3] 'Monthly',
[4] and 'Anti-Jacobin [5] Reviews' have been very indulgent; but the
'Eclectic' [6] has pronounced a furious Philippic, not against the
_book_ but the _author_, where you will find all I have mentioned
asserted by a reverend divine who wrote the critique.

Your name and connection with our family have been long known to me,
and I hope your person will be not less so: you will find me an
excellent compound of a "Brainless" and a "Stanhope." [7] I am afraid
you will hardly be able to read this, for my hand is almost as bad as
my character; but you will find me, as legibly as possible,

Your obliged and obedient servant,

BYRON.

[Footnote 1: Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1842), born in Jamaica and
educated in Scotland, read law at the Inner Temple. About 1775 he
returned to Jamaica to look after his property and take up a lucrative
appointment. Three years later he returned to England, married, and took
his wife back with him to the West Indies. His wife's health compelled
him to return to Europe, and he lived for some time in France. At the
outbreak of the Revolution he emigrated to America; but finally settled
down to literary work in England. His first publication (1797) was
_Miscellaneous Writings consisting of Poems; Lucretia, a Tragedy; and
Moral Essays, with a Vocabulary of the Passions_. He translated a number
of French books bearing on the French Revolution, by Bertrand de
Moleville, Mallet du Pan, Hue, and Joseph Weber; also a work on
Volcanoes by the Abbé Ordinaire, and an historical novel by Madame de
Genlis, _The Siege of Rochelle_. He wrote a number of novels, among them
_Percival, or Nature Vindicated_ (1801); _Aubrey: a Novel_ (1804); _The
Morlands; Tales illustrative of the Simple and Surprising_ (1805); _The
Knights; Tales illustrative of the Marvellous_ (1808). Later (1819 and
1823) he published two volumes of poems. He says (preface to _Percival_,
p. ix.) that his object is "to improve the heart, as well as to please
the fancy, and to be the auxiliary of the Divine and the Moralist." He
is one of the writers, others being "Gleaner" Pratt and Lord Carlisle,
"whose writings" (_Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Percival
Stockdale_, 1809, vol. i. Preface, p. xvi.) "dart through the general
fog of our literary dulness." Stockdale further says of him that he was
"a man of a most affectionate and virtuous mind. He has had the moral
honour, in several novels, to exert his talents, which were worthy of
their glorious cause, in the service of good conduct and religion."

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