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

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2.--To his Mother.

Nottingham, 13 March, 1799.

Dear Mama,--I am very glad to hear you are well. I am so myself, thank
God; upon my word I did not expect so long a Letter from you; however
I will answer it as well as I can. Mrs. Parkyns and the rest are well
and are much obliged to you for the present. Mr. Rogers [1] could
attend me every night at a separate hour from the Miss Parkynses, and
I am astonished you do not acquiesce in this Scheme which would keep
me in Mind of what I have almost entirely forgot. I recommend this to
you because, if some plan of this kind is not adopted, I shall be
called, or rather branded with the name of a dunce, which you know I
could never bear. I beg you will consider this plan seriously and I
will lend it all the assistance in my power. I shall be very glad to
see the Letter you talk of, and I have time just to say I hope every
body is well at Newstead,

And remain, your affectionate Son,

BYRON.

P.S.--Pray let me know when you are to send in the Horses to go to
Newstead. May [2] desires her Duty and I also expect an answer by the
miller.

[Footnote 1: Dummer Rogers, "Teacher of French, English, Latin, and
Mathematicks", was, according to 'Notes and Queries' (4th series, vol.
iii. p. 561), an American loyalist, pensioned by the English Government.
He lived at Hen Cross, Nottingham, when Byron was staying in that city,
partly with Mrs. Parkyns, partly at Mr. Gill's, in St. James's Lane, to
be attended by a man named Lavender, "trussmaker to the general
hospital", who had some local reputation for the treatment of misshapen
limbs. Lavender, in 1814 ('Nottingham Directory' for 1814), appears as a
"surgeon". Rogers, who read parts of Virgil and Cicero with Byron,
represents him as, for his age, a fair scholar. He was often, during his
lessons, in violent pain, from the position in which his foot was kept;
and Rogers one day said to him, "It makes me uncomfortable, my Lord, to
see you sitting there in such pain as I know you must be suffering".
"Never mind, Mr. Rogers," answered the boy; "you shall not see any signs
of it in _me_." Many years after, when in the neighbourhood of
Nottingham, Byron sent a kind message to his old instructor, bidding the
bearer tell him that he could still recite twenty verses of Virgil which
he had read with Rogers when suffering torture all the time.

[Footnote 2: Byron's nurse, who had accompanied him from Aberdeen (see
p. 10, note 1).]

3.--To John Hanson. [1]

SIR,--I am not a little disappointed at your Stay, for this last week
I expected you every hour; but, however, I beg it as a favour that you
will come up soon from Newstead as the Holidays commence in three
weeks Time. I congratulate you on Capt. Hanson's [1] being appointed
commander of The 'Brazen' Sloop of War, and I congratulate myself on
Lord Portsmouth's [2] Marriage, hoping his Lady, when he and I meet
next, will keep him in a little better order. The manner I knew that
Capt. Hanson was appointed Commander of the Ship before mentioned was
this. I saw it in the public Paper, and now, since you are going to
Newstead, I beg if you meet Gray [3] send her a packing as fast as
possible, and give my Compliments to Mrs. Hanson and to all my
comrades of the Battalions in and out upon different Stations,

And remain, your little friend,

BYRON.

I forgot to tell you how I was. I am at present very well and my foot
goes but indifferently; I cannot perceive any alteration.

[Footnote 1: John Hanson, of 6, Chancery Lane, a well-known London
solicitor, was introduced to the Byron family by an Aberdeenshire friend
of Mrs. Byron, Mr. Farquhar, a member of Parliament, and a civilian
practising in Doctors' Commons. The acquaintance began in January, 1788,
with Byron's birth, for the midwife and the nurse were recommended by
Mrs. Hanson. Six years later, Hanson was employed by Mrs. Byron to watch
the interests of her son, who in 1794 had become heir-presumptive to his
great-uncle. It was Hanson who, in the summer of 1798, communicated the
news of the death of Lord Byron to Mrs. Byron, and with his wife
received her and her son at Newstead. From that time till the close of
the minority, Hanson was intimately associated with Byron, both as a man
of business and a friend. He selected Dr. Glennie's school for the boy,
persuaded Lord Carlisle to become his guardian, introduced the ward to
Lord Carlisle, and entered him at Harrow. It was at his house in Earl's
Court that Byron, for five years, spent a considerable part of his
successive holidays. There he made acquaintance with Hanson's
children--his sons Charles, Hargreaves (his contemporary at Harrow), and
Newton, and his daughter, Mary Anne, who subsequently (March 7, 1814)
married the Earl of Portsmouth, Byron giving her away. This letter was
written by Byron a few weeks after he had gone to school at Dr.
Glennie's, in Lordship Lane, Dulwich. He remained there from August,
1799, to April, 1801.

In a letter to Mrs. Byron, dated September 1, 1799, Hanson describes Dr.
Glennie's "Academy," where he had shortly before left the boy:--

"I left my entertaining companion with Mr. Glennie last Thursday week,
and I have since learnt from him that he is very comfortable and likes
the situation. His schoolfellows are very fine youths, and their
deportment does very great credit to their Preceptor. I succeeded in
getting Lord Byron a separate room, and I am persuaded the greatest
attention will be paid to him. Mr. Glennie is a Scotchman, has
travelled a great deal, and seems every way qualified for his present
situation."

[Footnote 2: Captain James Hanson, R.N., was the brother of John Hanson
to whom the letter is written. Byron was born with a caul, prized by
sailors as a preservative from drowning. The caul was sold by Mrs.
Mills, the nurse who attended Mrs. Byron in January, 1788, to Captain
Hanson. In January, 1800, Captain Hanson, in command of H.M.S. 'Brazen',
had captured a French vessel, which he sent to Portsmouth with a prize
crew. On the 26th of the month, while shorthanded, he was caught in a
storm off Newhaven. The 'Brazen' foundered, and Captain Hanson with all
his men, except one, were drowned.]

[Footnote 3: In the late autumn of 1799 Lord Portsmouth was staying with
the Hansons before his marriage (November 23, 1799) with Miss Norton,
sister of Lord Grantley. In rough play he pinched Byron's ear; the boy
picked up a conch shell which was lying on the ground, and hurled it at
Lord Portsmouth's head, missing it by a hair's breadth, and smashing the
glass behind. In vain Mrs. Hanson tried to make the peace by saying that
Byron did not mean the missile for Lord Portsmouth. "But I 'did' mean
it!" he reiterated; "I will teach a fool of an earl to pinch another
noble's ear."]

[Footnote: 4. The following extract from a letter written by Hanson to
Mrs. Byron (September 1, 1799) places the character of Byron's nurse in
a different light to that which is given in Moore's 'Life':--

"I assure you, Madam, I should not have taken the liberty to have
interfered in your domestic Arrangements, had I not thought it
absolutely necessary to apprize you of the proceedings of your
Servant, Mrs. Gray; her conduct towards your son while at Nottingham
was shocking, and I was persuaded you needed but a hint of it to
dismiss her. Mrs. Parkyns, when I saw her, said something to me about
her; but when I found from dispassionate persons at Nottingham, it was
the general Topic of conversation, it would have ill become me to have
remained silent.

My honourable little companion, tho' disposed to retain his feelings,
could not refrain, from the harsh usage he had received at her hands,
from complaining to me, and such is his dread of the Woman that I
really believe he would forego the satisfaction of seeing you if he
thought he was to meet her again. He told me that she was perpetually
beating him, and that his bones sometimes ached from it; that she
brought all sorts of Company of the very lowest Description into his
apartments; that she was out late at nights, and he was frequently
left to put himself to bed; that she would take the Chaise-boys into
the Chaise with her, and stopped at every little Ale-house to drink
with them. But, Madam, this is not all; she has even----traduced
yourself.

I entertain a very great affection for Lord Byron, and I trust I shall
not be considered solely in my professional character, but as his
Friend. I introduced him to my Friends, Lord Grantley and his Brother
General Norton, who were vastly taken with him, as indeed are every
one. And I should be mortified in the highest degree to see the
honourable feelings of my little fellow exposed to insult by the
inordinate Indiscretions of any Servant. He has Ability and a
quickness of Conception, and a correct Discrimination that is seldom
seen in a youth, and he is a fit associate of men, and choice indeed
must be the Company that is selected for him."]

4.--To his Mother.

Harrow-on-the-Hill, Sunday, May 1st, 1803.

MY DEAR MOTHER,--I received your Letter the other day. And am happy to
hear you are well. I hope you will find Newstead in as favorable a
state as you can wish. I wish you would write to Sheldrake to tell him
to make haste with my shoes. [1]

I am sorry to say that Mr. Henry Drury [2] has behaved himself to me
in a manner I neither'can' nor 'will bear'. He has seized now an
opportunity of showing his resentment towards me. To day in church I
was talking to a Boy who was sitting next me; 'that' perhaps was not
right, but hear what followed. After Church he spoke not a word to me,
but he took this Boy to his pupil room, where he abused me in a most
violent manner, called me 'blackguard', said he 'would' and 'could'
have me expelled from the School, and bade me thank his 'Charity' that
'prevented' him; this was the Message he sent me, to which I shall
return no answer, but submit my case to 'you' and those you may think
'fit' to 'consult'. Is this fit usage for any body? had I 'stole' or
behaved in the most 'abominable' way to him, his language could not
have been more outrageous. What must the boys think of me to hear such
a Message ordered to be delivered to me by a 'Master'? Better let him
take away my life than ruin my 'Character'. My Conscience acquits me
of ever 'meriting' expulsion at this School; I have been 'idle' and I
certainly ought not to talk in church, but I have never done a mean
action at this School to him or 'any one'. If I had done anything so
'heinous', why should he allow me to stay at the School? Why should he
himself be so 'criminal' as to overlook faults which merit the
'appellation' of a 'blackguard'? If he had had it in his power to have
me expelled, he would long ago have 'done' it; as it is, he has done
'worse'. If I am treated in this Manner, I will not stay at this
School. I write you that I will not as yet appeal to Dr. Drury; his
Son's influence is more than mine and 'justice' would be 'refused' me.
Remember I told you, when I 'left' you at 'Bath', that he would seize
every means and opportunity of revenge, not for leaving him so much as
the mortification he suffered, because I begged you to let me leave
him. If I had been the Blackguard he talks of, why did he not of his
own accord refuse to keep me as his 'pupil'? You know Dr. Drury's
first letter, in it were these Words: "My son and Lord Byron have had
some Disagreements; but I hope that his future behaviour will render a
change of Tutors unnecessary." Last Term I was here but a short time,
and though he endeavoured, he could find nothing to abuse me in. Among
other things I forgot to tell you he said he had a great mind to expel
the Boy for speaking to me, and that if he ever again spoke to me he
would expel him. Let him explain his meaning; he abused me, but he
neither did nor can mention anything bad of me, further than what
every boy else in the School has done. I fear him not; but let him
explain his meaning; 'tis all I ask. I beg you will write to Dr. Drury
to let him know what I have said. He has behaved to me, as also Mr.
Evans, very kindly. If you do not take notice of this, I will leave
the School myself; but I am sure 'you' will not see me 'ill treated';
better that I should suffer anything than this. I believe you will be
tired by this time of reading my letter, but, if you love me, you will
now show it. Pray write me immediately. I shall ever remain, Your
affectionate Son, BYRON.

P.S.--Hargreaves Hanson desires his love to you and hopes you are very
well. I am not in want of any Money so will not ask you for any. God
bless, bless you.

[Footnote 1: Byron appears to have suffered from what would now be
described as infantile paralysis, which affected the inner muscles of
the right leg and foot, and rendered him permanently lame. Before
leaving London for Aberdeen, Mrs. Byron consulted John Hunter, who, in
correspondence with Dr. Livingstone of Aberdeen, advised her as to the
treatment of her son. Writing, May 31, 1791, to Mrs. Leigh, she says,
"George's foot turns inward, and it is the right foot; he walks quite on
the side of his foot." In 1798 the child was placed under the care of
Lavender (see p. 7, note 1) at Nottingham, doubtless on the
recommendation of his aunt. In July, 1799, he was taken to London, in
order to consult Dr. Baillie. From July, 1799, till the end of 1802, he
was attended by Baillie in consultation with Dr. Laurie of 2,
Bartholomew's Close. Special appliances were made for the boy, under
their superintendence, by a scientific bootmaker named Sheldrake, in the
Strand. In 'The Lancet' for 1827-8 (vol. ii. p. 779) Mr. T. Sheldrake
describes "Lord Byron's case," giving an illustration of the foot. His
account does not tally, in some respects, with that taken from
contemporary letters, and his sketch represents the left not the right
leg. But the nature and extent of Byron's lameness have been the subject
of a curious variety of opinion. Lady Blessington, Moore, Gait, the
Contessa Albrizzi, never knew which foot was deformed. Jackson, the
boxer, thought it was the 'left' foot. Trelawney says that it proceeded
from a contraction of the back sinews, and that the 'right' foot was
most distorted. The lasts from which his shoes were made by Swift, the
Southwell bootmaker, are preserved in the Nottingham Museum, and in both
the foot is perfect in shape. The last pair of shoes modelled on them
were made May 7, 1807. Mrs. Leigh Hunt says that the 'left' foot was
shrunken, but was not a club-foot. Stendhal says the 'right' foot.
Thorwaldsen indicates the 'left' foot. Dr. James Millingen, who
inspected the feet after the poet's death, says that there was a
malformation of the 'left' foot and leg, and that he was born
club-footed. Two surgical boots are in the possession of Mr. Murray,
made for Byron as a child; both are for the 'right' foot, ankle, and
leg, and, assuming that they were made to fit the foot, they are too
long and thin for a club-foot. Both at Dulwich and at Harrow, Byron was
frequently seen by Laurie, whom Mrs. Byron paid, as she once complained
in a letter to Laurie, "at the rate of £150 a year." It is difficult to
see what more could have been done for the boy, and the explanation of
the failure to effect a cure is probably to be found in the following
extracts from two of Laurie's letters to Mrs. Byron. The first is dated
December 7, 1801:--

"Agreeable to your desire, I waited on Lord Byron at Harrow, and I
think it proper to inform you that I found his foot in a much worse
state than when I last saw it,--the shoe entirely wet through and the
brace round his ancle quite loose. I much fear his extreme inattention
will counteract every exertion on my part to make him better. I have
only to add that with proper care and bandaging, his foot may still be
greatly recovered; but any delay further than the present vacation
would render it folly to undertake it."

The second letter is dated October 2, 1802. In it Laurie complains that
the boy had spent several days in London without seeing him, and adds--

"I cannot help lamenting he has so little sense of the Benefit he has
already received as to be so apparently neglectful."]

[Footnote 2: For Henry Drury (afterwards an intimate friend of Byron)
and his father, the Head-master of Harrow, see p. 41, note 2.

When Byron went to Harrow, in April, 1801, he was placed in Henry
Drury's house. But in January, 1803, he refused to go back to school
unless he was removed from Drury's care. He was in consequence placed at
Evans's house. Dr. Drury, writing to explain the new arrangement, says,
in a letter to Hanson, dated February 4, 1803--

"The reason why Lord Byron wishes for this change arises from the
repeated complaints of Mr. Henry Drury respecting his Inattention to
Business, and his propensity to make others laugh and disregard their
Employments as much as himself. On this subject I have had many very
serious conversations with him, and though Mr. H. D. had repeatedly
requested me to withdraw him from his Tuition, yet, relying on my own
remonstrances and arguments to rectify his Error, and on his own
reflection to confirm him in what is right, I was unwilling to accede
to my son's wishes. Lord Byron has now made the request himself; I am
glad it has been made, as he thereby imposes on himself an additional
responsibility, and encourages me to hope that by this change he
intends to lay aside all that negligence and those Childish Practices
which were the cause of former complaints."

Fresh troubles soon arose, as Byron's letter indicates. Hanson forwarded
the boy's complaint to Dr. Drury, from whom he received the following
answer, dated May 15, 1803:--

"The Perusal of the inclosed has allowed me to inquire into the whole
Matter, and to relieve your young friend's Mind from any uneasy
impression it might have sustained from a hasty word I fairly confess.
I am sorry it was ever uttered; but certainly it was never intended to
make so deep a wound as his letter intimates.

"I may truly say, without any parade of words, that I am deeply
interested in Lord Byron's welfare. He possesses, as his letter
proves, a mind that feels, and that can discriminate reasonably on
points in which it conceives itself injured. When I look forward to
the Possibility of the exercise of his Talents hereafter, and his
supplying the Deficiencies of fortune by the exertion of his abilities
and by application, I feel particularly hurt to see him idle, and
negligent, and apparently indifferent to the great object to be
pursued. This event, and the conversations which have passed between
us relative to it, will probably awaken in his mind a greater degree
of emulation, and make him studious of acquiring Distinction among his
Schoolfellows, as well as of securing to himself the affectionate
regard of his Instructors."]

5.--To his Mother.

Harrow-on-the-Hill, June 23rd, 6th, 8th, 30th, 1803.

My dear Mother,--I am much obliged to you for the Money you sent me. I
have already wrote to you several times about writing to Sheldrake: I
wish you would write to him, or Mr. Hanson to call on him, to tell him
to make an Instrument for my leg immediately, as I want one, rather. I
have been placed in a higher form in this School to day, and Dr. Drury
and I go on very well; write soon, my Dear Mother.

I remain, your affectionate Son,

BYRON.

6.--To his Mother. [1]

Southwell, [Sept. 1803].

MY DEAR MOTHER,--I have sent Mealey [2] to day to you, before William
came, but now I shall write myself. I _promise_ you, upon my _honour_,
I will come over tomorrow in the _Afternoon_. I was not wishing to
resist your _Commands_, and really seriously intended coming over
tomorrow, ever since I received your last Letter; you know as well as
I do that it is not your Company I dislike, but the place you reside
in. I know it is time to go to Harrow. It will make me _unhappy_; but
I will _obey_. I only desire, entreat, this one day, and on my
_honour_ I will be over tomorrow in the evening or afternoon. I am
sorry you disapprove my Companions, who, however, are the first this
County affords, and my equals in most respects; but I will be
permitted to chuse for myself. I shall never interfere in your's and I
desire you will not molest me in mine. If you grant me this favour,
and allow me this one day unmolested, you will eternally oblige your

Unhappy Son,

BYRON.

I shall attempt to offer no excuse as you do not desire one. I only
entreat you as a Governor, not as a Mother, to allow me this one day.
Those that I most love live in this County; therefore in the name of
Mercy I entreat this one day to take leave, and then I will join you
again at Southwell to prepare to go to a place where--I will write no
more; it would only incense you. Adieu. Tomorrow I come.

[Footnote 1: This letter is endorsed by Hanson, "Lord Byron to his
mother, "1803". In September, 1803, at the end of the summer holidays,
Byron did not return to Harrow. Dr. Drury asked the reason, received no
reply, and, on October 4, applied to Hanson for an explanation. Hanson's
inquiry drew from Mrs. Byron, on October 30, the following answer, with
which was enclosed the above letter from Byron:--

"You may well be surprized, and so may Dr. Drury, that Byron is not
returned to Harrow. But the Truth is, I cannot get him to return to
school, though I have done all in my power for six weeks past. He has
no indisposition that I know of, but love, desperate love, the 'worst'
of all 'maladies' in my opinion. In short, the Boy is distractedly in
love with Miss Chaworth, and he has not been with me three weeks all
the time he has been in this county, but spent all his time at
Annesley.

If my son was of a proper age and the lady 'disengaged', it is the
last of all connexions that I would wish to take place; it has given
me much uneasiness. To prevent all trouble in future, I am determined
he shall not come here again till Easter; therefore I beg you will
find some proper situation for him at the next Holydays. I don't care
what I pay. I wish Dr. Drury would keep him.

I shall go over to Newstead to-morrow and make a 'last effort' to get
him to Town."

The effort, if made, failed. On November 7, 1803, Mrs. Byron wrote
again:--

"Byron is really so unhappy that I have agreed, much against my
inclination, to let him remain in this County till after the next
Holydays."

It was not till January, 1804, that Byron returned to Harrow.

Miss Mary Anne Chaworth, the object of Byron's passion, was then living
with her mother, Mrs. Clarke, at Annesley, near Newstead (see 'Poems',
vol. i. p. 189, and note 1). The grand-niece of the Mr. Chaworth who
was killed in a duel by William, fifth Lord Byron, on January 26, 1765
('Annual Register', 1765, pp. 208-212; and 'State Trials', vol. xix. pp.
1178-1236), and the heiress of Annesley, she married, in August, 1805,
John Musters, by whom she had a daughter, born in 1806. (See "Well! thou
art happy!" 'Poems', vol. i. p. 277; see also, for other allusions to
Mrs. Chaworth Musters, 'ibid'., pp. 210, 239, 282, 285; and "The Dream"
of July, 1816.) In Byron's memorandum-book, he describes a visit which
he paid to Matlock with Miss Chaworth's mother, her stepfather Mr.
Clarke, some friends, "and 'my' M. A. C. Alas! why do I say MY? Our
union would have healed feuds in which blood had been shed by our
fathers,--it would have joined lands broad and rich, it would have
joined at least 'one' heart, and two persons not ill matched in years
(she is two years my elder) and--and--and--'what' has been the
result?" ('Life', p. 27).

Mrs. Musters, after an unhappy married life, died in February, 1832, at
Wiverton Hall, near Nottingham.

The connection between the families of Chaworth and Byron came through
the marriage of William, third Lord Byron (died 1695), with Elizabeth
Chaworth (died 1683), daughter of George Chaworth, created (1627)
Viscount Chaworth of Armagh (Thoroton's 'Nottinghamshire', vol. i. p.
198).]

[Footnote 2: Owen Mealey, the steward at Newstead.]

7.--To the Hon. Augusta Byron. [1]

[At 63, Portland Place, London.]

Burgage Manor, [Thursday], March 22d, 1804.

Although, My ever Dear Augusta, I have hitherto appeared remiss in
replying to your kind and affectionate letters; yet I hope you will
not attribute my neglect to a want of affection, but rather to a
shyness naturally inherent in my Disposition. I will now endeavour as
amply as lies in my power to repay your kindness, and for the Future I
hope you will consider me not only as _a Brother_ but as your warmest
and most affectionate _Friend_, and if ever Circumstances should
require it your _protector_. Recollect, My Dearest Sister, that you
are _the nearest relation_ I have in _the world both by the ties of
Blood_ and _affection_. If there is anything in which I can serve you,
you have only to mention it; Trust to your Brother, and be assured he
will never betray your confidence. When You see my Cousin and future
Brother George Leigh, [2] tell him that I already consider him as my
Friend, for whoever is beloved by you, my amiable Sister, will always
be equally Dear to me.

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