Chapter II (4)

So much for the place, concerning which I have thrown together these
few particulars, meaning my account to be, like the place itself,
without any order or connection. But if the place itself appear rather
strange to you, the ways of the inhabitants will not appear much less
so. Ascend, then, with me the hall steps, that I may introduce you to
my Lord and his visitants. But have a care how you proceed; be mindful
to go there in broad daylight, and with your eyes about you. For,
should you make any blunder,--should you go to the right of the hall
steps, you are laid hold of by a bear; and should you go to the left,
your case is still worse, for you run full against a wolf!--Nor, when
you have attained the door, is your danger over; for the hall being
decayed, and therefore standing in need of repair, a bevy of inmates
are very probably banging at one end of it with their pistols; so that
if you enter without giving loud notice of your approach, you have
only escaped the wolf and the bear to expire by the pistol-shots of
the merry monks of Newstead.

Our party consisted of Lord Byron and four others, and was, now and
then, increased by the presence of a neighbouring parson. As for our
way of living, the order of the day was generally this:--for
breakfast we had no set hour, but each suited his own convenience,
--everything remaining on the table till the whole party had done;
though had one wished to breakfast at the early hour of ten, one would
have been rather lucky to find any of the servants up. Our average
hour of rising was one. I, who generally got up between eleven and
twelve, was always,--even when an invalid,--the first of the party,
and was esteemed a prodigy of early rising. It was frequently past two
before the breakfast party broke up. Then, for the amusements of the
morning, there was reading, fencing, single-stick, or shuttle-cock, in
the great room; practising with pistols in the hall;
walking--riding--cricket--sailing on the lake, playing with the bear,
or teasing the wolf. Between seven and eight we dined; and our evening
lasted from that time till one, two, or three in the morning. The
evening diversions may be easily conceived.

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."

Dallas's sister, Henrietta Charlotte, married George Anson Byron, the son of Admiral the Hon. John Byron, and was therefore Byron's aunt by marriage. On the score of this connection, Dallas introduced himself to Byron by complimenting him, in a letter dated January 6, 1808, on his _Hours of Idleness_. A well-meaning, self-satisfied, dull, industrious man, he gave Byron excellent moral advice, to which the latter responded as the _fanfaron de ses vices_, evidently with great amusement to himself. _English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers_ was brought out under Dallas's auspices, as well as _Childe Harold_ and _The Corsair_, the profits of which Byron made over to him. Dallas distrusted his own literary judgment in the matter of Byron's verse, and consulted Walter Wright, the author of Horæ Ioniæ, about the prospects of 'Childe Harold'.

"I have told him," said Wright, "that I have no doubt this will
succeed. Lord Byron had offered him before some translations from
Horace, which I told him would never sell, and he did not take them"

('Diary of H. Crabb Robinson', vol. i. pp. 29, 30).

The connection between Dallas and Byron practically ended in 1814. The publication of Dallas's 'Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the Year 1808 to the end of 1814' was stopped by a decree obtained by Byron's executors, in the Court of Chancery, August 23, 1824. But the book was published by the writer's son, the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas.]

[Footnote 2: Byron refers to the following passage in Dallas's letter of January 6, 1808:

"A spirit that brings to my mind another noble author, who was not
only a fine poet, orator, and historian, but one of the closest
reasoners we have on the truth of that religion, of which forgiveness
is a prominent principle: the great and the good Lord Lyttelton, whose
fame will never die. His son, to whom he had transmitted genius but
not virtue, sparkled for a moment, and went out like a falling star,
and with him the title became extinct. He was the victim of inordinate
passions, and he will be heard of in this world only by those who read
the English Peerage"

('Correspondence of Lord Byron', p. 20, the suppressed edition).

Dallas was, of course, aware that Byron's predecessor in the title, William, fifth Lord Byron, was known as the "wicked Lord Byron." George, first Lord Lyttelton (1709-1773), to whom Pope refers ('Imitations of Horace', bk. i. Ep. i. 1. 30) as

"Still true to virtue, and as warm as true,"

was a voluminous writer in prose and verse, but owed his political importance to his family connection with Chatham, Temple, and George Grenville. Horace Walpole calls him a "wise moppet" ('Letters', vol. ii. p. 28, ed. Cunningham), and repeatedly sneers at his dulness. His son Thomas, second Lord Lyttelton (1744-1779), the "wicked Lord Lyttelton," appears in W. Combe's 'Diaboliad' as the

"Peer of words,
Well known,--and honour'd in the House of Lords,--
Whose Eloquence all Parallel defies!"

who claims the throne of Hell as the worst of living men. His 'Poems by a Young Nobleman lately deceased' (published in 1780, after his death) may have helped Dallas in his allusion. He was the hero and the victim of the famous ghost story which Dr. Johnson was "willing to believe."]

[Footnote 3: 'The Critical Review' (3rd series, vol. xii. pp. 47-53) specially praises lines "On Leaving Newstead Abbey" and "Childish Recollections."]

[Footnote 4: In 'Monthly Literary Recreations' (July, 1807, pp. 67-71), "Childish Recollections" and "The Tear" are particularly commended.

"As friends to the cause of literature, we have thought proper not to
disguise our opinion of his powers, that we might alter his
determination, and lead him once more to the Castalian fount."]

[Footnote 5: 'The Anti-Jacobin Review' (December, 1807, pp. 407, 408) says that the poems

"exhibit strong proofs of genius, accompanied by a lively but
chastened imagination, a classical taste, and a benevolent heart."]

[Footnote 6: _The Eclectic Review_ (vol. iii. part ii. pp. 989-993) begins its review thus:

"The notice we take of this publication regards the author rather than
the book; the book is a collection of juvenile pieces, some of very
moderate merit, and others of very questionable morality; but the
author is a _nobleman_!"]

[Footnote 7: Characters in the novel called _Percival_.]

88.--To Robert Charles Dallas.

Dorant's, January 21, 1808.

Sir,--Whenever leisure and inclination permit me the pleasure of a
visit, I shall feel truly gratified in a personal acquaintance with
one whose mind has been long known to me in his writings.

You are so far correct in your conjecture, that I am a member of the
University of Cambridge, where I shall take my degree of A.M. this
term; but were reasoning, eloquence, or virtue, the objects of my
search, Granta is not their metropolis, nor is the place of her
situation an "El Dorado," far less an Utopia. The intellects of her
children are as stagnant as her Cam, and their pursuits limited to the
church--not of Christ, but of the nearest benefice.

As to my reading, I believe I may aver, without hyperbole, it has been
tolerably extensive in the historical department; so that few nations
exist, or have existed, with whose records I am not in some degree
acquainted, from Herodotus down to Gibbon. Of the classics, I know
about as much as most school-boys after a discipline of thirteen
years; of the law of the land as much as enables me to keep "within
the statute"--to use the poacher's vocabulary. I did study the "Spirit
of Laws" [1] and the Law of Nations; but when I saw the latter
violated every month, I gave up my attempts at so useless an
accomplishment:--of geography, I have seen more land on maps than I
should wish to traverse on foot;--of mathematics, enough to give me
the headach without clearing the part affected;--of philosophy,
astronomy, and metaphysics, more than I can comprehend; and of common
sense so little, that I mean to leave a Byronian prize at each of our
"Almæ Matres" for the first discovery,--though I rather fear that of
the longitude will precede it.

I once thought myself a philosopher, and talked nonsense with great
decorum: I defied pain, and preached up equanimity. For some time this
did very well, for no one was in _pain_ for me but my friends, and
none lost their patience but my hearers. At last, a fall from my horse
convinced me bodily suffering was an evil; and the worst of an
argument overset my maxims and my temper at the same moment: so I
quitted Zeno for Aristippus, and conceive that pleasure constitutes
the [Greek (transliterated): to kalon].

In morality, I prefer Confucius to the Ten Commandments, and Socrates
to St. Paul (though the two latter agree in their opinion of
marriage). In religion, I favour the Catholic emancipation, but do not
acknowledge the Pope; and I have refused to take the sacrament,
because I do not think eating bread or drinking wine from the hand of
an earthly vicar will make me an inheritor of heaven. I hold virtue,
in general, or the virtues severally, to be only in the disposition,
each a _feeling_, not a principle. I believe truth the prime attribute
of the Deity, and death an eternal sleep, at least of the body. You
have here a brief compendium of the sentiments of the _wicked_ George,
Lord Byron; and, till I get a new suit, you will perceive I am badly
cloathed.

I remain yours, etc.,

BYRON.

[Footnote 1: In Byron's "List of historical writers whose works I have perused in different languages" ('Life', pp. 46, 47), occurs the name of Montesquieu. It is to his 'Esprit des Lois' that Byron refers.]

89.--To John Hanson.

Dorant's, January 25th, 1808.

Sir,--The picture I have drawn of my finances is unfortunately a true
one, and I find the colours may be heightened but not improved by
time.--I have inclosed the receipt, and return my thanks for the loan,
which shall be repaid the first opportunity. In the concluding part of
my last I gave my reasons for not troubling you with my society at
present, but when I can either communicate or receive pleasure, I
shall not be long absent.

Yrs., etc.,

BYRON.

P.S.--I have received a letter from Whitehead, of course you know the
contents, and must act as you think proper.

90.--To John Hanson.

Dorant's, January 25th, 1808.

Dear Sir,--Some time ago I gave Mitchell the sadler [_sic_] a letter
for you, requesting his bill might be paid from the Balance of the
Quarter you obliged me by advancing. If he has received this you will
further oblige me by paying what remains, I believe somewhere about
five pounds, if so much.

You will confer a favour upon me by the loan of twenty. I will
endeavour to repay it next week, as I have immediate occasion for that
sum, and I should not require it of you could I obtain it elsewhere.

I am now in my one and twentieth year, and cannot command as many
pounds. To Cambridge I cannot go without paying my bills, and at
present I could as soon compass the National Debt; in London I must
not remain, nor shall I, when I can procure a trifle to take me out of
it. Home I have none; and if there was a possibility of getting out of
the Country, I would gladly avail myself of it. But even that is
denied me, my Debts amount to three thousand, three hundred to Jews,
eight hundred to Mrs. B. of Nottingham, to coachmaker and other
tradesmen a thousand more, and these must be much increased, before
they are lessened.

Such is the prospect before me, which is by no means brightened by
ill-health. I would have called on you, but I have neither spirits to
enliven myself or others, or inclination to bring a gloomy face to
spoil a group of happy ones. I remain,

Your obliged and obedt. sert.,

BYRON.

P.S.--Your answer to the former part will oblige, as I shall be
reduced to a most unpleasant dilemma if it does not arrive.

91.--To James De Bathe. [1]

Dorant's Hotel, February 2d, 1808.

My Dear De Bathe,--Last Night I saw your Father and Brother, the
former I have not the pleasure of knowing, but the latter informed me
_you_ came to Town on _Saturday_ and returned _yesterday_.

I have received a pressing Invitation from Henry Drury to pay him a
visit; in his Letter he mentions a very old _Friend_ of yours, who
told him he would join my party, if I could inform him on what day I
meant to go over. This Friend you will readily conclude to be a Lord
_B_.; but not the one who now addresses you. Shall I bring him to you?
and insure a welcome for myself which perhaps might not otherwise be
the case. This will not be for a Fortnight to come. I am waiting for
Long, who is now at Chatham, when he arrives we shall probably drive
down and dine with Drury.

I confess Harrow has lost most of its charms for me. I do not know if
Delawarr is still there; but, with the exception of yourself and the
Earl, I shall find myself among Strangers. Long has a Brother at
Butler's, and all his predilections remain in full force; mine are
weakened, if not destroyed, and though I can safely say, I never knew
a Friend out of Harrow, I question whether I have one left in it. You
leave Harrow in July; may I ask what is your future Destination?

In January _1809_ I shall be twenty one & in the Spring of the same
year proceed abroad, not on the usual Tour, but a route of a more
extensive Description. What say you? are you disposed for a view of
the Peloponnesus and a voyage through the Archipelago? I am merely in
jest with regard to you, but very serious with regard to my own
Intention which is fixed on the _Pilgrimage_, unless some political
view or accident induce me to postpone it. Adieu! if you have Leisure,
I shall be as happy to hear from you, as I would have been to have
_seen_ you. Believe me,

Yours very truly,

BYRON.

[Footnote 1: Sir James Wynne De Bathe (1792-1828) succeeded his father as second baronet, February 22, 1808. "Clare, Dorset, Charles Gordon, De Bathe, Claridge, and John Wingfield, were my juniors and favourites, whom I spoilt by indulgence" ('Life', p. 21). De Bathe's name does not appear in the Harrow School lists. A Captain De Bathe interested himself in the case of Medora Leigh in 1843 (see Charles Mackay's 'Medora Leigh', pp. 92, 93, and elsewhere in the volume).]

92.--To William Harness. [1]

Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Feb. II, 1808.

My Dear Harness,--As I had no opportunity of returning my verbal
thanks, I trust you will accept my written acknowledgments for the
compliment you were pleased to pay some production of my unlucky muse
last November,--I am induced to do this not less from the pleasure I
feel in the praise of an old schoolfellow, than from justice to you,
for I had heard the story with some slight variations. Indeed, when we
met this morning, Wingfield [2] had not undeceived me; but he will
tell you that I displayed no resentment in mentioning what I had
heard, though I was not sorry to discover the truth. Perhaps you
hardly recollect, some years ago, a short, though, for the time, a
warm friendship between us. Why it was not of longer duration I know
not. I have still a gift of yours in my possession, that must always
prevent me from forgetting it. I also remember being favoured with the
perusal of many of your compositions, and several other circumstances
very pleasant in their day, which I will not force upon your memory,
but entreat you to believe me, with much regret at their short
continuance, and a hope they are not irrevocable,

Yours very sincerely, etc.,

BYRON.

[Footnote 1: William Harness (1790-1869), son of Dr. J. Harness, Commissioner of the Transport Board, was educated at Harrow and Christ's College, Cambridge. Ordained in 1812, he was, from 1823 to 1826, Curate at Hampstead.

"I could quiz you heartily," writes Mrs. Franklin to Miss Mitford
(September 6, 1824), "for having told me in three successive letters
of Mr. Harness's chapel at Hampstead. I understand he now lives a very
retired life"

('The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford', vol. i. p. 61). From 1826 to 1844 he was Incumbent of Regent Square Chapel; Minister of Brompton Chapel (1844-47); Perpetual Curate (1849-69) of All Saints', Knightsbridge, which he built from subscriptions raised by himself. He is described by Crabb Robinson ('Diary', vol. iii. p. 212) as

"a clergyman with Oxford propensities, and a worshipper of the heathen
Muses as well as of the Christian Graces;"

and again (iii. 326), as

"a man of taste, of High Church principles and liberal in spirit."

Miss Mitford ('The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford', vol. ii. p. 289) writes that

"he has neither Catholic nor Puseyite tendencies,--only it is a large
and liberal mind like Bishop Stanley's, believing good men and good
Christians may exist among Papists, and will be as safe there as if
they were Protestants."

Again (vol. ii. p. 295) she says of him:

"Besides his varied accomplishments, and his admirable goodness and
kindness, he has all sorts of amusing peculiarities. With a temper
never known to fail, an indulgence the largest, a tenderness as of a
woman, he has the habit of talking like a cynic! and with more
learning, ancient and modern, and a wider grasp of literature than
almost any one I know, professes to read nothing and care for nothing
but 'Shakespeare and the Bible.' He is the finest reader of both that
I ever heard. His preaching, which has been so much admired, is too
rapid, but his reading the prayers is perfection. The best parish
priest in London, and the truest Christian."

Miss Mitford's praise may be exaggerated; but she had known Harness for a lifetime.

Harness edited 'Shakespeare' (1825, 8 vols.), as well as 'Massinger' (1830) and 'Ford' (1831); wrote for the 'Quarterly' and 'Blackwood'; and published a number of sermons, including 'The Wrath of Cain', 'A Boyle Lecture' (1822). He wrote 'The Life of Mary Russell Mitford' (1870), in collaboration with the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange, whose 'Life of the Rev. W. Harness' is the chief authority for his career.

His friendship with Byron began at Harrow ('Life', pp. 23, 24), where Byron, who was older than Harness, took pity upon his lameness and weakness, and protected him from the bullies of the school. At a later period they became estranged, as is shown by the following letter from Byron to Harness ('Life', pp. 24, 25):--

"We both seem perfectly to recollect, with a mixture of pleasure and
regret, the hours we once passed together, and I assure you, most
sincerely, they are numbered among the happiest of my brief chronicle
of enjoyment. I am now 'getting into years', that is to say, I was
'twenty' a month ago, and another year will send me into the world to
run my career of folly with the rest. I was then just fourteen,--you
were almost the first of my Harrow friends, certainly the 'first' in
my esteem, if not in date; but an absence from Harrow for some time,
shortly after, and new connections on your side, and the difference in
our conduct (an advantage decidedly in your favour) from that
turbulent and riotous disposition of mine, which impelled me into
every species of mischief,--all these circumstances combined to
destroy an intimacy, which affection urged me to continue, and memory
compels me to regret. But there is not a circumstance attending that
period, hardly a sentence we exchanged, which is not impressed on my
mind at this moment. I need not say more,--this assurance alone must
convince you, had I considered them as trivial, they would have been
less indelible. How well I recollect the perusal of your 'first
flights'! There is another circumstance you do not know;--the 'first
lines' I ever attempted at Harrow were addressed to 'you'. You were to
have seen them; but Sinclair had the copy in his possession when we
went home;--and, on our return, we were 'strangers'. They were
destroyed, and certainly no great loss; but you will perceive from
this circumstance my opinions at an age when we cannot be hypocrites.

I have dwelt longer on this theme than I intended, and I shall now
conclude with what I ought to have begun. We were once friends,--nay,
we have always been so, for our separation was the effect of chance,
not of dissension. I do not know how far our destinations in life may
throw us together, but if opportunity and inclination allow you to
waste a thought on such a hare-brained being as myself, you will find
me at least sincere, and not so bigoted to my faults as to involve
others in the consequences. Will you sometimes write to me? I do not
ask it often; and, if we meet, let us be what we 'should' be, and what
we 'were'."

The following is Harness's own account of the circumstances in which