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"Adieu, yours ever,

"BYRON'

at least in all probability: excepting yourself, I esteem return the same night, or sup with us and go home the no one within its precincts. You were my only ra- next morning-the Kingston Arms is my inn. tional companion; and in plain truth, I had more respect for you than the whole bevy, with whose foibles I amused myself in compliance with their prevailing propensities. You gave yourself more trouble with me and my manuscripts than a thousand dolls would have done. Believe me, I have not forgotten your good-nature in this zircle of sin, and one day I trust I shall be able to evince my gratitude. Adieu, yours, &c.

"P. S. Remember me to Dr. P."

LETTER XX.

TO MISS PIGOT.

"London, August 11th, 1807.

*On Sunday next I set off for the Highlands.

A

LETTER XXL

TO MISS PIGOT.

Trinity College, Cambridge, Oct. 26th, 1807. 'MY DEAR ****,

"Fatigued with sitting up till four in the morning for the last two days at hazard, I take up my pen to inquire how your highness and the rest of my female acquaintance at the seat of archiepiscopal grandeur go on. I know I deserve a scolding for my negligence in not writing more frequently; but racing up and down the country for these last three months, how was it possible to fulfil the duties of a correspondent? Fixed at last for six weeks, I write, as thin as ever, (not having gained an friend of mine accompanies me in my carriage to Edin-ounce since my reduction,) and rather in better humour; burgh. There we shall leave it, and proceed in a tan--but, after all, Southwell was a detestable residence. dem, (a species of open carriage,) through the western Thank St. Dominica, I have done with it: I have been passes to Inverary, where we shall purchase shelties, to twice within eight miles of it, but could not prevail on enable us to view places inaccessible to vehicular con-myself to suffocate in its heavy atmosphere. This place veyances. On the coast we shall hire a vessel and visit is wretched enough—a villanous chaos of din and drunkthe most remarkable of the Hebrides, and, if we have enness, nothing but hazard and Burgundy, hunting, time and favourable weather, mean to sail as far as Ice- mathematics and Newmarket, riot and racing. Yet it land, only three hundred miles from the northern ex-is a paradise compared with the eternal dulness of trenity of Caledonia, to peep at Hecla. This last inten-Southwell. Oh! the misery of doing nothing but make tion you will keep a secret, as my nice mamma would love, enemies, and verses. imagine I was on a Voyage of Discovery, and raise the accustomed maternal war-whoop.

"Next January (but this is entre nous only, and pray let it be so, or my maternal persecutor will be throwing *Last week I swam in the Thames from Lambeth her tomahawk at any of my curious projects) I am through the two bridges, Westminster and Blackfriars, a going to sea, for four or five months, with my cousin. distance, including the different turns and tacks made Capt. Bettesworth, who commands the Tartar, the finest on the way, of three miles! You see I am in excellent frigate in the navy. I have seen most scenes, and wish ⚫ training in case of a squall at sea. I mean to collect all to look at a naval life. We are going probably to the the Erse traditions, poems, &c. &c., and translate, or Mediterranean, or to the West Indies, or-to the d); expand the subject to fill a volume, which may appear and if there is a possibility of taking me to the latter next spring under the denomination of 'The Highland Bettesworth will do it; for he has received four-andHarp, or some title equally picturesque. Of Bosworth twenty wounds in different places, and at this moment Field, one book is finished, another just begun. It will possesses a letter from the late Lord Nelson, stating be a work of three or four years, and most probably Bettesworth as the only officer in the navy who had never conclude. What would you say to some stanzas more wounds than himself.* on Mount Hecla? they would be written at least with "I have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a Are. How is the immortal Bran? and the Phoenix of tame bear. When I brought him here, they asked me canine quadrupeds, Boatswain? I have lately pur- what I meant to do with him, and my reply was, 'he chased a thorough-bred bull-dog, worthy to be the co- should sit for a fellowship. Sherard will explain the adjutor of the aforesaid celestials-his name is Smut!-meaning of the sentence, if it is ambiguous. This an'bear it, ye breezes, on your balmy wings.'

swer delighted them not. We have several parties here, and this evening a large assortment of jockeys gamblers, boxers, authors, parsons, and poets, sup with me,-a precious mixture, but they go on well together: and for me, I am a spice of every thing except a jockey; by-the-by, I was dismounted again the other day.

"Write to me before I set off, I conjure you by the fifth rib of your grandfather. Ridge goes on well with the books-I thought that worthy had not done much in the country. In town they have been very successful; Carpenter (Moore's publisher) told me a few days ago they sold all theirs immediately, and had several inquiries "Thank your brother in my name for his treatise. I made since, which, from the books being gone, they have written 214 pages of a novel,-one poem of 380 could not supply. The Duke of York, the Marchioness lines,† to be published (without my name) in a few of Headfort, the Dutchess of Gordon, &c. &c. were weeks, with notes,-560 lines of Bosworth Field, and 250 among the purchasers, and Crosby says the circulation lines of another poem in rhyme, besides half a dozen will be still more extensive in the winter; the summer smaller pieces. The poem to be published is a Satire season being very bad for a sale, as most people are ab- Apropos, I have been praised to the skies in the Critica sent from London. However, they have gone off ex-Review, and abused greatly in another publication. So tremely well altogether. I shall pass very near you on much the better, they tell me, for the sale of the book; it my journey through Newark, but cannot approach. keeps up controversy, and prevents it being forgotten. Don't tell this to Mrs. B., who supposes I travel a dif- Besides, the first men of all ages have had their share, ferent road. If you have a letter, order it to be left at nor do the humblest escape;-so I bear it like a philoRidge's shop, where I shall call, or the post-office, New-sopher. It is odd two opposite critiques came out on ark, about 6 or 8 in the evening. If your brother would the same day, and out of five pages of abuse my censor ride over, I should be devilish glad to see him-he can only quotes two lines from different poerns, in support of

This plan (which he never put in practice) had been talked of by aim before he left Southwell-Moore.

• See postscript to the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

↑ English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.

his opinion. Now the proper way to cut up is to quote long passages, and make them appear absurd, because simple allegation is no proof. On the other hand, there are seven pages of praise, and more than my modesty will allow said on the subject. Adieu.

"P.S. Write, write, write!!!"

LETTER XXII.

TO MR. DALLAS.

"Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle-street, Jan. 20th, 1808.

"SIR,

LETTER XXIII.

TO MR. DALLAS.

"Dorant's, January 21st, 1808.

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

"You are so far correct in your conjecture, that I an 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 a Utopia. The intellects of her children are as stagnant as her Cam,* and their pursuits

[benefice.

"Your letter was not received till this morning, I pre-limited to the church-not of Christ, but of the nearest same 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.

stance.

I

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 'Alma Matres' for the first discovery,though I rather fear that of the Longitude will pre

cede it.

"As to my reading, I believe I may aver, without hy. perbole, it has been tolerably extensive in the historical; "If the little volume* you mention has given pleasure so that few nations exist, or have existed, with whose to the author of Percival and Aubrey, I am sufficiently records I am not in some degree acquainted, from Herodotus down to Gibbon. Of the classics, I know about repaid by his praise. Though our periodical censors have been uncommonly lenient, I confess a tribute from as much as most school boys after a discipline of thirteen a man of acknowledged genius is still more flattering. years; of the law of the land as much as enables me to But I am afraid I should forfeit all claim to candour, keep within the statute'-to use the poacher's vocabuif I did not decline such praise as I do not deserve;lary. I did study the 'Spirit of Laws' and the Law of and this is, I am sorry to say, the case in the present in-Nations; but when I saw the latter violated every month, I gave up my attempts at so useless an accom"My compositions speak for themselves, and must plishment;-of geography, I have seen more land on stand or fall by their own worth or demerit: thus far maps than I should wish to traverse on foot ;-of mathefeel highly gratified by your favourable opinion. But matics, enough to give me the headache without clearing 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 in a 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 "I once thought myself a philosopher, and talked nonam injuring myself in your esteem by this avowal, but sense with great decorum: I defied pain, and preached the circumstance was so remarkable from your observa- up equanimity. For some time this did very well, for tion, that I cannot help relating the fact. The events of no one was in pain for me but my friends, and none lost my short life have been of so singular a nature, that, their patience but my hearers. At last, a fall from my though the pride commonly called honour has, and I trust horse convinced me bodily suffering was an evil; and ever will, prevent me from disgracing my name by a the worst of an argument overset my maxims and my mean or cowardly action, I have been already held up as temper at the same moment, so I quitted Zeno for Aristhe votary of licentiousness, and the disciple of infidelity. tippus, and conceive that pleasure constitutes the To Kaλov. How far justice may have dictated this accusation I In morality, I prefer Confucius to the Ten Commandcannot pretend to say, but, like the gentleman to whom ments, and Socrates to St. Paul, though the latter two my religious friends, in the warmth of their charity, have agree in their opinion of marriage. In religion, I favour already devoted me, I am made worse than I really am. the Catholic emancipation, but do not acknowledge the However, to quit myself, (the worst theme I could pitch Pope; and I have refused to take the Sacrament, beupon,) and return to my Poems, I cannot sufficiently ex- cause I do not think eating bread or drinking wine from press my thanks, and I hope I shall some day have an the hand of an earthly vicar will make me an inheriter opportunity of rendering them in person. A second edi- of heaven. I hold virtue in general, or the virtues se tion is now in the press, with some additions and consi-verally, to be only in the disposition, each a feeling, not a derable omissions; you will allow me to present you principle. I believe truth the prime attribute of the with a copy. The Critical, Monthly, and Anti-Jacobin Deity; and death an eternal sleep, at least of the body. Reviews have been very indulgent; but the Eclectic You have here a brief compendium of the sentiments of has pronounced a furious Philippic, not against the book the wicked George Lord Byron; and, till I get a new but the author, where you will find all I have mentioned suit, you will perceive I am badly clothed. I remain, asserted by a reverend divine who wrote the critique. "Your name and connexion 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.' 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."

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"Yours very truly,

LETTER XXIV.

TO MR. HENRY DRURY.†

"BYRON."

"Dorant's Hotel, Jan. 13th, 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

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have somed you directly,) prevented me the pleasure of the perusal of many of your compositions and several seeing you yesterday, I hoped to meet you at some pub-other circumstances very pleasant in their day, which I fic place in the evening. However, my stars decreed will not force upon your memory, but entreat you to bootherwise, as they generally do, when I have any favour lieve me, with much regret at their short continuance. to request of them. I think you would have been sur- and a hope they are not irrevocable, yours very sin prised at my figure, for, since our last meeting, I am re-cerely, &c. duced four stone in weight. I then weighed fourteen stone seven pound, and now only ten stone and a half. I have disposed of my superfluuies by means of hard exercise and abstinence. *

*

LETTER XXVI

"BYRON"

TO MR. HARNESS.-[FRAGMENT.]

year

"March 1808.

will send me into

"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 "We both seem perfectly to recollect, with a mixture fortunate, I shall endeavour to join you for an afternoon at Harrow though, I fear, your cellar will by no means gether, and I assure you most sincerely they are numof pleasure and regret, the hours we once passed tocontribute to my cure. As for my worthy preceptor, bered among the happiest of my brief chronicle of enjoyDr. B., our encounter would by no means prevent the utual endearments he and I were wont to lavish on eachment. I am now getting into years, that is to say, I was twenty a month other. We have only spoken once since my departure the world to run my career of folly with the rest. I was and another ago, from Harrow in 1805, and then he politely told Tatersall then just fourteen,-you were almost the first of my I was not a proper associate for his pupils. This was Harrow friends, certainly the first in my esteem, if not in long before my strictures in verse: but, in plain prose, date; but an absence from Harrow for some time, shortly had I been some years older, I should have held my after, and new connexions on your side, and the difference tongue on his perfections. But being laid on my back, in our conduct (an advantage decidedly in your favour) when that schoolboy thing was written or rather dicfrom that turbulent and riotous disposition of mine, which rated-expecting to rise no more, my physician having taken his sixteenth fee, and I his prescription, I could impelled me into every species of mischief,-all these not quit this earth without leaving a memento of my Affection urged me to continue, and Memory compels circumstances combined to destroy an intimacy, which Constant attachment to Butler in gratitude for his manime to regret. But there is not a circumstance attending fuld good offices. not impressed on my mind at this moment. that period, hardly a sentence we exchanged, which is I need not say more, this assurance alone must convince you, had indelible. How well I recollect the perusal of your I considered them as trivial, they would have been less 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 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 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, &c.

*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.""

"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 harebrained 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."

LETTER XXV.

TO MR. HARNESS.

"Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle-street, Feb. 11, 1808. "MY DEAR HARNESS,

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LETTER XXVIL

TO MR. BECHER.

MY DEAR BECHER,

*

*

"As I had no opportunity of returning my verbal thanks, I trust you will accept my written acknowledg ments for the compliment you were pleased to pay some "Dorant's Hotel, Feb. 26, 1808 production of my unlucky muse last November-I am induced to do this not less from the pleasure I feel in the * Now for Apollo. I am praise of an old schoolfellow, than from justice to you, happy that you still retain your predilection, and that the for I had heard the story with some slight variations. public allow me some share of praise. I am of so much Indeed, when we met this morning, Wingfield had not importance that a most violent attack is preparing for me undece ved me, but he will tell you that I displayed no in the next number of the Edinburgh Review. This 1 resentment in mentioning what I had heard, though I had from the authority of a friend who has seen the proof was not sorry to discover the truth. Perhaps you and manuscript of the critique. You know the system hardly recollect some years ago a short, though, for the of the Edinburgh gentlemen is universal attack. They time, a warm friendship between us? Why it was not praise none, and neither the public nor the author exof longer duration, I know not. I have still a gift of pects praise from them. It is, however, something to be yours in my possession, that must always prevent me noticed as they profess to pass judgment only on works from forgetting it. I also remember being favoured with requiring the public attention. You will see this, when

LETTER XXIX.

it comes out-it is, I understand, of the most unmerciful description; but I am aware of it, and hope you will not be hurt by its severity.

"Tell Mrs. Byron not to be out of humour with them, and to prepare her mind for the greatest hostility on their part. It will do no injury whatever, and I trust her mind will not be ruffled. They defeat their object by indiscriminate abuse, and they never praise, except the partizans of Lord Holland and Co. It is nothing to be abused when Southey, Moore, Lauderdale, Strangford, and Payne Knight share the same fate.

"I am sorry-but 'Childish Recollections' must be suppressed during this edition. I have altered, at your suggestion, the obnoxious allusions in the sixth stanza of my last ode.

And now, my dear Becher, I must return my best acknowledgments for the interest you have taken in me and my poetical bantlings, and I shall ever be proud to show how much I esteem the advice and the adviser. Believe me most truly, &c."

"DEAR JACK,

TO MR. JACKSON.*

"N. A. Notts, Sept. 18, 1808.

"I wish you would inform me what has been done by Jekyll, at No. 40, Sloane-square, concerning the pony I returned as unsound.

"I have also to request you will call on Louch at Brompton, and inquire what the devil he meant by sending such an insolent letter to me at Brighton; and at the same time tell him I by no means can comply with the charge he has made for things pretended to be damaged.

"Ambrose behaved most scandalously about the pony. You may tell Jekyll if he does not refund the money, I shall put the affair into my lawyer's hands. Five-andtwenty guineas is a sound price for a pony, and by — if it cost me five hundred pounds, I will make an example of Mr. Jekyll, and that immediately, unless the cash is returned. "Believe me, dear Jack, &c."

LETTER XXVIII.

TO MR. BECHER.

"Dorant's, March 28, 1808.

LETTER XXX.

TO MR. JACKSON.

"N. A. Notts, Oct. 4, 1808

*You will make as good a bargain as possible with this I have lately received a copy of the new edition from Ridge, and it is high time for me to return my best Master Jekyll, if he is not a gentleman. If he is a thanks to you for the trouble you have taken in the su-gentleman, inform me, for I shall take very different perintendence. This I do most sincerely, and only re-steps. If he is not, you must get what you can of the gret that Ridge has not seconded you as I could wish, at least, in the bindings, paper, &c. of the copy he sent to me. Perhaps those for the public may be more respectable in such articles.

money, for I have too much business on hand at present

to commence an action. Besides, Ambrose is the man who ought to refund, but I have done with him. You can settle with L. out of the balance, and dispose of the bidets, &c. as you best can.

is

filled with workmen and undergoing a thorough repair. I hope, however, to be more fortunate before many months have elapsed.

"I should be very glad to see you here; but the house

tell him I have to regret Sydney, who has perished, I "If you see Bold Webster, remember me to him, and

"You have seen the Edinburgh Review, of course. I regret that Mrs. Byron is so much annoyed. For my own part, these 'paper bullets of the brain' have only taught me to stand fire; and, as I have been lucky enough upon the whole, my repose and appetite are not discomposed. Pratt, the gleaner, author, poet, &c. &c. addressed a long rhyming epistle to me on the subject, by way of consolation; but it was not well done, so I do fear, in my rabbit warren, for we have seen nothing of not send it, though the name of the man might make it him for the last fortnight. go down. The E. R⚫. have not performed their task well--at least the literati tell me this, and I think I could write a more sarcastic critique on myself than any yet published. For instance, instead of the remark,— ill-natured enough, but not keen,-about Mac Pherson, I (quoad reviewers) could have said, 'Alas, this imitation only proves the assertion of Doctor Johnson, that many men, women, and children could write such poetry as Ossian's.'

"Adieu. Believe me, &c."

LETTER XXXI.

TO MR. JACKSON,

"MY DEAR JACK,

"N. A. Notts, Dec. 12, 1808.

"You will get the greyhound from the owner at any price, and as many more of the same breed (male or female) as you can collect.

"Tell D'Egville his dress shall be returned-I am obliged to him for the pattern. I am sorry you should have so much trouble, but I was not aware of the difficulty of procuring the animals in question. I shall have finished part of my mansion in a few weeks, and, if you can pay me a visit at Christmas, I shall be very glad to "Believe me, &c."

"I am thin and in exercise. During the spring or summer I trust we shall meet. I hear Lord Ruthyn leaves Newstead in April. *** As soon as he quits it for ever, I wish much you would take a ride over, survey the mansion, and give me your candid opinion on the most advisable mode of proceeding with regard to the house. Entre nous, I am cursedly dipped; my debts, every thing inclusive, will be nine or ten thousand before I am twenty-one. But I have reason to think see you. my property will turn out better than general expectaLion may conceive. Of Newstead I have little hope or care. but Hanson, my agent, intimated my Lancashire property was worth three Newsteads. I believe we have it hollow; though the defendants are protracting the surrender, if possible, till after my majority, for the purpose of forming some arrangement with me, thinking I shall probably prefer a sum in hand to a reversion. Newstead I may sell ;-perhaps I will not, though of profit by them accordingly. I am going to get up a play

that more anou. I will come down in May or June.

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LETTER XXXII.

TO MR. BECHER.

Newstead Abbey, Nutts, Sept. 14th, 1808. MY DEAR BECHER,

"I am much obliged to you for your inquiries, and sha!!

• The Pugilist. See note to Don Juan, Canto XI.

here, the hall will constitute a most admirable theatre.
I have settled the dram. pers, and can do without ladies,
as I have some young friends who will make tolerable
substitutes for females, and we only want three male
characters, beside Mr. Hobhouse and myself, for the
pay we have fixed on, which will be the Revenge.
Pray direct Nicholson the carpenter to come over to me
immediately, and inform me what day you will dine and
pass the night here.
"Believe me, &c."

"After all, you must own my project is not a bad one. If I do not travel now, I never shall, and all men should one day or other. I have at present no connexions to keep me at home; no wife, or unprovided sisters, brothers, &c. I shall take care of you, and when I return I may possibly become a politician. A few years' knowledge of other countries than our own will not incapaci tate me for that part. If we see no nation but our own we do not give mankind a fair chance-it is from expert. ence, not books, we ought to judge of them. There is nothing like inspection, and trusting to our own senses "Yours very truly,

"BYRON."

LETTER XXXIII.

TO THE HONOURABLE* MRS. BYRON.

"Newstead Abbey, Notts, Oct. 7th, 1808.

"DEAR MADAM,

"I have no beds for the H✶✶ s, or any body else at present. The Hs sleep at Mansfield. I do not

LETTER XXXV.

TO MR. HODGSON.

"A few weeks ago I wrote to ***, to request he know that I resemble Jean Jacques Rousseau. I have would receive the son of a citizen of London, well known no ambition to be like so illustrious a madman-but this to me, as a pupil; the family having been particularly I know, that I shall live in my own manner, and as much polite during the short time I was with them induced me alone as possible. When my rooms are ready I shall to this application. Now, mark what follows,—as someDe glad to see you; at present it would be improper, and body sublimely saith. On this day arrives an epistle, uncomfortable to both parties. You can hardly object signed ***, containing not the smallest reference to to my rendering my mansion habitable, notwithstanding tuition, or intuition, but a petition for Robert Gregson, of my departure for Persia in March, (or May at farthest,) pugilistic notoriety, now in bondage for certain paltry since you will be tenant till my return; and in case of pounds sterling, and liable to take up his everlasting any accident, (for I have already arranged my will to be abode in Banco Regis. Had the letter been from any drawn up the moment I am twenty-one,) I have taken of my lay acquaintance, or, in short, from any person but care you shail have the house and manor for life, besides the gentleman whose signature it bears, I should have a sufficient income. So you see my improvements are marvelled not. If*** is serious, I congratulate puginot entirely selfish. As I have a friend here, we will go lism on the acquisition of such a patron, and shall be to the Infirmary Ball on the 12th; we will drink tea with most happy to advance any sum necessary for the libeMrs. Byron at eight o'clock, and expect to see you at ration of the captive Gregson. But I certainly hope to the ball. If that lady will allow us a couple of rooms to be certified from you, or some respectable housekeeper, dress in, we shall be highly obliged-if we are at the of the fact, before I write to *** on the subject. ball by ten or eleven it will be time enough, and we shall When I say the fact, I mean of the letter being written by ***, not having any doubt as to the authenticity of the statement. The letter is now before me, and I keep it for your perusal."

return to Newstead about three or four.

"Adieu. Believe me,
"Yours very truly,
"BYRON."

LETTER XXXIV.

TO MRS. BYRON.

Newstead Abbey, Nov. 2d, 1808,

DEAR MOTHER, "If you please, we will forget the things you mention. I have no desire to remember them. When my rooms are finished, I shall be happy to see you; as I tell but the truth, you will not suspect me of evasion. I am furnishing the house more for you than myself, and I shall establish you in it before I sail for India, which I expect to do in March, if nothing particularly obstructive occurs. I am now fitting up the green drawing-room; the red for a bed-room, and the rooms over as sleeping-rooms. They will be soon completed;—at least, I hope so.

"I wish you would inquire of Major Watson (who is an old Indian) what things will be necessary to provide for my voyage. I have already procured a friend to write to the Arabic professor at Cambridge for some information I am anxious to procure. I can easily get letters from government to the ambassadors, consuls, &c. and also to the governors at Calcutta and Madras. shall place my property and my will in the hands of trustees till my return, and I mean to appoint you one. From Hansor. I have heard nothing-when I do, you shall have the particulars.

• The addressed arways by Lord Byron, but without any right to the distinction. See Memorandum, page 261.

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"My only reason for not adopting your lines* is because they are your lines. You will recollect what Lady Wortley Montague said to Pope: 'No touching, for the good will be given to you, and the bad attributed to me.' I am determined it shall be all my own, except such alterations as may be absolutely requisite; but I am much obliged by the trouble you have taken and your good opinion.

"The couplet on Lord C. may be scratched out, and the following inserted:

"Roscommon! Sheffield! with your spirits fled, &c. "This will answer the purpose of concealment. Now, for some couplets on Mr. Crabbe, which you may place after 'Gifford, Sotheby, M'Neil:

"There be who say in these enlightened days, &c,

"I am sorry to differ with you with regard to the title. but I mean to retain it with this addition: 'The English Bards and Scotch Reviewers; and, if we call it a Satire, it will obviate the objection, as the bards alsc were Welsh. *

*

"Yours very sincerely,
"BYRON."

• Mr. Dallas had written some lines, and requested Lord Byron to in sert then in the satire, the "English Bards and Scotch Reviewert," then in press.-The letters following to Mr. Dallas, relate to that work.

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