Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 21 April 1813
“I shall be in town by Sunday next, and will call and have
some conversation on the subject of Westall’s designs. I am to sit to him for a picture at the request
of a friend of mine, and as Sanders’s is
not a good one, you will probably prefer the other. I wish you to have
Sanders’s taken down and sent to my lodgings
immediately—before my arrival. I hear that a certain malicious publication on Waltzing is attributed to me. This report, I
suppose, you will take care to contradict, as the author, I am sure, will not like that
I should wear his cap and bells. Mr.
Hobhouse’s quarto will be out immediately; pray send to the author for an early copy,
which I wish to take abroad with me.
“P.S. I see the Examiner threatens some observations upon you next week. What can you have
done to share the wrath which has heretofore been principally expended upon the
Prince? I presume all your Scribleri will be
drawn up in battle array in defence of the modern Tonson—Mr. Bucke, for instance.
“Send in my account to Bennet-street, as I wish to settle
it before sailing.”
Charles Bucke (1781-1846)
English poet and miscellaneous writer involved in a bitter controversy with the actor
Edmund Kean regarding Bucke's play
The Italians, or, The Fatal
Accusation: a Tragedy (1819).
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
George Sanders (1774-1846)
Scottish portrait painter, educated in Edinburgh; he made several portraits of Lord
Byron.
Jacob Tonson (1655-1736)
London bookseller and member of the Kit-Kat Club; the elder Tonson published Dryden; his
son, also Jacob Tonson (1682-1735), published Pope.
Richard Westall (1765-1836)
English poet and illustrator who favored literary subjects and published a collection of
verse,
A Day in Spring and other Poems (1808).
The Examiner. (1808-1881). Founded by John and Leigh Hunt, this weekly paper divided its attention between literary
matters and radical politics; William Hazlitt was among its regular contributors.
