Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Augusta Leigh to Francis Hodgson, 15 May 1824
St. James’s Palace: May 15, 1824.
Dear Mr.
Hodgson,—The newspapers will have announced to you the
melancholy event which has taken place; but I cannot allow such a friend as you were to hear it only from that public source,
and I know your kind anxiety for me will make a few lines from my own pen
acceptable at such a moment. I need not say that I am overwhelmed with the
severity and suddenness of the blow, but I try to be resigned to God’s
will, and to exert myself for the sake of all those who are kind enough to feel
for me. I am sure of your kind sympathy, and I know your
affectionate attachment for our dear B. will
make you feel this fatal event most severely. I can tell you little more at
present than the papers contain. His complaint originated in a neglected cold,
which became a rheumatic fever; and delirium at last, at intervals, I am
grieved to say, prevented his servant Fletcher from being able to understand something he appeared
very anxious to express. This is dreadful!
I hope the dear Remains will be
brought to Eng-![]()
| LETTERS FROM MRS. LEIGH. | 135 |
![]()
land; it seems
the wish of all. I have seen Mr.
Hobhouse, who is, as you will believe, dreadfully cast down by
this unexpected and severe blow. You shall hear from me again. George Byron was to my comfort in London, and
went down to poor Lady Byron, who is in
great affliction. My children have all been ill, the two elder very seriously
so, but thank God they are recovering.
With my best remembrances to Mrs. H.,
Believe me ever,
Yours most truly,
George Anson Byron, seventh Baron Byron (1789-1868)
Naval officer and Byron's heir; the son of Captain John Byron (1758-93), he was lord of
the bedchamber (1830-1837) and lord-in-waiting (1837-1860) to Queen Victoria.
William Fletcher (1831 fl.)
Byron's valet, the son of a Newstead tenant; he continued in service to the end of the
poet's life, after which he was pensioned by the family. He married Anne Rood, formerly
maid to Augusta Leigh, and was living in London in 1831.
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).
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852)
Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote
for the
Monthly and
Critical Reviews, and was
author of (among other volumes of poetry)
Childe Harold's Monitor; or
Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).
Susanna Matilda Hodgson [née Tayler] (1791-1833)
Daughter of Archdale Wilson Tayler (1759-1814) who married Francis Hodgson in 1815. Her
sister Ann Caroline married Henry Drury and her sister Elizabeth married Robert
Bland.
Hon. Augusta Mary Leigh [née Byron] (1783-1851)
Byron's half-sister; the daughter of Amelia Darcy, Baroness Conyers, she married
Lieutenant-Colonel George Leigh on 17 August 1807.
