Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to William Bankes, 20 November 1819
“Venice, November 20th, 1819.
“A tertian ague which has troubled me for some time, and the
indisposition of my daughter, have prevented me
from replying before to your welcome letter. I have not been ignorant of your progress
nor of your discoveries, and I trust that you are no worse in health from your labours.
You may rely upon finding every body in England eager to reap the fruits of them; and as
you have done more than other men, I hope you will not limit yourself to saying less
than may do justice to the talents and time you have bestowed on your perilous
researches. The first sentence of my letter will have explained to you why I cannot join
you at Trieste. I was on the point of setting out for England (before I knew of your
arrival) when my child’s illness has made her and me dependant on a Venetian
Proto-Medico.
“It is now seven years since you and I met;—which time you
have employed better for others and more honourably for yourself than I have done.
“In England you will find considerable changes, public and
private,—you will see some of our old college cotemporaries turned into lords of the
treasury, admiralty, and the like,—others become reformers and orators,—many settled in
life, as it is called,—and others settled in death; among the latter (by the way, not
our fellow collegians), Sheridan, Curran, Lady
Melbourne, Monk Lewis, Frederick Douglas, &c. &c. &c.; but you will
still find Mr. * * living and all his
family, as also * * * * * *.
“Should you come up this way, and I am still here, you need
not be assured how glad I shall be to see you; I long to hear some part, ![]()
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from you, of that which I expect in no long time to see.
At length you have had better fortune than any traveller of equal enterprise (except
Humboldt), in returning safe; and after the
fate of the Brownes, and the Parkes, and the Burckhardts, it is hardly less surprise than satisfaction to get you back
again.
“Believe me ever
“and very affectionately yours,
“Byron.”
William John Bankes (1786-1855)
Byron's Cambridge friend; the son of Henry Bankes, MP, he was MP for Truro, Cambridge,
Marlborough, and Dorset, and an Egyptian traveller who translated
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Giovanni Finati 2 vols (1830).
William George Browne (1768-1813)
English traveler who visited Egypt and Sudan in 1792, Turkey and the Levant (1800-02) and
was killed in Persia while on an expedition to Central Asia.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817)
Born at Lausanne, he studied Arabic at Cambridge and traveled throughout the Middle East
disguised as a Mohammedan trader; his journals were posthumously published.
Allegra Byron (1817-1822)
Byron's illegitimate daughter by Claire Clairmont.
John Philpot Curran (1750-1817)
Irish statesman and orator; as a Whig MP (from 1783) he defended the United Irishmen in
Parliament (1798).
Hon. Frederick Sylvester North Douglas (1791-1819)
The son of Sylvester Douglas, baron Glenbervie (1743-1823); educated at Christ Church,
Oxford, he was MP for Banbury and author of
Essay on Certain Points of
Resemblance between the Ancient and the Modern Greeks (1813).
Elizabeth Lamb, viscountess Melbourne [née Milbanke] (1751-1818)
Whig hostess married to Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne (1744-1828); she was the
confidant of Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire, the mother of William Lamb (1779-1848), and
mother-in-law of Lady Caroline Lamb.
Mungo Park (1771-1806)
Scottish explorer who published
Travels in the interior Districts of
Africa (1799).
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
Anglo-Irish playwright, author of
The School for Scandal (1777),
Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).
William Sotheby (1757-1833)
English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published
Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator,
prominent in literary society.
