Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 28 September 1821
“I add another cover to request you to ask Moore to obtain (if possible) my letters to the late
Lady Melbourne from Lady
Cowper. They are very numerous, and ought to have been restored long ago,
as
† The lines “Oh Wellington,” which I had
missed in their original place at the opening of the Third Canto, and took for
granted that they had been suppressed by his publisher. |
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| A. D. 1821. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 537 |
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I was ready to give back Lady
Melbourne’s in exchange. These latter are in Mr. Hobhouse’s custody with my other papers, and
shall be punctually restored if required. I did not choose before to apply to Lady Cowper, as her mother’s death naturally kept me
from intruding upon her feelings at the time of its occurrence. Some years have now
elapsed, and it is essential that I should have my own epistles. They are essential as
confirming that part of the ‘Memoranda’ which refers to the two periods (1812 and 1814) when my
marriage with her niece was in contemplation, and will tend to show what my real views
and feelings were upon that subject.
“You need not be alarmed; the ‘fourteen
years†’ will hardly elapse without some mortality amongst us: it is a long
lease of life to speculate upon. So your calculation will not be in so much peril, as
the ‘argosie’ will sink before that time, and ‘the pound of
flesh’ be withered previously to your being so long out of a return.
“I also wish to give you a hint or two (as you have really
behaved very handsomely to Moore in the business,
and are a fine fellow in your line) for your advantage. If by
your own management you can extract any of my epistles from Lady ——, (* * *
* *
* *), they might be of use in your collection (sinking of
course the names and all such
circumstances as might hurt living feelings, or those of survivors); they treat of more
topics than love occasionally.
* * * * * *
“I will tell you who may happen to
have some letters of mine in their possession: Lord
Powerscourt, some to his late brother; Mr. Long of—(I forget his
place)—but the father of Edward Long of the
Guards, who was drowned in going to Lisbon early in 1809; Miss Elizabeth Pigot, of Southwell, Notts (she may be Mistress by this time, for she had a year or two more than I): they were not love-letters, so that you
might have them without scruple. There are, or, might be, some to the late Rev. J. C. Tattersall, in the hands of his brother
(half-
† He here adverts to a passing remark, in one of
Mr. Murray’s letters, that, as his
lordship’s “Memoranda” were not to be published in his lifetime, the sum now
paid for the work, 21001., would most probably, upon a
reasonable calculation of survivorship, amount ultimately to no less than 8000l. |
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| 538 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1821. |
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brother) Mr.
Wheatley, who resides near Canterbury, I think. There are some of
Charles Gordon, now of Dulwich; and some few
to Mrs. Chaworth; but these latter are probably
destroyed or inaccessible.
* * * * * *
“I mention these people and particulars merely as chances. Most of them have probably destroyed the letters, which
in fact are of little import, many of them written when very young, and several at
school and college.
“Peel (the second brother of the Secretary) was a correspondent of mine, and
also Porter, the son of the Bishop of Clogher;
Lord Clare a very voluminous one; William Harness (a friend of Milman’s) another; Charles
Drummond (son of the banker); William
Bankes (the voyager), your friend; R. C.
Dallas, Esq.; Hodgson; Henry Drury; Hobhouse you were already aware of.
“I have gone through this long list† of
‘The cold, the faithless, and the dead,’ |
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because I know that, like ‘the curious in fish-sauce,’ you are a
researcher of such things.
“Besides these, there are other occasional ones to literary
men and so forth, complimentary, &c. &c. &c. not worth much more than the
rest. There are some hundreds, too, of Italian notes of mine, scribbled
† To all the persons upon this list who were accessible,
application has, of course, been made,—with what success it is in the
reader’s power to judge from the communications that have been laid before
him. Among the companions of the poet’s boyhood there are (as I have already
had occasion to mention and regret) but few traces of his youthful correspondence
to be found; and of all those who knew him at that period, his fair Southwell
correspondent alone seems to have been sufficiently endowed with the gift of
second-sight to anticipate the Byron of a future day, and
foresee the compound interest that Time and Fame would accumulate on every
precious scrap of the young bard which she hoarded. On the whole, however, it is
not unsatisfactory to be able to state that, with the exception of a very small
minority (only one of whom is possessed of any papers of much importance), every
distinguished associate and intimate of the noble poet, from the very outset to
the close of his extraordinary career, have come forward cordially to communicate
whatever memorials they possessed of him,—trusting, as I am willing to flatter
myself, that they confided these treasures to one, who, if not able to do full
justice to the memory of their common friend, would, at least, not willingly
suffer it to be dishonoured in his hands. |
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| A. D. 1821. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 539 |
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with a noble contempt of the grammar and dictionary, in
very English Etruscan; for I speak Italian very fluently, but
write it carelessly and incorrectly to a degree.”
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).
Emily Mary Cowper, countess Cowper [née Lamb] (1787-1869)
Whig hostess, the daughter of Sir Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne; she married
(1) in 1805 Sir Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Cowper, fifth Earl Cowper, and (2) in
1839, her long-time lover, Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston.
Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1824)
English poet, novelist, and translator who corresponded with Byron. His sister Charlotte
Henrietta Dallas (d. 1793) married Captain George Anson Byron (1758-1793); their son George
Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title in 1824.
Charles Drummond (1790-1858)
One of Byron's Harrow classmates and correspondents; after attending Christ Church,
Oxford he became a partner in the family's banking business in London.
Henry Joseph Thomas Drury (1778-1841)
The eldest son of Joseph Drury, Byron's headmaster; he was fellow of King's College,
Cambridge and assistant-master at Harrow from 1801. In 1808 he married Ann Caroline Tayler,
whose sisters married Drury's friends Robert Bland and Francis Hodgson.
John Fitzgibbon, second earl of Clare (1792-1851)
A Harrow friend of Byron's, son of the Lord Chamberlain of Ireland; he once fought a duel
with Henry Grattan's son in response to an aspersion on his father. Lord Clare was Governor
of Bombay between 1830 and 1834.
Charles David Gordon (1790-1826)
The son of David Gordon, 14th of Abergeldie; he was educated at Harrow, which he entered
in January 1803; in 1821 Byron described him as living at Dulwich.
William Harness (1790-1869)
A Harrow friend and early correspondent of Byron. He later answered the poet in
The Wrath of Cain (1822) and published an edition of Shakespeare
(1825) and other literary projects. Harness was a longtime friend of Mary Russell
Mitford.
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).
Lady Caroline Lamb [née Ponsonby] (1785-1828)
Daughter of the third earl of Bessborough; she married the Hon. William Lamb (1779-1848)
and fictionalized her infatuation with Lord Byron in her first novel,
Glenarvon (1816).
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.
Edward Noel Long (1788-1809)
Byron's classmate at Harrow, afterwards ensign in the Coldstream Guards; he died at sea
during the Peninsular Campaign.
Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868)
Educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, he was a poet, historian and dean of St
Paul's (1849) who wrote for the
Quarterly Review.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
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.
Mary Ann Musters [née Chaworth] (1785-1832)
The grand-niece of the Chaworth who was killed by “Wicked Jack” Byron; she was the object
of Byron's affections before and after she married John Musters in 1805.
Rt. Hon. William Yates Peel (1789-1858)
The son of Sir Robert Peel, and brother of the PM; one of Byron's Harrow schoolmates,
after attending St. John's College, Cambridge, he was MP, and Lord of the Treasury (1830,
1834).
Bridget Elizabeth Pigot (1783-1866)
Byron's early friend who lived with her mother and brothers at Southwell Green where
Byron visited his mother at Burgage Manor.
John Grey Porter (1789-1873)
Son of Rt. Rev. John Porter, Bishop of Clogher; he was a classmate of Byron's at Harrow
and Trinity College, Cambridge, and a correspondent. He held a prebendary at Clogher until
1871.
John Cecil Tattersall (d. 1812)
Byron's classmate at Harrow; after completing his education at Christ Church, Oxford he
entered the church.
Mr. Wheatley (1821 fl.)
The half-brother of John Tattersall, who lived near Canterbury and who Byron thought
might be in possession of some of his early letters.
John Wingfield (1791-1811)
Byron's schoolmate at Harrow was the son of Richard Wingfield, fourth Viscount
Powerscourt. He entered the Coldstream Guards and died of fever at Coimbra.
