hands. Five-and-twenty guineas is a sound price] LETTER XXX. TO MR. JACKSON. "N. A., Notts, Oct. 4, 1808. "I have no beds for the H✶✶s, or any body else at present. The Hs sleep at Mansfield. I do not know that I resemble Jean Jacques Rousseau.† I have no ambition to be like so illustrious a madman-but this I know, that I shall live in my own manner, and as much alone as possible. When my rooms are ready I shall be glad to see you; at present it would be improper, and uncomfortable to both parties. You can hardly object to my render"You will make as good a bargain as possible ing my mansion habitable, notwithstanding my with this Master Jekyll, if he is not a gentleman. departure for Persia in March, (or May at farthest,) If he is a gentleman, inform me, for I shall take very since you will be tenant till my return; and in case different steps. If he is not, you must get what of any accident,) for I have already arranged my you can of the money, for I have too much business will to be drawn up the moment I am twenty-one,) on hand at present to commence an action. Besides, I have taken care you shall have the house and maAmbrose is the man who ought to refund,-but I nor for life, besides a sufficient income. So you see have done with him. You can settle with L. out my improvements are not entirely selfish. of the balance, and dispose of the bidets, &c., as I have a friend here, we will go to the Infirmary you best can. Ball on the 12th; we will drink tea with Mrs. By"I should be very glad to see you here; but the ron at eight o'clock, and expect to see you at the house is filled with workmen, and undergoing a ball. If that lady will allow us a couple of rooms thorough repair. I hope, however, to be more to dress in, we shall be highly obliged :-if we are fortunate before many months have clapsed. at the ball by ten or eleven it will be time "If you see Bold Webster, remember me to him, enough, and we shall return to Newstead about and tell him I have to regret Sydney, who has three or four. Adieu. Believe me, "Yours, very truly, perished, I fear, in my rabbit warren, for we have seen nothing of him for the last fortnight. "Adieu.-Believe me, &c." "BYRON" As "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. "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, "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 if nothing particularly obstructive occurs. I am 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 see you. "Believe me, &c." LETTER XXXII. TO MR. BECHER. "Newstead Abbey, Notts, Sept. 14, 1808. "MY DEAR BECHER, 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. I shall place my property and will in the hands of trustees till my return, and I mean to appoint you one. From Hanson I have heard nothing-when I do you shall have the particulars. "After all, you must own my project is not a bad one. If I do not travel now, I never shall, and all "I am much obliged to you for your inquiries, and shall profit by them accordingly. I am going connections to keep me at home; no wife, or unmen should one day or other. I have at present no to get up a play here; the hall will constitute a most admirable theatre. I have settled the dram. pers. provided sisters, brothers, &c. I shall take care of and can do without ladies, as I have some young you, and when I return I may possibly become a friends who will make tolerable substitutes for politician. A few years' knowledge of other counfemales, and we only want three male characters, tries than our own will not incapacitate me for that beside Mr. Hobhouse and myself, for the play we part. If we see no nation but our own we do not have fixed on, which will be the Revenge. Pray distinction. direct Nicholson the carpenter to come over to me • Thus addressed always by Lord Byron, but without any right to the immediately, and inform me what day you will dine and pass the night here. "Believe me, &c." † See Memorandum, page 1013. "A few weeks ago I wrote to "Though sweet the sound, disdain a borrow'd tone, "Though soft the echo, scorn a borrow'd tone, "So much for your admonitions; but my note of "BYRON " to request he would receive the son of a citizen of London, well known to me, as a pupil; the family having been particularly polite during the short time I was with come against me: my annotation must stand. them induced me to this application. Now, mark "We shall never sell a thousand; then why print what follows,-as somebody sublimely saith. On so many? Did you receive my yesterday's note? this day arrives an epistle, signed ***, containing I am troubling you, but I am apprehensive some of not the smallest reference to tuition, or intuition, the lines are omitted by your young amanuensis, to but a petition for Robert Gregson, of pugilistic no- whom, however, I am infinitely obliged. "Believe me, yours very truly, toriety, now in bondage for certain paltry pounds sterling, and liable to take up his everlasting abode in Banco Pegis. Had the letter been from any of my lay acquaintance, or, in short, from any person but the gentleman whose signature it bears, I should have marvelled not. If✶✶✶ is serious, I congratulate pugilism on the acquisition of such a patron, and shall be most happy to advance any sum necessary for the liberation of the captive Gregson. But I certainly hope to be certified from you, or some respectable housekeeper, of the fact, before I write to on the subject. 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.” LETTER XXXVI. TO R. C. DALLAS, ESQ. "Reddish's Hotel, Jan. 25, 1809. "MY DEAR SIR, · NOTES TO MR. DALLAS. "Feb. 11, 1809. "I wish you to call, if possible, as I have some alterations to suggest as to the part about Brougham. "B." "Excuse the trouble, but I have added two lines which are necessary to complete the poetical char acter of Lord Carlisle. in his age "B." "P. S. Print soon, or I shall overflow with more rhyme. "Ecce iterum Crispinus!-I send you some lines "My only reason for not adopting your lines is to be placed after 'Gifford, Sotheby, McNeil. Pray because they are your lines. You will recollect what Lady Wortley Montague said to Pope: No call to-morrow any time before two, and believe me, &c. 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: LETTER XXXVIII. "DEAR MOTHER, TO MRS. BYRON. “8, St. James's st., March, 6, 1809. "I am going abroad, if possible, in the spring, and before I depart I am collecting the pictures of my most intimate schoolfellows; I have already a few, and shall want yours, or my cabinet will be incomplete. I have employed one of the first miniature-painters of the day to take them, of course at my own expense, as I never allow my "My last letter was written under great depres-acquaintance to incur the least expenditure to sion of spirits from poor Falkland's death, who gratify a whim of mine. To mention this may has left without a shilling four children and his seem indelicate; but when I tell you a friend of wife. I have been endeavoring to assist them, ours first refused to sit, under the idea that he was which, God knows, I cannot do as I could wish, to disburse on the occasion, you will see that it is from my own embarassments, and the many claims necessary to state these preliminaries to prevent upon me from other quarters. the recurrence of any similar mistake. I shall see "What you say is all very true: come what may you in time, and will carry you to the limner. It Newstead and I stand or fall together. I have now will be a tax on your patience for a week, but pray lived on the spot, I have fixed my heart upon it, excuse it, as it is possible the resemblance may be and no pressure, present or future, shall induce me the sole trace I shall be able to preserve of our past to barter the last vestige of our inheritance. I friendship and present acquaintance. Just now it have that pride within me which will enable me seems foolish enough, but in a few years, when to support difficulties. I can endure privations; some of us are dead, and others are separated by but could I obtain in exchange for Newstead inevitable circumstances, it will be a kind of satisAbbey the first fortune in the country, I would re-faction to retain in these images of the living the ject the proposition. Set your mind at ease on that idea of our former selves, and to contemplate in the score; Mr. Hanson talks like a man of business on resemblance of the dead, all that remains of judgthe subject, I feel like a man of honor, and I will ment, feeling, and a host of passions. But all this not sell Newstead. would be dull enough for you, and so good night, "I shall get my seat on the return of the affida- and to end my chapter, or rather my homily, believe vits from Carhais, in Cornwall, and will do some-me, dear H., yours most affectionately. thing in the House soon; I must dash, or all is over. "P. S. I do not know how you and Alma Mater My Satire must be kept secret for a month; after that you may say what you please on the subject. believe the good lady and her brat were equally I was but an untoward child myself, and I agree. Lord Carlisle has used me infamously, and refused to state any particulars of my family to the Chan- rejoiced when I was weaned; and, if I obtained her benediction at parting, it was, at best, equivocal." cellor. I have lashed him in my rhymes, and perhaps his Lordship may regret not being more conciliatory. They tell me it will have a sale; I hope so, for the bookseller has behaved well, as far as publishing well goes. Believe me, yours truly. "P. S. You shall have a mortgage on one of the farms." LETTER XL. LETTER XXXIX. TO MR. HARNESS. ་ "8, St. James's street, March 18, 1809. "There was no necessity for your excuses; if you have time and inclination to write, for what we receive, the Lord make us thankful.'-If I do not hear from you, I console myself with the idea that you are much more agreeably employed. "I send down to you by this post a certain Satire lately published, and in return for the three and sixpence expenditure upon it, only beg that if you should guess the author, you will keep his name! secret; at least, for the present. London is full of the Duke's business. The Commons have been at "Twelve o'clock, Friday night, it these last three nights and are not yet come to a "MY DEAR BANKES, decision. I do not know if the affair will be brought before our House, unless in the shape of an impeach"I have just received your note; believe me, I ment. If it makes its appearance in a debatable regret most sincerely that I was not fortunate form, I believe I shall be tempted to say something enough to see it before, as I need not repeat to you, on the subject-I am glad to hear you like Cam- that your conversation for half an hour would have bridge: firstly, because to know that you are happy been much more agreeable to me than gambling or is pleasant to one who wishes you all possible sub-drinking, or any other fashionable mode of passing lunary enjoyment; and, secondly, I admire the mo- an evening abroad or at home. I really am very rality of the sentiment. Alma Mater was to me injusta noverca; and the old Beldam only gave me my M. A. degree because she could not avoid it. You know what a farce a noble Cantab. must per: form. • See English Bards, and note p. 461. sorry that I went out previous to the arrival of your LETTER XLII. DEAR MOTHER, TO MRS. BYRON. laid down my pen, but have promsed to contribut I must be going, And can no more.'-Ghost of Gaffer Thumb. "Falmouth, June 22, 1809. LETTER XLIV. TO MR. HODGSON. "Falmouth, June 25, 1806. "I am about to sail in a few days; probably before this reaches you. Fletcher begged so hard, that I have continued him in my service. If he does not behave well abroad, I will send him back in a transport. I have a German servant, (who has been with Mr. Wilbraham in Persia before, and was strongly recommended to me by Dr. Butler of Harrow,*) Robert, and William; they constitute my whole suite. I have letters in plenty-you shall hear from me at the different ports I touch upon; but you must not be alarmed my letters miscarry." MY DEAR HODGSON, The continent is in a fine state-an insurrection "Before this reaches you, Hobhouse, two officers' has broken out at Paris, and the Austrians are wives, three children, two waiting-maids, ditto subbeating Bonaparte-the Tyrolese have risen. alterns for the troops, three Portugese esquires and "There is a picture of me in oil, to be sent down domestics, in all nineteen souls, will have sailed in to Newstead soon.-I wish the Miss Pigots had the Lisbon packet, with the noble Captain Kidd, a something better to do than carry my miniatures to gallant commander as ever smuggled an anchor Nottingham to copy. Now they have done it, you of right Nantz. may ask them to copy the others, which are greater "We are going to Lisbon first, because the favorites than my own. As to money matters, Malta packet has sailed, d'ye see?-from Lisbon am ruined-at least till Rochdale is sold; and if to Gibralter, Malta, Constantinople, and all that,' that does not turn out well, I shall enter into the as Orator Henley said, when he put the Church, Austrian or Russian service-perhaps the Turkish, and all that,' in danger. if I like their manners. The world is all before me, and I leave England without regret, and without a wish to revisit any thing it contains, except your self, and your present residence. "This town of Falmouth, as you will partly conjecture, is no great ways from the sea. It is defended on the sea-side by tway castles, St. Maws and Pendennis, extremely well calculated for annoy"Believe me, yours ever sincerely. ing every body except an enemy. St. Maws is "P. S. Pray tell Mr. Rushton his son is well, garrisoned by an able-bodied person of fourscore, a and doing well; so is Murray, indeed better than I widower. He has the whole command and sole ever saw him; he will be back in about a month. management of six most unmanageable pieces of I ought to add the leaving Murray to my few regrets, ordnance, admirably adapted for the destruction as his age perhaps will prevent my seeing him of Pendennis, a like tower of strength on the again. Robert take with me; I like him, because, opposite side of the Channel. We have seen St like myself, he seems a friendless animal." Maws, but Pendennis they will not let us behold, save at a distance, because Hobhouse and I are suspected of having already taken St. Maws by a coup de main. "The town contains many quakers and salt fish -the oysters have a taste of copper, owing to the soil of a mining country-the women (blessed be the Corporation therefor!) are flogged at the cart's tail when they pick and steal, as happened to one of the fair sex yesterday noon. She was pertinacious in her behavior, and damned the mayor. "Hodgson! remember me to the Drury, and remember me to-yourself when drunk:-I am not worth a sober thought. Look to my Satire at Cawthorne's, Cockspur street. "We sail to-morrow in the Lisbon packet, having been detained till now by the lack of wind, and "I don't know when I can write again, because other necessaries. These being at last procured, it depends on that experienced navigator, Captain by this time to-morrow evening we shall be Kidd, and the stormy winds that (don't) blow,' at embarked on the vide vorld of vaters, vor all the this season. I leave England without regret-I world like Robinson Crusoe. The Malta vessel not shall return to it without pleasure. I am like sailing for some weeks, we have determined to go Adam, the first convict, sentenced to transportaby way of Lisbon, and, as my servants term it, to tion, but I have no Eve, and have eaten no apple see that there Portingale; thence to Cadiz and but what was sour as a crab; and thus ends my Gibralter, and so on our old route to Malta and first chapter. Adieu. Constantinople, if so be that Captain Kidd, our gallant commander, understands plain sailing and Mercator, and takes us on our voyage all according to the chart. "Will you tell Dr. Butler that I have taken the treasure of a servant, Friese, the native of Prussia Proper, into my service from his recommendation. He has been all among the Worshippers of Fire in Persia, and seen Persepolis and all that. "Hobhouse has made woundy preparations for a book on his return;-one hundred pens, two gallons of japan ink, and several volumes of best blank, is no bad provision for a discerning public. I have LETTER XLV. TO MR. HODGSON. "Yours, &c." "Lisbon, July 16, 1909. "Thus far have we pursued our route, and seen all sorts of marvellous sights, palaces, convents, &c. which, being to be heard in my friend Hobhouse's forthcoming Book of Travels, I shall not anticipate The Page and Yeoman of the "Good Night," in the first Canto of by smuggling any account whatsoever to you in a Childe Harold. private and clandestine manner. I must just observe that the village of Cintra in Estremadura is the the comparison. most beautiful, perhaps, in the world. # The Spanish women are all alike, their education the same. The wife of a "I am very happy here, because I loves oranges, duke is, in information, as the wife of a peasant,and talk bad Latin to the monks, who understand the wife of a peasant, in manner, equal to a duchess. it, as it is like their own,-and I goes into society, Certainly, they are fascinating; but their minds (with my pocket pistols,) and I swims in the Tagus have only one idea, and the business of their lives all across at once, and I rides on an ass or a mule, is intrigue. and swears Portuguese, and have got a diarrhoea and "I have seen Sir John Carr at Seville and Cadiz, bites from the musquitoes. But what of that? and like Swift's barber, have been down on my Comfort must not be expected by folks that go a knees to beg he would not put me into black and pleasuring. white. Pray remember me to the Drurys and the "When the Portuguese are pertinacious, I say, Davies, and all of that stamp who are yet extant. Carracho!'-the great oath of the grandees, that Send me a letter and news to Malta. My next very well supplies the place of Damme,'-and, epistle shall be from Mount Caucasus or Mount when dissatisfied with my neighbor, I pronounce Sion. I shall return to Spain before I see England, him Ambra di merdo.' With these two phrases, for I am enamored of the country. and a third. 'Avra Bouro,' which signifieth Get an ass,' I am universally understood to be a person of degree and a master of languages. How merrily we lives that travellers be!-if we had food and raiment. But, in sober sadness, any thing is better than England, and I am infinitely amused with my pilgrimage as far as it has gone. To-morrow we start to ride post near 400 miles as far as Gibraltar, where we embark for Melita and Byzantium. A letter to Malta will find me, or to be forwarded, if I am absent. Pray embrace the Drury and Dwyer and all the Ephesians you encounter. I am writing with Butler's donative pencil, which makes my bad hand worse. Excuse illegibility. "Adieu, and believe me, &c " "I have been so much occupied since my departure from England, that till I could address you at "Hodgson! send me the news, and the deaths, length, I have forborne writing altogether. As I and defeats, and capital crimes, and the misfortunes have now passed through Portugal, and a considerof one's friends; and let us hear of literary matters, able part of Spain, and have leisure at this place, I and the controversies and the criticisms. All this shall endeavor to give you a short detail of my will be pleasant-Suave mari magno,' &c. Talk- movements. We sailed from Falmouth on the 2d of ing of that, I have been sea-sick, and sick of the Adieu. "Yours faithfully, &c." sea. LETTER XLVI. TO MR HODGSON. "Gibralter, August 6, 1809. July, reached Lisbon after a very favorable passage of four days and a half, and took up our abode in that city. It has often been described without being worthy of description; for, except the view from the Tagus, which is beautiful, and some fine churches and convents, it contains little but filthy streets and more filthy inhabitants.* "To make amends for this, the village of Cintra, about fifteen miles from the capital, is, perhaps in every respect, the most delightful in Europe; it contains beauties of every description, natural and artificial. Palaces and gardens rising in the midst "I have just arrived at this place after a journey of rocks, cataracts, and precipices; convents on through Portugal, and a part of Spain, of nearly stupendous heights-a distant view of the sea and five hundred miles. We left Lisbon and travelled the Tagus; and, besides (though that is a secon horseback to Seville and Cadiz, and thenco in dary consideration) is remarkable as the scene of the Hyperion frigate to Gibralter. The horses are Sir H. D.'s Convention. It unites in itself all the excellent we rode seventy miles a day. Eggs and wildness of the western highlands, with the verwine and hard beds are all the acommodation we dure of the South of France. Near this place, found, and, in such torrid weather, quite enough. about ten miles to the right, is the palace of Mafra, My health is better than in England. * the boast of Portugal, as it might be of any coun "Seville is a fine town, and the Sierra Morena, try, in point of magnificence without elegance. part of which we crossed, a very sufficient mountain, There is a convent annexed; the monks, who pos but damn description, it is always disgusting. sess large revenues, are courteous enough, and unCadiz, sweet Cadiz!-it is the first spot in the derstand Latin, so that we had a long conversation: creation. *The beauty of its streets and they have a large library, and asked me if the mansions is only excelled by the loveliness of its English had any books in their country. inhabitants. For, with all national prejudice, I I sent my baggage and part of the servants' by must confess the women of Cadiz are as far superior sea to Gibralter, and travelled on horseback from to the English women in beauty as the Spaniards Aldea Galheda, (the first stage from Lisbon, which are inferior to the English in every quality that is only accessible by water,) to Seville, (one of the dignifies the name of man. * Just as I most famous cities in Spain,) where the governbegan to know the principal persons of the city, I ment called the Junta is now held. The distance was obliged to sail. to Seville is nearly four hundred miles, and to Cadiz "You will not expect a long letter after my riding almost ninety miles further towards the coast. I so far on hollow pampered jades of Asia.' Talk- had orders from the government, and every possible ing of Asia puts me in mind of Africa, which is accommodation on the road, as an English noblewithin five miles of my present residence. I am man, in an English uniform, is a very respectable going over before I go on to Constantinople. personage in Spain at present. The horses are re* Cadiz is a complete Cythera. Many markably good, and the roads (I assure you upon of the grandees who have left Madrid during the my honor, for you will hardly believe it) very far troubles reside there, and I believe it the prettiest superior to the best British roads, without the and cleanest town in Europe. London is filthy in ⚫ See Childe Harold, canto i., stanaa xviii., &c. • See Childe Harold, Canto i., stanza xvi. ↑ Ibid, xxiv. |