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LETTER CCXXXV.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Aug. 4, 1814.

"Not having received the slightest answer to my last three letters, nor the book (the last number of the Edinburgh Review) which they requested, I presume that you vere the unfortunate person who perished in the pagoda on Monday last, and address this rather to your executors than yourself, regretting that you should have had the illluck to be the sole victim on that joyous occasion.

bottle, which I flung out of the window one night with a
vengeance--and what then? why, next morning I was
horrified by seeing that it had struck, and split upon, the
grimed her as if it were on purpose.
petticoat of Euterpe's graven image in the garden, and
distress, and the epigrams that might be engendered on
Only think of my
the Muse and her misadventure.

"I had an adventure, almost as ridiculous, at some privato theatricals near Cambridge-thoigh of a different descrip tion-since I saw you last. I quarrelled with a 1 an in the dark for asking me who I was, (insolently enough, to be I beg leave then to inform these gentlemen (whoever sure,) and followed him into the green-room (a stable) in a they may be) that I am a little surprised at the previous rage, among a set of people I never saw before. He turned neglect of the deceased, and also at observing an advertise-out to be a low comedian, engaged to act with the amateurs, ment of an approaching publication on Saturday next, and to be a civil-spoken man enough, when he found out against the which I protested, and do protest, for the that nothing very pleasant was to be got by rudeness. But you would have been amused with the row, and the dialogue. and the dress-or father the undress-of the party, where I had introduced myself in a devil of a hurry, and the astonishment that ensued. I had gone out of the theatre, for coolness, into the garden; there I had tumbled over some dogs, and, coming away from them in very ill-humour, encountered the man in a worse, which produced all this confusion.

present.

"Yours, (or theirs,) &c.

LETTER CCXXXVI.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"B."

"Aug. 5, 1814. "The Edinburgh Review is arrived-thanks. 1 enclose Mr. Hobhouse's letter, from which you will perceive the "Well-and why don't you 'launch ?—Now is your time work you have made. However, I have done: you must The people are tolerably tired with me, and not very much send my rhymes to the devil your own way. It seems enamoured of Wordsworth, who has just spawned a quartc also that the faithful and spirited likeness' is another of of metaphysical blank verse, which is nevertheless only a your publications. I wish you joy of it; but it is no like-part of a poem.

ness-that is the point. Seriously, if I have delayed your "Murray talks of divorcing Larry and Jacky-a bad sign journey to Scotland, I am sorry that you carried your com- for the authors, who, I suppose, will be divorced too, and plaisance so far; particularly as upon trifles you have a throw the blame upon one another. Seriously, I don't care more summary method;-witness the grammar of Hob- a cigar about it, and I don't see why Sam should. house's 'bit of prose,' which has put him and me into a fever. "Let me hear from and of you and my godson. If a Hogg must translate his own words: 'lifting' is a daughter, the name will do quite as well. quotation from his letter, together with 'G-d d-n,' &c. which I suppose requires no translation.

"I was unaware of the contents of Mr. Moore's letter; I think your offer very handsome, but of that you and he must judge. If he can get more, you won't wonder that he should accept it.

"Out with Lara since it must be. The tome looks pretty enough-on the outside. I shall be in town next week, and in the mean time wish you a pleasant journey. "Yours, &c."

LETTER CCXXXVII.

TO MR. MOORE,

"Aug. 12, 1814.

LETTER CCXXXVIII.

TO MR. MOORE.

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"Aug. 13, 1814.

"I wrote yesterday to Mayfield, and have just now en franked your letter to mamma. My stay in town is so uncertain (not later than next week) that your packets for the north may not reach me; and as I know not exactly where I am going-however, Newstead is my most probable destination, and if you send your despatches before Tuesday, I can forward them to our new ally. But, after that day, you had better not trust to their arrival in time.

*** has been exiled from Paris, on dit, for saying the "I was not alone, nor will be while I can help it. New-Bourbons were old women. The Bourbons might have stead is not yet decided. Claughton is to make a grand been content, I think, with returning the compliment. effort by Saturday week to complete,-if not, he must give

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up twenty-five thousand pounds, and the estate, with ex- "I told you all about Jacky and Larry yesterday;-they penses, &c. &c. If I resume the Abbacy, you shall have are to be separated, at least, so says the grand Murray, due notice, and a cell set apart for your reception, with a pious welcome. Rogers I have not seen, but Larry and Jacky came out a few days ago. Of their effect, I know nothing.

and I know no more of the matter. Jeffrey has done me more than 'justice; but as to tragedy-um!-I have no time for fiction at present. A man cannot paint a stori with the vessel under bare poles, on a lee shore. When I get to land, I will try what is to be done, and, if I founder, there be plenty of mine elders and betters to console Melpomene.

There is something very amusing in your being an Edinburgh Reviewer. You know, I suppose, that Thurlow is none of the placidest, and may possibly enact some "When at Newstead, you must come over, if only for a tragedy on being told that he is only a fool. If, now, Jeffrey day-should Mrs. M. be exigeante of your presence. The were to be slain on account of an article of yours, there place is worth seeing, as a ruin, and I can assure you there would be a fine conclusion. For my part, as Mrs. Winifred was some fun there, even in my time; but that is The Jenkins says, 'he has done the handsome thing by me,' ghosts, however, and the gothics, and the waters, and the particularly in his last number; so, he is the best of men desolation, make it very lively still. and the ablest of critics, and I won't have him killed,— though I dare say many wish he were, for being so goodkum ured.

past.

"Ever, dear Tom, yours, &c."

His servant had brought him up a large jar of ink, into which, not sup

* Before I left Hastings, I got in a passion with an ink-posing it to be ful., he had thrust his pen down to the very bottom. En

• See note to the Hints from Horace. p 438

raged, on finding it come out all smeared with ink, he flung the bottle out of the window into the garden, where it nighted, as here described, upon one of eight leaden Muses, that had been imported, some time betcre, fron Holland-the ninth having been. by some accident, left behind.-Moore.

LETTER CCXXXIX.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 2, 1814. "I am obliged by what you have sent, but would rather not see any thing of the kind; we have had enough of these things already, good and bad, and next month you need not trouble yourself to collect even the higher generation-or my account. It gives me much pleasure to hear of Mr. Hobhouse's and Mr. Merivale's good entreatment by the journals you mention.

"Pray, who corrects the press of your volumes? I hope The Corsair' is printed from the copy I corrected with the additional lines in the first Canto, and some notes from Sismondi and Lavater, which I gave you to add thereto. The arrangement is very well.

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"My cursed people have not sent my papers since Sunday, and I have lost Johanna's divorce from Jupiter. Who hath gotten her with prophet? Is it Sharpe? and how? I should like to buy one of her seals: if salvation can be had at half a guinea a head, the landlord of the Crown and Anchor should be ashamed of himself for charging double for tickets to a mere terrestrial banquet. I am afraid, seriously, that these matters will lend a sad handle to your profane scoffers, and give a loose to much damnable laugh

LETTER CCXLI.

TO MR. MOORE.

"I still think Mr. Hogg and yourself might make out an alliance. Dodsley's was, I believe, the last decent thing of the kind, and lus had great success in its day, and lasted several years; but then he had the double advantage of editing and publishing. The Spleen, and several of Gray's ter. odes, much of Shenstone, and many others of good repute, "I have not seen Hunt's Sonnets nor Descent of Liberty: made their first appearance in his collection. Now, with he has chosen a pretty place wherein to compose the last. the support of Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, &c. I see little Let me hear from you before you embark. Ever, &c." reason why you should not do as well; and if once fairly established, you would have assistance from the youngsters, I dare say. Stratford Canning (whose 'Buonaparte' is excellent,) and many others, and Moore, and Hobhouse, and I, would try a fall now and then (if permitted,) and you might coax Campbell, too, into it. By-the-by, he has an "Newstead Abbey, Sept. 15, 1814. unpublished (though printed) poem on a scene in Germany "This is the fourth letter I have begun to you within the (Bavaria, I think,) which I saw last year, that is perfectly month. Whether I shall finish or not, or burn it like the magnificent, and equal to himself. I wonder he don't pub-rest, I know not. When we meet, I shall explain why I lish it. have not written-why I have not asked you here, as I Oh!-do you recollect S**, the engraver's, mad letter wished-with a great many other whys and wherefore, about not engraving Phillips's picture of Lord Foley? (as which will keep cold. In short, you must excuse all my he blundered it ;) well, I have traced it, I think. It seems, seeming omissions and commissions, and grant me more by the papers, a preacher of Johanna Southcote's is named remission than St. Athanasius will to yourself, if you lop Foley; and I can noway account for the said S* *'s con-off a single shred of mystery from his pious puzzle. It is fusion of words and ideas, but by that of his head's running my creed (and it may be St. Athanasius's too) that your on Jonanna and her apostles. It was a mercy he did not say Lord Tozer. You know, of course, that S✶✶ is a believer in this new (old) virgin of spiritual impregnation. "I long to know what she will produce: her being with child at sixty-five is indeed a miracle, but her getting any one to beget it, a greater.

"If you were not going to Paris or Scotland, I could send you some game: if you remain, let me know.

article on T✶✶ will get somebody killed, and that, on the Saints, get him d-d afterward, which will be quite enow for one number. Oons, Tom! you must not meddle just now with the incomprehensible; for if Johanna Southcote turns out to be

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"Now for a little egotism. My affairs stand thus. Tomorrow I shall know whether a circumstance of importance enough to change many of my plans will occur or not. If "P. S. A word or two of 'Lara,' which your enclosure it does not, am off for Italy next month, and London, in brings before me. It is of no great promise separately; the mean time, next week. I have got back Newstead and but, as connected with the other tales, will do very well twenty-five thousand pounds (out of twenty-eight paid for the volumes you mean to publish. I would recommend already,)-as a 'sacrifice,' the late purchaser calls it, and this arrangement-Childe Harold, the smaller Poems, he may choose his own name. I have paid some of my Giaour, Bride, Corsair, Lara; the last completes the series, debts, and contracted others; but I have a few thousand and its very likeness renders it necessary to the others. pounds, which I can't spend after my own heart in this Cawthorne writes that they are publishing English Bards climate, and so, I shall go back to the south. Hobhouse, I in Ireland: pray inquire into this; because it must be think and hope, will go with me; but, whether he will or stopped." not, I shall. I want to see Venice, and the Alps, and Parmesan cheeses, and look at the coast of Greece, or rather Epirus, from Italy, as I once did-or fancied I did that of Italy, when off Corfu. All this, however, depends upon an event, which may, or may not, happen. Whether it will, I shall know probably to-morrow, and if it does, I can't well go abroad at present.

LETTER CCXL.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Pray pardon this parenthetical scrawl. You shall hear from me again soon;—I don't call this an answer. * Ever most affectionately, &c.*

"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 7, 1814. "1 should think Mr. Hogg, for his own sake as well as yours, would be 'critical' as Iago himself in his editorial capacity; and that such a publication would answer his purpose, and yours too, with tolerable management. You should, however, have a good number to start with-1 mean, good in quality; in these days, there can be little fear of not coming up to the mark in quantity. There must be in this letter, was his second proposal for Miss Milbanke, many 'fine things' in Wordsworth; but I should think it of which he was now waiting the result. difficult to make sir quartos (the amount of the whole) all fine, particularly the pedler's portion of the poem; but there can be no doubt of his powers to do almost any thing.

"I am 'very idle. I have read the few books I had with me, and been forced to fish, for lack of argument. I have caught a great many perch, and some carp, which is a comfort, as one would not lose one's labour willingly.

The Reviews and Magazines of the mon

The "circumstance of importance," to which he alludes

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coral and bells, which I hope she will accept, the moment I get back to London.

but I am going to be 'married, and can't come.' My intended is two hundred miles off, and the moment my busi "My head is at this moment in a state of confusion, from ness here is arranged, I must set out in a great hurry to be various causes, which I can neither describe nor explain- happy. Miss Milbanke is the good-natured person who but let that pass. My employments have been very rural has undertaken me, and, of course, I am very much in love -fishing, shooting, bathing, and boating. Books I have and as silly as all single gentlemen must be in that sentibut few here, and those I have read ten times over, till sick mental situation. I have been accepted these three weeks; of them. So, I have taken to breaking soda water bottles but when the event will take place, I don't exactly know. with my pistols, and jumping into the water, and rowing It depends partly upon lawyers, who are never in a hurry. over it, and firing at the fowls of the air. But why should One can be sure of nothing; but, at present, there appears I'monster my nothings' to you who are well employed, and no other interruption to this intention, which seems as mu happily too, I should hope. For my part, I am happy too, tual as possible, and now no secret, though I did not tell in my way-but, as usual, have contrived to get into three first,-and all our relatives are congratulating away to right or four perplexities, which I do not see my way through. and left in the most fatiguing manner. But a few days, perhaps a day, will determine one of them. "You perhaps know the lady. She is niece to Lady "You do not say a word to me of your Poem. I wish I Melbourne, and cousin to Lady Cowper, and others of your could see or hear it. I neither could, nor would, do it or its acquaintance, and has no fault, except being a great deal Puthor any harm. I believe I told you of Larry and Jacquy. too good for me, and that I must pardon, if nobody else A friend of mine was reading-at least a friend of his was should. It might have been two years ago, and, if it had, reading-said Larry and Jacquy in a Brighton coach. A would have saved me a world of trouble. She has empassenger took up the book and queried as to the author.ployed the interval in refusing about half a dozen of my parThe proprietor said 'there were two-to which the answer ticular friends (as she did me once, by the way,) and has of the unknown was, 'Ay, ay-a joint concern, I suppose, taken me at last, for which I am very much obliged to her. memmot like Sternhold and Hopkins.' I wish it was well over, for I do hate bustle, and there is no marrying without some-and then I must not marry in a black coat, they tell me, and I can't wear a blue one.

"Is not this excellent? I would not have missed the vile comparison' to have scaped being one of the 'Arcades bo et cantare pares.' Good night. Again yours."

LETTER CCXLIII.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 20, 1814.

"Here's to her who long

Hath waked the poet's sigh!

The girl who gave to song

What gold could never buy.

"Pray forgive me for scribbling all this nonsense. You know I must be serious all the rest of my life, and this is a parting piece of buffoonery, which I write with tears in my eyes, expecting to be agitated. Believe me most se riously and sincerely your obliged servant, "BYRON, "P. S. My best rems. to Lord * * on his return."

LETTER CCXLV.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Oct. 7, 1814.

My dear Moore, I am going to be married-that is, I am accepted, and one usually hopes the rest will follow. My mother of the Gracchi (that are to be) you think too "Notwithstanding the contradictory paragraph in the #rait-laced for me, although the paragon of only children, Morning Chronicle, which must have been sent by * *, Of and invested with 'golden opinions of all sorts of men,' and perhaps I know not why I should suspect Claughton of full of most blessed conditions' as Desdemona herself. Miss such a thing, and yet I partly do, because it might interrupt Milbanke is the lady, and I have her father's invitation to his renewal of purchase, if so disposed; in short, it matters proceed there in my elect capacity,-which, however, I cannot, but we are all in the road to matrimony-lawyers setnot do till I have settled some business in London, and got a blue coat.

"She is said to be an heiress, but of that I really know nothing certainly, and shall not inquire. But I do know, that she has talents and excellent qualities, and you will not deny her judgment, after having refused six suitors and taken me. "Now, if you have any thing to say against this, pray do; my mind's made up, positively fixed, determined, and therefore I will listen to reason, because now it can do no harm. Things may occur to break it off, but I will hope not. In the mean time, I tell you (a secret, by-the-by, at least, till I know she wishes it to be public) that I have proposed and am accepted. You need not be in a hurry to wish me joy, for one may n't be married for months. I am going to town to-morrow; but expect to be here, on my way there, within a fortnight.

tling, relations congratulating, my intended as kind as heart could wish, and every one, whose opinion I value, very glad of it. All her relatives, and all mine too, seem equally pleased.

"Perry was very sorry, and has re-contradicted, as you will perceive by this day's paper. It was, to be sure, a devil of an insertion, since the first paragraph came from Sir Ralph's own County Journal, and this in the teeth of it would appear to him and his as my denial. But I have written to do away that, enclosing Perry's letter, which was very polite and kind.

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"Nobody hates bustle so much as I do; but there seems fatality over every scene of my drama, always a row of some sort or other. No matter-Fortune is my best friend, and as I acknowledge my obligations to her, I hope she will treat me better than she treated the Athenian, who "If this had not happened I should have gone to Italy. took some merit to himself on some occasion, but (after In my way down, perhaps, you will meet me at Notting-that) took no more towns. In fact, she, that exquisite godtam, and come over with me here. I need not say that dess, has hitherto carried me through every thing, and nothing will give me greater pleasure. I must, of course, will, I hope, now; since I own it will be all her doing. "eform thoroughly; and, seriously, if I can contribute to her "Well, now for thee. Your article on ** is perfection appiness, I shall secure my own. She is so good a person, itself. You must not leave off reviewing. By Jove, I behat-that-in short, I wish I was a better. lieve do you can any thing. There is wit, and taste, and learning, and good-humour (though not a whit less severe for that) in every line of that critique.

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"Ever, &c."

· Albany, Oct. 5, 1814.

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"Your recollection and invitation do me great honour; ties.'

a display on the subject. It is well that one of us is of such fame, since there is a sad deficit in the morale of that article upon my part,-all owing to my 'bitch of a star,' as Captain Tranchemont says of his planet.

"But, Tom, I say-Oons! Scott menaces the 'Lord of her virtues, &c. &c. you will hear enough of them (for sho the Isles.' Do you mean to compete? or lay by, till this is a kind of pattern in the north,) without my running into wave has broke upon the shelves (of booksellers, not rocks -a broken inetaphor, by the way.) You ought to be afraid of nobody; but your modesty is really as provoking and unnecessary as a **'s. I am very merry, and have just been writing some elegiac stanzas on the death of Sir P. Parker. He was my first cousin, but never met since boyhood. Our relations desired me, and I have scribbled and given it to Perry, who will chronicle it to-morrow. I am as sorry for him as one could be for one I never saw since I was a child; but should not have wept melodiously, except 'at the request of friends.'

"I hope to get out of town and be married, but I shall take Newstead in my way, and you must meet me at Nottingham and accompany me to mine Abbey. I will tell you the day when I know it. "Ever, &c. "P. S. By the way, my wife-elect is perfection; and I hear of nothing but her merits and her wonders, and that she is 'very pretty.' Her expectations, I am told, are great; but what, I have not asked. I have not seen her these ten months."

"Don't think you have not said enough of me in your article on T * *, what more could or need be said?

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"Your long delayed and expected work-I suppose you will take fright at The Lord of the Isles' and Scott now. You must do as you like,-I have said my say. You ought to fear comparison with none, and any one would stare who heard you were so tremulous,—though, after all, I bolieve it is the surest sign of talent. Good morning. I hope we shall meet soon, but I will write again, and perhaps you will meet me at Nottingham. Pray say so.

"P. S. If this union is productive, you shall name the first fruits."

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"Many thanks for your hitherto unacknowledged 'Anecdotes.' Now for one of mine-I am going to be married, and have been engaged this month. It is a long story, and therefore I won't tell it, an old and (though I did not life I have led since I was your pupil must partly account know it till lately) a mutual attachment. The very sad for the offs and ons in this now to be arranged business. We are only waiting for the lawyers and settlements, &c. and next week, or the week after, I shall go down to Seaham in the new character of a reguiar suitor for a wife of mine own.

"I send you some game, of which I beg your acceptance. I specify the quantity as a security against the porter; a hare, a pheasant, and two brace of partridges, which, I hope, are fresh. My stay in town has not been long, and I am in all the agonies of quitting it again next week on business, preparatory to 'a change of condition,' as it is called by the talkers on such matters. I am about to be married; and am, of course, in all the misery of a man in pursuit of happiness. My intended is two hundred miles off, and the efforts I am making with lawyers, &c. &c. to join my future connexions, are, for a personage of my sin"I hope Hodgson is in a fair way on the same voyagegle and inveterate habits, to say nothing of indolence, quite I saw him and his idol at Hastings. I wish he would be prodigious! I sincerely hope you are better than your married at the same time. I should like to make a party, paper intimated lately, and that your approaching freedom-like people electrified in a row, by (or rather through) will find you in full health to enjoy it. Yours ever,

LETTER CCXLVII.

TO MR. MOORE.

"BYRON."

"Oct. 15, 1814.

An' there were any thing in marriage that would make a difference between friends and me, particularly in your case, I would 'none on't.' My agent sets off for Durham next week, and I shall follow him, taking Newstead and you in my way. I certainly did not address Miss Milbanke with these views, but it is likely she may prove a considerable parti. All her father can give, or leave her, he will; and from her childless uncle, Lord Wentworth, whose barony, it is supposed, will devolve on Ly.Milbanke (his sister,) she has expectations. But these will depend his sown disposition, which seems very partial towards ner. She is an only child, and Sir Ralph's estates, though dipped by electioneering, are considerable. Part of them are settled on her; but whether that will be dowered now, I do not know, though, from what has been intimated to me, it probably will. The lawyers are to settle this among them, and I am getting my property into matrimonial array, and myself ready for the journey to Seaham, which I must make in a week or ten days.

upon

"I certainly did not dream that she was attached to me, which it seems she has been for some time. I also thought her of a very cold disposition, in which I was also mistaken -It is a long story, and I won't trouble you with it. As to

Poems, p. 192.

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"Many and sincere thanks for your kind letter-the bet, or rather forfeit, was one hundred to Hawke, and fifty to Hay (nothing to Kelly,) for a guinea received from each of the two former.* I shall feel much obliged by your setting me right if I am incorrect in this statement in any way, and have reasons for wishing you to recollect as much as pos sible of what passed, and state it to Hodgson. My reason is this: some time ago Mr. *** required a bet of me which I never made, and of course refused to pay, and have heard no more of it; to prevent similar mistakes is my object in wishing you to remember well what passed, and to put Hodgson in possession of your memory on the subject. "I hope to see you soon in my way through Cambridge. Remember me to H. and believe me ever and truly, &c."

He had agreed to forfeit these sums to the perso..s mentioned, should he ever marry.

LETTER CCL.

TO MR. MOORE.

"MY DEAREST TOM,

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DEAR NATHAN,

Jan. 7, 1815.

"Murray, being about to publish a complete edition of "I will send the pattern to-morrow, and since you don't my poetical effusions, has a wish to include the stanzas of go to our friend (of the keeping part of the town') this the Hebrew Melodies. Will you allow him that privilege evening, I shall e'en sulk at home over a solitary potation. without considering it an infringement on your copyright? My self-opinion rises much by your eulogy of my social I certainly wish to oblige the gentleman, but you know qualities. As my friend Scrope is pleased to say, I believe Nathan, it is against all good fashion to give and take back. I am very well for a 'holyday drinker.' Where the devil I therefore cannot grant what is not at my disposal. Le are you? with Woolridge, I conjecture-for which you de- me hear from you on the subject. Dear Nathan, serve another abscess. Hoping that the American war will last for many years, and that all the prizes may be registered at Bermoothes, believe me, &c.

"P. S. I have just been composing an epistle to the archbishop for an especial license. Oons! it looks serious. Murray is impatient to see you, and would call, if you will give him audience. Your new coat!-I wonder you like the colour, and don't go about, like Dives, in purple."

LETTER CCLI.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Dec. 31, 1814.

A thousand thanks for Gibbon: all the additions are very great improvements.

LETTER CCLIV.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Yours truly,

"BYRON "

"Halnaby, Darlington, Jan. 10, 1815. "I was married this day week. The parson has pro. nounced it--Perry has announced it-and the Morning Post, also, under the head of Lord Byron's marriage'-as if it were a fabrication, or the puff-direct of a new stay. maker.

"Now for thine affairs. I have redde thee upon the Fathers, and it is excellent well. Positively, you must not this article has been taken for Sydney Smith's (as I heard leave off reviewing. You shine in it-you kill in it; and * At last, I must be most peremptory with you about the in town,) which proves not only your proficiency in parsonprint from Phillips's picture: it is pronounced on all handsology, but that you have all the airs of a veteran critic at the most stupid and disagreeable possible; so do, pray, have your first onset. So, prithee, go on and prosper. "Scott's 'Lord of the Isles' is out-the mail-coach copy a new engraving, and let me see it first; there really must have, by special license of Murray. be no more from the same plate. I don't much care, myself; but every one I honour torments me to death about it, and abuses it to a degree beyond repeating. Now, don't answer with excuses; but, for my sake, have it destroyed: I never shall have peace till it is. I write in the greatest haste.

*P. S. I have written this most illegibly; but it is to beg you to destroy the print, and have another 'by particular desire.' It must be d-d bad, to be sure, since every body says so but the original; and he don't know what to say. But do do it: that is, burn the plate, and employ a new etcher from the other picture. This is stupid and sulky."

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"Now is your time;-you will come upon them newly and freshly. It is impossible to read what you have lately done (verse or prose) without seeing that you have trained on tenfold.✶✶ has floundered; ** has foundered. I have tired the rascals (i. e. the public) with my Harrys and Larrys, Pilgrims and Pirates. Nobody but Southey has done any thing worth a slice of bookseller's pudding; and he has not luck enough to be found out in doing a good thing. Now, Tom, is thy time-'Oh joyful day!-I would not take a knighthood for thy fortune. Let me hear from you soon, and believe me ever, &c.

"P.S. Lady Byron is vastly well. How are Mrs. Moore and Joe Atkinson's 'Graces? We must present our women to one another."

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"Egad! I don't think he is 'down;' and my prophecythe print. Let the next be from the other of Phillips-I like most auguries, sacred and profane—is not annulled, mean (not the Albanian, but) the original one in the exhi- but inverted. bition; the last was from the copy. I should wish my sister and Lady Byron to decide upon the next, as they found fault with the last. I have no opinion of my own upon the subject.

Mr. Kinnaird will, I dare say, have the goodness to furnish copies of the Melodies,* if you state my wish upon the subject. You may have them, if you think them worth inserting. The volumes in their collected state must be inscribed to Mr. Hobhouse, but I have not yet mustered the expressions of my inscription; but will supply them in

time.

With many thanks for your good wishes, which have all been realized, I remain very truly,

"Yours,
"BYRON."

but

To your question about the 'dog'*-Umph!-my 'mo ther I won't say any thing against-that is, about her; how long a 'mistress' or friend may recollect paramours or competitors (lust and thirst being the two great and only bonds between the amatory or the amicable,) I can't say,or, rather, you know as well as I could tell you. But as for canine recollections, as far as I could judge by a cur f mine own (always bating Boatswain, the dearest, and, alas! the maddest of dogs,) I had one (half a wolf by the she side) that doted on me at ten years old, and very nearly ate me

• Mr. Moore had just been reading Mr. Southey's poem of "Rode rick," and with reference to an incident in it, had put the following ques tion to Lord Byron "I should like to know from you, who are one of the Philocynic sect, whether it is at all probable, that any dog (ont of a melodrame) could recognise a master, whom neither his own mother or mis tress was able to find out. I don't care about Ulysses's dog, &c.-all

• The Hebrew Melodies which he had employed himself in writing want is to know from you (who are renown'd as 'friend of the dog, coun during his recent stay in London.

panion of the bear,') whether such a thing is probati."

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