from justice to you, for I had heard the story with some slight variations. Indeed, when we met this morning, Wingfield' had not undeceived me; but he will tell you that I displayed no resentment in mentioning what I had heard, though I was not sorry to discover the truth. Perhaps you hardly recollect, some years ago, a short, though, for the time, a warm friendship between us. Why it was not of longer duration I know not. I have still a gift of yours in my possession, that must always prevent me from forgetting it. I also remember being favoured with the perusal of many of your compositions, and several other circumstances very pleasant in their day, which I will not force upon your memory, but entreat you to believe me, with much regret at their short continuance, and a hope they are not irrevocable, Yours very sincerely, etc., BYRON. "the truth. The only difference, except perhaps in the subjects "talked about, between our life at Newstead Abbey and that of the 'great families around us, was the hours we kept. It was, as I "have said, winter, and the days were cold; and, as nothing tempted us to rise early, we got up late. This flung the routine "of the day rather backward, and we did not go early to bed. My "visit to Newstead lasted about three weeks, when I returned to 'Cambridge to take my degree." 66 66 To Harness Byron intended to dedicate Childe Harold, but feared to do so, "lest it should injure him in his profession.” 1. Three Wingfields, sons of Lord Powerscourt, entered Harrow in February, 1801. The Hon. Richard Wingfield succeeded his father as fifth Viscount Powerscourt in 1809, and died in 1823. Edward became a clergyman and died of cholera in 1825; John, Byron's friend, the "Alonzo" of "Childish Recollections" entered the Coldstream Guards, and died of fever at Coimbra, May 14, 1811. "Of all human beings, I was perhaps at one time most attached to poor Wingfield, who died at Coimbra, 1811, before I returned "to England" (Life, p. 21). To his memory Byron wrote the lines in Childe Harold, Canto I. stanza xci. 66 1808.] A CHANGE OF MOOD. 181 93.-To J. Ridge. [Mr. Ridge, Newark.] Dorant's Hotel, February 21st, 1808. MR. RIDGE,-Something has occurred which will make considerable alteration in my new volume. You must go back and cut out the whole poem of Childish Recollections.1 Of course you will be surprized at this, and perhaps displeased, but it must be done. I cannot help its detaining you a month longer, but there will be enough in the volume without it, and as I am now reconciled to Dr. Butler I cannot allow my satire to appear against him, nor can I alter that part relating to him without spoiling the whole. You will therefore omit the whole poem. Send me an immediate answer to this letter but obey the directions. It is better that my reputation should suffer as a poet by the omission than as a man of honour by the insertion. Etc., etc., 1. For "Childish Recollections," see Poems, vol. i. p. 101. A previous letter, written to Ridge from Dorant's Hotel, January 9, 1808, illustrates the rapidity with which Byron's moods changed. In this case, the lines on "Euryalus" (Lord Delawarr: see page 41, note 1) were to be omitted : "MR. RIDGE,-In Childish Recollections omit the whole charac"ter of Euryalus, and insert instead the lines to Florio as a part of "the poem, and send me a proof in due course. "Etc. etc., "BYRON. "P.S.-The first line of the passage to be omitted begins 'Shall "fair Euryalus,' etc., and ends at Toil for more; omit the "whole." CHAPTER III. 1808-1809. ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH Reviewers. 94-To the Rev. John Becher.1 Dorant's Hotel, Feb. 26, 1808. MY DEAR BECHER,-Now for Apollo. I am happy that you still retain your predilection, and that the public 1. The Rev. John Thomas Becher (1770-1848), educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, was appointed Vicar of Rumpton, Notts., and Midsomer Norton, 1801; Prebendary of Southwell in 1818; and chairman of Newark Quarter Sessions in 1816. In all matters relating to the condition of the poor he made himself an acknowledged authority. He was the originator of a house of correction, a Friendly Society, and a workhouse at Southwell. He was one of the "supervisors" appointed to organize the Milbank Penitentiary, which was opened in June, 1816. On Friendly Societies he published three works (1824, 1825, and 1826), in which, inter alia, he sought to prove that labourers, paying sixpence a week from the time they were twenty, could secure not only sick-pay, but an annuity of five shillings a week at the age of sixty-five. His Anti-Pauper System (1828) pointed to indoor relief as the true cure to pauperism. It was by Becher's advice that Byron destroyed his Fugitive Pieces. No one who has read the silly verses which Becher condemned, can doubt that the counsel was wise (see Byron's Lines to Becher, Poems, vol. i. pp. 112-114, 114-116, 247– 251). The following are the lines in which Becher expostulated with Byron on the mischievous tendency of his verses : "Say, Byron! why compel me to deplore Deigning to varnish scenes, that shun the day, 1808.] THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. 183 allow me some share of praise. I am of so much importance that a most violent attack is preparing for me in the next number of the Edinburgh Review. This I had from the authority of a friend who has seen the proof and manuscript of the critique. You know the system of the Edinburgh gentlemen is universal attack. They praise none; and neither the public nor the author expects praise from them. It is, however, something to be noticed, as they profess to pass judgment only on works requiring the public attention. You will see this when it comes out ;-it is, I understand, of the most unmerciful Forbear to taint the Virgin's spotless mind, In Power though mighty, be in Mercy kind, 1. See, for the Review itself, Appendix II. "As an author," writes Byron to Hobhouse, February 27, 1808, "I am cut to atoms by the EReview; it is just out, and has completely de"molished my little fabric of fame. This is rather scurvy treatment "for a Whig Review; but politics and poetry are different things, "and I am no adept in either. I therefore submit in silence." Among the less sentimental effects of this Review upon Byron's mind, he used to mention that, on the day he read it, he drank three bottles of claret to his own share after dinner; that nothing, however, relieved him till he had given vent to his indignation in rhyme, and that "after the first twenty lines, he felt himself considerably better" (Moore, Life, p. 69). 66 "I was sitting with Charles Lamb," H. Crabb Robinson told De Morgan, "when Wordsworth came in, with fume in his countenance "and the Edinburgh Review in his hand. 'I have no patience with "these Reviewers,' he said; 'here is a young man, a lord, and a "minor, it appears, who publishes a little volume of poetry; and "these fellows attack him, as if no one may write poetry unless he "lives in a garret. The young man will do something, if he goes "on.' When I became acquainted with Lady Byron, I told her this story, and she said, 'Ah! if Byron had known that, he would 66 never have attacked Wordsworth. He once went out to dinner "where Wordsworth was to be; when he came home, I said, Well, how did the young poet get on with the old one?" "To "tell you the truth," said he, "I had but one feeling from the 'beginning of the visit to the end-reverence!"'". -(Diary, iii. 488.) 66.66 66 description; but I am aware of it, and hope you will not be hurt by its severity. Tell Mrs. Byron not to be out of humour with them, and to prepare her mind for the greatest hostility on their part. It will do no injury whatever, and I trust her mind will not be ruffled. They defeat their object by indiscriminate abuse, and they never praise except the partisans of Lord Holland and Co.1 It is nothing to be abused 66 66 1. That is to say, the Edinburgh Review praised only Whigs. Henry Richard Vassall Fox, third Lord Holland (1773-1840), the nephew of Fox, and friend of Grey," married, in 1797, Elizabeth Vassall, the divorced wife of Sir Godfrey Webster. He held the office of Lord Privy Seal in the Ministry of All the Talents (October, 1806, to March, 1807). During the long exclusion of the Whigs from office (1807-32), when there seemed as little chance of a Whig Administration as of "a thaw in Nova Zembla," Holland, in the House of Lords, supported Catholic Emancipation, advocated the emancipation of slaves, opposed the detention of Napoleon as a prisoner of war, and moved the abolition of capital punishment for minor offences. From November, 1830, to his death, with brief intervals, he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in the administrations of Lord Grey and of Lord Melbourne. Outside the House he kept the party together by his great social gifts. An admirable talker, raconteur, and mimic, with a wit's relish for wit, the charm of his good temper was irresistible. "In my whole 'experience of our race," said Lord Brougham, "I never saw such "a temper, nor anything that at all resembled it" (Statesmen of the Time of George III., ed. 1843, 3rd series, p. 341). Greville speaks of "his imperturbable temper, unflagging vivacity and spirit, his in"exhaustible fund of anecdote, extensive information, sprightly wit " (Memoirs, iii. 446). Leslie, in his Autobiographical Recollections (vol. i. p. 100), adds the tribute that "he was, without any exception, "the very best-tempered man I have ever known." Lord John Russell (preface to vol. vi. of the Life of Thomas Moore) says that "he won "without seeming to court, instructed without seeming to teach, and "he amused without labouring to be witty." George Ticknor (Life, vol. i. p. 264) "never met a man who so disarms opposition in "discussion, as I have often seen him, without yielding an iota, "merely by the unpretending simplicity and sincerity of his manner.' Sydney Smith (Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith, chap. x. p. 187) considered that his "career was one great, incessant, and un"rewarded effort to resist oppression, promote justice, and restrain "the abuse of power. He had an invincible hatred of tyranny and "oppression, and the most ardent love of public happiness and "attachment to public rights." A lover of art, a scholar, a linguist, he wrote memoirs, satires, and verses, collected materials for a life |