1813.]

OUT OF A SERIOUS SCRAPE.

199

On Sunday, I set off for a fortnight for Eywood, near Presteign, in Herefordshire-with the Oxfords. I see you put on a demure look at the name, which is very becoming and matronly in you; but you won't be sorry to hear that I am quite out of a more serious scrape with another singular personage which threatened me last year, and trouble enough I had to steer clear of it I assure you. I hope all my nieces are well, and increasing in growth and number; but I wish you were not always buried in that bleak common near Newmarket.

I am very well in health, but not happy, nor even comfortable; but I will not bore you with complaints. I am a fool, and deserve all the ills I have met, or may meet with, but nevertheless very sensibly, dearest Augusta, Your most affectionate brother,

BYRON.

"indeed, deserved them; it was a chef-d'œuvre. I did not hear "that speech of his (being then at Harrow), but heard most of his "others on the same question—also that on the war of 1815. I "differed from his opinions on the latter question, but coincided "in the general admiration of his eloquence.

66

"When I met old Courtenay, the orator, at Rogers's the poet's, "in 1811-12, I was much taken with the portly remains of his fine 'figure, and the still acute quickness of his conversation. It was "he who silenced Flood in the English House by a crushing reply 'to a hasty début of the rival of Grattan in Ireland. I asked "Courtenay (for I like to trace motives) if he had not some personal "provocation; for the acrimony of his answer seemed to me, as "I read it, to involve it. Courtenay said 'he had; that, when in "Ireland (being an Irishman), at the bar of the Irish House of "Commons, Flood had made a personal and unfair attack upon "himself, who, not being a member of that House, could not "defend himself, and that some years afterwards, the opportunity "of retort offering in the English Parliament, he could not resist "it.' He certainly repaid Flood with interest, for Flood never "made any figure, and only a speech or two afterwards, in the "English House of Commons. I must except, however, his speech on Reform in 1790, which Fox called 'the best he ever heard 66 upon that subject.'

286.-To John Murray.

March 29th, 1813.

DEAR SIR,-Westall has, I believe, agreed to illustrate your book,1 and I fancy one of the engravings will be from the pretty little girl you saw the other day, though without her name, and merely as a model for some sketch connected with the subject. I would also have the portrait (which you saw to-day) of the friend who is mentioned in the text at the close of Canto Ist, and in the notes, which are subjects sufficient to authorise that addition.

Believe me, yours truly,

BN.

287.-To John Hanson.

Presteigne, April 15th, 1813.

DEAR SIR,-I wrote to you requesting an answer last week, and again apprising you of my determination of leaving England early in May, and proceeding no further with Claughton.

Now, having arrived, I shall write to that person immediately to give up the whole business. I am sick of the delays attending it, and can wait no longer, and I have had too much of law already at Rochdale to place Newstead in the same predicament.

I. An edition of the first two cantos of Childe Harold, to be illustrated by Richard Westall (1765-1836), who painted Byron's portrait in 1813-14.

2. Lady Charlotte Harley, daughter of Lord Oxford, to whom, under the name of Ianthe, the introductory lines to Childe Harold were afterwards addressed. Lady Charlotte married, in 1820, Brigadier-General Bacon.

1813.]

A SHUFFLING PURCHASER.

201

I shall only be able to see you for a few days in town, as I shall sail before the 20th of May.

Believe me, yours ever,

B.

P.S.-My best compliments to Mrs. H. and the

family.

288.-To John Hanson.

Presteigne, April 17th, 1813.

DEAR SIR,-I shall follow your advice and say nothing to our shuffling purchaser, but leave him to you, and the fullest powers of Attorney, which I hope you will have ready on my arrival in town early next week. I wish, if possible, the arrangement with Hoare to be made immediately, as I must set off forthwith. I mean to remain incog. in London for the short time previous to my embarkation.

I have not written to Claughton, nor shall, of course, after your counsel on the subject. I wish you would turn in your mind the expediency of selling Rochdale. I shall never make any thing of it, as it is.

I beg you will provide (as before my last voyage) the fullest powers to act in my absence, and bring my cursed concerns into some kind of order. You must at least allow that I have acted according to your advice about Newstead, and I shall take no step without your being previously consulted.

I hope I shall find you and Mrs. H., etc., well in London, and that you have heard something from this dilatory gentleman.

Believe me, ever yours truly,

B.

289.-To John Murray.

April 21, 1813.

DEAR SIR,-I shall be in town by Sunday next, and will call and have some conversation on the subject of Westall's proposed designs. I am to sit to him for a picture at the request of a friend of mine;1 and as Sanders's is not a good one, you will probably prefer the other. I wish you to have Sanders's taken down and sent to my lodgings immediately-before my arrival. I hear that a certain malicious publication on Waltzing 2 is attributed to me. This report, I suppose, you will take care to contradict, as the Author, I am sure, will not like that I should wear his cap and bells. Mr. Hobhouse's quarto will be out immediately; pray send to the author for an early copy which I wish to take abroad with me. Dear Sir, I am, yours very truly,

B.

P.S.-I see the Examiner 3 threatens some observa. tions upon you next week. What can you have done to share the wrath which has heretofore been principally expended upon the Prince? I presume all your Scribleri will be drawn up in battle array in defence of the modern Tonson-Mr. Bucke, for instance.

1. This picture, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1815, is now in the possession of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

2. Byron's Waltz was published anonymously in the spring of 1813, not, apparently, by Murray, but by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row.

3. In the Examiner for April, 1813, occurs the paragraph: "A "word or two on Mr. Murray's (the 'splendid bookseller ') judg. "ment in the Fine Arts-next week, if room."

4. Charles Bucke (1781-1846), a voluminous writer of verse, plays, and miscellaneous subjects, published, in 1813, his Philosophy of Nature; or, the Influence of Scenery on the Mind and Heart. He supported himself by his pen, and that indifferently. Byron seems

1813.]

SAILING IN MAY.

203

Send in my account to Bennet Street, as I wish to settle it before sailing.

In

to suggest that he was a dependent of Murray's. In 1817 he sent to the Committee of Management at Drury Lane his tragedy, The Italians; or, the Fatal Accusation, and it was accepted. February, 1819, he withdrew the play, in consequence of a quarrel with Edmund Kean, and published it with extracts from the correspondence and a Preface, which sent it through numerous editions. The play itself was, after being withdrawn, played at Drury Lane, April 3, 1819. Bucke and his Preface were answered in The Assailant Assailed, and in A Defence of Edmund Kean, Esq. (both in 1819), and the opinion of the town condemned both him and his tragedy.