1811.]

WISH TO SPEAK IN PARLIAMENT.

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can he fear from criticism? I don't know if Bland has seen Miller, who was to call on him yesterday.

To-day is the Sabbath,-a day I never pass pleasantly, but at Cambridge; and, even there, the organ is a sad remembrancer. Things are stagnant enough in town; as long as they don't retrograde, 'tis all very well, Hobhouse writes and writes and writes, and is an author. I do nothing but eschew tobacco. I wish parliament were assembled, that I may hear, and perhaps some day be heard ;-but on this point I am not very sanguine. I have many plans;-sometimes I think of the East again, and dearly beloved Greece. I am well, but weakly. Yesterday Kinnaird told me I looked very ill, and sent me home happy.

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2

66 necessary for him to make an exertion to satisfy expectation. The consequence is that, though he is always amusing, he is not always "quite natural." Sir Walter Scott made a similar remark about the numbing effect of Campbell's reputation upon his literary work; his deference to critics ruined his individuality. It was Scott's admiration for "Hohenlinden " which induced Campbell to publish the poem. The two men, travelling in a stage-coach alone, beguiled the way by repeating poetry. At last Scott asked Campbell for something of his own. He replied that there was one thing he had never printed, full of "drums and trumpets and blunderbusses and "thunder," and that he did not know if there was any good in it. He then repeated "Hohenlinden." When he had finished, Scott broke out with, "But, do you know, that's devilish fine! Why, "it's the finest thing you ever wrote, and it must be printed !" 1. See p. 31, note I.

2. Douglas James William Kinnaird (1788–1830), fifth son of the seventh Baron Kinnaird, was educated at Eton, Göttingen, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was an intimate friend of Hobhouse, with whom he travelled on the Continent (1813-14), and was in political sympathy. He represented Bishop's Castle from July, 1819, to March, 1820, but losing his seat`at_the_general election, did not again attempt to enter Parliament. He was famous for his "mob dinners," to which Moore probably refers when he writes to Byron, in an undated letter, of the "Deipno"sophist Kinnaird." He was a partner in the bank of Ransom and Morland, a member of the committee for managing Drury Lane Theatre, author of the acting version of The Merchant of Bruges, or Beggar's Bush (acted at Drury Lane, December 14, 1815), and a member of the Radical Rota Club.

You will never give up wine. See what it is to be thirty! if you were six years younger, you might leave off anything. You drink and repent; you repent and drink.

Is Scrope still interesting and invalid? And how does Hinde with his cursed chemistry? To Harness I have written, and he has written, and we have all written, and have nothing now to do but write again, till Death splits up the pen and the scribbler.

The Alfred1 has three hundred and fifty-four candidates

Kinnaird was Byron's "trusty and trustworthy trustee and "banker, and crown and sheet anchor." It was at his suggestion that Byron wrote the Hebrew Melodies and the Monody on the Death of Sheridan. Talking of Kinnaird to Lady Blessington (Conversations, p. 215), Byron said, "My friend Dug is a proof that a "good heart cannot compensate for an irritable temper; whenever "he is named, people dwell on the last and pass over the first; and 'yet he really has an excellent heart, and a sound head, of which "I, in common with many others of his friends, have had various "proofs. He is clever, too, and well informed, and I do think "would have made a figure in the world, were it not for his temper, "which gives a dictatorial tone to his manner, that is offensive to "the amour propre of those with whom he mixes."

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1. The Alfred Club (1808-55), established at 23, Albemarle Street, was the Savile of the day. Beloe, in his Sexagenarian (vol. ii. chaps. xx.-xxv.), describes among the members of the Symposium, as he calls it, Sir James Mackintosh, George Ellis, William Gifford, John Reeves, Sir W. Drummond, and himself. Byron, in his Detached Thoughts, says, "I was a member of 'the Alfred. It was pleasant; a little too sober and literary, and "bored with Sotheby and Sir Francis d'Ivernois; but one met "Peel, and Ward, and Valentia, and many other pleasant or known "people; and it was, upon the whole, a decent resource in a rainy day, in a dearth of parties, or parliament, or in an empty season." It was, says Mr. Wheatley (London Past and Present), known as the Half-read.

In a manuscript note, now for the first time printed as written, on the above passage from Byron's Detached Thoughts, Sir Walter Scott writes, "The Alfred, like all other clubs, was much haunted "with boars, a tusky monster which delights to range where men "most do congregate. A boar, or bore, is always remarkable for "something respectable, such as wealth, character, high birth, "acknowledged talent, or, in short, for something that forbids "people to turn him out by the shoulders, or, in other words, to cut "him dead. Much of this respectability is supplied by the mere

1811.]

THE ALFRED CLUB.

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for six vacancies. The cook has run away and left us liable, which makes our committee very plaintive. Master Brook, our head serving-man, has the gout, and our new cook is none of the best. I speak from report,-for what is cookery to a leguminous-eating Ascetic? So now you know as much of the matter as I do. Books and quiet are still there, and they may dress their dishes in their own way for me. Let me know your determination as to Newstead, and believe me,

Yours ever,

Μπαιρῶν.

214.-To Thomas Moore.

December 11, 1811.

MY DEAR MOORE,-If you please, we will drop our former monosyllables, and adhere to the appellations sanctioned by our godfathers and godmothers. If you make it a point, I will withdraw your name; at the same time there is no occasion, as I have this day postponed your election sine die, till it shall suit your wishes to be amongst us. I do not say this from any awkwardness the erasure of your proposal would occasion to me, but simply such is the state of the case; and, indeed, the longer your name is up, the stronger will become your probability of success, and your voters more numerous. Of course you will decide-your wish shall be my law. If my zeal has already outrun discretion, pardon me, and attribute my officiousness to an excusable motive.

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I wish you would go down with me to Newstead.

"circumstance of belonging to a certain society of clubists, within "whose districts the bore obtains free-warren, and may wallow or grunt at pleasure. Old stagers in the club know and avoid the "fated corner and arm-chair which he haunts; but he often rushes "from his lair on the inexperienced."

Hodgson will be there, and a young friend, named Harness, the earliest and dearest I ever had from the third form at Harrow to this hour. I can promise you good wine, and, if you like shooting, a manor of 4000 acres, fires, books, your own free will, and my own very indifferent company. Balnea, vina, Venus.1

2

Hodgson will plague you, I fear, with verse ;-for my own part I will conclude, with Martial, nil recitabo tibi; and surely the last inducement, is not the least. Ponder on my proposition, and believe me, my dear Moore,

Yours ever,

BYRON.

215.-To Francis Hodgson.

8, St. James's Street, Dec. 12, 1811.

Why, Hodgson! I fear you have left off wine and me at the same time,-I have written and written and written, and no answer! My dear Sir Edgar,3 water disagrees with you-drink sack and write. Bland did not come to his appointment, being unwell, but Moore supplied all other vacancies most delectably. I have hopes of his joining us at Newstead. I am sure you would like him more and more as he developes,-at least I do.

Caw

How Miller and Bland go on, I don't know. thorne talks of being in treaty for a novel of Madame D'Arblay's, and if he obtains it (at 1500 guineas!!) wishes me to see the MS. This I should read with pleasure,~

1. "Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra." The words are thus given in Gruter (Corpus Inscriptionum (1603), p. DCCCCXII. 10).

2. Martial (xi. lii, 16), Ad Julium Cerealem

"Plus ego polliceor: nil recitabo tibi." 3. Hodgson published, in 1810, Sir Edgar, a Tale.

1811.]

ASKED TO READ THE WANDERER.

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not that I should ever dare to venture a criticism on her whose writings Dr. Johnson once revised, but for the pleasure of the thing. If my worthy publisher wanted a sound opinion, I should send the MS. to Rogers and Moore, as men most alive to true taste. I have had frequent letters from Wm. Harness, and you are silent; certes, you are not a schoolboy. However, I have the consolation of knowing that you are better employed, viz. reviewing. You don't deserve that I should add another syllable, and I won't.

Yours, etc.

P.S.-I only wait for your answer to fix our meeting.

216.-To R. C. Dallas.

[Undated, Dec.? 1811.]1

DEAR SIR,-I have only this scrubby paper to write on-excuse it. I am certain that I sent some more notes on Spain and Portugal, particularly one on the latter. Pray rummage, and don't mind my politics. I believe I leave town next week. Are you better? I hope so.

Yours ever,

B.

217.-To William Harness.

8, St. James's Street, Dec. 15, 1811.

I wrote you an answer to your last, which, on reflection, pleases me as little as it probably has pleased yourself. I will not wait for your rejoinder; but proceed to tell you, that I had just then been greeted with an epistle of *'s, full of his petty grievances, and this at the moment when (from circumstances it is not necessary to enter

1. Dallas's answer is dated December 14, 1811.