which has driven us out of our Good humour and Good manners to a complete Standstill, from which I begin to apprehend that I am to lose altogether your valuable correspondence. Your angry letter arrived at a moment, to which I shall not allude further, as my happiness is best consulted in forgetting it.1

You have perhaps heard also of the death of poor

"that the happiness you talk so much of will be stationary, and not "take those freaks to which the felicity of common mortals is "subject. I do very sincerely wish you well, and am so convinced "of the justice of your matrimonial arguments, that I shall follow "your example as soon as I can get a sufficient price for my coronet. "In the mean time I should be happy to drill for my new situation "under your auspices; but business, inexorable business, keeps me "here. Your letters are forwarded. If I can serve you in any 66 way, command me. I will endeavour to fulfil your requests as "awkwardly as another. I shall pay you a visit, perhaps, in the 66 autumn. Believe me, dear W.,

"Yours unintelligibly,

66 B."

"Reddish's Hotel, July 31st, 1811. "MY DEAR W. W.,-I always understood that the lining was to 64 accompany the carriage; if not, the carriage may accompany the "lining, for I will have neither the one nor the other. In short, "to prevent squabbling, this is my determination, so decide;—if you "leave it to my feelings (as you say) they are very strongly in favour "of the said lining. Two hundred guineas for a carriage with "ancient lining!!! Rags and rubbish! You must write another 'pamphlet, my dear W., before; but pray do not waste your time "and eloquence in expostulation, because it will do neither of us any good, but decide-content or not content. The best thing you can do for the Tutor you speak of will be to send him in "your Vis (with the lining) to the U-Niversity of Göttingen.' "How can you suppose (now that my own Bear is dead) that "I have any situation for a German genius of this kind, till I get "another, or some children? I am infinitely obliged by your "invitations, but I can't pay so high for a second-hand chaise to "make my friends a visit. The coronet will not grace the 'pretty "Vis,' till your tattered lining ceases to disgrace it. Pray favour me with an answer, as we must finish the affair one way or another "immediately,-before next week.

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"Believe me, yours truly,

"BYRON."

"Byron," says Webster, in a note, was more than strict about "trifies."

1. The death of Mrs. Byron, August 1, 1811.

1811.]

NOT A SOCIAL ANIMAL.

5

Matthews, whom you recollect to have met at Newstead. He was one whom his friends will find it difficult to replace, nor will Cambridge ever see his equal.

I trust you are on the point of adding to your relatives instead of losing them, and of friends a man of fortune will always have a plentiful stock-at his Table.

I dare say now you are gay, and connubial, and popular, so that in the next parliament we shall be having you a County Member. But beware your Tutor, for I am sure he Germanized that sanguinary letter; you must not write such another to your Constituents; for myself (as the mildest of men) I shall say no more about it.

Seriously, mio Caro W., if you can spare a moment from Matrimony, I shall be glad to hear that you have recovered from the pucker into which this Vis (one would think it had been a Sulky) has thrown you; you know I wish you well, and if I have not inflicted my society upon you according to your own Invitation, it is only because I am not a social animal, and should feel sadly at a loss amongst Countesses and Maids of Honour, particularly being just come from a far Country, where Ladies are neither carved for, or fought for, or danced after, or mixed at all (publicly) with the Men-folks, so that you must make allowances for my natural diffidence and two years travel.

But (God and yourself willing) I shall certes pay my promised visit, as I shall be in town, if Parliament meets, in October.

In the mean time let me hear from you (without a privy Council), and believe me in sober sadness,

Yours very sincerely,

BYRON.

171.-To R. C. Dallas.

Newstead Abbey, August 25, 1811.

Being fortunately enabled to frank, I do not spare scribbling, having sent you packets within the last ten days. I am passing solitary, and do not expect my agent to accompany me to Rochdale1 before the second week in September; a delay which perplexes me, as I wish the business over, and should at present welcome employment. I sent you exordiums, annotations, etc., for the forthcoming quarto, if quarto it is to be: and I also have written to Mr. Murray my objection to sending the MS. to Juvenal, but allowing him to show it to any others. of the calling. Hobhouse is amongst the types already : so, between his prose and my verse, the world will be decently drawn upon for its paper-money and patience. Besides all this, my Imitation of Horace is gasping for the press at Cawthorn's, but I am hesitating as to the how and the when, the single or the double, the present or the future. You must excuse all this, for I have nothing to say in this lone mansion but of myself, and yet I would willingly talk or think of aught else.

What are you about to do? Do you think of perching in Cumberland, as you opined when I was in the metropolis? If you mean to retire, why not occupy Miss Milbanke's "Cottage of Friendship," late the seat of Cobbler Joe, for whose death you and others are

1. For Byron's Rochdale property, which was supposed to contain a quantity of coal, see Letters, vol. i. p. 78, note 2.

2. Gifford.

3. For John Cam Hobhouse, see Letters, vol. i. p. 163, note 1. 4. The poem remained unpublished till after Byron's death. (See note 1, p. 23, and Poems, ed. 1898, vol. i. pp. 385-450.)

5. "In Seaham churchyard, without any memorial," says Mr. Surtees, "rest the remains of Joseph Blacket, an unfortunate "child of genius, whose last days were soothed by the generous

1811.]

ILLNESS OF GEORGE III.

7

answerable? His "Orphan Daughter" (pathetic Pratt!) will, certes, turn out a shoemaking Sappho. Have you no remorse? I think that elegant address to Miss Dallas should be inscribed on the cenotaph which Miss Milbanke means to stitch to his memory.

The newspapers seem much disappointed at his Majesty's not dying, or doing something better. I presume it is almost over. If parliament meets in October, I shall be in town to attend. I am also invited to Cambridge for the beginning of that month, but am first to jaunt to Rochdale. Now Matthews 2 is gone, and Hobhouse in Ireland, I have hardly one left there to bid me welcome, except my inviter. At three-and-twenty I am left alone, and what more can we be at seventy? It is true I am young enough to begin again, but with whom can I retrace the laughing part of life? It is odd how few of my friends have died a quiet death,-I mean, in their beds. But a quiet life is of more consequence. Yet one loves squabbling and jostling better than yawning. This last word admonishes me to relieve you from

Yours very truly, etc.

"attention of the family of Milbanke."-Hist. of Durham, vol. i. p. 272. (See also Letters, vol. i. p. 314, note 2. For Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron, see p. 118, note 4.)

1. On July 28, 1811, Lord Grenville wrote to Lord Auckland, "It is, I believe, certainly true that the King has taken for the "last three days scarcely any food at all, and that, unless a change "takes place very shortly in that respect, he cannot survive many "days" (Auckland Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 366). It was, however, the mind, and not the physical strength that failed. "The

66

'King, I should suppose," wrote Lord Buckinghamshire, on August 13, "is not likely to die soon, but I fear his mental recovery is hardly "to be expected" (ibid., vol. iv. p. 367). George III. never, except for brief intervals, recovered his reason.

2. For C. S. Matthews, see Letters, vol. i. p. 150, note 3.

172.-To R. C. Dallas.1

Newstead Abbey, Aug. 27, 1811.

I was so sincere in my note on the late Charles Matthews, and do feel myself so totally unable to do justice to his talents, that the passage must stand for the very reason you bring against it. To him all the men I ever knew were pigmies. He was an intellectual giant. It is true I loved Wingfield better; he was the earliest and the dearest, and one of the few one could never repent of having loved: but in ability-ah! you did not know Matthews!

Childe Harold may wait and welcome-books are never the worse for delay in the publication. So you have got our heir, George Anson Byron,3 and his sister, with you.

You may say what you please, but you are one of the murderers of Blackett, and yet you won't allow Harry White's genius. Setting aside his bigotry, he surely ranks next Chatterton. It is astonishing how little he was known; and at Cambridge no one thought or heard of such a man till his death rendered all notice useless. For my own part, I should have been most proud of such

1. Dallas, writing to Byron, August 18, 1811, had said, "I have "been reading the Remains of Kirke White, and find that you "have to answer for misleading me. He does not, in my opinion, "merit the high praise you have bestowed upon him." Writing again, August 26, he objected to the note on Matthews in Childe Harold: "In your note, as it stands, it strikes me that the eulogy on Matthews is a little at the expense of Wingfield and others "whom you have commemorated. I should think it quite enough "to say that his Powers and Attainments were above all praise, "without expressly admitting them to be above that of a Muse who soars high in the praise of others."

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2. For Wingfield, see Letters, vol. i. p. 180, note 1.

3. For George Anson Byron, afterwards Lord Byron, and his sister Julia, see Letters, vol. i. p. 188, note 1.

4. For H. K. White, see Letters, vol. i. p. 336, note 2.