and the trinkets by Scrope, of which I delight to hear the reception. In health I am pretty well, except that the confounded Lombardy rains of this season (the autumn) have given me a flying rheumatism, which is troublesome at times, and makes me feel ancient. I am also growing grey and giddy, and cannot help thinking my head will decay; I wish my memory would, at least my remembrance. Ada-by the way Ada's name (which I found in our pedigree under King John's reign) is the same with that of the Sister of Charlemagne, as I read the other day in a book treating of the Rhine. Ever, B. P.S.-I forgot to tell you that my dog (Mutz by name and Swiss by nation) shuts a door when he is told : there-that's more than Tip can do. Remember me to the childer, and to Georgiana, who I suppose has grown a prodigious penwoman. I hope she likes her seals and all her share of Mont Blanc. I have had so much of mountains that I am not yet reconciled to the plains-but they improve. Verona seems a fine city. P.S.-Nov! 7th I have been over Verona. The Amphitheatre is superb, and in high preservation. Of the truth of the story of Juliet they seem very tenacious, giving the date (1303), and shewing a tomb. It is an open granite sarcophagus in a most desolate convent garden, which looks quite wild and withered, and once was a Cimetery (sic) since ruined. I brought away four 1. The trinkets were presents for his nieces and for his daughter sent from Switzerland by Byron to Mrs. Leigh, through Scrope Davies. 1816.] ANXIETY FOR HIS DAUGHTER. 5 small pieces of it for you and the babes (at least the female part of them), and for Ada, and her mother, if she will accept it from you. I thought the situation more appropriate to the history than if it had been less blighted. This struck me more than all the antiquities, more even than the Amphitheatre. 614.-To John Hanson. Venice, Nov 11th 1816. MY DEAR SIR,-Information having reached me of an intention of Lady Byron to go upon the Continent, I wrote to my Sister to object to the Child's leaving England. To this the answer has been that "Lady B. "did not mean to quit England this winter," but not a word of reply on the subject of the Child.1 1. The following are the answers received by Hanson from Sir Ralph Noel and Lady Byron on the subject : 1.-To John Hanson. "Kirkby Mallory, Dec. 4th 1816. "DEAR SIR,-In reply to the enquiry I have received from you, "I have only to state that Lady Byron has not entertained any "intention of going abroad at present. Miss Byron is perfectly "well. I am, dear sir, "Your obedient servant, 2.-To John Hanson. "RA: NOEL." "Kirkby Mallory, Jan! 22nd 1817. "DEAR SIR,-I conceive my reply to your last letter perfectly "conclusive as far as the immediate enquiry was concerned. I "believe I stated that Lady Byron, under whose care Miss Byron "is, had no present intention whatever of going abroad. This "statement I am authorized to repeat, and, in my opinion, future "and probably remote contingencies cannot with propriety be "anticipated. I therefore consider it unnecessary to treat the "matter of your communication in any other light. Lady Byron desires her compliments, and I am, dear sir, "RA: NOEL." My daughter shall not leave England with my consent. I protest against it for every reason, and in every possible form; and I beg and desire that you will immediately take the proper steps (legal if necessary) to prevent the possibility of such an occurrence. If Lady B. thinks proper now, or hereafter, to travel, that is no business of mine; but my daughter and only legitimate child must not be of the party. I do not wish to take her from the family; let her in such a case remain with Lady Noel, or my sister (or I will return immediately, if necessary, to receive her), but let it be immediately settled and understood that in no case is my daughter to leave the country. Pray let me have an answer as soon as you conveniently can on this anxious subject, and do not delay ascertaining and arranging this point a moment, as it is to me of much consequence. In the present state of the Continent, I would not have my child rambling over it for millions. Address to me here, viz. Venice, Italy, Poste Restante. Yours ever truly, BYRON. P.S.-If necessary I could come to England now, but wish to defer my return till Spring, unless absolutely necessary. 3.-To John Hanson. "Kirkby Mallory, Jan 30, 1817. "There never has existed nor does there exist the remotest in"tention of removing Miss Byron out of the kingdom. "ANNE ISABELLA BYRON. "RALPH NOEL." Under the signature of Sir Ralph Noel, he has added the words, "without the leave of the chancellor." This was the first intimation, given either to Byron or his solicitor, of the steps taken in the spring of 1816, by which Ada Byron was made a ward in Chancery. 1816.] MARIANNA SEGATI. 7 Pray write, and do not neglect or delay on this point. I suppose, as having my power of Attorney, you can act for me: if not, let me know at all events immediately. 615.-To Thomas Moore. Venice, November 17, 1816. 1 I wrote to you from Verona the other day in my progress hither, which letter I hope you will receive. Some three years ago, or it may be more, I recollect your telling me that you had received a letter from our friend Sam, dated "On board his gondola." My gondola is, at this present, waiting for me on the canal; but I prefer writing to you in the house, it being autumn-and rather an English autumn than otherwise. It is my intention to remain at Venice during the winter, probably, as it has always been (next to the East) the greenest island of my imagination. It has not disappointed me; though its evident decay would, perhaps, have that effect upon others. But I have been familiar with ruins too long to dislike desolation. Besides, I have fallen in love, which, next to falling into the canal, (which would be of no use, as I can swim,) is the best or the worst thing I could do. I have got some extremely good apartments in the house of a "Merchant of Venice," 3 who is 1. Byron probably alludes to a letter from Rogers to Moore, October 17, 1814, written from Venice (Memoirs, etc., of Thomas Moore, vol. viii. pp. 184-188), "Last night in my gondola I made a "vow I would write you a letter, if it was only to beg you would "write to me at Rome." 2. A further reason for Byron's love of Venice was suggested by Madame de Flahault (Memoirs, etc., of Thomas Moore, vol. iii. p. 93): "It is a curious idea of Madame Flahault, that Lord Byron chose "Venice for a residence, because, as nobody walks there, his not "having the power is not so remarkable." 3. The husband of Marianna Segati was a draper in the Frezzeria. The sign of his shop was Il Corno, to which his apprentices added a good deal occupied with business, and has a wife in her twenty-second year. Marianna (that is her name) is in her appearance altogether like an antelope. She has the large, black, oriental eyes, with that peculiar expres. sion in them which is seen rarely among Europeanseven the Italians-and which many of the Turkish women give themselves by tinging the eyelid,'-an art not known out of that country, I believe. This expression she has naturally,-and something more than this. In short, I cannot describe the effect of this kind of eye,—at least upon me. Her features are regular, and rather aquiline-mouth small-skin clear and soft, with a kind of hectic colour-forehead remarkably good: her hair is of the dark gloss, curl, and colour of Lady J[ersey]'s: her figure is light and pretty, and she is a famous songstress-scientifically so; her natural voice (in conversation, I mean) is very sweet; and the naïveté of the Venetian dialect is always pleasing in the mouth of a woman. November 23. You will perceive that my description, which was proceeding with the minuteness of a passport, has been interrupted for several days. In the mean time * * * * December 5. Since my former dates, I do not know that I have much to add on the subject, and, luckily, nothing to take the word Inglese. "His house," writes Rawdon Brown, in a manuscript note to Moore's Life, "stood on the left-hand side, going "from the Ascensione to the Caffé dei Lazzaroni. . . . Marianna,' he continues, was a demon of avarice and libidinousness, who "intrigued with every resident in the house, and every guest who "visited it." 1. 66 "Her eyelashes, though dark as night, were tinged For those large black eyes were so blackly fringed, Don Juan, Canto III. stanza lxxv. |