The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume I Part 23

The cornelian heart was, of course, returned, and Lord Byron, at the same time, reminded that he had left it with Miss Pigot as a deposit, _not_ a gift (Moore).]

[Footnote 3: See page 182 [Letter 94], [Foot]note 1 [2].]

[Footnote 4: See "Thoughts suggested by a College Examination" (_Poems_, vol. i. pp. 28-31), also "Granta: a Medley" (_Poems_, vol. i. pp.

56-62).]

[Footnote 5: The Battle of Friedland, June 15, 1807. This is almost the first allusion that Byron makes to the war.]

75.--To Elizabeth Bridget Pigot.

Trin. Coll. Camb. July 5, 1807.

Since my last letter I have determined to reside _another year_ at Granta, as my rooms, etc., etc., are finished in great style, several old friends come up again, and many new acquaintances made; consequently my inclination leads me forward, and I shall return to college in October if still _alive_. My life here has been one continued routine of dissipation--out at different places every day, engaged to more dinners, etc., etc., than my _stay_ would permit me to fulfil. At this moment I write with a bottle of claret in my _head_ and _tears_ in my _eyes_; for I have just parted with my "_Cornelian_"

who spent the evening with me. As it was our last interview, I postponed my engagement to devote the hours of the _Sabbath_ to friends.h.i.+p:--Edleston and I have separated for the present, and my mind is a chaos of hope and sorrow. To-morrow I set out for London: you will address your answer to "Gordon's Hotel, Albemarle Street,"

where I _sojourn_ during my visit to the metropolis.

I rejoice to hear you are interested in my _protege_; he has been my _almost constant_ a.s.sociate since October, 1805, when I entered Trinity College. His _voice_ first attracted my attention, his _countenance_ fixed it, and his _manners_ attached me to him for ever.

He departs for a _mercantile house_ in _town_ in October, and we shall probably not meet till the expiration of my minority, when I shall leave to his decision either entering as a _partner_ through my interest, or residing with me altogether. Of course he would in his present frame of mind prefer the _latter_, but he may alter his opinion previous to that period;--however, he shall have his choice.

I certainly love him more than any human being, and neither time nor distance have had the least effect on my (in general) changeable disposition. In short, we shall, put _Lady E. Butler_ and _Miss Ponsonby_ [1] to the blush, _Pylades_ and _Orestes_ out of countenance, and want nothing but a catastrophe like _Nisus_ and _Euryalus_, to give _Jonathan_ and _David_ the "go by." He certainly is perhaps more attached to _me_ than even I am in return. During the whole of my residence at Cambridge we met every day, summer and winter, without pa.s.sing _one_ tiresome moment, and separated each time with increasing reluctance. I hope you will one day see us together.

He is the only being I esteem, though I _like_ many.

The Marquis of Tavistock [2] was down the other day; I supped with him at his tutor's--entirely a Whig party. The opposition muster strong here now, and Lord Hartington, the Duke of Leinster, etc., etc., are to join us in October, so every thing will be _splendid_. The _music_ is all over at present. Met with another "_accidency_"--upset a b.u.t.ter-boat in the lap of a lady--look'd very _blue_--_spectators_ grinned--"curse 'em!" Apropos, sorry to say, been _drunk_ every day, and not quite _sober_ yet--however, touch no meat, nothing but fish, soup, and vegetables, consequently it does me no harm--sad dogs all the _Cantabs_. Mem.--_we mean_ to reform next January. This place is a _monotony of endless variety_--like it--hate Southwell. Has Ridge sold well? or do the ancients demur? What ladies have bought?

Saw a girl at St. Mary's the image of Anne----, [3] thought it was her--all in the wrong--the lady stared, so did I--I _blushed_, so did _not_ the lady,--sad thing--wish women had _more modesty_. Talking of women, puts me in mind of my terrier f.a.n.n.y--how is she? Got a headache, must go to bed, up early in the morning to travel. My _protege_ breakfasts with me; parting spoils my appet.i.te--excepting from Southwell. Mem. _I hate Southwell_.

Yours, etc.

[Footnote 1: Lady Eleanor Butler (c. 1745-1829), sister of the seventeenth Earl of Ormonde, and Sarah Ponsonby (circ. 1755-1831), cousin of the Earl of Bessborough, were the two "Ladies of the Vale," or "Ladies of Llangollen." About the year 1779 they settled in a cottage at Plasnewydd, in the Vale of Llangollen, where they lived, with their maidservant, Mary Caryll, for upwards of half a century. They are buried, with their servant, in the churchyard of Plasnewydd, under a triangular pyramid. Though they had withdrawn from the world, they watched its proceedings with the keenest interest.

"If," writes Mrs. Piozzi, from Brynbella, July 9, 1796, "Mr. Bunbury's 'Little Gray Man' is printed, do send it hither; the ladies at Llangollen are dying for it. They like those old Scandinavian tales and the imitations of them exceedingly; and tell me about the prince and princess of 'this' loyal country, one province of which alone had disgraced itself"

('Life and Writings of Mrs. Piozzi', vol. ii. p. 234). Nor did they despise the theatre. Charles Mathews ('Memoirs', vol. iii. pp. 150, 151), writing from Oswestry, September 4, 1820, says,

"The dear inseparable inimitables, Lady Butler and Miss Ponsonby, were in the boxes here on Friday. They came twelve miles from Llangollen, and returned, as they never sleep from home. Oh, such curiosities! I was nearly convulsed.... As they are seated, there is not one point to distinguish them from men; the dressing and powdering of the hair; their well-starched neckcloths; the upper part of their habits, which they always wear, even at a dinner-party, made precisely like men's coats; and regular black beaver men's hats. They looked exactly like two respectable superannuated old clergymen.... I was highly flattered, as they never were in the theatre before."

Among the many people who visited them in their retreat, and have left descriptions of them, are Madame de Genlis, De Quincey, Prince Puckler-Muskau. Their friends.h.i.+ps were sung by Sotheby and Anne Seward, and their cottage was depicted by Pennant.

"It is very singular," writes John Murray, August 24, 1829, to his son ('Memoir of John Murray', vol. ii. p. 304),

"that the ladies, intending to 'retire' from the world, absolutely brought all the world to visit them, for after a few years of seclusion their strange story was the universal subject of conversation, and there has been no person of rank, talent, and importance in any way who did not procure introductions to them."

[Footnote 2: Lord Tavistock's experience at Cambridge resembled that of Byron. He had received only a "pretended education," and the Duke of Bedford had come to the conclusion that "nothing was learned at English Universities." "Tavistock left Cambridge in May," Lord J. Russell notes in his Diary for 1808, "having been there in supposition two years"

(Walpole's 'Life of Lord John Russell', vol. i. pp. 44 and 35).]

[Footnote 3: Probably Miss Anne Houson, daughter of the Rev. Henry Houson of Southwell. She married the Rev. Luke Jackson, died December 25, 1821, and is buried at Hucknall Torkard. (For verses addressed to her, see 'Poems', vol. i. pp. 70-2, 244-45, 246-47, 251-52, 253.)]

76.--To Elizabeth Bridget Pigot.

Gordon's Hotel, July 13, 1807.

You write most excellent epistles--a fig for other correspondents, with their nonsensical apologies for "_knowing nought about it_"--you send me a delightful budget. I am here in a perpetual vortex of dissipation (very pleasant for all that), and, strange to tell, I get thinner, being now below eleven stone considerably. Stay in town a _month_, perhaps six weeks, trip into Ess.e.x, and then, as a favour, _irradiate_ Southwell for three days with the light of my countenance; but nothing shall ever make me _reside_ there again. I positively return to Cambridge in October; we are to be uncommonly gay, or in truth I should _cut_ the University. An extraordinary circ.u.mstance occurred to me at Cambridge; a girl so very like----made her appearance, that nothing but the most _minute inspection_ could have undeceived me. I wish I had asked if _she_ had ever been at H----

What the devil would Ridge have? is not fifty in a fortnight, before the advertis.e.m.e.nts, a sufficient sale? [1] I hear many of the London booksellers have them, and Crosby [2] has sent copies to the princ.i.p.al watering places. Are they liked or not in Southwell? ... I wish Boatswain had _swallowed_ Damon! How is Bran? by the immortal G.o.ds, Bran ought to be a _Count_ of the _Holy Roman Empire_.

The intelligence of London cannot be interesting to you, who have rusticated all your life--the annals of routs riots, b.a.l.l.s and boxing-matches, cards and crim. cons., parliamentary discussion, political details, masquerades, mechanics, Argyle Street Inst.i.tution and aquatic races, love and lotteries, Brookes's and Buonaparte, opera-singers and oratorios, wine, women, wax-work, and weatherc.o.c.ks, can't accord with your _insulated_ ideas of decorum and other _silly expressions_ not inserted in _our vocabulary_.

Oh! Southwell, Southwell, how I rejoice to have left thee, and how I curse the heavy hours I dragged along, for so many months, among the Mohawks who inhabit your kraals!--However, one thing I do not regret, which is having _pared off_ a sufficient quant.i.ty of flesh to enable me to slip into "an eel-skin," and vie with the _slim_ beaux of modern times; though I am sorry to say, it seems to be the mode amongst _gentlemen_ to grow _fat_, and I am told I am at least fourteen pound below the fas.h.i.+on. However, I _decrease_ instead of enlarging, which is extraordinary, as _violent_ exercise in London is impracticable; but I attribute the _phenomenon_ to our _evening squeezes_ at public and private parties. I heard from Ridge this morning (the 14th, my letter was begun yesterday): he says the poems go on as well as can be wished; the seventy-five sent to town are circulated, and a demand for fifty more complied with, the day he dated his epistle, though the advertis.e.m.e.nts are not yet half published. Adieu.

P.S.--Lord Carlisle, on receiving my poems, sent, before he opened the book, a tolerably handsome letter:[1]--I have not heard from him since. His opinions I neither know nor care about: if he is the least insolent, I shall enrol him with _Butler_ and the other worthies. He is in Yorks.h.i.+re, poor man! and very ill! He said he had not had time to read the contents, but thought it necessary to acknowledge the receipt of the volume immediately. Perhaps the Earl "_bears no brother near the throne"--if so_, I will make his _sceptre_ totter _in his hands_.--Adieu!

[Footnote 1: This is probably the third collection of early verse, 'Hours of Idleness', the first collection published with Byron's name (see page 104 [Letter 53], [Foot]note 1).]

[Footnote 2: B. Crosby & Co., of Stationers' Court, were the London agents of Ridge, the Newark bookseller. Crosby was also the publisher of a magazine called 'Monthly Literary Recreations', in which (July, 1807) appeared a highly laudatory notice of 'Hours of Idleness', and Byron's review of Wordsworth's 'Poems' (2 vols. 1807. See Appendix I.), and his "Stanzas to Jessy" (see 'Poems', vol. i. pp. 234-236). These lines were enclosed with the following letter, addressed to "Mr. Crosby, Stationers' Court:"--

"July 21, 1807.

Sir,--I have sent according to my promise some Stanzas for 'Literary Recreations'. The insertion I leave to the option of the Editors. They have never appeared before. I should wish to know whether they are admitted or not, and when the work will appear, as I am desirous of a copy.

Etc., etc.,

BYRON.

P.S.--Send your answer when convenient."]