Volume I Part 3 (1/2)
Burgage Manor, [Thursday], March 22d, 1804.
Although, My ever Dear Augusta, I have hitherto appeared remiss in replying to your kind and affectionate letters; yet I hope you will not attribute my neglect to a want of affection, but rather to a shyness naturally inherent in my Disposition. I will now endeavour as amply as lies in my power to repay your kindness, and for the Future I hope you will consider me not only as _a Brother_ but as your warmest and most affectionate _Friend_, and if ever Circ.u.mstances should require it your _protector_. Recollect, My Dearest Sister, that you are _the nearest relation_ I have in _the world both by the ties of Blood_ and _affection_. If there is anything in which I can serve you, you have only to mention it; Trust to your Brother, and be a.s.sured he will never betray your confidence. When You see my Cousin and future Brother George Leigh, [2] tell him that I already consider him as my Friend, for whoever is beloved by you, my amiable Sister, will always be equally Dear to me.
I arrived here today at 2 o'clock after a fatiguing Journey, I found my Mother perfectly well. She desires to be kindly remembered to you; as she is just now Gone out to an a.s.sembly, I have taken the first opportunity to write to you, I hope she will not return immediately; for if she was to take it into her head to peruse my epistle, there is one part of it which would produce from her a panegyric on _a friend of yours_, not at all agreeable to me, and I fancy, _not particularly delightful to you_. If you see Lord Sidney Osborne [3] I beg you will remember me to him; I fancy he has almost forgot me by this time, for it is rather more than a year Since I had the pleasure of Seeing him.--Also remember me to poor old Murray; [4] tell him we will see that something is to be done for him, for _while I live he shall never be abandoned In his old Age_. Write to me Soon, my Dear Augusta, And do not forget to love me, In the meantime, I remain, more than words can express, your ever sincere, affectionate
Brother and Friend,
BYRON.
P.S. Do not forget to knit the purse you promised me, Adieu my beloved Sister.
[Footnote: 1. The Hon. Augusta Byron, Byron's half-sister (January, 1783-November, 1851), was the daughter of Captain John Byron by his first wife, Amelia d'Arcy (died 1784), only child of the last Earl of Holderness, Baroness Conyers in her own right, the divorced wife of Francis, Marquis of Carmarthen, subsequently fifth Duke of Leeds. After the return of Captain and Mrs. Byron to London early in 1788, she was brought up by her grandmother, the Countess of Holderness. When the latter died, Augusta Byron divided her time between her half-sister, Lady Mary Osborne, who married, July 16, 1801, Lord Pelham, subsequently (1805) Earl of Chichester; her half-brother George, who succeeded his father as sixth Duke of Leeds in 1799; her cousin, the Earl of Carlisle; and General and Mrs. Harcourt. From their houses her letters during the period 1803-7 are written. In 1807 she married her first cousin, Colonel George Leigh of the Tenth Dragoons, the son of General Charles Leigh, by Frances, daughter of Admiral the Hon. John Byron. By her husband, who was a friend of the Prince Regent and well known in society, she was the mother of seven children. Their home was at Newmarket, till, in April, 1818, they were granted apartments in Flag Court, St. James's Palace, where she died in November, 1851.
Augusta Byron seems scarcely to have seen her brother between his infancy and 1802. Lady Holderness and Mrs. Byron were not on friendly terms, and it was not till the former's death that any intimacy was renewed between the brother and sister. Writing on October 18, 1801, to Augusta Byron, Mrs. Byron says, in allusion to the death of Lady Holderness,
”As I wish to bury what is past in _oblivion_, I shall avoid all reflections on a person now no more; my opinion of yourself I have suspended for some years; the time is now arrived when I shall form a very _decided_ one. I take up my pen now, however, to condole with you on the melancholy event that has happened, to offer you every consolation in my power, to a.s.sure you of the inalterable regard and friends.h.i.+p of myself and son. We will be extremely happy if ever we can be of any service to you, now or at any future period. I take it upon me to answer for him; although he knows so little of you, he often mentions you to me in the most affectionate manner, indeed the goodness of his heart and amiable disposition is such that your being his sister, had he never seen you, would be a sufficient claim upon him and ensure you every attention in his power to bestow.
Ah, Augusta, need I a.s.sure you that you will ever be dear to me as the Daughter of the man I tenderly loved, as the sister of my beloved, my darling Boy, and I take G.o.d to witness you _once_ was dear to me on your own account, and may be so _again_. I still recollect with a degree of horror the many _sleepless_ nights, and days of _agony_, I have pa.s.sed by your bedside drowned in tears, while you lay insensible and at the gates of death. Your recovery certainly was wonderful, and thank G.o.d I did my duty. These days you cannot remember, but I never will forget them ... Your brother is at Harrow School, and, if you wish to see him, I have now no desire to keep you asunder.”
From 1802 till Byron's death, Augusta took in him the interest of an elder sister. Writing to Hanson (June 17, 1804), she says--
”Pray write me a line and mention all you hear of my dear Brother: he was a most delightful correspondent while he remained in Nottinghams.h.i.+re: but I can't obtain a single line from Harrow. I was much struck with his _general improvement_; it was beyond the expectations raised by what you had told me, and his letters gave me the most excellent opinion of both his _Head_ and _Heart_.”
In this tone the letters are continued (see extracts p. 39; p. 45, note 1; and p. 97 [Letter 48], [Foot]note 1 [further down]).
From the end of 1805, with some interruptions, and less regularity, the correspondence between brother and sister was maintained to the end of Byron's life. To Augusta, then Mrs. Leigh, Byron sent a presentation copy of 'Childe Harold', with the inscription:
”To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son and most affectionate brother.”
She was the G.o.d-mother of Byron's daughter Augusta Ada, born December 10, 1815. In January, 1816, when Lady Byron was still with her husband, she writes of and to Mrs. Leigh:
”In this at least, I _am_ 'truth itself,' when I say that, whatever the situation may be, there is no one whose society is dearer to me, or can contribute more to my happiness.”
Lady Byron left Byron on January 15, 1816. Writing to Mrs. Leigh from Kirby Mallory, she speaks of her as her ”best comforter,” notices her absolute unselfishness, and says that Augusta's presence in Byron's house in Piccadilly is her ”great comfort” (Lady Byron's letters to Mrs.
Leigh, January 16 and January 23, 1816, quoted in the 'Quarterly Review'
for October, 1869, p. 414). Through Mrs. Leigh pa.s.sed many communications between Byron and Lady Byron after the separation. To her, Byron, in 1816 and 1817, wrote the two sets of ”Stanzas to Augusta,” the ”Epistle to Augusta,” and the Journal of his journey through the Alps, ”which contains all the germs of 'Manfred' (letter to Murray, August, 1817). She was in his thoughts on the Rhine, and in the third canto of 'Childe Harold':--
”But one thing want these banks of Rhine, Thy gentle hand to clasp in mine.”
To her he was writing a letter at Missolonghi (February 23, 1824), which he did not live to finish, ”My dearest Augusta, I received a few days ago your and Lady Byron's report of Ada's health.” He carried with him everywhere the pocket Bible which she had given him. ”I have a Bible,”
he told Dr. Kennedy ('Conversations'), ”which my sister gave me, who is an excellent woman, and I read it very often.” His last articulate words were ”My sister--my child.”
Several volumes of Mrs. Leigh's commonplace books are in existence, filled with extracts mostly on religious topics. She was, wrote the late Earl Stanhope, in a letter quoted in the 'Quarterly Review' (October, 1869, p. 421), ”very fond” of talking about Byron.
”She was,” he continues, ”extremely unprepossessing in her person and appearance--more like a nun than anything, and never can have had the least pretension to beauty. I thought her shy and sensitive to a fault in her mind and character.”