Volume I Part 23 (2/2)

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.”]

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