the contrary, and half suspect that his mother might
have had him christened in London, and thus given
ground for a mistake."



ERRATA,
P. 38, line 10, for " ag;e" read " page."

'â– ^8' J 3, for " breach" read " beach.

^T^y 12, for " do" read " no."






EECOLLECTIONS



LIFE OF LOED BYEON.



CHAPTER I.

CONNEXION AND FIRST PERSONAL ACQUAINT-
ANCE WITH LORD BYRON.



Lord Byron was a nephew of the late
Captain George Anson Byron, of the Royal
Navy, who was married to my sister, Hen-
rietta Charlotte. In consequence of this
connexion I was well acquainted with Lord
Byron's father and mother. The former,
whose name was John, died at Valenciennes
not long after the birth of his son, which
took place at Dover, 22d January, 1788;
the latter went with her child into Scotland,
and I lost sight of them for many years.

B



2 RECOIXECTTONS OF THE

I heard of him when a boy at De Loyaut6's
Academy, and afterwards, on the death of
the old Lord, his grand uncle, when he was
placed at Harrow. Captain Byron and my
sister were then both dead, and I saw little
of the Byron family for several years.

Lord Byron was called George after his
uncle, who was his godfather : the name of
Gordon had been assumed by his father in
compliance with a condition imposed by
will on the husband of Miss Gordon, the
maiden name of his mother, and on the
representatives of her family.

At the end of the year 1807, some of
my family observed in the newspapers ex-
tracts from Lord Byron's Juvenile Poems,
which he had published under the title of
Hours of Idleness. I ordered the volume,
which I received on the 27th of December.
I read it with great pleasure ; and, if it is
not saying too much for my own judgment,
discerned in it marks of the genius which



LIFE OP liORD BYRON. 3

has been since so universally acknow-
ledged. Though sensible of some personal
gratification from this proof of superior
talents breaking forth in the nephew of
my friend and brother, it did not enter my
mind to make it the occasion of seeking
the author, till I was urged to compliment
him upon his publication, which I did in the
following letter, dated January 6th, 1808: —



« My Lord,

" Your Poems were sent to me a few
days ago. I have read them with more
pleasure than I can express, and I feel my-
self irresistibly impelled to pay you a tri-
bute on the effusions of a noble mind in
strains so truly poetic. Lest, however,
such a tribute from a stranger should ap-
pear either romantic or indecorous, let me
inform your Lordship that the name of
Byron is extremely dear to me, and that

B2



4 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

for some portion of my life I was intimately
connected with, and enjoyed the friendship
of, a near relation of yours, who had begun
to reflect new lustre on it, and who, had he
lived, would have added a large share of
laurels to those which your Muse so
sweetly commemorates; I mean your fa-
ther's brother, through whom I also knew
your father and mother.

Your Poems, my Lord, are not only
beautiful as compositions ; — they bespeak a
heart glowing with honour, and attuned to
virtue, which is infinitely the higher praise.
Your addresses to Newstead Abbey, a place
about which I have often conversed with
your uncle, are in the true spirit of chivalry ;
and the following lines are in a spirit still
more sublime :

" I will not complain, and though chilPd is affection,
With me no corroding resentment shall live ;

My bosom is calmVl by the simple reflection

That both may be wrong, and that both should
foro-ive.'"



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 5

A spirit that brings to my mind another
noble author, who was not only a fine poet,
orator, and historian, but one of the closest
reasoners we have on the truth of that reli-
gion of which forgiveness is a prominent
principle; the great and the good Lord
Lyttleton, whose fame will never die. His
son, to whom he had transmitted genius
but not virtue, sparkled for a moment, and
went out like a falling star, and with him
the title became extinct. He was the vic-
tim of inordinate passions, and he will be
heard of in this world only by those who
read the English Peerage. The lines which
I have just cited, and the sentiments that
pervade your volume, sufficiently indicate
the affinity of your mind with the former;
and I have no doubt that like him you will
reflect more honour on the Peerage than
the Peerage on you.

I wish, my Lord, that it had been within
your plan, and that you had been permitted



6 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

to insert among your poems the verses from
your friend complaining of the warmth of
your descriptions. They must have been
much to his honour; and, from the general
sentiments of your reply, I think your Lord-
ship will not long continue of an opinion you
express in it ; I mean, that you will not
always consider the strength of virtue in
some, and the downhill career of other
young women, as rendering the perusal of
very lively descriptions a matter of indif-
ference. Those whom education and early
habits have made strong, and those whom
neglected nurseries or corrupt schools have
rendered weak, are, perhaps, few compared
to the number that are for a time undecided
characters ; that is, who have not been
advanced to the adamantine rock of purity
by advice and by example; nor, on the
other hand, are yet arrived at the steep pitch
of descent where their progress cannot be
arrested, but are still within the influence



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 7

of impressions. Rousseau acknowledges the
danger of warm descriptions, in the front of
a book in which that danger is pushed to its
utmost extent ; and, at the same time, with
his usual paradoxical inconsistency, says it
will not be his fault that certain ruin ensues,
for good girls should not read novels. I
have not the Nouvelle Heloise by me, but I
translate the passage from an Essay on
Romances by Marmontel: " No chaste
young woman," says Rousseau, "ever reads
novels, and I have given this a title suffi-
ciently expressive to show, on opening its
what is to be expected. She who, in spite
of that title, shall dare to read a single page
of it is a lost young woman : but let her not
impute her ruin to this book ; the mischief
was done before, and as she has begun let
her read to the end ; she has nothing more
to risk*." On this Marmontel asks if the

* " Jamais fille chaste n'a lu des romans, et j'ai mis a
celle ci im litre assez decide, pour qu'en Touvrant on sut



8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

title, Letters of two Lovers, is a bug-
bear, and adds : " shall he who puts sweet
poison in the reach of children say, if they
poison themselves, that he is not to be
blamed for it T

Having perhaps already trespassed too
much on your time, I will not pursue this
subject further, but content myself with re-
ferring your Lordship to the Essay which I
have cited for an admirable critique on Rous-
seau's Novel. It is printed with Marmontel's
other works.

And now, my Lord, shall I conclude with
an apology for my letter ? If I thought one
necessary I would burn it: yet I should
feel myself both delighted and honoured if
I were sure your Lordship would be better
pleased with its being put into the post than

a quoi sVn tenir. Celle qui, malgre ce titre, en osera
lire une page est une fiUe perdue : mais qvi'^eEe n'impute
point sa perte^a ce livre; le mal etoit fait d'avance.
Puisqu''elle a commence, quelle acheve de lire : elle n''a
plus rien a risquer."



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 9

into the fire. Most sincerely do I wish you
success in those pursuits to which I con-
ceive you allude in your preface; and I
congratulate you that, at so early a period
of your life, and in spite of being a favour-
ite of the Muses, you feely ourself born for
your country."

Lord Byron conveyed to me in a flattering
manner the pleasure which he had received
from this letter, as far as it contained a tri-
bute to his muse, but declared that he must
in candour decline such praise as he did not
deserve, and that therefore, with respect to
his virtue, he could not accept of my ap-
plause. He was forcibly struck with the
manner in which I had alluded to the two
Lords Lyttelton with reference to himself,
as he had frequently been compared to the
latter. The events of his short hfe had been
singular, and had had the effect of causing
him to be held up as the votary of licenti-



10 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

ousness, and the disciple of infidelity; though
in this respect he felt he was made out
to be worse than he really was. He men-
tioned to me some of the Reviews in which
his little volume had been noticed ; and, in-
timating that my name and connexion with
his family had long been known to him,
expressed a pleasing desire of a personal
acquaintance.

This communication, while it highly gra-
tified me. was calculated to excite a strong
desire to know more of the character and
feelings of a young man who evinced so
much genius, and who gave such an ac-
count of the results of a life which had not
yet occupied twenty years. I immediately
expressed my feelings in the following
letter, dated January 21, 1808: —

" I am much indebted to the impulse
that incited me to write to you, for the
new pleasure it has procured me.



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. H

Though your letter has made some alte-
ration in the portrait my imagination had
painted, it has in two points heightened it ;
the candour with which you decline praise
you think you do not deserve, and your
declaration that you should be happy to
merit it, convince me that you have been
very injudiciously compared to the last
Lord Lyttleton. I own that, from the de-
sign you express in your preface of resign-
ing the service of the Muses for a different
vocation, I conceived you bent on pursuits
which lead to the character of a legislator
and statesman. I imagined you at one of
the Universities, training yourself to habits
of reasoning and eloquence, and storing up
a large fund of history and law, preparatory
to the time when your rank in society must
necessarily open to you an opportunity of
gratifying a noble ambition. But I have
not taken up the pen to make your Lord-
ship's letter the subject of a sermon; on the



12 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

contrary, I am perfectly sensible that if you
do indeed need the reform some of your
friends think you do, pedantry will never
effect it; and though my years and the
compliments you pay me might be some
excuse for me, the only inclination I feel at
present is to express a warm wish that so
much candour, good sense, and talent, may
lead you to the knowledge of truth, and
the enjoyment of real happiness. I write
principally to thank you for the honour you
intend me by a gift of the new edition of
your poems, which I shall be happy to re-
ceive ; and to say that I mean to avail my-
self of your expressions relative to a meet-
ing, to pay my compliments to you in Albe-
marle-street, in the course of a few days.

While the pen is in my hand, I will just
say that my mention of Lord Lyttleton to
you, who had been compared with him, is
singular ; but it is no less remarkable that
before I was of your age I was anxious tq



LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 13

see him, and went from school to the House
of Peers on purpose, when he introduced a
bill for licensing a theatre at Manchester,
in which I heard him opposed by your re-
lation Lord Carhsle. No, no ; you are not
like him— you shall not be like him, except
in eloquence. Pardon this last effusion."

By the return of the post which took this
letter to him I received a reply, professing
to give a more particular account of his
studies, opinions, and feehngs, written in a
playful style, and containing rather flippant
observations made for the sake of antitheses,
than serious remarks intended to convey
information. The letter may be considered
as characteristic of his prose style in ge-
neral, possessing the germ of his satire
without the bitterness of its maturity, and
the pruriency of his wit uncorrected by the
hand of experience. Though written in so
light and unserious a tone as prevents the



14 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

possibility of charging him gravely with
the opinions he expresses, still the bent
of his mind is perceptible in it ; a bent
which led him to profess that such were
the sentiments of the wicked George
Lord Byron.

I considered these expressions of feeling,
though evidently grounded on some occur-
rences in the still earlier part of his life,
rather as jeux d esprit than as a true por-
trait. I called on him on the 24th of Ja-
nuary, and was dehghted with the interview.
In a few days, the 27th, I dined with him,
and was more and more pleased with him.
I saw nothing to warrant the character he
had given of himself; on the contrary, when
a young fellow-collegian, who dined with
us, introduced a topic on which I did not
hesitate to avow my orthodoxy, he very
gracefully diverted the conversation from
the channel of ridicule which it had begun
to take, and partly combated on my side ;



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 15

though, as I was afterwards convinced, his
opinion did not differ from his companion's,
who was also a pohte gentleman, and did
not make me feel the contempt which he,
probably, entertained for the blindness of
my understanding. After this I saw him
frequently, always with new pleasure, but
occasionally mixed with pain, as intimacy
removed the polite apprehension of offend-
ing, and showed me his engrafted opinions
of religion. I must say engrafted, for I
think he was inoculated by the young
pridelings of intellect, with whom he asso-
ciated at the University. In the course of
the spring he left town, and I did not see
him or hear from him for several months.

In the beginning of the next year, I was
agreeably surprised on receiving a note
from him, dated January 20th, at Reddish's
Hotel, St. James's-street, requesting to see
me on the morning of the Sunday following.
I did not fail to keep the appointment. It



16 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE

was his birth-day, (January 22d, 1809,)
and that on which he came of age. He
was in high spirits ; indeed, so high as to
seem to me more flippant on the subject of
religion, and on some others, than he had
ever appeared before. But he tempered the
overflow of his gaiety with good manners
and so much kindness, that, far from being
inclined to take offence, I felt a hope that
by adopting forbearance, I might do him
some service in an occasional argument or
sentiment : for, although I did not put on
solemn looks, I never, for a moment, allowed
him to imagine that I could adopt his opi-
nions on sacred points. He talked of the
Earl of Carlisle with more than indignation.
I had heard him before speak bitterly of
that nobleman, whose applause he had
courted for his juvenile poetry, and from
whom he received a frigid answer, and little
attention. But his anger that morning pro-
ceeded from another cause. Overcoming,



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 17

or rather stifling, the resentment of the poet,
he had written to remind the Earl that he
should be of age at the commencement of
the ensuing Session of Parliament, in expec-
tation of being introduced by him, and, by
being presented as his near relation, saved
some trouble and awkwardness. A cold
reply informed him, technically, of the
mode of proceeding ; but nothing more.
Extremely nettled, he determined to lash
his relation with all the gall he could throw
into satire. He declaimed against the ties
of consanguinity, and abjured even the so-
ciety of his sister ; from which he entirely
withdrew himself until after the publication
of Childe Harold, when, at length, he
yielded to my persuasions, and made ad-
vances towards a friendly intercourse with
her. When he had vented his resentment
on this subject, he attacked the editor and
other writers of the Edinburgh Review ;
and then told me that, since I last saw him.



U RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

he had written a Satire on them, which he
wished me to read. He put it into my
hands, and I took it home. I was surprised
and charmed with the nerve it evinced. I
immediately wrote to him upon it, and he
requested me to get it published without
his name.



LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 19



CHAPTER IL

PUBLICATION OF " ENGLISH BARDS AND
SCOTCH REVIEWERS."



The work which Lord Byron thus put
into my hands consisted of a number of
loose printed sheets in quarto, and was enti-
tled The British Bards, a Satire. It
contained the original groundwork of his
well-known poem, such as he had written it
at Newstead, where he had caused it to be
printed at a country press; and various cor-
rections and annotations appeared upon the
margin in his own hand. Some of these are
exceedingly curious, as tending to throw a
light upon the workings of his mind at that
early period of his career. To the poem, as
it then stood, he added a hundred and ten

C2



20 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

lines in its first progress through the press ;
and made several alterations, some upon
my suggestion, and others upon his own.
I wrote to him the following letter, dated
January 24, 1809, immediately upon read-
ing it over; —



" My dear Lord Byron,

" I have read your Satire with infinite
pleasure, and were you sufficiently ac-
quainted with my mind to be certain that
it cannot stoop to flattery, I would tell you
that it rivals the Baviad and Mseviad ; but,
till my praise is of that value, I will not
be profuse of it.

I think in general with you of the literary
merit of the writers introduced. I am par-
ticularly pleased with your distinction in
Scott's character ; a man of genius adopt-
ing subjects which men of genius will hardly
read twice, if they can go through them



LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 21

once. But, in allowing Mr. Scott to be a
man of genius, and agreeing as you must,
after the compliments you have paid to
Campbell and M'Neil, that he is not the
only one Scotland has produced, it will be
necessary to sacrifice, or modify, your note
relative to the introduction of the kilted
goddess, who, after all, in having to kiss
such a son as you picture Jeffrey, can be
but a spurious germ of divinity.

As you have given me the flattering
office of looking over your poem with more
than a common reader's eye, I shall scruti-
nize, and suggest any change I may think
advantageous. And, in the first place, I
propose to you an alteration of the title.
' The British Bards' immediately brings
to the imagination those who were slain by
the first Edward. If you prefer it to the
one I am going to offer, at least let the
definite article be left out. I would fain,
however, have you call the Satire, 'The



22 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

Parish Poor of Parnassus;' which will afford
an opportunity for a note of this nature : —
* Booksellers have been called the raidwives
of literature ; with how much more pro-
priety may they now be termed overseers
of the poor of Parnassus, and keepers of
the v/orkhouse of that desolated spot/

I enclose a few other alterations of pas-
sages, straws on the surface, which you
would make yourself were you to correct
the press.

I will also take the liberty of sending
you some two dozen hnes, which, if they
neither offend your ear nor your judgment,
I wish you would adopt, on account of the
occasion which has prompted them*. I am
acquainted with * * *, and, though not on
terms of very close intimacy, I know him

* In his answer to this letter Lord Byron decUned
adopting these Hnes because they were not his own,
quoting at the same time what Lady Wortley Montague
said to Pope, " No touching, — for the good will be given
to 3'^ou, and the bad attributed to me."



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 23

sufficiently to esteem him as a man. He
has but a slender income, out of which he
manages to support two of his relations.
His literary standard is by no means con-
temptible, and his objects have invariably
been good ones. Now, for any author to
step out of the common track of criticism
to make a victim of such a man by the
means of a particular book, made up of
unfair ridicule and caricature, for the venal
purpose of collecting a few guineas, is not
only unworthy of a scholar, but betrays
the malignity of a demon. If you think my
lines feeble, let your own breast inspire
your pen on the occasion, and send me
some.

I shall delay the printing as little as pos-
sible; but I have some apprehension as to
the readiness of my publishers to undertake
the sale, for they have a large portion of
the work of the Poor of Parnassus to dis-
pose of. I will see them without delay,



24 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

and persuade them to it if I can; if not, I
will employ some other. Southey is a
great favourite of theirs ; and I must be in-
genuous enough to tell you, that though I
have ever disapproved of the absurd attempt
to alter, or rather destroy, the harmony of
our verse, and found Joan of Arc and
Madoc tedious, I think the power of imagi-
nation, though of the marvellous, displayed
in Thalaba,

^ Arabia's monstrous, wild, and wondrous son.''

evinces genius.

I see your Muse has given a couplet to
your noble relation; — I doubt whether it
will not be read as the two severest lines
in the Satire, and so, what I could wish
avoided for the present, betray the author :
which will render abortive a thought that
has entered my mind of having the Satire
most favourably reviewed in the SatiinsU
which, on its being known afterwards to be



LIFE OF LORD BYRON, 25

yours, would raise a laugh against your
enemies in that quarter. Consider, and
tell me, whether the lines shall stand. I
agree that there is only one among the
peers on whom Apollo deigns to smile;
but, believe me, that peer is no relation of
yours.

I am soiTy you have not found a place
among the genuine Sons of Apollo for
Crabbe, who, in spite of something border-
ing on servihty in his dedication, may surely
rank with some you have admitted to his
temple. And now, before I lay down my
pen, I will tell you the passage which gave
me the greatest pleasure — that on Little.
I am no preacher, but it is very pleasing to
read such a confirmation of the opinion I
had formed of you ; to find you an advocate
for keeping a veil over the despotism of
the senses. Such poems are far more dan-
gerous to society than Rochester's. In
your concluding line on Little, I v\rould.



26 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

though in a quotation, substitute, line, or
lay, for life :

' She bids thee mend thy line and sin no more*.'

Pray answer as soon as you conveniently
can, and believe me ever," Sfc. Sfc.

The couplet to which I referred as having
been given by his Muse to his noble rela-
tion, was one of panegyric upon Lord Car-
lisle, at which I was not a little surprised,
after what I had so lately heard him say of
that nobleman; but the fact is, that the lines
were composed before he had written to his
Lordship, as mentioned at the end of the
last chapter, and he had given me the Satire
before he had made any of his meditated
alterations. It is, however, curious that this
couplet must have been composed in the
short interval between his printing the poem
at Newstead and his arrival in town, per^

* In the original the words were " mend thy life."
He however adopted the word line.



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 27

haps under the same feelings which induced
him to write to Lord Carhsle, and at the
same time. The hues do not appear in the
print, but are inserted afterwards in Lord
Byron's hand- writing. They are these : —

On one alone Apollo deigns to smile.
And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle.

Immediately upon receiving my letter he
forwarded four lines to substitute for this
couplet.

Roscommon! Sheffield! with your spirits fled,
No future laurels deck a noble head ;
Nor e'en a hackney'd Muse will deign to smile
On minor Byron, or mature Carlisle.

He said that this alteration would answer
the purposes of concealment; but it was
other feelings than the desire of conceal-
ment which induced him afterwards to alter
the two last lines into

No more will cheer with renovating smile
The paralytic puling of Carlisle ;



28 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

— and to indulge the malice of his Muse
adding these—

The puny school-boy, and his early lay.

We pardon, if his follies pass away.

Who, who forgives the senior's ceaseless verse,

Whose hairs grow hoary as his rhymes grow worse.

What heterogeneous honours deck the peer,

Lord, rhymester, petit-maitre, pamphleteer.

So dull in youth, so drivelling in his age,

His scenes alone might damn our sinking stage ;