THE SEAFORTH PAPERS.

mean time the booksellers here tell me he has happy by either. The finest stanzas in the sold his unborn progeny for £3,000, of which book inculcate the comfortable doctrine of the £1,500 is to be paid in May next, and the non-existence of a future state. He celebrates' other half whenever he publishes. He is not a lady under the name of Florence, who I' doomed, at least, to meditate a thankless Muse, understood to be no other than Mrs. Spencer and I most sincerely hope his fame will keep Smith, and bewails the loss of another by the pace with his profit. He has bought a farm name of Thyrza, who, he says with great jusat Abbotsford, near Melrose, is building a tice, had done what others shrunk from, becottage, and sowing acorns; and he tells me cause she certainly was introduced by him in he never was so happy in his life as in having man's clothes to several of his unconscious a place of his own to create. In this Cale- friends in England under the name of Mr. donian Eden he labors all day with his own Byron. The feminine appellation of this hands, though since the Fall he and his wife amazon is not known to fame.* With all will not find many luxuriant branches to this you cannot imagine a more beautiful prune in Ettrick Forest. I sent him a bushel strain of poetry than he has clothed his story of Yorkshire acorns, which, except docks and with. He has attacked Lord Elgin with fury thistles, are, I believe, likely to be in three for dismantling Athens, and nobody feels years the largest vegetables upon the domain. The new poem is to pay for all these luxuries; and should it be ranked with the three he has already published, he will have a good right to enjoy them.

much for Lord E.; but how he contrives to pour out the vials of his wrath with impunity is singular enough, as few men have gone so far as Lord Byron without at least a dozen challenges and half a dozen actual combats. Mrs. Morrit has been at a most amusing Perhaps the reputation he labors under of bescene at Mrs. Stanhope's, where a large party ing able to hit a half-crown at twelve paces invited to a dance were promised amusement may be the cause of this phenomenon, so from a very fashionable set of waltzers, who creditable to the forbearance of this martial came uninvited to perform, shut themselves age. His old opponents, the Edinburgh Reup in Mrs. S.'s dressing-room, and continued dancing by themselves to the only music there was provided, and left the dame of the mansion and the rest of the world to amuse themselves in the best manner they could. If this had happened in St. Giles's, it would have been thought ill-breeding. I hope these European graces have not yet crossed the Pacific. Here we are likely to improve more and more. Lord B. has just announced his marriage with the fair daughter of a washerwoman in Mount Street, whose cruelty, I believe, by no means compelled his lordship to this very decisive measure. The Marquis of W., seized with a noble emulation, has proposed, it is said, to the sister of the new peeress, who is of an equally kind and liberal disposition. How the ghost of Catherine Swinford must rejoice in this second contamination of the blood of Plantagenet. Surely this is the comble in the history of mésalliances. . .

6

viewers, are retiring from the field. Brougham and Horner are swallowed up in politics, Sydney Smith battening on the good things of Foston, and Jeffrey himself too much occupied with Scotch pleadings to anatomize authors any longer. Poets unborn will now come forth in security, and unless they leave a legacy to Lord Byron in their next number, Childe Harold' will escape their abuse, and the world will not be amused with a supplement to the English Bards and Scotch J. B. S. MORRITT." Reviewers.'

Of court gossip we have abundance, some of it pungent enough. The reputation of George the Fourth has been so shattered of late years, that we need not hesitate to pour in some additional small shot:

"(1813.)-There was a most extraordinary dinner given at Carlton House, of which every "All the world here are émerveille's with person has some curious story to tell. The a new poem of Lord Byron's: the fashionable host, that he might distinguish himself on world because he is a lord, and the Blue- the occasion, began by drinking two large stocking world because he is a poct. It is tumblers of a liquor stronger than brandy; called the Pilgrimage of Childe Harold,' and thus prepared, he entered on a conversaand combines a description of a young noble- tion, or rather such a torrent of abuse of inman, evidently drawn for himself, and an ac-dividuals, both absent and present (some of count of his own tour through Spain and Greece, which he says is to be continued. It is written in Spenser's stanza, and with great spirit and force of poetry. Of his hero's character he lets you know that he is a rake, a misanthrope, a cynic, and an unbeliever of his tour, that he saw all descriptions of people and scenery without ever being made

whom gave him quite as good as he brought), that at last his daughter, not much accustomed to such scenes, burst out acrying and

*Mr. Morritt is correct in his information as to "Florence," but "Thyrza" was an imaginary heroine. There was, however, some foundation for the scandal as to the nameless aman. See "Moore's Life of Byron," under date of 1808.

ran out of the room. The two Gr.'s, he said, at all.' In spite of this temptation, the were d-d rogues and scoundrels for throw- young lady resolutely declined his proffered ing him into the hands of the still greater hand, and so he went home and penned an rogues and scoundrels whom he now had to epistle to Miss M.; there, however, he met deal with; but he thanked God he depended with the like success, and it is said he afteron no body but himself! The Princess Char-wards tried Miss B., but of this I am not cerlotte's politics are more violent than ever; tain. I think the story of Miss Long not and the other night she nearly tumbled out bad. F. B." of her opera-box in her great zeal to kiss her "(1818.)-Have you heard that at the hand to Lord Grey. ·F. P." Homburg wedding the bridegroom at first only "(1813.)—You will see that the Duchess nodded assent to the questions which were of Leeds has succeeded Lady de Clifford, who asked him? Being desired to express his seresigned, they say, for this reason: The rene will more explicitly, he bellowed out 'I princess was playing at vingt-un at the Duke villy,' which burst disconcerted the poor of Cambridge's; she was asked whether she archbishop so much, that in his turn, when chose a card, and what card; she replied, he addressed the princess, he asked her She was happy to declare she had no predi- whether she would take this woman for her lections,' the famous phrase you know, in wedded husband, at which her royal highthe regent's letter, and in the parody.* The ness paused. The happy couple then set out Duke of Cambridge called her saucy, and for Windsor, and proceeded joyously as far as told her he should get a rod. Then it must Hammersmith, when the bridegroom was so be for yourself,' she said; pray look at sick with riding in a close carriage that he home.' For this Lady de Clifford lectured got out, mounted the dicky, though it was her, and they quarrelled." raining torrents, and having got his pipe ceeded most prosperously. (which is his comfort on all occasions) proE. C."

Another letter says the princess gave Lady de Clifford a box on the ear! The writer states that the regent addressed the following distich to the Statira of the moment: '— "Je n'aime pas ces grands yeux noirs, Qui disent fièrement, I make war.' Mais j'aime ces yeux languissants et bleu, Qui disent tout doucement, 'I love you.' A courtship and marriage in the royal family may serve as companion pictures :

himself.

"You have, of course, heard of the great feats which his Highness of Clarence has achieved auprès des dames. First he proposed to Miss Long, and I think he took a new and singular method to recommend Having painted to her imagination all the felicity she was likely to enjoy as his wife, he finished by saying, I understand, ma'am, you have a d-d bad temper; now, ma'am, that would be an objection to many people, but with me it is none at all-quite the contrary. In short, ma'am, it shall be no more trouble to you, for I will undertake to manage it for you. Mrs. Jordan, ma'am, had the d-dest temper, but I managed it for her for twelve years, and she had no trouble with it

In the letter from the prince regent to the Duke of York, Feb. 13, 1813, the regent is made to

say, "I have no predilections to indulge." Moore,

in his witty parody, repeats the phrase.

"I am proud to declare I have no predilections." In this parody Moore has a very happy couplet, in which the regent, alluding to his father, says,— "A strait waistcoat on him and restrictions on me, A more limited monarchy could not well be."

"Prince Home-bug is married. All the ministers of Europe tried to get him into a bath, but tried in vain. After an hour's consultation they did prevail with him to wash his feet; but to wear, buy, or possess a pair of stockings was quite beyond their art. He said it was very well for us to wear stockings to encourage our manufactories, but he had not the same reason; he had never done it, and never would; his boots were quite enough for him. The princess says she loves him of all things! Love is blind, and is, I suppose, equally deficient of all other senses.

The advent of Lord Byron in London society was an event of supreme interest in the fashionable circles. "I hear of no new books worth reading" writes the marchioness of Stafford, "except Lord Byron's poem; it has made a great sensation, and occasioned much fuss about him by the ladies, at whom he appears to laugh in his sleeve." A true and shrewd remark. Lady Keith (Johnson's Queeny) says:—

ladies are setting their caps at, and are in "Lord Byron is the person now that all the anxious hopes of a nod or a smile, which are not easily obtained from him, and therefore, I suppose, are so highly valued. I never see

* In a similar strain Mr. W. Fremantle writes to the Marquis of Buckingham. See the Buckingham Memoirs.

him speak to any unmarried lady but Miss M., who, you know, is quite a distinct per

son."

An accomplished correspondent writes,—

"There is less of novelty than usual in London this year. Waltzing is quite at an end; and when one has seen and talked over Lord Byron and the new Spanish ambassador, one has nothing to do but the regular routine. Lord Byron, whose very beautiful poem will, of course, be sent to you, is just now the rage. He is a little, sickly, wan, cross, lame youth, who is, however, reckoned (and not without reason) handsome; by some, indeed, quite killing. He bears on his face all the expression of every bad quality belonging to Childe Harold. They say he is very agreeable, very lively, very wickedin short, he is la coqueluche des dames; and (as Mr. Rogers, the poet, told mamma, he knew from experience to be too true) that distinction of being their favorite a most transient gratification."

The greatest of all Byron's contemporaries, Scott, joined in this chorus of admirers and critics :

tions while engaged in them, has probably reached India. It is a work of great poetical talent, but indicates a gloomy and rather misanthropical turn of disposition. Childe Harold has exhausted the round of all pleasures, licensed and unlicensed, and wonders to feel the goblet, which he has drained even to its luscious dregs, pall upon his taste when again replenished. And pretty nearly the same course of experience which made Solomon of old proclaim that all was vanity, induces our modern Epicurean to quarrel with the system of the universe, and to disbelievo its being guided by supreme benevolence and wisdom. Another beautiful and eccentrio production by the same hand is the Giaour, a Turkish romance. It is a poetical fragment, obscurely written, but abounding with high and spirited passages. The tale is the intrigue of a Christian with the favorite of a Moslem. Hassan murders his wife, and the Giaour, in revenge, waylays and kills Hassan, and dies a monk, without having the good fortune to become a penitent. The sentiments of this poem indicate the same deficiency of virtuous feelings which throw a shade on Childe Harold's character. The passion, so well and powerfully described, is of an unworthy and bad kind; and I shrewdly sus"(1813.)-By your letter of the 10th pect Lord Byron would be improved by a January, my dear Lady Hood, I regret to per- drachm of chivalrous sentiment, and a quanceive that you have not received a copy of tum sufficit of virtuous and disinterested prinRokeby, packed and sent from the India House, ciple added to his very extraordinary powers with one for my brother-in-law, Carpenter. of intellect and expression. As he is, howI send another which I shall recommend to ever, he has done deadly, or almost deadly the care of my friend Croker, at the Ad- execution, among the ladies of fashion. Lady miralty; and I will endeavor to obtain a few Caroline Lamb, despite having married Charles pages of an unpublished volume of the Edin-[William] Lamb for pure love and kindness, burgh Annual Register, containing a brief has fallen desperately in love with Childe sketch of Leyden's earlier life. How much Harold, and being disobliged at something he do I regret your not meeting him! You said to her at an evening party about her would have prized his real merit and good-waltzing, she snatched up a dessert-knife, ness of heart, and excused the eccentricities and, after exclaiming against the cruelty of which shocked those fine dames who have more man, attempted to plunge it into her bosomnicety than taste or discernment. But thus really did give herself a wound, and cut grievpasses this weary world. Those formed to ously two fingers of Lady Ossulton, who associate most happily together are daily sep-caught at the instrument of destruction to arated by fortune or by death, while persons prevent a catastrophe. Very absurd all this, totally unsuited to each other are coupled up and a proof that the world is not grown betlike cross-grained spaniels in the strong links ter since your ladyship left Britain. of external necessity. I am very glad you have found something to like in my brotherin-law. I never saw him, and am truly happy to think that we shall like each other when it is our fortune to meet. He is quite enchanted with your goodness, and I approve of his taste therefore.

"W. SCOTT."

This incident of Lady Caroline Lamb has been related in the recent" Memoirs of Lady Morgan," but without the clearness or correctness of the description by Scott, or of the following by a lady:

66

"You ask me, dear Lady Hood, for literary news. There is not much of any conse- (1813.)-You heard, I suppose, of the quence. Lord Byron, so quizzed of yore by dreadful mad scene which terminated Lady the Edinburgh Review, has shone forth a great Caroline Lamb's display of eccentricities at luminary in the poetical world. Childe Har Lady Heathcote's. Irritated by some obserold, a sort of sketch of his travels, and reflec-vation of Lord Byron's upon her waltzing,

Madame de Staël had previously, after meeting Byron in London society, applied to him the epithet of demon." Of Lady Caroline Lamb's abuse of the poet, and of the poet himself, with other matters, Lady Lou-understand a theism which, under the name isa Stuart thus writes :of religion, begins by rejecting the external.

proofs of the existence of a Deity to prove the intensity of their internal belief in it. Mackintosh has reviewed the work in the Edinburgh Review, and done great justice to its merits, which in point of style, and the most refined and acute delineation of the character and pleasures of social existence, are very great indeed."

A female observer-acute, sensible, and

domestic-is somewhat more critical:

“(1813.)—London is as empty as if the plague were in it. His royal highness [the prince regent] has been for some time at the Pavilion,e njoying the sea-breezes. The parties he has given there have not been very merry, for Madame de Lieven, the Russian ambassadress, writes to a friend of mine that On y péris d'ennui, toutes les dames d'un côté du salon, tous les hommes de l'autre, le

triste intermédiaire entre les deux sex. Ah!

that I am more convinced than I ever was,
that he will be the saviour of Europe. I rec-
ollect you once told me the titles which you
liked the best were those of Viscountess or
Marchioness. I have tried both, and like
them equally well, all my titles being ac-
quired, as my little Douro says, Because
pa pa does his duty so well.' I am proud of
them all, and much gratified by his having
just received the Blue Ribbon, vacant by the
death of the Marquis of Buckingham.
wanted to change his title and raise his rank,
My little boy's title is Baron Douro. They
but I roared and screamed. The passage of
the Douro, the most brilliant and least bloody
of all his father's achievements, shall not be
forgotten, and he shall keep the name."

"Monday, June 26 [1815].

"The intelligence of these last two days, is of the most interesting and wonderful naor rather of yesterday morning and evening, c'est une abominable façon de passer le temps!' ble result from the late events at Waterloo. ture, and, at the same time, the most probaMadame de Staël has not joined this merri- It is not yet official, but it is credited. Boment. She remains at Richmond, writing naparte, after the battle of the 18th, made an books no one can understand, and saying effort to collect his troops and rally them; things which every one repeats and pretends to understand, though, when you ask them finding it impossible, he hastened with all to explain for the benefit of country gentle- night. He immediately assembled the Corps speed to Paris, and reached it on Tuesday men, you find they are as ignorant of her Législatif, stated with more truth than he meaning as probably she was who first said had ever told before, although with much these mots profonds. She said the other day, lying, that the French arms had been comBonaparte n'est pas homme-c'est un sys-pletely successful till four o'clock on the 18th; tème.' On being presented to Canning, she said, 'Ce n'est pas du plaisir que vous me faites, ce n'est pas de l'admiration que vous me causez-c'est de l'émotion que vous me

6

that at that time, unfortunately, the New Guard made a charge to which they were unequal; that they were unexpectedly repulsed donnez.' What all this means I profess I by a body of British cavalry, and not being cannot tell; but it is fine fun to see all the fled, drawing with them in their flight the accustomed to fighting, had given way and geese going about cackling their delight at Old Guard; that some ill-intentioned person these wondrous sayings. She got into some furious mistakes when first she came to Lon-fight became general; and that half his army gave the word, Sauve qui peut, on which the don; amongst others, going up with the most has disappeared, and his artillery en totalite. extravagant compliments on her transcendent He concludes, Thus terminated this day so beauty and figure to Mrs. Bankes for Lady glorious for the French arms, yet so fatal!!' Hertford. She has a Monsieur Rocca, a He desires them to take the measures necesyoung Swiss, whom she carries about in the sary for the glory of France without delay. most shameless manner. S. S." Such are the accounts received yesterday We subjoin some scraps of letters by the morning. Last night arrived the continualate Duchess of Wellington,-a lady compar-ceived from Bonaparte, the Legislative body tion: that in pursuance of the directions reatively little known, for she sought retire proceeded to deliberate, and in a few hours ment, and was in delicate health. All that came to the determination of informing Bonatranspires concerning the duchess is calcu- parte that, having lost a fine army in a few lated to add to the high appreciation of her days, he no longer possessed the confidence accomplishments and goodness of heart enter- of the people, and that he must make up his tained by her friends. The following may be mind to abdicate; that he was accordingly abdicated a second time, and it is imagined, considered as prophetic:but not asserted, that he is under arrest. Did I not tell you the spurious would vanish when opposed to the true hero? What is he now, if these accounts are confirmed? To those who have lost their friends, this result,

"(1813.)-I believe I had better not begin the subject of Lord Wellington: it would be an endless onc. I will only just tell you that his noble character rises upon every trial, and