I shall be in London the latter end of the week. I set out from this place on the 12th. As to Mr. C., the Law must decide between us; I shall abide by the Contract. Your answer will not reach me in time, so do not write to me while here.
Pray let Mr. D. be paid and you also--come what may.[1] I always foresaw that C. would _shirk_; but he did it with his eyes open. What question can arise as to the t.i.tle? has it never been examined? I never heard of it before, and surely, in all our law suits, that question must have come to issue.
I hope we shall meet in town. I will wait on you the moment I arrive.
My best respects to your family; believe me, Ever yours sincerely,
BYRON.
[Footnote 1: Byron was prepared to make some sacrifices to extricate himself from debt, or go abroad. The following letter to Hanson is dated December 10, 1812:
"DEAR SIR,--I have to request that you will pay the bearer (my Groom) the wages due to him (12 pds. 10s.), and dismiss him immediately, as I have given up my horses, and place the sum to my account.
"Ever yours,
"BYRON."
Four days later, December 14, 1812, he writes again to Hanson:
"DEAR SIR,--I request your attention to the enclosed. See what can be done with Howard, and urge Claughton. If this kind of thing continues, I must quit a country which my debts render uninhabitable, notwithstanding every sacrifice on my part.
"Yours ever,
"B."]
271.--To John Hanson.
Presteign, Novr. 16th, 1812.
DEAR SIR,--The floods having rendered the road impa.s.sable, I am detained here, but trust by the latter end of the week to proceed to Cheltenham, where I shall expect a letter from you to tell me if I am wanted in town.
I shall not be in time for the Prince"s address; but I wish you to write down for my _Parliamentary_ robes (Mrs. Chaworth had them, at least Mrs.
Clarke the mother); though I rather think those were the Coronation and not the House robes. At least enquire.
I hope Mr. D. is paid; and, if Mr. C. demurs, we must bring an action according to Contract.
I trust you are well, and well doing in my behalf and your own.
Ever yours most sincerely,
B.
272.--To John Murray.
Cheltenham, November 22, 1812.
DEAR SIR,--On my return here from Lord Oxford"s, I found your obliging note, and will thank you to retain the letters, and any other subsequent ones to the same address, till I arrive in town to claim them, which will probably be in a few days. I have in charge a curious and very long MS. poem, written by Lord Brooke (the _friend_ of Sir _Philip Sidney_), which I wish to submit to the inspection of Mr. Gifford, with the following queries:--first, whether it has ever been published, and secondly (if not), whether it is worth publication? It is from Lord Oxford"s Library, and must have escaped or been overlooked amongst the MSS. of the Harleian Miscellany. The writing is Lord Brooke"s, except a different hand towards the close. It is very long, and in the six-line stanza. It is not for me to hazard an opinion upon its merits; but I would take the Liberty, if not too troublesome, to submit it to Mr.
Gifford"s judgment, which, from his excellent edition of Ma.s.singer, I should conceive to be as decisive on the writings of that age as on those of our own.
Now for a less agreeable and important topic.--How came Mr. Mac-Somebody [1], without consulting you or me, to prefix the Address to his volume of "_dejected addresses?"_ Is not this somewhat larcenous? I think the ceremony of leave might have been asked, though I have no objection to the thing itself; and leave the "hundred and eleven" to tire themselves with "base comparisons." I should think the ingenuous public tolerably sick of the subject, and, except the parodies, I have not interfered, nor shall; indeed I did not know that Dr. Busby had published his apologetical letter and postscript [2], or I should have recalled them.
But, I confess, I looked upon his conduct in a different light before its appearance. I see some mountebank has taken Alderman Birch"s name [3] to vituperate the Doctor; he had much better have pilfered his pastry, which I should imagine the more valuable ingredient--at least for a Puff.--Pray secure me a copy of Woodfall"s new "Junius" [4],
and believe me,
Dear Sir, yours very sincerely,
B.
[Footnote 1: B. McMillan]
[Footnote 2: This probably refers to Busby"s apologetic letter in the "Morning Chronicle" for October 23, 1812.]
[Footnote 3: Alderman Birch was a pastry-cook in Cornhill.]
[Footnote 4: In the Catalogue of Byron"s books, sold April 5, 1816, appear two copies of "Junius":
"Junius"s Letters, 2 vol. _russia_, 1806."