"Volage" Frigate, at sea, June 29, 1811.
In a week, with a fair wind, we shall be at Portsmouth, and on the 2d of July I shall have completed (to a day) two years of peregrination, from which I am returning with as little emotion as I set out. I think, upon the whole, I was more grieved at leaving Greece than England, which I am impatient to see, simply because I am tired of a long voyage.
Indeed, my prospects are not very pleasant. Embarra.s.sed in my private affairs, indifferent to public, solitary without the wish to be social, with a body a little enfeebled by a succession of fevers, but a spirit I trust, yet unbroken, I am returning _home_ without a hope, and almost without a desire. The first thing I shall have to encounter will be a lawyer, the next a creditor, then colliers, farmers, surveyors, and all the agreeable attachments to estates out of repair, and contested coal-pits. In short, I am sick and sorry, and when I have a little repaired my irreparable affairs, away I shall march, either to campaign in Spain, or back again to the East, where I can at least have cloudless skies and a cessation from impertinence.
I trust to meet, or see you, in town, or at Newstead, whenever you can make it convenient--I suppose you are in love and in poetry as usual.
That husband, H. Drury, has never written to me, albeit I have sent him more than one letter;--but I dare say the poor man has a family, and of course all his cares are confined to his circle.
"For children fresh expenses yet, And d.i.c.ky now for school is fit."
WARTON. [1]
If you see him, tell him I have a letter for him from Tucker, a regimental chirurgeon and friend of his, who prescribed for me,---- and is a very worthy man, but too fond of hard words. I should be too late for a speech-day, or I should probably go down to Harrow. I regretted very much in Greece having omitted to carry the _Anthology_ with me--I mean Bland and Merivale"s.--What has _Sir Edgar_ done? And the _Imitations and Translations_--where are they? I suppose you don"t mean to let the public off so easily, but charge them home with a quarto. For me, I am "sick of fops, and poesy, and prate," and shall leave the "whole Castalian state" to Bufo, or any body else. [2] But you are a sentimental and sensibilitous person, and will rhyme to the end of the chapter. Howbeit, I have written some 4000 lines, of one kind or another, on my travels.
I need not repeat that I shall be happy to see you. I shall be in town about the 8th, at Dorant"s Hotel, in Albemarle Street, and proceed in a few days to Notts., and thence to Rochdale on business.
I am, here and there, yours, etc.
[Footnote 1: Warton"s "Progress of Discontent", lines 109, 110.]
[Footnote 2:
"But sick of fops, and poetry, and prate, To Bufo left the whole Castalian state."
Pope, "Prologue to the Satires", lines 229, 230.]
156.--To Henry Drury.
"Volage" frigate, off Ushant, July 17, 1811.
My Dear Drury,--After two years" absence (on the 2d) and some odd days, I am approaching your country. The day of our arrival you will see by the outside date of my letter. At present, we are becalmed comfortably, close to Brest Harbour;--I have never been so near it since I left Duck Puddle. [1] We left Malta thirty-four days ago, and have had a tedious pa.s.sage of it. You will either see or hear from or of me, soon after the receipt of this, as I pa.s.s through town to repair my irreparable affairs; and thence I want to go to Notts. and raise rents, and to Lanes. and sell collieries, and back to London and pay debts,--for it seems I shall neither have coals nor comfort till I go down to Rochdale in person.
I have brought home some marbles for Hobhouse;--for myself, four ancient Athenian skulls, [2] dug out of sarcophagi--a phial of Attic hemlock [3]--four live tortoises--a greyhound (died on the pa.s.sage)--two live Greek servants, one an Athenian, t"other a _Yaniote_, who can speak nothing but Romaic and Italian--and _myself_, as Moses in the _Vicar of Wakefield_ says, _slily_ [4] and I may say it too, for I have as little cause to boast of my expedition as he had of his to the fair.
I wrote to you from the Cyanean Rocks to tell you I had swam from Sestos to Abydos--have you received my letter? Hobhouse went to England to fish up his _Miscellany,_ which foundered (so he tells me) in the Gulph of Lethe. I daresay it capsized with the vile goods of his contributory friends, for his own share was very portable. However, I hope he will either weigh up or set sail with a fresh cargo, and a luckier vessel.
Hodgson, I suppose, is four deep by this time. What would he have given to have seen, like me, the _real Parna.s.sus,_ where I robbed the Bishop of Chrisso of a book of geography!--but this I only call plagiarism, as it was done within an hour"s ride of Delphi.
[Footnote 1: The swimming-bath at Harrow.]
[Footnote 2: Given afterwards to Sir Walter Scott.]
[Footnote 3: At present in the possession of Mr. Murray.]
[Footnote 4:
""Welcome, welcome, Moses! Well, my boy, what have you brought us from the fair?"
"I have brought you _myself_," cried Moses, with a sly look, and resting the box on the dresser."
"Vicar of Wakefield", ch. xii.]
157.-To his Mother.
Reddish"s Hotel, St. James"s Street, London, July 23, 1811.
MY DEAR MADAM,--I am only detained by Mr. Hanson to sign some copyhold papers, and will give you timely notice of my approach. It is with great reluctance I remain in town. [1] I shall pay a short visit as we go on to Lancashire on Rochdale business. I shall attend to your directions, of course, and am, with great respect, yours ever,
BYRON.
P.S.--You will consider Newstead as your house, not mine; and me only as a visiter.
[Footnote 1: On his way to London, Byron paid a visit, at Sittingbourne, to Hobhouse, who was with his Militia Regiment, and under orders for Ireland. He also stayed with H. Drury, at Harrow, for two or three days.]
158.--To William Miller. [1]
Reddish"s Hotel, July 30th, 1811.