Perhaps Sir James Mackintosh—a frequent guest at Holland House. —Editor ↩
Possibly Colonel (afterwards Sir James) Macdonell [d. 1857], “a man of colossal stature,” who occupied and defended the Château of Hougoumont on the night before the battle of Waterloo. (See Gronow, Reminiscences, 1889, I 76, 77.) —Editor ↩
Sir George Prevost (1767–1816), the Governor-General of British North America, and nominally Commander-in-chief of the Army in the second American War, contributed, by his excess of caution, supineness, and delay, to the humiliation of the British forces. The particular allusion is to his alleged inaction at a critical moment in the engagement of September 11, 1814, between Commodore Macdonough and Captain Downie in Plattsburg Bay.
“A letter was sent to Capt. Downie, strongly urging him to come on, as the army had long been waiting for his cooperation. … The brave Downie replied that he required no urging to do his duty. … He was as good as his word. The guns were scaled when he got under way, upon hearing which Sir George issued an order for the troops to cook, instead of that of instant cooperation.”
—To Editor of the Montreal Herald, May 23, 1815, Letters of Veritas, 1815, pp. 116, 117
See, too, The Quarterly Review, July, 1822, vol. XXVII p. 446. —Editor ↩
George Hardinge (1744–1816), who was returned M.P. for Old Sarum in 1784, was appointed, in 1787, Senior Justice of the Counties of Brecon, Glamorgan, and Radnor. According to the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1816 (vol. LXXXVI. p. 563),
“In conversation he had few equals. … He delighted in pleasantries, and always afforded to his auditors abundance of mirth and entertainment as well as information.”
Byron seems to have supposed that these “pleasantries” found their way into his addresses to condemned prisoners, but if the charges printed in his Miscellaneous Works, edited by John Nichols in 1818, are reported in full, he was entirely mistaken. They are tedious, but the “waggery” is conspicuous by its absence. —Editor ↩
With all his laurels growing upon one tree.
—[MS. erased]
John Philpot Curran (1750–1817).
“Did you know Curran?” asked Byron of Lady Blessington (Conversations, 1834, p. 176); “he was the most wonderful person I ever saw. In him was combined an imagination the most brilliant and profound, with a flexibility and wit that would have justified the observation applied to—that his heart was in his head.”
(See, too, Detached Thoughts, No. 24, Letters, 1901, V 421.) —Editor ↩
For Thomas Lord Erskine (1750–1823), see Letters, 1898, II 390, note 5. See, too, Detached Thoughts, No. 93, Letters, 1901, V 455, 456. In his Spirit of the Age, 1825, pp. 297, 298, Hazlitt contrasts “the impassioned appeals and flashes of wit of a Curran … the golden tide of wisdom, eloquence, and fancy of a Burke,” with the “dashing and graceful manner” which concealed the poverty and “deadness” of the matter of Erskine’s speeches. —Editor ↩
—all classes mostly pull
—[MS. erased]
At the same oar—.
“Mrs. Adams answered Mr. Adams, that it was blasphemous to talk of Scripture out of church.”
This dogma was broached to her husband—the best Christian in any book.—See The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, Bk. IV chap. XI ed. 1876, p. 324. —Editor ↩
—in the ripe age.
—[MS.]
Probably Richard Sharp (1759–1835), known as “Conversation Sharp.” Byron frequently met him in society in 1813–14, and in “Extracts from a Diary,” January 9, 1821, Letters, 1901, V 161, describes him as “the Conversationist.” He visited Byron at the Villa Diodati in the autumn of 1816 (Life, p. 323). —Editor ↩
Hamlet, act I sc. 5, line 22. —Editor ↩
Nor bate (read bait)—.
—[MS.]
See letters to the Earl of Blessington, April 5, 1823, Letters, 1891, VI 187. —Editor ↩
But full of wisdom—.
—[MS.]
A sort of rose entwining with a thistle.
—[MS. erased]
Iliad, X 341, sq. —Editor ↩
It would have taught him humanity at least. This sentimental savage, whom it is a mode to quote (amongst the novelists) to show their sympathy for innocent sports and old songs, teaches how to sew up frogs, and break their legs by way of experiment, in addition to the art of angling—the cruelest, the coldest, and the stupidest of pretended sports. They may talk about the beauties of nature, but the angler merely thinks of his dish of fish; he has no leisure to take his eyes from off the streams, and a single bite is worth to him more than all the scenery around. Besides, some fish bite best on a rainy day. The whale, the shark, and the tunny fishery have somewhat of noble and perilous in them; even net fishing, trawling, etc., are more humane and useful. But angling!—no angler can be a good man.
“One of the best men I ever knew—as humane, delicate-minded, generous, and excellent a creature as any in the world—was an angler: true, he angled with painted flies, and would have been incapable of the extravagancies of I. Walton.”
The above addition was made by a friend in reading over the MS.—“Audi alteram partem.”—I leave it to counterbalance my own observation. ↩
B. Fy. 19th 1823. —[MS.] ↩
Fry. 23, 1814 (sic). —[MS.] ↩
Compare—
“Our little systems have their day;
