The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 40

252.--To Lord Holland.

September 27, 1812.

I have just received your very kind letter, and hope you have met with a second copy corrected and addressed to Holland House, with some omissions and this new couplet,

As glared each rising flash, [1] and ghastly shone The skies with lightnings awful as their own.

As to remarks, I can only say I will alter and acquiesce in any thing.

With regard to the part which Whitbread [2] wishes to omit, I believe the 'Address' will go off _quicker_ without it, though, like the agility of the Hottentot, at the expense of its vigour. I leave to your choice entirely the different specimens of stucco-work; and a _brick_ of your own will also much improve my Babylonish turret. I should like Elliston to have it, with your leave. "Adorn" and "mourn" are lawful rhymes in Pope's 'Death of the Unfortunate Lady'.--Gray has "forlorn" and "mourn"--and "torn" and "mourn" are in Smollett's famous 'Tears of Scotland' [3].

As there will probably be an outcry amongst the rejected, I hope the Committee will testify (if it be needful) that I sent in nothing to the congress whatever, with or without a name, as your Lords.h.i.+p well knows.

All I have to do with it is with and through you; and though I, of course, wish to satisfy the audience, I do a.s.sure you my first object is to comply with your request, and in so doing to show the sense I have of the many obligations you have conferred upon me.

Yours ever, B.

[Footnote 1: At present:

"As glared the volumed blaze."]

[Footnote 2: Samuel Whitbread (1758-1815) married, in 1789, Elizabeth, daughter of General Sir Charles Grey, created (1806) Earl Grey, and sister of the second Earl Grey, of Reform Bill fame. The son of a wealthy brewer, whose fortune he inherited, he entered Parliament as M.P. for Bedford in 1790. Raikes, in his 'Journal' (vol. iv. PP. 50, 51), speaks of him, at the outset of his career, as a staunch Foxite, and "much remarked in society." Comparing him with his brother-in-law Grey, he says,

"Mr. Whitbread was a more steady character; his appearance was heavy; he was fond of agriculture, and was very plain and simple in his tastes. Both were reckoned good debaters in the House, but Grey was the most eloquent."

An independent Whig, and an advocate for peace with France, Whitbread supported Fox against Pitt throughout the Napoleonic War, strongly opposed its renewal after the return of the emperor from Elba, and interested himself in such measures as moderate Parliamentary reform, the amendment of the poor law, national education, and retrenchment of public expenditure. On April 8, 1805, he moved the resolutions which ended in the impeachment of Lord Melville, and took the lead in the inquiries, which were made, March, 1809, into the conduct of the Duke of York. He was a plain, business-like speaker, and a man of such unimpeachable integrity that Mr., afterwards Lord, Plunket, in a speech on the Roman Catholic claims, February 28, 1821, called him "the incorruptible sentinel of the const.i.tution."

When he moved the articles of impeachment against Lord Melville, Canning scribbled the following impromptu parody of his speech ('Anecdotal History of the British Parliament', p. 222):

"I'm like Archimedes for science and skill; I'm like a young prince going straight up a hill; I'm like--(with respect to the fair be it said)-- I'm like a young lady just bringing to bed.

If you ask why the 11th of June I remember Much better than April, or May, or November, On that day, my lords, with truth I a.s.sure ye, My sainted progenitor set up his brewery; On that day, in the morn, he began brewing beer; On that day, too, commenced his connubial career;]

On that day he received and he issued his bills; On that day he cleared out all the cash from his tills; On that day he died, having finished his summing, And the angels all cried, 'Here's old Whitbread a-coming!'

So that day still I hail with a smile and a sigh, For his beer with an E, and his bier with an I; And still on that day, in the hottest of weather, The whole Whitbread family dine all together.-- So long as the beams of this house shall support The roof which o'ershades this respectable Court, Where Hastings was tried for oppressing the Hindoos; So long as that sun shall s.h.i.+ne in at those windows, My name shall s.h.i.+ne bright as my ancestor's s.h.i.+nes, 'Mine' recorded in journals, 'his' blazoned on signs!"

An active member of Parliament, a large landed proprietor, the manager of his immense brewery in Chiswell Street, Whitbread also found time to reduce to order the chaotic concerns of Drury Lane Theatre. He was, with Lord Holland and Harvey Combe, responsible for the request to Byron to write an address, having first rejected his own address with its "poulterer's description of the Phoenix." He was fond of private theatricals, and Dibdin ('Reminiscences', vol. ii. pp. 383, 384) gives the play-bill of an entertainment given by him at Southill. In the first play, 'The Happy Return', he took the part of "Margery;" and in the second, 'Fatal Duplicity', that of "Eglantine," a very young lady, loved by "Sir Buntybart" and "Sir Brandywine." In his capacity as manager of Drury Lane, Whitbread is represented by the author of 'Accepted Addresses' (1813) as addressing "the M--s of H--d"--

"My LORD,--

"As I now have the honour to be By 'Man'ging' a 'Playhouse' a double M.P., In this my address I think fit to complain Of certain encroachments on great Drury Lane," etc., etc.

Whitbread strongly supported the cause of the Princess of Wales. Miss Berry ('Journal', vol. iii. p. 25) says that he dictated the letters which the Princess wrote to the Queen, who had desired that she should not attend the two drawing-rooms to be held in June, 1814. "They were good," she adds, "but too long, and sometimes marked by Whitbread's want of taste."

The strain of his multifarious activities affected both his health and his mind, and he committed suicide July 6, 1815.]

[Footnote 3:

"By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd, By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd."

(Pope.)

"Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn, Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn."

(Gray.)

"Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn."

(Smollett.)]

253.--To John Murray.

Cheltenham, September 27, 1812.

Dear Sir,--I sent in no 'Address' whatever to the Committee; but out of nearly one hundred (this is _confidential_), none have been deemed worth acceptance; and in consequence of their _subsequent_ application to _me_, I have written a prologue, which _has_ been received, and will be spoken. The MS. is now in the hands of Lord Holland.

I write this merely to say, that (however it is received by the audience) you will publish it in the next edition of _Childe Harold_; and I only beg you at present to keep my name secret till you hear further from me, and as soon as possible I wish you to have a correct copy, to do with as you think proper.

I am, yours very truly, BYRON.

P.S.--I should wish a few copies printed off _before_, that the Newspaper copies may be correct _after_ the _delivery_.

254.--To Lord Holland.

September 28, 1812.