72 — To John Hanson
[6, Chancery Lane, Temple Bar, London.]
Southwell, 19 April, 1807.
Sir, — My last was an Epistle "
entre nous
;"
this
is a
Letter
of
Business
, Of course the
formalities
of
official communication
must be attended to. From lying under pecuniary difficulties, I shall draw for the Quarter due the 25th June, in a short Time. You will recollect I was to receive £100 for the Expence of Furniture, etc., at Cambridge. I placed in your possession accounts to amount and then I have received £70, for which I believe you have my Receipt. This extra £25 or £30 (though the Bills are long ago discharged from my own purse) I should not have troubled you for, had not my present Situation rendered even that Trifle of some Consequence. I have therefore to request that my Draft for £150, instead of £125 the simple Quarter, may be honoured, but think it necessary to apprize you previous to its appearance, and indeed to request an early Answer, as I had one Draft returned by Mistake from your
House
, some Months past. I have no Inclination to be placed in a similar Dilemma.
I
lent Mrs. B.
£60
last year; of this I have never received a Sou and in all probability never shall. I do not mention the circumstance as any Reproach on that worthy and lamblike Dame
, but merely to show you how affairs stand. 'Tis true myself and two Servants lodge in the House, but my Horses, etc., and their expences are defrayed by your humble Sert. I quit Cambridge in July, and shall have considerable payments to make at that period; for this purpose I must sell my
Steeds
. I paid Jones in January £150, £38 to my Stable Keeper, £21 to my wine Merchant, £20 to a
Lawyer
for the prosecution of a Scoundrel, a late Servant. In short I have done all I can, but am now completely
done
up.
Your answer will oblige
Yours, etc., etc.,
Byron
.
Footnote 1:
Mrs. Byron, on the other hand, tells a different story.
"Lord Byron," she writes to Hanson (March 19, 1807), "has now been with me seven months, with two Men Servants, for which I have never received one farthing, as he requires the five hundred a year for himself. Therefore it is impossible I can keep him and them out of my small income of four hundred a year, — two in Scotland [Mrs. Gordon of Gight (see Chapter I p. 4) was dead], and the pension is now reduced to two hundred a year. But if the "Court allows the additional two hundred, I shall be perfectly satisfied.
"I do not know what to say about Byron's returning to Cambridge. When he was there, I believe he did nothing but drink, gamble, and spend money."
A month later (April 29, 1807), she consults Hanson about raising £1000 by a loan from Mrs. Parkyns on her security.
"Byron from their last letter gave up all hopes of getting the money, and behaved very well on the occasion, and proposed selling his Horses and plans of Œconomy that I much fear will be laid aside if the Money is procured. My only motive for wishing it was to keep him clear of the Jews; but at present he does not seem at all disposed to have anything to do with them, even if he is disappointed in this resource. I wish to act for the best: but God knows what is for the best."
Eventually money was provided on Mrs. Byron's security (see Letters of
and
, 1809), and he resided at Trinity for a few days at the end of the May term, 1807.
