195—to James Wedderburn Webster
Newstead Abbey, Oct. 10th, 1811.
Dear Webster
,—I can hardly invite a gentleman to my house a second time who walked out of it the first in so singular a mood, but if you had thought proper to pay me a visit, you would have had a "Highland Welcome."
I am only just returned to it out of Lancashire, where I have been on business to a Coal manor of mine near Rochdale, and shall leave it very shortly for Cambridge and London. My companions, or rather companion, (for Claridge alone has been with me) have not been very amusing, and, as to their "
Sincerity
," they are doubtless sincere enough for a man who will never put them to the trial.
Besides
you talked so much of your conjugal happiness, that an invitation from home would have seemed like Sacrilege, and my rough Bachelor's Hall would have appeared to little advantage after the "Bower of Armida"
where you have been reposing.
I cannot boast of my social powers at any time, and just at present they are more stagnant than ever.
Your
Brother-in-law
means to stand for Wexford, but I have reasons for thinking the Portsmouth interest will be against him; however I wish him success. Do
you
mean to stand for any place next election? What are your politics? I hope Valentia's Lord is for the Catholics. You will find Hobhouse at Enniscorthy in the contested County.
Pray what has seized you? your last letter is the only one in which you do not rave upon matrimony. Are there no symptoms of a young W.W.? and shall I never be a Godfather? I believe I must be married myself soon, but it shall be a secret and a Surprise. However, knowing your exceeding discretion I shall probably entrust the secret to your silence at a proper period.
You
have, it is true, invited me repeatedly to Dean's Court
and now, when it is probable I might adventure there, you wish to be off. Be it so.
If you address your letters to this place they will be forwarded wherever I sojourn. I am about to meet some friends at Cambridge and on to town in November.
The
papers
are full of Dalrymple's Bigamy
(I know the man). What the Devil will he do with his
Spare-rib
? He is no beauty, but as lame as myself. He has more ladies than legs, what comfort to a cripple!
Sto sempre umilissimo servitore
. .
Byron
.
Footnote 1:
Armida is the Sorceress, the niece of Prince Idreotes, in Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered
, in whose palace Rinaldo forgets his vow as a crusader. Byron, in
Don Juan
(Canto I. stanza lxxi.), says:
"But ne'er magician's wand
Wrought change, with all Armida's fairy art,
Like what this light touch left on Juan's heart."
In the Catalogue of Byron's books, sold April 5, 1816, appear four editions of Tasso's
Gerusalemme Liberata
, being those of 1776, 1785, 1813, and one undated.
Footnote 2:
For George Annesley, Lord Valentia, afterwards Earl of Mountnorris (1769-1844), see
Poems
, ed. 1898, vol. i. p. 378, and
note 5
.
Footnote 3:
Near Wimborne, Dorset.
Footnote 4:
The suit of
Dalrymple
v.
Dalrymple
was tried before Sir William Scott, in the Consistory Court, Doctors' Commons, July 16, 1811. The suit was brought by Mrs. Dalrymple (
née
Joanna Gordon) against Captain John William Henry Dalrymple. By Scottish law he was held to have been married to Miss Gordon, and his subsequent marriage with Miss Manners, sister of the Duchess of St. Albans, was held to be illegal.
