225—to Francis Hodgson
London, February 21, 1812.
My Dear Hodgson,—
There
is a book entituled
Galt, his Travels in ye Archipelago
, daintily printed by Cadell and Davies, ye which I could desiderate might be criticised by you, inasmuch as ye author is a well-respected esquire of mine acquaintance, but I fear will meet with little mercy as a writer, unless a friend passeth judgment. Truth to say, ye boke is ye boke of a cock-brained man, and is full of devises crude and conceitede, but peradventure for my sake this grace may be vouchsafed unto him. Review him myself I can not, will not, and if you are likewize hard of heart, woe unto ye boke! ye which is a comely quarto.
Now
then! I have no objection to review, if it pleases Griffiths
to send books, or rather
you
, for you know the sort of things I like to [play] with. You will find what I say very serious as to my intentions. I have every reason to induce me to return to Ionia.
Believe me, yours always,
B.
Footnote 1:
John Galt (1779-1839) published in 1812 his
Voyages and Travels in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811
. For his meeting with Byron at Gibraltar in 1809, see
Letters
, vol. i. p. 243,
note
1 [Footnote 1 of Letter 130]; see also
ibid.
, p. 304,
note
2 [Footnote 2 of Letter 131]. Galt's novels were, in later years, liked by Byron, who
"praised the Annals of the Parish very highly, as also The Entail,... some scenes of which, he said, had affected him very much.
'The characters in Mr. Galt's novels have an identity,' added Byron, 'that reminds me of Wilkie's pictures'"
(Lady Blessington's
Conversations with Lord Byron
, p. 74).
"When I knew Galt, years ago," said Byron to Lady Blessington, I was not in a frame of mind to form an impartial opinion of him: his mildness and equanimity struck me even then; but, to say the truth, his manner had not deference enough for my then aristocratical taste, and finding I could not awe him into a respect sufficiently profound for my sublime self, either as a peer or an author, I felt a little grudge towards him that has now completely worn off," etc., etc.
(
ibid.
, p. 249).
cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Letter 374
Footnote 2:
George Edward Griffiths (circ. 1769-1829), son of Ralph Griffiths, who founded, owned, and published the
Monthly Review
, and boarded and lodged Oliver Goldsmith as a contributor, succeeded to the management of the
Review
on the death of his father in 1803. He edited it till 1825, when he sold the property. He lived at Linden House, Turnham Green. Francis Hodgson wrote for the
Monthly Review
, and, March 2, 1814, he writes to Byron,
"I have already read a review of Safie in the British Critic, and will undertake it in the Monthly if Griffiths, with whom I am in very bad odour from my late shameful idleness, will allow me. Oh that you would write a good smart critique of something to get both yourself and me in high repute at Turnham Green!!!!"
In Byron's
Detached Thoughts
occurs the following passage:
"I have been a reviewer. In the Monthly Review I wrote some articles which were inserted. This was in the latter part of 1811. In 1807, in a Magazine called Monthly Literary Recreations, I reviewed Wordsworth's trash of that time.
Excepting these, I cannot accuse myself of anonymous Criticism (that I recollect), though I have been offered more than one review in our principal Journals."
In the Bodleian Library is a copy of the
Monthly Review
, in which Griffiths has entered the initials of the authors of each article. Two articles from the
Review
, attributed to Byron on this authority, are given in
Appendix I
.
