Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Lord Holland, 25 June 1812
“June 25th, 1812.
“MY DEAR LORD,
“I must appear very ungrateful, and have, indeed, been very
negligent, but till last night I was not apprized of Lady
Holland’s restoration, and I shall call to-morrow to have the
satisfaction, I trust, of hearing that she is well.—I hope that neither politics nor
gout have assailed your lordship since I last saw you, and that you also are ‘as
well as could be expected.’
“The other night, at a ball, I was presented by order to our
gracious Regent, who honoured me with some
conversation, and professed a predilection for poetry.—I confess it was a most
unexpected honour, and I thought of poor B—s’s adventure, with some apprehensions of a similar blunder. I
have now great hope, in the event of Mr.
Pye’s decease, of ‘warbling truth at court,’ like
Mr. Mallet of indifferent memory.—Consider,
100 marks a year! besides the wine and the disgrace; but then ![]()
| A. D. 1812. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 359 |
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remorse would make me drown myself in my own butt before the year’s
end, or the finishing of my first dithyrambic.—So that, after all, I shall not meditate
our laureate’s death by pen or poison.
“Will you present my best respects to Lady Holland, and believe me hers and yours very
sincerely.”
William John Bankes (1786-1855)
Byron's Cambridge friend; the son of Henry Bankes, MP, he was MP for Truro, Cambridge,
Marlborough, and Dorset, and an Egyptian traveller who translated
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Giovanni Finati 2 vols (1830).
Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845)
In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey
Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
David Mallet (1702 c.-1765)
Anglo-Scottish poet, playwright, and place-man, friend of James Thomson, author of the
ballad “William and Margaret.”
Henry James Pye (1745-1813)
Succeeded William Whitehead as Poet Laureate in 1790; Pye first attracted attention with
Elegies on Different Occasions (1768); author of
The Progress of Refinement: a Poem (1783).
