LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
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Memoir of John Murray
John Murray to Lord Byron, 7 July 1818
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol. 1 Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XIX.
Vol. 2 Contents
Chap. XX.
Chap. XXI.
Chap. XXII.
Chap. XXIII.
Chap. XXIV.
Chap. XXV.
Chap. XXVI.
Chap. XXVII.
Chap. XXVIII.
Chap. XXIX.
Chap. XXX.
Chap. XXXI.
Chap. XXXII.
Chap. XXXIII.
Chap. XXXIV.
Chap. XXXV.
Chap. XXXVI.
Chap. XXXVII.
Index
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July 7th, 1818.

I do assure you I have rarely greater pleasure than when I am addressing you, unless it be when I am honoured by the favour of a letter from you. Latterly, I conceived that Mr. Hobhouse had been so constantly in communication with you that my omissions would not have been heeded, but I implore forgiveness, and will be less remiss in future.

I assure you that the success of the fourth canto has been equal to either of the former volumes. It is more desultory, as Gifford said at first, but the parts taken separately are each and all considered equal, and in some instances surpassing, anything preceding them. No critique of note has yet appeared upon the poem, but if anything able on the subject appears I shall instantly send it to you.

You will have read with surprise and regret an account of the death of your friend Monk Lewis† on his return from a second voyage to the West Indies. He sent me his MS. notes upon the place to read, and very curious

* The answer to this letter, under date July 10, 1818, is printed in Moore’s Life.

† Matthew Gregory Lewis, commonly called “Monk” Lewis, after the title of his first novel. He had just died at the age of forty-two.

396 MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY
indeed they were, and I hope they will not be lost. Wilmot has positively succeeded at Newcastle-under-Lyne, and is returned M.P. Your cousin George has another daughter lately, and your friend Lady William Russell has just lost one. I fancy that the chief reason for your not hearing from either Hobhouse or Kinnaird is that for the last four months they have been completely absorbed in politics, though neither has got into Parliament. They appear to have cut the Whigs and plunged head-over-ears into Burdettism, Annual Parliaments, and Universal Suffrage by Ballot! Brougham has lost his election for Westmoreland.

May I hope that you will favour me with some work to open my campaign in November with! Have you not another lively tale like ‘Beppo’? or will you not give me some prose in three volumes?—all the adventures that you have undergone, seen, heard of, or imagined, with your reflections on life and manners. Do tell me that I may at any rate expect something by the end of September. There will be three more volumes of ‘Tales of my Landlord’ this month, which I will convey to you as speedily as possible, with Madame de Staël’s new work, ‘Sur la Révolution Française,’ which has fallen almost stillborn from the press. It is by no means good.