Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Becher, 14 September 1808
“Newstead Abbey, Notts, Sept. 14th, 1808.
“I am much obliged to you for your inquiries, and shall
profit by them accordingly. I am going to get up a play here: the hall will constitute a
most admirable theatre. I have settled the dram. pers., and can do without ladies, as I
have some young friends who will make tolerable substitutes for females, and we only
want three male characters, beside Mr. Hobhouse
and myself, for the play we have fixed on, which will be the Revenge. Pray direct
Nicholson the carpenter to come over to me immediately, and
inform me what day you will dine and pass the night here.
“Believe me, &c.”
John Thomas Becher (1770-1848)
Educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, he was vicar-general of Southwell
(1818) and Rector of Barnburgh, Yorkshire (1830). He was a friend of Byron, the Pigots and
the Leacrofts.
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
