Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Journal Entry: 7 March 1814
“March 7th.
“Rose at seven—ready by half past eight—went to Mr. Hanson’s, Berkeley-square—went to church with
his eldest daughter, Mary Anne (a good girl), and
gave her away to the Earl of Portsmouth. Saw her
fairly a countess—congratulated the family and groom (bride)—drank a bumper of wine
(wholesome sherris) to their felicity, and all that,—and came home. Asked to stay to
dinner, but could not. At three sat to Phillips
for faces. Called on Lady M.—I like her so well,
that I always stay too long. (Mem. to mend of that)
“Passed the evening with Hobbouse, who has begun a Poem, which promises highly;—wish he would go
on with it. Heard some curious extracts from a life of Morosini, the blundering Venetian, who blew up the Acropolis at Athens
with a bomb, and be d—d to him! Waxed sleepy—just come home—must go to bed, and am
engaged to meet Sheridan to-morrow at Rogers’s.
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| A. D. 1814. |
LIFE OF LORD BYRON. |
505 |
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“Queer ceremony that same of marriage—saw many abroad, Greek
and Catholic—one, at home, many years ago. There be some strange
phrases in the prologue (the exhortation), which made me turn away, not to laugh in the
face of the surpliceman. Made one blunder, when I joined the hands of the happy—rammed
their left hands, by mistake, into one another. Corrected it—bustled back to the
altar-rail, and said ‘Amen.’ Portsmouth
responded as if he had got the whole by heart; and, if any thing, was rather before the
priest. It is now midnight, and * * * * * * *.
John Hanson (1755-1841)
Byron's solicitor and business agent.
Mary Anne Hanson (d. 1867)
Daughter of Byron's solicitor, John Hanson, the second wife of John Charles Wallop
(1767-1853), third earl of Portsmouth; the marriage, 7 March 1814, was annulled in 1828
after a long legal contest. Her obituary in GM gives her name as “Harriet Bridges.”
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).
Elizabeth Lamb, viscountess Melbourne [née Milbanke] (1751-1818)
Whig hostess married to Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne (1744-1828); she was the
confidant of Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire, the mother of William Lamb (1779-1848), and
mother-in-law of Lady Caroline Lamb.
Francesco Morosini (1619-1694)
The Doge of Venice from 1688 to 1694, he was responsible for the destruction of the
Parthenon during the siege of Athens in 1687.
Thomas Phillips (1770-1845)
English painter who assisted Benjamin West, exhibited at the Royal Academy, and painted
portraits of English poets including Byron, Crabbe, Scott, Southey, and Coleridge.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
Anglo-Irish playwright, author of
The School for Scandal (1777),
Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).
John Charles Wallop, third earl of Portsmouth (1767-1853)
The son of the second earl (d. 1812); he succeeded to the peerage in 1797; married 1)
Grace Norton (1799) and 2) Mary Anne Hanson (1814); in 1823 he was declared to be of
unsound mind and his second marriage was annulled in 1828.
