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CORNELL 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 




CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 




3 1924 092 469 737 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



THE COLLECTION 



OF 



AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 



AND 



HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 



FORMED BY 



ALFRED MORRISON 

(Second Series, 1882 — 1893). 




THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 

189s. 



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^ ^^ L> S 1% 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



ABELL (Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe, Mrs.). Napoleon's pet English 
child at St. Helena, where her father was Navy agent. (Died 1871.) 
A. L. S.* Dated Lyne Grove, near Chertsey, December 8th (1847). 
8 pages i6mo. 

' My dear Madam,— I have ventured to trouble you with this note to request 
that you will permit me the honor of adding your name to my list of friends who 
have promised to take copies of a book I intend publishing in the spring entitled 
Recolleciioiu of Napoleon during his Captivity at St. Helena,\ and which will be 
illustrated with views of the island, one volume. I trust your Ladyship will 
pardon the liberty I take in making this request, but I am induced to do so from 
feeling of what use the honor oi your name would prove to me. 

' Many friends have interested themselves very much in the success of my 
undertaking, and which I am most anxious will benefit me, as from some recent 
reverses I 3.xn just now in a great degree thrown on my own recourses. 

' Myself and daughter are at present on a visit to a very old friend, Mrs. 
Cavendish, & with whom we shall remain some weeks longer. My daughter 
& myself beg to offer our best compliments to your Ladyship, & to be kindly 
remembered to the Miss PowersJ who, I hope, have received satisfactory accounts 
from Van Diemans Land ; and with many apologies for intruding on you, 
believe me,' &c. 

ABINGER (James Scarlett, Baron), a well-known Lawyer, appointed 
Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1834, and created a Baron 

in 1835. (1769-1844.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 'Lancaster, August i6th,' 1835. 3J pages 4to. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— A thousand thanks for your kind letter, which 
reached me yesterday. It is always a satisfaction to think that there is somebody 
two or three hundred miles away that cares about you. I seem, at this distance 
from home and surrounded by ceremonies and formalities, as if I were in a foreign 
land, where nobody took any interest about me, which makes a letter from you, 
at all times agreeable, doubly charming. 

' I am much flattered with the opinion you have given of my little contribution§ 
to Macintosh's!! Life. I think, however, that I owe some part of your commenda- 
tion to your partiality for me, and therefore I am the more pleased by it. I 
must say, however, that it does not look so well in print as I hoped it would, & that 
I see much to correct in it. I believe, however, that I have given a true character 
of Macintosh's mind, which was candour itself. You will find, in the main, that 

* When not otherwise stated, the whole of the letters in this collection are written to Lady 
Blessington. 

t Published in 1848. 

J Lady Blessington 's nieces, daughters of her brother, Captain Michael Power. 

§ This ' little ' contribution consisted of a letter of nearly twenty printed pages. 

II Sir James Mackintosh, 1765-1832, an eminent Scotch statesman and political writer. In 
1803 he was appointed Recorder of Bombay, and was knighted, but returned to England in 
1813 ; was elected M.P. for Nairn, and was Professor of Law and Politics at Haileybury College 
from 1818 till 1827. In 1830 he was appointed to a seat at the Board of Control. His Life, 
written by his son, was published in 1835. 

B 



2 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Sydney Smith* agrees with me, tho' he falls into the satirical vein as if he could 
not help pointing out something to blame in order to enhven his praise. Why 
mention so unimportant a trifle as the manner of shaking hands with his 
friends ? It is true enough that he presented a flat, unbending hand, as most 
Scotsmen do ; but it is equally true that in a moment he put you^ at ease by 
his conversation, which had nothing either cold or reserved about it. Though 
he possessed a great power in conversation, and brought more originality into it 
than any other man I ever knew, yet it was his great object to draw other men 
out & learn what they had to say about what they best knew. The conduct of 
the Whigs towards him was scandalous, ungrateful, and wicked ; I have not said 
half what I thought of it. After all, I think the most entertaining part of the 
Memoirs consists in his own letters and journals. Some of the former will give 
you a notion of the depth & compass of his mind. 

' I find everything tranquil in the North, and no reaction whatever in favour of 
the Corporation Bill. The partizans for it are few, and led by the old hacknied 
Whig and Radical spouters, who have ceased to possess the countenance or 
support of any respectable person. Nothing will be a more fatal error in the 
Peers than to take counsel of Fear. They ought to consider the Radical 
& some of the Whig leaders in the Ho. of Com. as bent upon their 
destruction, and that every step taken by the instigation of such leaders is a 
step towards ruin. If the power of the House of Commons is to be wielded by 
Humef & 0'Connel,t the day of battle must come ; and it is better that it 
should come whilst the Peers are erect than when they are prostrate. 

' I am now on the point of starting for Liverpool, where I understand there 
will be a vast deal of business. As soon as I can dispose of it, I shall bend my 
way towards town, when I shall hope for the happiness of seeing you. Ever 
yours most truly.' 

2. A. L.S. Dated 'New Street, Sunday' (1835). 4 pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady B.,— I can refuse you nothing. A very severe and lasting 
cold & cough almost unfit me for company, but if I do not get worse, I will surely 
join you on Friday, hoping that you will excuse my propensity to bark, as it does 
not arise from hydrophobia — on the contrary, I drink nothing but water. 

'I have made acquaintance with "the Two Friends,"§ and relish them much. 
In truth, I have devoted two successive midnight hours to them, and left them only 
when they were about to go to their chambers after marriage ; I wo* gladly have 
remained longer if they had been willing, under such pressing circunistances, to 
tolerate me. I like the book ; the characters are well drawn, the incidents well 
imagined, the interest well kept up, the sentiments of a high moral cast, and the 
composition occasionally rises into great elegance, and is always marked by 
correct feeling, well expressed. After so much of commendation, you will, I 
know, receive as well one critical remark. Had I been at your elbow when you 
wrote, I wo"* not have allowed you to make use of two or three words which I 
dislike ; one is agreeability which, if English, is not agreeable, and therefore does 
not suit you. But it is not English : agreeableness is the right word. Another is 
the word mentally, which, though a good word, has been so much abused by 
some indifferent writers, that I have taken a dislike to it, and wo"^ banish it from 
the novels of my friends. I do not recollect any other. 

* Rev. Sydney Smith, 1771-1845, the famous wit and critic, Fellow of New College, Oxford, 
and contributor to the Edinburgh Review, in which he wrote many articles. He was made 
a Canon of St. Paul's in 1831. 'Damn with faint praise' is distinctly the only term which 
describes his contribution to the Life of Sir James Mackintosh. 

t Joseph Hume, 1777-1855, the eminent political reformer. He was first employed in 
India as an interpreter and commissary-general, but in 1808 resigned his appointments, returned 
to England and entered Parliament in 1812 as member for Weymouth. In 1830 he became 
M.P. for Middlesex; in 1837 for Killcenny; and in 1842 for Montrose Burghs. 

% Daniel O'Connell, 1775-1847, the great Irish orator and leader. He was called to the 
Irish Bar in 1798, but soon turned his attention exclusively to politics. He was elected M.P. 
for Clare in 1828, and after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act allied himself with the 
Whigs in the Reform movement. 

§ A novel by Lady Blessington, then just published. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 3 

' I am very glad to hear what you say of Burdett. I expected it of him and 
hope that many will follow his example, though it is not the lot of many to possess 
his high & honourable feeling. 

'The Law Magazine has been sent to me, with the proper title-page cut 
open. Surely I ought to be satisfied with it, but it is too flattering. I cannot 
miagine, however, where the writer picked up the notion that, when I was 
Att^ Gen^, I entertained any project of increasing the expence of admissions— (to 
the bar, I presume). Such a thought never entered my head, nor did I ever 
hear it discussed by anybody. I certainly did propose a regulation, which was 
adopted and of which I have heard no complaint. That regulation was, to submit 
candidates for admission to the Law Societies to a previous examination, with a 
view to ascertain their fitness by education to become members of a learned 
profession. It must be this to which the writer alludes. Believe me ever yours 
most truly.' 

3. A. L. S. (Marked ' Private and Confidential.') Dated ' New Street, 
Tuesday' (1835). 3 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady B., — I lost no time in complying with your desire; the answer 
expressed a general disposition favourable to your wish, but represented that an 
insurmountable obstacle had been thrown in the way of any reparation by 
D'Orsay's* letter. If that can be recalled, I think something might be done. 
May it not be said or written by the Count, that the note was addressed in a 
moment of excitement from reading the article ; and that, upon reflection, he 
desired to withdraw it, that no traces might remain of any design to irritate by 
strong expressions ; and to leave it to his own feelings and unbiassed judgment, 
whether it wo"* not be proper to qualify the conclusion, by a more temperate 
expression of an opinion that was probably formed on a partial view of the work? 

' If the letter could be thus withdrawn, the course would be left open to me to 
take an obvious way of setting matters right. I have not read the article, but from 
what I heard of it, it appears to me the critic has unjustly imputed to the author the 
sentiments of one of the characters, which is the most condemned. 

'The views of society and of morals, when taken by Miss M , and 

examined according to her standard, are not necessarily the views of the author. 
It may with more candour be supposed that she expresses her own sentiments 
in the language of the characters that are held up as better examples. 

' This is ground enough for an honorable amende. 

' I am so much engaged, that I really have not time to call on you, but Peter 
& I mean to invade you some even^. Adieu. Ever yours.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated Abinger Hall, October 21st, 1836. 3 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I would not thank you for your last kind 
present, till I had learned the value of it, by reading the book.f My thanks are 
not a mere compliment then, as I must acknowledge that I read it with pleasure, 
not only from the interest of the stories, but from the style, which is perspicuous, 
sprightly and agreeable, exactly suited to such a work. 

' But allow me to remark, that the greater part of the loves are those of a 
young gentleman, though he was an elderly gentleman when he told his stories. 
I believe he is a true sketch of many vain old batchelors. To make the loves of 
an elderly gentleman agreeable in narration, would be as difficult, \fear, as to make 
them tolerable in reality. There are, however, four letters of Rousseau, called 
Lettres d'un SexagSnaire, in which he has undertaken, by the force of his style & 
sentiments, to make the passion of a writer at that age interesting. I wish you 
would look at them, and tell me if he has been successful. 

* Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, Count D'Orsay, 1801-1852, a sculptor, painter, and man of 
fashion. He married, in 1S27, Lord Blessington's daughter by his first wife, but they separated 
soon afterwards. After Lord Blessington's death the Count and Lady Blessington resided together, 
and for nearly twenty years reigned almost supreme in the fashionable world of London. In 
1849 they fled to France to escape their creditors, and both died in that country. 

t Referring to Lady Blessington's work just then published, The Confessions of an Elderly 
Gentleman. 



4 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' I have been but two half-days in town since the 13th Aug', but shall 
return by the first of next month to my Italian House. Soon after, you will see, or 
at least hear of me, at Gore House. I have been wandering in Germany & 
Switzerland with my youngest son,* and would call my tour pleasant, had it not 
been accompanied by too much rain and cold. 

' Returning through Paris, the first person I encountered on emerging from 
the hotel was Lady Canterbury.! She made us pass the evens with her & dine 
there the next day. My Lord seems very happy, and has a beautiful house. His 
eldest sonf was with him ; they do not talk of returning. She read me a portion 
of a letter from you respecting the affair at Graham Club. 

' I remained but three days at Paris, and on my landing at Dover found 
Lyndhurst§ preparing for Paris where, if you believe some of the French papers, 
he, together with Sir Robert Peel,|| have been conspiring with the King of the 
French to turn out the Whigs. I wish with all my heart they may succeed 
before it is too late. 

' I meditated a letter to you when abroad, but how is it possible to write when 
one is either travelling or seeing sights ? Au revoir. Adieu.'' 

5. A. L. S. Dated Lincoln, March 6th, 1837. 3 pages 8vo., with Super- 
scription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— The state of the weather, combined with a 
terrible cold & cough which have not yet left me, prevented my calling on you 
as I intended before I left town. 

' I am afraid your report of Peter's journal is too favorable; there are some 
lively passages in it, but there is too great a deficiency of solid matter to make it 
popular ; yet I should like to know whether he could get anything for it, by 
way of encouragement to future attempts. Pray look at what he says about 
Panama — towards the close. 

' The weather is disagreeablehere, yet not colder than usual at this season. There 
is a.je ne scat's quoi about it that does not suit the feelings. I cannot subdue my 
propensity to barking, which makes me so unfit for society that I have refused the 
accustomed invitations at this place to dinner. 

' I am glad to hear that you & Lord Canterbury have been so well entertained. 
I imagine by his prolonged stay in England that he expects some crisis. I am 
not a greater behever in their resignation because the Whigs profess an intention to 
resign. Their first object is to keep their place at any sacrifice of principle ; 
their second is to place the country in such a state as to give the greatest em- 
barrassment to their successors and to the King. I believe some among them 
call this patriotism. 

' 1 have not forgotten what you call my promise — but you must allow me 
to call rather the expression of a desire to give you some contribution. Some 
fine day when I have nothing urgent to do, I hope to see about it, but I fear 
my imagination is too dull to suggest anything worthy of your adoption. At the 
same time I am so fastidious when I really set about seriously to compose, that 
each sentence costs me an hour. 

* Peter Campbell Scarlett, 1804-1881, the writer's youngest son, and a distinguished 
diplomatist. He was sent as Envoy Extraordinary to Brazil in 1855, Minister to Greece in 
1862, and to Mexico in 1865. 

t Ellen Power, Lady Canterbury, 1791-1845, Lady Blessington's sister, 1802-1845. She 
married first John Home Purves, and secondly, in 1828, Charles Manners Sutton, ist Viscount 
Canterbury, 1780-1845, eldest son of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was raised to the 
peerage in 1835. 

+ Charles John Manners Sutton, 2nd Viscount Canterbury, 1812-1869, 'he eldest son by the 
first wife, Miss Lucy Denison. He died unmarried. 

§ John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst, 1772-1863, an eminent lawyer, orator, and 
statesman. He was called to the Bar in 1804, became Solicitor-General in 1819, when he was 
knighted, Attorney-General in 1824, Master of the Rolls in 1826, Lord Chancellor in 1827, 
when he was created a Baron, and, in 1831, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. 

II Sir Robert Peel, 1 788-1 850, the distinguished orator and statesman. He entered Parliament 
iu 1 8 10, was successively Under-Secretary of State, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Home Secretary, 
and First Lord of the Treasury. He was killed by a fall from his horse on Constitution Hill. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 5 

' If you have half an hour's leisure from your literary labours and the calls of 
society, pray let me have a few lines on the "Midland Circuit," and believe me 
ever yours truly.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated New Street, February nth, 1838. 5 pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,— Thank you for your book and your kind 
enquu-ies. To the latter I can only say that I hope for a final recovery, but the 
appearances of the last three days indicate some remains of disorder, which time 
and perfect quiet only can remove. I must work hard, nevertheless, or the Whigs 
will do me a bad turn. For the book I can speak only of the few first pages, the 
style of which are characterized by the usual feUcity of the author. 

'I shall, as far as I can, be most happy to comply with your request for Mrs. 
!• airhe.* I have myself but one picture of one of my grandchildren. It was 
painted by Sir Martin Shee,t and represents the second son of Lady Stratheden,t 
a beautiful boy, whose countenance I wished to perpetuate. There is a dog in the 
picture. This is at Mrs. Fairlie's service. Lady Stratheden has a picture of her 
eldest daughter,5i done whilst she was an infant, which I make no doubt she will 
lend to me for the purpose. There is also a pretty portrait of her eldest son,|| but 
it is contained in a canvas which represents the mother also, as large as hfe ; a 
tolerable painting of a very pretty countenance and figure. I presume, however, 
that this will not come within the scope of Mrs. Fairlie's design. There are the 
two portraits painted by our friend, Mr. Lover, of Lady Currey's children, but I 
suppose they are also not within her plan. However, these are the only offers I 
can make you. To the first, which is my own & hangs in my drawing-room, 
Mrs. Fairlieis welcome; I may probably have some interest to procure the others 
if she desire it. 

' I think that your remark on Peter's booklT is just. His style is lively & natural, 
without affectation or the appearance of effort ; his descriptions are rapid and 
graphic. The defect of the work is a want of continuity ; he flies from subject 
to subject in a manner not sufficiently coherent, but his reflections are generally 
just, and when he appears to pursue a subject seriously, he does it hke a man of 
business. I rather think the work will do him credit, and will be the more popular 
on account of the light reading which it furnishes. 

' I have at various times put pen to paper for you, and do not now despair 
of being able to furnish you with the little fable I promised you, but in truth, I am 
so fastidious, that I cannot satisfy myself, and I destroy whatever I write. If I 
can continue anything to please myself, I will send it to you before the month of 
May. By a legal arrangement, interesting to nobody but the Judges, I shall not 
go the next Circuit, so that I hope in the course of next month to have more 
leisure than usual, and to be able to see you. Ever, my dear Countess, yours 
truly.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated New Street, March 8th, 1838. 2\ pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — As you place yourself in my hands touching 
your communication with Barnes, I shall play the part of a loyal, as well as 
faithful ambassador, in using the best discretion to advance your object. I shall 

* Louisa Purves, Mrs. Fairlie, daughter of Viscountess Canterbury by her first marriage. 
She died in 1843. 

t Sir Martin Archer Shee, 1770-1850, a well-known portrait-painter. He first exhibited at 
the Royal Academy in 1789, was elected an Associate in 1798, and President in 1830, when he 
was knighted. His life by his son was published in i860. 

X Mary Elizabeth Scarlett, Baroness Stratheden, 1795-1860, the writer's eldest daughter, 
and wife of Lord Campbell. In 1836 she was created Baroness Stratheden in her own right. 

§ Lady Stratheden's eldest daughter, Louise Madeline, married in 1850 the Rev. W. S. 
White, Prebendary of Lincoln. 

II The eldest son was William Frederick, Baron Stratheden and Campbell, 1824-1893, M.P. 
for Cambridge from 1847 to 1852, and for Harwich from 1859 to i860. He died unmarried, 
and was succeeded by the second son, Hallyburton George, born 1829, the present peer. 

IT The work referred to was South America and the Pacific, published in 1838. 



6 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

not therefore send your letter, not because I do not concur in the remarks it 
contains, but because it has a tendency to rip up the old quarrel, by putting him 
under the necessity either of recanting his criticism or of vindicating it: Now, I 
think the peace is a good peace, and promises to be lasting, unless disturbed by 
a recurrence to former differences. It is better, therefore, to allow me to make 
your acknowledgments in general terms of civility. He knows already my 
sentiments on the fallacy of the former critique ; he must also know yours, and 
the recurrence to it looks as if you made it of more importance than it becomes 
you to do. I will come and see you as soon as I can; at present I hardly dare 
to go out of my beaten track for fear of exerting my eye, which will be more and 
more inflamed by the sight of you. Ever yours truly.' 

8. A. L. S. Dated 'New Street, November 30th,' 1838. 2 J pages 8vo. 

'My dear Countess, — Many thanks for your kind note of yesterday. The 
weather has been so indifferent since I came to town on the Sundays, that I have 
not been able to ride so far as Gore House, and on every other day in the week I 
am confined in Court till 5, & sometimes 6 o'clock. 

' This is very hard work for a man who has but one eye that he can safely use ; 
the other is -very journalier, sometimes pretty well, at others much inflamed and 
useless. Nevertheless, I shall have the pleasure of visiting you the first oppor- 
tunity. 

'I have not had the benefit of the Radical criticisms on my fable.* I read no 
paper but the Times, & of that but a little. Therefore, I have seen no mention 
of it, but I am glad they have sense enough (I mean the Radicals) to perceive 
that they are the lunatics. As the cap fits them let them wear it. 

' But the state of the times is no fable. I shall not be surprized any morning 
to find the stocks down 10 p. cent. What a Government ! Ever yours.' 

9. A. L. S. Dated New Street, February 25th, 1839. 3 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Yesterday week I was on horseback in my way 
to visit you, but was driven back by a bitter storm of hail. Yesterday the sun 
invited me out as it does the butterfly, and I made a successful progress to your 
door, when I found he had done the same by you. You must not therefore 
attribute my long absence to any other coldness than that of the weather, which I 
find myself, as I advance in life, less and less able to endure. I am, however, 
upon the whole, somewhat better than I was last winter, and were it not for an 
occasional inflammation in one of my eyes, and a permanent deformity under it, I 
would encounter all sorts of weather to lay myself at your feet. But I dare not 
expose my eye to the cold wind, and I am not yet old enough to pay visits in a 
carriage. 

' The spring is approaching, and I trust that some fine day towards the end of 
some week in March will usher me to Gore House. I say " towards the end of 
some week" because I have so arranged my circuit, which commences on 
Thursday next, that on each succeeding week I shall leave town on Monday, and 
return on Thursday or Friday till the end of the month. 

' I know not whether to wish you joy of your revived acquaintance. I am 
aware that he is very agreeable, & I heartily wish you may find him useful, 
which is more than I ever did. Believe me ever yours truly.' 

10. A. L. S. Dated Norfolk Hotel, Brighton, April 19th, 1842. 2^ pages 

8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — A thousand thanks for your kind enquiries. 
I had a smartish attack of erysipelas in the face & head, which confined me for 
a fortnight to my chamber, and almost to my bed. But it is gone, & I am, by 

* Referring to a ' Fable ' by Lord Abinger, which appeared in the Book of Beauty for 
1839- 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. y 

the advice of the doctors, taking the air of this place to accelerate my recovery. 
The weather, however, is very ungenial, & I dare not yet venture on horseback. 
The difficulty of finding any time at all to ride, and especially of good weather 
for riding, is the true reason that I have not been able for a long time to see you. 
I am not yet come to paying visits in a carriage, but as soon as I can submit to 
this decided step in the progress of old age, you shall find me at your door. 

' I am not, however, without a hope that this recess from business will prove 
beneficial to the complaint in my eye, which is decidedly mending, so that you 
must not be surprized if you clear up all shades & deformities of the face. 

' Peter is with me. What could I do without him .? He is the most gentle 
and affectionate of mortals, and his attention to me makes him invaluable. He 
desires to join me in best remembrance to you, & I beg you will believe me, my 
dear madam, yours most truly and affectionately.' 

ARLINCOURT (Victor Provost, Viscount d'). A French Writer and 
Diplomatist, (i 789-1 856.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Aix-la-Chapelle, October 22nd, 1843. 3 pages 4to. 

'Aimable et excellente Amie, — J'ai regu votre charmante lettre du 16 Octobre, 
qui m'a prouve que la bonte et le talent sont inseparables chez vous. Combien je 
suis reconnaissant des peines que vous vous etes donn^es pour moi. Pourquoi 
faut-il que votre eloquence ait eu si peu de prise auprfes de celui que vous daignez 
appeler k vous entendre. Ses propositions me paraissent rudes. Soumettre mon 
livre h. I'acceptation, ou au refus, d'un libraire, h. son eloge, ou k son bl4me, me parait 
trop inconcevable ! II me semble que je ne saurais m'y resoudre. Ce Monsieur, 
est-il apte k juger du stile d'un ecrivain Frangais ? En comprendra-t-il les pens^es ? 
J'avoue que s'il me renvoyait mes pages aprfes les avoir parcourues, sans vouloir 
faire affaire avec moi, cela me paraitrait une singulifere humiliation. Est-ce que je 
peux, est-ce que je dois m'y exposer ? Qu'en dit le Comte D'Orsay, le roi de la 
grace et du gout ? Qu'en dites vous, genie protecteur ? Une imise doit etre un 
oracle. 

'Avant tout je desirerois savoir quel prix il donnerait de mes deux volumes, 
en admettant le cas qu'z7 daigne en etre satisfait. Je parle de Monseigneur le 
libraire. 

'Puis : dites-moi s'il entend par Mition Anglais une traduction, je suppose 
que cela veut dire, une edition publiee k Londres en Frangais. Cependant il faut 
s'expliquer. 

' Enfin, si je me determinais k envoyer un specimen, je demande impcrietisement 
qu'il ne se compose non plus que d'un tiers de volume. Ce sera bien assez pour 
juger : surtout si ce Monsieur a une intelligence en harmonie avec ses pretensions, 
et k la hauteur de ses arrets. 

' Conseillez-moi, aimable dame ! Pensez-vous qu'il puisse etre prudent 
d'envoyer courir un manuscrit par mer et par terre. C'est plus que par monts et 
par vaux : de quelle fagon faudroit-il s'y prendre pour qu'il ne lui arrivat pas 
mdsaventure ? 

' Pardon de tant de details ennuyeux : mais c'est k une soeur que je les adresse, 
et cela me rassure un peu. 

'Votre jolie nifece a-t-elle pens^ au petit travail que j'attends de son obligeance? 
la nomenclature de vos charmants ouvrages. Je lui demande aussi le titre des 
principales celebrites litteraires et artistiques de Londres, et avec un mot sur le 
mdrite et les succfes de chacun d'eux. Sera-t-elle assez bonne pour y songer ! 

' Sur la petite note qu'elle m'a donnee, il y a un nom que je ne lis pas bien : 
c'est celui d'un peintre : est-ce bien Edwin Landseer?* je n'en suis pas sur. 

' Adieu, ch^re et belle Comtesse ; je vous adresse ici une lettre bien materielle," 
une lettre k fastidieux details, mais votre genie repliera ses ailes un instant pour 
redescendre k d'anti-podtiques sujets, et n'en reprendra apr^s qu'un plus brillant 
essor. 

* Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, 1802-1873, the celebrated animal painter and Royal Acade- 
mician, lie was elected R.A. in 1830, and was knighted in 1850. In 1865 he refused the 
Presidency of the Royal Academy, which was offered him on the death of Sir Charles Eastlake. 



8 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Mille amitids k mon bon Comte D'Orsay ; et croyez-moi, tous deux, pour la 
vie, votre tout d6vou6,' &c. 

' P.S.— Toute reflexion faite, s'il faut se rdsoudre k envoyer un specimen, autant 
vaut un demi volume qu'un tiers. Ce k qui il faut s'aneter, c'est k la manifere de 
I'envoyer, et puis, avant tout il faut savoir si le prix qu'il pourrait donner vaut 
/e sacrifice qu'il exige.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Rue Caumartin, 14, January 19th, 1844. 3 pages 
8vo. 

' Aimable soeur en Apollon !— Voyez combien je compte sur vos bontes pour 
moi. Voici une 50™= de ■prospectus des Trots Royauines que mon editeur de 
France me supplie de vous adresser pour les donner k Monsieur Murray, et k 
ses confreres en librairie (sans oublier Monsieur Dulau). 

' Me pardonnerez-vous cette importunity ? Oh oui : car vous etes la grace et 
I'obligeance meme, mais c'est un frfere qui en appelle k I'affection et au genie. 

' D'ici k peu de jours, ch^re Milady (vous me permettez ce doux nom : n'est-ce 
pas) ? je vous enverrai plusieurs bonnes feuilles de mon premier volume pour 
remettre k Mr. Murray comme specimen; aprfes les avoir lus, :1 vous dira quels 
sont ses offres ? Je desire vivement qu'elles soient avantageuses. Arrangez cela 
pour moi, comme si c'etoit pour vous, et croyez k ma vive reconnaisance. 

' J'ai ici un traducteur (le gendre de M. Kenyon*) qui a du vous ecrire. II 
offre de traduire mon livre, et sous mes yeitx, de manifere k etre pret le jour meme 
oil je paraitrais k Paris. 

'Vous pouvez dire k Mr. Murray que je retarderais ma publication pour 
que la traduction Anglaise soil en vente k Londres lorsque I'edition Frangaise 
paraitra k Paris. Mais ilfaiit que Mr. Murray vi offre zm prix convenable. Je 
compte cl cet cgard sur vos tons offices. 

' II faudrait faire mettre, s'il est possible, un extrait du Prospectus dans 
quelques journaux Anglais, notamment dans le Morning Post et le Courrier de 
VEurope. 

' II faudrait aussi en envoyer k Dublin et k Edinbourg. 

'Je vous en adresserai encore par I'Ambassadeur de Sardaigne. Mais en 
v6nt6 je suis honteux et confus de tous les ennuis de cette lettre. Je ne vous 
parle que de moi. Vous m'y avez autorise, et cependant je ne saurais me le 
pardonner. 

' Mille amities k mon cher Comte D'Orsay. Je regrette bien de ne I'avoir pas 
vu k Paris quand il y a passe. J'ai pris une vive part k la perte qu'il a faite, et au 
chagrin qu'il a du en ressentir. 

' Vous savez sans doute le brillant cadeau que m'a fait I'Empereur de Russie, 
aprfes avoir lu VEtoile Polaire. 

' Veuillez, mon aimable soeur, agreer les expressions bien senties de mon 
tendre devouement, et de ma profonde gratitude. Votre humble et trfes obeissant 
serviteur,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. Dated 14 Rue Caumartin, Paris, January 25th, 1844. 3 
pages 4to. 

' Aimable et bonne Comtesse, — Je viens de vous adresser, par la maison 
Bossa?tge,-\ qui correspond k Londres avec la librairie Dulau, les dix premieres 
bonnes feuilles de mon prochain livre : les Trois Royaumes. Veuillez les remettre 
k M. Murray : il pourra juger de mon ouvrage aprfes avoir lu cette moitie du tome 
premier, et il pourra vous faire ses offres : je ne doute point qu'elles ne soient 
convenables. II ne voudrait pas, je suppose, en faire d'indignes de lui et de nous. 

* John Kenyon, 1784-1856, a poet and philanthropist, the friend of most of the poets and 
men of letters of his time. Rich, and without ambition, he spent his life in society, travel, 
dilettantism, dining, and dispensing charity, and among the first to benefit by his philanthropy 
were Coleridge's family. It was in his house that Mrs. Browning finished Aurora Leigh, and it 
was to him it was dedicated. \Vhen he died he left Browning 10,000/. 

+ Bossange was a famous bookseller in Paris. The head of the firm, Martin Bossarge, died 
in 1865, at the age of 100 years all but a month. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 9 

Je vais attendre impatietnment sa rifponse. II n'a pas un instant k perdre, car 
mon impression marche avec rapidity. 

' Je promets h I'editeur Murray de ne pas laisser paraitre las Trois Royaumes 
^ Paris avant qu'il ne les ait public a Londres ; mais il faut qu'il se depeche. 
J'ai ici un_ traducteur, M. Harvey, qui k du vous dcrire. II offre k M. Murray de 
traduire ici mon ouvrage extremement vita, at de la faire sous mes yeux. Pour 
que M. Murray puisse jugar de son talent, je joins ici la traduction qu'il a faite du 
1"^' chapitre de mon livre : M. Murray lira et se d^cidera. 

' Je n'imposa nullament M"' Harvey k M. Murray. Ce dernier fara ce qu'il 
croira le plus convanabla k ses inldrets. Beaucoup d'Anglais ont dejk souscrit ici 
k mon livre. On an parle beaucoup k Paris, et tout semble me promettra un 
grand succfes. L'editeur yl/z^rra^ fera, je I'esp^re, un bien bonne affaire, mais il 
na faut pas qu'il lesine. 

' Las pages qua j'envoie ont quelque intdret, peut-etre, mais beaucoup moins que 
celles qui suivent. Les grandes scenes avec O'Conrjall an Irlandeferont sensation. 
Puis viendront les Chauss^s des Geants, Fingal's Cave, les souvenirs historiques 
d'Ecosse, Charles Edouard, les rochers mystiSrieux des Highlands, et enfin le 
fameux voyage de Londres. Ces derni^ras pages feront scandala, j'y ai mis toute 
ma verve. Vous la voyez, aimable amie, il y a Ik matifera k un grand succ&s. 
J'esp&re qua Murray le sentira ; voire eloquanta voix lui indiquera sa route. 

' La maison Bossange a dejk fait passer 300 prospectus aux libraires Murray 
et Dulau, en les priant d'en envoyer k Dublin at Edinbourg. Je voudrais bian 
que las journaux de Londres en disent un mot ; et ja me recommande au Courrier 
de T Europe. 

' Milla amities k mon bon Comta d'Orsay. Je compte aussi sur lui pour le 
succfes des Trois Roymcmes en Angleterre. 

' Vous lirez sans doute, aussi que lui, mes dix bonnes feuilles avant de las 
donner k M. Munay. Ja serai charme de savoir I'effet qu'elles vous auront fait. 
Avec quelle impatience je vais attendre une lettre de vous. 

' Hatez-vous done, ma bonne saur {yows voyez que je tiens k ce doux nom), 
hatez-vous d'arranger mon affaire avec Murray. J'ai fait ce qu'il a desir^ ; c'ast 
k son tour de remplir mon attente, il n'aura certainement pas lieu de s'en repentir. 
Tons les nobles Anglais voudront avoir un livre oil tant de families sont 
nommees. Reussissaz-donc, ch^re Comtessa, et croyez k I'eternella reconnais- 
sance de votre tout devoue,' &c. 

' P.S. — Maintenant je na vous anverrai plus da bonnes feuilles. J'attandrai 
pour cela que vous ayez conclu mon traite. Je ne vous fixe aucune sorame. J'en 
passerai par tout ce que vous arrangeraz, je ratifie tout par avance, j'y applaudis 
meme et je vous laisse carte blanche. Consulter entrainarait trop da delais. 

'Aussit6t I'affaire reglee, I'envoi des bonnes feuilles aura lieu le plus vite 
possible : traduites ou non traduites, comme le voudra M. Murray, qui aurait k 
s'entendre avec M. Harvey en cas oil il I'accepterait pour traducteur. 

'Adieu encore une fois, et mille expressions de gratitude. 

' Note. — Ne montrez mes bonnes feuilles k personne.' 

4, A. L. S. No date (January, 1844). 2 ^ pages 8vo. 

'Aimable et chfere Comtesse, — Je ne saurais vous exprimer combien je suis 
touche de vos bontes. J'ai regu le Court Journal et je I'ai lu avec une viva 
reconnaissance. M. Murray doit avoir pris maintenant une decision, &, grace k 
I'int^ret que vous me portez, ja ne doute pas qu'elle na soit convenable. On m'a 
dit qu'il avail fait dejk annoncer dans les journaux qua le livre paraitrait chez lui. 
On m'a assure aussi que Colburn dtait desole de ne s'en aire pas rendu acqiiereur. 
Tout cela promet une heureuse fin, et c'est k vous que je le devrai. 

' J'ai requ la plus petite lettre de votre charmante niece ; et je I'en remarcie 
vivement. Je corrigerai les erreurs que vous me signalez. J'aurais bien voulu 
savoir si vous etiez satisfait de mes dix premieres feuilles. 

' Mon traducteur. Monsieur Harvey, travaille loujours avec activitd Je vous 
envoie par une occasion siare huit feuilles qu'il vient de terminer. Si M. Murray 
s'arrange avec vous il pourra commencer de suite k imprimer sa traduction : car 
on attend impaliemment mes "Trois Royaumes" k Paris ; et il serait facheux de 
trop retarder la publication, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Laissez-moi vous rep^ter id les expressions de ma gratitude ; je serai 
heureux d'aller vous les porter moi-meme h. Londres, et si je puis ici vous etre 
utile disposez de moi comme du ixhct le plus tendre et le plus devoue. 

' Mille amities li mon bon Comte d'Orsay. Quel regret j'ai eu de ne pas le 
voir ci Paris pendant son court sejour. Je compte aussi sur ses soins et son 
affection. Croyez-moi, tous deux, pour la vie toute i vous,' &c. 

'P.S. — Les feuilles de M. Harvey forment la traduction des dix premieres 
feuilles que je vous ai adresse's. II vous prie de decider si le mot biche est bien 
traduit par le mot doe. Sinon, serez-vous assez bonne pour le changer et mettre 
celui qu'il faut (c'est dans les dix feuilles en trois places). Que d'ennuis je vous 
donne ! ' 

5. A. L. S. Dated February 26th (1844). i page 8vo. 

' Chcre Milady, — Je crois que me voil^ au moment de traiter avec M. Bentley. 
En ce cas, il demanderait les dix premieres bonnes feuilles que je vous ai envoyees, 
et la traduction Anglaise de ces feuilles. Seriez-vous assez bonne pour les lui 
remettre ? 

' Permettez-moi encore une fois de vous parler de ma reconnaissance. Vous 
avez 6te pour moi une amie devouee, et je ne I'oublierai de ma vie. 

'J'espfere bien aller revoir Londres. Avec quel bonheur je me retrouverais 
auprfes de vous. 

' Croyez-moi pour la vie, aimable sceur, votre bien affectionne,' &c. 

6. A. L. S. Dated ' 14 Caumartin,' March 2nd (1844). i page 8vo. 

'Aimable amie, — Je viens de terminer mon marclie avec Mr. Bentley; en 
consequence soyez assez bonne pour lui faire remettre mes dix bonnes feuilles et 
ma traduction, pour qu'il puisse commencer de suite ci imprimer. 

' Si vous aviez dejJi remis ces feuilles \ un autre il faudrait les faire retirer de 
ses mains, puisque I'affaire est conclue maintenant avec M. Bentley. 

' Mille et mille expressions d'amitid et de reconnaissance.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated Paris, March 12th, 1844. 3 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' Ch^re et excellente Amie, — J'ai enfin termine avec Monsieur Benteley, mais 
non pas comme je I'avois desire, neanmoins si son edition Anglaise a du succ^s, 
et sHl est honmte homme, mon traite pourra me rapporter quelques benefices. 

' Voici ce qui a ete convenu. Mr. Benteley paye tous les frais de traduction, 
d'impression et de publication, puis, tous ses frais rembourses, il partage avec 
moi les benefices de la vente. Le livre paroitra k Londres en meme temps 
qu'<i Paris. 

' 11 rdsulte de cet arrangement, que je puis n'avoir pas grand chose, mais qu'il 
y a chance de gain s'il y a succis. 

' Or done, c'est un succes qu'il faut obtenir ; et qui mieux que vous, aimable 
soeur ! peut y contribuer ? Parlez du livre ! faites-en parler ! protege par vous, il 
aura de la vogue. 

'Dfes que I'edition Frangaise sera prete,je me haterai de vous envoyer un joli 
petit exemplaire, hommage de ddvouement et de reconnaissance. 

' Mille tendresses k mon cher Comte D'Orsay, je me recommande k lui aussi 
pour mettre mes Trois Royaumes k la mode ; Le Morning Post, Le Courrier de 
I'Eiirope, et tous les journaux qui vous admirent devraient bien m'accorder 
quelques lignes de bienveillance k votre soUicitation. 

' J'aime k y compter ; car il me sera bien doux de vous exprimer ma gratitude 
et mon affection. Laissez tomber quelques rayons de votre gloire sur mon 
humble ouvrage en ce moment k vos pieds ; et sa route sera brillante, et son 
pfere vous benira. 

' Veuillez agreer, chere sceur, les nouvelles expressions d'amitie fiddle de votre 
tout devoue,' &c. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. n 

' Oserai-je vous prier de revoir Mr. Benteley, et de vous concerter avec lui 
pour le succ&s des Trots Royaumes. 

' Le baron D'Haussez* m'a dit ici qu'il avait ete fort content de M. Benteley, 
lorsque celui-cy edita la traduction Anglaise de son livre. 

'Si je le suis aussi, Mr. Benteley et moi, nous pourrons renouer d'autres 
affiiires : le tout dependra du succfes.' 

' Ma traduction, complctement achevee, part pour Londres aujourd'hui mcme. 
Je la mets sous votre protection.' 

8. A. L. S. Dated Paris, March 17th (1844). 3 pages 8vo. 

' Aimable et ch^re Soeur, — Mes Trois Royaumes vont paraitre k Londres et k 
Paris en deux, trois ou quatre jours. Soutenez-les ! protdgez-les ! Qu'une des 
palmes qui ceignent votre front s'etende sur eux comme un talisman de protection. 
Leur plus grande gloire aura ete d'etre sous votre egide. 

'Les journaux Anglais parleront sans doute de mon livre, surtout s'il a un 
beau succ^s. Je voudrois bien avoir quelques-uns de vos articles pour le faire 
reproduire dans les gazettes Frangaises. 

' Les demieres pages du i^ volume sont toutes politiques. EUes parlent de 
MS'' le Due de Bordeaux.t et vous comprenez la chaleur que j'aurai dSx y mettre. 
Tachez d'en faire parler, dans notre opinion., par le Morning Post, le Court Jotcrnal, 
&c., et toutes les feuilles qui sympathisent avec la legitimite. Je ferois reproduire 
ici leurs articles et leurs reflexions politiques, et cela pourroit etre utile ici \ moi et 
aux notres. Je regarde cela comme important de bien desfaqons et sous bien des 
rapports. 

'J'espfere vous envoyer prochainement I'exemplaire Frangais qui vous est 
destine, accueillez-le avec votre bontd accoutume, et cet hommage de recon- 
naissance vous dira combien je suis heureux et fier de votre illustre patronage. 

' Je n'ai pas besoin de vous recommander mes interets sous le rapport 
pecuniaire. Je ne doute pas que vous soyez bonne k cet dgard comme en tout le 
reste ; esperons que Monsieur Bentley mettra de I'amour-propre \ en agir noble- 
ment avec moi ; nous pourrons faire quelques autres affaires ensemble, si je suis 
content de lui. 

' Adieu, mon excellente amie. Je vais attendre impatiemment des nouvelles de 
Londres, le moment decisif est venu. 

' Croyez-moi pour la vie, ch^re soeur, votre reconnoissant et devoue serviteur,' 
&c. 

' Mille tendresses k mon bon Comte D'Orsay, je compte aussi sur son amitie, 
sur ses soins, sur son credit, et sur son talent ; il a, k la fois, tant d'obligeance et 
tant A&poiivoir .1' 

9. A. L. S. Dated 14 Rue Caumartin, March 29th, 1844. 2 pages 
8vo. 

' Chfere Contesse, — Voici une petite notmelle qui, je I'espfere, vous sera agreable, 
et pourra plaire k vos lecteurs in the Book of Beauty : lorsque vous I'aurez 
traduite, et que vous I'aurez revetue des charmes de votre style, elle aura un 
merite de plus : vous lui donnerez un nouveau charme. 

' Je suis vraiment heureux de trouver une occasion de vous etre agreable. 
Disposez de moi en toute occasion, et croyez k mon devouement inalterable ; il 
vous est acquis pour la vie. 

* Charles Lemercier de Longpre, Baron d'Haussez, 1778-1854, a French politician, created 
a Baron under the Empire, Minister for Marine in 1829. The book referred to was La Grande- 
Bretagne en 1833, translated under the title Great Britain in 1S33. 

t Henri Charles Dieudonne, Count de Chambord, Duke de Bordeaux, 1820- 1883, 
posthumous son of the unfortunate Duke de Berry, and the representative while he lived of 
the elder line of the Bourbons. His later years were passed at Frohsdorf, where he spent his 
time In devotion, shooting, and in issuing manifestoes about ' The Flag of Joan of Arc, and 
Henry IV.' 



12 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Mille remercimens de votre charmant article du Court Journal* Mon livre 
{Les Trots Royaumes) est sans doute, en ce moment publid \ Londres. II aura 
commence sa carri^re, et, protegd par vous, il a du faire son entree dans le monde 
avec de grandes chances de succ(^s. Continuez-lui votre secours, aimable soeur ! 
Soutenez-ses pas sur la terre etrang&re, et tenez moi au courant de ses destinies. 

'J'attends impatiemment les journaux qui en rendent compte k Londres. 
Quant \ ceux de Paris, ils Font comble d'dloges. 

' Mes Trois Royaumes obtiennent ici en ce moment un grand succes de vogue. 
C'est le livre k la mode, et il me donne ici de vive jouissances. Dieu veuille qu'il 
en soit de meme h Londres ; et a cet effet je compte sur la brillante Muse qui 
a bien voulu etre son ange tutelaire. 

'Adieu, ma bonne sceur, dites au Comte D'Orsay les choses les plus affec- 
tueuses pour moi ; je me recommande toujours h. lui, et je suis k tout jamais 
votre tendre et reconnaissant,' &c. 

10. A. L. S. Dated Paris, 14 Rue Caumartin, May 2nd, 1844. 3 pages 
4to., with Superscription. 

' Dear Countess, — Que je vous remercie de toutes les peines que je vous ai 
donnees. Vous m'avez defendu et protege en veritable sceur, aussi ne sais-je 
comment vous en exprimer ma reconnaissance. 

' Un Anglais trompe, comme moi, par O'Connell, sur I'equivoque du mot ccrit, 
que le tribun d'Irlande pretend ne pas toujours signifier compost, m'addresse une 
lettre assez curieuse h. cet i^gard. J'ai pense que cette leitre pourrait etre inseree 
dans le Times ou Morning Post (en totalite ou en partie), pour faire suite k la 
controverse. Cela acheverait de me jusiifier. II parait que maintenant on ne 
salt plus de qui sont les fameux vers : " O Erin, shall it ^er be mine ? " On les a 
attribue k une foule de personnes, et ne voila-t-il pas que j'ai lu dans un journal 
Anglais que decidement cette mystdrieuse pensee dtoit de la fagon d'O'Connell. 
Tout cela est assez original. 

'Au surplus tout ce bruit ne fait que du bien k mon livre. Ici son succes est 
toujours croissant, et je propose une troisieme reimpression. 

' Je crains bien que M"^ Bentley ne se conduise pas bien vis-k-vis de moi et 
ne me cache ses ventes. Cela n'est pas beau. Je lui ai demande trois 
exemplaires Anglois pour moi ; croiriez-vous qu'il ne me les a pas envoyds ? 
C'est abominable. Reclamez-les s'il est possible. 

'J'en reviens, dear sister, k la lettre de mon Anglais. Ne pensez-vous pas 
comme moi qu'il serait beau de la publier ? (en tout ou partie), il m'y autorise lui- 
meme. Je vous recommande encore cette affaire. 

' Je suis charme que vous ayez trouve mes deux jumelles k votre goiat. 
Disposez de moi en toute chose et en toute occasion. Je me trouverai toujours 
le plus heureux des hommes de vous etre utile et agreable. 

' II m'arrive chaque jour de charmantes lettres d'Ecosse. J'en ai eu des 
jeunes Sitcart. 

' Mille et mille amities k mon char Comte d'Orsay. Je reve un nouveau 
voyage en Angleterre apr&s celui que je compte faire en Orient, et ce sera un grand 
bonheur pour moi que celui de mettre de nouveau aux pieds de mon illustre soeur 
I'expression de mon devouement et le tribut de mon admiration. All yours for 
ever, your most obedient servant,' &c. 

* The following is the paragraph in the Court Journal referred to in the letter : — ' The 
Viscount D'Arlincourt. — The world of fashion is on the tiptoe of expectation for the literary 
treat held out to them by the approaching publication of The Three Kingdoms, the work of the 
celebrated Viscount D'Arlincourt. This interesting production will be introduced to the English 
public a fortnight previous to its appearance in Paris. Already has the note of preparation 
sounded, and been answered by the most pressing demands for early copies by the elite of 
English society. To few foreigners have similar opportunities of seeing the interiors of our great 
country houses, and of judging la vie de chdteau, been accorded, and to none could it have been 
more safely granted than to le Viscount D'Arlincourt, whose fine taste and high breeding, all 
who have the happiness of knowing him must admit, peculiarly fit him for the task he has under- 
taken. A quickness of perception, vivacity of imagination, piquancy, word-elegance of style, 
and, above all, a tact as rare as it is precious, are the distinguishing characteristics of this 
popular author, and never have they been more gracefully developed than in The Three 
Kingdoms^ 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 13 

. 'P-S.— Celui qui vous remettra cette lettre est le tr^s celebre Offenbach* 
yioloncelhste, qui a fait les d^ices de Paris cet hiver. Si vous voulez I'entendre 
il vous enchantera.' 

BEACONSFIELD (Benjamin D'Israeli, Earl oQ. The celebrated 
Statesman and Novelist. (1805-1881.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday' (June, 1834), 31A Park Street. 3 pages 
8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— Sir Francis Sykes,t who is at present in Copen- 
hagen, has written to me to send him out some letters for various cities in 
Germany, which he intends to visit. 

' Among them is Dresden, where I know no one. He is a person I much wish 
to obhge, & if you co'' assist me with a letter to the capital of Saxony, you 
would be very amiable. I wo'i not solicit this favor, were he not in every respect 
a very recommendable personage, being young, very good-looking, & very accom- 
plished. I am desirous, if possible, of sending him his letters by Tuesdy's post. 

' I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you to-night at the Opera. I cannot 
afford to miss it even for Madame B., as I have never heard L'AssedioX before. 
Your friend,' &c. 

2. A. L. S. No date. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I venture to enclose you the letter for Botta,§ 
& a note which I shall feel obliged by your giving to Count D'Orsay. I shall 
then be sure that it reaches him. I wish you wo'^ enforce the favor I ask of him. 

' I fear you will find my correspondence very monotonous ; but I shall be 
too delighted to hear from you to omit a claim for your answers. 

'We live at "Bradenham House, High Wycombe." 

'Pray let me have a proof of my little story sent to Brad: 

' The post, you know, will carry a proof sheet, if so certified on the direction. 

' It shall be returned instantly. In haste, y"^ faithful.' 

3. A. L. Dated Bradenham House, High Wycombe (August 5th, 
1234)- z\ pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I was so sorry to leave London with' 
being a moment alone with you ; but altho' I came to the opera the last night 
on purpose, Fate was against us. I did not reach this place until Sunday, very 
ill indeed from the pangs of parting. Indeed, I feel as desolate as a ghost, & 
I do not think that I ever shall be able to settle to anything again. It is a great 
shame, when people are happy together, that they sho* be ever separated ; but it 
seems the great object of all human legislation that people never sho'' be 
happy together. 

' My father || I find better than I expected, & much cheered by my presence. 
I delivered him all your kind messages. He is now very busy on his " History 
of English Literature," in which he is far advanced. I am mistaken if you will 
not dehght in these volumes. They are full of new views of the History of our 
language, & indeed of our country, for the history of a State is necessarily 
mixed up with the history of its hterature. 

* Jacques Offenbach, i8ig-l88o, the well-known musical composer, started as a violoncellist 
but was not very successful, and eventually opened a small theatre in the Champs Elysees. His 
best-known work, I^a Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein^ appeared in 1867. 

t Sir Francis William Sykes, 1799-1843, succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet in 1804. 

+ Rossini's opera, Le Siige de Corinthe, after being played in Paris in 1826, was performed 
in London for the first time June 5th, 1834, with Grisi, Rubini, and Tamburini in the cast. 

§ Paul Emile Botta, 1805- 1870, son of the Italian historian and Layard's contemporary in 
Assyrian discovery. He was French Consul at Mosul, and, being an archfeologist and enthu- 
siast, seized the opportunity to excavate the mounds at Khosabad, and was thus instrumental in 
furnishing the Louvre with some of the finest Assyrian monuments in existence. The results of 
his excavations were published in his huge book, Les Monuments de Ninive. 

II Isaac Disraeli, 1766-1848, author of Curiosities of Literature, Quarrels of Authors, Sec. 



14 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

'For myself, 1 am doing nothing. The western breeze favors an al fresco 
existence, &-I am seated with a pipe under a spreading sycamore, solemn as a 
pacha. 

' I wish you would induce Hookham to entrust me with "Agathon,"* that 
mad Byronic novel. 

'What do you think of the modern French novelists? and is it worth my 
while to read them ? and if so, what do you recommend me ? What of Balzac ?t 
is he better than Sue J & Geo: Sandt§ Dudevant? and are these inferior to 
Hugo ?|| I ask you these questions because you will give me short answers, like 
all people who are masters of their subject. 

' I suppose it is vain to hope to see my dear D'Orsay here; I wish indeed he 
wo<i come. Here is a cook by no means contemptible. He can bring his horses 
if he like, but I can mount him. Adieu, d'^ Lady Blessington, some day I will try 
to write you a more amusing letter ; at present I am in truth ill & sad.' 

4. A. L. S. 'D.' Dated ' Bradenham Down, Tuesday' (1834). 5 pages 
4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dearest Lady Blessington, — I have intended to return the books & send 
you these few lines every day, & am surprized that I co* have so long 
omitted doing anything so agreeable as writing to you. We are all delighted 
with the portraits, my sister is collecting those of all my fathers' friends ; her 
collection will include almost every person of literary celebrity from the end of 
y'' Johnsonian era, so your fair face arrived just in time. I am particularly 
delighted with Parris's port*, w<=i^ I had never seen before. 

' I have read y'' art: on Coleridge IT in y'= Quarterly, but do not agree with 
you in holding it to be written by Lockhart.** It is too good. L.'s style has 
certainly the merit of being peculiar. I know none so meagre, harsh & clumsy, 
or more felicitous in the jumble of common-place metaphors. I think y"^ present 
reviewal must be by Nelson Coleridge, a nephew of y" poet & a cleverish sort 
of fellow, tho' a prig. 

'You give me the same advice as my father ever has done about dotting 
down the evanescent feelings of youth ; but, like other excellent advice, I fear it 
will prove unprofitable. I have a horror of journalising, & indeed of writing 
of all description. With me execution is ever a labor, & conception a delight. 
Altho' a great traveller I never kept a diary in my life. 

* The History of Af^athon, translated from the German of Wieland. With respect to this 
novel, Moore, in his Life of Byron, writes : — ' Observing a volume in his gondola with a number 
of paper marks between the leaves, I enquired of him what it was. " Only a book," he 
answered, "from which I am trying to crib, as I do whenever I can ; and that's the vay I get 
the character of an original poet." On taking it up and looking into it, I exclaimed, " Ah, my 
old friend Agathon ! " " What ! " he cried, archly, " you have been beforehand with me there, 
have you ? " ' From a letter of Disraeli's, published by Dr. Madden in his Life of Lady 
Blessington, it seems that he was delighted with 'Agathon,' but thought the translation very 
clumsy. 

t Honore de Balzac, 1790-1850, the celebrated French novelist. 

J Marie Joseph Eugene Sue, 1804-1857, the French novelist, whose first work was published 
in 1830, and his last just after his death. 

§ Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, Countess Dudevant, called George Sand, 1804- 
1876. She published her first novel in 183 1, and continued writing until nearly the day of her 
death. 

II Victor Marie Hugo, 1802-1885, the famous French poet, dramatist, novelist, and historian. 
He rhymed at ten, at fourteen wrote a tragedy, and at twenty he gained considerable notoriety 
by his poems. After the Cotip dEtat he was banished from France, and settled in Guernsey, but 
returned to Paris in 1870 and died there. 

U Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, the well-known poet, best known perhaps by his 
Christabel and The Ancient Mariner. The review in question, which appeared in the Quarterly 
for August, 1834, is always understood to have been written by the poet's nephew, Henry Nelson 
Coleridge, 1798-1843, Coleridge's literary executor. 

** John Gibson Lockhart, 1794-1854, the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott, 
Editor of the Quarterly Review from 1825 to 1853, when his sight began to fail. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 15 

'Do you really think that Jekyll* is ninety ? He has a son I believe, of my 
standing. 

' As you are learned in Byron, do you happen to know who was y'= mother of 
AllegraPt 

_' I gave all y' kind messages to my father, who returns you others equally 
amiable. He will call upon you in y" course of the month, if he visit town. We 
have had a very good harvest here, & our second crop of hay, like second love, 
has proved more satisfactory than our first. 

' My kindest remembrance to Count D'Orsay. Believe me, dearest Lady 
Blessington,'-&c. 

5. A.L. S. Dated ' Bradenham House, Friday ' (October 17th, 1834). 
si pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — My absence at Quarter Sessions, where I 
was bored to death, prevented me instantly answering your letter. I hope, 
however, you will receive this before your departure. I sympathise with your 
sufferings ; my experience unhappily assures me how ably you describe them. 
This golden autumn ought to have cured us all. I myself, in spite of the sunshine, 
have been a great invalid. Indeed, I know not how it is, but I am never well 
save in action, & then I feel immortal. I am ashamed of being "nervous." 
Dyspepsia always makes me wish for a civil war. In the meantime, I amuse 
myself by county politics. I received yesterday a letter, most spritely & amusing, 
from E. L. B.j: dated Limerick. He is about to return to Dublin, & talks of going 
to Spain. I am ashamed that I must confess to him that I have not read 
Po7npen, but alas ! a London bookseller treats us provincials with great con- 
tempt, & in spite of reiterated epistles & promises as numerous I have not yet 
received the much wished tomes. My father sends his kindest regards. As for 
myself, I am dying for action, & rust like a Damascus sabre in y^ sheathe of a 
poltroon. 

' Adieu ! dear friend, we shall meet on your return.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated 'Sunday' (January? 1835). i page 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' My dearest Lady, — I return the letter, w* is very curious. 

' I must deny myself the pleasure of dining with you on Wednesday, even 
with you. 

'I met your friend L* Abinger yesterday, &. called him "Sir J. S.," but 
assured him that his new designation was more noble, but not more illustrious.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated 'Friday.' 2 J pages 8vo. 

' Dearest Lady Blessington, — You once expressed a desire to see Tita, when 
in town. Therefore he now waits upon you, more fortunate than his master 
who, from a neglected accident during his contest, has been confined almost to 
his bed for the last week, but who hopes soon to be able to hobble to Seamore 
Place, & assure Lady Blessington that he is her most- affectionate and devoted 
serv*,' &c. 

* Joseph Jekyll, 1753-1837, a lawyer, a wit, and a politician ; M.P. for Calne from 1787 to 
1816, in 1805 appointed Solicitor-General to the Prince of Wales, and in 1815 created a Master 
in Chancery. The witticisms he contributed to the newspapers appeared principally in the 
Morning Chronicle and Evening Statesman. He married in 1801, and had two sons, one of 
whom was born in 1804. A volume of his letters to his sister was published in 1894. 

t Allegra was the daughter of Byron and Miss Jane Clairmont. She was born in 1817, and 
died of fever in 1822. At Byron's desire she was buried in Harrow church. 

X Edward Earle George Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, 1803-1873, the novelist, 
poet, and dramatist. One of his best-known novels, Pelhani, was published in 1828, and his 
last in 1873. He was M.P. for St. Ives, Lincoln, and Herefordshire successively, and was 
created a Baron in 1866. He was elected Rector of Glasgow University both in 1856 and 1S58. 



i6 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

8. A. L. S. ' Votre Dis.' to the same. Dated ' Wednesday ' (February, 
1836). 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dearest Lady,— Early in March there are to be fifty members elected into 
the " Carlton " by the members at large. A strong party of my friends. Lord L., 
Lord Chandos,* Stuart de Rothesy,t &c., are very active in my behalf, & I think 
among the leaders of our party my claims wo"' be recognised ; but doubtless there 
is a sufficient alloy of dunces even among y" Conservatives, & I have no doubt 
there will be a stout opposition to me. Altho' I will not canvass myself, I wish 
my friends to do so most earnestly. I know, from personal experience, that one 
word from you wo'' have more effect upon me than letters from all the Lords in 
Xdom. I wish, therefore, to enlist you on my side, & will take the liberty of 
sending you a list to-morrow. 

' L"' Abinger & his influence wo'' be an object. The mode is to send in a list 
with 50 names. The supercilious Quintin, save for you, wo'' infallibly omit mine. 
Wilson I deem doubtful.' 

9. A. L. S. Dated ' Bradenham, March 21st' (1837). 3I pages 4to., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

'My clear Lady,— Altho' it is little more than a fortnight since I quitted your 
truly friendly society & hospitable roof, both of which I shall always remember 
with deep & lively gratitude, it seems, to me at least, a far more awful interval of 
time. I have waited for a serene hour to tell you of my doings ; but serene hours 
are rare, & therefore I will not be deluded into waiting any longer. 

' In spite of every obstacle in the shape of harassed feelings & other disagree- 
able accidents of life, I have not forgotten the fair Venetia,^ who has grown 
under my paternal care, & as much in grace, I hope, as in stature, or rather 
dimensions. She is truly like her prototype — 

' " the child of love. 

The'' born in bitterness 6^ nurtured in convulsion ; '§ 

but I hope she will prove a source of consolation to her parent, & also to her 
godmother, for I consider you to stand in that relation to her. I do not think 
that you will find any golden hint of our musing strolls has been thrown away 
upon me ; & I should not be surprised if, in six weeks, she may ring the bell 
at your hall door, & request admittance, where I know she will find at least one 
sympathising friend. 

' I watch for the appearance of your volumes, I suppose now trembling on the 
threshold of publicity. In a box of books from Mitchell that arrived lately down 
here, in the Life of Mackintosh, I was amused & gladdened by the sight of some 
pencil notes in a familiar handwriting ; it was like meeting a friend unexpectedly. 

' I have, of course, no news from this extreme solitude. My father advances 
valiantly with his great enterprise, but works of that' calibre are hewn out of the 
granite with slow & elaborate strokes. Mine are but plaster-of-Paris casts, or 
rather statues of snow that melt as soon as they are fashioned. 

' D'Orsay has written me kind letters, which always inspirit me. How are my 
friends, if I have any? At any rate, how is Bulwer.' I can scarcely expect you 
to find time to write to me, but I need not say what pleasure your handwriting w'' 
afford me, not merely in pencil notes in a chance volume. This is all very 
stupid, but I CO'' not be quite silent. Ever your Dis.' 

* Richard Plantagenet Temple -Nugent, Marquis of Chandos, afterwards and Duke of 
Buckingham, 1797-1861, eldest son of the first Duke, whom he succeeded in 1839. He was 
made Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1841. 

+ Sir Charles Stuart, afterwards ist Baron Stuart de Rothesay, 1779-1845, grandson of the 
3rd Earl of Bute, a well-known diplomatist, for some years Ambassador to the Court of France. 
Disraeli, in a letter to his sister, says : ' I carried the Carlton ; the opposition was not incon- 
siderable in the Committee, but my friends were firm — 400 candidates, and all in their own 
opinion with equal claims.' 

X Venetia was published shortly after the date of the letter. 

§ Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto 3. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 17 

10. A. L. S. ' Dis.' to (Lady Blessington). Dated Bradenham, October 
4th (1837). 4 pages 4to. 

' I see by the papers that you have quitted the shores of the " far-resounding 
sea," & resumed your place in the most charming of modern houses. I 
therefore venture to recall my existence to your memory, & request the favor 
of hearing some intelligence of yourself, which must always interest me. Have 
you been well, happy & prosperous ? And has that pen, plucked assuredly from 
the pinion of a bird of Paradise, been idle or creative ? My lot has been as usual 
here, tho' enlivened by the presence of Lady Sykes,* who has contrived to pay us 
t\yo visits, & the presence of Lord Lyndhurst, who also gave us a fortnight of 
his delightful society. I am tolerably busy, & hope to give a good account of 
myself & doings when we meet, which 1 trust will be soon. How goes that 
"great lubber," the Public, & how fares that mighty hoax, the World? Who of 
our friends has distinguished or extinguished himself or herself.? In short, as 
the hart for the waterside, I pant for a little news, but chiefly of your fair & 
agreeable self The Book of Beauty will soon, I fancy, charm the public with its 
presence. Where have you been ? In Hampshire I heard from Lord L. How 
is the most delightful of men & best of friends, the Admirable Crichton ? I don't 
mean Willist who I see has married, a fortune I suppose, tho' it doth not sound 
like one. How & where is Bulwer ? How are the Whigs and how do they feel ? 
All here who know you send kind greetings, & all who have not that delight 
kind N\ishes. Peace be within your walls & plenteousness within your palace ! 
Vale ! Your aflfectionately.' 

IL A. L. S. Dated 'C" C, Thursday.' 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady, — I have not forgotten for a moment either you or Mrs. 
Fairlie, but from the evening I saw you last, I have lived in such a state of 
unpoetic turmoil, that I could not bring my mind to the charming task. I have 
seized the first unbroken hour this morning to write the enclosed, & if Mrs. F. 
think them worthy of her acceptance, she can put to them any heading she likes. 

' I sho* be mortified if the Book of Beauty appeared with' my contribution, 
how'' trifling. I have something on the stocks for you, but it is too elaborate 
to finish well in the present tone of my mind ; but if you like a Syrian sketch of 
4 or 5 pages, you shall have it in 2 or 3 days. 

' I am in town only for a day or two & terribly busied, but I hope to get to 
K.G. before the election. Ever,' &c. 

12. A. L. S. Dated 'House of Commons, Monday.' 7-i pages 8vo. 

' My dearest Lady Blessington, — I will return the proof with' loss of time. I 
duly received your charming volume & gave it to Mrs. Wyndham,T who is a great 
admirer of aphoristic writing. She was to mark what she most approved, & 
the volume is in consequence lying on her table with scarcely a margin not 
deeply scored. I should have written to thank you for this agreeable recollection 
of me, but have intended every day to do so in person. 

* Henrietta, Lady Sykes, was the daughter of Henry Villebois, Esq., of Marham, Norfolk, 
and married in 182 1 Sir Francis William Sykes, of Basildon. She was one of the beauties of 
her day, and her portrait appeared in Heath's Book of Beauty for 1837. She died in 1846. 

t Nathaniel Parker Willis, 1806-1867, the American poet, who, in 1831, left America for a 
tour in Europe. He married in 1837 a daughter of General Stace, Commandant of Woolwich 
Arsenal, and returned to America the same year. He was very well known in London society, 
and was a favourite guest at Gore House, to which reference is made in his Pencillings by the Way. 

X Mary Anne Evans, Viscountess Beaconsfield, 1798-1872, afterwards the writer's wife, but 
at the date of the letter the wife of Mr. Wyndham Lewis, who dying in 1838, she, in August, 
1839, married Mr. Disraeli. She was created Viscountess Beaconsfield in her own right in 
1862. Disraeli's account to his sister of his first meeting with his wife is amusing. ' I was 
introduced, "by particular desire," to Mrs. Wyndham Lewis, a pretty little woman, a flirt, and a 
rattle ; indeed, gifted with volubility I should think unequalled, and of which I can convey no 
idea. She told me that she " liked silent, melancholy men." I answered " that I had no doubt 
of it.'" 

C 



iS THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' It is indeed a long time since we met, but I flatter & console myself that 
we shall meet very soon & very often. But, in truth, with a gouty parent, & 
impending matrimony, the House of Commons & the mechanical duties of 
society, the last two months have been terribly monopolised ; but I can assure 
you that a day seldom passes that I do not think or speak of you, & 1 hope I 
shall always be allowed by you to count the Lady of Gore House among my 
dearest & most valued friends. 

' D'Orsay was charming yesterday. Ever yours,' &c. 

13. A. L. S. Dated 'Tuesday' (1839). i|- pages 4to. 

' My dearest Lady, — There are no more verses, if my memory do not deceive 
me ; I thought there was a point, but perhaps there is not. I hope, how"^, they* 
may do, for my lyre has lost a string or something ; I am very prosy. 

' Since I quitted Bulwer's, where I spent a most agreeable week, I suppose I 
was bitten, but I have taken it into my head to write, & have scarcely been out 
of my garret, except at moments when I was sure not to find my friends at 
Kensington at home, who, how', I can most sincerely aver, are never many 
minutes absent from my thoughts. 

' I hope in a few hours we may meet, which is always to me the greatest 
pleasure. Dearest Lady, your f',' &c. 

14. A. L. S. Dated 'Carlton Club, Thursday.' 2^ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady, — I enclose a sonnet on the three daughters of Lady Jersey.! It 
is for Mrs. Fairlie, who has written to me, but has not dated her letter, so I don't 
know where to send them. I hope they'll do, but I fear they are rather scrubby. 
Your affectionate,' &c. 

15. A. L. S. Marked ' Private.' Dated ' i Grosvenor Gate, Tuesday.' 4 
pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady, — Would a little Russian contribution from Lady Londonderry! 
s\a\. your Book of Beauty 1 It is very pretty & picturesque, & written with great 
simplicity. I can manage it if the suggestion is agreeable to you. 

' You have heard of our domestic troubles ? I am alone in this house, Mrs. 
Wyndham c& her mother having gone into the country to avoid the funeral & 
all the painful details that follow such catastrophes. We concealed from the 
mother even the illness of her son,§ for she was perfectly devoted to him, & you can 
conceive the terrible duty of breaking his death to her. She does not even know 
that he died in this house. Yours affectionately,' &c. 

* Referring probably to his poem on Lady Mahon's portrait in the Book of Beauty for 1839, 
which consisted of only fourteen lines. 

t Sarah Sophia Fane, Countess of Jersey, 1786-1867, daughter of John, lolh Earl of West- 
morland, and wife of George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey. The three daughters were: — 
Sarah Frederika Caroline, married in 1842 Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, and died in 1853 5 
Clementina Augusta WelUngton, died in 1858 ; Adela Corsanda Maria, 1828-1860, married in 
1845 Colonel C. P. Ibbetson, nth Hussars. The sonnet, which appeared in Mrs. Fairlie's 
Chitdren of the Nobility for 1839, is as follows : — 
What read those glances? serious and yet sweet, i Whose very steps were roses. Beautious girls ! 



Seeming to penetrate the mystic veil 
Tliat shrouds your graceful future — for 'tis meet 
Your lot should be as brilliant as your birth, 
Fair daughters of a mother that the earth 
Hath ever welcomed with its brightest flowers ; 
Like the gay princess in the fairy tWe, 



Linked in domestic love, like three rare pearls, 
Soft and yet precious, when the coming hours 
Shall, with a smile that struggles with a tear. 
Remove you from the hearth your forms endear. 
Your tender eye shall dwell upon this page. 
That tells the promise of your earlier age. 



+ Frances Anne Vane-Tempest, Marchioness of Londonderry, 1800-1865, the only daughter 
and heir of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest and the Countess of Antrim. She married in 1819 the 
3rd Marquis of Londonderry, and for half a century their names were associated with great 
improvements amongst the pit population of the county of Durham, where the Marchioness 
owned extensive collieries. Her ' Russian Sketches ' appeared in the Book of Beauty for 1840. 

§ Lieut. -Colonel WiUiam Viney Evans, Mrs. Wyndham Lewis's brother, died at her house 
July 2nd, 1839 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 19 

16. A. L. S. No date, marked 'Private.' i page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady,— Please to send me one of your pretty notes, requesting me 
to obtain a contribution from Lady L., in order that I may have the pleasure of 
showing it to her. Yours ever,' &c. 

17. A. L. S. Dated 'Bradenham, 29th.' 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady,— We send you back our dearest D'Orsay, with some of the 
booty of yesterday's sport as our homage to you. His visit has been very short, 
but very charming, & everybody here loves him as much as you & I do. 

' I hope that I shall soon see you, & see you well ; &, in the meantime, I am, 
as I ever shall be, your affectionate,' &c. 

18. A. L. S. Dated ' Grosvenor Gate, Friday.' 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady,— In the last line but five of the verses which Mary Anne sent 
you yesterday, would you have the kindness to change the epithet '"' matchless " 
to^ '■'■perfects I told Mr. Dawson that he would have an opportunity to make 
this correction in the proof, but he seemed to wish that it should be done at once, 
not being so versed as we are in the mysteries of the press. 

' I am just up, after a late debate & what the Morning Post calls " the 6th 
Defeat of the Ministers this session." 

'The victory was most unexpected on our side, & is the roughest rub the 
Administration has yet received ; but its feebleness is of so vigorous a character 
that I doubt not it will still totter on. 

' I will send you my paper to morrow morning, & wo* have done so sooner, 
but my MS. is so illegible that it would baffle even Moyes.* Ever yours,' &c. 

19. A. L. S. Dated ' Grosvenor Plotel, August 24th ' (1840 ?). 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dearest Lady Blessington, — We returned from Bradenham on Thursday 
evening, & left all there well & happy. 

' I remember your kind wish that we should meet before our departure &, if 
not inconvenient to you I would propose calling at Gore House to-morrow with 
my dear Mary Anne who, I am sure, will be delighted by finding herself under 
a roof that has proved to me at all times so hospitable & devoted. 

' I hope that his engagements will not prevent our meeting our friend Alfred, 
for I hardly suppose we shall have another opportunity of being together for some 
time. 

' I sho* think about three wo"* not be unsuitable to you, and so believe me,' &c. 

20. A. L. S. Dated The Deepdene, Dorking, September nth, 1843. 

' My dear Lady, — I send you a literary arabesque, w"=i> is indeed nonsense. 
If worthy of admission, it might close the volume, as fairies & fireworks dance & 
glitter in the last scene of a fantastic entertainment. I wish my contribution 
were worthier, but I get duller every day. 

' This villa of Hadrian is doubly charming with an Italian sky.' 
'I hope you are well, & all. M. A. joins with me in kindest feelings, & 
desires me to say that she passes much of her day with two young bears ; they 
are only 6 months of age, & their grinders hardly budding ; but in another 5 year 
they will be able to hug their friends to death. Ever your,' &c. 

21. A. L. S. Dated 'Wednesday Eve.' 2J pages i2mo. 

'Your entreaties are to me commands. I received,the proof this afternoon, 
which I now return. I wish, instead of sending it by the Oxford coach, I co'^ 
tie it under the wing of Mignon !' 

* James Moyes, an eminent printer, who, during thirty-three years of active bu.siness, pro- 
duced many works. He was for many years the printer of the Literary Gazette, and was the 
predecessor of Messrs. Strangeways, the printers of this and the other volumes of Mr. Morrison's 
catalogue. He died in liJsS. 



20 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

22. A. L. S. Dated ' Grosvenor Gate, June ist.' 3 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— That sorrowful event that has long been impend- 
ing over us occurred on Sunday morning ; &, lengthened as had been her 
preparation for it, you can easily understand that Mrs. Disraeli is much over- 
whelmed. But, I hope, the gratifying recollection of a duty so beautifully fulfilled 
towards a beloved parent & wh. made her days pleasant & happy, will eventually 
prove a great source of consolation & comfort to her. 

' I return you the proof, but my MS. has this year so perplexed the printer that, 
for the first time, I must ask for a revise. Ever,' &c. 

23. A. L. S. Dated Hughenden Manor, High Wycombe, December 
31st, 1848. 8 pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,^! took the liberty of telling Moxon to send you 
a copy of the new edit, of the Curtost^: of Li:, wh. I have just published with 
a little notice of my father. You were always so kind to him, & he entertained 
such a sincere regard for you, that I thought you w<i not dislike to have this 
copy on y' shelves. 

' I found among his papers some verses wh : you sent him on his 80th birth- 
day, wh : I mean to publish some day, with his correspondence ; but the labor 
now is too great for my jaded life. 

' I must offer you our congratulations on Quiche's* marriage, wh : is, we hope, 
all you wish ; & also on the success of the future Imperator. 

' My wife complains very much that I broke my promise to her, & did not 
bring her to pay you a visit when we last passed thro' town ; but I was as 
great a sufferer by that omission as herself. The truth is, I am always hurried to 
death & quite worn out chiefly by statistics, tho' I hope the great Californian 
discovery, by revolutionizing all existing data, will finally blow up these impostures 
& their votaries of all parties. 

' We have passed the last six weeks in moving from Bradenham to this place 
—a terrible affair, especially for the library, tho' only a few miles. I seem^ to 
have lived in waggons like a Tartar chief. Would I were really one, but this is a 
life of trial, & Paradise, I hope, is a land where there are neither towns nor country. 

' Our kindest regards to you all,' &c. 

2-1:. A. L. S. to Miss Power. Dated Hughenden Manor, November 15th, 
1853- 3j pages 8vo. 

' Dear Miss Power, — Publishing cotemporary correspondence always a little 
frightens me, but I shall leave everything, & trust everything to your taste & 
discretion. 

' I must make many apologies for having left your note so long unanswered. 
Mrs. Disraeli begs to be remembered very kindly to yourself & your sister. 
We have not been to Paris since the Xmas of '45, but if ever we renew 
our visits we shall hope to see you, & find you well & happy. Yours,' &c. 

25. A. L. S. to Mr. Madden. Dated Grosvenor Gate, May 20th, 1854. 
2I pages 8vo. 

' I should like very much to see any private letters of mine, which you think of 
publishing, previously to their being sent forth. If you will have the kindness to 
forward me the proof, it shall not be detained. 

' I am very sorry to hear that any previous communication of yours should 
have remained unanswered, being with great consideration, your faithful servant.' 

26. A. L. S., marked 'Private,' to the same. Dated June 2nd, 1854. 
2} pages 8vo. 

' I return y' MSS. I really think that none of my letters to Lady B. ought 

* Antoine Alfred Agenor de Gramont, Count de Guiche, and afterwards Duke de Gramont, 
1819-1880, Count d'Orsay's nephew, at one time French Ambassador to Rome. He married, 
December 27th, 1848, Emma Mary, daughter of W. A. Mackinnon, M.P. for Lymington. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 21 

to be published, & if I have spared some portion of them, it has been only out 
of deference to your appeal. 

' My father's may properly appear. There appear to be two of his— one of 
them you have attributed to me by mistake. Yours faithfully,' &c. 

' I have dravi'n my pen thro' the letters & passages which must be omitted.' 

BEATTIE (Dr. William). A Physician and Author. (1793-1875.)* 

1. A. L. S. Dated 'Monday, November 20th' (1837). 3 pages 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I have again to return you my best acknowledge- 
ments for the Book of Beauty, which is certainly in your hands becoming every 
year more beautiful. This volume, I think, surpasses all its predecessors. There 
are two "sonnets" of yours which are gems of feeling & expression and, to my 
mind, afford more real pleasure than all that the artists have done, wonderful as 
their art undoubtedly is. Mr. Chorley's stanzas to "Marguerite" are pointed, 
graceful & appropriate, and he is much happier than a hundred others who have 
drawn their inspiration from a "similar^' source. The literary portion of the 
book is of a very superior order (with one little exception), and gives a high 
promise for the " New Series." I was struck with the lines to Mrs. Fairlie, so 
playful & elegant in the structure & sentiment, as well as with the greater portion 
of the other contribution ; but the " sonnets " I can repeat — & I never repeat 
anything that does not make a strong impression upon my mind, that makes me 
think and reflect & feel — & that power is in y'' own elegant pen. In a very few 
days I hope to carry you the offering of my " concluded labours," & in the 
meantime beg to remain, my dear Lady Blessington, y^ very obliged & much 
honoured,' &c. 

2. A. L. S. Dated ' Monday Morning, 8.' i| pages with Super- 
scription). 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — The sudden death of a much-valued friend, 
which took place on Friday morning, has prevented me replying to y'' obliging 
communication ; but you may depend upon my attention to the subject at the 
first tranquil moment after the funeral, the arrangem'" for which, with many 
other family matters, engross my thoughts at present. If, however, your printer 
is waiting, pray let me know without ceremony, & do me the honour to believe 
me, dear Lady Blessington, your most faithful and obliged,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. No date (1838). 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I beg to leave for y"^ gracious acceptance the 
accompanying book, which owes so much of its success to your approbation and 
encouragem'. I shall have the pleasure, also, of presenting to you, by New 
Year's Day at latest, The Valleys of Piedmont, i which are just completed. Am I 
not indebted to y" Ladyship for a very beautiful inkstand t But, without 
waiting for an answer to my query, I at once offer you the most grateful acknow- 
ledgments of your very obliged & faithful friend & servant,' &c. 

'P.S. — I must intreat y'^ indulgence for this very hurried note, & will finish it 
on another occasion.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated ' Clayland, Surrey, Monday.' 2 pages 8vo., with 

Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of y^ obliging 
packet, which was forwarded to me here. I will not fail to attempt any stcbject 
which you may command, but the execution will fall infinitely short of y'' ex- 

* Dr. Beattie appears to have had confidential relations with Lady Byron, who, he says, 
imparted to him the true reason of her separation from her husband, and it was not the one 
given by Mrs. Beecher-Stowe. 

+ The Waldenses, or Protestant Valleys of Piedmont was pubUshed in 1838. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

pectations & my own wishes. We are here for a few days for change of air on 
Mrs. B.'s account who, with her sister, begs to unite with me in best respects. 
I feel sincerely grateful for the very kindly expression conveyed to me in y' letter, 
& with every sentiment of respect & admiration for those qualities of head & 
heart which you so eminently possess, I have the honour to remain,' &c. 
' P.S.— We all beg to unite in kind regards to Miss & Miss E. Power. 

5. A. L. S. Dated 'Monday, 8 p.m.' 4 pages 8vo. 

' Many and most cordial thanks, my dear Lady Blessington, for the beautiful 
and highly-prized souvenir which you have just sent to Mrs. Beattie, than whom 
no person living more heartily appreciates everything that emanates from the 
same mind. Health permitting, I am very certain that she will seize the earliest 
moment on her return to thank you in person for this renewed & very flattering 
instance of your Ladyship's regard. 

' We are at last on the point of engaging a house in or near one of the parks, 
where I trust Mrs. Beattie's health will be better ; but great is the difficulty of 
fixing, and the labour of "seeing" incalculable. 

' I am ashamed to say that I have not yet read the Book of Beauty — that is, 
nothing except your own contributions, & these I shall read again & again. 

' You will, I am sure, pardon my want of taste, if I observe, en passani, that the 
"beauties" of this year are no "reflexions'" of the Editress; but, on the contrary, 
that they answer to a tittle the poet's incantation, 

' " O be less, be less enchanting ! 
Let some little grace be wanting," 

so that in good sooth, I can 

' " Gaze, at last, without admiring ! " 

which I have hitherto found it very difficult to do. 

' The ladies tell me that there is something very charming from your pen in 
one of the mags, for this month. 

'Will you kindly permit me to offer, thro' your Ladyship, my best respects 
to Mrs. Fairlie and to Count D'Orsay when you see them. I had engaged to set 
Mr. & Mrs. Howard down at y'' door the other day, but was prevented by a 
message from Hampstead. Ever, my dear Lady Blessington, your much obliged 
and most faithful servant.' 

6. A. L. S. No date. 3 pages Svo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Nothing could have been more agreeable to 
Mrs. Beattie and myself than to have availed ourselves of y' truly obliging offer 
for to-morrow evening ; but it happens, most unfortunately for us, to have under 
our roof at this moment a young friend in fever, whom I cannot pronounce out of 
danger. This friend is Miss Simpson, of Glwn House in Kent, who had come 
on a visit, & on returning from the St. James' Theatre on Monday week was 
seized with the malady under which she now labours. But for this unfortunate 
occurrence, I should have been among the first to wish you many happy, happy 
days in y"^ new mansion which, whatever you may say to the contrary, is already 
in possession of its greatest ornament. Will you permit us to hope that the 
tickets which I now return so reluctantly may be permitted (on some future 
occasion) to pay us a similar visit ? 

' The card you enclosed is just the thing we were in want of, & Mrs. Beattie 
will certainly take the benefit of y'^ recommendation. 

' With many hearty thanks, I have the honour to remain, my dear Lady 
Blessington, your very obliged & faithful servant,' &c. 

7. A. L. S, Dated ' Alton Lodge, Richmond, Saturday, 8th ' (Sep- 
tember, 1839). 3 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Your most obliging letter from St. Leonards I 
should have acknowledged in person ere this, had not circumstances kept us 
from town during the last month. Your approbation of the brochure was gratify- 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 23 

ing to us all, and the elegance with which y'' opinion was expressed was 
particularly y"" own. 

' I sincerely trust you have returned to town with renovated health for the 
winter, and a fresh topic for the delight and admiration of your friends, among 
whom, dear Lady Blessington, I pray you to continue your much honoured & 
very faithful servant,' &c. 

' P.S.— I have had the grief to lose within the last 3 weeks a near relation, in 
the bloom of youth, "the only child of her mother, & she a widow." 

' Mrs. B. and her sister beg to offer their best respects to y'' Ladyship.' 

8. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday' (September 28th, 1839). i page 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,— I have just sketched— roughly sketched— the 
enclosed. Will you oblige me with a suggestion for their improvem', and allow 
me to have them one day longer to receive something like ayfra^/i. Your devoted 
servant.' 

9. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday m^' (December 7th, 1839). 2^ pages 4to., 
with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— My fair friends here have been so monopo- 
lizing in their devotions to the " Belle of a Season," that it was only last night 
that I was permitted to look upon her in the silence of my own study. First they 
read it together, then each reads it separately, and then again they must read all 
the " superlative passages " over seriatim, and compare and sometimes, I am 
sorry to say, almost disputing about whose passages, by predilection, were the 
best ! Had I been so fortunate as to meet your Ladyship on Tuesday, I had 
fully made up my mind to "lodge a complaint," but, as I said, it was all made up 
again last night, and I really cannot tell you when I have spent an interval — from 
9 till 12 — with so much pleasure. Mrs. Beattie is charmed with the serious 
passages ; Matilda with the vivid sketches of society and character, and your 
devoted brother poet with the whole poem. I dare not say more to the highly 
gifted author, but with my dear confidant, the Public, I shall hope to be more 
communicative as to its real merits — the most brilliant thing that has yet dropt 
from your pen. 

' We are in the midst of confusion ; all my beloved books on the floor, and my 
thoughts (how dare I confess it ?), wandering after — the " Belle of a Season." 
Ever, my dear Lady Blessington, y' truly obliged & faithful servant,' &c. 

10. A. L. S. Dated '6 Park Square, Thursday night' (1839). 4 pages 
Svo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I beg to return you my grateful thanks for a 
very handsome and a very useful piece oi furniture, which I shall be proud to 
wear. But really your kindness to Mrs. Beattie and myself is so great & un- 
merited, and so often evinced in instances like those we now acknowledge, that 
we have no words to thank you as we ought. 

' Having failed in two or three attempts to do so in person, allow me on 
paper to wish you many happy returns of the season, and believe that your 
health and fame and happiness are objects of the most sincere interest at this 
fireside. 

' I saw Doctor Madden a few minutes since his return, but he is now, I 
believe, in Dublin. I suppose he showed you the vol. of MS. poems, inscribed 
to him by the bards of Cuba ! I thought him greatly improved in health & 
appearance. 

' We have at last got into our new domicile, but with a complete chaos around 
us. I had no idea of this process of "flitting" being one of such a formidable 
nature ! — but I suppose that in a few weeks the sound of hammers will cease & 
we shall once more subside into our domestic lethargy. Your " Governess " has 
produced a most favourable impression. We cannot, however, imagine how you 
can possibly write so much and so well, unless you have a familiar spirit — and 



24 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

that a spirit does pervade all you write is most apparent. Ever, my dear 
Lady Blessington, your most obliged & faithful servant,' &c. 

11. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday night' (January 2nd, 1840). 2 pages 
4to., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I beg to enclose a slightly altered version of 
the lines I sent on Thursday, but I feel abundantly conscious that they are not 
worthy y"' acceptance, & to' fail in any task which you may appoint is, I need 
not say, very mortifying ! I availed myself of y"^ kind suggestion as to the rhyme, 
& when the subject is revised, I hope to give it a little polish. We all hope very 
soon to pay our respects at Gore House, but at present we are rather a divided 
family, with the disadvantage of two houses. I pray you, my dear Lady Bles- 
sington, to accept the best wishes & regards of this httle circle, and ever to 
believe me, with great truth, your very faithful & obliged,' &c. 

' P.S.— I have to apologise for sending this by post, but I hope it will never- 
theless be in time for you to adopt the enclosed version if you prefer it.' 

12. A. L. S. Dated December 31st, 1840. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Allow me to offer you, in the united names of 
all at this fireside, the right cordial wishes of the season ! May the coming year 
have a thousand blessings in reserve ior you, and for all who are dear to you ! 

' The loss of a very dear & intimate friend on Monday last, the melancholy 
duties of an executor & a funeral on New Year's Day have thrown another 
shade over this circle for the present ; but for the growth of some minds — like that 
of certain plants — shade is as necessary as sunshine. 

' I enclose some " verses " which I think are in harmony with your own feelings 
&, if so, I shall attach a proportionate value to them. 

' With best compliments to your accomplished niece. Miss Power, I have the 
honour to remain, dear Lady Blessington, y' very faithful servant,' &c. 

13. A. L. S. Dated January ist, 1841. i page 4to., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Many, many thanks, my dear Lady Blessington, 
for another proof of your kind remembrance. Everything presented by your 
Ladyship has an intrinsic and particular value qui;e distinct from its quality and 
texture, however elegant ; and in that sense my pride equals my gratitude. 

' With every cordial wish y* the New Year may have a thousand blessings in 
store for yourself & family circle, I remain,' &c. 

14. A. L. S. Dated July 30th. 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have to offer a thousand apologies for not 
sooner sending in my "adhesion" to y'' P.S.; but, in truth, the "turn over" 
escaped my eye for the moment, & so did " Prince Albert." Nevertheless, as, 
from habit, I read y"' obliging note more than once, I have discovered the P.S. 
in sufficient time, I trust, to relieve y"" mind from any anxiety, & to-morrow (d.v.) 
I will take the " Prince's likeness " at a sitting.* 

' From a Conservative, & the editor of Conservative Statesmen, it will be a 
curiosity; but I will take care that the sketch shall be executed in good taste (!), 
pithy & as short as the enumeration of his R.H.'s accomplishments will allow. 
Believe me, my dear Lady Blessington, y'' most faithful servant,' &c. 

15. A. L. S. Dated Rose Villa, Hampstead, October 24th, 1841. 
Z\ pages 4to. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am very sorry I was not at home to receive D"^ 
Mastalia, but I have written to him, and will do everything in my power per- 
sonally, or by means of professional friends, to advance the object of his visit to 
London. 

' About a year ago I was particularly requested to introduce an invention of a 

'' Referring to his lines on the Prince Consort in the Keepsake for 1842. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 25 

similar kind to the medical profession in London, and had a meeting on the 
subject at my house, when I obtained for the inventor, a French gentleman, a 
recommendation which has been, happily, the means of introducing the bath 
into all the hospitals of Paris & that of the Departments, and secured, as he 
informs me, his fortune. This invention is now about to be introduced in a 
similar manner in London, and I only mention this circumstance in the sincere 
hope that I may be able to be useful to D'' Mastalia to the same extent, & that 
///)■ bath may prove of a different kind. 

'We have been out of town nearly all the latter part of the summer, partly at 
the coast & partly here. Mrs. Seattle's health, which has been a subject of 
much anxiety for some years past, became latterly so much worse that I found 
it necessary to take her to the warm sea-water baths, the use of which certainly 
did her much good ; but since her return she has had a very severe attack, from 
which she is only recovering slowly, & will remain at our cottage here for a few 
weeks, where she can be perfectly quiet and may possibly escape those colds to 
which she is habitually subject. 

' We are all very sorry to hear that you have also been suffering from indis- 
position, & beg to unite in hearty wishes for its speedy removal. This month 
has not kept its promise, & is still very unfavorable to convalescents, so that all 
the resources of art are necessary to obviate the effects of our dripping climate. 

'To Miss Power, if still with you, I beg to be remembered in best compli- 
ments, & with the united homage of this circle, I remain, your ever faithful & 
obliged servant,' &c. 

16. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday.' 3 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am truly honoured and obliged by your note 
and its accompaniment, for which I trust very soon to make my acknowledge- 
ments in person ; but, in the meantime, beg to suggest in my own behalf, that 
the best subjects are not always the most frequent at Court. 

' The qualities for which you have so indulgently given me credit, I dare not 
lay claim to ; but I do appreciate them, and know in whom they are exemplified, 
& where I can admire them without envy. 

' Of myself, the best that ought to be said is, that my heart is, perhaps, better 
than my head ; at all events, it is warmer for the kind words and " starry" vest 
with which you have honoured & fortified, dear Lady Blessington, your very 
obliged and faithful servant,' &c. 

17. A. L. S. Dated 'Park Sq., Monday, 11 a.m.' 3 pages i2mo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have been prevented till this morning from 
executing y"^ gracious commands. Let me trust to y"' clemency not to have vie 
executed for the manner in which the work is done. 

' Having long since, as you know, taken the oaths of poetical fealty to your 
Ladyship, I trust you will never hesitate to command my very humble services. 
' " For, lady fair, with spear & quill | And if we're vanquished by the pen, 

We'll serve thee with a right good will. ^ .-.• 

We may not fight as others fight, 

But, say the worst on't — we can write. 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, tho' hastily in the present instance, 
always heartily your faithful & obliged,' &c 

18. A. L. S. Dated 'Park Square, November sth.' i page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I beg y"' gracious acceptance of the accompany- 
ing volume as a small mark of respect from your Ladyship's most faithful s',' &c. 

19. A. L. S. Dated 'Park Square, Saturday.' i page i2mo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I have just time to forward the enclosed lines. 
My wife tells me they are the only "real Hnes" I ever wrote. May I aspire 
to y' authority by way of contradiction. 

'Ever in all haste your devoted, faithful s',' &c. 



Or tilting-tools of stouter men, 
Thank God, say I, we still have feet, 
And few can match us in retreat." 



26 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

20. A. L. S. Dated ' Park Square, Tuesday, ii p.m.' 3 pages 8vo. 
'My dear Lady Blessington,— A thousand thanks for the vest in which I 

hope to be invested before the frost goes. I wish I had as much prospective 
pleasure in some other investments as I have in this. 

' In looking over some papers of my lamented friend yesterday, I found a 
small 8vo. MS. inscribed "Extracts from Lady Blessington's Works"— another 
proof of his excellent taste. He was one of y'^ greatest admirers, & has died 
in the prime of life of consumption. Brought up in the army, he was a brave 
soldier &, as I can speak from long experience, a " centurion " & unaffectedly 
" devout." He has left nearly all he possessed to the numerous public charities 
of London. But I must pray you excuse all this. I thought, however, that you 
might feel a momentary interest in one who felt an interest in aWynu ever wrote. 
''Pray excuse this hurried note, & permit me to remain your most obliged,' &c. 

21. A. L. S. No date. 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I have no words to thank you as I ought, for 
your very handsome present and the complimentary expressions with which it 
was accompanied. The gift is one which I shall treasure with a "miser's care" 
(and no wonder when I look at \\\e precious ore). Whatever anticipations I had 
formed of the new year, I had certainly no such golden expectations as this, 
and shall never employ the gift without a hearty recollection of the giver. But 
till I find a better opportunity of thanking you for this elegant souvenir, I will 
only reiterate the sentiments with which I began the year, and remain your Lady- 
ship's truly obliged & very faithful friend & servant,' &c. 

'P.S. — 1 cannot but add how much I feel honoured & gratified by being 
included (at this season of many professions), among the number of yoijr 
"sincere" friends, and I beg to assure you that, in my best endeavours to merit 
that distmction, I shall be as disinterested ■&.% I am sincere. 

'Mrs. Beattie begs me to present her best and "most seasonable" good 
wishes, and to thank you once more for the great pleasure she has derived from 
the "Gems," as well as from y' other works— no less jewels, tho' differently 
set' 

22. A. L. S. Dated 'Wednesday, January 4th' (1842). 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I pray you apologize to Mrs. Fairlie for the very 
unfinished sketch I now enclose ; but if from this she will oblige me by fixing the 
number of the stanzas and ordering a proof to be forwarded to me, I will try to 
give it a little more sense & less jingle. 

' Excuse this hasty scrawl, for I am this instant called away. Your very 
faithful & obliged,' &c. 

23. A. L. S. Dated Park Square, November 19th (1842). 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Your beautiful book was put into my hands 
this morning, after I had the honor to forward mine ; but so completely has it 
absorbed the attention of my wife and sister, that I have not had possession 
of it for even an hour. This evening, however, 1 am to have the indulgence of 
reading or hearing it read. By a casual glance I observed some very touching 
lines addressed to your niece, whose portrait, with the little feathered captive,* 
forms a very interesting embellishm'. 

' We grieve sincerely to hear that you have been suffering under such 
protracted anxiety regarding Mrs. Fairlie's health. Anxiety from a similar cause 
has been my own lot during the last twelve months, & it is still far from being 
removed. After having been out of town the greater part of the summer & 
autumn, we are now, D.V., returned for the winter, and my first visit will be to 
reiterate my thanks for a thousand kindnesses. 

' Mrs. Beattie & Mrs. Childe beg to unite with me in best regards to yourself 

* Referring to some lines by Mr. Chorley, attached to the portrait of Miss Power in the 
Book of Beauty for 1842. It is a little odd, however, that there is no ' feathered captive ' in it. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 27 

and your young ladies. I have the honour to remain, my dear Lady Blessinrton, 
your obhged & faithfully attached servant,' &c. ' 

. '.^'^VT^S""^,^^^'/ '° y" '^°t«' I °"gh' 'o mention that [it] is the Book of Beauty (& 
not the A f^/ja/C'^) that has come to hand.' j j' ^ 

24. A. L. S. Dated January 3rd, 1844. i page 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Your beautiful presents to my wife and myself 
were duly received at Hampstead last night, and I hasten to assure you that they 
are most highly prized by both. I write this, however, to express my 07u>i 
special thanks, assuring you that so much kindness is not lost upon me— kindness 
which I have experienced for so many years, which gives tenfold value to every 
gift and makes me (shall I use the term .?) deeply interested in its continuance 1 
May the New Year have a thousand blessings in store for your Ladyship & 
your fair nieces, and, begging to repeat the assurance of my invariable & re- 
spectful attachment, I remain, my dear Lady Blessington, your very faithful obliged 
servant,' &c. = w ., & 

BERKELEY (George Charles Grantley Fitzharding). An Author and 
an ardent Sportsman. (i8oo-i88i.) 

L A. L. S. Dated Berkeley House, July loth, 1834. 2I pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,— I have seen Reynolds* to-day respecting his 
publication in the Keepsake of two tales of mine, and he thinks he cannot insert 
both. One he must, as there is an engraving to it, but from its length he thinks 
It will exclude the other. I like the one that he thinks he must exclude the best, 
and it is also short, perhaps not five pages. I am, for certain reasons, anxious to 
publish It this year, and as he is not certain that he can accept it, I will wave all 
uncertainty, and it will give me the greatest pleasure to offer it to you. 

'Shall I send it you .' or have you more at present than you know what to do 
w ith. Beheve me,' &c. 

' P.S.— (Perhaps I should have said that up to this moment Reynolds led me 
to beheve that he would publish it, and he has now offered to keep it till the 
next year.') 

2. A. L. S. Dated Berkeley House, July 12th, 1834. 2\ pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,— Mr. Reynolds has not kept his appointment 
with me, and though I have received a note from him, he has neglected to say 
whether or not he had sent you the tale. Perhaps you will be kind enough to 
write to me at Harrold (to which place I am bound this day) to tell me if you 
have received it. Harrold Hall, near Bedford, will find me. On Wednesday next 
I return to town, when, should Mr. Reynolds still delay, I will assist him in his 
endeavours at restoration. 

' The yearly ta.xes, rates, &c., of my house at Cranford amount to something 
under ^30 ; but the full particulars shall be laid before you with as little delay as 
possible, and I pray you to believe that my hope is to place before you such 
terms as may appear acceptable, and that my chief object is to meet your wishes. 
Ever, my dear Lady Blessington, most truly yours,' &c. 

'P.S.— My agent has this moment arrived, and the particulars are sent 
accordingly.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated Harrold Hall, July 27th, 1834. 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am shocked to hear of poor James Fitzroy's 
death. I heard from a part of his family this morning, but they knew nothing of 
it. Pray make what use you please of Lucy, I sent it to assist and not to fetter 
your arrangements, and so long as you edit the Book of Beauty, such always will 

* Frederick Mansel Reynolds, author of Miserrimus, and first editor of Heath's Keepsake. 
He died in 1850. 



28 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

be my intention. I am glad you like the stoiy, the more so as I had but little 
time to consider the alteration I had to make. Believe me,' &c. 

4. A. L. S. Dated Harrold Hall, July 28th, 1834. \\ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Having told some of my friends who do me the 
honour to feel the least interest in my writings, that there would be a tale of 
mine in the Book of Beauty^ perhaps you will oblige me by a note in that book on 
the subject, stating that it had been received, but was omitted for certain reasons. 
Do not do this if it would entail upon you the same request from others, but let 
matters remain as they are. Believe me,' &c. 

.5. A. L. S, Dated Berkeley Castle, September 27th, 1835. 2 pages 
8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Many thanks for your very kind letter, which I 
forwarded to Messrs. Saunders & Otley, and you will see their reply. Is there 
any other publisher whom you would recommend, as they decline it, I suppose 
because they do not think I shall succeed? Hoping that you will find every 
benefit you can wish for from the sea air, believe me,' &c. 

6. A. L. S. Dated Berkeley Castle, October 3rd, 1835. 2 J pages 
8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Your letter reached me on my return from 
hunting this afternoon, but too late for a reply by the same post. I shall imme- 
diately write to Harrold to request that the proof-sheet may be forwarded to you, 
and I cannot but feel too happy in leaving the correction of it in your hands. 
As regards my novel, I will take your advice in keeping it back for a short time, 
or till the market gets better, though I am most anxious to bring it out this spring. 
Believe me,' &c. 

'P.S. — I shall return to Harrold on Wednesday next, and early on that day 
you should receive the proof sheet. 

'I should also add that the proof sheet only reached Harrold three or four 
days ago.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated Harrold Hall, November 22nd, 1835. if pages 
8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Let me congratulate you on the immeasurable 
superiority of the Book of Beauty over The Keepsake which, as D'Orsay truly 
observes, is on its last legs. 

' My sister has written to me for her picture; will you oblige me by desiring 
that it may be sent to her, to 23 Arlington Street, as she is soon about to leave 
town, and is anxious to take it with her. 

' I am hard at work at my novel, but am a long way from the end of it 
yet. Pray believe me,' &c. 

BERNAL (Ralph), a Barrister. M. P. for Lincoln, Rochester, and 
Weymouth successively ; President of the British Archaeological 
Association. (Died 1854.) 

\. A. L. S. Dated October 27th, 1836. 2\ pages i6mo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I came to town on some private business, w* I 
have not yet got through, and in addition I am literally compelled daily to slave 
after the supervision of persons who promised to finish the painting, &c. of some 
part of my house,* but who never perform their engagements. 

' This is the reason why I have been prevented hitherto from paying my 

■'' Mr. Bernal lived at 93 Eaton Square, where he gathered together a splendid collection of 
works of art from the Byzantine period to that of Louis Seize, and of furniture and plate, which 
were sold for 63,000/. a year after his death. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



personal respects to you. But I cannot willingly appear neglectful, and must 
therefore beg to present my thanks for the volume Confessions of an Elderly 
Gentleman you kindly sent to me. I intend doing myself the pleasure of perusing 
It very soon, & hope also to have the additional pleasure of seeing you ere long 
in good health. Believe me,' &c. 



2. A. Verses, 
scription. 



Dated January 2nd, 1849. 1 page 4to., with Super- 
'To Lady Blessington. 



' When wintry winds in wild career, 
Howl requiems for the by-gone year, 
And Thought responding to the blast, 
With sighs reviews the gloomy past, 
Where ev'ry sorrow leaves its trace. 
And joy obtains no resting place ; 
When, sick'ning from the dull survey, 
Hope, warmth and energy decay, 
What mortal charm can then impart 
A ray of sunshine to the heart? 
And by its healing balm dispense 
New vigour to such failing sense ? 



On one bright charm, alone, depend 
The feeling of a genuine friend, 
Whose ready sympathy sincere, 
The graces of her mind endear 
To those who are allowed to share 
Her kindly thoughts, her gen'rous care. 
Dear lady ! cruel Time, I feel. 
May from my pen refinement steal. 
Should language fail me to express 
The grateful thanks I would confess, 
Believe me— that the words of Truth 
Bear, in themselves, perpetual youth.' 



BLESSINGTON (Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of). The well-known 
Authoress, (i 789-1 849.) 

1. A. L. S. to Dr. Madden. Dated Rome, March 6th, 1828. 2 pages 4to. 

' My dear Mr. Madden, — I shall have great pleasure in forwarding your views, 
& I think it may be in my power on my return to England to recommend you to 
some person about to travel. 

' With regard to Syntax, I am sure it will succeed if the verses are retouched 
& accompanied by drawings ; but it is not of the staid character which would 
suit a senator's name. I understand that you propose writing a prose account of 
your travels and, if you think my name of any use, it is at your service. 

' If Mr. Gait is in town, allow him to read your poem. I derived very great 
advantage from his remarks on De Vavaseur. 

' I enclose you some letters of introduction, which I hope may of be use. 

'With every wish for your prosperity, believe me to be,' &c. 

' P.S. — Mr. Valpy's printing office is in Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.' 



Dated Seamore Place, October 7th ( ?). 



2. A. L. S. to the same. 
2), pages 8vo. 

'My dear Dr. Madden, — I inclose you a letter of introduction to Lord 
Morpeth,* which I trust may be of use. He is an excellent man, possessed of 
great talents himself and an admirer of them in others, so that I reckon on his 
liking you. I hope Mrs. Madden and your fine boy are quite well, and beg to be 
kindly remembered to them. 

' It will give me pleasure to hear from you, and I beg you to believe me,' &c. 

' P.S. — I have left my letter to Lord Morpeth open. When you have perused 
it put some wax on the inside.' 

3. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Seamore Place, March 12th, 1834. 

4 pages 4to. 

'Dear Doctor Madden, — I was truly sorry to find that Jamaica has not 
answered your expectations, and only wish I could have procured you a situation 

* George William Frederick, Viscount Morpeth, afterwards 7th Earl of Carlisle, 1802-1864, 
a statesman and diplomatist. Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1835 to 1841, Chief Commis- 
sioner of Woods and Forests from 1846 to 1850, and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from 1855 to 
1858, and again from 1859 to 1864. 



30 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

in a less objectionable climate. I trust that long ere this the salary of the 
magistrates has been paid, and if not, I understand, the only means of obtaining 
it is by petition from the magistrates to the proper office here, and this, I am 
told, should come through the Governor. I saw Dr. Beattie a ie.fi days ago. He 
continues to feel a lively interest in your welfare, and I am persuaded you have 
few more sincere friends. 

' He is a man whose heart is as warm as his head is sensible and clever, and 
one such as the present times rarely offers in the number of our friends. He has 
just brought out the first number of a work, entitled Switzerland, illustrated by 
beautiful engravings, and the style of the book is admirable, and highly creditable 
to him. Mr. Campbell* I never see, and seldom hear of, either in the literary or 
social world. I hope he will soon give us his Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons, for it is 
time they should come forth. 

' I trust your pen is not idle. I look forward to a lively novel descriptive of 
Life in the West Indies, with no trifling impatience. It will give me pleasure to 
hear from you whenever you have a leisure half hour to give me.' &c. 

4. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Tuesday, July 21st, 1835. 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Dr. Madden, — I hope you are disengaged for Monday next the 27th, 
and if so, that you will give me the pleasure of your company at dinner on that 
day at \ past 7 o'clock. 

' I beg my comp'» to Mrs. Madden, on whom I intend to have the pleasure 
of calling, the first day I can spare from the tiresome occupations that fill up every 
moment of my time at present. 

' Believe me,' c&c. 

5. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Gore House, December 27th, 1839. 
2|- pages 8vo. 

' Dear Dr. Madden, — I was very sorry not to have been at home when you 
called, and have ever since been so poorly that I have not been able to write to 
say so. 

'I trust you and Mrs. Madden are quite well, and that you have found your 
boy in good health. Has Mrs. Madden accompanied you ? if so, offer her my 
kindest regards, and hoping to have the pleasure of seeing you very soon, 
believe me,' &c. 

' P-S. — I am at home every evening, and go out at 3 every day. I name this 
that you may know when to find me.' 

6. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Gore House, December 19th, 1840. 
3 pages 4to. 

'My dear Dr. Madden, — I regret exceedingly not to have seen you and 
Mrs. Madden before your departure. I had been unwell for some days and am 
still an mvalid, but snatched the first moment I was able to see any one to ask 
you to come, little thinking you were so soon to leave London. 

' It gives me great pleasure to hear that you have arranged matters so satis- 
factorily at Downing Street, and it proves how highly your services are appreciated 
there. Long may you continue to employ them in the full enjoyment of health, is 
my sincere and hearty wish. 

' It would give me a melancholy satisfaction to learn every particular you can 
find out relative to poor L. E. L.,+ for I entertained a deep sentiment of affection 
for her. I should like exceedingly to have a plain, simple marble slab placed 
over her grave, with her name inscribed on it, and I would willingly defray the 



Thomas Campbell, 1 777-1844, the well-known poet. According to Mr. Madden, he did 
not get on very well with Lady Blessington. His Life of Mrs. Siddons appeared shortly after 
the date of the letter. " 

+ Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Mrs. Maclean, 1802-1838, a poetess and romancist, whose early 
death, under sad circumstances, from poison at Cape Coast Castle was at the time the subject of 
much discus?,inn. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 31 

expenses, as I cannot bear to think there should be no record of the spot. When 
you arrive at Cape Coast Castle, you can ascertain if this would be possible, I 
mean as regards her husband. 

' It will give me great pleasure to hear from you whenever you are disposed 
to write ; and if I can, at any time, be of use to you or yours, do not hesitate to 
employ me, for be assured that I am,' &.c. 

' P.S. — Pray oflfer my kind regards to Mrs. Madden. C'° d'Orsay has been in 
the country at Lord Chesterfield's for some weeks, and will greatly regret not 
having seen you.' 

7. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Gore House, December 28th, 1842. 
4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Doctor Madden, — Indisposition has prevented me from sooner answering 
your letter. My advice is that you render your letter to Lord John as concise as 
possible. You need not enter into the merits of your case with him, or refute the 
calumnies of your assailants, as he is master of the subject ; merely state your 
motive in publishing a defence, which their attacks have rendered necessary: and 
add your anxious desire that in so doing you may not expose yourself to a 
suspicion of having violated the secrecy of official confidence. Inform Lord John, 
as briefly as you can, the persecution, in all forms, you have undergone, pre- 
viously to defending yourself in the papers. Lord John is so good a man, that I 
wish you to stand well with him. With my comp'' to Mrs. Madden, believe 
me,' &c. 

8. A. L. S. to Captain Marryat* Dated Gore House, July 19th, 1843. 
2 J pages 8vo. 

' My dear Captain Marryat, — I have seldom been more annoyed than on 
receiving the inclosed half an hour ago. I had thought that, with the omission 
of the objectionable word, the story, which is full of racy humour, would have 
been a real treasure for the book, but the ridiculous prudery of a pack of fools 
compells me to abandon it ; for well do I know, that were I to insist on the 
insertion of the Buckskins, Heath and his trustees— should the sale of the book 
be less than formerly — would attribute it to you and me. 

' After all the trouble I have given you, I dare not ask for anything else, tho' 
there is no name which I would be more proud to see in my list of contributors 
than yours ; but I must ask you to pardon me for all the trouble I have inflicted 
on you, and to believe me,' &c. 

9. A. L. S. to Dr. Madden. Dated Gore House, October 19th, 1843. 
4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Dr. Madden, — Those who imagine that you will descend one step in 
life by accepting the occupation you are about to fill in Portugal, entertain a very 
different opinion from me. Some of the most distinguished men have written for 
the press, and your doing so will, according to my notion, give you a new claim on 
the political party you have hitherto served. I am not sorry that you will be 
removed from Ireland, or indeed from England, at present, when affairs wear 
an aspect that must grieve and irritate every Irishman with noble and generous 
feelings. Women have, in my opinion, no business with politics, and I, above 
all women, have a horror of mixing myself up with them. I must content myself 
in wishing well to my poor country, which no one more heartily does. Where- 
ever you go, or in whatever position, you will take with you my cordial good 
wishes for your prosperity and welfare, and for that of your family. 

'I am now oppressed by writing to fulfill an engagement I entered into without 
being aware of the excessive fatigue it would entail on me ; and am even at this 
moment so occupied that I have not time to say more than that I hope to see you 
before your departure, and that I am always,' &c. 

* Frederick Marryat, Captain R.N., 1792-1848, a well-known nove'ist, author of Fe/er 
Simple, Midshipman Easy, &c. 



32 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

CASTLEREAGH (Frederick William Robert, Viscount), afterwards 
4th Marquis of Londonderry. 

1. Dated 'Tuesday.' 2\ pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I send you back the Contes. I think you did 
not overrate Mes Proiiiers Amours; it is a pretty story, admiralDly told & strikes 
pretty home, I sh'' think, to most people who have had those adventures in their 
younger days. I wish one could feel so now. What admirable French for a 
IjuII ! Few Frenchmen could write better, if any. Many thanks, and apologies 
for having so long kept it. Ever yours,' &c. 

'P.S. — I think it quite beautiful, and for an Englishman quite extraordinary. 
How like nature is it, and how exactly what some of us have felt.' 

2. No date, i page 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Will you forgive me for not availing myself of your 
kind invitation to dinner to-day, as I really do not feel well enough to go out. 
Ever yours,' &c. 

3. Dated 'Saturday.' 2\ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I can not say more than that I sincerely thank 
you for your kind good wishes, & I am sure that the music of your parting bene- 
diction will scare the moral tormentors, or rather immoral ones, from my mind as 
effectually as the mosquito net will keep off physical though insect force from my 
body. 

' I hope to thank you de vive voix to-morrow. Ever y''',' &c. 

CATTERMOLE (George), a Water-colour Painter. (1800-1868.) 

A. L. S. Dated ' Albany, Monday.' i page 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Should you be in town to-morrow, and will honour 
me with a call, I shall be happy to submit the two drawings to your notice. I 
am,' &c. 

CHESTER (Harry), youngest son of Sir Robert Chester, and a Clerk 
in the Privy Council Office. (1806- 1868.) 

A. L. S. to (?) Dated Privy Council Office, Downing Street, 

July 1 8th, 1834. 2 1 pages 4to. 

' Sir, — I have to request you will do me the favor to inform me whether the 
Book of Beauty is still open to contribution ; &, if so, what you are in the habit of 
paying for poetical contributions. 

' I have written some lines which have been approved by those who have seen 
them — 100 lines rhyming upon a woman's name. I am recommended to offer them 
to you. I am,' &c. 

'P.S. — You will oblige me by an answer at your earliest convenience.' 

CHESTERFIELD (George, 6th Earl of). Eldest son of the 5th Earl, 
and one of Lady Blessington's most intimate friends. (1805-1866.) 

L No date (August 21st, 1841). 3 pages 4to., with Superscription. 

'We are just going to Versailles, dear Lady Blessington, to see the Duchesse 
de Grammont, and to remain there one night. Very many thanks for your very 
kind letter. The weather here is perfect, very hot, a real Italian sky. Paris is 
very empty, but some of the theatres are amusing, and I am happy to say 
Lady Chesterfield* has quite recovered her health and has enjoyed her trip 
very much. 

Anne Elizabeth, Countess of Chesterfield, 1803-1885, eldest daughter of Cecil, 1st Lord 
Forester, and married, in 1830, to the 6lh Earl of Chesterfield. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 33 

' I am this moment returned from John Stanley's* marriage ; his wife is a 
piquante brunette, and decidedly pretty. He asked me to go as one of his 
witnesses, he had no Englishman to support him. I really thought I should 
have died of laughter, when two little boys held a white cloth over the head of 
John, and he stood there the symbol of innocence. 

' Wilton,t I am afraid, will never do for a ist Lord, which will be a blow to 
the Government that is to be. 

' Many thanks for the letters. I hardly think that I shall have time to make 
use of them, and therefore am much ashamed to have given you the least trouble 
about them. I cannot say, however, that I regret it, as it procured me your 
amiable letter. Believe me,' &c. 

2. Dated Rome, March 4th, 1843. 3 pages 4to., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Many, very many thanks for your kind letter ; 
you can not conceive what real pleasure I received when your letter arrived, it 
was so very kind of you to write to me. We are now just reposing after the 
Carnival, which has been very gay, and for which we have had decent weather, it 
only having poured two of the days, which we thought singularly fortunate in this 
rainy climate. We had an excellent balcony opposite Via Condotti, from which 
Lady Chesterfield and our friends pelted away some thousand pounds of bon- 
bons and some myriads of flowers. I think it most extreme good fun, and it is 
most amusing to observe the effect it has on different people ; some are so 
remarkably angry, some so dignified and others enjoying it. I wish you could 
have seen Lord Winchelsea driving up the Corso to call on some one, covered 
with white dust, and looking as if he was preparing a violent anti-Catholic speech 
for the House of Lords. 

' We, that is a party of men, that is Paul Esterhazy, Lever, Henry Fullarton, 
etc., went one day in a car. We were dressed as the priestesses in hoods, and 
we were attended by our servants as ancient Roman warriors are. I can assure 
[you] we made a g' sensation. I went in the evening to Madame Svetsine's 
in a woman's domino with rather short petticoats, the latter garment being 
trimmed with lace and adorned with rose-coloured rubans ; of course I took 
occasion to show it. I was beautifully chaussd with satin shoes, and completely 
mystyfied every one. 

' I am so charmed to hear that Alfred bears up against his confinement with 
his usual fortitude ; as to any success he may have in painting and sculpture, it 
does not in the least astonish me, as with his talents success crowns all his 
undertakings. 

' You say nothing about yourself, therefore I hope you are well and have not 
suffered this winter from the cold or the damp of an English winter. Pray thank 
Alfred very much for the kind letter I have received from him dated the i8th of 
February, and tell him I will write directly, and, with every sort of remembrance 
to y' charming nieces, believe me, dear \J Blessington, y"" most devoted serv'.' 

3. No date. 4 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I can never sufficiently thank you for your most 
beautiful present ; but I do not think I can ever have the courage to order so 
precious a remembrance to be made into a cushion-case. 

' I need not tell you that, however great my admiration may be for Charles 
the First, the robe is a thousand-fold more valuable to me as coming from you. 
Believe me, dear L^ Blessington, y'' devoted serv'.' 

* John Stanley, afterwards Sir John Errington, 1810-1S93, third son of Sir Thomas Stanley 
Massey Stanley, of Hooton, Cheshire. He assumed the name of Errington by Royal licence in 
1876. He married Maria, daughter of Baron Alexandre de Talleyrand, 1841. 

t Thomas Grosvenor, 2nd Earl of Wilton, 1799-1882, grandson of the ist Earl, whom he 
succeeded in 1814. Lord Steward of the Household in 1835, and Envoy Extraordinary to 
Saxony in 1842. 



34 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

CHORLEY (Henry Fothergill). The well-known Musical Critic and 
Reviewer. (1808-1872.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 15 Victoria Square, Pimlico, April 26th, 1849. 
4 pages Svo., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— The tone of the Grand Opera is assuredly not deep 
or serious ; & as you know, I am at the best of times shy and tongue-tied — 
worse and worse, I think, every year. 

' But I must beg a moment, not for an afifectionate & grateful leave-taking, but 
to claim, so far as I am able, a continuance of your kind & indulgent regard 
wherever you finally pitch your tent. I will not say how many kind & friendly 
thoughts accompany you, as one constantly looked to & cordially missed, but I 
must for my poor self reanind you that you have an agent, a commissioner (or 
whatever else you can make of me) in Victoria Square, & just say simply, what 
I could not on Monday week, that never was your kindness of many years more 
present to me than now, & never stronger my wish, at all times or in any 
way that is possible, to testify to my grateful remembrance. You must not let 
us feel that you are gone, by not giving us something to care about for you. 
These are not times in which any of us can afford to lose friends ; & therefore, 
while I will not say " good-bye," I will say, " God bless your Ladyship ! & give 
your old servant a little job now and then." 

' Since my return I have been seriously ill with wretched cold, & more than 
usually occupied with business. Bezzi is coming to me next week as an inmate. My 
mother & sister desired me, when I wrote, to offer to you their most grateful remem- 
brances & regards. Kindest regards to the Miss Powers, from y" aff' ^ & gratefully.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 15 Victoria Square, Pimlico, May 19th, 1849. 
3 pages 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — For the last ten days have I been meaning to write 
a line in acknowledgment of your first truly kind letter. Now I must do so, to say 
that, of course, I will do my earliest & best for the portrait (but, alas, how dry is the 
spring ! — dust will come from it — never a drop of water) & forward it to the address 
directed. If, in the eleventh hour, any other promise should fall short, pray 
don't forget that my readiness is greater though my power may be, & is, less 
than ever. 

' This, I repeat, I sh'^ have said ten days ago, but for the reason " which 
leans on me with a heavier stress than ever." I used to dislike my unpopularity 
as a musxal critic very much, but the other thing works worse for peace of mind 
and practicability of leisure; and now that every playing and singing thing in 
Europe seems streaming hither to find shelter & occupation, I have much ado 
to keep a moment for those better thoughts and pursuits which remind me that 
I am not a playing & singing thing too. 

' My mother has been most earnest with me not to forget to send you her 
affectionate & grateful regards. I ought to say for her that I believe I hindered 
her paying her respects to you, since (though, as you know, I never ask questions, 
still less, am ever found out by gossip) I have not been without an instinct or an 
impression for some time, that you were disturbed by those pre-occupying anxieties, 
which make the presence of casual strangers irksome. I think my sister, perhaps, a 
shade less ill, as a consequence of the entire quietness in which she has now 
resigned herself to live. But that is all. 

' Many, many thanks for your first letter, & now that the change is once 
made, may it yield to you all that I hope it w/'//. I trust now that what there is 
of pain will remain for those who have lost you. You cannot, I feel, but be 
freshened by the new objects & new scenes of your new abode — turbulent as it is ; 
& when that charm is done, you will come back to us again. 

' Meanwhile, what a time for anybody to be looking forward in ! One 
becomes absolutely sick with wondering what is to be the end of it all ! I could 
fill books with the tales which one new-comer after another brings of dismay & 
misery & breaking-up abroad, & a sort of bruti faith that these absurdities 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 3; 

& abominations cannot last very long is little better than a superstition &, 
like all superstitions, will break down. Meanwhile one is teazed by such farcically 
petty considerations as whence & how one is to get one's holiday. I am thinking 
of Dinan in Brittany, as I have work to do & must have good air & quietness 
& something to see, & this may possibly bring me home via Paris (& the Rue 
du Cirque) in early October. 

' Pray give my kindest remembrances to the Miss Powers & the Count, & 
believe me always afP^ & gratefully y".' 

3. A. L.S. to Dr. Madden. Dated Thursday, March 3rd, 1853. i page 4to. 

' Sir, — In answer to your note of February the 28th, I fear I must say that I have 
no letters from Lady Blessington that will serve your purpose. I saw her so 
frequently during the sixteen years of her great & steady kindness to me, 
that little was put on paper of importance or general interest enough to bear 
publication. Should any matter occur to me in which I can be helpful, I will 
communicate with you, being meanwhile yours,' &c. 

CLANRICARDE (Ulick John de Burgh, ist Marquis). A Statesman 
and Diplomatist, (i 802-1 874.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated ' Monday night.' 3 pages i2mo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — 1 am sorry to say there are various things — none 
of them, nor all of them, worth one course of y"^ dinner — fixed for to-morrow in the 
House of Lords ; and I must therefore beg you not to wait dinner one minute for me, 
or to suppose I do not bear in mind y'' kind invitation if I do not appear a punto. 

' I may be detained until you have done y"^ " fish, & chased the last pattie 
round the silver dish ;" or Stanley in his frolics of a holiday eve (for I have reason 
to hope he goes on Wednesday) may detain me until it w"* not be decent for 
me to appear unfed. All I mean is, to beg you to excuse my absence if I don't 
present my homage in due time. Faithfully yours.' 

2. A. L. S, Dated February 14th, 1849. '^\ pages i2mo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am very sorry you have had so much trouble 
about the picture. It is returned, & the frame is here. I own I was alarmed 
lest my daughter sh"* have been put up to auction. But, as usual, good-natured 
friends represented the danger as much more imminent than it was. 

' Many thanks for the trouble you took in writing so many notes. Always 
sincerely yours.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday m^, April 14th' (1849). 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have been in the country all the week (altho' it 
seems my ghost appeared to some reporter at Cov' Garden Opera on Tuesday, 
where /was not) & only returned last night. I fear I shall hardly get a spare mornent 
to pay my homage to you to-day, for I have an arrear of paperasses, & Cabinet 
will take 2 or 3 hours. But I trust still to find you at Gore House to-morrow. 

' I heard of y"^ proposed move with much regret ; but I hope it will only be 
for a short time. Sincerely yours. 

' p.S. — My private secretary was indiscreet ab'' Mr. Wade, whose transportation 
was a little galanterie de ma part d Miss Power, & for which you owe me no 
thanks.' 

COCHRANE (Alexander Dundas Baillie, ist Baron Lamington). 
Eldest son of Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane. He was raised to 
the Peerage in 1880. (1816-1890.) 

1. A.L.S. (marked 'private.') Dated Belgrave Square, January 2nd, (?). 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I hope you have rec* a copy of Lucille Belmoiti, 
which I desired Colbum to send you some time since. I am sure you will kindly keep 



36 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

my confidence, but I have taken the liberty of intruding my work upon you in the 
hope that if it should not obtain your approval, it may at least be honoured by 
your perusal. 

' This feeling, &. this alone, can excuse me for thus troubling you, but I fear that 
you may think this is rather a bad return for all the pleasure I have derived from 
your pen. I shall hope to have the honour of paying my respects to you in person, 
on the anniversary of New Year, and of being permitted the privilege of renewing 
my former acquaintance. Believe me, my dear Lady Blessington, most truly.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Belgrave Street, May, 1849. 4 pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,— It is so idle to tell you what you so well know, 
that you have left a vacancy here w'' can never be filled up. It makes me quite 
sad to know that your absence is for a lengthened period, & I can assure you that 
it calls forth one common expression of sorrow from all your friends, that is, from 
all who had the honor & privilege of your acquaintance. I dined with John 
Manners* yesterday, & gave him y' message ; 1 can assure you that it led to a 
very long & melancholy conversation. 

' I was at Goodwood when y"" kind note reached me, & spoke to the Duke 
about the post ; he says that the Party will do nothing; I have since seen others, 
who make me the same reply. I believe a small subscription might be raised, but 
that is not what is wanted — even if it can be accomplished. I quite concur in all 
you say respecting Michael; he is a most admirable & honourable man ; but, alas ! 
what is that in thesedays ; as in naval matters, the ship that can tack & veer 
quickest is considered the most valuable. 

' I am writing — nay, have almost finished — a book in two volumes, called Ida; 
it will have fen er of the faults of the others, but I dare not judge of its merits. I 
mean to put my name, and think of publishing with M''011ivier, as Colburn throws 
out such a mass of books, he swamps them all ; but I really do not know who to 
go to, to be dealt at all fairly by ; it is a hopeless case for those who are fighting 
for success, you, [who] achieved it so long since, may not sympathize with me. 

' Pray offer all my kindest remembrances to that circle in w*" I have from time 
to time passed so many pleasant hours, & believe me ever most tr^ as most 
remiss. Y". 

' P.S. — You must let me write to you from time to time.' 

CONYNGHAM (Lord Albert Denison). Third son of the ist Marquis 
Conyingham, created Baron Londesborough in 1849. (1805-1860.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated ' Hill Street, Wedtiesday.' 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I send you a rather absurd little German story; 
it has the advantage of brevity. Pray excuse the state in which I send it ; I 
dictated it to my wife,t & have not had time to copy it out. 

' I have so bad a cold that I am not able to stir out, & am thus prevented 
calling upon you this morning & expressing to you my regret not to be able to 
send you a better story. I remain most truly yours.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated ' Hill Street, Thursday.' 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Upon second thoughts, I have made up my mind 
that it would not do to change the era of my story ; it would appear more 
ridiculous than it is already, were it to be supposed occurring in the i6th cen^. 
It must, therefore, go forth unillustrated. I remain most sincerely yours.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated Yedling, November 29th, 1835. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I have just heard from Mr. Denison that you have 

* John James Manners, the present Duke of Rutland, born 1818, second son of the Jth Duke. 
He succeeded his brother as 7th Duke in 1888, and has hlled various high positions in the 
Government, particularly that of Postmaster-General from 1874 to 1880, and from 1885 to 1886. 

t Henrietta Maria, Lady Albert Conyingham, 1810-1841, fourth daughter of the 1st Lord 
Forester. She married Lord Albert in 1833. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 37 

been kind enough to send a Book of Beauty for me to Pall Mall. Pray let me 
return you my very best thanks for it. 

' I arrived here last night ; the Wiltons are the only visitors that we have 
found here, & they leave Yedling to-day after church. You would be amused at 
the size of the house, it is smaller than any parsonage-house that I have ever seen. 

_' Did you see Mr. Denison on his way through town from Yorkshire ? Your 
amiability has so completely won his heart that he talks incessantly of you. You 
would be amused at his admiration. 

' The news has just reached us of the reported marriage between the D. 
of Norfolk* & Lady Charlotte Buryt ; how on earth can they have thought of 
such a thing ? Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, very sincerely yours.' 

COWPER (William), second son of Peter, 5th Earl Cowper. Created 
Earl Mount Temple in 1880. (1811-1888.) 

A. L. S. Dated Downing Street, November 29th, 1837. 3 pages 8 vo., 
with Superscription. 

I Dear Lady Blessington, — I have shewn your note to U^ Melbourne, & he 
desires me to say that he would have much pleasure in complying with any wish 
of yours, but that he considers it quite unnecessary of submit this to Her Majesty, & 
that there will be no want of respect or propriety in the drawing being made & 
published without any further permission. So, as he takes this responsibility 
upon him, you may with safety give us all the benefit of Mr. Chalon's sketch. 
Believe me, dear L^ Blessington, y" faithfully.' 

COWPER (Charles Spencer), third son of the Sth Earl Temple, and 
second husband of Countess d' Orsay. ( 1 8 1 6- 1 879.) 

A. L. S. Dated 7 Grafton Street, July Sth, 1846. 2 pages Svo. 
' Dear Lady Blessington, — Will you do me the favor to accept the accom- 
panying piece of Blue Sfevres. It is pretty, & of a rather rare pattern, and I hope you 
will think it worthy of a place in your drawing-room. Believe me yours very truly.' 

CRAVEN (Hon. Richard Keppel), a Traveller, and youngest son of the 
6th Baron Craven. (1779-1851.) 

L A L. S. Dated Pente, near Salerno, August 29th, 1835. 3 J pages 
4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Your last kind letter, and the very flattering expres- 
sions it contained, ought to have received an earlier answer than I have bestow'd 
upon it, but I am not the less grateful, and you will admit the validity of an excuse 
for silence, when I inform you that it has been protracted from a desire of giving 
you a better account of our friend GellJ than I could have done two months ago. 
Then, indeed, his state of health was such as to excite considerable alarm, but 
about the beginning of August a crisis appears to have taken place, and a 
considerable improvement has been the consequence. He is now here, where he 
has been staying a week ; but that would prove nothing in favour of his amended 
condition, as, even at its worst period, his courage and activity of mind never 
droop'd, and he went out just as usual. 

' I wish I could add to this, that I am free from all apprehension ; but as long 

* Bernard Edward Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, 1765-1842. He married in 1789 Lady 
Elizabeth Belasyse, from whom he was divorced in 1 794 and never remarried. 

t Lady Charlotte Susan Bury, 1775-1861, a novelist, youngest daughter of the fifth Duke of 
Argyll, remarkable for her personal beauty and charming manners. She is best known by her 
Diary illustrative of the Times of George the Fourth, published anonymously in 1838. 

% Sir William Cell, 1777-1836, a classical archaeologist and traveller, who published several 
accounts of his travels. When Queen Caroline left Italy for England he accompanied her as 
one of her Chamberlains. When he died Lady Blessington remarked, ' J'ai perdu en lui men 
meilleur causeur.' His papers and drawings were bequeathed to Craven, who left the drawings 
to the British Museum, where they were received in 1852. 



38 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

as a tendency to somnolency continues — the only symptom which has not dis- 
appeared — I feel uneasy. This affection is considerably diminished — that is, 
modified — in its form and periods, but still it exists to a degree that must undergo 
great alteration before his friends can find their minds totally reassured with 
regard to the consequences ; that this may occur I am assured by his physicians 
is probable, and Heaven knows I am but too well disposed to believe them. In 
addition to this fund of uneasiness, I have had some occupations likewise of an 
annoying nature in the uncertainty which arose and hung over my son's departure, 
who, with his wife, is gone to France for some months. This had been decided some 
time back, but the approach of the cholera southwards urged them to anticipate 
their intended departure, for fear of finding themselves shut in to the North of 
Italy, and surrounded on all sides with sanitary cordons. 

' I have just heard from them in date of Milan, and there seem'd no obstacle 
to their having reach'd Switzerland in safety, so their difficulties are at an end. 
With regard to the malady itself, there seems no doubt that it has declared itself 
at Nice, Genoa, Coni and Leghorn, but it has not been very violent, and seems 
just now to be suspended. Measures are taking in this kingdom to present 
obstacles (if that is possible) to its approach, and to attend to it in the most 
effectual manner if it does come ; but the panic it had caused at first appears to 
have subsided, and its effects seem confined to the inn-keepers and laquais de 
places, &c., who foresee a sterile winter for them, as it is not probable that as long as 
any lurking remains of the malady are supposed to exist in any part of Italy, that 
strangers will voluntarily select it for their next winter's residence ; at present 
there are very few, who will most likely soon depart. 

' I have been staying here ever since the beginning of June, occupied, much 
as usual, with additions and improvements which, however, have somewhat 
changed their form, as I begin to reap the enjoyments of past labours, instead of 
undertaking new ones. I have had some visitors, enough to break upon the 
unvaried tenor of my usual habits, but not too frequently to prevent the 
resumption of them. The summer has been variable, therefore, for this climate, 
cool; and now heavy rains and thunder-storms seem to give us a foretaste of the 
equinox a month before its natural time. 

' I ought before this to have thank'd you for your offer of assistance with 
regard to the publication of my last journey, a proposal which I should most 
gratefully avail myself of, should circumstances favour its appearance ; it is now 
completed and copied out in a fair le^^ible hand, & therefore accessible to the 
inspection of any bookseller, who, of course, will chuse to examine it before any 
stipulations are made. I will seek an opportunity of forwarding it to England, 
and if I find one, will take the liberty of addressing it to you, as its guardian. In 
the meanwhile I may as well state the nature of the work and its contents, which 
are the result of various excursions in the northern provinces of this kingdom, 
that is, the Abruzzi. To these are added others, less extended, in the districts of 
Samnium, Basilicata, and other less remote parts, but certainly not better 
known. The whole would form a quarto vol. about the size of the last I 
publish'd relative to the South and, as far as I can judge, written in the same 
manner, that is, in that of an Itinerary, principally usefuU to such as are inclined 
to examine those regions, but not aiming at any details of science or statistics. 

'There are some drawings annex'd, but I would leave the expediency of 
adding them to the work to the publisher's decision, though I think they would 
add considerably to the effect, as they are selected from many, represent spots 
entirely unknown and of some interest ; as well from their locality as their 
picturesque accompaniments : all which I state in case any previous enquiry 
should be made as to the general nature of the work. 

' Cell, in whose room I am now writing, requests his kindest regards to you ; 
may I beg you will add mine to Count d'Orsay and believe me, dear Lady 
Blessington, yours most obliged & sincerely.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Naples, April 17th, 1836. 3 J pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I hope you will not judge of the impression your 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 39 

last kind letter produced upon me, by the tardiness I have observed in replying to 
it ; but for this I shall offer no apology ; acquiescing in all your friendly expressions 
regarding the loss I have sustain'd, is but a poor way of cloathing my thanks, and 
I deferr'd offering them till I could at the same time inform you with some certainty 
of my intended movements for the summer, which 1 now can do, having determin'd 
to leave this very early in the ensuing month, and to proceed as rapidly as a weary 
spirit and a not very robust state of health will allow me, resting only a few days 
at Paris, so that I hope to be in London in the first week of June, when, 1 need 
not add, you will be very shortly apprized of my arrival. I have been very busy 
in arranging the memorials I preserve of our excellent friend, so as to have them 
constantly under my inspection. You know that there are various ways of finding 
relief, which differ according to the disposition and habits of the sufferer in 
similar cases, and I own that flying from or destroying every record which 
recall the person lamented does not appear (to me at least) an efficacious mode 
of obtaining consolation ; for surely it does not require such tangible mementos 
of departed excellence to remind one of an irreparable loss, the conviction of 
which will intrude itself at all times, and through every circumstance of social or 
solitary life. I have, therefore, amalgamated the books of which I have 
possession with my own, in a manner that no eye but mine can detect, and they 
serve to adorn, and give additional value to, the apartment I always inhabit. The 
drawings I have placed in two cabinets, in drawers, excepting those forming a 
series of his Travels in Greece, which I knew he wish'd to be finally bestow'd upon 
the British Museum ; these are all in one case with his initials, and at my death 
shall be remov'd to that destination, more worthy, perhaps, of their merits than 
their present position, but not more honour'd by the owner. 

' We had a beautifuU month of March, which has been follow'd by an April 
reminding us of January, the rigours of which still endure in the shape of cold 
winds, stormy showers, melted snow and other irregularities, as ill suited to the 
season as to the latitude. 

' There are numerous arrivals from Rome, but few of name or note ; S. Carlo 
is closed altogether and the season more than usually dull in every respect. I 
fear your friend Count Matuschewitz must be singularly struck with it, but he 
seems in high good humour, and does not complain ; he has favour'd me with 
his company to dinner a few times, and I find him everything you describe. He 
has taken the Palazzo Ferrandina, and is fitting it up ; there could not be a 
better selection, and I have no doubt he will find it so ; but he is still at the inn, 
the house not being yet ready for him. The King is at present enjoying the 
humours of a camp, composed of about a third of his forces, near Salerno ; this 
is an amusement he was much inclined to in his early days of celibacy, but 
latterly his growing attachment to his poor young wife appear'd to have absorb'd 
his attentions. However, after three months' mourning, he has had recourse to 
this object, either to resume his batchelor's avocations, or perhaps by way only of 
a little dissipation. There are already reports of his having the intention of 
travelling to seek a worthy successor of the late Queen, and they are not without 
probability. 

'To the questions you put, and which appear to me but too natural, 
respecting Cell's last days, or rather weeks, I find it difficult to return a positive 
answer, more especially as to his own feehngs respecting his state. 1 think 
that at times he was quite aware that his system had received a blow from 
which it could never recover, and that as far back as this time twelve month ; 
but he had continued so many months, under the impression of repeated attacks 
of somnolence, totally free from bodily suffering, that I don't apprehend he 
consider'd himself worse at the end of the year than last spring ; he was not 
aware of his increasing debility, and as the functions of his stomach continued 
unimpaired till within but two days before the sad event, when a general and 
rapiddecrease of all the vital functions occurr'd, I don't think that his reflections dwelt 
upon his dissolution as being very near. Nevertheless, his last will, about which 
he was very anxious, was executed little more than a week before his decease, 
and occasionally he would allude to the event itself in an indirect manner, for, 
on receiving some books about a month before it happen'd, and my asking him 
to lend some to me, he said, " You had better read them when they are your oifii 



4(5 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

— and you are not likely to wait long." I find in his daily journal, in which he 
noted observations on his health, about Christmas, these words : ^^ May consider 
myself well.' He had rallied to what appear'd a very improved condition, about 
3 weeks before the catastrophe ; but it was principally in the suspension of 
the lethargic affections which had so long oppress'd him that this was evident, and 
the consequence was that, having much longer intervals of clear consciousness 
and reflection, he was undoubtedly more awake to his situation, both morally and 
physically ; for he then complained of bodily ailings much more than during his 
whole malady, though to all appearance they had ceased. He never ceased, I 
don't say for an hour but an iitstant, to have a book open before him ; and 
though he sometimes could not fix his eyes for two minutes at a time on its 
contents, he nevertheless understood it, and could afterwards talk of the work in 
a mannerwhich proved thatwhilehis mental poyn&r&were awake, they were as strong 
as ever — more especially his memory ; but the state he was in caused much 
confusion in his ideas of time and distance, of which he was aware, and com- 
plained of. 

' I cannot end my letter without thanking you for your very kind offer of 
receiving me at Gore House, and conferring on me the many advantages such a 
residence must ensure ; but I fear my stay in England will be too short to allow 
me to accept them more extendedly than in as frequent visits as it will allow me 
to pay ; towards these I look forward with real satisfaction and anticipated 
gratitude. Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, yours most sincerely &, obliged.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated 'Monday Evening, June 27th' (1836). i^ pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — You have my best thanks for the two numbers of 
the Athenaum you were so good as to send me ; the article you so obligingly 
bestow'd is the same I had read, in its most valuable parts, the other having only 
some additions relative to our friend's descendancy & family. I feel very thankfull 
for what you have stated of me, though I flatter myself it is no more than the 
strict truth in all that regards my affection for one so deserving of it. For what 
you say of him I am still more grateful!, for it does justice to his exalted qualities 
in the most concise, and yet the most elegant, manner. 

' I regret I cannot as yet foresee the time when I can accept your very kind 
offer of spending some days with you — my son & daughter's residence and (as 
much) my visits to my sister-in-law and various more irksome, and not less pain- 
full, duties for the present must preclude my coming to any decision on the subject ; 
but I shall be most happy to wait upon you to dinner either Thursday or Friday, 
whichever is most suitable to your convenience, which you will have the kindness 
to let me know, as well as your hour. 

' My son desires me to say how thankfull he is for your kind remembrance, 
and that he will take the earliest opportunity of waiting upon you. Beheve 
me, dear Lady Blessington, your very sincere friend.' 

CROKER (Right Hon. John Wilson). The Politician and Author. 

(1780-1857.) 

A. L. S. Dated Admiralty, April 2nd, 1820. i page 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I do myself the honor of obeying your Lady- 
ship's wishes to have four lines of my writing — there they are — perhaps you 
expected that I would have endeavoured to show my wit on this occasion, but I 
hope you will forgive [me] for only showing my discretion., by abstaining from any 
such vain attempt. I have the honor to be your Ladyship's most faithful servant.' 

DENISON (William). A well-known Millionaire; M.P. for Surrey 
from 1818 until his death. (1770-1849.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Denbies, November 8th, 1840. 4 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

'My dear Lady Blessington, — Having no London post yesterday, it was 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 41 

not in my power sooner to reply to your kind note, & to assure you of the 
pleasure it always affords me to comply with any wish of your's. 

'My vote shall certainly be given to your friend Mr. Guthrie, at the Middlesex 
Hospital ; & if he will send me a proxy-paper it shall be immediately filled up, 
or, if proxies are not admitted, I will come & give him my personal vote. I have 
heard much of his abilities. 

' It was my good fortune to meet your friend Mrs. Home at a neighbour's about 
a fortnight since, & I was much pleased both with her & Mr. H ; I did not know, 
till poor S. Smith's memoirs fell in my way, we had such an acquisition to the 
county. The first fine day we have, I intend riding over to Shire to pay my 
respects to her. 

' I hope you continue quite well, during— if we may so term it— this second 
deluge' 

'Poor Lord Holland !* a friend of thirty- five years' duration ! How forcibly 
Dr. Johnson's beautifuU lines struck me last night :— 

" Year chases year — decay pursues decay," t &c. 
We shall have, I hope, no war. What will Ellice say now to his friend Thiers .' He is, 
I hear, much disappointed at not getting the Enniskillen Dragoons for his brother. 

' Is it true Tom Duncombe is to marry— or has married— a rich Yorkshire 
widow ? 

' Adieu, dear Lady Blessington, & believe me most sincerely yours.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Denbies, Thursday, July isth (1841). 3 pages 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Upon my return home last night, I found 
your most kind & amiable note. Many, many thanks for it, & your con- 
gratulations upon the election, which I am sure came from the heart. You are 
indeed too flattering upon the resuhs, tho' it is impossible for any men to have 
behaved more honorably & straitforward than the Conservative party. Sir R. 
Peel must now of course be Prime Minister in a few weeks, & I do not envy 
him the stormy scenes he must encounter. 

'You will rejoice to hear our last accounts from Alb'J are good, tho' I fear 
poor Lady C.§ remains the same at Richmond— quite well for a few hours, & 
then her violence breaks out. I should be very ungratefull to refuse any request of 
yours, & will send you a few lines for your book ; but indeed, indeed, I have 
made my last bow at the Muses' shrine. Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, 
your very sincere & obliged.' 

D'ESTE (Sir Augustus). Son of the Duke of Sussex and Lady- 
Augusta Murray. (1794- 1848.) 

A. L. S. to Lord Blessington. Dated Florence, December 23rd, 1827. 
5 pages 8vo. and 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lord, — I thank you most sincerely for your letter, it was a 
most welcome visit to an invalid. I don't know what my good mother c* 

* Henry Richard Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, 1773-1840, a Cabinet Minister and Chancellor 
of the Duchy of Lancaster. 

t The Vanity of Hitman Wishes. 

X Lord Albert Conyngham, the writer's nephew, to whom he left all his fortune (except about 
500/. to charities), computed at 2,300,000/., on condition that he took the name of Denison. 

§ Lord Albert's mother and the writer's sister, Elizabeth Denison, Marchioness of Conyng- 
ham, 1769-1861, daughter and heiress of Joseph Denison, and wife of Henry Conyngham, 1st 
Marquis Conyngham. She was a beautiful woman, and acquired enormous influence over 
George IV., whom she absolutely ruled during the whole of his reign. She and her husband 
always lived with the King, whether at Windsor or Brighton. The King heaped presents upon 
her, and she even wore the crown sapphires which Cardinal York had given to the King. She 
used the King's horses in her carriage, and even the dinners she gave in her town house were 
cooked at St. James's Palace. 



42 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

have in her head when she told you that I was quite well — never was poor 
wretch in a more miserable condition than I have been in since you left Florence. 
The nervous attack of my eyes & left temple passed to the end of my spine 
cS: totally took away all my strength ; I \iS.vefour times fallen down on the floor, 
my limbs having been unable to sustain my weight, when going from one chair to 
another. Thank Heaven, 1 am wovi fast recovering. I can walk about the room 
without assistance, take an airing every day in the carriage and dined yesterday 
out, having to mount to a ziid piano ed era bastante forte per falire la scala, only 
with a couple of halts to rest. 

' Pray, my dear Lord, present my most respectful compliments to Lady 
Blessington, and assure her that the said parcel shall in no way be squeezed or 
maltreated, but have a wide berth to Rome. I can promise you that the moment 
I find myself able to sit for eight hours per diem in a carriage I will quit this 
detestable place. 

' Your acquaintance Mr. Brown was good enough to dine off a sick man's 
pottage a few days ago ; he is a very well read & pleasant companion. The 
greatest proof I have had of late years of our Sovereign's taste is the bringing of 
that ancient and distant town to stablish it in Windsor Forest ; I wonder if the 
Duke of Tuscany managed the affair } This place affords no news ; neither 
Virtue nor Vice reside here ; leaden-headed Ennui sits brooding over this 
\ea.thor-sourd people. There is here the son of an old friend of yours, young 
Dent, who has been \ao%\.friendlyly kind to me during my illness. Tho' my letter 
contains but httle matter, I think you will feel satisfied with its number of words 
and be looking out for the, My dear Lord, I remain, Yours very sincerely & 
faithfully.' 

DICKENS (Charles). The NoveHst. (1812-1870.) 

1. Printed Circular. Dated i Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regent's 
Park, July 7th, 1842. 2 pages 4to., with Envelope Signed and Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — You may perhaps be aware that during 
my slay in America, I lost no opportunity of endeavouring to awaken the public 
mind to a sense of the unjust and iniquitous state of the law in that country, in 
reference to the wholesale piracy of British works. 

' Having been successful in making the subject one of general discussion 
in the United States, I carried to Washington, for presentation to Congress by 
Mr. Clay,* a petition from the whole body of American authors, earnestly praying 
for the enactment of an International Copyright Law. It was signed by 
Mr. Washington Irving,t Mr. Prescott, J Mr. Cooper § and every man who has 
distinguished himself in the Uterature of America ; and has since been referred 
to a Select Committee of the House of Representatives. 

' To counteract any effect which might be produced by that petition, a 
meeting was held in Boston — which you will remember is the seat and strong- 
hold of Learning and Letters in the United States — at which a memorial against 

* Henry Clay, 1777-1852, the eminent American statesman, who sat in the United States 
Senate from 1806 until 1842, when he retired into private life, but was re-elected in 1848. 

t Washington Irving, 1783-1859, the American novelist and diplomatist, whose first work, 
The Sketch Book, appeared in 1819, and his last, The Life of Washington, in 1859. In 1826 he 
went as Attache of Legation to Madrid, whence he moved, in 1829, to London, and remained 
three years. He then returned to America, but, in 1842, accepted the post of Minister to 
Spain, which he held for four years. He returned to America for the remainder of his life 
in 1846. 

X W. H. Prescott, 1796-1859, the American historian. His early determination to devote 
himself to literature was caused by his having completely lost the sight of one eye, and that of 
the other becoming impaired. His first important work, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, appeared in 1838. He was a member of most of the learned societies of Europe, and 
was a D.C. L. of Oxford. 

§ James Fenimore Cooper, 1789-1851, the well-known American novelist. After graduating 
at Yale College he served in the navy for six years. Among his best-known works are The Spy 
and The Last of the Mohicans. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 43 

any change in the existing state of things in this respect was agreed to, with but 
one dissentient voice. This document, which, incredible as it may appear to 
you, was actually forwarded to Congress, and received, deUberately stated that if 
English authors were invested with any controul over the republication of their 
own books, it would be no longer possible for American editors to alter and 
adapt them (as they do now) to the American taste ! 

' This memorial was, without loss of time, replied to by Mr. Prescott, who 
commented, with the natural indignation of a gentleman, and a Man of Letters, 
upon its extraordinary dishonesty. I am satisfied that this brief mention of its 
tone and spirit is sufficient to impress you with the conviction that it becomes 
all those who are in any way connected with the Literature of England, to take 
that high stand, to which the nature of their pursuits and the e.xtent of their 
sphere of usefulness justly entitle them ; to discourage the upholders of such 
doctrines by every means in their power ; and to hold themselves aloof from the 
remotest participation in a system, from which the moral sense and honourable 
feeling of all just men must instinctively recoil. 

' For myself, I have resolved that I will never from this time enter into any 
negociation with any person for the transmission across the Atlantic of early 
proofs of any thing I may write ; and that I will forego all profit derivable from 
such a source. I do not venture to urge this line of proceeding upon you, but I 
would beg to suggest, and to lay great stress upon the necessity of observing, one 
other course of action : to which I cannot too emphatically call your attention. 

' The persons who exert themselves to mislead the American public on this 
question, to put down its discussion and to suppress and distort the truth, 
in reference to it, in every possible way are (as you may easily suppose) those 
who have a strong interest in the existing system of piracy and plunder ; 
inasmuch as, so long as it continues, they can gain a very comfortable living out 
of the brains of other men, while they would find it very difficult to earn bread 
by the exercise of their own. These are the editors and proprietors of 
newspapers almost exclusively devoted to the republication of popular English 
works. They are, for the most part, men of very low attainments and of more 
than indifferent reputation ; and I have frequently seen them, in the same sheet 
in which they boast of the rapid sale of many thousand copies of an English 
reprint, coarsely and insolently attacking the author of that very book, and 
heaping scurrility and slander upon his head. 

' I would therefore entreat you, in the name of the honourable pursuit with 
which you are so intimately connected, never to hold correspondence with any of 
these men, and never to negociate with them for the sale of early proofs of any 
work over which you have control ; but to treat, on all occasions, with some 
respectable American pubhshing house, and with such an establishment only. 

' Our common interest in this subject, and my advocacy of it, single-handed, 
on every occasion that has presented itself during my absence from Europe, 
form my excuse for addressing you, and I am faithfully yours.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 'Piazza Coffee House, Friday, sixth December, 1844. 
In the greatest haste.' i page 4to. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — My proofs have been delayed. I send them 
to you the moment I receive them. As the book* is not published until the 
sixteenth, I need not ask you to keep them "close.-' 

' I purpose coming to you on Sunday to say goodbye. Meanwhile remember 
me most cordially to Count D'Orsay and to the young ladies and beheve me, 
with earnest regard, ever faithfully yours.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated 'Covent Garden, Sunday Noon' (December 8th, 

1844). I page 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Business for other people (and by no means of 
a pleasant kind) has held me prisoner during two whole days, and will so detain 



The Chimes. 



44 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

me to-day, in the very agony of departure, that I shall not even be able to reach 
Gore House, on which I had set my heart. I cannot bear the thought of going 
away without some sort of reference to the happy day you gave me last Monday, 
and the pleasure and delight I had in your earnest greeting. I shall never forget 
it, believe me. It would be worth going to China — it would be worth going even 
to America — to come home again and feel as I feel in the friendship of yourself 
and Count D'Orsay. 

' To whom my love — and something as near it to Miss Power and her sister 
as it is lawful to send. It will be an unspeakable satisfaction to me, though I 
am not maliciously disposed, to know under your own hand at Genoa that my 
little book made you cry. I hope to prove a better correspondent on my return 
to those shores. But better or worse, or anyhow, I am ever, my dear Lady 
Blessington, in no common degree and not with an every-day regard, yours.' 

4. Lithographed Circular. Dated ' Office of the Secretary, Mr. Peake, 
Piazza Coffee House, Covent Garden, June 23rd, 1847.' i page 4to. 

' Madam, — I offer no apology for soliciting your attention to the enclosed 
document, feeling assured that it addresses itself to all who are known to 
sympathize, by taste and education with what is good in English Literature, or 
who may be supposed, from their position, happy to avail themselves of any 
convenient opportunity of acknowledging its claims to consideration. 

' Allow me to remain, on behalf of those gentlemen associated with Literature 
and Art who are embarked in this undertaking, and who have commissioned me 
to address you, your faithful servant.' 

D'ORSAY (Lady Harriet), Daughter of Lord Blessington, and Wife of 

Alfred, Count D'Orsay. (18 12-1869.) 

Four Letters on the subject of her affairs. 

(1.) Mr. J. H. Hutchinson, M.P., to Mr. Thomas Farrer. Dated Pabnerston 
House, April 12th, 1832. 

'Dear Sir, — On the part of Lady Harriet Dorsay I am requested to ask 
your opinion on the following points. 

' Count Dorsay has suggested that an application should be made to the Irish 
Chancellor, in his name and that of his wife, for an allowance to be allocated to 
them for present maintainance out of the surplus rents of the Estate. He mentions 
the sum of ^1000 a year. Lady Harriet wishes to be advised whether in your 
opinion she ought to join in this application and, farther, if you could discover 
through Mr. Powell what sum the Count would allocate to her, to be paid to her 
sole and separate receipt, provided the Chancellor made the order for a yearly 
allowance of ^1000.? This is the point on which we are most anxious to have 
your answer, and for this reason, because when Mr. Norman was desired to make 
this application by Count Dorsay his reply was "that he would not introduce 
Lady Harriet's name without consulting you." 

' The Count has been pleased to make another offer leading, I suppose, to a 
final settlement ; it is as follows : 

' " When the actual value of the estate left to Lady Harriet is ascertained, let 
the surplus be dividid into three parts, two of which are to go to the Count and 
one to Lady Harriet." On this point I am requested to put the following questions 
to you, in the hope that the Count will explain himself more fully. 

' Does the Count mean that Lady Harriet is to have the absolute dominion 
over the third ? And there is another point to which I wish to call your attention, 
and it is this : 

' Supposing the incumbrance affecting Lady Harriet's estate was discharged, 
the actual surplus would be trifling, but then there is a certainty of its increasing 
by the falling in of heavy annuities. 

' Supposing then that Lady Harriet was inclined to accede to Count Dorsals 
proposal, would it be possible to secure to Lady Harriet her fair and just por- 
tion of a third .? always keeping in view the prospective value of the estate when 
the annuities fall in ; and is this the Count's intention } 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 45 

' What Lady Harriet wishes to know is this : whether the Count will give her 
absolutely a third of her own estate, taking into consideration its actual value 
when the annuities fall in, and, if he is willing to do so, whether in your opinion 
it would be possible to put it into a legal form, and to bind him by a legal 
instrument. 

'These are the points on which I beg for your advice. In my mind Lady 
Harriet ought not to be in any hurry to answer this last proposal. I should 
consider that the greater the Count's difficulties the more likely would he be to 
make a more liberal offer. I suppose you know that he has raised money nearly 
to the full amount of the interest of the bond of 40 thousand which Lord 
Blessington gave him on his marriage. 

' This is a private letter, and I must beg that my name may not be introduced 
in any way in this business. 

' I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your faithful & obedient humble servant.' 

(2.) From Mr. Farrer to Mr. Hutchinson, April lith, 1832 : — 

'My dear Sir, — Your letter of the 12th reached me only yesterday. I very 
much regret that the state of my health has prevented me from giving that 
speedy attention to Lady Harriet D'Orsay's arrangements which the interest I 
feel in her situation makes me desire to give, and I am sorry to say I have before 
me the prospect of a long confinement with suffering & danger. 

'The papers are now before an English counsel to advise whether in the 
progress of Lord Blessington's affairs Lady H. should act seperately from or in 
conjunction with the Count. I daily hope for this opinion. In the meantime I 
see no objection, on the contrary every reason, for her uniting with him in an 
application to the Chancellor for a maintenance for herself out of the surplus 
rents. Indeed I have seen Mr. Powell with that same view, and he assures me 
of the Count's readiness to concur in such an application, and I should therefore 
recommend its adoption as speedily as possible, least the Count's incumbrances 
should form an obstacle, which I fear they may do if his annuities secured by 
judgments should exceed the income of his ^40,000. I have pointed out this 
danger to Mr. Powell. It seems to me that, if that should be the case, there 
might be a doubt whether the Chancellor could apply Count D'Orsay's surplus 
income (for in law it is his) without providing first for his judgments ; but Mr. 
Norman will be the best judge of this. 

' With regard to your statement of Count D'Orsay's proposal, I understand it to 
be as follows : That the whole of Lady Harriet's & Mr. Gardiner's interest in her 
father's estate shall be brought to sale, and he shall receive two-thirds & Lady H. 
one-third of the clear surplus of Lady H.'s interest, after discharging everything 
to which that interest shall be liable. This proposal, as I understand it, would 
be thus arranged. The e.xpenses, the mortgages, the bonds & other debts in 
gross sums & legacies would be paid out of the produce of the sales of the 
whole estates. Sums would be set apart from the dividends, of which annuities 
& jointures would be paid. Seperate accounts would be kept of the produce of 
the estates devised to Lady H. & to Mr. Gardiner. All the questions relating 
to those two estates would be discussed & decided, and according to that 
decision the above incumbrances would be apportioned to fall on each of the sums 
produced by the sale of those estates. The surplus of Lady H.'s estates would 
be the subject of the division between her & Count D'Orsay ; that surplus 
would be increased as each annuity charged on the estates devised to her ceased ; 
in the first instance all that there was at the time of division would be divided on 
a joint application, one-third to Lady H. & two-thirds to Count D'Orsay ; as 
each annuity fell in, application would be made to the Chancellor for the same 
division of the fund appropriated to answer it. If I am right in this, I can answer 
your question by saying that, provided Lady H. is satisfied with the proportion, 
I think an arrangement may now be made to secure its completion, in spite of 
Count D'Orsay's future debts and incumbrances ; but the sooner it is done the 
safer it will be. I should think the Court will insist that any income that may be 
paid to Lady H. by the Chancellor in the meantime should be taken as part of 
her proportion. 

' You will perceive by the will that the persons between whom the serious 



46 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

questions exist as to the construction of the will are Mr. Gardiner & Lady H. ; 
their interests under the will are completely opposed to each other & must be 
stoutly contested for each, since on the result of those contests will depend the 
extent of burthen each estate is to bear. 

' I regret very much your prohibition from using your name in the treaty, since 
it would be so material a benefit to Lady H. if I were at liberty to say that you 
were her friend in the business — otherwise it appears as if no connection or friend 
would render her any assistance. 

' If I hear from you or Lady H. of her willingness to adopt Count D'Orsay's 
proposal, I will communicate with Mr. Powell as to the means of carrying it into 
effect. If you will direct your letters still to Lincoln's Inn Fields they will be 
forwarded to me, as it is uncertain where I shall be. I remain, dear Sir, yours 
faithfully & obliged.' 

(3.) Mr. Thomas Farrar to Mr. Norman. Dated May gth. 1832 

'Dear Sir,— I am much obliged by your letters of the i"' and 2"'' instant, 
which should have been sooner answered, but that I am obliged by the state of 
my health to reside at present at Brighton, and can only do what little business I 
am capable of through the office in Lincoln's Inn Fields. 

' 1 had urged to Mr. Powell the improbability of the Court making any allow- 
ance to Lady H., on account of the precariousness of the surplus income of the 
Estates. He answered me that the Court did make an allowance to Mr. Gardiner 
of 1000/. per ann: and that Lady H. h^id (as it seems to me she has) as good 
a claim as he had. The application should certainly be made, if made at all (as 
you state) by Lady H.'s solicitor. Counsel here have recommended Lady H. to 
answer separately from the Count. Indeed she cannot as a minor heiress-at-law 
admit her father's will, which the Count must and must insist upon. I understand 
you act for i\Ir. Gardiner and I perceive by the intended answer of the Count (of 
which Mr. Powell has lent me the draft) that he makes a question as to the 
validity of the direction to pay you the annuity of 1200/., on the ground of your 
having ceased to be agent of the Tyrone Estate previously to the death of Lord B. 

' This is the first time I ever heard a doubt on the subject. I conclude it is 
on account of the conflicting interests between Mr. Gardiner on the one hand & 
the Count & Lady Harriet on the other as to the construction of the whole will, 
and between yourself on the one hand and Lady Harriet on the other as to the 
1200/. a year, that occasions you to speak of the Count & Lady Harriet acting 
by another solicitor. 

' It certainly, to my mind, is a matter to be much regretted, that Lady Harriet 
cannot have the benefit of your assistance in the prosecution of the suit, 
altho' I am assured you will afford her the more valuable aid of your advice 
in the general arrangements of the property for winding up the affairs. You will 
perceive, however, that Lady H. cannot act by the same solicitor as the Count. 
If Mr. Hutchinson should be in Dublin, perhaps you would have the goodness to 
speak to him on the subject, and arrange for someone to act for her ; if he is in 
London, I will endeavour to do so. 

' Mr. Powell at our first interview in August offered for Count D'Orsay 400/. 
a year to Lady Harriet out of the interest of the 40,000/. You will perceive from 
the date of his annuity deeds that, subsequently to that offer, he put it out of his 
power to fulfil it. If, however, he receives 6 per cent., there will be still enough 
and I shall press for it. I am glad to find the Count has not given judgments ; 
there is no saying, however, how soon he may be compelled to do so. 

' When I wrote to Mr. Hutchinson, I only treated the proposal (if I may use the 
expression) in gross, that is, to make the nature & effect of it clear to him. I imagine 
the meaning of the proposal to be that Lady Harriet's reversionary interest for life 
in the 40,000/. would be preserved to her, but that the Count would claim that 
sum, subject to her life interest, on her death & failure of issue of the 
marriage. 

' I imagine the mode of carrying the proposal into effect would either [be] 
independent of the Court or with its sanction, as was found most practicable 
when it comes to be worked out ; but of course the whole would at all events be 



THE BLESSTNGTON PAPERS. 47 

made to depend on Lady Harriet's confirmation by recoveries and other assurances 
when she came of age. If Lady H. were to die during her minority the whole 
would fail & the reversionary interests would take effect ; and, if she refused to 
concur in doing what was necessary to carry the proposal into effect, provision 
would be made for all parties to stand in the same situation they now are in. 

' With regard to an actual sale, I had not any idea in my mind but to make 
the proposition clear to Mr. Hutchinson. I consider that your advice on that 
subject would be invaluable to all parties, and I should be doing Lady Harriet 
great injustice if I were to attempt to intrude any notions of my own on the 
subject ; indeed, I consider that when the plan of seperation is arranged and 
effected as far as it can be, that Lady Harriet's Irish friends (particularly 
yourself) are those on whose judgment & local knowledge alone she can place 
reliance. 

' The same observation applies to the disposal of the annuities. 

' I should consider that I was best consulting Lady Harriet's interest, by 
assisting you, if in my power through my acquaintance with Mr. Powell, in 
carrying into effect any arrangements you may think beneficial to the owners of 
the Dublin Estate. 

' I should be glad to know whether Lady Harriet accedes to the general 
proposition of a division — one-third to herself and two-thirds to the Count— of all 
that may come to her either under the will or as heir-at-law or next-of-kin of her 
father ; and if she does I will consider of a plan for carrying it into effect. I 
remain, dear Sir, yours very truly.' 

(4.) From Mr. Farrar to Mr. Norman. May 21st, 1832. 

' My dear Sir, — I am much obliged by your letter of the 14"' instant. I 
should not have hesitated, had the draft answer been ready, at sending it to you 
open, and should have indeed requested your perusal of it, notwithstanding your 
inability to act for Lady Harriet. I hope to send it to Mr. Hutchinson's sol'', 
Mr. Dachell, in a few days. 

' I now trouble you to request you will procure Lady Harriet's answer to the 
proposal of dividing the property that may be left into thirds — her Ladyship 
taking one-third & Count D'Orsay the other two. Until I know whether that 
principle be acceded to, I cannot continue the negotiation with Mr. Powell. In 
consequence of the opinion that Count D'Orsay is entitled to six per cent, I 
shall of course insist on the 400/. a year offered by Mr. P. at that inteiest. 
Yours very faithfully & obliged.' 

DRUMMOND (Sir William). A Diplomatist and Scholar. (Died 1828.) 
A. L. S. to Lord Blessington. Dated ' Friday.' i page 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' My dear Lord, — I am ashamed of having been so long of answering your 
Lordship's kind letter, but I could not get the decision of Prince Stiliano Colonna 
'lill the night before last, and the death of one of my own horses yesterday made 
me uncertain whether I could go to Capo di Monte or not to-morrow. It is, 
however, now settled that we are to have the honour of waiting on your Lordship 
and Lady Blessington. I have taken the liberty of asking the Prince's brother, 
who lives with him and who sat near your Lordship at my house. I remain, my 
dear Lord, most faithfully yours.' 

DURHAM (John George Lambton, ist Earl of). A Diplomatist. 

(1792- 1 840.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 'Cleveland Row, Friday m"®, 1833.' 2 pages 8vo., 

with Superscription. 

' Dear L-*" Blessington,— I have been so occupied that I have been unable to 
answer your note before. I had already completed my number of A.-D.-C.'s 
before I received it, & had on my list 16 others. In these circumstances I can- 



48 THE BLESSTNGTON PAPERS. 

only say that I shall take every opportunity of doing all that is kind to your 
nephew when we meet in those distant climes. Ever y".' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Sudbrook Park, July 19th, 1834. i page 8vo., 

with Superscription. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I am afraid I shall be in the north on the 27th; 
as it is not, however, certain, if you will allow me, I will thus accept your kind 
invitation. 

' Lady D. is still very weak & unwell. Yours very truly.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated 'Cowes, June 14, 1835.' 4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I thank you much for your very agreeable letter, 
which I received this morning, and for your kind enquiries after my health, which 
is wonderfully improved, if not quite restored, by this fine air and dolce far nienie 
life. I anticipate with horror the time when I shall be obliged to leave it and mix 
once more in the troublous realities of public hfe. 

' Pray remember me most kindly to L'' Lyndhurst when you see him. A con- 
stant source of regret with me is that our political path has hitherto been on 
separate lines, for 1 think him decidedly the most powerful and most efficient man 
in our house, and as a lawyer there is not his equal on the bench or at the bar. 

' I am sorry to hear you give so unfavourable an account of the reputation of 
the ministry ; they mean well, and if they are not stronger in intellect and 
efficiency, it is probably not because they do not wish to strengthen themselves, 
but because they know they would not be permitted. 

' Your estimate of the three books — Miss Kemble's, De La Martine's, and 
Bulwer's — is a most just one. The latter is full of first-rate genius. 

' Ellice* leaves me to-day, and will tell you what a charming life this is. 
Yours very truly,' &c. 

4. A. L. S. Dated Lambton Castle, August i6th, 1837. ■i.\ pages 8vo., 

with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — When I left town I was told by Colonel Cavendish 
that the permission for the Dedication was granted, & I am therefore surprized 
to hear that Mrs. Fairlie has not heard of it. I will, however, write again to 
him & make the necessary inquiries. Y'' very truly.' 

5. A. L. S. (marked 'Private'). Dated Lambton Castle, August 21st, 1837. 
3 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I enclose you an extractt from a letter which I 
received this day, in answer to my complaint. 

' I told you in London that I had had even then more trouble about this affair 
than all those of my Embassy. 

' However, I think it is now concluded according to your desire. Y'^ very truly.' 

* Edward Ellice, the elder, 1781-1863, a politician and a busy and successful merchant, the 
first to pass from the counting-house to the Cabinet. In 1818 he entered Parliament as Member 
for Coventry, for which place he was defeated in 1826, but was again returned in 1830, and 
represented that town until his death. In 1830 he became Secretary to the Treasury and Whip ; 
in 1832 he was appointed Secretary for War, a post he retained until 1834. He was for many 
years connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, from which circumstance he was nicknamed 
'Bear' — 'for his wiliness,' says Carlyle, 'rather than from any trace of ferocity.' Prosper 
Merimee said of him, ' II etait I'un des plus parfaits modeles de la vieille roche.' 

t The ' extract' is as follows : — ' The delay that has occurred in notifying the permission to 
dedicate is not owing to any neglect of the librarian, but has arisen from the uncertainty whether 
any except historical works would be permitted. In order, however, to obviate this difficulty 
Mrs. Fairlie's work has been looked upon as Historical Biography, & probably before you 
receive this you will have heard that the permission is granted.' The work referred to was 
IVIrs. Fairlie's Childrefi of the Nobility, which was dedicated to the Queen. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 49 

6. A.L. S. (marked ' Private'). Dated Lambton Castle, August 23rd, 1837. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— I enclose you the Royal permission. It would be 
right that Mrs. Fairlie should address a letter of thanks herself to Mr. Glover. 
Y"^ truly.' 

7. A. L. (incomplete) to (Lord Anglesey*). Dated Government House, 
Fredericktown, New Brunswick, November 24th, 1837. 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lord Anglesey, — Few circumstances connected with my advance- 
ment to this command have occasioned me such sincere satisfaction as your note 
of the 9th September, with an enclosure from Lady Blessington. 

' The Lady does tell her story with much natural & becoming feeling (as 
respects her mother) & therefore with eloquence. I had personally received a 
similar communication from Lady Canterbury, but I fear I must be ungallant 
enough to confess to your Lordship that all the eloquence du billet in the 
world, & few in it possess that talent in a higher degree than the fair Ladies 
whose respective appeals are now before me, could have had half the weight with 
me as the slightest expression of a wish from you — my noble friend & kind patron. 

' // shall go hard but I will endeavour to find some situation for Capt. 
Power ere long. He seems fit for anything— \i\s manners & conversation (&, 
I will add, his appearance) most prepossessing ; add to which the interest 
which your Lordship has expressed in his wellfare, exclusive of the appeals of his 
two fair sisters & an indirect recommendation to my notice from my friend, 
Sir Henry Hardinge.f My patronage, however, is very far from being of that 
extensive character which Lady B. appears to suppose. Still, something shall be 
found for Captain Power. 

' I rejoice to tell your Lordship . . . .' 

8. A. L. S. (marked ' Private '). Dated Cleveland Row, January 24th, 
1838. (i\ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I really have no appointment in my gift, & it pains 
me extremely to receive hundreds of applications to which I can only return the 
same answer. I should be ashamed of myself if I planted a colony of British 
officials in Canada ;t all Canadian places ought to be given to Canadians, & 
this will be the case with rare exceptions, the nomination of which will rest with 
the Government. 

' My own private staff, if I may so express myself, is settled ; & if it was 
not, the absence of pecuniary emoluments would render these employments more 
onerous than valuable. 

' Here I should end but for an expression in Mr. J. de Fonblanque's note — 
that which refers to "my intention of providing for him." I am not aware of 
having expressed any such intention — of having given any such " promise." 

' The only recollection I have of the matter is, that you forwarded me some 
documents relating to Mr. F.'s application to Lord Palmerston, & that I 
declined mentioning his name unless the subject was under discussion, when I 
would certainly do what I could to serve him. This I was anxious to do on his 
brother's account, whom I admire & esteem beyond most men ; but as to any 
promise of provision, I am certain I would not be so thoughtless as to make it. 

* Henry William Paget, 1st Marquis of Anglesey, 1768-1854, a military commander, who 
first served under the Duke of York, and distinguished himself in the Peninsular War and at 
Waterloo. He was created a K.G. in 1818, and was made a Field-Marshal in 1846. 

t Sir Henry Hardinge, ist Viscount Hardinge of Lahore, 1785-1856, the well-known 
military commander. He entered the army in 1798, went through the Peninsular War, but, 
having lost his left hand at Ligny, was absent from Waterloo. For this wound he received a 
K.C.B. He was Secretary for War in 1828, Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1830, Governor- 
General of India in 1844, and, after the Sikh War, was created a Viscount, and received a 
pension of 3000/. a year from Parliament, and of 5000/. a year from the East India Company. 
On the Duke of Wellington's death he became Commander-in-Chief and a Field-Marshal. 

% Lord Durham was appointed Governor-General of the North American Provinces, 
January i6th, 1838. 

E 



so THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' I never violate a promise, but I never make one hastily. 

' I am, as you may imagine, overwhelmed with business ; but still must devote a 
greater portion of my time than I could otherwise spare to relieve myself frorn the 
possibility of an imputation of having failed in performing that which I promised. 

' I send Mrs. Fairlie the picture as she requests ; will you give her my compli- 
ments, & also my best regards to my little friend 1 Y" very truly.' 

9. A. L. S. (marked 'Private'). Dated Cleveland Row, January 27th, 
1838. 4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I return you the note, which completely confirms 
my recollection of what was my answer to you. 

' I repeat again, that I have no places to bestow which it would become me to 
offer, or Mr. F. to accept. My own private secretaries are those who were with 
me before. 

' The nomination of the one or two higher posts is in the Government, with my 
approval, of course ; but as they belong to the legal and parliamentary class, they 
could not affect Mr. Fonblanque. 

' My power of direction, of controul, of administration is, as you say, unlimited, 
awfully unlimited ; but I have no power of creating places, no power of making 
any appointment where no vacancies exist, or of fixing on Canadian revenues 
English officials. 

'What, therefore, can I do? I dare not make a place expressly for Mr. F. 
I presume he does not wish to cross the Atlantic without the certainty of profit- 
able employment. Pity me ; for, in addition to the load of business which presses 
on me, I have all the misery of refusing requests from many whom I should be 
too happy to serve. Y" truly.' 

10. A. L. S. No date, i page 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I had written to D'Orsay, to say how sorry I was 
that a party at home prevented my accepting your kind offer. 

' I should have liked the quiet dinner above all things, and shall, whenever 
you propose it to me again, being most anxious to become acquainted with Mr. B. 
Y" ever.' 

11. A. L. S. Dated 'Cleveland Row, Wedn^ Mo^.' 2 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I have not called on you, because I have been too 
unwell to enjoy any society, and in that state, the more I remain at home the 
better. 

' I am going to the Isle of Wight to-morrow. If you are at home to-day at 
one, I will call and thank you for your kind recollection of y™ always truly.' 

12. A. L. S. Dated 'Cleveland Row, Friday Mo^.' 2 pages Svo., with 
Superscription. 

' I regret to say that I must give up the pleasure of dining with you, as a veto 
is put on my going out in such abominable easterly weather. 

' I almost despair of getting quite well until I go out of town, which I think of 
doing next week, Lord Essex having lent me Cassiobury. 

' My best regards to M. le Comte. V' very truly.' 

13. A L. S. Dated 'Cleveland Row, Friday Night' i page 8vo., with 

Superscription. 

' I am obliged to go out of town without seeing you, but I shall return in a 
week or so, when I shall hope to have that pleasure. I enclose EUice's answer to 
me respecting Fonblanque. Y''' very truly.' 

14. A. L. S. Dated Cleveland Row, Friday Night. 3 pages 8vo., with 

Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I return you the two notes, with many thanks for 
your kind communication of them. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPElRS. 51 

' I fear you greatly overrate my means of justifying the good opinion enter- 
tained of me. But I will do my very best. 

' I am very anxious to cultivate the acquaintance of your two friends, and have 
to-night sent to ask them to meet the Duke of Sussex here at dinner. His R. H. 
is no favourite of yours I hear, but I have always found him a steady and kind- 
hearted friend. 

' EUice and I start for Paris on Friday next. Can I take anything for you ? 

' I have not been able to call on you before to-day, being detained at home by 
business and visitors all the morning, and in the evening I am generally too 
unwell to go out. Y" very truly.' 

FERGUSON (Sir Ronald Cutlar). A Military Commander. (1773- 
1841.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated London, January 25th, 1830. 3 pages 4to., with 
Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I fear you will begin to think that I have paid little 
attention to the commission with which you charged me ; but I assure you it was 
about the first thing in my thoughts when I arrived in London, which was on 
Saturday the loth. On Sunday I called on Mr. Powell at his house, but heard 
that he was out of town. I was told that he was expected on the Wednesday 
followmg. On the Friday I went to his chambers in Lincoln's Inn, when I was 
informed that he was shortly expected, but was not yet arrived. I called on 
Douglas Kinnaird,* but could not see him. He is, I am sorry to say, seriously ill. 
As Mr. Powell and Douglas Kinnaird were the only persons to whom I thought it 
likely you would wish me to speak on the subject of your affairs, I have hitherto 
been unable to show more than a desire, which you will own to be sincere, to be of 
any service in my power. I shall no doubt see Mr. Powell in a day or two, and 
will communicate to you the result of our interview. 

'There begins to be a little stir in the political world. It is said that the 
Duke's strength in the House of Lords is unassailable, and as he has got, it is 
also said, almost all the borough holders, his majority is expected also to be great 
in the House of Commons. 

' There will be possibly a split among the Whigs. Several of the Whig Lords 
are believed, and I think truly, to be with him. Among others, the Duke of 

Bedford t and Lord Fitzwilliam,J and also Lord C . It is said that Lord 

Darlington § will move the address, and that Mr. Ward, the City Member, will 
second it. Lord Palmerston is to lead the opposition in the Commons, and Lord 
Melbourne in the Lords. 

' It is said that the King has been very averse to the nomination of the Prince 
of Saxe Coburg to the throne, or whatever else it may be called of Greece, but 
that he has at last yielded. The Duke of Cumberland is much with the King. 
It is thought there will be a division on the first day of the session of the House 
of Commons, but these are all reports, and they are given you by a person who 
is not in the secret of any party. I have seen Lord Rosslyn and Sir J. Scarlett, 
and delivered your "Souvenir" to them. My kind remembrance to the Count 
and Countess, and to your sister. Very truly yours.' 

* Douglas James William Kinnaird, 1788-1830, fifth son of the 7th Baron Kinnaird. After 
being educated at Eton and Gottingen he travelled with Hobhouse, and went to Venice to visit 
Byron. He afterwards became the head of Ransome's Bank, and entered I arliament. Byron 
calls him 'my trusty and trustworthy trustee and banker, and crown and sheet-anchor.' He 
died six weeks after the date of the above letter. 

t John Russell III., 6th Duke of Bedford, 1766-1839, brother of the 5th Duke, whom he 
succeeded in 1802. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1806, and was made a K.G. in 1830. 

X William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam, 1748-1835, succeeded his father in 
the title in 1756, was Lord President of the Council in 1794, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1794, 
and Lord President of the Council again in 1806. 

§ Henry Vane, Earl of Darlington, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, 1788-1864, succeeded his father 
as 2nd Duke in 1842. A Colonel in the army; M.P. for Durham countyfrom 1812 to 1816; for 
Tregony from 1818 to 1826 ; for Totnes from 1826 to 1830; and for South Shropshire in 18321; 
183s, 1837, and 1841-2. 



52 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

2. A. L. S. Dated Margate, November 6th, 1831. i page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I have just received your note of yesterday, and 
have very great pleasure in accepting your kind invitation for Friday next. 

' I am here for a day or two for the sea air and baths, from which I always 
imagine I derive benefit, even for so short a time. Ever truly yours.' 

FONBLANQUE (Albany). The well-known Journalist. (i793-i872-) 

1. A. L. S. Dated February 2Sth, 1835. 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I am equally surprised and annoyed at the 
neglect you mention as to the paper of Lord A. Connyngham. 

' The fault I find does not rest with my office, and I have given directions to 
correct it ; but should there be any irregularity in future, it will be a favour to me 
to apprise me of it. 

' As soon as I have leisure to do anything agreeable I shall find my way to 
Seamore Place ; and meanwhile accept my most cordial thanks for your kind 
interest on the behalf of the Examiner. Believe me, y" faithfully.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated March 31st, 1836. 4 pages 12 mo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have had a feverish cold, with the complicated 
torments of tooth, or rather teeth-ache and headache, and the inconvenience of 
starvation. I am, however, getting better, in my miserable way of amendment. 

' Easthope will be much gratified that you are gratified, and I will write him 
conveying your acknowledgments, or I will bring him to Gore House some evening, 
or both. He is an honourable man, and a kind friend. 

' My wife desires me to return her warmest thanks for your kind offer, but this 
change in the weather makes it imprudent to go out. 

' Mrs. Bulwer has attacked her husband in Frazer's Magazine. This must 
surely make the case between them understood. The reason of the work must 
be, that the woman who could take such a step must have in her a fuiid of 
ungovernable malice, accounting for all antecedents. She has very plainly written 
herself down. 

' My first visit when I can open my mouth without fear and trembling will be 
to Gore House. Beheve me, yours faithfully.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated 'Thursday ' (October 13th, 1836). 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Your Elderly Gentleman has inordinately 
delighted me. I have just written an article on it for the next Examiner* and 
have drawn pretty freely on your good things, but yet wish that I had spare space 
for more of them. I think it must be very popular. Yours faithfully.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated ' Friday ' (October 26th, 1836). i page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have been confined to my bed for some days 
past by a severe attack of fever, and, though now recovering, can hardly hope to 
Ije well enough to avail myself of your invitation for Sunday. This is a cruel 
addition to the annoyance of illness, for your parties are indeed temptations strong. 
Ever yours faithfully.' 

5. A. L. S. (imperfect). Dated 4 Rue d'Alger, October 31st, 1839. 
4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Though I am almost blind, I must write to say how 
much I admire Count D'Orsa/s letter on the Brougham affair. It seems to me 
that nothing could be happier in tone and modest dignity. Here it was the 
subject of universal praise. 

' The falsehood that Count D'Orsay had anything to do with the hoax was 
sufficiently refuted by all who knew him, by the two circumstances that it was 

* The article, which wa.s long and laudatory, appeared in the Examiner of Sunday, 
October i6th, 1836. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 53 

stupid and cruel ; and the unique characteristic of D'Orsay is, that the most 
brilliant wit is uniformly exercised in the most good-natured way. He can be 
wittier with kindness than the rest of the world with malice. 

' Lady Canterbury gave me a most friendly recognition, and we dined with 
them, and found the family very agreeable. If 1 had been a Tory, Lord 
Canterbury could not have been more attentive ; my recommendation being the 
stronger one, of which I am not a little proud, of being numbered among your 
friends. You will be glad to hear that Bulwer is doing extremely well here, and 
making himself, as he must be everywhere by his amiable qualities, very popular. 
My dear Lady Blessington,' ever faithfully yours.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated 48 Connaught Square, December 24th, 1839. \\ 
pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Neither Bentham nor I had forgotten your 
kind invitation for Christmas Day, but we are both unable to avail ourselves of 
it, both having been confined to the house for the last ten days by severe colds, 
but for which I should have called at Gore House. 

_' I have just penned this note at the last moment, because it is really as great 
a disappointment to me as to my boy. 

' Ever my dear Lady Blessington, faithfully yours.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated 'Tuesday ' (February 4th, 1840). i page i2mo., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am so unwell with a bad cold that I must refuse 
myself the pleasure of dining with you to-day, and starve in solitary confinement. 
Ever yours most faithfully.' 

8. A. L. S. Dated 48 Connaught Square, February 9th, 1840. 3 pages 
izmo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Many thanks for the present of the velvet, which 
is of a beauty I have never yet attained to in waistcoats, and will constitute a 
new era in my costume. I shall be tempted to play " Whiskerandos " (without 
whiskers) and, throwing open the disguise of my rusty black coat and discovering 
my fine waistcoat, ask "Am I beefeater now?" 

' You will be glad to hear that I have better accounts from Paris. 

' I will take my chance of finding you at home to-morrow morning or evening. 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, faithfully yours.' 

9. A. L. S. Dated March loth, 1842. 2\ pages 8vo., with Superscription. 
' Dear Lady Blessington, — I found that nothing could be made of the subject 

you pointed out to me, for the next night Lord A. cut away the ground by admitting 
that the context of what he said was such as really to bear out St. A.'s construction, 
so that though he blundered about the word he was not far from the import. Lord 
A, of course, could not have meant what he said, but he must have a most 
unhappy mode of expressing himself. Yours faithfully.' 

10. A. L. S. Dated Connaught Square, 'Wednesday Evening' (October, 

28th, 1842). i| pages 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I very much regret that I am engaged for 
Saturday next. I have been daily proposing a visit to Gore House, but wind & 
weather or some other annoyance has been against me. Faithfully yours.' 

FONBLANQUE (John). Brother of the preceding, a Legal Writer, 
and a Commissioner in Bankruptcy. (1787-1865.) 

A. L. S. Dated 'Tuesday Evening' (February 9th, 1836). 4 pages 8vo. 
'My dear Lady Blessington, — It grieves me that you should have thought it 



54 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

necessary to enclose a document in proof of what I have so much reason to feel 
assured of — your kind disposition towards me, a persecuted man. 

' I forget whether I mentioned the manner in which my brother had the 
assurance of something being done for me at once. H. Bulwer* met him in the 
House of Commons on Thursday, & congratulated him on my prospects, which 
he said he had just learnt to be favourable from Mr. Edward Stanley.t Now, as 
Mr. E. Stanley told me most distinctly that both Lord Melbourne & Lord 
Palmerston refused to do anything for me, and I quitted him with an intimation 
that 1 should appeal to Parliament, it is not easy to account for the change of 
councils. Let me therefore once more ask your Ladyship to bring this matter to 
such an Maircissement that my future course may be simple & straightforward. 
You kindly introduced me to Mr. E. S , and there would consequently be nothing 
hors des rigles in writing to ask him whether anything is, to his knowledge, in 
contemplation foi me ; the more especially as it might have been my name and 
NOT myself that he mentioned to B''. 

' This, dear Lady Blessington, will bring the matter to a final issue, and I 
trust to your usual promptitude when anything kind & good is to be done. My 
suspicion has long been that there is an evil influence at work, which has misled 
my brother. Your obliged & very faithful serv'.' 

FULLER (John). An Eccentric Humourist. 

1. A. L. Dated Devonshire Place, January 6th, 1832. i page 4to. 

' Mr. Fuller presents his compliments to Lady Blessington. He dines at half 
after five, & never dines out, otherwise he would have had great pleasure in 
meeting his old friend Mr. Jekyill, who in a long life has been the source of so 
much pleasure and amusement to the present age.' 

2. A. L S. Dated Devonshire Place, February 19th, 1832. i page4to., 

with Superscription. 

' D'^ Madam,— Inclosed is Mr. Hatchet's kind letter to me, who is one of the 
Vice-Presidents of the Parochial Schools at Chelsea. Perhaps it would be for the 
best to let him choose that school which is the easiest to be had, and for which 
he will lay himself under the least obligation. I remain, sincerely yours.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated Rosehill, Robertsbridge, Sussex, February 24th, 1832. 

2 pages 4to. 

' Dear Madam, — I send you a brace of pheasants, in order to have an oppor- 
tunity of enquiring after your's & your sister's health, & at the same time to 
assure you how much the public feel indebted to you for your continued literary 
labours in London during one of the finest summers ever known, for the purpose 
of their edification and instruction, & I have the honour to remain, with my 
kindest compliments to your sister, dear Madam, ever sincerely yrs.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated Devonshire Place, May 26th, 1833. 2 pages 4to., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Madam, — I shall have a little music here this evening, and if you and 
Count D'Orsay will look in between nine o'clock and ten, I shall be very happy to 
see you. 

' The Smiths, who will be here, distinguished themselves much at a concert the 

* Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, Baron Bailing and Bulwer, 1804-1872, a distinguished diplo- 
matist ; sent as Minister to Madrid in 1843, to Washington in 1849, and to Florence in 1852. 
He was also Ambassador to Turkey from 1858 to 1865. He was raised to the peerage in 1871. 

t Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley, 1802-1869, eldest son of the 1st Baron, whom 
he succeeded in 1850, having been previously (in 1848) created Baron Eddisbury. At the date 
of the letter he was one of the Secretaries to the Treasury ; was President of the Board of Trade 
from 1855 to 1858, and Postmaster-General from i860 to 1866. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 55 

other evening, at which Pasta* and Farrelli sang, and I know you to be an 
encourager of rising genius and merit. They are nieces to Miss Stephens.! 
D' Madam, sincerely yours.' 

5. A. L. S. Dated Rosehill, Robertsbridge, Sussex, July 2Sth, 1833. 
2 pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' D"^ Madam, — I send you by the Hastings coach the fore-quarter of the finest 
buck I have killed this year. No viands can possibly contribute to your own 
personal and mental charms, but this may be of service in increasing the 
conviviality of your friends, which will always give great pleasure to, dr. Madam, 
your very sincere & humble servant.' 

6. A. L. S. No date. 2 J pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' D"^ Madam, — I called this morning to thank you for the present of your 
portrait, and to say that if you are not going; into the country and can look in for 
a moment only on Sunday evening, it will be doing a great service to my 
Juvenal band — Miss Stephen's nephew and nieces, by giving them the sanction 
of your support and possible recommendation. If the person publishing the 
GemsX is a proUgie of yours, and requires protection, I will subscribe to them 
with much pleasure, but in any other case I have determined to purchase no 
other work till it is actually finished, I have so many scraps of work laying about 
me. Excuse the trouble I am giving you, and believe me ever sincerely yrs. 

' P-S. — Your old and staunch friend Sir F. Freeling dines with me on Sunday.' 

GALT (John). A well-known Man of Letters. (1779-1839.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated King's Arms, Liverpool, July 27th, 1822. 5 j pages 
4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Madam, — On Monday evening I was so distinctly impressed with 
the repugnance which your Ladyship feels at the idea of going to Ireland, that I 
entered entirely into your feelings ; but upon reflection, I cannot recall all the 
reasonableness of the argument — a circumstance so unusual with respect to your 
Ladyship's reasons in general, that I am led to think that some other cause at the 
moment must have tended to molest you, and to lend the energy of its effect to 
the expressions of your reluctance. For I have often remarked that the gnat's 
bite, or a momentary accident, will sometimes change the whole complexion of the 
mind for a time. But even though nothing of the sort had happened, the scores and 
hundreds, amounting to thousands of the poor Irish in quest of employment whom 
I have met on the road and seen landing here, and the jealousy with which they 
are viewed by the common people, and the parochial burdens which they may 
occasion in the contemplation of the best of the community, many of whom are 
loud in their reflections on the Irish absentees, all combine to form such a strong 
case for my Lord's journey, that nothing but the apprehension of your Ladyship's 
indisposition can be pled against it. The journey, however, to be really useful, 
should be one of observation only, and I am sure you will easily persuade him to 
make it so, and to be resolved not to listen to any complaint with a view to 
decision in Ireland, or to embark in any new undertaking. If he once allow him- 
self to be appealed to on the spot, he must of necessity become aflfected by local 
circumstances and individual impartialities by which, instead of doing general 
good (all a personage of his rank can do), he will become the mere administrator 
of petty relief, which in their effect may prove detrimental to higher objects ; and 

* Giuditta Pasta, 1798-1865, the great Italian singer, who was trained at the Conservatorio 
at Milan, first appeared in England in 1816, and practically left the stage about 1839, though 
she sang at St. Petersburg in 1840, and in London in 1850. 

+ Catherine Stephens, 1794-1882, one of the most charming singers of her day, possessing a 
pure soprano voice, rich, full, powerful, and of extensive compass. In 1838 she married the Earl 
of Essex, and became his widow in 1839. 

X Gems of Beauty, with fanciful illustrations in verse by the Countess of Blessington, a 
publication which only enjoyed a short existence of four years, from 1836 to 1840. 



56 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

were he to engage in new undertakings — to say nothing of pecuniary considerations 
— his thoughts would become occupied with projects which, of every kind of favour- 
itism, is the most fatal to the utility of a public character, such as my Lord seems 
now fairly set in to become. In speaking thus, I address you more as an intellect 
than a lady, and the interest I take in all that concerns my friends must be 
accepted as the only excuse I can offer for the freedom. 

' Since my arrival the object of my journey has occupied much of my time. I 
find many of the merchants disposed to renew the appointment, from the experi- 
ences they have had of its advantages, and also to allow the agent to be free with 
respect to other business, which is not the case at present. In this way it would 
be a most desirable appendage to my other concerns, but as an exclusive office it 
would not be of sufficient consequence. My reception has been exceedingly 
flattering, and not the least influential of my friends is that excellent bodie. Sir 
Andrew Wylie;* but the election is a more operose affair than I had imagined. 
The merchants consist of five different chambers, constituted by their respective 
branches of trade. Each chamber by a majority chooses a delegate, and the 
delegates choose the agent ; and as he is required to be agreeable to the member, 
the election will not take place till the successor to Mr. Canningt is returned. At 
present, the puMic opinion looks towards Mr. Huskisson,t and his favour towards 
me could be decisive, in the event of returning him. Should Mr. H. not stand 
Mr. Robinson is spoken of ; but Mr. Gladstone,§ the merchant, is understood to 
have some intention of offering himself, in which case, from what I know of his 
sentiments, the office would not suit me. 

' I really know not what apology to make to your Ladyship for all this im- 
pertinence ; but somehow, since I have had the honour and pleasure of knowing 
you and my Lord so freely, I feel as if we were old friends ; indeed, how can it be 
otherwise, for no other human beings, unconnected by the common ties, have 
ever taken half so much interest in at once adding to my enjoyments and con- 
sideration. I am sensible not only of having acquired a vast accession of what 
the world calls advantages, but also friends who seem to understand me, and that 
too at a period when I regarded myself as in some degree quite alone, for all my 
early intimates were dead. Your Ladyship must therefore submit to endure a 
great deal more than perhaps I ought to say on so short an acquaintance ; but 
as minds never grow old, and frankness makes up at once the intimacy of years, 
I find myself warranted to say that I am almost an ancient, as I am ever your 
Ladyship's faithful and sincere friend,' &c. 

' I left the book with one of the servants in the hall, that your Ladyship might 
at leisure fill up the blanks. 

' My address may either be " Greenock " or " M^Greger's Hotel, Edinburgh." ' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 32 Tavistock Place, December 17th, 1822. 3 pages 4to. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Mrs. Gait, during my absence in Scotland, 
having gone to the seaside with her father, your Ladyship's estimable letter with 
my Lord's lay neglected here till her return, when expecting me daily back she 
did not think of sending them forward to Edinburgh. I have thus been appar- 
ently guilty of a degree of inattention which would not be pardonable in any 
ordinary acquaintaince. But I should only offend your Ladyship were I to say 
more, or were I indeed to offer any particular expression of obligation for the 
effects which I have already experienced of your Ladyship's friendship. I only 

* Sir Andrew Wylie of that Ilk, a novel by Mr. Gait, published shortly before the date of 
the letter. 

t George Canning, 1770-1827, the celebrated statesman and orator, Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs in 1807, and again in 1822; M.P. for Liverpool. 

X William Huskisson, 1770-1830, a statesman who filled many high official posts in several 
ministries. He was killed at the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. 

§ Sir John Gladstone, 1746-1851, a well-known Liverpool merchant, father of Mr. W. E. 
Gladstone. He first entered Parliament in 1818 as Member for Lancaster, was elected for 
Woodstock in 1820, and for Berwick in 1826. He was created a Baronet in 1846. At the 
time Mr. Gait writes Canning was M.P. for Liverpool, but a bye-election was expected on 
Canning taking office, and took place in 1823, when Mr. Huskisson was elected. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 57 

got back to London Monday week, and I was then so indisposed with 
cold that, except necessary visits to the Colonial Office and the Treasury, I have 
not since been out of doors. At the former I found that the powerful influence of 
the Speaker had been at work, and Wilmot requested me to state in writing what 
object connected with Canada would suit, which I have done, namely— the repre- 
sentative agency for the provinces. I after called at the Speaker's to thank him 
for so distinguished a recommendation, but he was then in the country. Since 
that time I have been confined to my room. I am now, however, better and 
hope to be soon well enough to repeat the call. 

' ^Y Lairds of Grippy was published last week, and my friends flatter me with 
the opinion of its being the most impressive and various of my works. 

' I anticipate, from the pleasure you have enjoyed in your tour, an amusing 
little volume, but no result of it will give me so much delight as to think it has 
contributed to restore your health, and therefore, although no one looks forward 
to the era of your Ladyship's return with more solicitude than I do, yet when I 
consider this most foggy air, I almost wish it may be deferred till late in the 
spring ; the roses and Lady B. should come together. 

'As I intend to write my Lord to-day, your Ladyship will excuse this short 
note. I shall now be a regular correspondent. 

' Mrs. Gait desires me to offer your Ladyship her best respects. She has 
really a multitude of cares at present ; her father dangerously [ill], her cara sfosa 
scarcely much better and her little Solomon ill of the hooping cough, by which 
her other darlings are interdicted from home during the holidays. I beg your 
Ladyship will present my compliments to Miss Power, and to believe me to be, 
with the most respectful esteem, your faithful friend and servant,' &c. 

3. L. S. Dated February 4th, 1833. i page 410. 

' My dear Madam, — I have set out three times purposely to call on your Lady- 
ship, but the state of the weather had such an effect on me that I was obliged to 
forgo the pleasure. For some days I will be occupied in the city. 

' I wish very much to hear if the agreement with Heath* is completed, because 
I will do my best to help it into execution ; I have several papers ready and, if they 
will not do, I shall try my hand at others ; my Scotch Stories have been preferred, 
and your Ladyship has a claim to my best. 

' Yesterday the Examiner quoted from the Conversations Byron's notice of me, 
I have a great mind to give my epigram on him written in 1809, although it has 
been many years ago published. I remain, my dear Madam, most respectfully 
yours,' &c. 

4. L. S. Dated ' Barn Cottage, Tuesday.' i page 4to. 

' My dear Madam, — I was gTiilty yesterday of a very stupid thing, but could 
not help it. My intention in the visit was to speak of Heath's book, but it 
entirely escaped my recollection, and this circumstance more than the occasional 
lapses in my memory is, I fear, to be ascribed to my disease. 

' What I desire to know is when your Ladyship wishes to go to press, that I 
may look out my manuscripts from which the selection is to be made. 

' I think the idea of the artist is exceedingly good. If your Ladyship does not 
make use of it yourself, I will certainly try an autobiography of it for the Beau 
Ideal. I remain, my dear Madam, your most obedient servant,' &c. 

5. A. L. S. Dated ' 1 2 Cecil S*, Strand, Saturday.' 2 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — The first day I have been able to sit up cannot be 
better devoted than in writing to you. My complaint affords but little hope of 
amendment, and I believe medicine more than health is the cause of my present 
relief 

' The illness of my amanuensis must excuse my apparent inattention in not 
inquiring for your health, and inability to move by the effects of a surgical operation 
my employment of a stranger pen. 

* Charles Heath, 1785-1848, an engraver and etcher ; in his later life principally engaged in 
the production of the Book of Beauty, Keepsake, &c. 



58 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' In my aphorism about confidence I merely meant to take another way of say- 
ing that kindness was ingenious. I considered your Ladyship was at the bottom 
of what I do not scruple to acknowledge a well-timed favour merely as to time 
alone, for I could not but feel a new attack as an incident for which I was not 
prepared. I thought not of the political matter, but only thought of your kindness, 
and endeavoured to imagine how it had been brought about, and do not wish to 
think otherwise than that I owe to you a great favour. Very long experience has 
now convinced me of the correctness of early impressions of Mr. EUice's 
character, but in every action there must be a moving cause. 

' There is a particular pleasure in having the name of Sir James Scarlet, for 
all those I have, with the exception of your Ladyship's friends and the Duke, are 
of my old acquaintance or got by them, many of whom I have not personally 
seen for a long course of years, and I think he comes near to be reckoned 
among the number, especially if he be, as I think, connected with the Gordons 
of Earlston, but thereby " hangs a tale " which till I am able to repeat must be 
suspended. 

' I have not seen or heard of Lockhart this week. I had a note from him on 
Sunday. But I must conclude abruptly, for the swimming in my head has 
returned. Believe me,' &c. 

6. A. L. S. Dated ' Atheneum, Monday.' i^ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington. — I am so much engaged just now during the day, 
and so lame, that it is seldom in my power to have the gratification of calling on 
your Ladyship. 

' Last night I thought it probable the Guicioli would be at your house, but 
when the time came at which I proposed to go I was utterly unable, and I am 
compelled in consequence to solicit, as a very great favour, that when she is 
likely to be with your Ladyship any evening in the course of the week you would 
permit me to call. 

' I requested Frazer to send a copy of a little work on the spirit of the times 
— the Radical, which I hope will give you some amusement. I remain,' &c. 

7. A. L. S. Dated Edinburgh, July 28th, 1834. i page 4to., with 
Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Frequently since I left London have I 
intended to have had this pleasure, but although much better of the voyage, I have 
been obliged to submit to the dreadful operation of the burning moxa, by which 
the power of commanding myself has been in the meantime greatly impaired. 
But, while the total uselessness of my limbs continues, my health is greatly im- 
proved and I hope to resume my journey to Greenock this week ; my chief object 
is to inquire how your literary undertakings come on and to beg your Ladyship 
to write me to Greenock. 

' The political changes have less excited me than they would have done at any 
other time, but I am glad they are so slight. Being, however, confined to my 
chair, I know very little, and can only express my inability to comprehend the cause 
of the rupture. One thing, however, gives me great pleasure — the increase of 
importance to Mr. Ellice, for his talents are now in a situation in which I think 
it will be advantageous to the public they should be. 

' Pardon this brief letter, for I write with pain and difficulty, and believe me 
always to be, my dear Madam, your Ladyship's sincere & respectful,' &c. 

8. A. L. S. Dated Maybank, Gourock, by Greenock, August 23rd, 1834. 

\\ pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Since I had this pleasure with the Legend of 
the Flowers, I have come from Edinburgh without experiencing much benefit from 
the change. A httle excitement there made me hope I was slowly growing better, 
but since my arrival at Greenock, a kind of comatose state puts me too often to 
bed, and I have in consequence been induced to come to the seaside for a short 
time. My address is still however Greenock. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 59 

' My work is nearly ready and I expect it will be published in a few days. In 
the meantime I have sent to Fraser a hst of the names your Ladyship procured, 
requesting him to attend to the copies. I did not, however, send your own, 
because there are two or three copies for particular friends that the publisher, 
Mr. Cadell, will take charge of, and I trust you will not be offended that I should 
have included your Ladyship in the number. My proceedings suffer by the illness 
of Blackwood, in the two months I was in Edinburgh we could not meet. 

'I wrote the other day to the editor of the White Rose, but have not yet 
received his answer ; indeed I would not have had this pleasure before it came, 
only I am such a valetudinarian that I must write when I can sit up. But my 
silence proceeds not from negligence to my friends, for I do think the more of 
them in proportion to my inability to evince the constancy of my remembrance. 
Therefore, though I may now be but a poor correspondent, be assured that few 
can be happier to hear of your welfare, or take a more earnest part in everything 
that concerns your ease of mind and prosperity ; so when you please to write let 
me know all by which you may be affected. I say so lest you imagine it is only 
in your literary schemes that I am interested. But my swimming head obliges 
me to conclude abruptly, and I can only say how perfectly I remain, my dear 
Lady Blessington, your ever sincere friend,' &c. 

9. A. L. S. Dated Greenock, October 12th, 1834. \\ pages 4to., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Madam, — Last night I received a letter from London, which induces 
me to request your Ladyship to pay no attention to what I said respecting my late 
publisher. I am very unfortunate just now, for where I wish to serve I am always 
disappointed. It has been so with the White Rose. I know Mr. Hogarth* but 
slightly, and our mutual acquaintances were highly respectable, but he has fallen 
short of his word. Latterly I resolved to sink my own verses, and asked him for 
a remittance for the others, but he has not noticed my letter. But in what your 
Ladyship says I am gratified to decern that tact for which I ever gave you credit 
for singularly possessing in a very great degree. If the world's goods can be 
only won by such arts as many literary men practice, there is reason to hug my 
poverty. 

' I heard lately from Mr. Ellice, and I am truly concerned that he is no better, 
for myself I am thought by some mending, but I daily grow more rigid ; my right 
hand, however, improves, but my general health begins to decay. 

' When your Ladyship has had time to look at my book I shall be glad of your 
opinion, for there are few that I would ask — still fewer that I would most implicitly 
attend to, and the work is upon the whole a sort of sample of what I endeavoured 
to be. Believe me to be, my dear Lady Blessington, your sincere & obliged,' &c. 

10. A. L. S. Dated Greenock, February loth, 1835. 2| pages 410 , with 
Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Madam, — On the evening I last had this pleasure I was taken un- 
well, and have continued ever since very poorly in general health. I then 
expected in the course of two days an answer from Mr. Russell Ellice, but he did 
not write, a circumstance which, though it does not make the matter a whit better 
for his brotherly love, I am now glad of, because I could not have attended farther 
to the business. I most sincerely rejoice, however, that his brother has again been 
returned for Coventry. 

' I would probably not have have had this pleasure so soon,for there is a strange 
lethargy upon me that renders me averse to almost everything ; but I have just 
seen an extract in the papers from your Ladyship's new novel,t a description of the 

* George Hogarth, 1783-1870, a musical critic, born in Edinburgh, who in 1831 came to 
London, and was engaged on the Morning Chronicle. On the establishment of the Daily News 
in 1846 he was appointed musical critic, and was also for many years the musical critic to the 
Illustrated London News. In 1850 he became the Secretary to the Philharmonic Society. The 
work Gait refers to was The White Rose of Yo^/i, a midsummer annual, published in 1S34. One 
of Mr. Hogarth's daughters married Charles Dickens. 

+ The Two Friends, then just published. 



6o THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

French ladies, and which in my opinion is very masterly, displaying much of that 
kind of acumen for which I ever thought you distinguished. It struck me so forcibly 
for its dramatic feeling that I resolved to enquire if your Ladyship had ever 
thought of writing for the stage. 

' I also see extracts from a work about Shakespeare from Mr. Landor.* It seems 
a very ingenious production. It has the more interested me as I once projected a 
work on the same subject. 

' I have now somelocal news. Several younggentlemen herehad projected alittle 
periodical and, having called on me to become a subscriber, I wormed myself into 
their confidence. I mean to make them send your Ladyship through their 
publisher a copy, and I beg you will allow me to give your name as from yourself 
as a subscriber. The cost is to be little, which I will attend to, but the pleasure 
to the party will be very great. 

' I am glad the Legend of the Flowers was kept back, it would not at all 
harmonise with the other contents of the book ; but I will send you something for 
the next number which may perhaps suit. I cannot conclude without expressing 
my surprise at your Ladyship's industry, it, in fact, alarms me and in my morbid 
sleep really haunts my dreams afflictingly. Often do I entreat for your friendsnot 
to be so constant in your inoil. But I must conclude, for my unsteady head gives 
warning, and I can only assure you, my dear Lady Blessington, of my sincere 
regard for your Ladyship's happiness and welfare.' 

n. A. L. S. Dated Greenock, August 15th, 1835. 2 pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,— I send your Ladyship a little elegiac poem 
which may possibly suit the Book of Beauty. I would have sent it sooner, but 
many things which add to the romance of my life have of late required attention. 
The denouement has not yet come, but they would " adorn a tale ; " nor have I 
of late made any progress towards recovery, chiefly, I think, ov/ing to the want of 
agreeable topics of reflection, But I must be very brief. 

' Your Ladyship's last letter gave me sincere pleasure, because I like to hear 
of whatever is pleasant to my friends, and it contained intelligence of that kind. 
I hope the Countess St. Marsault is quite well. I need not say that I return my 
best thanks for her remembrances and Count D'Orsay's also. 

' In the midst of many troubles long foreseen, I have pleasure in mentioning, 
because I am sure you will sympathise with me, that though the Governor 
and Council have given my sons a considerable grant of land in Upper Canada, 
the effect of my plans being now no longer equivocal in the rapid improvement of 
the province, the boys do not mention by whom they were set on to make the 
formal application, but they crow over me for predicting disappointment. It is 
indeed almost the only thing I never did e.Kpect to see realized. You must, how- 
ever, excuse this short note, and believe me, my dear Madam, most sincerely your 
true friend,' &c. 

12. A. L. S. Dated Greenock, December 4th, 1838. 2 pages 4to., with 
Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — A number of little incidents have occurred within 
these few days to cause me to remember your Ladyship as it were with revived 
recollections. A London correspondent mentioned you in a way that was exceed- 
ingly gratifying. I got your Confessions of an Elderly Gentleman to read, in the 
perusal of which I enjoyedverygreatpleasure. Itunquestionablydoesyou very great 
credit indeed, and a Mr. Kendal whom I met in Canada called on me and, among 
other agreeable topics, mentioned his knowledge of your Ladyship's brother, 
Major Power, and his family in New Brunswick. It is an old remark of some of 
the Germans, that when one thinks much of absent friends, they are then thinking 
of you. I hope this has been the case, and that I am still remembered as one 
that you believe interested in all that concerns your happiness, notwithstanding 

* Walter Savage Landor, 1775-1864, the well-known man of letters and poet, the friend of 
Southey, and the enemy of Byron. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 6i 

my long silence. The fact is that since I had last this pleasure, I have been in a 
kind of stupor, keeping the eyes of my memory shut, as if I could thereby forget 
many things which I desire to remember. Indeed, soon after I wrote last I fell 
into a haze and wished, if possible, to forget the remembrance of times past, and 
continued in this stupor till very lately ; no doubt health has something to do with the 
infirmity and I have, I fear, only wakened for an instant, for health is now quite 
precarious, and I am greatly now worse than I ever was. I can neither now rise 
nor stand without aid, and cannot walk with any whatever, and my whole mind is 
in as powerless a state as my limbs. Having been only twice lifted into a carriage 
during the last 15 months, I am utterly ignorant of the world, for I see only the 
local paper, and hear only of remarkable news ; but occasionally my visitors tell 
me of what is new in public, and frequently give me cause to be not a little proud 
in thinking I passed so long ago so correct an estimate of your Ladyship's 
powers. But the vagueness of this expression is a proof of how much I would 
delight in hearing now and then from yourself as to your literary proceedings. 

' For some time after I came into this sequestration, I thought myself growing 
better, and endeavoured to renew my usual activity, but it was not strength but a 
spasm I felt, and I am become as literally an invalid as a doctor could ever desire 
for 2i patient, and to add to my annoyances is the anguish I suffer in the attempt 
to obey the prompting of my anxieties to return the good wishes of my friends. 
My nerves are quite impaired, and my memory may not be trusted now in what 
I think best likely to be ever forgotten. Do not therefore imagine that this short 
note is because I have little to add, but consider its brevity as the result of my 
wish not to be more apparently imbecile than I am very sensible of being. 
Believing me to be ever, my dear Lady Blessington, your Ladyship's sincere & 
respectful,' &c. 

GAMBARDELLA (S.). A Painter, who exhibited at the Royal 
Academy between 1842 and 1852. 

A. L. S. to (?) Dated November ist, 1844. 4 pages 8vo. 

'My dear Friend, — How do you all do? It is so long since I heard anything 
about you and your family that I can resist no longer. 

' I have been very busy in many things since I wrote you last, perhaps you 
will laugh at me when I tell you that I intend to bring out some sculptor works. 
I have been working at great rate with clay and plaster, and with success. My 
gas lamps are finished, and I send you the first specimen of the effective shadows 
they give. 

' I have been in Manchester for four days to paint Lord Ashley's* portrait. He 
is a very pleasant man and a true philanthropist. 

' I still intend to return to London for good in February, though I have not let 
the house yet. 

' Please to let me know when the picture must be sent for the British Insti- 
tution. I am thinking of sending one or two pictures painted by gas light. 

' Have you been to Gore House since ? Will you have the kindness to send 
the canvass to Roberson, 51 Long Acre, and send him the measure of Thorneley's 
canvass, and tell him in my name to put it on stretchers and charge me for it. He 
will take care not to injure the paint. The reason I send it so is that I could not 
remember the size of the other. My best love to all. Ever your affectionate,' &c. 

GARROW (Theodosia), afterwards Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope. 
An Authoress, Musician, and Artist. (Died 1865.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated ' Braddons, Torquay, March 17th ' (1840). 4 pages 
8vo., with Superscription. 

'My dear Madam, — I wish I could express to you how deeply I feel your 

* Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801-1885, the celebrated philanthropist, 
succeeded his father as 7th Earl in 1851. He entered Parliament as M.P. for Woodstock in 1826, 
represented Dorchester and Dorset from 1830 to 1846, and Bath from 1847 to 1852. He was 
made a K.G. in 1862. 



62 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

great kindness in offering to assist me in what must be (to me) a very fearful 
undertaking. Till within the last four months, I never dreamed of the possibility 
of publishing my verses, and if I venture to do so now (without one shadow of 
false humility be it said), I do not for one moment expect the world to pay 
greater heed to my little volume of poems than to those of a hundred demoiselles, 
quite as deserving of praise as myself, who every year put forth their small 
venture of thoughts and feelings upon the stream of the world's favour, to be 
wished well to by a few, and then forgotten by most, except those nearest to 
them in life. 

' Thinking thus, I cannot pretend to much hope of fame ; but it were worse 
than ungrateful, could I resist the kind encouragements and solicitations of your 
Ladyship and Mr. Landor.' &c. 

2. A. L. S. Dated 'November 17th ' (1840). 

' I have just finished reading the inimitable " Old Irish Gentlemen,'' and sure 
I am, that no hands can sketch so gracefully and with such fervid truth as yours, 
the thousand-shaded poetry of Irish hfe and character. 

' I also admire greatly Miss Power's American scene, so simple, yet so 
picture-like and true to nature. Indeed both Annuals are very rich this year in 
literary as well as pictorial beauty. I could wish our friend Mr. Landor had given 
some " Conversations," one scene in which one might see rnore of him. Am I 
wrong in thinking that, in such miniature poems, the features of his great genius 
are by no means shewn to advantage ? ' &c. 

3. A. L. S. Dated December 26th, 1842. 4 pages i2mo. 

'My dear Madam, — Why will you leave me without one word of thanks to 
offer in return for your kind and most beautiful gifts ? Indeed, indeed, I will 
not pass under false pretences, you rate my poor verses far, very far beyond their 
desert, and I in my turn have good cause to wish they were worthy one half the 
kind praise you bestow on them. Will you believe, my dear Madam, that I feel most 
grateful for the charming presents and flattering assurance of regard they embody 
— each has its own peculiar grace, and in good truth I know not which to admire 
most — it were idle, worse than idle, to wish you (in good old-fashioned phrase) a 
merry Christmas, when so much of pain and anxiety is around you, and those you 
love best, but yet I may express and earnest wish that the dark season may open 
brighter as it goes on, that less of sorrow may be hidden in its depths than you as 
yet suppose, and that the New Year may dawn on you with gladder auspices than 
you now venture to hope for. Poor Mrs. Fairlie ! Miss Power's charming letters 
have made me feel that interest which every woman's heart must feel in thedeclining 
health of one so dear to all around her, and her portrait in the Keepsake has 
helped me to image her to myself as vividly as if I knew her. Has she yet tried 
the influence of a Southern climate ? But I know it is a hard thing for a young 
mother to be parted for health's sake from the children, whom her fears keep 
whispering she may never see again. 

' My dear father begs me to offer you his best compliments, and thank you 
warmly and truly in his name for all your goodness to me. With my kindest 
regards to Miss Power. Believe me,' &c. 

GRAMMONT (Anne Quintina Albertine Ida d'Orsay, Duchess de) 
Count d'Orsay's sister. (1802-1882.) 

A. L. S. to Mr. Madden. Dated Paris, June 25th, 1854. 4 pages 8vo. 

'^'Z^'z'-f, 25 Juin, 1854.— Le triste ^tat de sante de Monsieur de Gramont m'a 
empeche de repondre plutot k la lettre que vous m'avez fait I'honneur de m'ecrire le 
26 Mai dernier, pour me prier de vous faire prevenir les lettres et papiers en ma 
possession qui pourraient servir k completer ce que vous avez I'intention de 
publier sur la vie de mon fr^re le Comte d'Orsay. Quand j'ai eu le plaisir de vous 
voir, il y a deux ans, k Chembrucey, la force de ma douleur et I'amertume de mes 
regrets etait tels que je saisissais avec ardeur tout ce qui me semblait pouvoir 
faire revivre mes souvenirs et rappeler au monde qu'il venait de quitter celui que 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 63 

j'aimais si tendrement et dont la perte m'a laissde inconsolable. Alors j'acceptai 
ayec reconnaissance, je dois le dire, la proposition que vous me fites d'dcrire la 
vie de mon bien-aime fr^re. Les circonstances vous ont fait remettre ce projet, et 
vous m'annoncez que votre intention est de placer les souvenirs de mon frfere dans 
le m^moire que vous allez publier sur la vie littdraire et la correspondence de 
Lady Blessington, la ddlicatesse des sentiments que vous m'exprimez dans votre 
lettre, Monsieur, et pour lesquels je ne saurai trop vous remercier, m'engagent 
k vous parler franchement et k coeur ouvert. Ce que je cheris dans la m^moire 
de mon excellent frfere, c'est bien plus les adorables qualit^s de son coeur que les 
brillantes facultds de son esprit et de sa nature privil^gi^e. L'dclat de ces derni^res 
appartenoit au monde plus qu'k sa famille, et vous comprendrez sa soeur quand 
elle vous dira qu'il y a certaines circonstances de cette existence publique qu'elle 
verrait avec peine livrdes k la publicite et, par consequent, k la discussion. 

' En intercalant la biographie de mon frfere dans les mdmoires litt^raires de 
Lady Blessington, il sera difficile d'dviter des associations d'id^es q^ui je vous 
I'avoue me seront bien p^nibles, car non-seulement je cheris la mdmoire de mon 
fr^re, mais j'ai le bonheur de pouvoir la respecter. Je vous parle avec confiance, 
Monsieur, et suis certaine que m'adressant k un homme d'honneur, il apprdciera 
mon language, dut-il ne pas partager mes idees. Ma vie est grave et serieuse, j'ai 
plus de douleur que de joies, peut-etre en resulte-t-il une disposition d'esprit qui 
fausse mon jugement, mais aujourd'hui mon vceu le plus sincere serait de voir 
cette tombe si cherie recevoir pour hommage le silence des vivants. Je n'achfe- 
verai pas, Monsieur, sans vous assurer que je conserve, neanmoins, une profonde 
reconnoissance pour les sen*' que vous exprimez et, en vous envoyant tous mes 
remerciments, j'y joins I'assurance de ma consideration distinguee,' &c. 

GUICCIOLI (Teresa Gamba, Countess), afterwards Marchioness de 
Boissy. Byron's Mistress.* (i 800-1 872.) 

1. A. L. S. (in French). No date (June 13th, 1832). 2J pages Svo., 
with Superscription. 

' Ma chfere Lady Blessington, — J'avais I'intention de venir moi-meme en 
personne ce matin pour avoir le plaisir de vous voir, et pour r^pondre k vive voix 
k votre aimable billet de ce matin. Mais le mauvais temps et le mal de tete qu'il 
me cause m'ont empeche de sortir de toute la journee. 

' II parait qu'il y a une mauvaise destinee pour moi qui s'oppose non-seulement 
k ce que mes desirs soyent accomplis, mais encor particuliferement k ce que je ne 
doive pas jouir du plaisir de faire une quelque agr^able excursion avec vous dans 
les environs de Londres. Je crains beaucoup de devoir renoncer pour Samedi 
aussi au plaisir de vous accompagner k Greenwich. Une de mes amies part de 
Londres pour la campagne dimanche ou lundi prochain, et, n'ayant avant samedi 
aucune soiree libre, je me suis engage avec elle depuis plusieurs jours k diner avec 
elle et k prolonger notre adieu de toute la soiree de samedi. Si je trouve le moyen 
de me ddsengager, je prdftrerais bien certainement de venir k Greenwich avec vous. 
J'en garde done encore I'espoir, et vendredi, au plus tard, je vous ecrirai, si j'ai 
obtenu ma liberte. Ce mauvais temps qui ne permet pas de prendre de I'exercice 
en plein air me rend triste et un peu malade aussi. J'esp^re que vous, du moins, 
vous vous portiez bien, ma ch^re Lady Blessington. Auriez-vous quelque livre 
amusant k me donner k lire ? par ex., un Voyage d'un Prince (allemand, je crois,) 
en Angleterre f qu'on me dit Xxhs spirituel et amusant ? Ou, si non, quelque 
romans. Je vous en serais reconnoissante. Adieu, ma ch^re L. B. Votre A.,' &c. 

2. A. L. S. No date (January 7th, 1833). i page 8vo., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

'One kiss more, and God bless you, my dear Lady Blessington. I shall 

* It is said that the Marquis in introducing his wife to any stranger, usually did it in these 
terms : ' Void Madame la Marquise de Boissy, ma femme ; ' then, lowering his voice to a stage- 
whisper, ' ci-devant maitresse de Lord Byron. 



64 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

always be very glad to hear from you: and I have some hope, too, that my 
absence from England will not be very long.* Yours ever,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. (in French). Dated Ravenna, July 4th, 1833. 3^ pages 4to., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

'Ma ch^re Lady Blessington, — II y avait si longtemps que je ddsirois de 
recevoir de vos nouvelles, que je ne pourrais pas vous exprimer toute la satisfaction 
que j'ai eprouvee h. la vue et k la lecture de votre aimable lettre, qui me fais tdmoi- 
gnage de votre bon souvenir et de la continuation de votre amitie pour moi. 
J'avoue, pourtant, que cette lettre m'aurait ete bien encore plus ch^re, si elle m'eut 
apport6 quelque detail sur vous, sur votre sante, et sur tout ce qui vous regarde. 
Auriez-vous voulu me punir, en gardant le silence sur toutes ces choses qui 
m'intdressent si sincferement, pour n'avoir pas 6i€ moi la premiere k vous dcrire? 
Mais, hdlas ! ma chfere Lady Blessington, si vous pouviez voir combien de fois 
j'ai pris la plume dans mes mains pour vous ecrire, et puis j'ai du la quitter, sans 
le faire, n'ayant pas le courage de venir troubler votre repos, en vous entretenant 
de mes nouveaux chagrins, de mes craintes, je suis bien certaine que votre 
bon coeur saurait me plaindre, au lieu de m'adresser des reproches. . 

' Mon voyage fut long mais heureux, puisque il ne nous arriva aucun autre 
accident bien desagreable en route que la perte de mon cher petit perroquet, qui, 
ayant un peu souffert dans le passage de la mer, n'eut pas la force de supporter la 
rigueur du climat de Calais, et y mourut la nuit-meme de mon arriv^, ce qui me 
causa beaucoup de chagrin, et je n'ai pas honte de vous avouer que j'ai pleur^ sa 
mort comme celle d'un gtre ch^ri. Car vous savez comme il ^tait aimable et 
beau, et comme je I'aimais. J'ai fait empailler son joli corps k Paris, et dans cette 
manifere il a dte encore mon compagnon de route jusqu'ici. J'aurais dd regarder 
sa mort comme un funeste prdsage, mais les lettres de ma famille dtant rassu- 
rantes, j'ai continue ma route sans craindre de plus graves malheurs, et je me suis 
meme arretde k Gfenes et k Florence ou j'ai passd les derniers jours du Carnaval. 

' Je me suis ensuite rendue k Ravenne, mais, en remettant le pied dans ma 
maison paternelle, oil je me promettais tant de joie en revoyant mes parens apr^s 
une si long absence; je les ai trouves dans la plus grande consternation. Ma 
plus petite sceur, une jeune fiUe de 13 ans, ^tait k ses derniers moments. Elle 
dtait tomb^e malade quelque mois auparavant dans le convent oil elle dtait en 
pension. On I'avoit soignee de toute manifere, on I'avoit fait transporter k 
Ravenne, esp^rant dans le changement de Fair. Mais tout a ete in[utile], elle 
est morte de consumption, aprfes une longue agonie, quelques jours aprfes mon 
arrivee. Elle etait une fille charmante, remplie de talens et doude d'une beaute 
non-commune. Elle etait celle de toutes mes soeurs vivantes que j'aimais le plus 
tendrement. Vous pouvez done vous imaginer, ma ch^re Lady Blessington, 
comme sa perte a dii m'affliger. Pour elle je ne devrais pas m'affliger pourtant, 
les dpreuves de la vie lui ont 6.\.€ epargnees. Mes autres sceurs seront toutes 
mariees dans le courant de I'annee. Le mariage de la premiere a eu lieue dans 
le commencement de mai. Aprfes la c^r^monie du mariage qui, ^tant heureux pour 
tons les rapports, nous avait tons rdjouis, elle est partie de Ravenne pour se rendre 
au lieu de residence de son dpoux. La fatigue du voyage, I'dmotion d'une cdr^- 
monie si importante, ont ^branle son ame et son corps au point qu'elle est tomb^e 
malade, et nous et son ^poux qui I'adorait nous avons du la voir pour deux mois 
enire la vie et la 7nort, k 18 ans. Ce n'est que depuis trois jours que les mddecins 
ont declare que sa vie est hors de danger. Mes autres soeurs se marieront dans 
le courant de I'ann^e. Mes parens voudraient que je fusse presente k tons ces 
mariages ; c'est k cause de cela particuliferement que je me trouve forcde k 
remettre k une ^poque plus eloign^e I'execution de mes plans chdris de visiter une 
fois encore I'Angleterre. Je me porte trfes bien et, entourde de I'affection de mes 
parents, je ne m'appergois pas des ennuis de ces s^jours. Je vous remercie bien 

* The letter is endorsed in Lady Blessington's handwriting, ' From Countess Guiccioli with 
a lock of her hair.' This lock of hair, which is of a beautiful shade of auburn, or rather gold, 
is tied with white silk to a piece of thin paper, and inscribed, ' T. Guiccioli, hair. To the 
G" of Blessington. Friendship's offering. ' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 65 

de la lettre que vous m'avez envoyd. Veuillez, je vous prie, me rappeler k Md™ 
votre soeur,* at au Comte d'Orsay, nidcrirc quclquefois, et me garder une place 
dans votre affection. Votre affectionee et sincere amie. 
'P.S. — Ecrivez-moi, et bientot. 

4. A. L. S. (in English). Dated 'Wednesday night.' 2% pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am just coming back from Harrow, where I 
have enjoyed many melancholy pleasures, and dined with Mr. Drury'st family, 
and spent all the day, from one o'clock in the morning till ten in the evening, 
amidst them. 

' Indeed, it has been a fatiguing, melancholy, but very interesting day for me. 

[' I send you the three tickets for M"°° Vigano's Concert with my best thanks. 
Good evening, my dear L^ Blessington, and believe me always yours very affec'^.' 

' If you could without taking any trouble for that induce one or two more of 
your friends to take a ticket for the same concert, you will be sure I shall be very 
grateful to you, but if you cannot easily don't take any pain about.'] 

5. A. L. S. (in English). No date, i page i2mo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Pray send me a word to say if you stay at home 
this evening, as I would come to pass an hour in your society; only send \a& yes 
or no by voice, to spare you the trouble of writing, and believe me always, my 
dear L. B., your affec. friend.' 

6. A. L. S. (in English). No date (June nth, 1834). 3 pages %yo., with 
Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — [Many thanks for your dear note and for the two 
letters inclosed. They bring me news of some friends of Italy and Paris, but none 
of my family. My dear Lady Blessington, indeed I feel I don't deserve to be 
scolded by you because I passed your door yesterday without calling upon you. 
Your good heart will entirely absolve me when you know that I was just then 
in my way, and in the greatest hurry, to see a friend of mine (a lady) who was 
indisposed ; I was also very tired and fatigued, having spent all the morning to 
receive and pay visits of compliments. However all that, I certainly would not 
have passed your door without entering had I hoped to find you at home, or 
not to disturb you in your occupations.] 

' Mr. Campbell cannot go to Richmond on Monday, so we will defer the party. 
He is always very amiable, very kind with me, and he is almost decided to be 
my cicerone in London. Good morning, my dear Lady Blessington, present my 
compliments to your sister, and believe me very sincerely your aff: P.' 

7. A. L. S. (in English). Dated January 5th, 1835. 4 pages 4to. 

'[It-was very unfortunate for me, my dear Lady Blessington, to have missed 
your visit yesterday. I was just gone out, and I think at such an hour for the 
first time since I saw you. I have been almost always unwell for the last week, 
and now that I am better I have not a moment of rest from my preparations for 
my journey, which must take place to-morrow night. If I can't see you before I 
go receive my best thanks for all your kindness, and my best wishes for your 
happiness.] My brother told me that the Count Avished me to send the little 

miniature of L ■ B ; that I can't do, having sent this miniature, together 

with some papers very valuable to me, to Paris a week ago, for a good opportunity. 
But if that was not the case, I would not have given him the miniature (and I am 
sure he will not be angry with me for that), unless you would have given the 
permission, as you wished me not to give it to any body to take a copy. 

'Pray present my compliments, and my adieus, to the Count for me ; preserve 
me a place in your remembrance and affection, and give me your commissions 

* Mary Anne Power, Lady Blessinglon's youngest sister. She married the Count de St. 
Marsault in 1832, but the disparity of years was too great, and they soon separated, the Count 
returning to France and the Countess to Ireland. 

t The family of the Rev. H. Drury, of Hariow, the tutor of Lord Byron. 

F 



66 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

for Italy, if you have any. Once more, God bless you, my dear Lady Blessington, 
and believe me, very sincerely your ob' and afK 

'[P.S.— My brother joins in my good wishes to you, but if he can spare a 
moment in this immense business we have he will come to take his leave m 
person.'] 

8. A. L. S. (in French). Dated 'Paris, February 19th, 1835 ' z\ P^ges 
4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Ma trcs chere Lady Blessington,— Je ne veux pas laisser partir le Marquis 
Pepoli, qui doit bientot avoir le bonheur de vous revoir, sans lui donner quelque 
lignes qui viennent me rappeller a votre souvenir. II y a bien longtemps, ma 
chcre Lady Blessington, que je ne I'ai pas fait, quoique je me sois revejllee trfes- 
souvent le matin delerminee a ne pas laisser passer la journee sans le faire, et que 
je me sois couchee le soir pleine de regrets, et presque de remords, pour ne I'ayoir 
pas fait. Je vous fais \ vous tres franchement I'aveu de mes torts, car vous etes 
un etre superieur, et sachant par consequence mieux que qui que ce soit expliquer 
et pardonner ces contradictions qui sont dans I'ordre d'etres imparfaits, ces combats 
entre les bons et les mauvais penchans, entre I'esprit, le cceur, et la matifere, qui 
produit, helas ! la detestable paresse. Mr. Chorley me fit savoir trop tard son 
depart pour que j'en pusse profiter pour vous dcrire; mais quoique cette circon- 
stance puisse alleger mes torts je suis loin, tout en implorant votre pardon, de 
pardonner k moi-meme d'avoir differe jusqu'k present \ vous dire combien votre 
lettre m'a fait de plaisir. Combien le Book of Beauty est plein de beaute, quel 
haut prix il a pour moi, me venant de vous, et combien de remerciments et 
compliments j'ai k vous presenter de la part de Mad""" Colet,* et de M. Leon 
Bruys d'Ouilly, qui ont ete enchante et flatte de votre souvenir. J'espfere que la 
grippe n'aura pas ose se presenter k votre porte, et que malgre sa rudesse elle 
aura senti que sa vilaine figure aurait €t€ hideuse aupres de vous, dans un sejour 
que je me represente tantot comme un lieux enchante, une feerie, tantot comme 
un te'.nple de Po^sie et de paix, mais que sous une forme ou une autre mon 
imagination m'y conduis souvent, car c'est vous qui Fabite.!, et que je vous aime 
bien sincferement. Que faites vous k present pour votre gloire et pour notre plaisir ? 
Ecrivez-moi deux mots bientot; mon adresse fixe est 35 rue Godot Mauroy, j'ai 
loud k I'annee un appartement, et je I'ai fait meubler, pour avoir un pied k terre 
k Paris, car il est trop desagreable de ne jamais planter sa tente, malgre qu'on ne 
renonce k la vie errante impose par son etoile. J'ai si peu envie d'y renoncer 
que j'ai meme quelque leg^re esperance de venir vous embrasser cet ete 
avant d'aller en Italie, oil je dois etre en automne pour le mariage de mon frfere, 
qui epouse une belle et jeune personne, encore en education k Venise, trop jeune 
selon mes idees (17 ans), mais tr^s bien elevee, riche, et d'une tr^s noble famille 
de Romagne ! Paris n'a pas ete gai cet hyver, une quantity de causes qui ont 
divise la bonne societe, auxquelles la grippe est venue s'y joindre, ont produit la 
langueur des salons Parisiens. Ce que vous m'avez ecrit de Lady Canterbury ne 
m'a pas dtonne, il est en rapport avec I'opinion dont elle jouit, comme vous pouvez 
imaginer. Je ne I'ai pas recherchde et quoique certainement nous lyons dij nous 
trouver souvent dans les memes salons, soit chez les Ambassadeurs, soit aux 
Tuileries, nous ne nous sommes pas rencontrees et nous sommes restdes et nous 
resterons probablement inconnues I'une k I'autre. Votre dernier ouvrage est 
ravissant, je I'ai lu avec un plaisir extreme. Veuillez dire bien des choses de ma 
part au cher Comte, m'ecrire, m'aimer toujours et me croire votre affec'*'^.' 

9. A. L. S. (in French). Dated London, IVEay 31st, 1835. 2J pages 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

'[Ma chfere Lady Blessington,— Je suis ici depuis deux jours, et j'aurais bien 
voulu venir vous voir, mais je me trouve dans un tel (5tat de desolation k cause 
de la sante de mon frere qui ne me laisse pas la force de sortir ni de m'occuper 



Louise Colet, 1810-1876, a French authoress, who wrote both prose and verse, and 
translated Shakespjare's Tempest, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 67 

d'aulre chose que de lui. II a ete un peu souffrant pendant tout I'hyvcr k Paris, 
et sa maladie a ^te un mystire pour les medecins memes. Je voulais le faire 
partir pour I'ltalie, mais il n'y a pas eu moyen de le persuader, et il a voulu meme 
me suivre ci Londres. Maintenant sa maladie examinee par Ics medecins d'ici 
semble avoir des symptomes si caractc'risJs et si graves de consompiion qui 
rendent le retour k son climat et ci son pays indispensable.] II va done me quitter 
Jeudi prochain, et vous pouvez vous imaginer, ma chere Lady Blessington, comme 
je dois etre sensible ci une separation faite dans des telles circonstances. Je 
n'ajouterais pas davantage pour ne pas vous ennuyer avec les details des tourmens 
que je souffre, mais j'.ii voulu pourtant vous faire connaitre ma position afin que 
vous m'excusiez de n'etre pas venue encore chercher de vos nouvelles, que 
j'espere bonnes sous tons les rapports. [Adieu, ma ch^re Lady Blessington, faites 
mes complimens k M. le Comte d'Orsay, et en attendant que je puisse trouver 
assez de calme pour sortir, veuillez agreer ma bonne volonte aulieux de la visite 
que j'aurais bien voulu vous faire, et mes sincferes sentimens d'afifection et estime. 
Votre devouee S. et amie.'] 

10. A. L. S. (in English). No date (July, 1835). 3-^- pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I regret very much that my letters of Friday 
evening have not reached you before your departure for Anglesea I'ille, as I should 
have been delighted to accompany you there, and spend some days with you, and 
indeed it is possible to me I will come there and pay you a visit and remain with 
you two or three days. If I come I will stop to Portsmouth, and from there I will 
send you a message as soon as I reach Portsmouth ; where if it is late I may 
spend the night, and come to Anglesea in the next morning. If I don't make that 
the only reason will be that I don't dare to expose myself to make this journey 
alone. But I have the hope still to visit you to Anglesea ; and with this hope I 
remain, my dear L^ Blessington, your affec''^ friend.' 

11. A. L. S. (in English). No date; 2!- pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I cannot express you how sorry I am not to be 
able to accompany you at Greenwich next Sunday, as I am engaged from many 
days to dine with Lady Davy''' in the same day where Mrs. Lockhartt and her 
husband must come and be presented to me. 

' I cannot say how sorry I am for all that. 

' Many thanks for the tickets you have sent me, of which I will make use with 
great pleasure on Friday next at the hour the most convenient to you. I shall be 
free of all engagements, and able to go with you to see the shops. I am going 
this moment to see His Majesty's picture in Pall Mall. Good morning, my dear 
Lady Blessington. 

' I am very glad you have received letters from Mr. Barry.J 

' If you answer him, pray don't forget to present him with my compliments. 

' Believe me always your aff*<' friend.' 

12. A. L. S. (in English). Dated 'Wednesday morning.' if pages 

8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have tickets sent for me for the House of Lords 
to-morrow, so I pray you not to take any more trouble about it. But if you could, 
instead, find me one for my brother, I should be very much obliged to you. 

* Jane Kerr, Lady Davy, daughter and heiress of Charles Kerr, of Antigua. She married 
first, in 1799, Mr. Apreece, eldest son of Sir T. H. Apreece, who died in 1S07, and secondly, 
in 1814, two days after he was knighted, Sir Humphrey Davy, by whom she was left a widow 
in 1829 ; she died in 1855. Her marriage wiih Sir Humphrey does not appear to have been a 
very felicitous one, for, although a clever and accomplished wornan, there is no doubt she was 
deficient in the more homely qualities necessary for domestic happiness. 

t Charlotte Sophia Scott, Mrs. Lockhart, i799-'837, eldest daughter of Sir Walter Scott, 
and wife of John Gibson Lockhart, whom she married in 1820. 

X Mr. Barry was the friend and banker of Lord Byron at Genoa. 



68 THE DLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

'Perhaps, by the means of Sir Francis Burdett* you could obtain me this 
favour. 

' I read, in the ticltet, that ladies must go in>;// dress. Will you have the 
goodness to explain to me v/hat means precisely this full dress, short or_ long 
sleeves ? and if, on entering, the bonnet is worn on the head, or a simple 
morning hat. 

'Excuse, with your usual kindness, my importunity, and believe me, with the 
most sincere affection, yours affectionately.' 

13. A. L. S. (in French). Dated ' lo Aofit.' i\ pages 8vo., with Super- 
scription. 

' Ma chfere Lady Blessington, — Vous n'avez fait que devanccr mes ddsirs en 
me proposant de venir passer la soiree avec vous. C'etait justement ce que je 
comptais de faire, et je serais enchante de faire la connaissance de M™° voire 
belle sceur, et de M"' votre frere autant que de vous revoir. Votre voiture (puisque 
vous voulez avoir la bonte de me Tenvoyer) me trouvera prete ci dix heures et 
demi. En attendant croyez-moi toujours, ma chfere L^ Blessinglon, votre devouee 
et afifect=».' 

1-1. A. I.. S. (in English). Dated ' Friday evening.' 2 J pages 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I cannot say how sorry I am to hear that you 
have been unwell, but in the same time I am very glad to know you are getting 
better now. 1 too have suffered a great deal since the evening I had the pleasure 
to see you ; and indeed, if I was more apprehensive than 1 am, I could have been 
very much alarmed, as for three days I had very strong symptoms of cholera. 
Remedies, &c., and the assistance of a good physician have almost cured me. 

' Many thanks for the letter you have sent me. I am now sure no other letter 
will come at your address, but at Mr. Richard Edit 

' Good evening, my dear Lady Blessington, my brother will bring me some 
other news of you and your health this evening. Yours sincerely.' 

15. A. L. S. (in French). Dated 'Mardi matin.' li pages 8vo., with 

Superscription. 

' Ma ch^re Lady Blessington, — Pourrez-vous m'envoyer aujourd'hui ces deux 
lettre en Italie et I'autre en Geneve ? Je vous en serais bien obhgee. Comment 
vous trouvez-vous, ma chere Lady Blessington ? J'espere parfaitementbien. Je ne 
peux pas vous dire combien j'ai ete fach^e I'autre soir d'avoir regu votre billet si 
tard — ce qui m'a empeche de venir pour une heure dans votre aimable campagnie. 
Mais j'espfere me dedomager de cette perte bientot. Croyez-moi toujours, avec la 
plus sincl;re amiti^, votre d. amie.' 

16. A. L. S. (in Enghsh). Dated ' Monday.' 2^ pages Bvo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I cannot express you how sorry I am for all the 
trouble I gave yesterday evening. 

' I was just returned home when I was seized with a violent -vomissement, 
which caused a great relief to me. 

' My headache, who had been dreadjid for so many hours, greatly diminished. 
I was put to bed, where I [fell] fast asleep, and was only awaked by the thunder this 
morning. I found then ih^ prineipal cause of all my sufferings of the evening. A 

* Sir Francis Burdelt, 1770-1844, a. well-known poliiician, who first entered Parliament as 
Member for BoroughLridge in 1796, and represented Westminster from 1812 to 1838. He is 
considered to have been a perfect type of an English country gentleman. 

t The Hon. Richard Edwards, 1807-1866, fourth son of William, 2nd Baron Kensington, 
Charge d'Aflaires and Consul-General to the Republic of Venezuela, and subsequently Minister 
Pienipottntiary to the Argentine Republic. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 69 

remarkable change in the weather has frequently caused to me in Italy the same 
complaint as yesterday. This morning I am almost perfectly well. I beg your 
pardon once more, my dear Lady Blessington, for all the trouble I caused you 
yesterday evening, and I wish you will present also my remembrances to the 
Countess your sister, and Count D'Orsay. 

'\yhat you told me yesterday evening (though I was in a state of great bodily 
suffering) made upon my mind and heart the greatest impression ; and I hope you 
give me credit enough to be certain of the feelings of tenderness, re-pect, and 
gratitude I entertain towards you. 

'Good morning, and believe me always, my dear Lady Blessington, your 
affec'° f*.' 

] 7. A. L. S. (in English). No date. 3 pages 8vo., with Superscription 
and Seal. 

'My dear Lady Blessington,— I have noengagementfor Sunday evening which 
may prevent my calling upon you to dine and spend the evening in your dear 
company. If I may I will also come to see you before, though scarcely I may 
hope it, having taken engagements for this evening and for to-morrow evening too, 
and being also engaged to go on Saturday evening with some friends at the 
King's Theatre. Notwithstanding all these difficulties who probably will deprive 
me of seeing you before Sunday, I want, however, to indulge myself in the hope 
that I may be able to do it. 

' I hope, my dear Lady Blessington, that your head-ache of yesterday is over 
today. My brother says me that your father is gone. I am very sorry, because 
I am sure that his departure has given much pain to you and to the Countess your 
sister. Pray remember me to her. 

' As for going to see together the sights, I want before to speak about with you, 
as I don't well understand well what it is. 

' Many, many thanks, my dear Lady Blessington, for all your kindness towards 
me ; and believe me with all my heart, your affectionate f.' 

18. A. L. S. (in English). Dated ' Friday morning.' 2 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I must begin for thanking you for the letter you 
sent me the day before yesterday. It was a letter of my family, bringing me good 
news of all of them. My brother Ippolito sends you his best remembrances and 
respects, as well as to the Countess your sister, and Count D'Orsay. I enclose 
here my answer to him, hoping you will be able to forward it through the Foreign 
Office to-day. 

' I shall be happy to come with you tomorrow to Greenwich. It is so long I 
have not enjoyed the pleasure of your company, that I could not resist to give up 
my other engagement, but I scarce hope the weather will permit us to make the 
excursion. 

'In the hope, then, to see you to-morrow, I am, my dear \J Blessington, your 
ob. and aff. f.' 

19. A. L. S. (in English). Dated August 9th. 3 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — You never cease to send me gifts, and show me 
in every manner your kindness, goodness, and friendship for me, who cannot repay 
you but with my affection, and the most grateful heart. 

'The dress of Irish poplin is the most handsome in every respect I could wish 
to wear, and were I to choose a dress in all the London shops, I could not have 
chosen one more suited to my taste. I shall wear it with fondness. 

' My brother will I hope see you, and bring me some more news about you and 
5 our health. I have received this morning a letter from my family, in which they 
recommend me to go back to Italy the soonest possible. I shall then remain in 
London one week more, and then I mean to go to Paris one or two weeks previous 
my departure to Brighton, or some other little town of England, to give my 



70 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

brother the liberty of indulging in his most favourite sport— hunting. I hope and 
wish extremely to see you the soonest possible. My best remembrances to the 
Countess your sister and Count D'Orsay. Your affectionate f.' 

20. A. L. S. (in French). Dated ' Lundi Matin.' 3I pages 8vo. 

' Ma chere Lady Blessington, — En relisant le billet que vous m'avez ecrit hier, 
pour me donner I'adresse a envoyer ;i mes parens et amis, il me parait que vous 
avez cru n^cessaire de me faire envoyer mes lettres sous triple enveloppe, c'est-k- 
dire d'adresser une premiijre lettre ;i mot qui devrait et^ renfermee dans une 
seconde k votts, et celle-ci renfermee dans une troisi^me cl L. Richard, &c. 
Mais, comme ce moyen me parait un peu compliqu^, je vous prie, ma chSre 
M'"" Blessington, de me dire de quelle maniere je pourrais le simplifier, par 
axample : 

To the Countess of Blessington, 
recommended 

To the Hon'" Richard Edwards, 
et sur le dos de la lettre y faire €cr\rt pottr la Comtesse Guiccioli. Celui-ci serait 
bien le moyen le plus simple, car il suffira d'une seule adresse ; mais, peut-etre 
I'est-il trop. En tout cas, je vous prie, ma chfere Lady Blessington, de vouloir 
m'instruire positivement sur cette adresse i donner avant midi, s'il vous sera 
possible. Croyez-moi toujours et pour toujours, votre amie aff"". 

' Liindi soir. — Ce billet ^tait ecrit quand vous m'avez envoyes votre billet avec 
I'extrait de la Gazette. Etant dans ce moment-Ik dans I'impossibilite de vous 
r^pondre, j'ai prefer^ de retenir pour y ajouter quelque mots pour vous dire 
combien I'article insert dans le journal est flatteur pour moi ! et combien je me 
sens d'obligation envers I'aimable auteur, qui va me placer bien plus haut que je 
ne m^rite dans I'opinion de ceux qui ne me connaissent pas. Quant Jl ceux qui 
me connaissent, je crains bien, ma ch^re Lady Blessington, qu'ils ne pourront 
pas partager les illusions que la bont^ naturelle et I'amitie pour moi peuvent faire 
naitre dans le noble coeur de I'auteur de I'article. 

' Veuillez agreer, ma chfere Lady Blessington, les assurances de ma plus vlve 
reconnaissance et de mon affection la plus sincere. Votre devouee amie.' 

21. A. L. S. (in French). Dated 'Vendredi soir' (September 5th, 1835). 
3 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' Ma chfere U Blessington, — J'attends de vos nouvelles avant de me decider 
pour mes excursions. Si vous etes toujours decidee k partir bientot, quoique 
I'endroit que vous avez choisi soit hors de ma route, je viendrais avec le plus 
grand plaisir passer quelque jours avec vous, et je reviendrais ici pour me rendre 
ensuite k Leamington, oil le D'' Lardner m'attendra patiemment quelques jours 
de plus. Si je viens avec vous le charme qui m'attirera ce sera de pouvoir 
causer de longues heures et confidentiellement avec une personne aussi aimable, 
intellectuelle, et sensible que vous etes— chose qui a les plus de charmes pour 
moi k present dans la vie, et qui n'est gufere possible dans les salons de Londres. 
J'attends un mot sur votre decision pour prendre la mienne. Adieu en attendant, 
ma chfere L^ Blessington, et veuillez me croire bien sincferement votre affec''"^ A.' 

' Bien de choses k M™" de Marsault.' 

22. A. L. S. (in French). Dated October 27th, 1835. \\ pages 8vo., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

' Ma chfere Lady Blessington, — Me voici k la fin de retour de mes excursions. 
Je suis logee au N" 244 Regent Street, Argyll Street. 

' Si je sortirais dans la journee mes premieres pas vous seront consacres, ma 
chere Lady Blessington, si vous ne me voyez done pas vous saurez que je ne suis 
pas sortie etant un peu toujours indispos^e. J'ai plusieurs lettres de ma famille 
sur ma table, et je n'ose pas de les ouvrir ! Donnez-moi de vos nouvelles, de 
grace, en attendant que je puisse vous voir elles me feront le plus grand plaisir. 

' Adieu, ma chfere amie ; bien des choses au cher Comte, et veuillez me croire 
bien sincferement.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 71 

23. A. L. S. (in English). No date (1836). i page 4to., v\ith 
Superscription. 

' I enclose you a letter for Italy ; I hope it is not too late to forward to Italy 
to-day. 

' I hope also you are always very well ; and so it is of me. This warm is 
delightful. Believe me always, my dear Lady Blessington, your sincere friend.' 

24. A. L. S. (in French). Dated 'Paris, 106 Rue St. Lazare, June 21st, 
1836.' 3I pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

'Ma chfere Lady Blessington, — [Permettez-moi de vous presenter Mad""= 
Crescini, une tri^s aimable dame des etats de Venise. Elle vient en Angleterre 
pour y passer quelcue temps, et je ne veux pas qu'elle la quitte emportant avec 
elle le regret de n'y avoir pas connu une des dames les plus distinguees et les 
plus aimable dont votre pays se vante. Elle chante admirablernent, et vous qui 
avez une ime si faite pour sentir et apprecier tout ce qui est beau vous serez 
enchantee de son talent, et le cher Comte d'Orsay (au quel vous direz bien des 
choses de ma part) en sera ravi aussi.] II y a un age que nous ne nous disons 
plus rien par dcrit, et cependant de mon cote, au moins, je suis bien souvent avec 
vous, en idee, et avec mon coeur. Je m'imagine parfois de vous voir toute 
contente vous promener dans le jardin de votre charmante maison, 011 vous 
receyez tant d'amis et des personnes distinguees dont vous faire la d^lice, et y 
mediter plus tranquillement que dans Fautre, trop au centre du grand bruit du 
grande monde, des ouvrages nouveaux que le public doit toujours attendre avec 
impatience el accueillir avec enthousiasme. Est-il done vrai ce que les journaux 
annoncent et representent depuis longtemps au sujet des epoux Norton, et de 
L'' Melbourne.* Si vous voulez bien, comme je vous prie, m'ecrire un mot pour me 
donner de vos nouvelles (et bientot, car au commencement de Juillet jc quilte 
Paris pour aller prendre les Bains k Baden-Baden, ou k Ai.K-la-Chapelle), veuillez 
me dire ce qu'il y a de vrai au sujet de M''* Norton.t J'en suis reellement 
curieuse. Le cholera m'empeche de me rendre en Italie, et un peu aussi la 
crainte qu'on ne veuille pas me laisser partir. J'y irais done seulement I'annee 
prochaine. Ma sosur est mariee et tr^s heureuse, et tout va bien dans ma famille ; 
mais j'ai perdu tout espoir de faire passer les Alpes a mon frfere, car mon p^re 
depuis notre dernier malheur, il ne pent plus souffrir qu'il s'eloigne de lui pour un 
jour. Adieu, ma chfere Lady Blessington, ecrivez-moi et veuillez croire k mon 
amitie sincere et inalterable. Votre a. devouee.' 

'P.S. — Si par azard au lieu d'aller k Baden j'allais, comme il ne serait pas 
impossible, prendre les Bains k Boulogne-sur-mer, je ne pourrai pas resister au 
desir de venir un jour vous faire une visile ; cette idee me sourit beaucoup.' 

25. A. L. S. (in French). Dated Paris, October 27th, 1836. 5 pages 8vo., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

' Ma chfere Lady Blessington, — II y a bien longtemps que vous neme donnerez 
pas de vos nouvelles. Je viens done me rappeler k votre souvenir avec cette 
lettre, et puisque il me se presente une bonne opportunite, je vous envoye aussi le 
volume de poSsie de M'^™"' Colet, dont je vous ai parle dans la lettre que mon 
cousin le Comte Pasolini de Ravenne doit vous avoir remise et que j'avais oublie 
de lui donner. Cette lettre vous sera presentee par M"^ Charles Tottenham, 

* William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, 1779-1848, a statesman and diplomatist, Secre- 
tary of State for the Home Department in 1830, and Prime Minister (with the e.xception of short 
intervals) from 1834 until 1841. 

t Caroline Elizabeth, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, 1S08-1S77, one of the three beautiful grand- 
daughters of Sheridan. In 1827 she married the Hon. George Norton, from whom she separated 
in 1835, after he had brought an action for divorce against Lord Melbourne. In Lady Bles- 
sington's answer to the above letter, printed in Madden's Z?/i, &c., she remarks, 'The evidence, 
though enough to show imprudence, could not satisfy any jury of actual guilt ; but the pro- 
ceedings were of a nature to inflict great pain on any delicate-minded woman's feelings, and to 
furnish a theme of scandal to the censorious.' 



THE BLESSINGION PAPERS. 

fils de Lord Robert Tottenham et neveu du Marquis d'Ely. II est votre compa- 
triotte, et il est plein de desirs de faire votre connaissance. Vous me permettrez 
done de vous le presenter et je [suis] sure que vous ferez sa connaissance avec 
plaisir, car il est un jeune homme tr&s bien eleve et rempli de qualites aimables. 

' J'ajoute au livre de M™" Colet quelques romances dont j'ai fait la po6sie, et 
que par amitie pour moi vous vous ferez chanter ; I'auteur de la musique est le 
mari de la jeune Muse dont jc vous envoye les poesies. 

' Je suis ici de retour depuis quelques semaines d'un trfes long voyage que j'ai 
fait en Allemagne, qui m'a beaucoup interessee et amusee, mais dont je suis bien 
aise de me reposer, car, sans confer mon voyage d'ici k Baden et le sejour que 
j'ai fait aux eaux, mes derni^res excursions sur les bords du Rhin, en Prusse, et dans 
les petits ctats de la Confederation, 'k travers le Mont Taunus, etc., ont durd 25 jours 
de suite, dont les trois derniers, avec les nuits, je les ai passe en voiture. Vous 
conaissez, done, que le repos doit m'etre doux \ present et ni^cessaire. L'ltalie 
m'a ete ferme par le cholera, je passerai done encore tout I'hyver \ Paris, et je me 
bercerai de I'espoir de pouvoir visiter de nouveau I'Angleterre au prinlcmps. 
Veuillez de temps en temps, ma chfere L^ Blessington, me donner de vos nou- 
velles. Lady Canterbury est tout-k-fait etablie h Paris, a ce que j'entends, je la 
connaitrai avec plaisir, parce qu'elle est votre sceur. Voulez-vous me procurer sa 
connaissance. 

' Vous plaisez-vous toujours dans votre belle Villa ? Votre sante est-elle bonne ; 
et que preparez-vous au public qui vous admire et aux amis qui vous aiment et 
qui sont fier de votre gloire pour I'annee 1837 ? Parlez-moi un peu de cela quand 
vous ecrivez. Bien des choses au Comte d'Orsay, et veuillez, ma ch^re L^ 
Blessington, croiez aux sentiments de mon amitie la plus sincere. Votre A. 
devouee.' 

'P.S. — Mon adresse k Paris sera jusqu'au 15 Janvier, No. 44 Rue Basse du 
Remparts.' 

26. A. L. S. (in French). Dated Boulogne-sur-Mer, August 17th, 1837. 
2\ pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Ma chfere Lady Blessington, — Je viens de recevoir votre lettre si bonne et si 
aimable, et j'ai beau me dire qu'en acceptant I'hospitalite que vous m'offrez de 
si bon cceur, j'abuse de votre bonte, que peut-etre il me serait possible de trouver 
tout pr^s de vous un logement qui me permettroit de jouir souvent de votre com- 
pagnie, sans cependant vous etre ci charge. Tous ces efforts de ma raison sont 
etouffes par le souvenir des jours heureux que j'ai pass6 k Anglesea villa auprfes de 
vous, et par le desir d'en passer encore de pareils. 

' En acceptant done, comme je fais, votre offre, je fais cependant un petit traite 
avec ma discretion ; je placerais ma femme de chambre (que j'am^ne avec moi, 
etant sous tous les rapports le phenix de son etat) ; dans un logement tout prfes 
de votre hotel : oil elle pourra encore trfes bien s'occuper de moi. 

' Une expression de votre lettre me fait aussi de la peine et augmente mes 
indecisions. Vous me dites — " faites-moi connaitre si vous viendrez chez moi, 
afin que je puisse renoncer k tout autre engagement pour vous recevoir." 

' Ma chere Lady Blessington, je desire bien de passer quelque jours avec vous, 
et tr^s vivement, car j'ai pour vous les sentiments de la' plus sincere amitie, et 
votre esprit, et votre ame elevee et sensible, donnent k votre society un charme 
au-delk de toute expression pour moi, mais si pour me laisser jouir de ces 
avantages, vous voulez renoncer k d'autres engagements, alors je ne pourrai plus 
accepter votre offre. Ce serait de ma part de I'egoisme. 

|Je crois partir d'ici avec le Paquebot k vapeur de Dimanche nuit. II part 
d'ici k minuit, et il arrive Lundi de onze heure k midi k Londres. 

' [Vous avez encore le temps de calmer mes doutes. Veuillez envoyer au Custom 
House deux mots, et si par ce que vous me direz je pourrai me tranquilliser, je 
viendrai descendre chez vous Lundi, vers les deux heures, aprfes midi, heureuse 
de vous embrasser et de vous dire comme je suis sincferement votre amie affec- 
tionnee. 

' Ne dites pas au comte que je viens, ni quand ; car je voudrai lui faire une 
surprise.'] 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 73 

27. A. L. S. (in French), Dated Paris, October i6th, 1837. 6 
pages 4to. 

'Ma ch&re et bonne amie, — Je m'etais proposde de vous ecrire aussitot 
que je serai sortie de mes embarras, et ennuies de d^mdnageraents, &c., et 
j'en\isageai I'instant heureux dans lequel je pourrai m'entretenir avec vous 
comme un dedommagement Ji toutes mes peines et aux heures penibles et insipides 
que je nie ti"Ouve condamnee :\ passer. Mais il parait que cet instant de 
repos s'eloigne de moi comme un mirage trompeur, et mon cceur qui s'elance vers 
VOUS sans cesse, plein d'affection, de devouement, de reconnaissance, ne me permet 
plus de prendre patience, et m'oblige ^ tremper ma plume pour vous dcrire au 
risque de devoir la quitter k chaque minute pour parler h. un malheureux ouvrier, Ji 
un commissionaire ; mais les exigeances du cceur sont des commandements pour 
moi, et je lui obei en vous ecrivant. Ch^re et excellente et charmante amie, 
comment vous portez-vous ? que faites-vous ? ou etes-vous ? Comme il me serait 
doux de n'avoir qu'ti descendre un escalier, qu'Ji attendre deux minutes pour 
recevoir lardponse ^. de pareilles questions ! iVIais helas ! comme tout est change 
autour de moi depuis huit jours, et qu'ils m'ont done paru longs, ces jours ecoules 
depuis celui oil je vous ai fait mes adieux ! On se fait si vite au bonheur, et je 
m'etais tellement habitude Ji votre compagnie et k I'existence delicieuse de Gore 
House qu'il m'a fallu des veritables efforts de raison pour me resigner au 
changement. J'ai quitte le sejour oil j'avais passe six semaines (qui marqueront 
sur la route de ma vie, comme un oasis au milieu des sables) avec le cceur gros, et 
eprouvant une tentation pareille k celle de I'exile. Mon passage sur la mer a ete 
tr^s long et ennuyeux ; le paquebot a du rester k I'ancre pres du port de Boulogne 
plusieurs heures, k cause de la basse maree ; h. trois heures du matin nous sommes 
debarques, et alors ont commence les ennuies, les inquietudes, les embarras des 
visites des officiers des douanes. N'ayant pas la conscience bien nette, je ne me 
sentais pas la tranquillite de I'innocence ; il y a meme eu des instants oii j'eusse 
prefere avoir des moins jolis rideaux k mes croisees, est mes maWe^s phts legcres^ 
toutefois on a ete trfes indulgent pour moi. J'en ai ete quitte potir la peicr e^tpotir 
la perte d'un de deux jolis rideaux blancs que je me faisais une fete de voir aux 
fenetres de mon salon etant pareilles aux votres, et je I'ai perdu parce qu'il a ete 
trouvee parmi les effets de ma femme de chambre. Je I'ai reclame comme mien, 
et j'ai I'espdrance qu'il me sera rendu. J'ai continue mon voyage pour Paris tres 
fatiguee, au point meme phisiquement et moralement fatiguee que j'ai craint un 
moment de n'avoir pas la force de soutenir le voyage de suite ; mais Dieu qui 
donne la laine k I'agneau selon les vents, m'a donnd k moi aussi la force qui 
m'dtait necessaire. Je suis arrivde k bout de mon voyage sans trop avoir souffert, 
et pendant toute la route dominee et pleine de votre souvenir, ma chdre et bonne 
amie; j'ai meme fait des vers sur vous, j'ai mis en rime mes sentiments pour vous, 
et mes iddes sur votre esprit et votre cosur, et sur toute cette unison de dons dont 
le ciel vous a combine pour vous rendre un etre si complet et si charmant. Mais 
ces pauvres vers resteront dans mon portefeuille, n'ayant aucun merite que le 
cceur et la v€r\X€. Arrive'e k Paris j'ai commence par trouver tout mal, tout 
mesquin, tout malpropre, routes etroites, mal eclairees, mal pavees ; et alors le 
cher Comte, et toutes nos violentes disputes se presentaient k mon souvenir et il 
etait bien vengd. Et puis mon appartement ne me plaisoit plus ; mon lit me 
paraissait dur, les mets insipides, la vue des murailles au lieu de beaux arbres 
d'Hyde Park me serrait le cceur, enfin je me sentais si triste que peux il aurait 
fallu pour me faire revenir k Londres. Vous voyez comme Gore House m'a 
gatee ! Mais enfin la necessite et la raison ont trionfe dans la lutte ; j'ai repris 
mon fardeau, je me suis remise en marche, et demenageant, et emmenageant, et 
me remuant, j'ai reussi a endormir les exigeances de mes facultes spirituelles, 
et materielles. Depuis ce moment je marche toujours ; j'ignore s'il me sera plus 
permis de me passer du remade ; je sais qu'il est bien desagreable et que je 
prefdrerais I'echanger contre un peu de repos. Je me trouve depuis ce matm 
installe'e dans mon nouvel appartement de la rue St. Honord, 348, et c'est au 
milieu des coups du marteau des menuisiers et des tapissiers que je vous e'cris ; 
mais rien ne peut plus m'empecher de vous (Ecrire apr^s huit jours de silence. 
Pourrez-vous lire ce bavardage ? Mille mille choses pour moi au cher Comte, et 



74 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

veuillez lui dire aussi que je me suis dej^ occupee de la commission qu'il m'a 
donnee. Ayant fait demander I'heure &c., pour parler k M'' le Baron de Noyers, et 
ayant su qu'il ne voyait personne que le soir, je suis pass^e hier au soir chez lui, 
mais etant pres de dix heures il e'tait dejk couche. Je suppose que sa santd ou 
ses occupations lui imposent un systt:rae de vie si extraordinaire, et demain au 
soir je m'y conformerai et j'irai le retrouver a huit heures, et dans ma premiere 
lettre je vous chargerai de communiquer au Comte le resultat de mon entrevue 
avec M'' de Noyers. Je me suis mise aussi ^ la recherche de quelque vieille 
cronique imprimee en frangais sur Bianca Capella, et si c'est une chose possible 
de la trouver \ Paris je la deterrerai. J'ai eu le plaisir de retrouver k Paris 
Mme Martinetti, sa sante etait tellement altdree c\ Boulogne qu'elle s'est decidde 
h essayer un changement de climat, elle passera ici I'hyver. Je ne I'avais plus 
revu depuis trois ans, helas, le temps impitoyable ! lors meme qu'il n'abat pas 
avec sa faux cruelle, en passant son aile glacee et empoisonn^e sur les joues de 
roses et de lis il leur en enl^ve le parfum, le duvet, les imperceptibles et celestes 
nuances qui constituent la beaute ! M""" Martinetti est done cette fois ddcidement 
changee, et j'en suis desolee, car j'aimai tant h la regarder, et la nature ne se met 
pas souvent ii I'ceuvre dans les jours de fetes. Si nous avons \ present una 
discussion sur ce sujet avec le cher Comte je n'oserais pas meme peut-etre lui dire 
avec notre grand chanteur de Laure. 

' " Chi vuol veder quantunque pu6 natura 
E'l ciel fra noi, venga a veder costei — 
.... Ma venga presto perch^ morte fura 
Prima i migliori et lascia stare i rei."* 

' Irez-vous sur les bords de la mer, cher amie ? Je I'espere, car je suis 
convaincju qu'il vous faut un changement d'air pour remettre eii dquilibre yotre 
sante. Veuillez me donner les nouvelles de cette sante qui doit etre si chere Ji 
tous ceux qui vous aiment, c'est-k-dire \ tous ceux qui vous connaissent, mais qui 
ne Test pas certainement a personne davantage qu'k moi qui vous suis si 
sincerement affectionnee et devouee. Veuillez done au premier jour que la table 
impitoyable de I'antichambre se trouvera moins encombrie, veuillez m'ecrire les 
nouvelles de votre sante ! Je vous envoye cette lettre par le moyen de la 
Vicomtesse votre soeur ; elle est k Paris, et par le plus singulier hazard je le sais. 
Je me suis arret^e le jour apr^s mon arrivee ici chez un marchand d'antiquites et 
curiosites, dans la Rue Neuve des Capucines, et tout en observant les objets et 
pensant k vous pour me demander cela plairait-il ou ne plairait-il pas k 
U Blessington, la femme chargee de les vendre me dit, " il demeure ici dans la rue 
un Lord et un Lady qui m'en achetent, c'est Lord Canterbury, et le voilk qui 
passe." Je me retourne et je vols sur la porte en effet deux dames et une jeune fiile 
et un homme de I'age de Lord Canterbury, je suis done persuade que c'^tait la 
famille Canterbury, mais je n'ai pas vu leurs figures. 

' Je ne puis pas finir cette lettre, je ne puis pas vous quitter, il me semble que 
vous trouves encore au [coin] du feu k I'heure de minuit, qui a ete si douce pour 
moi k Gore House. Pardonnez, done, k I'illusion de mon amitie ce long bavardage. 
Adieu, ma chere et excellente amie, aimez-moi comme je vous aime.' 

' P.S. — Paris est triste et desert, et assommant. Je n'y trouve pas une tete de 
ma connaissance, les peux de personnes comme il faut qui s'ytrouvent se cachent 
le jour et se couchent avec le soleil, car elles seraient honteuses de faire savoir 
qu'elles sont k Paris dans ce bel automne.' 

28. A. L. S. (in French). Dated Paris, January 4th, 1838. 3 pages 4to., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

' Ma chere et bonne amie, — Permettez-moi de vous presenter et recommander 

* This verse is in No. 210 of Petrarch's Sonnets, and in the original runs as follows : — 
' Ch'e sola un sol, non pur agli occhi miei, 
M'al mondo cieco, che virtu non cura ; 
E venga tosto, perche morte fura 
Prima i migliori, e lascia star i rei.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 75 

un jeunc AUemand, M'' Edouard Helle, ma connaissance et ami de mes amis, et 
qu'on me dit etre trfes distingu6 pour son intelligence. Quoique trfes jeune encore 
il est auteur de dix volumes d'ouvrage de litt^rature et de science, en fait de 
derni^re c'est de la cliimie qu'il s'occupe pvincipalement, et il a deja fait quelques 
decouvertes inportantes dont il veut faire adopter les resultats au profit de 
I'industrie, &c. II me dit qu'il serait malheureux de quitter I'Angleterre sans vous y 
avoir connue. Je viens, done, h son aide, et avec autant plus de courage que je 
puis compter pour votre bon accueil, au moins autant sur les qualites de mon 
reccomande que sur votre amitie pour moi. 

'Nous sommes en jouissance d'un printems decide depuis un 15"'= de jours, la 
vegetation s'est reveillee ddja k ce sourire du ciel, la temperature est celle du mois 
d'avril, mais ce n'est pas nature!, et tout en jouissant de cette surprise j'en ai 
presque peur. Veuillez me donner les nouvelles de votre sante le jour que vous 
aurez un petit quart d'heure un peu libre, et surtout me garder ma place dans votre 
chfere amitid, et me croire pour toujours votre amie tr^s affectionnee.' 

' Mille choses de ma part au Comte d'Orsay. 

' P.S. — J'ai vul'autre soir au bal pour la premiere fois M. le Due de S'Theodor, 
et je lui ai rappelle la promesse des lettres pour Naples qu'il a si mal tenue, et il 
doit venir chez moi pour prendre I'adresse et le nom de M'^ Reynolds pour 
remedier k sa negligence, dont il a paru 6tonne lui-meme et honteux. II vous 
envoye mille compliments.' 

29. A. L. S. (in French). Dated Paris, 44 Rue Basse des Remparts, 
August 7th, 1839. 8 pages 8vo. 

' Ma clifere Amie, — Votre lettre m'a fait un bien vif plaisir. II me tardait 
depuis bien longtemps d'avoir de vos nouvelles, mais k ce desir, tout fonde sur 
la sincere affection que je vous porte, je puis bien vous assurer que le moindre 
reproche k cause de votre silence ne s'y trouvait mele. Je connais trop votre 
excellent coeur, ma chere Lady Blessington, et les preuves d'amitie que vous 
m'avez donne sont trop profondement gravies dans mon souvenir et dans mon 
coeur pour que je me crois le droit de douter de votre affection et de vous reprocher 
un silence — qui d'ailleurs n'est que trop bien justifie par la simplicite de vos 
occupations intellectuelles dont vous donnez sans cesse au public des si brillants 
temoignages. 

'Votre Journal de Voyage en Italie est delicieux. Je I'ai lu d'un bout k I'autre 
sans presque quitter mon fauteuil. La modestie du titre de ce charmant ouvrage 
doit confondre tons ceux qui se faisant une occupation d'ecrire leurs impressions 
de voyage ne savent y mettre une centi^me partie de la finesse, de la grace, de la 
profondeur d'observation que vous, grande dame, vous avez su y mettre. 

'Quant k ce qui me regarde personnellement, je dois vous remercier, ma 
chfere amie, car vous m'avez donne \k une page que je me sens loin de 
mdriter. 

'Je suis charm^e toutes les fois que M"^ Henry Bulwer vient me voir, car nous 
parlons de vous sans cesse, et des nos heures agr^ables, et de nos rires etouffans 
au sujet des vertus du Marquis Guidotti, qui chantait dans les chceurs de M™'= 
Merlin, et de I'incredulite du cher comte exposde avec des propos qui sont une 
specialite toute k lui. 

' Je n'irais pas en Italie cette annee ; I'objet principal de mon voyage aurait 
etd d'aller tenir compagnie k mon pfere, et soulager un peu la douleur de mon 
frfere qui se trouve k la veille de perdre sa jeune epouse, car lui-meme m'ecrit qu'il 
a perdu toute esperance et toute illusion, et qu'elle ne peut plus survivre que 
quelques semaines encore. 

' Mais, par d'autres lettres, on me signifie que mon p^re est dans I'intention de 
persuader Hyppolite k faire une excursion k Paris, aussitot que le triste evifnement 
aura eu lieu, pour I'arracher ainsi k la presence des objets qui lui rappelleroient 
trop vivement sa perte, jusqu'k ce que le temps puisse exercer un peu de son 
influence. 

'Je m'attends done k revoir ici mon frfere, et je lui ai dejk prepard son loge- 
ment pour I'hiver. Mais comme ma pauvre belle-soeur suivra probablement la 
loi gdndrale de la cruelle maladie qui nous la ravit et ne succombera qu'en 



76 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Septembre, ainsi je n'attends mon fr^re qu'en Octobre. Cela fait que je pour- 
rais disposer de ce temps pour venir vous faire una visite, et le desir que j'en 
dprouve est immense. Mais est-ce que je ne vous generai vraiment pas, ma ch^re 
Lady Blessington ? En acceptant de nouveau I'offre de votre bonne amiti^, votre 
genereuse hospitalite (et autre part que chez vous je ne saurai plus me plaire 
S Londres) ne vous serais-je pas k charge ? ne vous empecherais-je pas au 
moins de faire des excursions, des tours pour votre sant(^ ou votre plaisir ? — comme 
ii m'est reste toujours le doute d'avoir fait I'autre fois— et par cela, un remord au 
fond de I'ame. Enfin, veuillez, ma ch^re amie, me parler aussi franchement que 
vous feriez ^ votre scour; alors seulement je fixerai mes projets, et, si je dois vous 
voir, je quitterai Paris pour Londres du i8 au 20 du courant. J'attendrai done 
votre reponse, et si le moyen de la poste est plus rapide que celui de I'ambassade, 
pour cette fois veuillez me I'envoyer par la poste. 

' II y a id une dame Napolitaine, qui vous a connu k Naples et qui me parle 
toujours de vous avec I'enthusiasme que vous avez toujours su inspirer ; elle est 
Camaldoli, de sa naissance, marine k un Capulatro, neveu de I'Archeveque qui 
vous aimait tant. Elle est une personne d'esprit, et son mari est un musicien 
trfes distingue. 

'Adieu, ma ch^re Lady Blessington. Mille choses au cher Comte, et croyez- 
moi, comme je vous aime, votre amie sincere.' 

30. A. L. S. (in French). No date. 3 pages 8vo., vi^ith Superscription 

' II y a si long temps que je n'ai pas le plaisir de vous voir que je ne pourrais 
pas me contenter de vous envoyer un simple mot par le moyen de mon frfere, 
mais il faut que je le charge de deux mots par ecrit. Je vous remercie, machfere 
Lady Blessington, des lettres que vous m'aves adresses en Italie dans les jours 
passes, et de celle que j'ai receu ici par votre moyen. J'espfere que dor&avant 
on m'ecrira k ma propre direction. J'ai vu traduire votre ouvrage dans les 
journaux que j'ai I'habitude de lire, et j'eprouve un veritable plaisir de voir 
generalement loue votre talent, votre esprit, et votre Elegance d'dcrire. 

'J'ai fait plusieurs courses dans les deux semaines passes, et la fatigue, jointe k 
ma paresse naturelle, ne me permettent presque jamais de sortir le soir. Je 
viendrais pourtant vous voir bientot, le jour du moins. 

' Mes complimens k la Comtesse votre soeur, et croyez-moi toajours votre.' 

3L A. L. S. (in French). Dated Ravenna, October i8th, 1846. 4 pages 
4to. 

'Ma trfes chere Lady Blessington, — Permettez-moi de vous presenter et re- 
comander un de mes compatriotes, Monsieur Biletta de Turin. II se rend k 
Londres pour y faire connaitre et y exercer utilement le beau talent qu'il possfede 
pour la musique comme compositeur et Professeur de Chant et de Piano. Votre 
protection, si puissante et intelligente, plus que toute autre pourrait lui frayer la 
route toujours si difficile, meme aux talents les plus distinguees, dans une si 
immense capitale. J'ose y compter, ma chfere Amie, me confiant sur I'extreme 
bonte que vous avez toujours temoigne k mes compatriotes, et sur la certitude que 
vous en trouverez digne Monsieur Biletta. Veuillez me pardonner, ma chfere 
Lady Blessington, avec votre bonte accoutumee, cette nouvelle liberty que je 
prend, confiee sur votre bonne amitie pour moi, que j'ai la conscience de mdriter 
k cause de I'affection sans borne et inalterable que je vous porte. 

' Comme vous voyez, ma chere amie, par la date de cette lettre, je me trouve 
au milieu de ma famille, k la campagne. J'y suis depuis presque deux mois, mais 
j'en partirai bientot, et, aprfes avoir passe deux autres mois entre Florence et Rome, 
j'ai le projet de me rendre k Paris pour y finir mon hiver. C'est Ik ou j'esp&re du 
moins recevoir de vos nouvelles. Si Florence ou Rome ou quelque autre partie 
de I'ltalie pouvait produire quelque chose qui vous fut agreable, je n'ai pas besoin 
de vous dire comme je serais heureuse de recevoir vos ordres et si vous vouliez 
me procurer le plaisir d'une de vos lettres, mon adresse est egalement Rome, 
Florence, mais Ravenne plus sijrement encore, posfe-restanfe, car mes parens 
sauraient oil me la faire parvenir, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 77 

'Adieu, ma trfes ch^re amie, milles amities au Comte D'Orsay, et h, vos char- 
manles nieces, et croyez \ tout mon devouement.' 

32. A. L. S. 'T. de Boissy' (in French). Dated Paris, 23 Rue d'Anjou, 
S"^^ Honors, June 20th, 1848. 

' Ma chfere Amie,— Votre lettre et les nouvelles que m'ont apporte de vous 
mes amis les Sampieri, m'ont fait un bien grand plaisir. Vous les avez combles 
de ces politesses dont personne ne connait autant que vous le secret enchanteur, 
car personne ne possMe plus que vous tout ce qui en fait le charme— cceur — 
grace — esprit. Aussi ils emportent avec eux votre souvenir et le souvenir de 
tout ce et de totes ceux qui vous entourent, comme la realisation de ce qu'ils ne 
croyaient peut-etre qu'un id&l. Agrf^ez mes remerciments pour toutes vos bont(^s 
pour eux. 

' Vous recevrez, en meme temps que cette lettre, un numero d'un Journal qui a 
un grand succes pour son courage et son bon sens. Dans ce Journal, vous y 
trouverez une lettre de M>' de Boissy, qui vous expliquera comment et pourquoi 
nous n'irons pas en Italic avec la mission diplomatique qu'il avoit accept^e. Je 
suis certaine que I'esprit de la lettre et la noble franchise de la rdddaction vous 
plairont et obtiendront aussi I'approbation du cher Comte, auquel vous direz 
1000 choses afifectueuses de ma part. Quelques grand que fut le desir d'aller 
remplir cette mission en Italie pour s'^loigner de ce terrain volcanique oi^i des 
explosions terribles nous menacent tous les jours, il etait cependant impossible a 
un homme d'honneur de I'accepter dans des conditions actuelles, lorsque on voit 
evidemment que c'est une propagande rdppublicaine qu'on impose a la diploQiatie. 
Pour le moment nous resterons done en France, et meme \ Paris, i attendre les 
evenemens qui ne peuvent manquer d'arriver, et bien graves, h(flas, je le crains, 
car rhorizori est bien charge, bien trouble ! L'etat actuel, le gouvernement, et le 
niinist^re (si de ce nom regulier on peut appeler cette agglomeration d'hommes, 
d'^lements discordants, hetdrogenes, incroyables, anarchiques, qui sont k la tete 
des affaires de la France dans ce moment), tout cela n'a aucune condition de vie. 
Si pourtant on laisse vivre cet embryon monstrueux, c'est par crainte de pire, c'est 
parceque les partis sont nombreux, point organises, point dessines, c'est parceque 
I'assemblee n'a pas le courage de sa mission, c'est parceque le spectre hideux de 
Blanqui et Compagnie est la, toujours devant leurs yeux pour les empccher de 
monter k la tribune, ou pour refouler leurs paroles dans leurs gosiers lorscjue leur 
conscience porterait la verite a leurs l^vres. C'est qu'une assemblee qui a besoin 
d'un armee permanente pour se defendre, et qui ressemble (moins la forme) k une 
forteresse prise d'assaut ne peut pas etre independante. Ajoutez k cela, que les 
chefs des Socialistes, Communistes, les Prudhons, les Leroux, les Louis Blancs 
(qui devraient trouver leur places dans des maisons de sante, car evidemment 
leur esprit est malade), sifegent pourtant k I'assemblee, et que le Socialisme en 
germe, en tendance est meme dans le pouvoir executif et dans les Minist&res ; 
de sorte que on a tout lieu de craindre que k tout acte de courage de 1' Assemblee, 
on crie k la reaction, et on lache I'armee Socialiste en blouse dans les rues. 
Pensez a tout cela, ma chere amie, et d^s lors ne vous etonnes pas que cela dure 
encore. Mais cependant, la crise ne peut pas etre bien eloignee. La nomination 
du Prince Louis Bonaparte k I'Assemblee a ete pour le gouvernement une 
surprise dont il est furieux. II n'y a pas d'effoi t qu'il ne fera, pour la faire 6chouer 
de nouveau, mais je ne pense pas qu'il y reussira. Je puis vous assurer que le 
parti du Prince Louis est tr^s fort et il le serait bien plus, si les honnetes gens 
qui voudraient I'ordre partout ne s'en defiaient pas un peu, le voyant porte par le 
parti qu'on appelle la rifppubliqiie rouge^ et meme par les communistes. Mais 
toutefois son parti est tr^s fort, et dans les Provinces et les campagnes surtout, 
ce nom de Bonaparte et d'Empire exerce un prestige immense. La constitution 
a ete lue hier a I'Assemblee pour la discuter et voter. On propose un President, 
et dejk on nomme le Prince Louis. 

' Si le Prince Louis peut sauver cette pauvre France sous quelque nom que ce 
soit, il sera le bien venu. Lamartine a eu un moment la destinee de la France 
dans ses mains, mais son association avec Ledru Rollin et Louis Blanc I'a perdu ; 
il esp^re cependant de ressaisir la popularite. Je vous raconte des fails, mais 



73 THE BLESSTNGTON PAPERS. 

quant a faire des presages, je n'en ai pas la t(5mdrite, apr^s ce que nous avons vu, 
et ce que nous verrons pciit-ctre. 

' Heureux vous autres qui savez et pouvez avec une poigne de constables Eloigner 
tous les dangers, et jouir d'une prosperite qui s'accroit encore avec les debris de 
notre naufrage. 

' Heureuse aussi ma belle patrie, jusqu'ti present ! Son heroisme I'a vengde en 
forgant le respect de ceux qui voulaient bien I'aimer sans la respecter. A Rome, 
on a ouvert les Chambres ; mon fr^re Hyppolite a die 6lu depute cL I'unanimitd par 
sa province. II m'ecrit de Rome ou il est avec sa famille. Le Marquis Guiccioli 
est dans la Chambre haute, ainsi que beaucoup d'autres de mes parents et amis 
dans I'une ou I'autre chambre. Jusqu'ti present tout s'y passe bien ; mais comme 
je vous I'ai dit ici on organise une puissante propagande armee et non armde qui 
pourra, si on reussit h. la jetter sur notre chfere Italie, /a ruiner ! ! 

' On me dit que Londres est bien brillante, bien magnifique cette annee. 
Pauvre France ! 

' J'aurais ete bien heureuse de passer I'hiver en Italie avec vous ; mais qui 
sait ! 

' Mille amities au cher Comte, de la part aussi de mon marl, et mon souvenir 
affectueux k votre ni^ce charmante, M"'^ Marguerite. 

' Aimez-moi comme je vous aime. — Votre amie ddvoude.' 

33. A. L. S. ' Marquise de Boissy,' to Dr. Madden. Dated Paris, 98 
Rue St. Lazare, June 28th, 1854. 4^ pages 8vo. 

' Monsieur, — J'ai regrette que I'arrive de la dame qui venait me visiter vous 
ait empeche de bien me preciser la demande que vous desirez que je fasse de votre 
part ciM'^'^la Duchessede Grammont. Veuillez, done, mel'indiquerpar dcrit avant 
votre depart, et soyez certain que je ferais avec empressement aupres de Mad™" 
de Grammont la demarche qui sera necessaire. Veuillez avoir la complaisance 
de dire k M"' C. Nevvby, ainsi je vous I'ai dit ce matin de -'ive voix, que je vais re- 
chercher parmi mes paplers s'il n'y a pas quelques lettres de L^ Blessington 
presentant quelque interet, et dans le cas ou j'en trouverais je vous enverrais avec 
le desir qu'elles vous soyent agreables. Si je n'en trouve pas 'k Paris j'en 
trouverais parmi les papiers que j'ai fait envoyer de Ravenne k Florence, oil, 
cependant, je ne serai que vers le commencement de Septembre. 

'Permettez moi. Monsieur, de vous renouvellerlapriere de ne pas laisser passer 
les fautes d'orthographe dchappees k la rapidite de I'ecriture — tant en frangais que 
en anglais. Et en vous remerciant de la complaisance avec lequel vous avez 
bien voulu modifier les quelques mots et les expressions plus intimes qui m'aurait 
ete penible de voir livrees au public dans les lettres que vous ddsirez publier, je 
suis. Monsieur, avec la plus haute consideration.' 

34. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Paris, 98 Rue St. Lazare, June 29th, 
1854- 4i pages 8vo. 

' Monsieur, je recevrais avec une vive reconnaissance votre ouvrage sur 
Savonarole, sa reputation m'avait dejk donnd un grand desir de la lire : ce sujet 
doit m'interresser doublement, puisque je suis la compatriotte de ce cflfebre 
martyre. 

' Si vous n'etes pas encore parti, permettez-moi, Monsieur, de faire un appel k 
votre obbligeance en laissant dans mes mains pour un ou deux jours seulement la 
copie de mes lettres fran^aises que vous destinez k I'impression. Je desire les 
relire avec plus d'attention. Je les ai ecrites k une epoque ou la langue frangaise 
m'etait beaucoup moins familiaire. Je puis done craindre qu'il ne s'y soit glisse 
des tours de phrases et des Italianismes que I'impression doit naturellement 
rendre plus choquant, et je vous serai reconnaissante de sauver mon amour propre 
en me permettant d'y faire quelque corrections qui ne porteront que sur le style, 
et nullement sur les iddes et sur les faits. 

' Quant aux lettres dcrites en Anglais je les recommande k votre bienvaillante 
attention pour leur rendre le meme service. Elles seront alors moins indignes 
d'etre connue du public anglais. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 79 

'Je vais faire mes efforts aupr^s de la Duchesse de Grammont pour obtenirce 
que vous ddsirez d'elle. Je vous ^crirai k ce sujet aussitot que j'aurais eu une 
reponse de la V)^^ qui est \ la campagne. 

' J'esp^re trouver ici quelques lettres de U Blessington pour en enrichir votre 
ouvrage. Je ne veux pas finir cette lettre, Monsieur, sans vous dire combien je 
suis reconnaissante de toutes les choses si aimables que vous me dites, les 
hommages d'un homme aussi distingue que vous sont tr^s flatteurs, et croyez que 
j'en sens tout le prix. 

'Recevez, Monsieur, mes plus empresses compliments, avec lesquels j'ai 
I'honneur d'etre. 

' P.S. — Si vous avez I'obligeance de me laisser les lettres dont je vous ai pri^ 
je vous le enverrais k I'adresse que vous me donnerai a Londres^ /ranches de post.' 

35. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Paris, 98 Rue St. Lazare, July 2nd, 
1854. 4 pages 8vo. 

' Je m'empresse. Monsieur, de vous renvoyer les lettres que je vous remercie 
d'avoir bien voulu me confier ; vous verrez que je me suis tenue strictement 'k ce 
que je vous avals promis. Vous avez cru m'en confier 9, mais je n'en ai tiouve 
que 8 dans le paquet. Je vous reccommande celles qui sont ecrites dans 
votre langue, et si parmi celles qui vous restent en franqais vous en decouvriez 
quelques autres que vous aimeriez de substituer ou d'ajouter k celles-ci, j'ose 
encore vous demander la faveur de me les communiquer egalement avant de le 
publier. 

'J'ai retrouve parmi mes papiers restes en France pliisieurs lettres de \J 
Blessington ; j'en choisirai 10 ou 12 que vous pourrez inserer dans votre ouvrage 
s'il vous sera agrdable. Si je trouve une bonne occasion je vous les envoyerai en 
originals, mais si je dois les envoyer par la poste je pr6f^re les faire copier. 

'J'ai dejh. ecrit k la D^^'^ de Grammont pour lui faire connaitre votre desir, 
aussitot que je recevrais sa reponse je vous la transmettrais, et je serais charmee 
si elle est conforme \ ce que vous ddsirez. 

'J'espere, Monsieur, que votre voyage aura et^ heureux, malgre le temps 
orageux qui a du vous accompagner jusqu'k Londres. 

' Lorsque vous reviendrez k Paris j'espere que vous n'oublierez pas que Ton 
sera toujours charmes et flattes de vous revoir k la cite de Londres, 4 Rue 
S' Lazare, comme j'ai ete de faire votre connaissance. 

' Agreez en attendant, Monsieur, les expressions de ma sincere reconnaissance 
et de ma consideration la plus distingu^e.' 

36. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Chateau de Castlenau (Cher), July 
8th, 1854. 3 pages 4to., with Superscription. 

' Le jour apr^s vous avoir expddie k Londres, k I'adresse de M' Newby, le 
paquet de mes lettres je suis partie pour ma terre de Berry. Avant, cependant, 
de quitter Paris j'ai regu la reponse de M™ la Duchesse de Grammont, et je ne 
veut pas attendre mon retour k Paris (qui n'aura lieu que le 14) pour vous dire 
que le r&ultat de mes demarches n'a pas ete couronne de succfes. Je regrette 
d'avoir laisse k Paris la reponse de M'"<= de Grammont, car j'aurai voulu vous la 
communiquer. Je le ferai de Paris, et en attendant je vous dirai en peu de mots 
qu'elle me dit de vous avoir dejk ecrit que le meilleur hommage qu'elle desire qui 
soit rendu k la memoire de son frfere, c'est d'entourer d'un religieux silence son 
tombeau. Vous saurez, Monsieur, si ce vceux d'une sceur peut obtenir satisfaction ; 
je crains que non. Aussitot que je serai de retour k Paris j'irai rendre k la D^^° une 
visite k sa campagne, et je tacherai d'obtenir de vive voix ce que je n'ai pu 
obtenir par ma lettre. 

' Comme je vous I'ai ecrit dans ma precedente j'ai retrouve et fait choix d'un 
certain nombre de lettres de U Blessington k moi, f^crites en dififerentes anndes, 
et presque toutes ayant relation aux miennes que vous voulez publier, et je les 
garde k votre disposition pour en faire prendre copie si vous le ddsirez. 

'Agreez, Monsieur, I'expression de mes sentiments les plus distinguds.' 

' P.S.— Ecrivez-moi k Paris, 98 Rue S' Lazare, car j'y serai le 15.' 



So THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

37. A. L. (in the third person) to the same. Dated Paris, 98 Rue 
St. Lazare, July 26th, 1854. 3 pages i6mo. 

' Madame de Boissy presente ses compliments k M'' Madden et lui confie 16 
lettres en original de Lady Blessington, le priant de vouloir les lui faire remettre a 
Palis lorsque il en aura fait prendre copie. Mad""" de Boissy a recouvert avec 
une bande de papier les passages qu'elle veut qui soyent supprivtes, et elle se 
confie pour cela i M'' Madden. Elle a passd aussi la plume sur quelques lignes 
des lettres 8 et 13, lignes qu'il vaut mieux omettre. La lettre N° 6 qui regarde 
Mrs Norton il ne faut pas la publier. 

' Madame de Boissy profile de cette occasion pour renouveller 'k M' Madden 
les expressions de sa consideration la plus distinguee.' 

38. A. L. S. to the same. Dated Paris, 98 Rue St. Lazare, September 
15th, 1854. 4 pages 8vo. 

'Je ne veux plus tarder, Monsieur, vous temoigner toute ma reconnaissance 
pour votre bell' ouvrage sur notre grand Heros Chretien, Savonarola, dont vous 
avez bien voulu me faire don. Et ce don m'est encore doublement precieux 
precede comme il est par une lettre si flatteuse pour moi. J'aurais voulu vous 
dire cela bien plus tot, mais un accident arrive ji mon bras droit (quoique sans 
yravite pour les consequences) m'a empechee jusqu'a present d'ecrire, et ne me le 
permet encore aujourd'hui que avec peine. Je pars d'ici a peu de jours pour 
Florence, et quoique j'ai d(fjk parcouru avec un interet immense votre ouvrage si 
cleve'e pour son but, et si remarquable pour son execution, c'est k Florence, en 
presence des lieux meme et des monuments temoins de la prodigieuse influence 
exercee par le grand esprit et la puissante parole du Heros Martyr que je veux 
lire et relire votre beau livre. 

'J'ai regrette que Monsieur Stapleton ne soit reste k Paris que des instants, 
car j'aurai ete charmee de pouvoir lui temoigner de quelque maniere ma recon- 
naissance pour la peine qu'il s'etait donne de m'apporter les livres et les papiers 
que vous m'avez renvoyes. 

' Je n'oublierais pas, une fois en Italie, de chercher si parmi mes anciennes 
correspondences j'ai encore quelques lettre de L*' Blessington qui put vous etre 
agreable de connaitre. A Paris je serai jusqu'k tout le 25 y''™ . g|- §; apres vous 
avez quelque chose a me demander ou a me communicjuer mon adresse k Florence 
est Paste restaiite. 

' Agreez, Monsieur, les expressions de ma reconnaissance et de ma plus haute 
consideration.' 

HALL (Samuel Carter). An Author and Editor. (1800-18S9). 
A. L. S. to (Dr. Madden). No date. 2 pages 8vo. 

' I once chanced to encounter a young man of good education and some literary 
taste, who with his wife and two children were in a state of absolute want. After 
some thought as to what had best be done for him, I suggested a situation in 
the Post Office as a letter carrier. He seized at the idea, but being better 
aware than I was of the difficulties of obtaining it, expressed himself to that 
effect. 

' I wrote to Lady Blessington telling her the young man's story, and asking if 
she could get him the appointment. Next day I received a letter from her, 
enclosing one from the Secretary, regretting his utter inibility to meet her wishes, 
such appointments, although so comparatively insignificant, resting with the Post- 
master-General. 

' I handed this communication to the young man, who was by no means dis- 
appointed, for he had not hoped for success. What was my surprise and delight, 
however, when the very next day there came to me another letter from Lady 
Blessington, enclosing one from the Postmaster-General conferring the appoint- 
rnent on the young man. This appointment I beheve he still holds, at least he 
did so a year or two ago.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 8l 

HALL (Anna Maria). Wife of the preceding. A Novelist and Mis- 
cellaneous Writer. (1800-1881.) 

A. L. S. to (Doctor Madden). Dated Fairfield, Addlestone, Surrey, 
August 3rd, (?). 8 pages 8vo. 

'The letters you were so good as to mention, were sent to me, and I was 
very much obliged. They contained nothing of importance, were very, very stupid, 
and alluded in a painful manner to a very remarkable, but as it turned out, most 
unfortunate individual, since dead, and whose family would be pained to see his 
name. I beg you not to use them. 

'If these "bits" are of any value to you, you may mention me as your 
authority. I have no means of knowing whether what the world said of this most 
beautiful woman was true or false, but I am sure God intended her to be good, 
and there was a deep-seated good intent in whatever she did that came under 
my observation. She never lost an opportunity of doing a gracious act or saying 
a gracious word. 

' My acquaintance with Lady Blessington was strictly a literary one, commenc- 
ing when, at my husband's suggestion, she published much about Lord Byron, in 
the pages of the New Monthly Magazine, which, at that time, he edited : and 
continuing until her death. I wrote regularly for her annuals, and she contributed 
to those under our care. 

'When Lady Blessington left London she did notforget the necessities of several 
of her poor dependents who received regular aid from her after she resided in Paris. 
She found time, despite her literary labours, her anxieties, and the claims which 
she permitted society to make upon her time, not only to do a kindness now and 
then for those in whom she felt an interest, but to give what seemed perpetual 
thought to their well doing. 

' Her sympathies were quick and cordial, and independant of worldliness ; her 
taste in art and literature womanly and refined. I say " womanly," because she 
had a perfectly feminine appreciation of whatever was delicate and beautiful. 
There was great satisfaction in writing for her whatever she required, labours 
became pleasures from the importance she attached to every little attention paid 
to requests, which as an editor she had a right to command. 

' Her manners were singularly simple and graceful, it was to me an intense 
delight to look upon beauty, which, though I never saw in its full bloom, was 
charming in its autumn time, and the Irish accent, and soft, sweet Irish laugh, used 
to make my heart beat with the pleasures of memory. I always left her with a sense 
of enjoyment, and a perfect disbelief in everything I ever heard to her discredit. 
Her conversation was not witty nor wise, but it was in good tune and good taste, 
mingled with a good deal of humour, which escaped everything bordering on 
vulgarity, by a miracle. 

'A tale of distress, or a touching anecdote, would at once suffuse her clear, 
intelligent eyes with tears, and her beautiful mouth break into smiles and dimples 
at even the echo of wit or jest. The influence she exercised over her circle was 
unbounded, and it became a pleasure of the most exquisite kind to give her 
pleasure. 

' I think it ought to be remembered to her honor, that with all her foreign 
associations and habits, she never wrote a line that might not be placed on the 
bookshelves of any English lady. Yours sincerely.' 

HILL (Sir George). Nephew of the 2nd Baronet, whom he succeeded 

in 1839. ( 1 804-1 845.) 

A. L. S. Dated Lismonaham, September 7th, 1833. 3 pages 4to., with 

Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— Had- I not fully expected to have been in Englarid 
long before this, I should have done myself the honor of writing to your Ladyship 

G 



82 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

to sny that on my explaining to Mr. Gardiner* what you told me about 
the plate at Rundle & Bridges, he at once consented to give it up, & was 
much pleased when I told him the very kind feelings you had expressed 
for his welfare, & also with the manner in which the Count had spoken of 
him ; in fact, it seemed to be a great relief to him to hear from me that he 
was not as deep in your black books as he felt he deserved to be, as he 
said it was the way he had been pestered by his sisters and their party, & 
not from any feeling of his own that he acted, & decidedly against his own 
opinion & inclination. I have heard nothing of Lady H., except son^e fiying 
reports not new to me, since I had the pleasure of seeing your Ladyship in 
town. She never writes to him now. He has an invitation to go to the Duke of 
Hamilton's to shoot grouse the latter end of this month, which I believe he 
intends accepting. I believe the Isle of Arran, which is the Duke's property, is 
considered to be the best grouse shooting in Scotland, & it is nothing going there 
from this. I am happy to say he has had a very quiet rational life ever since my 
return. He was with us at a small bathing place — Portstewart, near the Giant's 
Causeway, for more than a month. He has quite given up the racing, and I 
sincerely hope for ever. Since the shooting he has been staying with Mr. Barre 
Beresford at Brook Hall, near Derry, and report says he is very attentive to Miss 
Beresford. The part that astonishes me most is that when I told him so he did 
not deny it. Her other sister went to Paris with or at the same time that Lady 
H. did, and remained there for some time. I hear she is a well-educated, nice girl, 
& has 8 or 10,000 pounds, but as I told him, he is much better wanting a wife till 
he gets out of Chancery. 

' Mrs. Hill had a long and very agreeable letter from Mrs. Power last month, 
in which she stated that they were all quite well and happy, and that their new 
house at last was beginning to progress rapidly. 

' I fear I have already trespassed too long on your Ladyship's patience, but 
from your very great kindness to me when in London, I trust you will attribute 
it to a good intention. May I beg of you to present my very best respects to the 
CnuPt, and also Mrs. Hill's, with many thanks for his kind present of " The Two 
Friends," which I assure you we have all read with very great delight, and with 
great respect, allow me to subscribe myself, your Ladyship's much obliged & very 
faithful servant.' 

HOOK (Theodore Edward). A Novelist and Mi-scellaneous Writer. 

(1788-1841.) 

A. L S. Dated ' Fulham, Monday.' i page 8vo. 

'My dear Madam, — Mr. Colburn is, I hear, out of town. I never have heard 
one syllable about the tales to which you refer. I shall go to Marlborough 
Street to-morrow, and if he is come back make all due inquiries. Believe me, 
dear Madam, y"" Ladyship's faithfu". 

JAMES (George Payne Rainsford). The well-known Novelist. (1801- 
1860.) 

L A. L. S. Dated 2 Verulam Place, Hastings, June 21st, 1840. 
I page 4to. 

' My dear Madam, — I have just received your letter, and yesterday got the 
packet and proof to which you allude. 

' I had been called away for a day or two, and returned on Thursday night. 
This unexpected absence at a moment of much business has increased my 
occupations, but as soon as possible the proof shall be corrected and sent back by 
your faithful servant.' 

* Charles John Gardiner, Lord Blessington's illegitimate son by Mrs. Brown, who after- 
wards became the first Lady ]31essington. He was born in 18 1 1. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 83 

•2. A. L. S. (to Dr. Madden). Dated British Consulate, Norfolk, 
Virginia, U. S., March 23rd, 1853. i page 4to. 

' You must have been misinformed in regard to my acquaintance with the late 
Countess of Blessington, which was extremely slight. I never had the pleasure 
of seeing her more than three times," and the only correspondence that took place 
between us consisted of two or three invitations to dinner, and my replies. I am 
very sorry that I cannot assist you in this matter, but I should suppose you would 
obtain much information from my admirable friend, Walter Savage Landor, who 
was, I think, related to the late Earl of Blessington. Believe me to be, dear Sir, 
your faithful servant.' 

JEKYLL (Joseph). A Wit and Politician. (Died 1837.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, Thursday, June 13th (1822). 
I page 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady, — The horrible extinguisher annihilated yesterday, and seeing no 
chance of survivorship, I fled, exclaiming, with the Emperor Titus, 

' ' I have lost a day ! ' 
Lord Dover's Dissertation is uninteresting, and he leaves the mystery much as he 
found it. V* ever.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated ' Monday.' i page 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Sincere thanks to my kind and good friend for her enquiries. The gout has 
confined me to my chamber for a week, attacked the rfght arm, and, as you see, 
" my right hand hath lost its cunning," but convalescence, I flatter myself, has 
commenced, and though its progress be commonly tedious, yet I hope it will not 
be long before I am visible, and then that you will come and look at yours 
ever,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, Wednesday, June 20th. i page 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

'My charming Friend, — Don't upbraid me, for I am so lame, & so sensible 
that I have not inflicted two morning visits any where, since I did homage in 
Seamore Place. 

' On Friday I will pay my vows to a brace of fair Countesses, who have been 
immortalised by the adoration of wits and poets. Ever yours affectionately.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, July 12th, 1822. i page 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady,— Rogers tells me of " Magic Lanthorns and Sketches." You are 
as false as fair, and send me no copy, though perhaps you think I died last spring, 
and had plenty of "noble authors" in the other world. Your Ladyship's, while 
alive, most truly.' 

5. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, Saturday, December 17th (1825). 
I page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Don't think me a barbarian, because I have not 
fallen at your feet ; but on my return to town the gout amused me for a fortnight, 
and though I am quite well again, yet hardly heroic enough for a morning visit ; 
but the good time will come. Y"^", my dear Lady, most faithfully.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, Wednesday, January 2nd, 1832. 
J page 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady,— The apparent guilt shall be expiated on Saturday next. Y» 
most faithfully.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, Monday, January 2nd, 1832. i page 
8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady,— In consequence of a discovery that I could hobbh, I have 



84 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

been inundated these three days by invitations to dinner, though 1 had deter- 
mined and promised that my first sortie should be to Seamore Place. 

' But if you will give me soup any day after Thursday next, I shall be delighted 
to come to you. Ever y".' 

8. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, Monday, January i6th (1832). 
\ page 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Never did any Amphytrion of antient or modern times furnish so delicious 
a plate. 

' Never was sent a more beautiful memento of that scarce commodity, a bosom 
friend — she shall soon be thanked in person.' 

9. A. L. S. Dated Spring Gardens, Wednesday, November 7th (1832). 
I page Svo. 

' My dear Lady, — I should have been at your Ladyship's feet before now, if the 
rascally gout had not disabled mine soon after my return to town, ten days ago. 
But I am convalescent already. 

' Why is there no more Byron in the New Monthly .<'* 

' James Smilhf sends me a smart epigram on the two famous gunsmiths. 
Y" affectionately.' 

10. A. L. S Dated Spring Gardens, December 12th (1833). ^ P^ge 

Svo., with Superscription and Seals. 

' Thanks, my dear friend, for your repeated enquiries. The attack was con- 
fined to my hand, but I still keep my chamber, and am only visible to make 
gossips. I shall be ravenous for your new novel, and observe you have changed 
your publisher. Yours ever.' 

IL A. L. S. Dated 'Spring Gardens, Sunday.' \ page Svo. 
' My dear Lady, — You would have seen me long before now, but the horrible 
east wind, a fortnight ago, encored an interlude of the gout. It was not severe, 
but the weather is still so cold, that I cling to my household gods, though 
entirely recovered. 

' Vive la Vaccine. Beauty should 

' ' Make assurance doubly sure, 
And take a bond of Fate." Y''» ever.' 

12. A. L. S. Dated 'Spring Gardens, Thursday.' i page Svo. 

'No love lost between us. This cursed gout has vanished, but left me so 
lame, that though I have limped into my carriage these last two days with 
difficulty, I cannot yet lay the flattering unction to 'my soW of a visit to my 
delightful friend. 

' Guess my horror at discovering that, in spite of the new Anatomy Bill, they 
had burked your 'Beauties.' Do you know who is your dissector t Tell him I will 
give any sum for so charming a skeleton, or the least portion of your heart, if the 
whole be not already disposed of 

13. A. L. S. Dated 'Thursday, September 24th' (1835). i page Svo., 
with Superscription. 

'My delightful friend, I thought, was as inveterate a metropolitan as myself> 

* ' Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Elessington ' first appeared in the New 
Monthly Magazine for July, August, Septemlier, October, and December, 1832, and for February, 
March, June, July, September, and December, 1833. These articles were published in volume 
form in 1834 ; a new edition appeared in 1893. 

t James Smith, 1775-1839, a solicitor to the Board of Ordnance, who aquired some fame in 
the literary world, principally as the author, in conjunction with his brother Horace, of the 
Rejected Addresses. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. -85 

and it petrified me to read that she was betting al Doncaster, but, as usual, 
wtnmng golden opinions " from all sorts of men. 
' It had before puzzled me to see that the bedchamber window was closed 
when I threw my eyes up from the Park, 

" My custom ever in the afternoon." 

The "damask cheek" had deserted the pillow, and the interesting night-cap had 
been sacrificed to the interested handicap. 

' Yesterday was unlucky, as I drive about till five. But I am very well, and 
very lame, and as fond of you as ever.' 

14. A. L. S. Dated ' Spring Gardens, Monday.' i page 8vo. 

'My dear Lady,— Colds, catarrhs, &c., the usual compliments of the season, in 
addition to my customary ia/ne excuses, have prevented a morning visit, which I 
am too sensible to bestow on anybody but yourself 

'Your good taste, like Falstafif's wit, I find is also " the cause of good taste in 
others." You have made Jack Fuller a Mecsenas of science. He has founded a 
professorship of chemistry at the Royal Institution, and struck a gold medal of 
himself ; one of which, I have no doubt, now reposes on your beautiful boiom. 
Y" ever.' 

15. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday.' (1835.) i page 8vo., with Superscrip- 
tion and Seals. 

' I forgot to send yesterday a little unpublished sketch, which you will read 
and return. I send it because it alludes to the Countess Guiccioli and your Lady- 
ship's account of her. 

' It is written by a friend of my son, Mr. Hayward,* a clever young barrister 
and linguist, who has lately translated with success, the Faust of Goethe. En 
attendLmt the Friends with impatience. Yours ever.' 

JERDAN (William). A Journalist. (1782-1869.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 'Thursday, July 23rd' (1840). 2\ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am very sorry indeed that I cannot have the 
pleasure of seeing Seamore Place on Sunday, but I am engaged to be at Tun- 
bridge on that day with an old crony, Tyrone Power,t who has just returned from 
a very successful trip to America, and whom I should not like to disappoint. 

' I am going to pay my first visit to Ireland very early in August, and I hope 
to bring home bright recollections of Dublin, Limerick, Killarney, Cork, the 
Blackwater, and as much as I can manage in a brief tour. 

' In the animal world I cannot expect to increase my admiration, even by 
seeing all the fair of the country, and getting the Lord- Lieutenant J to countenance 
your faithful.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 19 Surrey Street, Strand, January loth. 2\ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — The new year is passing on, and I can no longer 
endure the vexed feeling of not having said to your Ladyship, that no such season 
can return without recalling to my mind the pleasures of bygone times, for which 
I owe a grateful debt to you by inspiring me with the still strengthening hope that 
you may continue to enjoy all prosperity and health and happiness. I have learnt 
with sincere regret that you of late have not been as well as friends could 



* Abraham Hayward, 1801-1834, a well-known writer and raconteur, by profession a 
barrister ; founder, and for some years editor, of the Law Magazine. Selections from his cor- 
respondence was published in 1886. His translation oi Faust came out in 1833. 

t Tyrone Power, 1795-1841, an author, actor, and theatrical manager. In March, 1841, he 
set sail, for the third time, for America in the steamship President, but neither the vessel nor 
the 123 souls on board were ever heard of from that day. 

X Hugh, Viscount Ebringlon, afterwards 2nd Earl Fortescue, 1783-1861, Lord-Lieutenant 
of Ireland from 1839 to 1 84 1. 



86* THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

wish ; bul I trust all cause of regret is now removed, and that the opening season 
will find you as well provided as ever with health and spirits to partake of its 
attractions. 

'At all events I could not resist this trespass to renew the assurance of my 
warm regard and esteem, and beg that your Ladyship will not forget how sincerely 
these sentiments are entertained for you by yours faithfully.' 

' P.S. — Can I do aught to promote Count D'Orsay's benevolent scheme ? May 
I pray to offer my services and my best wishes to him.' 

3. A. I,. S. Dated 19 Surrey Street, Strand, June 8th (1841). 3 pages 
8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — 1 had yesterday the pleasure of hearing the Baroness 
Callabrella read the concluding volume of hernovel, and was extremely gratified by 
the manner in which she has improved upon, and finished her arduous task. It 
appears to me to be almost a new style of writing. There are no startUng effects, 
no singular characters, no extraordinary events ; but there is a reality of descrip- 
tion and feeling in every trait which I do not remember to have met with, at least 
in any author within the last thirty or forty years. The dehcacy of the touches 
and the tone of the whole picture are truly refined, and yet the general impression 
is as forcible as if the bolder strokes and higher colouring were employed. We go 
along in full persuasion that everything happened and everything spoken about 
exactly in the natural manner the Baroness has represented, and I think the public 
will show little taste if it does not appreciate this work as a correct and interesting 
sketch of Society. 

' The Baroness wished me to communicate my opinion to you, and in com- 
pliance with her wish, I have much satisfaction in putting you to what I know 
will be an agreeable trouble — the reading of this long note. I am,' &c. 

' I rejoice to hear that you are to edit the Keepsake and Book of Beauty? 

JESSE (John Heneage). A Historical Writer. (1815-1874.) 

1. A. Verses. Dated March 20th, 1840. 2 pages 4to. 

' In your gay, favoured leaves, I am ordered to write. 
Where wit on poetical verdure reposes ; 
But I fear I shall prove in those pages so bright — 
To use the Count's phrase — like a pig among roses. 

' Should this lay, in your book, with the verses entwine 
Of painters, bards, sculptors, blue-ribbons and Earls ; 
Instead of the pearls being thrown among swine, 
I fear that the swine will be thrown among pearls. 

' But should you find room in your ST^lenAiA. parierre 

Of fancy and wit, for a slave so devout. 
Though a pig among flowers is a sight rather rare, 
At least he's an excellent hand at a rout. 

' In pity, accept this nonsensical lay. 

Instead of my promised historical lore ; 
I but wish to escape from the grave to the gay. 

Lest the pig, to your sorrow, should turn out a boar. 

' But your " wonderful pig " must give over his feats. 
And endeavour to quench his poetical fire ; 
Lest, striving to enter a garden of sweets. 

In the end he should find hunself sunk in the mire.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Admiralty, April 27th, 1840. 2^ pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — After all the kindness which my work and its 
author so undeservedly received at your hands, I should be very ungrateful if I 
did not exert myself to the best in my power to obey your commands. I hope 
before long to send you something of the nature you require, but whether it will 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 87 

be worthy a place in either of the dehghtful works you mention, is, I fear, another 
question. 

' I am afraid I laboured under some mistake when I sent you the absurd verses 
which you were good enough to speak so much better of than such nonsense 
deserves. I thought at the time that you required something for your album, for 
which, of course, the verses I sent could only be adapted, if indeed, they 
were worthy of that. I have been out of town for some time, or I should have 
done myself the pleasure of paying my respects at Gore House. Believe me,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. Dated 22 Down Street, Piccadilly, May i6th, 1840. 3^ 

pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — In sending you the enclosed odd-looking document, 
some explanation is necessary. Two or three years ago my father asked me to 
write him a short tale for some book which he was about to publish. I happened 
to have some scraps of poetry about me (written when I was very much in love 
with a person who was not at all in love with me), and these I embodied in the 
story, if such it may be called, which I now send you. After a portion was 
printed (for reasons I need not trouble you with), I contrived to get it suppressed, and 
something else was substituted in its room. This, however, was a long time ago, 
and the motives which then influenced me nownolongerexist. I merely trouble you 
with all this rigmarole, to explain how a portion of the story happened to be 
already in print. In the next place, I am very doubtful whether it be worthy of 
its destination ; if, therefore, it should prove to be great nonsense, which I rather 
suspect to be the case, I hope you will not scruple, either to return it or put it in 
the fire, and I will endeavour to write something in its stead. I believe that I , 
should hardly have prevailed on myself to send .it, but that it will at least show 
that I have not forgotten your kindness or commands.* Believe me,' &c. 

4. A. L. S. Dated West Cowes, August 26th, 1840. 2 pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

'My dear Lady Blessington, — I should be very thoroughly and properly 
ashamed of myself for not having acknowledged the receipt of " Meredith "t at an 
early period, had I not a good reason for not having done so. I was very busy for 
some time before I left London, and therefore I put them on one side to read as 
a treat when I came into the country, and I now beg to thank you very much for 
the volumes themselves, and the pleasure they have afforded me m this quiet 
place. I must tell you, however, that you have no business to send me your 
books. I send you mine because you have shown me much kindness which I 
did not deserve, and it is the opportunity which I have of showing you that I have 
not forgotten it. You, however, have not the same excuse, and 1 know there must 
be too many persons to whom you are either obliged or desirous to present your 
books, not to put me out of the question. You would not care for my opinion, 
or what is worse, you might think it flattery, so that I will not tell you what 
pleasure your books have always afforded me. You have never a second time 
asked me to write for the Keepsake, so that I conclude the story I sent you tvvo 
years since was great nonsense. Should you, however, by any chance ever be m 
want of a few make-shift pages, you may always rely upon such trash as 1 can 
supply you with. Believe,' &c. 

5. A. L. S. Dated Admiralty, July 14th, 1845. 2 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I must return you many thanks for your very 
kind, but I fear too flattering note. Your promise, which I always value most 
highly, is the more agreeable, as I was sadly afraid that the romantic story ol 
Charles and his wanderings had been told too often already, and I was aware how 
ievi fresh materials I had to make them appear in a fresh light. 

' It is a great disappointment to me, that I am not able to dme with you on 



* A short story, called ' The Wanderer,' by Mr. Jesse, appeared in the Keepsake for 1842. 
t Lady Blessinglon's novel of that name, published in 1843. 



88 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Thursday, but I hope to have the pleasure of paying my respects to you in the 
course of the evening. I hope to send you in a short time a contribution for the 
Book of Beauty, but if it will be worth having is another question. You can but 
put it in the fire. Believe me,' &c. 

6. A. L. S. Dated 84 Mount Street, May 4th, 1847. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I should indeed be most ungrateful if your wish 
was not law with me, but you have given me the refuse of the Queens of England, 
and how to write half a dozen pages (much more twenty or thirty), about either 
Jane Seymour or Catherine Parr,* I have no idea. 

' As far as I recollect, there is no interest attached to either of them. There 
are so many romantic incidents connected with the histories of many other of our 
queens, that it would indeed be a great favour if you could substitute one of them. 
Believe me,' &c. 

7. A. L. S. to Mr. O'Beirne. Dated Admiralty, ' Tuesday.' 2 pages 
8vo. 

'My dear O'Beirne,— The only London clubs that Count D'Orsay belonged to 
were " Crockford's," as long as it lasted, and afterwards the " Coventry." There was 
an attempt made to get him into " White's," but it was discovered that there was a 
party which was determined to exclude him, and consequently his friends with- 
drew his name, before it came up for ballot. This was ray own impression of 
D'Orsay's club history, but I did not like to give it to you as certain, till I had 
consulted a friend, who was more intimate with him than I was. 

' That friend, however, has fully corroborated what was my own impression. 
Yours very truly,' &c. 

KENYON (John). A Poet and Philanthropist. (1784-1856.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Paris, 38 Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, July i5tb, 1840. 
2 pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Madam, — You will wonder at this note from one who ought in all 
modesty to conclude that you have by this time forgotten him. But if you happen 
to have thought of me at all I trust you will have inferred that my absence from 
your house has been caused by absence from London. It will be one of my 
duties on my return home to show, as far as an early call may do so, that I have 
not forgotten all your obliging attentions. 

' My present object is to offer a few stanzas to you — a peppercorn offering 
(which perhaps I am, after all, not justified in doing, for probably the Muses, like 
other ladies, should wait till they are asked), and to enquire whether you can 
make any use of them, such as they are, for your forthcoming annual. 

'I have endeavoured to^ condense into them the associations which grow out 
of Italy. Who can judge better than you can whether I have succeeded well or 
ill ? But do not, I beg of you, think yourself bound to accept my offering. I 
shall not turn vindictive like Cain, tho' your discretion may refuse it. I shall 
still continue to think the verses excellent verses, and only conceit that they do 
not happen to suit your particular views for this year's book ; and you will have 
too much courtesy and kindliness to clear away my delusion. 

' Should you, however, care to make use of them, may I be allowed to request 
that they may be printed as I send them. 

' Is this modesty or vanity ? Whatever casuists or motive-mongers may choose 
to decide I hold for the former. The robust wings of the eagle will bear handling, 
the butterfly's are ruined, touch 'em ever so lightly. 

'And may I further intrude on you for two lines of answer, addressed to me 
here. I am, dear Madam, very truly yours.' 

* The Book of Beauty for 1848 consisted of short historical notices of different English 
queens, by different authors, those of Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Katharine Parr, and Eleanor 
of Provence being by Lady Blessington. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 89 

' ITALY* 
' Fair blows the breeze — depart, depart ! 
And tread with me th' Italian shore, 
And feed thy soul with glorious art. 

And drink again of classic lore. 
' Nor, haply, wilt thou deem it wrong, 

When not in mood too gravely wise. 
At idle length to lie along 
And quaff a bliss from bluest skies. 

' Or, pleased more pensive joy to woo, 
At falling eve, by ruin gray, 
Muse o'er the generations who 

Have passed, as we must pass away. 
' Or mark o'er olive-tree and vine 

Steep towns uphung, to win from them 
Some thought of Southern Palestine, 
Some dream of old Jerusalem.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated No. 4 Harley Place, July 6th, 1841. 3 pages 8vo., 
mth Superscription and Seal. 

' I ought to begin by thanking you for the long and therefore agreeable visit 
you allowed me to pay. It was your good nature that retained me, yet it seems 
to me that I ought not to have intruded so long. 

' First, I have the honour to send you the tract I spoke of. Pray keep it ; I 
have another copy. 

' Secondly, the lines on Upper Austria.t You will immediately see and be 
good enough to let me know whether they will suit your purpose. They will 
occupy seven or eight of your pages, for I would desire that they should be 
printed with the intervals, as I have written them. Who is not rebutted by an 
unbroken series of lines .? Stanzas tempt one on ; they do not intrude on the free 
will. We feel we can leave off at any point, and feeling this — go on. 

' Nor if the piece is what I intended can it be made shorter, for I hope every 
one part leans on the preceding, else it is not worth much. So you perceive that 
if you do me the honor to take it, you must take it as it is — for better or worse. 

' I said I would send another shorter piece— The Contrast. J It strives merely 
to be polished and elegant. I say " strives," not attains. 

' But I also send a modification of Schiller's " Gods of Greece,"! which is as 
long again as I have made it ; and mine is full long, if I have not succeeded to 
make it short by rapid movement of measure and phrase. There is a stanza, too, 
of mine, which is not in Schiller. I have marked it. 

' Now, dear Lady Blessington, do not take these verses or any of them unless 
they perfectly suit you. 

'Should you ever dechne them on the ground of not being good enough, I 
shall console myself by thinking that my taste is better than yours. I am,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. No date (March 22nd, 1843). 3 pages small 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' I had heard, dear Lady Blessington, what afflicting hours have been passing 
over you, and that you are still hanging over a sick-bed. 

' When I saw you last year, you made me fully comprehend all your love for 
that interesting child, to whose departure from you I will no further allude than to 
say I feel for what you have been feeling. 

' To-day I heard from London communicating to me about the loss of poor 
Southey — an event to have been prayed for — and which yet, like all such losses, 
makes one — in the spite of all one's wise reason — sorrowful for a time. Beheve 
me,' &c. 

* These lines appeared in the Keepsake for 1841. 
+ Published in the Book of Beauty for 1842. 
t Published in the Keepsake for 1843. 



90 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

LANDON (Rev. Whittington Henry). Brother of L. E. L. (1804- 
1883.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 4 Lincoln's Inn Fields, January 17th, 1839. 
4 pages 8vo. 

' My Lady,— I will have the honour of waiting upon your Ladyship to-morrow 
evening'. 

' I have this morning heard from Lord Munster,* who has also lent me his 
countenance on this occasion ; but I have also received a letter from Oxford, 
which says that the Provostship of Worcester College must be given to one of 
the Fellows. If this be so, I shall never be able to sufficiently apologise to your 
Ladyship for having solicited your patronage and influence when I could have 
no prospect of success. I beg to remain,' &c. 

2. A. L. S. Dated 15 Hyde Park Street, November 8th, 1839. 

2 pages 4to. 

' Madam,— If I desired your Ladyship's kindness in anything which related 
to the memory of my sister, so generously was it extended to me formerly, that 
all hesitation to intrude on her account would at once be removed. Were it not 
a very critical period of my life, and did I not feel assured by your Ladyship's 
former condescension to me, I should not venture to solicit your advice. Your 
Ladyship's opinion would be to me now decisive of the hopes I may entertain 
and of the plans I have to adopt. In asking that I may either wait upon your 
Ladyship or write on the subject of my prospects, I trust that you will believe 
that I am very grateful for the countenance which you have already conferred 
upon me, of a nature characteristic, as I learn, of your Ladyship, but such as I 
have nowhere else known. I beg to remain,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. Dated 15 Hyde Park Street, November 12th, 1839. 
2i pages 4to. 

' Madam, — I ventured to wait upon your Ladyship, thinking that I should 
thus give less trouble, and could be more explicit in stating my views in life than 
by a letter. In availing myself, however, of the permission also accorded tome 
to write on this subject, I will intrude but very briefly. 

'With the death of the late Dean of Exeterf my expectation of preferment 
closed, and I offered at once to give up an engagement into which I had 
entered before my sister left England. This was not wished by the lady's family; 
the father is very kind and of some fortune, but by no means sufficient to allow 
me to marry, nor would I think of it without some prospects in my profession. 
If your Ladyship thought that I am not presuming in the request that I may 
mention in confidence the promise of your interest when occasion favours, I am 
sure that he would feel satisfied of my hope of provision in the Church, and I 
think that I should be allowed to fulfil my engagement. 

' Your Ladyship's kindness has been to me, since I lost my sister, as the 
sound of the fountain on the ear in the desert, and would thus, I do not doubt, 
become the source of my future welfare ; but whatever may be my lot, nothing 
can deprive me of the grateful memory of that kindness, or the consciousness of 
the generous feeling from which it flowed. Madam, I have the honour to 
remain,' &c. 

4. A. L. S. Dated Devonport Street, Oxford Terrace, January 12th, 
1842. 

' Madam, — The kind interest which your Ladyship ever took in my late sister, 

* Colonel George FitzClarence, Earl of Munster, 1794-1842, eldest son of King William IV. 
and Mrs. Jordan. 

t The writer's uncle, the Rev. Whittington Landon, 1758-1839, was Dean of Exeter from 
1813 to 1839, and Provost of Worcester College from 1796. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 91 

and the countenance which you were pleased to lend me on a former occasion, 
makes me entertain the hope that your kindness will not condemn me as intrusive 
m soliciting your patronage at the present moment. 

'A friend, who is not without the respect of the present Government, has 
undertaken to ask some small preferment for me in the Church, and I have, 
under advice, written to Sir Robert Peel to this end. It would be of essential 
service to me at this time if your Ladyship would interest the Chancellor in this 
application on my behalf. My health has obliged me to resign one situation, 
which I procured mainly through your Ladyship's aid, and I have found myself 
unequal to clerical duty in the smoke of London ; but am fully able to discharge 
my duty in the country, as there I seldom lose my health. I have served as 
curate sixteen years, and have given satisfaction in every instance. While the 
recent death of my uncle and only patron, the late Dean of Exeter, by which 
every hope of preferment was wrecked, will, I trust, plead a little in my favour. 

' However great your kindness may be, I cannot but feel conscious that I am 
intruding upon it ; yet I am unable to divest myself of the belief that you will 
still excuse it. I have the honour to be,' &c. 

LANDOR (Walter Savage). The well-known Author. (1775-1864.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 'Sunday, November 4th' (1827). 2 pages 410., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — If I could hear of any wrong or any rudeness 
offered to you without at least as much resentment as you yourself would feel 
upon it, I should be unworthy not only of the friendship with which you honour 
me, but of one moment's thought or notice. Lord B. told me what had occurred 
yesterday. I believe I may have said on other occasions that nothing could 
surprise me, of folly or indecorum in Lord Burghersh.* I must retract my 
words : the only ones he will ever make me retract. That a man educated 
among the sons of gentlemen could be guilty of such incivility to two ladies, to 
say nothing of condition, nothing of person, nothing of acquaintance and past 
courtesies, is inconceivable, even to the most observant of his behaviour through- 
out the whole period of his public life. From what I have heard and known 
during a residence of six years at Florence, I am convinced that all the ministers 
of all the other Courts in Europe (I may throw in those of Asia and Africa) have 
never been guilty of so many unbecoming and disgraceful actions as this man. 
The only person for whom he ever interested himself was a Count Aceto, the 
most notorious gambler and profligate, who had been expelled from the Tuscan 
and the Lucca States. And now his conscience will not permit him to sanction a 
father's disposal of his daughter in marriage with almost the only man who 
deserves her, and certainly the very man who deserves her most. 

' I said Uttle in reply to Lord B., only to praise his coolness and forbearance. 
Nothing can be wiser than the resolution, to consider in the light of diplomacy 
what has happened, or more necessary than to represent it in all its circum- 
stances to the Administration at home ; without which it cannot fail to be mis- 
interpreted here, whatever care and anxiety the friends of your family may 
display, in setting right the erroneous and malicious. I hope Count D'Orsay 
sees the affair in the same point of view as I do, and will allow his resentment to 
lose itself among feelings more congenial to him. Lord B., I do assure your 
Ladyship, has quite recovered his composure : I hope that you have too — other- 
wise the first smile on seeing him at Rome will not sufficiently reward him for his 
firmness and his judgment. 

' With every good wish in all its intensity to the happy couple, and with one 
good wish of much the same nature to Miss Power, I remain your Ladyship's very 
devoted servant.' 

* John, Lord Burghersh, nth Earl of Westmorland, 1784-1859, a distinguished military 
officer and diplomatist, at the date of the letter English Minister at Florence. The letter no 
doubt refers to the marriage of Lady Harriet Gardiner and Count D'Orsay, which took place at 
Naples, December 1st, 1827. 



92 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

2. A. L. S. No date (August, 1828). li pages 4to., with Superscrip- 
tion. 

' It would be too much to ask Lord Blessington the grant of a httle place in his 
letter, nor do I imagine that any offence would be less pardonable to Lady B. 
Another thing — I am about to inform against his Lordship. He is a great deal 
happier than he has any right to be ; and, although I have exhausted my 
ingenuity, I can discover but two reasons for it — the improvement of his health 
and the approach of the first of September.* It is hardly worth while to say any- 
thing of myself, to one who is disposed to make more of me than I could do — but 
since I have performed a miracle, I am in conscience bound to declare it for the 
edification of the faithful. Now call Miss Power — I foresee she is quite 
recovered, and can listen as well as if she were seated at dinner, with the full 
effect of a pair of animated blue eyes exercising all their influence on her 
acoustics. 

'While others were making one voyage, I was making two, and travelled over 
the Isle of Wight in the best and wittiest company it was ever my destiny to 
meet. And now I have only to request Lady Blessington to present my best 
thanks and compliments to any ot the party she may happen to know at 
P'lorence, and to all my friends in her society who were not of it, and so believe 
me her Ladyship's ever obliged and faithful servant.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated Florence, December 20th (1828). 2 J- pages 4to., 
with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— Fortune is not often too kind to me — indeed, why 
should she be ? but, when she is, it is reasonable enough I should be grateful. 
We have come at last to this agreement, that whenever she does anything plea- 
sant to you, I may take my part of the pleasure, nem. con., and as large a part as 
any one except yourself and Lord B. She then put something into the opposite 
scale, and said it was but just. I laughed to hear her talk of justice, but owned 
it. Now, I will lay a wager that, of the hundreds of letters you and my Lord 
have received to congratulate you on the marriage of Mrs. Purvis, not one has 
been so long in coming to the point. It is something like the Preface to the 
Catilinarian conspiracy. I must, however, waft my incense tho' in an earthen 
pot. 

'" Mighty well, good Mr. Landor ! but I cannot be sitting here for your fumiga- 
tions. At Paris, we have learned a new thing. We throw cold water on the 
asphixifier to cure the asphixified." I have another scheme. 1 am about to put a 
spark of patriotism just under your nose. Mr. Godwin Swift, a descendant of 
that Godwin who educated Dean Jonathan and was his unkle, has claims upon 
the Viscountess of Carlingford, which he is bringing before the House of Lords. 
I never saw him since he was a baby, but I hear he is a most amiable and gentle- 
manly person. If Lord B. or any other of your friends can be of use to him, let 
me hope it. I should be overjoyed to see the representative of the earlier patriot 
in Ireland protected by him, whom I consider the most disinterested and the 
greatest. His grandmother was a Meadows ; I believe a first cousin of the late 
Lord ClanwiUiam. 

'Has Count D'Orsay hung up his two pictures? If the King of France 
should make an offer of the Family Vase for one of them, I would persuade him 
to accept the offer with his usual good grace. But perhaps the deUcacy of His 
Most Christian Majesty may withhold him from proposing an exchange, or 
recollection (if he should recollect such a thing) that it was a gift from the 
D'Orsays. 

['I am waiting very anxiously to offer Miss Power better compliments than 
those of the season. Why is she contented with holley, when she may have 
myrtle ? I must not begin to ponder and meditate, for whatever effect these pon- 
derings and meditations may have upon the ponderer and meditator, the effect is 
likely to be very different on those whom they befall. And I do not think your post 

* The first of September was Lady Blessington's birthday. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



93 



comes in at bedtime. I have not yet transgressed so far, that I may not request 
to be presented to all your house and to wish you many, many years of health 
and happiness. I remain, dear Lady Blessington, your very devoted servant.'] 

4. A. L. S. to Julius Hare.* Dated (Florence), January 28th (1829). 
3 pages 4to., with Superscription. 

' My dear Sir, — I do not know what or whether any progress is made in the 
sixth volume. This conversation will come in well between Philip 2'"i and 
Cardinal Legate, or between the latter and Filippo Lippi, or anywhere before 
Ippolito di Este. I am curious to see or hear what number of pages are in the 
5th volume. Surely the sixth will 710W contain 550 without the letters. Yours 
ever.' 

' Will you have the goodness to order the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes to be 
sent to Countess of Blessington, Hotel de Ney, Rue de Bourbon, Paris.' 

Imaginary Conversation t : Lord Mountjoy \ and Lord Edward 

FiTZGERALD.g 

' Lord Edward.— My dear Mountjoy, I wish I could entertain the flattering 
hope, that you have granted me admittance to you, as much from your old friend- 
ship as from your invariable politeness. 

' Mountjoy. —Sxich a wish is itself a proof to me that I was in the wrong, if I 
did not. 

' Lord Edward.— '^e.xth&r my knowledge of your easy temper, nor of your 
warm and generous heart, gave me all that assurance which I now receive from 
the pressure of your hand ; a diversity in politics, I need not tell you, has made 
several of my earliest friends, and nearest relations, turn their backs upon me. 

^ Mountjoy.— \ hope I shall never turn mine on a good soldier, friend, or 
enemy. 

' Lord Edward. — I will be sworn for you ; if the last spark of honour and 
chivalry is to be extinguished on the earth, it will be in the breast of Mountjoy. 

' Mountjoy. — Lord Edward, let us leave off compliments, which, while they 
were in use, were used principally to display some grace in the person, or to 
conceal obliquity in the mind. 

^ Lord Edward. — Faith ! if that is the good of them, you have the best right 
of any man to vote them out of fashion : now to the business of my visit. The 
people, you have long been aware, my Lord, are highly exasperated against the 
government. I will not ask you whether you think they are so with reason or 
without ; certainly, there is danger of an open insurrection. 

' Mountjoy. — Lord Edward, when a dog is mad, I do not ask what drove 
him mad. I defend my own dogs and myself from his fury as well as I can. 

' Lord Edward. — Sometimes it is wiser to get out of his way. 

'■Mountjoy. — I neither can nor would get out of the way, gladly as I should 
Eee every root of grievance torn up from a country but too fertile in them. 

'■ Lord Edward. — We were together in the association of Dublin volunteers, 

* Julius Charles Hare, 1795-1855, Archdeacon of Lewes, one of the four brothers Hare, 
whom Landor described as 'the most brotherly of brothers.' He was the author of various 
sermons and pamphlets, of Guesses at Truth, in connexion with his brother Augustus, and he 
assisted Thirlwall in the translation of Niebuhr's History of Rome. 

t This imaginary conversation is not published in any edition of Landor's works, but is 
printed in Dr. Madden's Life of Lady Blessington. Mr. Sidney Colvin seems to be the only 
writer on Landor who has detected its existence, and he only refers to it in the prefatory note to 
his Landor in the ' English Men of Letters' series. 

% Luke Gardiner, 1st Viscount Mountjoy, 1745-1798, Lord Blessington's father, was a Privy 
Councillor for Ireland and Colonel of the Dublin Militia. He was created a Viscount in 1789, and 
fell at the head of his re^^iment at the battle of Ross. 

§ Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 1763-1798, the Irish rebel, and one of the seventeen children of 
the first Duke of Leinster. He entered the army, and served as Major in America. In 1792 he 
went to Paris, where he became connected with the revolutionary party, and in consequence of 
his conduct at a jDublic banquet, was dismissed from the army. He afterwards retired to his 
estate in Ireland, but in 1798 joined the disaffected party, was taken prisoner, but in the scufHe 
which took place while effecting his capture was shot, and died a few days afterwards. 



94 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

which, supported by others throughout the kingdom, was then strong enough to 
have set at defiance the battered and broken aims of our oppressor, and could 
have accomplished all that was wanting for the permanent good of Ireland. The 
English government no longer had money or credit ; the English people, 
exhausted by the expenditure of the war, alienated by the misconduct of it, began 
at last to perceive and to acknowledge the justice of the American cause ; ours 
was the same under much longer and much worse irritations ; we had a larger 
and a better array to assert it ; more within our reach to confiscate justly 
for the support of it ; and we should have had the same allies. When we could 
have done everything for our country, what did we.' we sat down again contented 
with paltry concessions and empty promises : England thought herself generous 
for granting them ; Ireland for her easy acceptance of the grant. In England 
every generosity is called a folly ; in Ireland, every folly is called a generosity. 
We are now told that too much has been done for us, and truly, I believe it ; since 
every thing is too much for us, which we do not for ourselves. 

"■ Mounljoy. — Lord Edward, our country endures no injury to which I am 
not as sensitive as you are ; we differ only in the expediency of resistance ; we 
have lost the only opportunity we ever had of being the confederates rather than 
the subjects of England, or, what is yet better than confederacy, a part. Britons, 
Saxons, Danes, Normans, have united ; what hinders the Irish ? 

' Lord Edward. — English policy. 

^ Moimtjoy. — I see no reason why salt water, rather than fresh, should 
separate those whom affections and interests draw together. 

'■ Lord Edward. — Nor do I ; but the wholesale butchers who have turned 
Ireland into their slaughter-house, have so ensanguined the knot, that it will 
hold no longer. 

'' Mount joy. — Nothing in the whole of our misfortunes is so deplorable, as 
that it should continue to be the policy of our rulers to bind us rather by restric- 
tions than by generosity — a bad policy with any nation, but worse with the Irish 
than with any other, for, among the Irish, the very vilest and most inconsiderate are 
brought over and attached to you by one kind action, and alienated by one effort 
of control. Who would imagine that the English aristocracy and the Irish 
democracy should be equally strenuous in producing the same result ? Yet so it 
is ; if you cannot lead the blind man, do not mock him, my dear Lord Edward. 
The trick may bring about the calamity. It now appears to be the intention of 
certain men, that we should throw ourselves into the arms of France, and thus 
render our country the arena for all the battles of the English with all their 
enemies. 

' Lord Edward. — How much better would it have been, as you remarked, to 
identify the two countries, and to render every man in each, the neighbour of his 
neighbour. It seems an absurdity, a contradiction, an impossibility, that it should 
not be so ; yet, where all men, with equal wishes and knowledge, may not aspire 
to equal rank and estimation, where a thought on God is a crime in the eyes of 
him who has another thought on the saine God ; where a son, if he follow his 
father, is stripped of his civic rights for it, and interdicted his natural ; what hope 
then, can we have of justice, or what desire of reconciliation ? 

'■ Mountjoy. — I will not discourse with you on open war. 

' Lord Edward.— But shew me, if you can, in all the records of history, a war 
of nation against nation more manifestly just.* 

' Mountjoy. — The cause of justice is but little forwarded by compromising 
the cause of humanity ; we are hardly the people that can teach the English to be 
wiser, or that can compel them to be more equitable — I wish we were : we would 
then begin the first lesson to-morrow. As matters stand, by any attempt at 
resistance, we should only make the brutal more brutal, and the suffering more 
suffering ; and the end of it would be, that every peaceable man would leave the 
kingdom by choice, and every brave man by proscription. 1 think it criminal to 
contend without a chance of success, unless it be where, by the sacrifice of our 

* Here Lander puts the following note : — ' That such is not the case at present is quite 
certain, on the authority of the Duke of Wellington, and of nearly all the principal men in the 
Cabinet.— W. S. L.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 95 

lives, as well as theirs, under us, we can give time for others to come on, who 
may continue or renew the contest with better hopes. In that case our bodies 
may well fill up the straits, and the idlest of strangers will never write /<;(?/ above 
our epitaphs. I see clearly the expectations of the United Irishmen, and no less 
clearly the disappointment and delusion of them. The French and Irish can 
never cordially agree. 

^ Lord Edward. — Why do you think so ? 

' Moiintjoy.—lie.caMse the one will no longer be ruled by priests ; the other 
will be ruled by none else. 

' Lord Edward.— limust, indeed, be a tremendous curse, that can render them 
endurable. We may want them for a time. 

M/fJi^wZ/'o/.— Their time will be longer than ours; hopes, fears, consciences, 
are tost about, and distributed by their hands. 

' Lord Edward. — Too true ; throw in likewise a moiety of the wives, present 
and future ; they find spouses both for God and man, with good accommodation ; 
and riot only do they bring about marriages, but they can make heavy ones light, 
and light ones heavy, and can put other horns above the devil's, in any doorway 
they have once entered. 

^ Mount] oy. — If England had the equity and wisdom to place Ireland by her 
side in the same level, and no lower ; if she would grant to the Irish all the rights 
of citizens, as she hath done to the Canadians? 

^ Lord Edward. — Which renders it the more galling, the more iniquitous, 
the more intolerable. 

' Mount joy. — Then, indeed, the priesthood could make no further appeals to 
the passions of the ignorant, and the contest for mastery would shortly He between 
the people and it. Popery would lose her hold on the latter's ignorance ; for 
among the Irish, if the acutest sense is that of injustice, the quickest is that of 
ridicule ; the expression of which two feelings can never exist together. Ireland 
will grow more Catholic every day she continues to be oppressed ; less Catholic, 
every day after she is relieved from her oppression. Faction will cease within the 
first century of this real Reformation, which it seems wonderful that the Pro- 
testant clergy should be reluctant to bring about. 

'■ Lord Edward. — Not at all ; the Protestant clergy leap from the goat-fold to 
the sheep-fold ; from the sheep-fold to the ox-stall, and being there, grow too lazy 
to budge. Who among them would not abandon parishioners for a vicarage, 
for a deanery, a bishopric for an archbishropic, and the house of God for the 
house of Lords ? The government — be the party what it may — Whig or Tory, 
never wished our pacification ; a state of discontent, of discord, and of turbulence, 
kept up artificially and sedulously by them, is necessary as a plea to keep up 
likewise a large establishment here, both military and civil, and the people of 
England are induced to pay taxes for it, on which many hundred dependants of 
every administration rear their families. Were Ireland flourishing, as she must be 
under any other system, the rival ohgarchies would lose a large portion of their 
patronage ; England wavers perpetually, in every branch of her policy, expecting 
this. The Horatii and Curiatii, who contend for supremacy, instead of three, are 
about nine on a side, and in the families of these we are to look for the secret. 
Why, by their consent we are never to meliorate our condition : the people of 
England would gain some millions yearly by our freedom, by our mere equality 
with the French-Canadians. The means of keeping them in subjection to these 
ruling families would be lost, by leaving us unbound. 

' Mountjoy. — The English would benefit in wealth by it quite as much as we 
should, and greatly more in the reduction of taxes ; all that they would lose would 
be the sentiment of contempt for the generaUty of us, and of hatred for the 
remainder. 

^ Lord Edward. — If they persist, my hfe for it, they shall lose one of these 
sentiments, and very soon. 

^ Motmtjoy. — I see nothing but a divided people, and a corrupt parliament. 

^ Lord Edward. — You shall see neither much longer. Those who separate 
themselves from the people are no part of it, and what is corrupt will drop off, or 
must be cut off, who could regret it. Was there ever an association, even an 
assemblage in any lane of the worst city, or in any forest of the wildest country, 
so profligate and shameless, so barbarous and rapacious as our Irish peers. 



96 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Mounfjoy. — Little better, I confess it, than the Poles. 

'Lord Edward. — Jn Poland every thing is noble that is not a slave, in 
Ireland, every thing that is ... . 

' Mountjoy. — Our peerage, with the exception of six or seven. 

' Lord Edward.— Take, the six, give me the seventh, and I pay you down his 
weight in rubies, such scrapings from sugar-casks and tobacco wrappers, never 
was flung among the mussel shells and skate tails of Helvoet-sluys or Flushing, so 
disorderly a gang of cut-throats and cut-purses never sate on the same benches 
in any galley of Tripoli or Marseilles. The poor are sent back to their parishes ; 
it were greater equity to send back the rich, who, without some gross injustice, 
some intolerable grievance, ought not to live away. Have we no cart to carry, 
no constable to escort our packed pedlary ; wonderful it must appear, that England, 
as a residence, is preferable to Ireland amongst those who, in the London gaming- 
houses, are liable to be mistaken for the candle-snuffers, whenever in the hurry 
of their rapacity, they forgot to put a star before them, for a light to steer by. 

''Mountjoy. — Your estimation of our peerage is pretty correct, and you are 
as little to be accused of envy as of ambition ; you yourself are likely to be, one 
day, the first nobleman in the empire ; for where there is only one duke, surely 
that one is above any, where there is fifteen or twenty. 

'■ Lord Edward. — I have never permitted the contingency to enter into my 
calculations. Were I a duke to-morrow, and everything went on well and 
prosperously, both with me and with our country, I declare, before you and before 
God, I could throw my dukedom off my back, if by so doing I could run the 
quicker, to raise up one honest and brave fellow from oppression. 

' Mountjoy. - 1 believe you, and you are the only man I could believe who 
should make me a similar protestation. 

' Lord Edward. —The better of the Lords are very hostile to me, not for 
what I think about the rest, but for what I would do in regard to all. 

' Mountjoy. — No wonder. 

^ Lord Edward. — And yet, Mountjoy, such men as yourself, for instance, 
ought to rejoice at being no longer confounded with brokers and bankers, and 
bullock- drivers ; ought to rejoice at that personal distinctness, which alone is true 
distinction ; ought to rejoice at that superiority as gentlemen, which is seen more 
advantageously, when people are not standing upon stilts about you. Is it not a 
shame to hold by favour, from another, what we can take to ourselves by right ? 
Reason has a long time lain fermenting in the canker of society, and must soon 
cast off the froth. The generous juice, I swear by God and my country ! shall 
be distributed by a hand both steady and unsparing. 

^Mountjoy. — I will not irritate you, nor myself, by discussing the views of a 
political body so universally hated and despised, yet I hope, Lord Edward, you 
do not believe the invidious and spiteful story raised about them by the factions, 
that Mr. Pitt intends an union of the two nations, by means of their giving each 
member of the peerage a thousand pounds a-year, and other indemnities for loss 
of privilege. 

'■ Lord Edward. — No, no, my lord, what I have said of them I think is pretty 
near enough the truth. The Irish would tear them in pieces, as betrayers ; the 
English would feed the eels of the Thames with them, rather than endure such 
blood-suckers on their shoulders. I am no visionary in evil ; I see enough of it. 
I know its proximity and magnitude ; I distinguish its form and colour. I want 
neither telescope nor darkened glass. 

' Mountjoy. — Let us attempt to allay the passions of the multitude, and to 
enlighten the prejudices of the rest. 

' Lord Edward. — The only chance of assuaging the multitude, is in their 
being used to suffer. Weak as a hope, and weaker as an argument : and what 
are the prejudices of the rest? and where do they exist? Take from them the 
prospect of living on the plunder of their country, and what you call prejudices 
vanish. I came to your house, my dear Mountjoy, with intentions which I 
ardently wish may not be quite so fruitless. The people are more angry with 
those whom they know to be patriotic ; and yet, who will not join them when they 
are with the old stagers on the king's high-way of oppression and peculation ? 
Hence their love for you, which was unrivalled, is converted into acrimony I 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 97 

. ^ Mountjoy.— V^h&Xe.vtt I could do, constitutionally and conscientiously, I 
have always done for them, and will do always. It would not become me to throw 
up my commission in the hour of danger ; would you yourself commend me if I 
did ? Your silence shows me that if anything were necessary to shew it, that 
my resolution is right. 

' Lord Edward. — There are questions that might involve my security, my life 
itself, which I could answer you at the first appeal ; this I cannot. Let me guard 
as warrnly as I wish, and as effectually as I can, the safety of a citizen and a soldier 
more widely and more worthily esteemed than any other in Ireland. I need not 
inform you of armed bands in every part of the kingdom, I have already told 
you of their exasperation against you. Let me now come to that point which 
now pains me, and warn you that I have heard your life threatened, should you 
appear in any array against them. Why do you laugh? 

'Monntjoy. — What man's life is not threatened who appears in arms, and in 
the face of an enemy ? 

^ Lord Edward. — Faith, I did not think about life or danger in the common 
accidents of war ; but, in America, there began a custom which nothing short of 
national independence can ever authorize — the custom of singling out officers ! 

' Mountjoy. — A high compliment, if hand to hand ! 

'' Lord Edward. — But the rifleman is rude at compliments, and I should be 
grieved to the heart at your falling, be the cause what it may. 

''Mountjoy. — I have little inclination to die just at present, and less to desert 
my station. If you heard any threats against my life, individually, you ought 
to have seized the threatener by the collar, and to have delivered him over to 
the laws. 

* Lord Edward. — I chose to do what I believe to be more efficacious. The 
apprehension of one would excite a thousand to avenge him, by doing what he 
left undone. Should you be ordered to quell any disturbance, vain as I know it 
is to request you not to be the foremost, let me entreat you rather to be heard 
and known among your own men than by those opposite. 

' Mountjoy. — Lord Edward ! both sides shall hear and know me. The 
service that is imposed on me is indeed most painful ; and, for this very reason, 
the discharge of it shall be complete and prompt. We are lost when our 
affections glide in between us and our duties ; and I perceive you do not like a 
moralizer, and look graver than one yourself 

^ Lord Edward. — If all moralizers were Mountjoys, I could- listen in the 
thickest of a sermon. In general, men are given to moralizing when their mos t 
ravenous desires are crop full ; and when they are determined to sit quiet an d 
enjoy their sunny side of life, you take to it, for the first time, when you are 
resolved on more activity than ever, and are as ready to die as to live. 

^Mountjoy. — Lord Edward ! in this I am confident we agree : that a glorious 
death is the best gift of heaven, and that an early one is not the heaviest of 
its dispensations. 

'■ Lord Edward. — True, true; God bless you, Mountjoy (going). I must not 
falter ; . . . . but .... are all the rest in the kingdom worth this man ? ' * 

* The following note is in Landor's writing : — ' Lord Mountjoy, killed in the beginning of 
the insurrection, left an only son, the Earl of Blessington, who voted for the Union, in the hope 
that it would be beneficial to Ireland, though the project had suspended the erection of several 
streets and squares on his estate in Dublin, and it was proved to him that he must lose by it 
two-thirds of his rent-roll. He voted, Ukewise, in defence of the Queen, seeing the insufficiency 
of the evidence against her, and the villainy of the law officers of the Crown, though he esteemed 
her little, and was personally attached to the King. For these votes, and for all he ever gave, 
he"deserves a place by the side of his father in the memory of both nations. 

' Addition to the note on Lord Blessington in the conv. of L* Mountjoy and Ed. Fitzgerald : 
Scarcely is the ink yet dry upon my paper when intelligence reaches me of his sudden death. 

' Adieu, most pleasant companion ! Adieu, most warm-hearted friend 1 Often, and long, 
and never with slight emotion, shall I think of the many hours we have spent together, the light 
seldom ending gravely, the graver always lightly. It will be well, and more than I can promise 
to myself, if my regret at your loss shall hereafter be quieted by the assurance, which she who 
best knew your sentiments has given me, that, delighted by you among the many, I was esteemed 
and beloved among the few.' 

H 



98 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

5. A. L. S. Dated Baths of Lucca, June 6th (1829). 2J pages 4to. 

['Dear Lady Blessington,— If I defer it any longer, I know not how or when 
I shall be able to fulfil so melancholy a duty. The whole of this day I have 
spent in that stupid depression which some may feel without a great calamity, and 
which others can never feel at all. Every one that knows me knows the senti- 
ments I bore towards that disinterested and upright and kind-hearted man, than 
whom none was ever dearer or more delightful to his friends. If to be condoled 
with by many, if to be esteemed and beloved by all whom you have admitted to 
your society is any comfort, that comfort at least is yours. I know how inad- 
equate it must be at such a moment, but I know too that the sentiment will 
survive when the bitterness of sorrow shall have past away.] 

' You know how many have had reason to speak of you with gratitude, and all 
speak in admiration of your generous and gentle heart, incapable as they are of 
estimating the elevation of your mind. 

' Among the last letters I received, was one from Mrs. D[ashwood], whose sister 
married poor Reginald Heber,* the late Bishop of Calcutta. She is a cousin of 
Hare's, and has heard Augustust speak of you as I have often written. Her 
words are (if she speaks of faults, remember you are both women), " I wish I was 
intimate with her, for, whatever may be her faults, so many virtues can be told 
of few." 

' These are the expressions of a woman who has seen and lived amongst 
whatever is best and most brilliant, and whose judgment is as sound as her heart, 
and she does not speak of introduction merely, but of intimacy ; it is neither her 
curiosity nor her pride that seeks the gratification. 

[' I fear that the recovery of your health may yet be retarded, about which I 
have often thought of writing to Count D'Orsay, for nothing is more inconsiderate 
than to oppress with a weight of letters one whom you know to suffer, and to be more 
than enough fatigued already. May he and his Countess endeavour to promote 
your happiness as anxiously as you have promoted theirs ! To-morrow I rejoin 
my family, if indeed I can reach Florence in one day. 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your very faithful and devoted serv*.'] 

6. A. L. S. Dated July 21st (1829). 2^ pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — Too well was I aware how great my pain must 
be in reading your letter. So many hopes are torn away from us by this unex- 
pected and most cruel blow. I cannot part with the one of which the greatness 
and the justness of your grief almost deprives me— that you will recover )our 
health and spirits. If they could return at once, or very soon, you Would be 
unworthy of that love which the kindest and best of human beings lavished on 
you. Longer life was not necessary for him to estimate your affection for him, 
and those graces of soul which your beauty, in its brightest day, but faintly 
shadowed. He told me that you were requisite to his happiness, and that he 
could not live without you. Suppose then he had survived you — his departure, 
in that case, could not have been so easy as it was, so unconscious of pain 
— of giving it, or leaving it behind. I would most wish such a temper and 
soul as his, and next to them such a dissolution. Tho' my hand and my 
whole body shakes as I am writing it, yet I am writing the truth. Its sudden- 
ness — the thing most desirable — is the thing that most shocks us. I am com- 
forted at the reflection that so gentle a heart received no affliction from the 

* Reginald Heber, 1783-1826, the well-known Bishop of Calcutta, and author of various 
hymns and other poetry. H is Journal through India from Calcutta to Bombay was published in 

+ Augustus William Hare, 1792-1834, elder brother of Julius Hare. At five years of age he 
was adopted by his aunt, the widow of Sir William Jones, by whom he was sent to Winchester, 
and afterwards to New College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1825, and in 1829 was appointed 
to the living of Alton-Barnes and married. He died at Rome in 1834, his vridow surviving until 
1870. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 99 

anguish and despair of those he loved. You have often brought me over to 
your opinion after an obstinate rather than a powerful contest ; let me, now 
I am more in the right, bring you over by degrees to mine, and believe me, 
dear Lady Blessington, your ever devoted servant.' 

' I hope Mias Power received my letter from Lucca, as it rained very hard, 
and I sent it by a waiter. I am in some apprehension about it, and two others. 
Whenever she can spare a moment from the attention due to you, persuade her 
to favour me with two or three lines. Again, adieu.' 

7. A. L. S. No date (March 14th, 1833). af pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington,— [Your letter, like a talisman, brought me into your 
presence. I will not swear that I cried aloud, "You shall be obeyed," but that 
you are, the sonnet within will vouch for me. I happened to have these two 
conversations in the number of those which I once intended to publish. People 
have got lately so many better things, that I have been obliged to add another 
700 to a debt of 24,000, in order that my publisher might not be a loser by me. 
He had made an improvident bargain, to share in the profits or loss. Now, 
a little improvidence added to mine is no more important than a little debt 
added to it ; but with him it must be otherwise. Enough of this.] 

'The children are delighted at your recollection of them. Arnold* is idle. A 
German tutor is coming to manage him within a few days. I can hardly bring 
him to construe a little Greek with me ; and, what is worse, he is not always 
disposed to fence with me. I foresee he will be a worse dancer than I am, if 
possible. In vain I tell him, what is very true, that I have suffered more from 
my bad dancing than from all the other misfortunes and miseries of my life put 
together. Not dancing well, I never danced at all. And how grievously has 
my heart ached when others were in the free enjoyment of that conversation, 
which I had no right even to partake. 

[' I can give you but an imperfect account of Florence. Until last week I had 
not been there for nearly a month ; but, hearing that Lord Wenlock,+ who is 
nearly blind, was also a sufferer by the rheumatism, I went to spend an hour 
with him — my family and his having been intimate for many generations. The 
Countess Pecovi is dead ; her daughters both married. It grieves me when I 
look up to the terrace ; yet I never fail to look up at it when I am anywhere 
within sight, as if grief were as attractive as pleasure. I believe there are few 
people of condition in Florence, but there may be without my knowing it, for 
of these I have almost as little knowledge as of the rest. Our Minister here, 
George Seymour,^ is an unaffected, good, sensible man. By-the-bye, he has 
called on me two or three times, and I must go and see him.] Hare is gone to 
Naples. His brother] Julius has lately bought a Raffael here for five hundred 
louis. It is a Raffael, indeed, but a copy from Pietro Perugino. The original 
is extant, and much finer than the copy. Raffael was but a boy when he 
painted it. He and his master are the only two painters that ever had a perfect 
idea of feminine beauty. Raffael, when he went to Rome, lost Paradise and had 
only Eden. His Fornarina and others are fine women, but not such women as the 
first that God made, or as the one that he chose to be the idol of half the world. 
Titian, less fortunate than Lawrence, was rarely employed to paint a beauty. 
Those that he and Correggio chose for models had no grace or loveliness. 
Leonardo's are akin to ugliness. [Two days ago I ran over my poems, merely to see 
if there were any errata. I find an odd crop of them. Will you allow your servant 
to take the scrap below to the P. OfBce for Mr. Moxon, 64 New Bond Street ? 
' Believe me, with the grateful regard of Mrs. Landor and all my family, dear 
Lady Blessington, your very devoted servant. 

' I am taking an enormous liberty in requesting your ladyship to correct for 

* Arnold Savage Landor, 1818-1871, the eldest son. 

t Sir Robert Lawley was created Baron Wenlock in 1831, and died in 1832. 
% Sir George Hamilton Seymour, 1797-1880, grandson of the 2nd Marquis of Hertford, a 
diplomatist sent as Ambassador to Tuscany, Belgium, Russia, and Austria successively. 



loo THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

me, previous to insertion in the New Monthly, the last line but one in the epitaph. 
I believe I have written \mmondisiej it should be mmondesze. I hope to 
rejoice the heart of somebody here by a copy. I do not want six ; three will 
do abundantly. Between ourselves, the Grand Duke shall be regaled \w\ih one. 
The line would better be — 

' " Senza maledizioni, senza immondezze."'*] 

8. A. L. (imperfect). No date (July i6th, 1833). 4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,- [It has not been my good fortune to receive the 
parcel you sent me thro' the Foreign Office. 

' Since it does not contain your novel the loss is less material, great as it may 
be. You never told me whether my two Conversations reached you. The only 
care that occupies me now is the guarding two nests of nightingales with my dogs. 
I hope they will fly within the week.] 

'Politics seem to be serious and alarming to the serious and ambitious. I 
hate Tory principles and Whig practices ; but I never gave my opinion, except 
on one occasion, which was when the Reform Bill was in agitation. I then wrote 
from this villa to Lord L[ansdowne], telling him what it was very plain his party did 
not know, that the King has just as good a right to give representation to a borough 
as he has to create a peer, or grant a fair or market to a town : and that it is un- 
constitutional for Parliament to curtail the number of voters where no corruption 
has been proved. I made him an apology for addressing him, and told him that 
I did not expect or wish even a reply. It is the duty of the wise to set the 
unwise right. The mode I recommended would have made the King popular, 
and would have saved the country from that collision between the two Houses of 
Parliament, which is likely to terminate in a civil war. I have done my duty. 

[' My two nests will have flown, and there will be nothing left that much 
interests me. 

' I write so little that I hardly know how to write a note, as you see. Once in 
a fortnight I take up a newspaper, more from idleness than curiosity.] 

' I find that Coleridge has lost the beneficent friend, at whose house he 
lived.t George IV., the vilest wretch in Europe, gave him 100/. a year, enough, 
in London, to buy three turnips and half an e.^^ a day. Those men surely were 
the most dexterous of courtiers, who resolved to shew William that his brother 
was not the vilest, by dashing the half egg and three turnips from the plate of 
Coleridge. No such action as this is recorded of any administration in the British 
annals, and I am convinced that there is not a state in Europe, or Asia, in which 
the paltriest minister of the puniest despot would recommend it. I am sorry that 
Lord [AlthorpeJ], who speaks like a gentleman, should be implicated in a charge 
so serious, though he and his colleagues are likely to undergo the popular ven- 
geance for less grave offences. 

' Those offences are gravest that compromise the dignity of a nation. Strafford 
would have hanged up a dozen or two of stout rogues and haranguers, at the 
hazard of his life ; but if Strafford had had twenty heads, he would have laid them 
on twenty blocks, rather than have done what these boobies have been doing. 
Besides, they have been sowing mushroom spawn, thinking it would shoot up for 
their own tables. 

' No, no, it will make its appearance on some foul dismal day, and smell of 
blood. 

' An ugly word to end with, and hardly a pleasanter one, I suspect, to their 
imaginations, than to mine.' 

* The epitaph referred to on Don Neri di Corsini was printed in the New Monthly Magazine 
for March, 1833, and, of course, before the correction could reach Lady Blessington. The line 
runs : — ' Passate senza esecrazioni, senza immondizie.' 

t Landor must have been under a misapprehension, for Mr. Gillman, in whose house 
Coleridge lived from 1816 until his death, survived the poet. 

X John Charles Spencer, Viscount Althorpe, afterwards 3rd Earl Spencer, 1782-1845, eldest 
son of the 2nd Earl, whom he succeeded in 1834. He was a distinguished politician and states- 
man, and at the date of the letter was Chancellor of the Exchequer, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



9. A. L. S. No date (December 23rd, 1833). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

'To Wordsworth. 



' Those who have laid the harp aside 
And turn'd to idler things, 
From very restlessness have tried 

The loose and dusty strings, 
And, catching back some favourite 

strain. 
Run with it o'er the chords again. 

' But memory is not a muse, 

O Wordsworth ! though 'tis said 
They all descend from her, and use 

To haunt her fountain-head : 
That other men should work for 
me 
In the rich mines of Poesie, 
Pleases me better than the toil 
Of smoothing under hardened 
hand, 
With attic emery and oil, 

The shiijng point for Wisdom's 
wand, 
Like those thou temperest •'mid the 

rills 
Descending from thy native hills. 

' Without his governance, in vain. 
Manhood is strong, and Youth is 
bold. 
If oftentimes the o'er-piled strain 
Clogs in the furnace, and grows 
cold 
Beneath his pinions deep and frore. 
And swells and melts and glows no 

more, 
That is because the heat beneath 

Pants in its cavern poorly fed. 
Life springs not from the couch of 

Death, 
Nor Muse nor Grace can raise the 

dead ; 
Unturn'd then let the mass remain. 
Intractable to sun or rain. 



' A marsh, where only flat leaves lie. 
And shewing but the broken sky, 
Too surely is the sweetest lay 
That wins the ear and wastes the day, 
Where youthful fancy pouts alone 
And lets not Wisdom touch her zone. 

' He who would build his fame up high, 
The rule and plummet must apply. 
Nor say, " I'll do what I have plan'd," 
Before he try if loam or sand 
Be still remaining in the place 
Delved for each polisht pillar's base. 
With skilful eye and fit device 
Thou raisest every edifice, 
Whether in sheltered vale it stand 
Or overlook the Dardan strand, 
Amid those cypresses that mourn 
Laodameia's love forlorn. 

' We both have run o'er half the space 
Banded for mortal's earthly race ; 
We both have crost life's fervid line. 
And other stars before us shine : 
May they be bright and prosperous 
As those that have been stars for us ! 
Our course by Milton's light was sped, 
And Shakespeare shining overhead : 
Chatting on deck was Dryden too, 
The Bacon of the rhyming crew ; 
None ever crost our mystic sea 
More richly stored with thought than he ; 
Tho' never tender nor sublime. 
He struggles with and conquers Time. 
To learn my lore on Chaucer's knee, 
I've left much prouder company ; 
Thee gentle Spenser fondly led. 
But me he mostly sent to bed. 

' I wish them every joy above 
That highly blessed spirits prove. 
Save one : and that too shall be theirs, 
But after many rolling years. 
When 'mid their light thy light appears. 



' I had hardly sent off my ode to Southey (which by the by I have not sent to 
him) when I felt disposed to write one on the excellent Wordsworth. I finished 
it in the course of the day following — or rather of the night — for I can write 
nothing in the house unless I am quite alone, and quite still. My fabrics are as 
easily thrown down as if they were built of cards — a stir, a breath, does it. If you 
think these are worthy of a place in any work in which you are engaged I shall be 
most proud of such company. 

' I do not know whether I had corrected my ode to Southey. These are the 
corrections ; — 

' 1st St. : — That til Helvellin's head lie prostrate, shall remain. 

' 2nd : — More fair and radiant than the .... 
At fife's or lyre's .... 
Amid the falling dust and deepening gloom 



I02 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Not were that submarine gem-lighted city ... . 

Engraven by thy hand 

High o'er the royal dawn of blazonry shall stand 

' Last Hne : — Showered upon my low head 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your very faithful servant.' 

10. A. L. (imperfect). No date (February isth, 1834). 4 pages 4to. 
with Superscription. 

[' Dear Lady Blessington,— At last I have received the Book of Beauty, and by 
a strange fatality, on my birthday. Mr. Seymour is both a polite and a friendly 
man, yet I cannot imagine that he detained it a single day in his office, for the 
sake of animating me upon the day when I am always more melancholy than 
upon any other— serious I should say, not melancholy.] 

'The book is indeed the "Book of Beauty" both inside and outside. Never- 
theless, I must observe that neither here nor in any other engraving do I find a 
resemblance of you. I do not find the expression. Lawrence has not succeeded 
either, unless you have the gift of changing it almost totally. The last change in 
that case was for the better — but pray stay there. 

' I have a httle spite against the frontispiece, and am resolved to prefer 
Francesca. If I had seen such a person any time towards the close of the last 
century, I am afraid I should have been what some rogue called me upon a very 
different occasion, much later, matto / ma matto ! Age breaks down the prison 
in which beauty has enthralled us ; but I suspect there are some of us, like the 
old fellow let loose from the Bastille, who would gladly get in it again, were it 
possible. 

[' Gratified as I ought to be by the magnificent things Mr. Bulwer said of me, 
they poorly compensate me for the delay of your novel, which every line you have 
written makes me impatient to receive.] You are too generous in praising me for 
my admiration of Wordsworth and Southey. This is only a proof that I was not 
bom to be a poet. I am not a good hater ; I only hate pain and trouble. 1 think 
I could have hated Bonaparte if he had been a gentleman, [but he was so thorow 
a blackguard, thief, and swindler, that wherever he appears contempt holds the 
shield before hatred.] Castlereagh* was almost as mischievous, and was 
popularly a gentleman ; but being an ignorant and weak creature, he escapes 
from hatred without a bruise. [Have you ever remarked how very few persons of 
the name of Stewart have ever been good for anything ? I have known a dozen 
or two, and the best of them was Dan Stewart, a poacher at Oxford, whom I have 
introduced in my Peiin and Peterboroiv ; the story is fact. Mr. Colingwood told 
me yesterday a curious tale of L<' Stewart de Rothesay.f Colingwood was sent 
to Paris to liquidate the respective debts of the two nations. Meantime \J^ 
Stewart had signed a treaty, in which, among other things impossible to be 
executed, was a stipulation that the French laws should protect French subjects 
in England upon all commercial questions. Mr. Colingwood, a cautious and 
most judicious man, remarked to L'' Stewart the impossibility of admitting it. 
L"' Stewart acquiesced, and said plainly, " I signed it without reading it." Of 
such blockheads and scoundrels are our agents in foreign countries almost 
uniformly composed. You remember Dawkins here ; of what use can such a 
fellow be in Greece ? He was useful, no doubt, to Lord Burghersh ; but Lord 
Burghersh can find in the Strand what Dawkins can find in the Pireus.] 

' The Whigs, 1 am afraid, are as little choice of men as the Tories are of 
means. It is among the few felicities of my life, that I never was attached to a 
party or a party man. I have always excused myself from dinners, that I may 
never meet one. It does little honour to the Whig faction that among the number 
of peers created by them they have omitted Colingwood. Never has England 
produced a fighting man more able in his profession or more illustrious in his 

* Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, afterwards 2nd Marquis of Londonderry, 1769- 
1822, the famous politician, who filled many high ministerial offices, particularly that of Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs, during the latter years of the French War. 

+ Sir Charles Stuart, afterwards 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay, 1779-1845, grandson of the 
3rd Earl of Bute, a well-known diplomatist, for some years Ambassador to Paris. 



tHE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 10.3 

character, than the late Lord Colingwood.* He sacrificed his health and life to 
the service of his country, and asked only that the empty honour conferred on him 
might be continued to his descendant. Had he been a Chapman in the house of 
Commons, and could have commanded a couple of votes, his honours would have 
been perpetuated. The English must be the most quiet and orderly people in the 
universe, not to rush into the houses of the rapacious demagogues, and to tie them 
by the necks in couples, and to throw them iutti quanti into the Thames. This good 
temper is really most fortunate at the present, for their opponents would throw 
Europe back upon the dark ages, and the next frontispiece to the Book of Beauty 
would be decorated with a glorified heart, deliciously larded with swords and arrows. 
Do not hint this to any of your Whig friends, or we may have a coalition, and 
see the thing yet. This is not wit, and yet I have cracked my nether lip between 
a smile and a sneer, for cold weather is come, which I never feel anywhere but 
on this important spot.' 

11. A. L. S. April 8th (1834). i page 4to., with Superscription and 
Seal. 

[' Dear Lady Blessington,— No Colonel Hughest has made his appearance, 
yet I am unwilling to wait, lest you should imagine I am slow in executing your 
wishes. The verses, I hear, are among my best. I was very angry to find in 
print my " Ode to Southey."] For some time I have been composing Citation 
and Examination of Wil. Shakespeare, Euseby Treen, foseph Carneby, and Silas 
Gough, before the Worshipful Sir Thomas Lucy, Knight, touching deer-stalking, 
on the i')*'^ day. of September in the year of grace \i,Zz, no-w first published from 
original papers. 

'This is full of fun, I know not whether of wit. It is the only thing I ever 
wrote that is likely to sell. [It contains about 300 pp. If I send it, will you 
have the kindness to offer it to Colburn, not as mine— though probably he may 
recollect my handwriting. If he prints it, he shall give me two hundred 
pounds for it. No other publisher can give it so extensive a circulation, other- 
wise I would rather burn it than he should have it. I hope to send it you by 
Marcus Hare, who returns to England shortly. 

' The death of poor Augustus has grieved me very much. He promised to 
spend a few days with me on his return. Were I certain of seeing my departed 
friends in another life, I know not anything that would detain me in this. 
Pazienza ! Those who hope much fear something.' ] 

12. A. L. S. No date (May, 1834) 2 pages 4to , with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— No Colonel Hughes : yet I am getting out of 
patience. This will be presented to you by Mr. Willis, an American gentleman 
attached to the Legation at Paris. It is not, however, in this character that 
I introduce him to you ; but in that of the best poet the New World has 
produced in any part of it. 

' He will bring you the Examination of Shakespeare. If you offer it to Colburn, 
pray do nothing more. It is the only thing I ever wrote that ever can be 
popular. I will venture a wager that two thousand copies are sold in six 
months. I expect the man to give me two hundred pounds. However, 200 
pounds are not worth two hundred words from you. Do not spend upon it 
more than half a dozen, when your notepaper lies before you. 

' My children are losing their German tutor. A very good quiet man, who 
makes no noise in the house, and is likely to make as little in the world at 
large. The Government of Prussia has recalled him. An act of useless 
tyranny. 

♦ Cuthbert, Baron CoUingwood, 1750-1810, the well-known Admiral, and friend of 
Nelson. He entered the naval service in 1761, became a lieutenant m 1775, and an admiral m 
1701;. Having no son, he was anxious that his title should descend to his daughters ; but this 
lequest was refused. The Mr. CoUingwood referred to in the letter was Mr. George Newnham, 
who married the Admiral's eldest daughter and took the name of CoUingwood. 

t James Hughes, 1778-184S, youngest brother of the ist Lord, Dinorben. 



I04 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

'The children are all well under our Italian sky, which, however, has been 
an English one for the last two months. Among the Conversations which 
Mr. Willis has taken with him to England, there is one which I forgot when I 
sent you the Steele and Addison— Colonel Walker and Hattaji.* It is among 
the most pleasing, and there are two female characters in it, the children. He 
will give it you if you like it. Whatever I can write is at your service. Believe 
me, dear Lady Blessington, your very obliged serv'.' 

13. A. Verses S. No date (May, 1834). 2 J- pages folio. 
'Search after Honour. 
'"Where now is Honour fled?" the Earth exclaims, 
" And who last saw him ? " 

Many cry at once, 
"Along the Vistula we traced his steps, 
Each track with blood filled up, and thro' morass 
And forest, and along the pine-paved road, 
And cindery cities and stray villages 
And tents of shaggy rushes, where the yell 
Of Famine, following Pestilence, unearths 
The wolf, and drives him also from his home. 
With one prickt ear and one suspended shank, 
Stops he, turns back, and with his fellow brute 
Whipt into courage, frightened into fight, 
The tamer Russ howls to partake the prey." 

' " But where is Honour fled ? " again men ask, 
Knowing him tired and wounded. 

" He was seen," 
The generous German unabased replies 
And many long long years was his abode 
At Olmutz, in the dungeon keep of him 
Who pusht his daughter on a thief to screen 
His crouching back, lest one stroke more should fall. 
And Prussia's lord unbound him ; but he shrank 
From the cold heart, frowned on its hoUowness, 
And left a bitter enemy behind. 
We hear his voice, we need it, we rise up 
By day, by night, from exercise, from rest. 
From modern love, from ancient, from the friends 
Unseen for years, to be for years unseen. 
And in our linden walks await him still." 

' A louder voice from duskier visage cries, 
"Again in mien terrific he stood up 
In Zaragoza, and upon the sands 
Of Cadiz too, but disappeared before 
The soldiers of the faith, before a cross 
Where a god's blood is all washed off by Mars.' 

Has he gone back then to his ancient halls, 
Gothic or Saracenic ; or delights 
To plow the Sabine farm or prune the vines 
Of Argive Tibur, and indulge in dreams 
Hovering for ever o'er that dewy dell?" 
No ; I too have been there and found him not. 
Ausonian hills and dales short time delayed 
His northward steps. He past the crowing Celt 
Who snatcht his name and stuck it on his crest 
With slaver, under cistus-flowers, the first 
Of flowers to fall in sunshine or in shade. 

* Published in the Book of Beauty for 1837. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. loj 

' " All this we know," said they ; " but bend aside 
Appenine shades, thrid Anio's labyrinth. 
Follow the Nar, that whitens with his speed 
Sulphureous and o'erleaps the precipice, 
And runs again more rapid thus opposed. 
Look round the Alban lake, round Tusculum 
Behind the shrines of Latian Jove, behind 
Soractfe ; stands no sign of him ? no trace ? " 
Must I repeat my coward's ill-success ? 
He never loved to breathe the southern gale. 
And tho' his temple stood upon one hill 
Among the seven that o'ertopt the world, 
He had no image and few worshippers. 
Farther and farther back the soberer guides 
Would lead us : this lays sorrowingly his hand 
On Phocion's bust, this shows the name that shines 
Eternal on the damnatory shell.* 
Here Solon and Lycurgus sit between 
Two forms not higher than their own; the one 
Bears Jove's own egis, while the other looks 
Heavenward, nor wants an egis nor a Jove. 
'Tis he ; 'tis Honour. Mortals worship "here ! " 

' I knew not that I spake ; they started back 
(As started back the woodman who sought Death) 
At such impiety. It then behoved 
To soothe them, and in lower tone I said, 
" Friends, friends, the earth is old, and her best sons 
Are gone before her ; spare the puny brood 
That suck her wrinkled paps at this late hour, 
And cannot rest, and will not let us love 
Him who the braver loved and sought and found. ' 
At this they shook their heads and went their ways. 

'Weary with wanderings and with questionings. 
And more with answers that perplext the road. 
How sweet was my release ! I stretched my limbs 
Whereon the mind its sevenfold weight had laid, 
And fell asleep and dreamed : he then appeared. 
He, Honour, for he told me his own name. 
He stood before me. Honour's very self. 
As often do the dying and the dead. 
In form and stature like a Faery's dwarf; 
In action like a beggar boy, who runs 
Chattering and tumbling to entice your pence. 
Then tumbled he, then chattered he ; but where ? 
Where was his station while he played his pranks 
And entertained me with his pert harangue? 
On the curl'd lip and lard belaid moustache 
Of the free Frenchman thirty times forsworn.t 

14. A. Article. No date (1834). 2 pages 4to. 

'Rhadamistus and Zenobia. 

' Zenobia. — My beloved ! my beloved ! I can endure the motion of the horse 
no longer ; his weariness makes his pace so tiresome to me. Surely we have 
ridden far, very far from home ; and how shall we ever pass the wide and rocky 
stream, among the whirlpools of the rapid and the deep Araxes ? 

* Lander's note, Aristides. 

t This poem is not published in any edition of Lander's works. 



io6 THE. BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Rhadatmstus.—AYxghX then, dear Zenobia ! And Rhadamistus once more 
embraces you ! Can it be ! 

' Zenobia. — Can it cease to be ? you would have said, my Rhadamistus ! Hark ! 
where are those horns and trumpets ? on which side of the water are they ? Now 
they seem to come from the mountains, and now along the river. You, my 
Rhadamistus, could escape somewhere lower. 

'■Rhadamistus. — Wherefore ? with whom ? and whither in all Asia "i 

' Zenobia. — Fly ! there are armed men climbing up the cliffs. 

' Rhadamistus. — It was only the sound of the waves in the hollows of them, and 
the masses of pebbles that rolled down from under you as you knelt to listen. 

'■Zenobia. — Turn round ; look behind ! is it dust yonder, or smoke.'' and is it 
the sun, or what is it, shining so crimson .'' not shining any longer now, but deep 
and dull purple, embodying into gloom. 

'■Rhadamistus. — It is the sun, about to set at mid-day ; we shall soon see no 
more of him. 

^Zenobia. — Indeed ! what an ill omen ! but how can you tell that ? Do not 
think it ? I do not. Alas ! alas ! the dust and the sounds are nearer. 

'■Rhadamistus. — Prepare then, my Zenobia ! 

'Zenobia. — I was always prepared for it. 

'Rhadamistus. — What reason, O unconfiding girl ! from the day of our union, 
have I ever given you, to accuse, or to suspect ? 

' Zenobia. — None, none : your love, even in these sad moments, raises me above 
the reach of fortune. How can it pain me so ? Do I repine } Worse may it 
pain me ; let it but never pass away ! 

' Rhadamistus. — Was it then the loss of power and kingdom for which Zenobia 
was prepared .' 

'Zenobia. — The. kingdom was lost when Rhadamistus lost the affection of his 
subjects. Why did they not love you .'' how could they not ? Tell me so strange a 
thing. 

'Rhadamistus. — Fables, fables ! about the death of Mithridates and his 
children. 

' Ze7idbia. — What about them ? 

' Rhadamistus. — \xy all governments there are secrets. 

'Zenobia. — But between us ? 

' Rhadamistus. — No longer : time presses : not a moment is left us, not a refuge, 
not a hope !* 

[' Zenobia. — Then why draw the sword ? 

' Rhadamistus. — Wanted I courage .' did I not fight as becomes a king ? 

'Zenobia. — True, most true. 

'Rhadamistus. — Is my resolution lost to me? did I but dream I had it? 

'Zenobia. — Nobody is very near yet ; nor can they cross the dell where we did. 
Those are fled who could have shown the pathway. Think not of defending me. 
Listen ! look ! what thousands are coming. The protecting blade above my head 
can only provoke the enemy. And do you still keep it there ? You grasp my 
arm too hard. Can you look unkindly ? Can it be ? O think again and spare 
me, Rhadamistus ! From the vengeance of man, from the judgments of heaven, 
the unborn may perserve my husband. 

' Rhadamistus. — We must die ! They advance ; they see us ; they rush 
forward ! 

' Zeitobia.—Mt, me would you strike ? Rather let me leap from the precipice. 

' Rhadamistus. — Hold ! Whither would thy desperation ? Art thou again 
within my grasp ? 

' Zenobia. — O my beloved ! never let me call you cruel ! let me love you in the 
last hour of seeing you as in the first. I must, I must .... and be it my thought 
in death that you love me so ! I would have cast away my life to save you from 
remorse : it may do that and more, preserved by you. Listen ! listen ! among 
those who pursue us there are many fathers ; childless by his own hand, none. 
Do not kill our baby .... the best of our hopes when we had many .... the baby 
not yet ours ! Who shall then plead for you, my unhappy husband ? 

* Here the manuscript fails and we follow the printed text in the portion between square brackets. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. xoi 

^ Rhadamistus.—U.y honour ; and before me, sole arbiter and sole audience of 
our cause. Bethink thee, Zenobia, of the indignities .... not bearing on my 
fortunes] .... but imminent over thy beauty ! What said I '>. did I bid you think 
of them? Rather die than imagine, or than question me, what they are ! Let 
me endure two deaths before my own, crueller than wounds or than age or than 
servitude could inflict on me, rather than make me name them. 

* Zenobia. — Strike ! Lose not a moment so precious ! Why hesitate now my 
generous brave defender t 

' Rhadamistus. — Zenobia ! do you bid it ? 

"^ Zenobia.— Q,Q\xx'A%e: is no. longer a crime in you. Hear the shouts, the threats, 
the imprecations ! Hear them, my beloved ! let me no more ! 

'j^/;arf«wij/«j.— Embrace me not, Zenobia ! loose me, loose me ! 

'■Zenobia. — I can not : thrust me away ! Divorce .... but with death .... the 
disobedient wife, no longer your Zenobia. {He strikes.) Oh ! oh ! one innocent 
head .... in how few days .... should have reposed .... no, not upon this blood. 
Swim across ! is there a descent .... an easy one, a safe one, anywhere ? I might 
have found it for you ! ill-spent time ! heedless woman ! 

' Rhadamistus. — An arrow hath pierced me : more are showering round us. 
Go, my hfe's flower ! the blighted branch drops after. Away ! forth into the 
stream ! strength is yet left me for it. {He throws her into the river.) She sinks 
not ! O last calamity ! She sinks ! she sinks ! Now both are well, and fearless ! 
One look more ! grant one more look ! On what? where was it? which whirl? 
which ripple ? they are gone too. How cahn is the haven of the most troubled 
life ! I enter it! Rebels ! traitors ! slaves ! subjects ! why gape ye? why halt ye? 
On, on, dastards ! Oh that ye dared to follow ! {He plunges armed into the 
Araxes.) '* 

15. A. Article. Imaginary Conversation. No date. (1834.) 
' Steele and Addison. 

'Addison. — Dick ! I am come to remonstrate with you on those unlucky 
habits which have been so detrimental to your health and fortune. 

' Steele.— Mssiy thanks, Mr. Addison ; but really my fortune is not much 
improved by your arresting me for the hundred pounds ; nor is my health, if 
spirits are an indication of it, on seeing my furniture sold by auction to raise the 
money. 

'Addison. — Pooh, pooh, Dick ! what furniture had you about the house? 

' Steele. — At least I had the arm-chair, of which you never before had dis- 
possessed me longer than the evening ; and happy should I have been to enjoy 
your company in it again and again, if you had left it me. 

' Addison.— Wq will contrive to hire another. I do assure you, my dear Dick, 
I ha^e really felt for you. 

' Steele. — I only wish, my kind friend, you had not put out your feelers quite so 
far, nor exactly in this direction ; and that my poor wife had received an hour's 
notice ; she might have carried a few trinkets to some neighbour. She wanted 
her salts ; and the bailiff thanked her for the bottle that contained them, telling 
her the gold head of it was worth pretty nearly half-a-guinea. 

'Addison. — Lady Steele then wanted her smelling-bottle? Dear me! the 
weather I apprehend, is about to change. Have you any symptoms of your old 
gout? 

' Steele. — My health has been long on the decline, you know. 

'Addison. — Too well I know it, my dear friend, and I hinted it as delicately 
as I could. Nothing on earth besides this consideration should have induced me 
to pursue a measure in appearance so unfriendly. You must grow more 
temperate .... you really must. 

' Steele. — Mr. Addison, you did not speak so gravely and so firmly when we used 
to meet at Will's. You always drank as much as I did, and often invited and 
pressed me to continue, when I was weary, sleepy, and sick. 

* This ' Conversation ' was published in the Book of Beauty for 1834, and the one following 
in that for 1835. 



io8 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

^Addison. — You thought so, because you were drunk. Indeed, at my own 
house I have sometimes asked you to take another glass, in compliance with the 
rules of society and hospitality. 

' Steele. — Once, it is true, you did it at your house ; the only time I ever had 
an invitation to dine in it. The Countess was never fond of the wit that smells of 
wine : her husband could once endure it. 

' Addison. — We could talk more freely, you know, at the tavern. There we 
have dined together some hundred times. 

' Steele. — Most days, for many years. 

' Addison. — Ah Dick ! Since we first met there several of our friends are gone 
off the stage. 

' Steele. — And some are still acting. 

' Addison. — Forbear, my dear friend, to joke and smile at infirmities or vices. 
Many have departed from us, in consequence, I apprehend, of indulging in the 
bottle ! When passions are excited, when reason is disturbed, when reputation 
is sullied, when fortune is squandered, and when health is lost by it, a retreat is 
sounded in vain. Some can not hear it, others will not profit by it. 

' Steele. — I must do you the justice to declare, that I never saw any other 
effect of hard drinking upon you, than to make you more circumspect and silent. 

'■Addison. — If ever I urged you, in the warmth of my heart, to transgress the 
bounds of sobriety, I entreat you, as a Christian, to forgive me. 

' Steele. — Most willingly, most cordially. 

' Addison. — I feel confident that you will think of me, speak of me, and write of 
me, as you have ever done, without a diminution of esteem. We are feeble 
creatures ; we want one another's aid and assistance ; a want ordained by 
Providence, to show us at once our insufficiency and our strength. We must not 
abandon our friends from slight motives, nor let our passions be our interpreters 
in their own cause. Consistency is not more requisite to the sound Christian, 
than to the accomplished politician. 

' Steele. — I am inconsistent in my resolutions of improvement .... no man 
ever was more so ; but my attachments have a nerve in them neither to be 
deadened by ill treatment nor loosened by indulgence. A man grievously 
wounded, knows by the acuteness of the pain that a spirit of vitality is yet in him. 
I know that I retain my friendship for you by what you have made me suffer. 

'■Addison. — Entirely for your own good, I do protest, if you could see it. 

' Steele. — Alas ! all our sufferings are so ; the only mischief is, that we have 
no organs for perceiving it. 

' Addison. — You reason well, my worthy sir ; and relying on your kindness in my 
favour (for every man has enemies, and those mostly who serve their friends 
best) I say, Dick, on these considerations, since you never broke your word with 
me, and since I am certain you would be sorry it were known that only four- 
score pounds' worth could be found in the house, I renounce for the present 
the twenty yet wanting. Do not beat about for an answer ; say not one word : 
farewell. 

' Steele. — Ah ! could not that cold heart, often and long as I reposed on it, 
bring me to my senses ! I have indeed been drunken ; but it is hard to awaken 
in such heaviness as this of mine is. I shared his poverty with him ; I never 
aimed to share his prosperity. Well, well ; I can not break old habits. I love 
my glass ; I love Addison. Each will partake in killing me. Why can not I 
see him again in the arm-chair, his right hand upon his heart under the fawn- 
coloured waistcoat, his brow erect and clear as his conscience ; his wig even and 
composed as his temper, with measurely curls and antithetical top-knots,iike his 
style ; the calmest poet, the most quiet patriot ; dear Addison ! drunk, deliberate, 
moral, sentimental, foaming over with truth and virtue, with tenderness and 
friendship, and only the worse in one ruffle for the wine.' 

16. A. L. S. No date (July 7th, 1834). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — My zeal is quite evaporated for the people I hoped 
to benefit by the publication of " The Trial of Shakespeare." I find, my old 



THE BLESSINGTOIv PAPERS. 109 

school-fellow (whom, by-the-bye, I never knew, but who placed enough confidence 
in me to beg my assistance in his distress) has been gaming. Had he even tried 
but a trifle of assassination, I should have felt for him ; or, in fact, had he done 
almost anything else. But to rely on superior skill in spoliation is less pardon- 
able than to rely on superior courage, or than to avenge an affront in a sudden 
and summary way. 

[' Now a thousand thanks for the trouble you have taken. MM. Saunders and 
Otley ought to hazard nothing by me. I hope they hazard little. It would be 
dishonorable in me to accept all they offer. I will not take the entire profits. I 
will take half and shall be glad if they begin to print the volume as soon as they 
conveniently can. I will pay for the dozen copies I give my friends, for I really 
have a dozen of one kind or other.] I am highly gratified by U^ Mulgrave's* 
recollection of me. When he and Lady M. were at Florence, I received every 
ciyihty from them, very undeservedly. I hope L^i Mulgrave will soon be the 
Director of our affairs in England. There is only one office I could accept under 
him, which is that of Archbishop of Canterbury, provided I am not called to the 
Papacy. 

[' It is not impossible that, altho' Mr. Willis has sent the Conversations to 
America, a copy of the one you mention may be sent you. Julius Hare has it. 
Should he think it of a nature too little academical for the Etymological Magazme, 
I will beg him to send it you.t Indeed I think I have already expressed my wish 
to him. Whatever I write hereafter shall be entirely and solely at your disposal, 
and whatever is sent to America and shall be found useful to your elegant works, 
and not very far below the other parts of them, I will request Mr. Willis to send 
back again to England. Mr. Robinsont is German mad. The Hercynian forest 
is his classic ground. Why cannot he come into Italy, the only country upon 
earth where all the higher qualities of the mind can expatiate with full gratification. 
Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your ever obliged serv'.'] 

17. A. L. S. No date (October nth, 1834). 3 pages 410., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Before I express to you any of my fears and other 

• fancies, let me thank you for your letter — And now for the fears ; the first is that 
you have really taken the trouble to overlook the sheets of my "Examination ;" the 
next that the conferences of Spenser and Essex are not added to it. For this I 
had written an introduction which quite satisfied me, which hardly anything 
does upon the whole, though everything in part. 

' Pray reUeve me from this serious anxiety, for the Examinations and the 
Conferences, if disjoined, would break my heart. Never were two things so 
totally different in style. [There may be people enough who could have written 
either of them, but there never was but one other man who could have written both. 
I speak this from the certainty of self-knowledge, and now you will wonder that he 
who could declare this very bold thmg so plainly, declares with the same integrity 
that he is shocked at the supposition of his having the amity and impudence of 
writing his memoirs. I never cared one farthing what people thought about me, and 

* Constantine Henry Phipps, 2nd Earl Mulgrave and ist Marquis of Normanby, 1797- 
1863, a distinguished statesman, diplomatist, and politician, created a marquis in 1834. He 
married in 1818 the Hon. Maria Liddell, 1798-1882, eldest daughter of the ist Baron Ravens- 
worth. Lady Normanby was much beloved by the Queen and the members of the Royal 
Family, and at one time filled the post of Mistress of the Robes. After the death of her 
husband she retired into private life, and took up her residence at Mulgrave Castle. She was an 
accomplished linguist and musician, as well as a painter. 

t No doubt the Imaginary Conversation between Lord Mountjoy and Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald. See page 93. 

X Henry Crabb Robinson, 1775-1867, a man of letters, who was acquainted with most of 
the leading poets and nearly every personality in literature and art of his time. He was a 
prominent supporter of the Athenaeum Club and the London University. His Diary, &c., was 
published in 1869, from which it appears that he made Lander's acquaintance at Florence 
in 1830. 



no THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

I always have avoided the intercourse and notice of the world. Nevertheless, I 
would be in the dust before Mina* and Hofert if such men could be benefited by 
such prostration, and I readily stand up to be measured by those who are high 
enough to measure me — as poor Coleridge was — as Southey and Wordsworth are. 
They have done it, and as their measurement agrees, I am bound to believe it is 
correct, altho' my own fingers would have made me one inch lower. A little 
while ago I was praised only by such as these. Taylor and Lee {sic) Hunt, both 
admirable poets, have now measured me far beyond my expectations.] I did 
not believe such kind things would be said of me for at least a century to come. 
Perhaps before we meet, even fashionable persons will pronounce my name 
without an apology, and I may be patted on the head by dandies, with all the 
gloss upon their coats, and with unfrayed straps to their trousers. Who knows 
but I may be encouraged at last to write as they instruct me, and may attract all 
the gay people of the parks and parliament by my puff-paste and powder-sugar 
surface ? But then how will my older and rather more dignified patricians look upon 
me? My Caesar and Lucullus — my pleasant Peterborough — above all, my dear 
Epicurus ? No, not above all — for if my little Ternissa should frisk away from 
me, I am utterly undone. Lady Jane Grey, too, who saw so many of my tears 
fall before her, foreknowing, as I did, what must happen, — all these, in their 
various miens and voices, would upbraid me. 

' It occurs to me that authors are beginning to think it an honest thing to pay 
their debts ; and that they are debtors (as they surely are) to all by whose labour 
and charges the fields of literature hive been cleared and sown. It must be 
confessed we have been a rascally gang hitherto, for the most part, particularly 
we moralists. Few writers have said all the good they thought of others, and 
fewer have concealed the ill. They praise their friends, because their friends, it 
may be hoped, will praise them— or get them praised. As these propensities 
seem inseparable from the literary character, I have always kept aloof from 
authors where I could. Southey stands erect, and stands alone. I love him no 
less for his integrity than for his genius. No man, m. our days, has done a 
twentieth part for the glory of our literature. 

[' Do not think of sending my Examination by any private hand, unless your 
old acquaintance Sir Francis Lee will take charge of two or three copies. I 
believe he is returning to Tuscany again. Many thanks for the vast trouble you 
have been taking.'] 

18. A. L. S. (Florence, November 28th, 1834.) 3 pages 4to., with 

Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — It has quite escaped my memory whether I made 
any reply or remark on your flattering observation, that my life, written by myself, 
would interest the literary world and others. However, as you have repeated it, 
I will say a few words on the subject. I have always been cautious and 
solicitous to avoid the notice of the publick ; I mean individually and personally. 
Whatever I can write or do for their good is much at their service, and I do not 
disdain to amuse them, altho' I would not take any trouble about it. As for their 
curiosity in regard to myself, it must remain ungratified. So little did I court the 
notice of people even when young, that I gave my Latin poems, &c., to the printer 
on one only condition, namely, that he should not even advertise them in the 
papers. I never accepted an invitation to dinner in London, excepting at your 
house and Sir Charles Morgan's, once. He had taken a good deal of trouble to 

* Don Francisco Espoz y Mina, 1781-1836, a celebrated Spanish general who, his patriotism 
being aroused by the French invasion of 1808, joined the guerilla corps, and became general 
commandant. In 1814, failing in his attempt to excite an insurrection against Ferdinand VII., 
he fled to France, but returned in 1820, and was made Governor of Gallicia. In 1823 he was 
compelled to capitulate to Moncey, aud withdrew to England. He died at Barcelona. 

t Andrew Hofer, 1765-1810, a brave Tyrolese chieftain, who, in 1809, was chosen to lead 
the Tyrolese insurgents in their efforts to shake off the Bavarian yoke. In this he was success- 
ful, but, misled by a false report of a general revolt, he recommenced hostilities, and thus 
forfeited the protection of the amnesty. He concealed himself in an Alpine hut, but his retreat 
was betrayed, and he was arrested, tried by court martial, and shot. 



, THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. in 

bring thro' Parliament an Inclosure Act of mine, in which, by means of Sir 
Charles Mordaunt, Dugdale, himself. Lord Manvers and Lord Walsingham, and I 
must not forg-et Lord Oxford, I defeated the Duke of Beaufort and his family, but 
encountered so much opposition that altho' I had saved a thousand pounds for 
my purpose, hardly one shiUing was left, and my four thousand acres were and 
are still unenclosed. My own lifeholders opposed me, for there were but three free- 
holders in the parish, and very small ones. My own land was calculated at about 
eight thousand acres ; half enclosed, half not. I always hated society and 
despised opinion. Added to which, I must of necessity be a liar in writing my 
life, since to conceal a truth or give a partial evidence is to lie. I spent thirteen 
winters of my early life in Bath, which at that time was frequented by the very 
best society. I was courted in spite of my bad temper, my unconciliating 
manners (to speak gently of them) and my republican opinions, I once even 
inspired love. There is no vanity in saying it. An old man or an old woman 
may say, pointing at the fireplace, " these ashes were once wood." But there are 
two things in this world utterly unpardonable — to say and to forget by whom we have 
been beloved. My rocks of Meillerie rise up before me, but it is only in solitude that 
I will ever gaze upon them. I have nothing to do with people, nor people with 
me. A phrenologist once told me that he observed the mark of veneration on 
my head. I told him in return that I could give him a proof of it. I would hold 
the stirrup for Kosciusko,* the brandy-bottle for Hofer, the standish for Southey, 
and I declare to you upon oath that I firmly believe myself superior to any duke, 
prince, king, emperor, or pope existing, as the best of these fellows is superior to 
the most sluggish and mangy turnspit in his dominions ; and I swear to you that 
I never will be, if I can help it, where any such folks are. Why should 1 tell my 
countrymen these things? Why should I make the worst tempered nation in the 
world more sullen and morose than ever. I love good manners, and therefore 
keep out of their way, avoiding all possibility of offence. I have been reading Sir 
Egerton Brydges' Autobiography. In one of the pages I wrote down this remark : 
Poor man ! He seems to be writing in the month of January in the city of 
London, the wind north-east, with his skin off. I would not live in London the 
six winter months for a thousand pounds a week. No, not even with the privilege 
of hanging a Tory on every lamp-arm to the right, and a Whig on every one to 
the left the whole extent of Piccadilly. This goes sadly against my patriotism. 
Do not tell any of the radicals that I am grown so indifferent to the interests of 
our country. It appears that you have a change of ministry. I hope the Tories 
will leave Mr. Seymour his situation here as minister. He is the first in Tuscany 
that ever did his duty. How different from the idle profligate fiddler you 
remember here, and the insolent adventurer Dawkins. This ragamuffin, now 
minister in Greece, has lately been well described in the only work upon that 
country of any great use or merit, by Tiersch. Abundant proofs are given of his 
negligence and stupidity. Who would imagine that he had profited so little 
by living in such intimate familiarity with all the swindlers, spies, and jockeys 
in Tuscany ? However, he is much improved, I hear. If he has not clean hands, 
he has clean gloves. I have reason to believe that King Otho has been informed 
of his character and of his subservience to the arbitrary acts of Capo d' I stria. 
No news yet of the Book of Beauty nor the rest, and this is the twenty-eighth of 
November. Yours very truly.' 

19. A. L. S. Dated January 13th, 1835. 3I pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — [Your Book of Beauty is come to me this evening. 
Pardon me if I answer your letter before I look into it. Let me hope that my 

- * Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1756-1817, a brave Polish general, who accompanied Lafayette to 
America, where he obtained the rank of general. At the end of the war he returned to his 
native country, and served in the campaign of 1 792 against Russia. When the revolution broke 
out in Poland he was placed at the head of the national forces, but was defeated and taken 
prisoner to St. Petersburg, He was however released by the Emperor Paul, went to America, 
and afterwards settled first in France and then in Switzerland, where he died. His remains 
were buried at Cracow in the vaults of the Kings of Poland, 



112 ■ THE BLESSTNGTON PAPERS. 

Steel & Addison are not the best part of it — a hope that I may encourage the more 
reasonably when, running over the bill of fare, 1 find you have contributed to the 
pic-nic] Arnold is so mischievous as to shew me, this moment, the portrait of 
the Duchess of [Gordon], and to say she ought to have been put in the index or the 
notes. Sure enough, she never was a beauty. The Duke had so little idea of 
countenance, that he remarked a wonderful resemblance between me and [my wife]. 
Perhaps he thought to compliment both parties. Now you had better find a 
ghost than a resemblance. If an ugly woman is compared to a beautiful one, she 
will tell you, "This is the first time I was ever taken for an idiot." If a sensible 
woman is compared to Madame de Stael, she shews you her foot, and thanks 
God she has not yet taken to rouge. 

' I have been reading Beckford's travels and Vatheck. The last pleases me 
less than it did forty jears ago, and yet the Arabian Nights have lost none of their 
charms for me. All the learned and wiseacres in England cried out against this 
wonderful work, upon its first appearance ; Gray among the rest. Yet I doubt 
whether any man, expect Shakespeare, has afforded so much delight, if we open 
our hearts to receive it. The author of the Arabian Nights was the greatest bene- 
factor the East ever had, not excepting Mahomet. How many hours of pure 
happiness has he bestowed on six-and-twenty millions of hearers. All the 
springs of the desert have less refreshed the Arabs than those delightful tales, 
and they cast their gems and genii over our benighted and foggy regions. 

' B., in his second letter, says that two or three of Rosa da Tivoli's (landscapes) .' 
merit observation, and in the next he scorns P. Potter. Now all Rosa da Tivoli's 
works are not worth a blade of grass from the hand of P. Potter. The one was a 
consummate artist ; the otlier one of the coarsest that ever bedaubed a canvas. 
He talks of " the worst roads that tvtr pre/ended to be made use of," and of a dish 
of tea, without giving us the ladle or the carving knife for it. When I read such 
things I rub my eyes, and awaken my recollections. I not only fancy that I am 
older than I am in reality (which is old enough in all conscience), but that I have 
begun to lose my acquaintance with our idiom. Those who desire to write upon 
light matters gracefully must read with attention the writings of Pope, Lady 
M. W. Montague, and Lord Chesterfield — three ladies of the first water. 

' I am sorry you sent my " Examination" by a private hand. [All your own 
books, for which I waited w* much more anxiety, were left upon the road.] I 
never in my life sent even a note by a private hand. [Innumerable ships are 
sailing every month to Italy. The expense is small, and if it were great it 
would not at all affect me.] Nothing affects me but pain and disappointment. 
Hannah More say, "There are no evils in the world but sin and bile." They 
fall upon me very unequally. I would give a good quantity of bile for a trifle 
of sin, and yet my philosophy would induce me to throw it aside. No man ever 
began so early to abolish hopes and wishes. Happy he, who is resolved to 
walk with Epicurus on his right and Epictetus on his left, and to shut his ears to 
every other voice along the road.' 

20. A. L. S. No date (Ruthin, February 28th, 1835). i page 4to., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — On my way thro' London I found that you had 
left town for York, where I hope you were delighted with the musick. A friend of 
mine is collecting all he can find of my writings. I have given him this Parable, but 
on condition that you shall publish it first, if you think it worth a place in the Book 
oj Beauty. I do not see why an angel should not find a place there. You will 
hear of something more by me before long. People will cry out against it, and 
yet it is worse than my Examination. I am resolved not to write worse stilL . I 
will not attempt to catch popularity. If I must really bend lower let the pitcher 
fall and break. Very sincerely yours.' 

21. A. L. S. No date (March i6th, 1835). i\ pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — After a year or more I receive your reminiscences 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 113 

of Byron. Never, for the love of God, send anything again by a Welshman, 
I mean nothing literary. Lord Dinorben's* brother, like Lord Dinorben, is a 
very good man, and if you had sent me a cheese, would have delivered it 
safely in due season. But a book is a thing that does not spoil so soon. Alas ! 
how few are there who know the aches of expectancy, when we have long been 
looking up high for some suspended gift of bright imagination. 

' Thanks upon thanks for making me think Byron a better and a wiser man 
than I had thought him. Since this precious volume, I have been reading the 
English Opium-Eater's Recollections of Coleridge, a genius of the higher order, 
even in poetry. 

' I was amused (when I was a youth I sh* have been shocked and disquieted) 
at his solutiont of Pythagoras's enigma on beans. 

' When I was at Oxford I wrote my opinion on the origin of the religion of 
the Druids. It appeared to me that Pythagoras, who settled in Italy, and who 
had many followers in the Greek colony of the Phocffians at Marseilles, had 
engrafted on a barbarous and bloodthirsty religion the humane doctrine of the 
Metempsychosis. 

' It would have been vain to say. Do not murder, no people ever minded this 
doctrine ; but he frightened the savages by saying, if you are cruel even to beasts 
and insects, the cruelty will fall upon yourself, you shall be the same. In this 
disquisition, I gave exactly the same solution as (it appears) Coleridge gave. 
Our friend ParrJ was delighted with it, and beyond a doubt, it remains among my 
letters, &c. sent to him. I did not allow any of these to be published by Doctor 
John Johnston,§ his biographer, who asked my permission. Infinite as are the 
pains I take in composing and correcting my " Imaginary Conversations" (having 
no right to make other people speak and think worse than they did), I may 
indulge all my natural idleness in regard to myself. [Unless in matters of 
business, I do not remember that I ever read over a letter of mine. Yes, I must 
make one exception — affairs of love, particularly the quarrelsome parts of them, 
just before the barometer sinks]. 

' Mr. Robinson, the soundest man that ever stepped through the trammels of 
law, gave me, a few days ago, the sorrowful information that another of our 
great writers has joined Coleridge. Poor Charles Lamb, what a tender, good, 
joyous heart had he ! What playfulness ! what purity of style and thought ! 
His sister is yet living, much older than himself. One of her tales [in Mrs. 
Leicester's School] is, with the sole exception of the " Bride of Lammermoor," the 
most beautiful tale in prose composition in any language, ancient or modern. 
A young girl has lost her mother, the father marries again, and marries a 
friend of his former wife. The child is ill reconciled to it, but being dressed in 
new clothes for the marriage, she runs up to her mother's chamber, filled with the 
idea how happy that dear mother would be at seeing her in all her glory — not 
reflecting, poor soul ! that it was only by her mother's death that she appeared 
in it. How natural, how novel is all this ! Did you ever imagine that a fresh 
source of the pathetik would burst forth before us in this trodden and hardened 
world? I never did, and when I found myself upon it, I pressed my temples 
with both hands, and tears ran down to my elbows. 

' The Opium-eater calls Coleridge " the largest and most spacious intellect, 
the subtlest and most comprehensive that has yet existed among men." Impiety 
to Shakspeare ! treason to Milton ! I give up the rest, even Bacon. Certainly, 
since their days, we have seen nothing at all comparable to him. Byron and 

* William Lewis Hughes, Lord Dinorben, 1767-1S52, created a baron in 1831. 

t The ' solution ' referred to is in De Quincey's Recollections of the Lakes and Lake Poets, 
where it is stated that Coleridge plagiarised it from a German author. Dr. Madden has printed 
bears instead of beans. The disquisition on Pythagoras is introduced by Landor into his Pericles 
and Aspasia, published in 1836. 

% Dr. Samuel Parr, 1787-1825, the well-known pedagogue, the friend and correspondent of 
nearly all the literary men of his day, and was the champion and chaplain of Queen Caroline. 

§ Dr. John Johnstone, 1 768-1 836, the physician and intimate friend and biographer 
of Parr. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and had a large practice in 
Birmingham. He was the author, besides Part's Memoirs, of some works on medical subjects. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Scott were but as gun-flints to a granite mountain; Wordsworth has one angle 
of resemblance ; Southey has written more, and all well, much admirably. 
Fonblanque* has said grand things about me ; but I sit upon the earth with my 
heels under me, looking up devoutly to this last glorious ascension. Never ask 
me about the rest. If you do, I shall only answer in the cries that you are very 
likely to hear at this moment from your window, "Ground ivy! ground ivyl 
ground ivy ! " — 

' Cannot you teach those about you to write somewhat more purely ? I am 
very fastidious. Three days ago I was obliged to correct a friend of mine, a man 
of fashion, who so far forgot the graces, to say of a lady, " I have not often been 
in her company." " Say presence, we are in the company of men, in the 
presence of angels and of women." 

' Let me add a few verses as usual : 
' Pleasures — away ! Ihey please no more : 

Friends — are they what they were before ? 

Loves — they are very idle things, 

The best about 'em are their wings. 

The dance — 'tis what the bear can do ; 

Music — I hate your music too. 

Whene'er these witnesses that time 

Hath snatch'd the chaplet from our prime 

Are called by nature (as we go 



With eyes more weary, step more slow), 
And will be heard, and noted down. 
However we may fret or frown ; 
Shall we desire to leave the scene 
Where all our former joys have been ? 
No ! 'twere ungrateful and unwise : 
But when die down our charities 
For human weal and human woes, 
'Tis then the hour our days should close.' 

[' I forgot to say, what, indeed, is not worth saying, that] my disquisition on 
Pythagoras arose from finding the law-giver (as he is called) of the Gauls to 
have been named Samoies. Now Samiotes would mean the Samiot, and 
Pythagoras was of Samos. Although I never keep what I write, hating the labour 
of transcribing, and never having a good pen in the house, yet I believe one of my 
brothers has taken a copy of this boyish production. I do not wonder that 
Coleridge and I should have often gone into the same train of thought. I 
have usually thrown myself dovi'n when I have found some pleasant spot to rest 
in, and have looked about me quietly and complacently — he has gone quite 
thro', and has sometimes lost himself, and has pften reached the outskirts, and 
shuddered (which he needed not to have done) at the briary hedge and barren 
termination.' 



22. A. L. S. No date (April 25th, 1835). t,^ pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

[' Out of thy books, O Beauty, I had been 
For many a year. 
Till she who reigns on earth thy lawful queen 
Replaced me there. 

' A thousand thanks for the Repealers and the Two Friends. I did not rise 
up from any of the volumes until I had finished it. They reached me but four 
days ago. Something I do hope I may be able to furnish for your next volume 
of the Book of Beauty. If Mr. Willis should get back from America my Imaginary 
Conversations, there are one or two unpublished which I think would do. A 
third between Petrarch and Boccaccio better than the other two, and one between 
Milton and Archbishop Parker. Verses written on : — 

" I have not forgotten your favorite old tune, will you hear it ? " 

' Come, sprinkle me that music o'er the breast, 

Bring me the varied colours into light 
That now obscurely on its marble rest. 

Shew me its flowers and figures, fresh and bright. 

'Waked at thy voice and touch, again the chords 
Restore what envious years had moved away, 
Restore the glowing cheeks, the tender words, 
Youth's vernal morn, and Pleasure's summer day. 



Dr. Madden has printed this name Forsler. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 115 

' In the " Quest after Honour," after 

' At this they shook their heads and went their ways : 
Add : 

The swimmers in the stream of poHticks, 

That keep each other down, where none float high 

But who are rotten, shouted in my ear, 

"Come hither, here is Honour; on this side; 

He hates the other." 

' I past on, nor lookt. 
Knowing the voices well ; they troubled me 
Vociferating. I searcht for willow wand 
To scourge and silence the importunates, 
And turn'd me round. Lo, they were all upon 
The further bank, and, basking in the sun, 
Mock'd at me, and defied me to cross o'er, 
And broke their cakes and gave their curs the crumbs. 
Weary with wanderings — 

' I do not think you ever knew Charles Lamb, who is lately dead. Robinson 
took me to see him. 

'Once, and once only, have I seen thy face, 
Elia, once only has thy tripping tongue 
Run o'er my heart, yet never has been left 
Impression on it stronger and more sweet. 
Cordial old man, what youth was in thy years. 
What wisdom in thy levity, what soul 
In every utterance of thy purest breast ! 
Of all that ever wore man's form, 'tis there 
I first would spring to at the gate of heaven. 

' I say tripping tongue, for Charles Lamb stammered and spoke hurriedly. 
He did not think it worth his while to put on a fine new coat to come down and 
see me, as poor Coleridge did, but met me as if I had been a friend of twenty 
years' standing. Indeed, he told me I had been so, and shewed me some things 
I had written long ago and had utterly forgotten. The world will never see again 
two such delightful volumes as the Essays of Elia — no man living is capable of 
writing the worst twenty pages of them. The Continent has Zadig and Gil Bias; 
we have Elia and 5'' Roger de Coverley.'] 

' I am inclined to hope and believe that the Repealers may do good. Pardon 
me smiling at your expression, the only one perhaps not original in the book, 
going to the root of the evil. This is always said about the management of 
Ireland. Alas ! the root of the evil lies deeper than the centre of the earth. 

'Two things must be done, and done soon. It must be enacted that any 
attempt to separate one part of the United Kingdom from the other is treason. 
Secondly, no churchman, excepting the two Archbishops and the Bishop of 
London, shall enjoy more than twelve hundred pounds yearly from the Church, 
the remainder being vested in government for the support of the poor. Formerly 
the clergy and the poor were joint tenants, nay, the clergy distributed among the 
poor more than half. Even in the territories of the Pope himself, the bishoprics, 
one with another, do not exceed eight hundred a-year, and certainly a fifth, at 
least, is distributed among the needy. What a scandal ! that an admiral who 
has served fifty years, and endangered his life in fifty actions, should receive but 
a twentieth part of what is thrown into the surplice of some cringing college 
tutor, whose services two hundred a year would over-pay ! I am afraid that 
Sir Robert Peel's quick eye may overlook this. Statesmen, like goats, live the 
most gaily among inequalities.' 

23. A. L. S. No date (1835). 3;^ pages 4to., with Superscription. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I have returned but five minutes from Bath. I 
do not send back the proof sheet because it is quite correct. 

' I too must be as much of a Hattaji as I may be. I cannot leave my children 
where they are, nor with those they are. You will see me again in eight days, 
for one or two, if you have room for me. Ever your obliged.' 



Ii6 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

24. A. L. S. No date (December 31st, 1835). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — The Book of Beauty is under one hand, while, 
it requires no conjuror to tell you, I am writing this with the other. Since 
I had the pleasure of reading your ast kind letter, I have been travelling 
about occasionally, and hoped to spend my Christmas at Clifton. There 
are some old thoughts resting upon Bath ; but Bath is no longer what 
it was to any one, and least of all to me. Clifton is the best climate on 
this side of Nice, and climate is everything to so Italianized a piece of 
machinery as I am. Poor Cell ! I grieve that he is losing his spirits ; they used 
to rise above his health, and now flag under it. The natural reflection is — he is 
only two years older than myself^but natural reflections are mostly selfish and 
often stupid ones. I would wish him to live on, were it only to keep me in 
countenance. Did you ever hear this rude phrase before ? It was once said to 
me at dinner by Major D. I could not help replying that it was easier to keep 
him in it, than put him out of it. Which made him ponder. 

' What brilliant things you promise me ! I was curious to see Coleridge, I was 
desirous to see Lamb, I am anxious to see Fonblanque. To read the Examiners 
I have laid aside Steel and Defoe. I would not do the same for any other of the 
moderns. Of course, I mean the prose writers. And yet among the moderns, after 
all, there are greater men than among the ancients. None of these come 
within a world or two of Bacon ; none could have written Zadig. You ask me 
how Wales appears to me after Italy. My house is the most delightfully situated 
of any in Tuscany, and contains the greatest number of good pictures after 
Palazzo Pitti, yet the vale of Clewyd has also its charms. My old abbey at 
Llantony, which I never think of visiting again, has scenery about it equal to 
any on the Appennines, but, alas ! it has also fogs, snows, and Welshmen. When 
April comes, I hope to make my bow in Seamore Place. 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, very sincerely.' 

' Many happy new years ! This is the last day of the departing.' 

25. A. Article S. No date (1835). 2 pages 4to. 
'Parable of Asabel.— Chapter I. 

' Asabel in his youth had been of those who place their trust in God, and he 
prospered in the land, and many of his friends did partake of his prosperity. 

' After a length of years it came to pass that he took less and less delight in 
the manifold gifts of God, for that his heart grew fat within him, and knew not 
any workday for its work ; nor did thankfulness enter into it, as formerly to 
awake the sluggard. 

'Nevertheless did Asabel praise and glorify the Almighty both morning and 
evening, and did pray unto Him for the continuance and increase of His loving 
mercies ; and did call himself, as the godly are wont to do, miserable sinner and 
leper, and worm and dust. 

' And all men did laud Asabel, inasmuch as being clothed in purple and 
smelling of spikenard he was a leper, and worm, and dust. And many did 
come from far regions to see that dust, and that worm, and that leper ; and did 
marvel at him, and did bow their heads, and did beseech of God that they might 
be like unto him. 

' But God inclined not his ear, and they returned unto their own country. 

'Chapter II. 

' And behold, it came to pass that an angel from above saw Asabel go forth 
from his house. 

'And the angel did enter and did seat himself in the seat of Asabel. 

'After a while, a shower fell in many drops upon the plane-tree at the gate 
and upon the hyssop thereby, and over the field nigh unto the dwelling. 

' Whereon did Asabel hasten him back, and coming into the doorway he saw 
another seated upon his seat, who arose not before him, but said only, " Peace 
unto thee ! " 

' Asabel was wroth, and said, " Lo ! the rain abateth, the sun shineth through 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 117 

it. If thou wilt eat bread, eat ; if thou wilt drink water, drink ; but having 
assuaged thy hunger and thy thirst, depart ! " 

' Then said the angel unto Asabel, " I will neither eat bread nor drink water 
under thy roof, O Asabel, forasmuch as thou didst send therefrom the master 
whom I serve." 

' And now the wrath of Asabel waxed hotter, and he said, " Neither thy 
master nor the slave of thy master have I sent away, not knowing nor having 
seen either." 

' Then rose the angel from the seat, and spake : " Asabel ! Asabel ! thy God 
hath filled thy house with plenteousness. Hath he not verily done this and more 
unto thee ? " 

'And Asabel answered him and said, "Verily the Lord my God hath done 
this and more unto His servant. Blessed be His name for ever !" 

' Again spake the angel : 

' "He hath given thee a name among thy people, and many by His guidance 
have come unto thee for counsel and for aid." 

' " Counsel have I given, aid also have I given," said Asabel, " and neither he 
who received it nor he who gave it hath repented himself thereof" 

' Then answered the angel : 

' " The word that thou speakest is indeed the true word. But answer me in 
the name of the Lord thy God. 

' " Hath not thy soul been further from Him as thy years and His benefits 
increased ? The more and the more wisdom (in thy estimation of it) He 
bestowed upon thee hast thou not been the more proud, the more selfish, the 
more disinclined to listen unto the sorrows and wrongs of men ? " 

' And Asabel gazed upon him, and was angered that a youth should have 
questioned him, and thought it a shame that the eyes of the young should see 
into the secrets of the aged, and stood reproved before him. 

' But the angel took him by the hand and spake thus : " Asabel ! behold the 
fruit of all the good seed thy God hath given thee. Pride springing from wealth, 
obduracy from years, and from knowledge itself uncontrollable impatience and 
inflexible perversity. Couldst thou not have employed those things much better ? 
Again I say it, thou hast driven out the God that dwelt with thee ; that dwelt 
within thy house, within thy breast ; that gave thee much for thyself, and 
entrusted thee with more for others. Having seen thee abuse, revile, and send 
him thus away from thee, what wonder that I, who am but the lowest of His 
ministers, and who have bestowed no gifts upon thee, should be commanded to 
depart ! " Asabel covered his eyes, and when he raised them up again, the angel 
no longer was before him. 

' " Of a truth," said he, and smote his breast, " it was the angel of the Lord.'' 
And then did he shed tears. But they fell into his bosom after a while like 
refreshing dew, bitter as were the first of them. And his heart grew young again, 
and felt the head that rested on it ; and the weary in spirit knew as they had 
known before the voice of Asabel. Thus wrought the angel's gentleness upon 
him, even as the quiet and silent water wins itself an entrance where tempest and 
fire pass over. It is written that other angels did look up with loving and 
admiration into the visage of this angel on his return ; and he told the younger 
and more zealous of them that whenever they would descend into the gloomy 
vortex of the human heart, under the softness and serenity of their voice and 
countenance, its turbulence would subside. 

' " Beloved ! " said he, " there are portals open to the palm branches we carry, 
and that close at the flaming sword.'"* 

26. A. L. S. Dated March 29th, 1836. 2\ pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I never think so highly pf my powers of imagination 
as while I am reading your letters. They always make me fancy I hear and 
almost see you. Not being a Correggio, in the latter faculty I must be some- 
what imperfect. 

* This parable was published in the Book of Beauty for 1836, but Lady Blessington acknow- 
ledged the receipt of it in a letter to Landor, printed by Dr. Madden under date October 1st, 1835. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Many thanks for the Examiner, but I had read it, and returned my warmest 
thanks for it to Mr. Fonblanque. It is the only periodical work that is regularly 
sent me. And now do not let your kindness prompt you to send me any other, for 
I care not one straw what all the rest say about me, good or ill. Pray, can you get 
me back those papers and books you mention, for although you tell me they are 
in London, you do not tell me where, or what I am to set about for their recovery. 
Perhaps in the last volume, the unpublished one, we may be able to find some- 
thing not unfit for the Book of Beauty. You cannot doubt how happy and proud 
I shall be to be your guest. If you should not have left London in the beginning 
of May, do not be shocked at hearing that a cab is come to the door with a fierce- 
looking old man in it. Remember you have promised to present me to Mr. 
Fonblanque. May I take the liberty to write on the other side,* what I conceive 
will ensure the consignment of the manuscript aud volumes to you. Believe me, 
most faithfully and sincerely, your obliged.' 

27. A. L. S. No date (April 2nd, 1836). i page 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington.— Here is a note from Mr. Willis. I shall return no 
answer whatsoever. The only use of it is to get back the books and papers. 
But pray keep it for me. 

' How could you have been so mischievous as to tell Lord Lyndhurst to frank 
a letter to me ? Did Lysimachus require an opera-glass ? 

' There is not a man in existence I less esteem than that. The reason why I 
remain here until the end of the first week in May, or about it, is that I wrote to 
Mrs. Paynter, sister of Lord Aylmer, that I should. She has been near losing an 
amiable daughter, and will be at Bath about the beginning of May, I hear. 

' Do not turn my head by flattering me so much : I would rather delight my 
friends than have Fame and her whole temple. And you above others may 
believe this of your ever obliged.' 

28. A. L. No date (July 6th, 1836). 3^ pages 4to., with Superscription 

and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I must appear to you under the double crime of 
ingratitude and impoliteness when, after so much hospitality and kindness, I 
went away from London without taking leave. The fact is, I had desired a place 
might be bespoken for me by the three o'clock coach, and it was booked by the 
seven o'clock. So I lost one more delightful walk with you round your gardens. 
I have engaged my lodgings here at Clifton for three weeks — afterwards I go to 
visit a few of my nearest relatives, none of whom I have seen since my return 
to England. C3n my way hither I spent a day at Oxford, and another at 
Cheltenham. Last evening I unpacked my volumes and manuscripts. They 
are in sad confusion — probably I left them so. It would be an easier and a 
pleasanter business to write fresh ones, than to arrange and decipher these. 
Perhaps I may attempt both when I recover the use of my senses. The rattle of 
carriages is still sounding in my ears, and my brains are floating in the fumes 
of a coal-pit, with no Davy-lamp to save me. Do there remain any more 
luxuriant shoots to be pruned in those rich poems ? Why should I ask ? If they 
do, I have only a knife at your service ; I want the discernment and the discerner 
among my rubbish. I found on the back of an old letter some mischievous lines 
on Lord Hatherton.t He is only a coxscomb, no worse. He served for Secretary 
in Ireland, where anything serves for anything : — 



' Suspicions fall 
On grey Glengall % 
When Spite and Falsehood speak ill, 



When we hear wit, 
We father it 
On Alvanley § or Jekyl. 



* The writing on the other side is as follows : ' Not knowing exactly where my manuscript 
and volumes are, which I consigned some six months since to Mr. Willis, and heard were lost, 
but find are not, I beg that they may be given to Lady Blessington. Walter Savage Landor.' 

t Edward John Walhouse, afterwards Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton, 1791-1863, for 
many years M.P. for Staffordshire, and in 1834 Chief Secretary for Ireland. 

X Richard Butler, 2nd Earl of Glengall, 1794-1858, a representative peer for Ireland. 

§ William Arden, 2nd Baron Alvanley, 1789-1849, a lieutenant-colonel in the army. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS, 



119 



He unites the best qualities of the richest 



'In whate'er matter So large loquacit), 

There's idle chatter So small capacity, 

We're apt to father 't on Has luckless Hatherton. 

The luckless Hatherton, Luckless Hatherton ! 

' These other came into my head on hearing Talfourd say that Lady Holland 
had an affection of the heart. It was with difficulty I could abstain from repeating- 
them at the moment :— 

' Our steam navigation 
And blood's circulation 
Are wonders in Science and Art. 
Far greater his nous 
The physician's who shows 
In Holland's old spouse 
A heart ! an affection of heart.' 

29. A. L. S. No date (July nth, 1836). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— To-day I finisht a second reading of Barry Corn- 
wall's* poems. Scarcely any tether can bring my nose down to that rank 
herbage which is springing up about us in our aftermath of poetry. But how 

fresh and sweet is Barry Cornwall's! " ' " " 

moderns and the purest ancients. 

[' Here are some lines to him : — 
' Barry ! your spirit long ago 
Has haunted me ; at last I know 
The heart it springs from ; one more sound 
Ne'er rested on poetic ground. 
But, Barry Cornwall, by what right 
Wring you my breast and dim my sight, 
And make me wish at every touch 
My poor old hand could do as much ? 
No other in these later times 
Hath bound me in so potent rhymes. 
I have observed the curious dress 
And jewelry of brave Queen Bess, 
But always found some o'er-charged thing, 
Some flaw in even the brightest ring. 
Admiring in her men of war 
A rich but too argute guitar. 
Our foremost now are more prolix, 
And scrape with three-ell fiddlesticks. 
And, whether bound for griefs or smiles. 
Are slow to turn as crocodiles. 
Once, every court and country bevy 
Chose the gallants of loins less heavy. 
And would have laid upon the shelf 
Him who could talk but of himself. 
Reason is stout ; but even reason 
May walk too long in Rhyme's hot season. 
I have heard many folks aver 



They have caught horrid colds with her. 

Imagination's paper kite. 

Unless the string is held in tight, 

Whatever fits and starts it takes. 

Soon bounces on the ground and breaks. 

You, placed afar from each extreme, 

Nor dully drowse nor wildly dream, 

But ever flowing with good humour 

Are bright as Spring and warm as Summer. 

Mid your Penates not a word 

Of scorn or ill-report is heard ; 

Nor is there any need to pull 

A sheaf or truss from cart too full, 

Lest it o'er-load the horse, no doubt. 

Or clog the road by falling out. 

We who surround a common table 

And imitate the fashionable. 

Wear each two eye-glasses : this lens 

Shows us our faults, that other men's. 

We do not care how dim may be 

This by whose aid our own we see ; 

But ever anxiously alert 

Th.it all may have their whole desert. 

We would melt down the stars and sun 

In our heart's furnace, to make one 

Through which the enlightened world might 

A mote upon a brother's eye. [spy 



' I pen these lines upon that cypher'd cover 
(Gift, I will answer for it, of some lover) 

Which you have opened for me more than once ; 
And, when you told me I must write therein, 
And found me somewhat tardy to begin, 

Call'd me but idler, tho' you thought me dunce. 

' Ah ! this was very kind in you, sweet maiden ! 
But, sooth to say, my paniers are not laden 
With half the wares they bore 
In days of yore. 



* Bryan Waller Proctor, 1787-1874, a poet and man of letters, who published his works 
under the pseudonym of Barry Cornwall. He was called to the Bar in 1831, and became one of 
the Commissioners of Lunacy. The first edition of his English Songs and other Small Poems 
was published in 1832. 



I20 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Beside, you will believe me when I say 

That many madcap dreams and urchin fancies, 

As old dame Wisdom with her rod advances. 
Scamper away. 
And now I will finish my strawberries and cream, which I began at the same 
time with the first of these. I find they have had just time enough to curdle.'] 

30. A. L. S. No date (August 8th, 1836). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington,— Have you ever read the poems of Miss Barrett?* 
If you have, I doubt whether you will be inclined to think the frame of her 
mind at all adapted to the Book of Beauty. Latterly, I hear, she is become quite 
absorbed in her devotional contemplations. I never saw her but once. It was 
at my friend Kenyon's, and I conversed with her only for about ten minutes. 
Hearing that she was an excellent Greek scholar, I gave her a few Greek verses, 
which I happened to recollect at the moment, and which I think were among the 
last I had written. However, I will not delay my inquiries of Kenyon whether 
she will compose something, or whether she has anything already composed which 
may be inserted in the Book of Beauty. 

' I will also ask Richard Milnes.t who writes admirably. I gave him a trans- 
lation from Madame de Genlis,J so that I may venture to ask him, and I feel 
assured he will not refuse me. At present I do not know where he is. He was 
at Lord Northampton's § when he wrote to me and asked for the contribution for 
Lord N., to whom otherwise I should not have given it. Probably your Ladyship 
has received my satire. It reached me yesterday. The compositor, as usual, 
has taken the trouble to try to improve me. 

p. 12. Blither he. 'h2iS made "brighter." I p. 28. ^ land, twiceoverhemakes "The." 
p. 13. English /z^« "pen." 1 p. 32. A Spencer o'er he makes "on." 

p. 24. The swift " strong." I p. 34. Sittks to is an oversight of mine, 

I not his ; it should be "yields" to. 

' Each is equally good, but sinks is used a little before. 

' God grant that this mild weather may remove all the irritation from your 
trachea. When I was in Paris in the beginning of the century, I had it, and cured 
it hy pate de guimauve. Pray try it. 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your ever obliged friend and serv'.' 

' I have delayed so long to write, only because I had some hopes that Mr. 
Milnes would have written to me again, and that I might so have known his 
present address, and have written for a piece of poetry.' 

31. A. L. S. Dated ' Manheim, September 12' (1836). 2| pages 4to., 
with Superscription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I have this instant your very kind letter of the 
twenty-fourth of August. To-night I shall transcribe the last sheet of my third 
and final interview of Petrarca and Boccaccio. 

' Could not your Ladyship contrive to give a place this year (forthcoming) to 
the Dream? It is the crown of my volume, but I wish it first to be exhibited at 
your jewellers. I have not yet heard from Italy. It is well I have some- 

* Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1 806-1 861, the celebrated poetess, whose first poems were 
published in 1827. In 1846 she married the poet Robert Browning. Her works are too well ' 
known and recent to need any particular mention. 

t Richard Monckton Milnes, ist Baron Houghton, 1809-1885, a well-known verse-writer, 
man of letters, and politician. His poetry was written principally between 1S34 and 1844; his 
most considerable prose work, Monographs, Personal and Social, was published in 1873. He 
was M.P. for Pontefract from 1837 to 1863, in which year he was raised to the peerage, and was 
a trustee of the British Museum. 

X Felicite Ducrest, Countess de Genlis, 1746-1830, a. celebrated French woman of letters, 
governess of the children of the Duke de Chartres. She wrote her memoirs when she was over 
eighty years of age. 

§ Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2nd Marquis of Northampton, 1790-1851, eldest son of 
the 1st Marquis, whom he succeeded in 1828. He was President of the Royal Society. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 121 

thing to do, and nothing could be better than what used to be my horror and 
aversion — the business of transcribing. I have been greatly censured for my 
dialogue of Lord Eldon. My good and sensible friend Mrs. Dashwood •'■regrets 
that I should have written it, as poor Lord Eldon is no longer a public man, and 
eighty years old." My answer was, the devil is older. 

' I was resolved to write this conversation from a story that Mr. Seymour told 
me at Florence. Lord Eldon had a daughter who formed an attachment to a 
young clergyman of the highest respectability. She married him. For several 
months, eight or ten, they were in distress, almost misery. At last, after various 
and most penitential and pathetic appeals to this unnatural father, he sent her 
twenty pounds, "that she might not starve,'' as she said they were doing. All the 
political crimes, and nearly all the moral, that can be conceived fall infinitely 
short of this barbarity.* 

' I have been curtailing my Petrarca and Boccaccio ; yet, much against my 
will, I have been forced to make room again for many of my curtailments. I 
have only been able to strike out a few pages of criticisms on Dante— there are 
many left. My best regards to Count D'Orsay. I am ever your Ladyship's 
obliged serv'.' 

' Your letter was sent by mistake to Guernsey.' 

32. A. L. S. Dated 'Ibbotson's Hotel, Thursday evening' (October 
6th, 1836). 2 pages 4to., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I arrived here in such utter disarray, and so vilely 
out of spirits, in the dark, that I could not in my conscience present myself at Gore 
House. God grant that nothing may remain of your indisposition. Early to-morrow 
morning I must go to Clifton, where I have been expected these last four days. 
Sadness ought never to be where you are, and yet I must have brought it. I 
return quite alone — the cholera is the plea why none of my children were allowed 
to meet me in Tyrol. To-morrow I shall roll myself up like a hedge-hog for six 
months. I am most anxious to hear that you are quite well again. Pray tell me 
how Mrs. Fairlie's book goes on, and say something of her sweet little girl. This 
melancholy weather would certainly make me throw myself into the Thames, if I 
were to remain near it ; and yet the throw is an idle one, for the air itself is a 
Thames, Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your ever obed' and obliged.' 

33. A. L. S. No date (Clifton, October 21st, 1836). 3 pages 4to., 
with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — In my hasty transit thro' London, I wrote your 
Ladyship a few lines, apologizing for not paying my respects. With disappoint- 
ment, fatigue, illness, and pestilential fog, I was half dead. I reached the hotel in 
Vere Street at nearly six, dined, went to bed at nine, rose at eight, and reached 
this place about the same hour in the evening. Yesterday I had a letter from 
Saunders and Otley, to whom I had sent another volume for publication. They 
decline it, telling me that they are losers of 150 by the Pericles. A young author 
would be vexed. 1 wrote them by this post as follows : " Gentlemen, you judge 
very rightly i7t supposing thai nothing of niijie can be popidar. I regret that for 
the preserit yotc are subject to a considerable loss by the Pericles. I never can 
allow any one to be a los(r by me, on which principle {if 071 no other) I would never 
play a game at cards. Perhaps a few more copies, though probably very few, may 
be sold within another year. At all events, at the end of the Jiext, I will make 
goodyour loss. T am also in your debt for the ''Letters of a Conservative^'' which 
have lately been reviewed in Germany by Dr. Paulus. But in England they do 
not appear to be worth the notice of the learned world, or the political. Be pleased 

* Landor must have been misinformed by some one who confused Eldon's eldest daughter 
with the younger. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, ran away to be married to Mr. Repton in 
1817, so much to her father's annoyance that he refused to he reconciled to her until 1820. The 
younger daughter married the Rev. Edward Bankes, and Sir Horace Twiss remarks, in his 
Life of Lord Eldon, that he ' thenceforward kept up a correspondence with her so frequent, so 
minute, and so unreserved as almost to take the character of a diary.' 



122 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

to let me tuiow what I am in your debt for the publication and the books you sent 
me, that I may discharge this ■portion of it immediately.^^ 

' I now rejoice that I reserved for my own expenditure only 200 a year, and that I 
have not deprived my wife of her horses, nor my sons of theirs, nor of anything 
else they had been used to. I never feel a great pleasure in doing what anybody 
else can do. It would puzzle a good many to save 50 out of 200 in one year. 
The rest must come out of my estate, which I am clearing of its encumbrances 
very fast. I hear that if I had not formerly placed it in the hands of the vilest 
rascal in Wales, one Gabb, it would, even in these bad times, with 35 per cent 
deducted, have brought me a clear income of ^4000. In that case, what pleasure 
could I possibly have had in writing my letter to MM. Saunders and Otley ! 

' But I am losing sight of my object. It was to place this publication and my 
" Interview of Petrarca and Boccaccio" (which I will send when I have transcribed 
it) wholly at your Ladyship's disposal. If there is anything passable in either, do 
what you please with it, and burn the rest. Very sincerely, dear Lady Blessington, 
your obliged sei'v'.' 

34. A. L. S. Dated ' Penrose Cottage, Clifton, Wednesday 26 ' (October, 
1836). 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— I have hardly been able to make up my mind, 
in three whole days, about the offer of my " Nineteen Audiences '' to some 
publisher. It is impossible that anything in this world can succeed with me. 
There are, however, some of the trade who possess the means of giving a work 
notoriety. If any one of these is hazardous enough to undertake mine, I would 
let him have it on any conditions. 

' God grant that you may quite recover your health before the winter sets in. 
Before it ends, which I think in London is a short time before the dog-days, it 
would dehght me above all things to be able to pay your Ladyship my respects. 
Are you about anything in which I can be of the slightest service to you ? If 
you are, exercise your right and confer a fresh pleasure on your ever obliged.' 

3.5. A. L. S. Dated Clifton, October 30th (1836). 2% pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— How dare you write so well ? You must really stop 
here, or we shall begin to tug at your statue though it crush us. I shall be first 
at it, by right — as having been the most kindly treated by you. I grieve'for the 
fox. I cannot think it was in his nature to smell much amiss. You have borne 
sheep, you have borne cream-cheeses, and others. These now, these are really 
among the persecutions of the Christians. I was once in the midst of a flock of 
sheep in a narrow and hollow lane, they going to be sheared. The spirit of 
Don Quixote entered into me, and had 1 been armed, I -should have been most 
sanguinary. This word reminds me of the late Mr. Lucy, who paid his addresses 
to Sophia Vernon, a cousin of mine, who afterwards married Mr. Shuckbury. He 
was a greater fool and more ridiculous in his figure than his great progenitor. 
She burst out laughing at him. " Miss Sophia," said he, " I did entertain the most 
sanguinary hopes." However, she could not let him put them into execution. 

' Pray thank good, kind Count D'Orsay for his note. 

' Lord Lindhurst does me an unmerited honour in sending me his eloquent 
speech. I hope my answer is a becoming one. As I have not yet folded it, I 
will transcribe it.* Your ever obliged.' 

36. A. L. S. No date (November 13th, 1836). 2 pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — [Pray do not give yourself any further trouble about 

* The following is the answer referred to : — ' My Lord, — I am greatly flattered by a person 
of your distinction sending me his writings, and I trust your Lordship will not attribute this 
sentiment to the rank you hold in Society, but to the singular and surpassing abiUties which 
command it. Never can I be insensible to such eloquence, nor to an elevation of mind over- 
looking such a wide divergency in politics.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 123 

the publication of I declare I have forgotten the title of the thing I sent 

you. Such and better I have thrown into the fire. Why not this ? However, I 
have added a good many verses to those your Ladyship saw about the impudence 
of Wordsworth to Southey. Good Southey has been a week here. What delight 
to see him in tolerable spirits. 

' I do not like to write anything satirical. But] B[lackwood, among other 
impertinences,] has declared that I read his publication. If, as Byron thought, and 
Byron was not over nice, a gentleman could not write in it, how can a gentleman 
be supposed to read it ? 

' Upon my honour, I never ran over a single number in my whole existence, 
though something was once shewn to me as very clever ; and it was so. I 
should have thought it criminal to give half-a-crown to a [murderer] of Keats, to 
say nothing of lies and scurrilities. By-the-bye, there is (in propriety) no such 
word as scurrilous, the word is scurrile : we might as well say sterilous, and 
facilous, and flexilous. This remark is of no consequence to you, who are unlikely 
to see the word, and sure never to use it. Did you remark a logical defect 
in Lord L[yndhurst]'s speech ? Read over again the first three hues. 

' " / ant anxious to call" means / am very desirous to call : this is self-evident ; 
now, he who feels very desirous to do a thing, cannot rise with extreme reluctance 
to do it. 

' I should rather have expected this from Pitt or Canning than from Lord 
Lyndhurst, who has fifty times their knowledge, scholarship, and discernment. 
He quarrels with some "officer of the crown" for calling the House of Lords a 
dormitory. The officer of the crown acted the part of Blood in stealing 
this crown jewel, which the crown never paid for, however it may have worne it. 
The jewel, such as it is, is mine : you will find it tale quale, as we used to say 
in Florence, in my " Imaginary Conversations." If the officers of the crown 
kidnap from me, my friends the Liberals are quite as liberal in their handfuls. A 
letter was sent me full oi expressions as well as thoughts taken from my "Letters 
of a Conservative," and spoken in the House of Commons. People think they 
have just as much right to use me as the alphabet, and that they can as little write 
without me. I will send you my " Satire on Satirists." People will buy this, 
desirous to peep thro' the curtain and to see who is seated in my vapour bath. 

' I am ever your Ladyship's very obliged.' 

37. A. L. S. Dated 'Sunday Evening' (November i8th, 1836). 3 
pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — [Believe me, I was not disappointed by your letter, 
and if I had been, I would willingly take a dozen of them if they came in one of 
your letters. Yet,] yet this grieves me — how can it be that you are still unwell .' 
I think I know, and may I say it with impunity, you give up too much time to 
the world — all your evenings, all your days. 

[' I am not jealous of your renown — I will not swear that I am not, but I 
certainly was not when I made my remark, my half expostulation. I am growing 
a little more so, and if I think much longer of those creaking shoes, and those fat, 
chubby boys at the backgammon board yonder, I shall have the jaundice before 
morning, and my eyes will be as green as a cat's. Luckily for me, my letters are 
not worth shewing to anybody, excepting decipherers by profession, who may 
turn a penny by them, otherwise, if there were any fear of your minding what I 
say, the fashionable and literary world would begin to hate and abhor me, as 
much as the unfashionable and illiterate. 

'If you really can suppose that Fonblanque would not be ashamed of putting 
my Chineseries into the Examiner, place them at his disposal. There are some 
things as good as other people's ; none so good as his. However, the extract from 
my Satire must be omitted, as the whole will be out in another ten days I trust.] 

' I never will write to please the public, bat always to instruct and mend it. 
If Colburn's would give me twenty thousand pounds to write a taking thing, I 
would not accept it. What a delight I should have in being able to refuse twenty 
thousand pounds by a fortnight's easy occupation ! My Satire cost me five 
evenings, besides the morning (before breakfast) in which I wrote as much as you 



124 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

have about Wordsworth. [Ought I not to be ashamed of myself to be writing or 
thinking of such trivial things, when your note tells me that you are unwell — 
really poorly^ I hope, is only the expression of fatigue from too much exertion. 
Ah ! your friends are accountable for much of that, and among the rest, your 
most sincere and ever obliged.' 

' My best regards to C D'Orsay.'] 

38. A. L. S. No date (December nth, 1836). 3I pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

[' Indisposed still ! That really grieves me, for winter is long at London and 
Arcangel, and his dogs, like other fierce creatures, fly at the throat. But my 
dear lady, do not give up the gidmauve. It cured me and speedily. Ah, my 
poor arbutus ! who knows but its severed arm was a votive offering.] 

' I wish our friend Robinson would show you my defence, for I never make any 
note of what I write, be the subject what it may. Wordsworth, no doubt, has a 
thousand good reasons why there is not a good poet upon earth, but as there are 
many who have given me pleasure, I love them for it ; some of them, perhaps, a 
little more than they deserve. All men are liable to error — I particularly, who 
believe that there may be criticism without sarcasm, and Christianity without 
deans and chapters. The surface of Wordsworth's mind, the poetry, has a good 
deal of staple about it, and will bear handling ; but the inner, the conversational 
and private, has many coarse, intractable, dangling threads, fit only for the flock bed 
equipage of grooms and drovers. I am glad I praised him before I knew more 
of him, else I never should; and I might have been unjust to the better part, had 
I remarked the worst sooner. This is a great fault to which we all are liable, 
from an erroneous idea of consistency. Beside, there is a little malice, I fear, at 
the bottom of our hearts {metis I mean, of course). 

'What a fool I must be to have written as I have just been writing, if 
my own could rise up against me on this occasion ! Alas ! it has done on 
too many. Do not be angry with me for my severity to Byron. He deserves 
it. Of this 1 find evident proofs in abundance, although I never read his 
dramas, nor anything beside Don Juan and some short pieces. One is admir- 
able ; I mean, "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream." This is not 
the beginning as you will recollect. The bosom of Byron never could hold 
the urn in which the Muse of Tragedy embalms the dead. There have 
been four tragic poets in the world. We await the fifth monarchy, and like 
the Jews with the Messiah, we shall not be aware of it when it comes. Poets 
are called improvident in all affairs out-lying from poetry, but it appears to 
me that in their poetry they are most so — forgetful as they are while they are 
writing that they must transcribe it afterwards. Then comes the hoe — 
husbandry, the weeding, &c., enough to break the back. Infinite pains it has 
always cost me, not to bring together the intervals, not to weave the tissue, but to 
make the folds of my draperies hang becomingly. When 1 think of writing on 
any subject, I abstain a long while from every kind of reading, lest the tone 
should haunt me, and some of the ideas take the liberty of playing with mine. I 
do not wish the children of my brain to imitate the gait or learn the tricks of others. 

' [Children ! ah, how does your pretty little niece do .'' I am delighted to hear 
of her progress in learning ; it is so delightful, so requisite to her. I hope to hear 
that Mrs. Fairlie has recovered her strength before her confinement. She must 
not run into your Ladyship's wild profusion and give a magnificent book to every- 
body who writes her a scrap of poetry. I, for my part, must apply to her 
publisher for two copies, when I hear they have broken the shell.] By living at 
Clifton, I am grown as rich as Rothschild ; and if Count D'Orsay could see me 
in my new coat, he would not invite me so pressingly to come up to London. It 
would breed ill blood between us — half plague, half cholera. He would say, " I 
wish that fellow had his red forehead again, the deuce might powder it for 
me." However, as I go out very little, I shall not divide the world with him. 
How glad I am that you are become acquainted with Forster ! [I hope to hear 
that Bulwer's play has succeeded. Nothing but fear of a sore-throat and cough, 
which are inevitable to me in London, at this season, should have kept me from 
the first night. I am, dear Lady Blessington,' &c.] 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



125 



39. A. L.S. Dated Clifton, January 30th (1837). 
Superscription. 



3 pages 4to., with 



Dear Lady Blessington,— To-day is my birthday, and never on my birthday 
was I happy. The best expedient I have is to place your letter before me ; and 
even that will not do. Is it possible I did not send you my " Clytemnestra } " How 
often in this world must we take the will for the deed ! It was yours properly. 
James, who corrected the press for my Pericles, asked me to give him some verses 
for Lady Mary Fox. He had a right to anything of mine unless I had promised 
you first. And this I had done, and deserve a frown from your Ladyship. I 
cannot say more. A heavier chastisement is not in your statute-book, nor, I 
believe in any other. 

' You ask me about poor Augustus Hare. Alas ! this very morning I received 
his sermons. When I opened the first volume and saw his bust, I was most 
painfully affected. The last time I saw him he had dined with me as usual, and 
we walked towards Fiesole. He little knew that he was carrying death in his 
bosom, nor I that I should receive it from the rocks that arose before us. When 
my hall- door closed the tomb's opened. 

' This is the first of my birthdays on which I ever wrote verses. Such as they 
are pray accept them with your usual kindness. 



' The day returns — my natal day, 
Borne on the storm, and pale with snow. 
And seems to ask me why I stay 
Stricken by Time and bow'd by woe. 



' Many were once the friends who came 
To wish me joy ; and there are some 
Who wish it now, but not the same, 
They are — whence friends can never come. 



' Nor are they you my love watcht o'er, 
Cradled in innocence and sleep. 
You smile into my eyes no more, 
Nor heed the bitter tears they weep. 

' I hope shortly to hear everything that is most satisfactory of Mrs. Fairlie, 
and everything that is most interesting of her sweet little Isabella, and am ever, 
dear Lady Blessington, yours most truly.' 



No date (May 12th, 1837). 3 pages 4to., with Superscrip- 



40. A.L.S. 
tion and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Tho' my eyes are in a miserable plight from the 
influenza, and I can hardly see whether I write plainly or not, I can by no means 
delay my congratulations on the happy result of Mrs. Fairlie's confinement. Sweet 
little Bella will be even more charmed than mama herself 1 can scarcely 
imagine how she improves in beauty, but her intelligence must be making a 
perpetual progress, both by the difficulties it encounters in its developement, and 
by the anxious care everybody must take in making way for her ideas. We 
cannot doubt that they will break thro' all obstruction. She will cease to be 
irritable when she finds the necessity of calm attention, and appreciates the 
anxiety of her friends to win it. Your Ladyship has laid up a treasure in that 
little heart, the richest you possess. 

' I sat up all last night to read James's Attila, not greatly to the benefit of my 
eyes or the credit of my prudence. But I never can leave off a book that 
interests me until I have gone thro' it. Again I say it. I have received more 
honour than Augustus, or Mecenas, or Louis Quatorze, or any other man, living 
or dead, for to no one were ever inscribed two such works of imagination as the 
Curse of Kehama and Attila. I wish my friend James had finished at page 327 : 

"Night fell, and all was done." 

But he understands his own business best. No other man could have described 
the close of Attila's life as he has done. Pray tell Trelawney that in my 
admiration for Kings there are moments when Attila seems to me almost as 
terrific as his raven. I thank him for his message in regard to Mr. MacDonall, 
but am very much afraid I shall be unable to meet him in England, and Italy is 
quite out of the question. 



126 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' I have been unwell for some time, indeed never very well since I went to 
Germany. 

' I have but little curiosity about me, and yet I am more than half inclined to 
look a peep's depth under a turf. Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, yours very 
sincerely,' &c. 

41. A. L. S. No date (May 21st, 1837). 3^ pages 4to., with Superscrip- 
tion and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — [You may well believe that I am delighted at 
hearing how kindly you have received my visitors from Certaldo. If they 
have given you any pleasure they have not been written in vain. In general 
I read only the Examiner, but the Morninj^ Chronicle was sent to me by 
one who knew what interest I should take in seeing your Ladyship so gallantly 
and stoutly defended. I never have read the Times in my life ; but hearing 
about a month ago that somebody had inserted a letter of Anaxagoras, relating in 
a different way from Alcibiades the death of Pericles, and giving it as mine, I 
wrote a civil request that he would also insert my contradiction. Whether he_ 
has done it I cannot tell. It occurred to me soon afterward that possibly my' 
informant had committed a mistake, and that it was the letter which I formerly 
sent your Ladyship, alluding to certain persons now living. However, I lett the 
matter pass as it might. I would not fain deny the authorship of that letter.] 

'The Tories were formerly more gentlemanly than the Whigs, but what a 
revolution are they bringing about in their own body ! Would they claim for 
themselves the right of asylum for their culprits, instead of consigning them to 
the most lenient, as well as the most able hands, for reprehension and chastisement ? 

' There is nothing in this world but contrariety and falsehood. The best 
men of all parties are only what David says all men were of old. Did you 
never see a child throw a piece of bread before a parcel of dogs, and enjoy 
the^skuffle? The dogs would rather eat than snarl, though they do both — our 
criticasters, less wisely, set about growling, and forget how much they stand in 
need of sustenance. The only thing 1 could pick a quarrel with in "The Victims 
of Society," is the compte re?tdu of so many deaths. Would it not (you know 
best) have been easy to leave the end of some of them to uncertainty and con- 
jecture? I also, in ''Pericles," have killed off largely, but remember, I had a 
plague gratis. I did not make the most of it. 1 never do of anything. If I 
had all your management I should be in danger of writing such a book as would 
get me torn in pieces. At present, the curs only smell at me and trot on. 

' Your censurers, not having before their eyes the fear of a future state, in 
another literary world, commit injustice without compunction. If they can give 
no lesson they may cause one reflection ; [how perilous it is to tread on the heels 
of truth.] 

'With best compliments to the party at Gore House, I am ever your Lady- 
ship's obliged.' 

' Mr. Lockhart and Mr. Croker, I hear, have been reviewing me in the 
Quarterly. I wonder where they found their telescope. By the account I receive 
of it, it wants nothing but the glasses.' 

42. A. T,. S. No date (May 22nd, 1837). 2 pages 410., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington,— What will you think of me? writing again to-day 
when I wrote but yesterday ; and when I could have said all I have to say ? 
Your Ladyship's approbation of my Certaldo has made me half willing to print it, 
but on no account to publish it before you have taken " The Dream " or anything 
else (if indeed there is anything worth your countenancing) for the Book of 
Beauty. I will not hazard many copies, nor allow any advertisements, excepting 
in the Examiner ; but there are some things which ought not to be lost to my 
friends, much as I have already thrown away. I greatly fear I cannot reduce 
materially the bulk of the work, and that there must be two volumes. May I 
request of you to send me the manuscript by the mail post, directed at Clifton 
Hill Cottage. Of course I must publish it at my own risk, for any publisher 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 127 

would be a fool to undertake anything of mine at his ; nor will I even try it. 
Indeed it is only by my imprudence in telling two or three friends what I have 
been about, that I am urged to this undertaking. I remain ever your Ladyship's 
obliged.' 

43. A. L. S. Dated 'Tuesday Evening, June 25th' (1837). 2 1 pages 

4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — This very evening I sent off to Saunders and 
Otley the last of my last book. Instead of calling it Cerlaldo, 1 now entitle it 
" The Pentameron "—the five days' interview of Boccaccio and Petrarca. I had 
many things to say, which I could not admit in three, and by adding two more I 
have been able to give it a greater variety than perhaps you could have expected. 
But what I intended to say is this : I have made one or two alterations in the 
Vision. Nobody but the person who corrects the proofs shall see this or any 
other part before your Ladyship has it, nor shall the book be mentioned to any 
one before the Book of Beauty makes its appearance. You will receive it in about 
six weeks. Splendid things have been said in Parliament about the Queen 
Victoria. There is every chance that she will answer the public expectation. 
God grant it ! 

' Now about these speeches. Lord Brougham astonished me. Is it credible 
that any person who had received a good education should, in speaking of a 
Queen, borrow an expression from a pawnbroker ! His Lordship says, " I 
sincerely join" (by-the-by, an incorrect metaphor) "with their Lordships in 
hoping that her Majesty's reign may be long and prosperous and that in it (by 
the blessing of God) and the wisdom of Parliament " (now another by-the-by, 
there is rather more to be hoped from the blessing than the wisdom) " those 
pledges might be redeemed.''' This is the tritest of all metaphors in the English 
language. Must we be a nation boutiquiere within the walls of parliament? 

' I am now at Torquay, formerly the most beautiful and retired bay in Eng- 
land, covered with woods all round, and containing but six or seven thatched 
cottages. At present it is filled with smart, ugly houses, and rich, hot-looking 
people. It is however, still the most beautiful watering-place in the British 
dominions, but deprived of its ancient refinement. I remember it more than 
forty years ago. 

' Ever your Ladyship's very devoted and obliged.' 

44. A. L. S. No date (1837). \\ pages 4to., with Superscription and 
Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— I am afraid that the verses which you have 
seen on the other side, come too late for the Book of Beauty. And perhaps 
you have better. Next week I imagine my Pentameron will be finished. 
I will give strict orders that no copy be sold or sent to any one before 
the Book of Beauty has appeared, with the exception of Mrs. Dashwood, 
who has read and corrected the greater part. I have subjoined to the 
Pentameron five dramatic pieces, which I call Pentalogia— the title given 
to five Greek plays. Mine are only single scenes. Few people will like 
them, and those who like them most will speak worst of them, excepting 
Southey, Fonblanque, and Forster. It is quite enough if, among all our critics, 
these three are satisfied. I have been at Plymouth, where I met Col. Hamilton 
Smith, a man who has collected a greater variety of knowledge than any other I 
ever conversed with. His drawings of different races of men, in different ages, of 
animals and works illustrative of history, are most wonderful. I hope you will be 
delighted with the Review by the Duke of Wellington and Lord Hill, at which our 
little Queen will be present. If I had any chance of getting a fair sight of it, and 
of her, I do verily think I should mount a coach, and defy the risk of another 
such mulberry face as I brought to you last year. I must have been very like 
Sulla, whom the Athenians called a mulberry covered with meal. He killed them 
for their fun. I do not imagine I shall kill anybody. Ever your Ladyship's,' &c. 



128 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

45. A. L. S. No date (July, 1837). i page 4to., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— Saunders and Otley tell me they are waiting for 
the last part of the Pentameron. Will you do me the favour to send it to them, 
for I remain at Torquay on purpose, and as I am about to make a visit or two in 
the rest of Devonshire and Cornwall, I may miss the proof-sheets. They will 
send your Ladyship an entire copy of the work in a few days if they can proceed. 
I am ever your Ladyship's very obliged.' 

46. A. L. S. Dated '35 St. James's Square, Bath, Saturday Morning' 

(November 25th, 1837). 3 pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — It was but yesterday your letter came to me from 
Torquay, which place I left in the beginning of last week. I shall write 
immediately for the Book of Beauty, not for the purpose of looking at my own 
features in it, but something better. 1 hear nothing but praises of Mrs. Fairiie's 
children. If they are all as pretty and interesting as Bella, the praises are but 
faint ones. I expect the book at the end of the month, with several others I have 
ordered from London. But I have already a fault to find with it, her own (or 
rather your own) little Bella is not there. I am happy to find that you are so 
much better, in spite of the season, which even at Kensington (though Kensington 
is not quite London) must have commenced its atrocities. I pass my time 
between Bath and Clifton. 1 forgot to give up my lodgings at Clifton the six 
months 1 have been away. In fact I intended to spend only so many weeks at 
Torquay, but I found there some old friends, and made some new ones, a thing 
which I never expected to do anywhere. In the beginning of April I hope to 
enjoy once more the splendid hospitalities and charming conversation of Gore 
House. There I shall find no alteration. Alas ! how great have I found here 
at Bath. Most of my old acquaintance are dead, most of my younger married 
and gone elsewhere. Poor Lady Belmore, whom I have known the longest of 
any, is totally blind. Her sister. Miss Caldwell, still sings and plays on the 
guitar, but like Anacreon, she has changed all the strings. Two or three people 
have recollected me, whom I had utterly forgotten, not that I am less changed 
than they are, but because my memory of faces is a most unloyal one. I may 
converse a whole evening with a person and forget both his features and his name 
before the next. Few things make any impression on me at all, some in an 
instant and ineffaceable. I am ever your Ladyship's very sincere & obliged.' 

47. A. L. S. No date (December 23rd, 1837). i\ pages 4to., with 

Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — When I had read your letter I went immediately 
to the only library to which I have access, in order to consult such authors as 
might give me some information on the subject of it. I do not remember the 
story nor the name. The name however cannot be Julia Al^ina, but may be 
Ali^ina. There is no Roman family on record named Al/ina, but Al^ins and 
Albinus were distinguished. Of all the books I enquired for, I found only 
Montfaucon's* Travels. I could not obtain his Antiquities. In this book it is 
highly probable you will discover the object of your pursuit, If not, desire some- 
body to look into Gruter.t Should you fail there, the account may be given by 
Morerit orBayle§ or th& Dtctionaire Biographique Universelle. You now perceive 

* Bernard de Montfaucon, 1655-1741, a celebrated learned French antiquary, who, after 
serving in the army, became a Benedictine monk, and devoted himself to literature. The 
Travels referred to by Lander was a description of a journey he undertook into Italy for the 
purpose of consulting libraries, &c. He was also the author of various learned works. 

t John Gruter, 1560-1627, a distinguished philologist, educated at Cambridge and Leyden. 
His great work. Collection of Ancient Inscriptions, was published in 1601. 

+ Louis Moreri, 1643-1680, first compiler of the well-known historical dictionary which 
bears his name. His death at the early age of 37 was caused by his continued application to the 
work of augmenting and revising that work. 

§ Pierre Bayle, 1647-1706, a learned Frenchman, author of the Dictionnaire Historique et 
Critique. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 129 

how greatly you have over-rated my erudition., in other words, memory. I might 
have kept the domino and the visor on me if I had not lost a tooth yesterday —my 
first loss of such a nature. I would have gone over to Bristol, where I have a 
share in the Hbrary, for it is only by " shares," not subscriptions, that we can enter 
it. My mind will never let anything lie upon it long in its own form, but changes 
it by absorption. I am pleased at hearing that there are some (there cannot be 
many) who like my Decameron — Pentameron I mean. I have given express 
orders that no copies be sent to such people as the editor of the Aihenaum, 
&c., who cannot understand it, and have always been ill-disposed towards me. I 
will not even allow it to be advertised. If twenty people read it I shall be 
contented. It may do them good. I am sorry to find that Forster, so admirable 
and so favourable a judge, thinks my didactic scenes like the writers of Shake- 
speare's age. These fellows have so much vigour but little truth and no delicacy 
of character. They are about as like Shakespeare as a tapster at a pot-house is 
like Prospero. One lappet of their coats smells of stale beer and the other 
of unrectified spirits. Alas ! I dreamt I was ascending the Parthenon ; I now 
find myself in the vicinity of S* Giles. 

' I should be happy if I could venture for a day or two so far as Gore House, 
but never was I in London at this season without a sore-throat or a cough — • 
generally both. I look forward to summer weather. Meanwhile, accept the 
usual salutations of the departing and coming year. Your Ladyship's ever 
obliged.' 

48. A. L. S. Dated '35 St. James' Square, Saturday Morning' (January 
13th, 1838). 3 pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am so apprehensive that this horribly cold 
weather may affect your health, that I cannot help asking you to give me some 
account of it. About my own I have little to say. The fact is, I am as well as 
ever I was. At present I am employed in adding to my Imaginary Conversation 
between Home Tooke and Johnson. When I was in London two years ago, 
Forster said something about these volumes. I have quite enough for a sixth, 
and, on the whole, quite as good as the former. Perhaps, some time or other, it 
may be thought worth publishing, but never will I consent to publish anything 
more in my lifetime. Near forty years ago I gave my Latin poems to Munday 
and Slatters of Oxford to print an edition of them, stipulating that they should not 
even advertize them. I have ordered the same course to be pursued with my 
Pentameron and Pentalogia. 

'When I come to London, I intend to bring my revised and enlarged 
copy of Conversations with me, and make a present of them to Forster, one 
among the few who think that they are worth a farthing. Since it appears that 
the copyrights of authors may become of some value to their heirs and assignees, 
who knows but Forster, five-and-forty years hence, may get as many pounds by 
these six volumes ? When you see him, pray inform him of my intention. It is 
not to be regretted that I threw into the fire all the things that were unfinished, 
although I could have completed them in a month or two, for I work with 
great rapidity on what interests and excites me. 

' I hope you take in poor Leigh Hunt's Monthly Repository ; not because 
there are some trivial things of mine in it, but because he wants encouragement 
and assistance. 

' Have you lately seen Fonblanque ? How does he do ? It was very kind in 
him to insert my anti-Whig paper on the treatment of Lord Aylmer. I remain, 
dear Lady Blessington, yours ever very sincerely.' 

49. A. L. S. No date (January 19th, 1838). 3^ pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — When my letter makes its way between you and 
Julia Alpinula, you will wish me frozen up, as long and as soundly as the Siberian 
mammoth. Let me confess to you, I never stared more than at this sweet Alpinula. 
I had no recollection of the name. Indeed, both names and faces leave an 

K 



I30 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

extremely weak impression on my memory. Evidently it was a Gaulish family. 
Nearly all the Roman were collected as early as the time of Scaliger, and no great 
quantity of inscriptions has been added to those of Gruter and Montfaucon. The 
Latin of this is veiy barbarous. Indeed, the lapidary skill, even of the better and 
earlier times, is wonderfully so, on most occasions. It would be difficult to select 
five-and-twenty which do not seem to have been left to the learning and taste of 
the stone-cutter. The best, however, that ever was written, either in Latin or 
any other language, is attributed to Shenstone. VaU (I forget who) Heu 
quanta jninus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui jneminisse .'* 

'When will any man write anything worth this again? It never comes into 
my mind but it takes entire possession of my heart, and I am as incapable of 
reading for an hour after, as if I had just left Hamlet or Othello. There are 
single sentences in the world, far out-valuing three or four hundred authors, all 
entire; as there have been individual men, out-valuing many whole nations; 
Washington, for instance, and Kosciusko, and Hofer, were fairly worth all the 
other men of their times ; I mean that each was. So Count D'Orsay was the 
happy discoverer of Alpinula. Sure enough, they who look out of a window see 
more than they who pore over a desk. D'Orsay's mind is always active. I wish 
it would put his pen in motion. At this season of the year I fancied he was at 
Melton. Does not he lament that this bitter frost allows him no chance of 
breaking his neck over gates and double hedges .? Pray offer him my kindest 
remembrances. I am sorry to hear of Fonblanque's bad health, although it has 
not yet diminished his vigour in writing. We have nothing like him in the 
political world. Your friend Lord Durham must either be a very patriotic man, or 
a very ambitious one. I confess to you, my ambition and patriotism united would 
not induce me to undertake what he has undertaken, for the possession of all 
America, North and South. I am so timid and thoughdess a creature, that I 
would not have a chilblain for a kingdom. I would not even dip this pen in ink, 
if it cost me any exertion, to set obstinate fools rather more right than they were 
before. What are they ? chaff soon blown away, to make room for other chaff, 
threshed on the same floor. Superstition and fraud must be drawn out of the 
ring, then men will have fair play, and fight for any stake that suits them. 

[' We must revert to the inscription. You hide your Latin at the bottom of 
the box, but you must have observed that the beginning is in the third person, the 
conclusion in the first, as we often find on our village gravestones. Exorare 
neceni is not Latin ; it makes me suspect that the whole is a modern piece of 
fallacy. Even in Gaul and almost in any age of Latinity, even in its last day, it 
would rather signify to ask for death, than plead against it. The proper words 
would be Impetrare patris veiiiam, &c., or deprecavi necem. Such impositions are 
not uncommon. For instance, Annius of Viterbo, verses sent by Muschus to 
Scahger, &c., &c. However, I hope your ladyship will restore its substance to 
this amiable shade, the very name carries a charm with it. 
' Believe me ever your obliged.'] 

50. A. L. S. No date (February nth, 1838). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— How dehghted I shall be to read your new book. 
The Examiner of to-day has given an admirable specimen of it. Has the 
" Elderly Gentleman " then at last found a match ? We have this morning so 
bright and beautiful a sun, that it makes me imagine I see you in your enchanted 
garden, feeding a young pheasant or teaching a young flower to look gracefully 
before you bring her out and present her in the drawing-room. 

' Here in Bath I am leading a quiet and therefore pleasant life. My 
occupation has been the correction of my " Imaginary Conversations," or rather 
the insertion of certain Unks in them. If you have any friends who are readers 
and not rich, and if you think my Pentameron will please them you have only to 
show this to MM. Saunders and Otley, and they will give you as many copies as 
you want. So certain was I that it never could gratify the public, that my first 

*" The words form part of an inscription on an ornamental urn to the memory of Miss Maria 
Dolmen, ar relative of Shenstone, who died of small-pox at the age of 21. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 131 

idea was to order the printing of but one hundred copies. I broke this determina- 
tion, but I kept the other, which was to prohibit the announcement of the 
publication in any way whatever. When I return to it after a year or two, with a 
fresh eye, perhaps I may discover things to mend or omit. At present I have 
looked for them and cannot find them. The revisal of my " Imaginary Conversa- 
tions " has cost me more time than the composition. For this, after all, is my 
great work ; the others are but boudoir-tables to lay it on— tables with very 
slender legs, though fancifully inlaid and pretty well polished. 

' Well, I must not forget that the only important thing I had to say, is that I 
am residing at No. 35 St. James's Square. Your "Elderly Lady" will be the 
only interesting one who has favoured me with a visit. I am, dear Lady 
Blessington, your ever obliged.' 

5L A. L. S. Dated 'Sunday, 18 Feb.' (1838). 3^ pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Yesterday was devoted to your " Elderly Lady," 
and of all who heard confessions, I think nobody, shorn or unshorn, was more 
attentive or more deUghted. Your friend Bulwer has been making an admirable 
speech on what I have always considered the most important question that ever 
came before Parliament, for the Reform Act is a piece of foolery and injustice for 
which the framers (as I said at the time) ought to be gibbetted. However, 1 am 
no politician, and I intend to keep at a distance from all who are. A few days 
ago Mrs. Bulwer came to Bath. As she has done me the honour to look in at my 
villa in Italy, I thought it a duty to wait on her, and she received me with great 
politeness. She is staying with the (Irish) Bagots, whom I meet occasionally at 
Lady Belmore's. 

' As my reading in future will be chiefly, if not only, novels, I hope you will 
ensure me at least one of the best, the few years I shall be able to enjoy anything. 
Your scenes and characters are real, your reflections profound and admirably 
expressed. I could not but remark some of the more delicate and recondite with 
my pencil, though so beautiful a book ought scarcely to be treated with so daring 
a liberty. When you do me the favour of writing to me again, pray give me 
Forsters address, for I want to send him the corrected addition of my "Imaginary 
Conversations." I have finished all the volumes excepting the dialogue between 
Johnson and Home Tooke, which I have enlarged prodigiously, and which I 
once thought of reprinting separate. But neither in my lifetime nor afterwards 
shall anything more of mine be published, excepting such few matters as have 
been completed long ago, and are sufficient to form another volume of 
" Imaginary Conversations." The unfinished ones have departed this life a 
little before the rest. They were not suicides like these, but enjoyed all the 
Roman honours of concremation. Some of them were hopeful, at least to their 
parent, but like other hopeful children (as is said of them) were not destined to 
be long lived. I remain, dear Lady Blessington, your ever obliged.' 

52. A. L. S. Dated March 4th (1838). 3 pages 4to., with Superscription 

and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — About two years ago, it was suggested to me by my 
sensible friend Mrs. Dashwood, that although my "Imaginary Conversations" 
were unpopular, yet that if I would consent to publish those containing female 
characters separately, the case might be somewhat different. Even at that time 
I had resolved to take no further trouble about this or any other publication. 
But it is somewhat singular that within a few days the idea has occurred to two 
persons, that these female characters would appear advantageously with graphical 
i lustrations, and I am inclined to believe that the idea originated in your Book 
of Beauty. Yesterday I resolved the matter in my mind. In the first place the 
three first volumes I believe are the property of Mr. Colburn, which may perhaps 
frustrate the scheme altogether, since he is by no means of a friendly disposition 
towards me. However, as he can get little more by them, perhaps it might suit 
his interests to give up to any publisher the four or five female conversations 
which these three volumes contain, for supposing the projected work to be carried 



132 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

into execution, it would render the whole more saleable, and it is the only thing 
that would. Now, I do not care a fig either for popularity or profit, for if ever I 
am popular I shall never know anything about it ; and if ever I get money I shall 
neither spend nor save it ! I have already more than I want. But I really 
should like to be able to make a pretty present of such a volume as no other man 
living can write, embellished with worthy engravings. If you can manage this 
affair, I am confident you will, and with pleasure ; if you cannot I will think no 
more about it. The best engravings I have seen are the slight etchings to Mrs. 
Jameson's Shakespeare's Female Characters, but I shall not dictate to the publisher 
if ever I get one. There will be fifteen pieces. I transcribe them on the opposite 
side in their order. 

' The Thelymnia and Euthymedes I must curtail a little from what you see at 
present. I have revised very carefully all the rest. I remain, dear Lady 
Blessington, your very obliged.' 

'Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. pp. 14. 

De Fontanges and Louis XIV. „ 15. 

Thetis and Peleus „ 7. 

Catherine and Dashkof „ 13. 

Elizabeth and Cecil „ 8. 

Aphan[a]sia and Beniowski „ 9. 

Thelymnia and Euthymedes „ 35. 

Gonda, Dewah, Hattaji, Walker „ 10. 

Joana Coelho and Philip II. „ 7. 

Lady Lisle and Elizabeth Gaunt „ 8. 

Leontion, Temissa, Epicurus „ 80. 

Jane Grey and Ascham „ 5. 

Vipsania and Tiberius „ 7. 

Godiva and Leofric „ 10. 

Margaretta and John Luther „ 5. 

Rosalba and Ippolito da Este „ 8. 

Ines de Castro and Don Pedro „ 12. 



Without plates and without ) 



pp. 254. 



blank pages 

' To these may be added perhaps advantageously " Iphigenia and Agamem- 
non," " Electra and Orestes," making about 300 pages or rather more. I would 
entitle the book, " Lander's Female Characters Illustrated." ' 

53. A. L. S. No date (March isth, 1838). 2 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Your letter quite afflicts me ; the recurrence of the 
ailment in the hachea must affect your spirits, yet ought not to alarm you. As 
we advance in life these attacks on the throat become less violent every year, and 
finally cease. At your age I myself was very subject to them ; they subsided and 
then left me totally. I have had nothing of the kind for many years. I found 
great benefit from gargling with a decoction of oak-bark — three ounces to a quart 
of water, boiled until it became a pint. It must be fresh every other day. And 
now let me thank you for the trouble you have taken about the visionary project 
of printing my female characters. I myself have always had a great dislike to 
engravings in books, and must confess that I am rather glad at the failure. 
Certainly I am little disposed to ask Forster to attempt it, but I might ask him to 
accept the whole of my works, and to do whatever he pleases with them for ever. 
This last week I have sent Saunders and Otley a hundred and forty pounds as a 
fine for committing the folly of authorship. Next year I shall pay them eighty 
more. 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your ever obliged.' 

54. A. L. S. Dated April 13th (1838). 2 pages 4to., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — It vexes me that I must inevitably come too late 
to meet Mr. and Mrs. Fairlie. Only at the very close of the present month can 



THE BLESStNGTON PAPEliS. 133 

I hope the arrival of some pictures from Italy, which, if they are unpacked in my 
absence, will probably be ruined. 

' If it would not be inconvenient to your Ladyship, I would fix on the last day 
of the month. After all, I doubt of the punctuality of my Bristol captain, but I 
should be sorry to defer a pleasure so great and so long expected. As you do 
not mention the lingering of any ailment, I hope you have forgotten that you 
have suffered any. The weather is still unsettled with us, and the primroses 
seem to have fallen asleep on the roadsides through the intensity of the cold. A 
few days ago they began to revive a little, but it may be said to them as was said 
to a worthy who had " Resurgam " on his hatchment : 
" Lie still if you're wise, 
You'll be damned if you rise." 

' God forgive me ! I have chosen a sad day for a joke. 

' Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, y"^ ever obliged.' 

55. A. L. S. No date (August 22nd, 1838). i J pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — When I had written my letter, it came into my 
recollection that I had somewhere written a few verses to Miss Garrow. I have 
been able to recover a copy, not having kept one myself 

[' Perhaps, if there is yet time and room, you will give them a place in the Book 
of Beauty. I will write them on the other side, that, in no case, your Ladyship 
may have the trouble of transcribing them.] 

' To Theodosia Garrow with Pericles and Aspasia. 



' By whom, Aspasia, wilt thou sit ? 
Let me conduct thy steps, apart, 
To her whose graces and whose wit 
Had shared with thine Cleona's heart. 



No more beneath Pandion's walls 
The purer muses sigh in vain : 

Departed Time her voice recalls, 
To hear the Attic song again. ' 



56. A. L. S. No date (September 17th, 1838). 3 pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Do not imagine that I could be so insensible as 
to delay the acknowledgment of a letter from you. My last I carried to the post- 
office myself, as I always do. It was directed to Gore House, because I could not 
easily guess how long would be your visit at Mrs. Fairlie's. Now, all your letters 
are of value, and all mine stupid. I can write a scene in a tragedy with greater 
ease than a letter. I never know what to write about. And what not to say 
is on all occasions a thousand times more difficult than what to say. But you 
always supply me with materials, and furnish me with a Grecian lamp to hang 
over them. I am heartily glad to find that you like my Pentameron. But how 
vilely printed ! My corrections are all corrected by the compositor, and when he 
or somebody writes query to some very plain word, and I write right he forthwith 
put my right into the text. Happy the authors who lived before the invention of 
printing ! O, that I could play for one half-century at blind-man's buff in the 
dark ages ! I will, as Boccaccio tells Petrarca, "take half your praises." When 
my friends in general tell me that they admire my poetry, they could just as 
easily make me believe that they admire the horses of the Parthenon. Depend 
upon it they like much better the horses at Tattersall's, and the poetry at Murray's. 
But I have lately worked great marvels in this department. A very pretty and 
amiable girl reminded me that I had promised to write her some verses. Alas ! I 
had written some, five-and-thirty years ago, on her lovely aunt, Rose Aylmer. 
But these last were less melancholy. 

' To Rose and to Sophy 
What column, what trophy 

Shall we raise, amid harps, amid viols and flutes? 
Who have added to-day 
On the shores of Torbay 

To the army of martyrs a hundred recruits. 

' Now, if I could always write in this manner I should recover my credit, and 



134 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

my patrons the critics would give me some encouragement. I had designed to 
return to CUfton on the fourth of October, but I cannot meet there the friends I 
hoped to meet. Before November I will write again to your Ladyship, and 
whatever may be the pleasure I shall receive from the Book of Beauty, I 
anticipate far greater from the news of your perfect recovery. I arn a little 
disappointed at not hearing what sea-bathing place you are about to visit. 

' I heard from Florence not long ago, but nothing from that quarter is hkely 
to give me pleasure or composure. I wish I could utterly forget all connected 
with it. But the waves of oblivion dash against my Tuscan terraces, and the 
spray reaches my family, and blinds the eyes that should be turned towards me, 
for other waters fill my heart with bitterness. I am, dear Lady, ever your Lady- 
ship's very obliged serv*.' 

57. A.L. S. Dated 'Fairoak Lodge, Saturday Evening' (September 
i8th, 1838). 2\ pages 4to., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Never was I more disappointed and vext than at 
finding your Ladyship had visited Bath in my absence. If you had written me 
one syllable of your intention I would have deferred my journey to the Isle of 
Wight, or have returned had I been there. 

' I have been passing here several days with my excellent friend James, and 
was happy to find the two Misses Boyle, both of whom possess very extraordinary 
talents. The eldest in her water-colour landscapes is little the inferior of Copley 
Fielding. It was my intention to have returned to Bath this morning, but there 
being no conveyance, I defer my expedition till Monday, when I shall put this 
into the post-office at Winchester. 

' I do not think the Book of Beauty has lost anything of its charms by the 
omission of my verses to Miss Garrow. But I hope to find in it the pretty story 
of my other young lady friend, Miss Elton. How does Valentine's picture go on ? 

' I was quite contented with Fisher's till you told me so bad a tale of it. 
Gibson is the only man who has not either flattered or abused me. Count 
D'Orsay has given me a head long enough for a prime minister, but the Queen 
will never take the hint. With my best regards to him. I am ever, dear Lady 
Blessington, your very sincere & obliged.' 

58. A. L. S. Dated ' Sunday Morning ' (October 31st, 1838). 2| pages 
4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — What a deplorable thing ! that the only man in 
England capable of governing a country has thrown up his powers — powers 
exercised so signally for the public good. 

' His enemies say he has persons of bad characters about him. Nothing more 
likely. What potentate was ever without them .' Armour is not made of gold, 
but of iron and brass ; thoro'ly good men will never be hangers-on, even on 
men better than themselves. We want scoundrels. God has been indulgent to 
us in this article of equipment. Cannot you do more than our ciucchi of ministers ? 
Cannot you persuade Lord Durham to shew on this occasion all the firmness of 
his character ; pacify Canada, then return, look his enemies in the face, scatter 
them to the dust by it, and turn his back ? 

[' I never read any paper but the Examiner, and have only just this instant 
been made acquainted with such unwelcome, such deplorable news. 

' I forgot to tell you that I have been laid up a whole fortnight with a sprained 
ancle. A fool of a mason dropt some mortar in Milsom Street ; I sett my foot in 
it and twisted my foot almost round. 

' Do me the kindness to order the Book of Beauty to be directed for me to 
Mr. Collings, Library, Bath. I shall then get it directly. Believe me ever, dear 
Lady Blessington, your sincere & obliged.'] 

59. A. L. S. No date (Bath, November 24th, 1838). 2 pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— If I did not express to you any part of the satisfac- 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 135 

tion I felt at your intention of naming me among your friends in Italy, pray 
attribute it to its only motive. I always conceal my pride as well as I can ; and 
now you are in the whole possession of my secret. Whatever you think of me 
say plainly— good or evil. If you over-value me, you do not stand quite alone, tho' 
almost, and the only harm is that it may make me over-value myself. For there 
is very little mischief done in making three or four good honest, sober-sided people 
a httle bilious. I will distribute among them a box of blue pills, which poor 
Leckie gave me eight years ago, and which is untouched. I will make an effort 
not to admire the too sensitive delicacy by which I might have perfected the 
prime honour of my life. I ^m liltle ambitious, as you know, of ordinary distinc- 
tions, such distinctions as ordinary people, altho' of the highest rank and power, 
can confer. But I must have a very quaker eye or a very episcopal one before I 
can complete my countenance for declaring I am indifferent to the expression of 
your esteem. Am I indebted to your Ladyship alone, or in part to your lovely 
niece, for the Children of the Nobility ? I have enough thankfulness for both. 
Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your ever obliged.' 

60. A. L.S. No date (December 8tli, 1838). 2 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— [Of all your admirable novels. The Governess has 
the most delighted me. It had left a deep impression on my memory, and a 
strong desire to see it in proof A thousand thanks for this privilege. Yes, The 
Governess is more than a match for the The Elderly Gentleman. She brought 
tears into the eyes of another who is somewhat of that description— /zi^r troppo! 
an Italian young lady would say.] 

'My friend Forster has promised to come to Bath, to make me a visit, after 
Christmas. This is friendship put to the proof I would rather face a fire of 
musketry than these abominable fogs. We have, however, some amusements. 
Talberg has been here, and there is to be another concert on Monday. To 
attend it is really going in spite of one's teeth. Mine begin to mutiny on such 
occasions, although they are as strong as an otter's. Piety is greatly on the 
increase at Bath ; not only conceited Evangelism, but real, genuine piety, and 
among men who certainly make no false pretensions. The last time I was at the 
rooms, I heard two go through the same formula on the same occasion. They 
both had been waiting in the lobby, and they both had been blest by having 
handed their ladies into their carriages. One shuffled his shoulders, and the 
other absterged both nostrils, and each exclaimed with equal devotion, "Thank 
God!" 

' This is all the Bath news I have at present, for it is none to add how very 
truly I am your Ladyship's obliged.' 

61. A. L. S. No date (December 23rd, 1838). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I hope you received my answer to your last kind 
letter. I sent it inclosed in a parcel addrest to Forster. It contained nothing 
but my sense of gratitude for the honor your Ladyship has done me in recollect- 
ing me so far back as Italy, and the reason why I was silent when you announced 
it a little while before. I am always too proud when I am mentioned by you, and 
take a mischievous delight in seeing what a number of enemies a voice of praise 
always brings out against me. Boys have much the same feeling when they see 
curs exasperated, knowing as they ride along that the said curs cannot reach their 
stirrup leathers. If they could, the laughter might be somewhat in a lower key. 
I have written some fun for that surly, ill-conditioned prig, Hallam,* who has 
bespattered the boots of Sismondi by following on the same road. He took it 

* Henry Hallam, 1777-1859, the historian, whose first great work, View of the State of 
Europe during the Middle Ages, was published in 1818 ; the Constitutional History of England 
followed in 1827. The article referred to appeared in the British and Foreign Review for 
October, 1 838, and was a notice of the Pentameron and Pentalo^a. It is not signed. 



136 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

into his head to write a piece of impudence against me in the last British and 
Foreign Review. I make merry with him this Christmas time, but I suspect the 
merriment is chiefly in my corner, and he possibly may find rather too much 
lemon in his punch. Yesterday I requested Forster to order my drama to be 
printed at my own expense. As there will only be about three sheets, I do trust 
your Ladyship will receive it before the middle of the next month. I have 
written two ; the second shall immediately follow ; it is the best. Forster, I 
suppose, out of friendship to me, spoke rather too magnificently. Believe me, 
dear Lady Blessington, your ever obliged serv'.' 

62. A. L. S. Dated '35 St. James's Square' (January ist, 1839). i\ 

pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — [A thousand and a thousand thanks for your 
magnificent investiture. If the Russians would raise the blockade of the Phasis, 
and let Medea come to England, and she would make choice of a proper 
steam vessel to boil me into youth again, with that little improvement, and 
this waistcoat upon it, I should work wonders.] I have this instant sent 
your note to poor Mr. Reade. Never was poet so hot for celebrity.* It has 
made him very ill. He is now about to publish a drama of the Deluge, 
on which he tells me he has been employed for twenty years. You cannot 
be surprised that he is grievously and hopelessly afflicted, having had water 
on the brain so long. The threatened Deluge makes me open my Prayer- 
book to look for the blessed words of the royal Psalmist, and join his Majesty in 
" O, that I were a bird ! " — a water-bird of course — wild goose, sheldrake, gull, 
dab-chick, in short anything that might possibly escape from the interior of the 
ark, for which (I fear) not a drop of spirit has been provided. Contented as I 
am to be a water drinker, I do not prefer the water of tanks and cisterns, 
particularly if it has lain very long in lead. [I will desire Forster to give your 
ladyship an " Imaginary Conversation " between Milton and Galileo,t which was 
intended for a portion of a little volume. I think it is the only one legible, having 
been tolerably well transcribed. I ought to have suppressed the publication of 
the verses. They were written angrily, when I was last at Gore House. I had 
seen the person but once before since I was nineteen. I am glad that she is 
not likely to read them, and nobody else can possibly tell whom they were meant 
for. To remove the nausea they must have given you, here are some very 
different, to be printed after the two dramas, on the last page. 



* My verse was for thine eyes alone — 

Alone by them was it repaid ; 
And still thine ear records the tone 
Of thy gray minstrel thoughtful maid ! 

' Amid the pomps of regal state 

Where thou, O Rose ! art called to move, 
Nothing wilt ever thou deem great 
But virtue, nothing bright but love. 



' Sometimes, when dark is each saloon, 

Dark every lamp that crowned the Seine, 
Memory hangs low Amalfi's moon, 
And lights thee o'er Sorrento's plain. 

' And onward, where Giovanna bore 

Corroding chains envenom'd tongues, 
Her fame my pages shall restore, 
Thy pity shall requite her wrongs. + 



'Wishing you many anniversaries and all happiness, I remain, dear Lady 
Blessington, ever your obliged,'] 

63. A. L. S. No date (January 15th, 1839). 2| pages 4to, with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — [Yesterday I wrote to Forster, but I do not 
remember whether I requested him to send you the Conversation of Milton and 
Galileo. To-morrow or the day following I shall have occasion to write again 
to him, and certainly I will not forget it. When I mentioned the picture to your 

Dr. Madden has printed for this last sentence, ' I never was paid so well for celebrity.' 

t This conversation appeared in the Book of Beauty for 1840. 

t These verses, with some alterations, were printed as a prologue to the two dramas, Andrea 
of Hungary and Giovanna of Naples, published by Bentley in 1839. Any profits arising from 
the first edition were to be handed over to Grace Darling. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 137 

Ladyship, I fancied that an artist was capable of reducing a large one to any 
dimensions. The one I was anxious to see engraved for the Book of Beauty is 
of the natural size in oils, and painted by Fisher. The composition does her 
great credit ; it is really beautiful. The verses I sent you the other day are 
addrest to the same lovely person. I have been able to improve two of them. 

' "Thee only Virtue can elate,' " 
" ' She only guide thy steps to Love.' "] 

' I have been in Berkshire for four days on a visit to Hare, who insisted on 
my keeping his birthday. He is residing at West Woodhay House, built by Inigo 
Jones.* It would do well passably for Naples, better for Timbuctoo. All but my 
victuals were congealed. I almost envied the bed of Procrustes, so enormous was 
mine, such a frozen sea. A company of comedians might have acted in it any 
piece they chose, and there would have been ample room for prompter and 
orchestra. I was ready to say my prayers when I was delivered from it. I am 
afraid they were rather inverted ones when I entered. 

' I remain ever, dear Lady Blessington, your obliged.' 

64. A. L. S. No date (February 8th, 1839). 3I pages with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — A letter for Forster and another for your Ladyship 
have been lying in my portfolio all this last fortnight. They were written in 
readiness to enclose them in the next packet of proof sheet, but during all that 
time none has been sent me. This is most vexatious, for I have had two oppor- 
tunities of sending my little volume to France and Italy, and perhaps I may 
never have another in my lifetime. My Pentameron never reached its destination 
there, although copies were sent twice to Hare, Miss Mackenzie, and Julia. I 
deserve it for being such an inconstant and inconsiderate fool as to break my 
resolution. However, if I can get a few pounds by it for Grace Darling, I may 
pardon myself. 

' It is very true that poor Lady Bulwer has been most scandalously defrauded 
by Miss Bagot, who appears to have formed a very low and infamous connection 
with a young swindler. He has obtained such hold upon her, that he induced 
her to send off at night by an old woman, bottles of wine, brandy, candles, 
&c., &c. 

' She has borrowed money in all directions, in some places saying that she 
could obtain no i"emittance from her brother until such-and-such a time, in 
another place giving out hints that the extravagance of Lady B. rendered it 
requisite that she should provide for the establishment. Now, Mrs. Fuller, 
whom, by the bye, she cheated out of ^75, told me that Lady B. had found out 
some disgusting vices in her, and left the house. Upon which Miss Bagot threw 
herself on her knees and threatened to kill herself. Lady B. was proof against 
this even, and told Miss B. that her conduct was so disgustmg that she would 
only receive her temporarily, and remarked to her that unless she soon returned 
to her brother and sister, they would suppose her alienated from them by her. 
Among the thousands of villanies perpetrated by this wretch, she saw Mr. 
Coxon, who attended her party, give a sovereign to a young Russian girl, who, 
together with her family, was obliged to give concerts to live. She soon turned 
back and said she was sent for the change. She received money from two young 
ladies for tickets, which Lady B. had procured and told Lady B. she never had. 
There is scarcely a shop in Bath where she has not swindled, as well as every 
gentleman or lady who would lend her even a shilling. Poor Colonel Jervoise, 
Master of the Ceremonies, who has a large family, is among her victims. Mrs. 
Fuller, a very cautious woman, examined very minutely into all the circumstances, 
and assured me that Lady B.'s household expenses (without the peculations of 
Miss Bagot) would not have exceeded her income. Mrs. Paynter told me 
yesterday that Mrs. Fuller had liquidated all her debts. Glad as I was to hear it, 
I was concerned to hear at the same time of a violent paragraph in some news- 

* Inigo Jones, 1572-1652, the famous architect, Surveyor-General to James I. The Ban- 
queting Hall of the palace of Whitehall was built after his designs. 



138 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



paper on Sir E. Bulwer, relating to this business. Lady B. is about to publish a 
novel. I have not seen it, nor heard the title, but was told by her a week ago 
that she intended to inscribe it to me. This is an honour I could not decline at 
all, or receive in any way but with profound respect. Yet, as I know that it 
contains allusions either to Sir Ed. B. or his mother, it will pain me. She was by 
no means satisfied with the service I attempted to render her, and said it saved 
Sir Ed. B. instead of exposing him. My reply was, very meekly, that what I 
undertook was to conciliate and not expose, and that the only result I expected 
or hoped was to obtain her children for her. I hope her book will bring her 
money, for she is generous and charitable to an extreme, added to which, I fear 
her health has very much suffered by her vexations and anxieties. 

' Beheve me ever, dear Lady Blessington, your very obliged. 

' I forgot to ask to whom I shall direct the picture. I will order a case 
directly. 1 now write a few more lines to Forster.' 



pages 4to., with 



65. A. L. S. No date (February 22nd, 1839). 

Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Yesterday the box containing the portrait was sent 
off by the Bath waggon — Mitchell's. I hope it may be returned with its precious 
charge as soon as possible. You did not direct me to forward it immediately 
to the engraver, so I addressed it to Gore House. After a whole month's delay, 
between the earlier proof sheets and the three last, these came on Wednesday. 
By the end of next week I now hope you will have two copies. One of them I 
request your Ladyship to send to Mrs. Fairlie, as I might mistake in her address. 
Will the verses, which you will find on the other side do for the Book of Beauty? 
And have I not sent them you before ? 

'On Some Hair of One Long Dead. 



' Beauty's pure native gems, ye golden hairs 

Once mingled with my own ! 
While soft desires, ah me ! were all the 
cares 
Two idle hearts had known : 
How is it when I take ye from the shrine 
Which holds one treasure yet, 



That ye, now all of Nancy that is mine, 

Shrink from my fond regret ? 
Ye leaves that droop not with the plant that 
bore ye 
Start ye before my breath ? 
Shrink ye from tender Love who could 
adore ye, 
O ye who fear not Death ? ' 



66. A. L. S. Dated March 5th, 1839. 3^ pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — The first thing I did after I had read your letter 
was to correct six verses, and to add six more, on Rose Paynter's birthday. Here 
they are. 

'On the Birthday of Miss Rose Paynter. 



' Tell me, perverse young year, 
Why is the day so drear ? 

Go, brightest flowers entwine. 
Thou churl, away, away I 
'Tis Rose's natal day. 

Reserve thy frowns for mine. 



' Life hath a verdant base, 
But higher up we trace 

Rocks, precipices, snows. 

The verdant base enlarge, 

O Heaven 1 and take in charge 

Your pure and pious Rose. 

Walter Savage LAND0R,ya». 19, 1839. 

' Rose is niece of Lord Aylmer, of course great-niece of Lord Whitworth, but 
her mother tells me she thinks it best in painting the name to the portrait to say 
only "Miss Rose Paynter," as was done in regard to Miss Purvis, and other ladies, 
who might be illuminated by the reflection of their great alliances. 

' I had written thus far several days ago, when I was suddenly called away to 
Clifton. This morning I receive your Ladyship's very kind letter. At present I have 
seen only so much of the Idler in Italy as I read in the Examiner on my return last 
night. The book has not yet reached me. But I cannot well express how 
glorified I feel myself by exalted friendships. I can claim only as far as the 
tyrant and the child go. Talking of tyrants, I have been reading the Memoirs of 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 139 

Vidocq. He appears to be a man of somewhat the same stamp as Buonaparte, 
but much above him both in pohcy and courage. Fortune cast him into another 
galley among less voluntary and less versatile slaves. I did not imagine 
that Europe had produced in our days a public man of such abilities. He has 
as much of the fox as Talleyrand, and more of the lion than his master. What 
would Buonaparte have done in any single one of those innumerable difficulties with 
which Vidocq struggles successfully ? He would have taken an emetick, and have 
persuaded the good people of Paris that his star stuck in his throat and hindered 
the operation of the poison. He could easily have done that, for he had persuaded 
them already that he was a good republican, that he was a sound politician, and 
that he was an honest man. Where is the use of being great, supposing one can 
be? Was not this fellow great? Was not Pitt great? Is not everybody great who 
can do a great deal of harm, and give away a great deal of money ? I think it a 
blessing to be far removed from the sight and sound of animals who almost give me 
locked jaw when I look at them. Remembrance of Italy smooths it down again. 
I love her good-natured gods of old, am amused at the little tricks and devilries of 
the suburban ones who succeeded them, and I felicitate the contented people in 
having among them no worse, no more turbulent, no more ferocious impostors. 
You must look with wonder at all this foam about my mouth. However, let me 
assure you I am not mad, most noble Festa, but ever your very obliged servant.' 

67. A, L. S. No date (March 7th, 1839). 2\ pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — [Severely but very justly have I been punished for 
my sad stupidity and negligence. My house is No. 35 St. James's Square.] 

' This morning I have taken back to the circulating library the last volume 
of Vidocq. If I had time, or rather, if I took any great interest in two such 
people as the great thief and the great thief-taker, I would compose a parallel, 
inch by inch, of these two men. One of them frightened all the good, the other all 
the bad — one betrayed all his employers, the other all his accomplices — one 
sacrificed the hopeful to ambition, the other the desperate to justice. 

' I doubt whether in seven years I could forms the corollary more completely 
than I have done in the seventh of a minute, but it will require a century to make 
men honest and wise enough to bear the question " which is best ? " The whole 
race of moral swindlers and ringdroppers must be taken up first. When God 
has stripped us all of furs and flounces, our just proportions will be discovered 
better. 

[' Pazienza ! patienza ! To-morrow, no, not to-morrow, but the next day, I 
shall be again with you in Italy, again on the piazza among broken moonbeams 
and scattered orange-flowers. Ever your Ladyship's obliged.'] 

68. A. L. S. No date (April, 1839). '^\ pages 4to., with Superscription 

and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — What, in the name of goodness, could induce you 
to imagine that I had written any part of my two dramas in Gore House? It 
grieves me that you have fancied it for an instant. If such had been the case I 
should have hurried with it to your Ladyship, anxious for your approbation and 
soliciting a place for it among your own productions. The fact is this ; The day 
after i had sprained my ancle, I sent to the circulating library for Mrs. Jameson's 
Lives of Female Sove^'eigns, having just read with great delight her Female 
Characters of Shakespeare. When I came to Giovarma, I recollected that I had 
written at my villa in Tuscany an " Imaginary Conversation " between her and the 
Pope at Avignon. I do not remember if it was completed. I think it was not, and 
that I burnt it, among an infinity of other commencements, the eve of my departure. 
At night, after reading Mrs. Jameson, I began Andi-ea. I completed it in nineteen 
days, nights included. Lame horses go on faster after they are heated. Two 
days afterwards I began Giovan?ta, and this, which I think is much the best, I 
finished in eleven. I think I could easily write two tragedies a month, to the 
-en4of-my life, after I -had fixed on th« subjects. In dramas on e-tlwughtbrings- 
out another, and each character fires his antagonist. I wrote Giovanna in less 



I40 THE BLESStNGTON PAPE.RS. 

time than it cost me to compose the shortest letter in Pericles and Aspasia. I 
wrote three before I satisfied myself. All three would please everybody else 
better than that in page 283. In fact there is nothing in it but strict propriety, yet I 
boldly defy the world present and future, to write a better on the occasion. I 
am not over-valuing it, for I declare to you, gratified as I was when I had done 
what I doubted whether I could accomplish to my satisfaction, I should have seen 
it perish with far less regret than I am likely to see the little china-rose which 
I have been nursing all the winter. What an account must I render of it to its 
fair Choephora ! It is bad enough to be thought negligent, but it is worse to be 
thought not worth reproving. 

' With kind regards to Count D'Orsay, believe me ever, dear Lady Blessington, 
your obliged.' 

69. A. L. S. No date (May loth, 1839). 2\ pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Yesterday was a day of perfect delight to me. At 
eleven the Idler in Italy came to me, and we did not part till lo.jo this 
morning. I burst out, however, at page 244, on " the sublimity of our dense fogs, 
which leave so much to the imagination." Ay, truly, more than it can ever get 
through. 

' This is the first time in my life I ever was in a hurry to put an end even to 
my part of conversation with you, but, really, I look every moment from the paper 
to the book with a grudging eye, and cannot but think that I am playing the fool, 
who write when I could be reading. 

' Accept my best thanks for so many hours of exquisite delight, so many just 
thoughts, generous sentiments, and pure imaginations. How glad I am now that 
I lost several days before the volumes came to me. I shall often take a trip into 
Italy with you, now you have been making a road for me, both more pleasant 
and more desirable than any of Bonaparte's. 

' I presume Count D'Orsay is still at Melton, but hunting will soon be over, 
unless the wrmkle-faced hours (for such there are) have been sticking a new 
edition or new series of Winter. By the way, I wonder what is become of my 
dramas, and whether they will ever come out. As you have some curiosity about 
them, I would rather they did than not. I hope nobody will ever think of acting 
one or other of them. I have no ambition to be damned. It is almost as bad as 
to be applauded, although I would rather, of the two, be present in person at the 
latter ceremony, unless I happened to be in humour for a joke. But among my 
peculiarities this is nearly the worst. I can enjoy nothing, not even a joke, where 
there are many by. Believe me ever, dear Lady Blessington, your obliged.' 

70. A. L. S. Dated May 14th (1839). i page 4to., with Superscription. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — If snows and icebergs do not prevent me, I hope 
to be at Gore House on Saturday evening, that is what we country folks call 
evening, viz , seven or eight. But, if this visit should be untimely or otherwise 
inconvenient, pray let me know. If I do not hear from you, I shall set out. 
Here are a few verses ; are they good enough for the Book of Beauty ? 

' In early mom and radiant day 
The merry lark may cheer ; 
But is there not a later lay 
More grateful to the ear? 

' Sweet was the song that Youth sang once, 

And very sweet was the response ; 
But those are accents sweeter far, 

When Love leaps down our evening star, 
Holds back the blighting wings of Time, 

Melts with his breath the crusty rime, 
And looks into our eyes and says, 

" Come, let us talk of former days.'"* 

* Of these lines the first four are unpublished. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 141 

71. A. L. S. No date (July 17th, 1839). 2^ pages 4to., with Super- 
scription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— A thousand thanks for your delightful little book, 
which came into my hands yesterday. What a number of wise things it contains ! 
not without a little of the agro-dolce. I left oflf nearly in the middle of Lord 
Brougham's book (not counting the pages, but regarding the type) and, if the 
remainder is as full of faults in composition as the first portion, it is a wonderful 
evidence that the most celebrated reviewer and most elaborate writer has 
exercised his grammatical acquirements with deplorable infelicity. I did not 
allow myself time to read over what 1 had written on the subject. I might 
have done it, for no syllable of it was published the week it was sent to the 
Examiner. 

' These few lines came into my head on reading that Wordsworth was about 
to be made a doctor at Oxford :— 

' Wordsworth has well deserved of late 
A very pretty doctorate ! 
O Dons ! I would desire no more 
Could you make me bachelor. 

' In the same quarter (not of the moon, but of the hour) I composed the 
following, which I must write on the first blank leaf of my Poems, about to be 
sent abroad : — 



' To turn my volume o'er nor find 
To chide or discommend 
Some vestige of a wandering mind. 
Sweet unsuspicious friend. 



' Believe that all were loved like you, 

With love from blame exempt, 

Believe that all my griefs were true, 

And all my joys were dreamt. 



' I remain, dear Lady Blessington, with best comp^* to Count D'Orsay, your 
very obliged.' 

72. A. L. S. No date (September 22nd, 1839). 2^ pages 4to., with 
Superscription and Seal. 

_ ' Dear Lady Blessington, — Forster left me in a great hurry, and, though he 
offered to convey a letter to you, I fancied I had not time even for such an 
idle one as I usually trouble you with. But I am now doing an act of duty ; 
I am obeying the commands which I hope some greater and happier man 
will be equally proud of receiving, not exactly these, more important ones. I 
must transcribe the commission, and your ladyship will see whether it can be 
executed. 

' " Mama tells me you have taken the trouble of offering my picture to Lady 
Blessington's Book of Beauty. It seems very ungrateful to say I am sorry for it, 
but, if it is not too late to suppress it, could you not omit the name, or only put 
the Christian name, which would be the same thing ? I cannot bear to appear 
before the public in such a conceited way, and now remember with great annoy- 
ance having mentioned the subject, laughingly, one day in Bath, never imagining 
you would take it au serieux. Lady B. must really be amused at my claims when 
such myriads of beautiful women in London, &c., &c. You will really think of 
this, will you not?" 

' I have transcribed the whole supplication, excepting what follows the word 
London. There we differ on a point of religion, and I have not the courage of 
Scjevola. The action would have been requisite if I had written the rest. You 
see the modesty and diffidence of this incomparably good girl. If it is possible 
to omit all but the name of Rose, it would please her. I am far from certain that 
my verses are quite acceptable, for never was a human being more sensitively 
delicate. Before the end of the week I think of going for about a fortnight to 
Torquay. I hope the engraver will send back the picture by that time at latest, 
as I would wish it to occupy its proper place again on the arrival of Lord and 
Lady Aylmer, who will be here about the 30"". Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, 
your very obliged,' 



142 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

73. A. L. S. No date (October 8th, 1839). 2 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Ten thousand thanks for your Books of Beauty, for 
you have sent me two copies. With what dehght do I look at the beautiful 
engraving of that figure which interests me most. She returns in two days, and I 
hope will be reconciled to her fate in appearing where she fancies there are many 
who surpass her. 

' I have often thought of the pleasure you must enjoy in the society of Miss 
Power. It is to be hoped she will prevail on you to be a little less studious, and 
to think a little more of your health. It is long since I have heard anything of 
Forster or Kenyon. I suspect that Kenyon must be abroad, for I wrote to him 
about a month ago, and have received no answer. The only thing I have yet 
had time to look at in the Book of Beauty is the one I opened it on— the poem of 
S'' L. Bulvver. How immeasurably better it is than anything he ever wrote 
before, in poetry or prose. There is imagination, there is sentiment, and there is 
insight. I really did intend an eulogy, and I fear you will tell me I have failed. 
This, however, I certainly do not fail in, being ever, dear Lady Blessington, your 
very obliged.' 

74. A. L. S. No date (November 17th, 1839). 3 pages 4to., with 
Superscription and Seal. 

[' Dear Lady Blessington, — I have indeed read that delightful Irish Dream, 
and more than once as you may imagine.] 

' I am not surprised at hearing that Trelawny* has retired from society. He 
possesses a strong and philosophical mind, and we have only the choice of living 
quite alone or with scoundrels. He might perhaps have taken the alternative if 
these had any genius or even any pleasantry. I could be well content in solitude 
as deep as his. Never were my spirits better than in my twentieth year, when I 
wrote " Gebir," and did not exchange twelve sentences with men. I lived among 
woods, which are now killed with copper works, and took my walk over sandy 
sea-coast deserts, then covered with low roses and thousands of nameless flowers 
and plants, trodden by ths naked feet of the Welsh peasantry, and trackless. 
These creatures were somewhat between me and the animals, and were as useful 
to the landscape as masses of weed or stranded boats. But what can be said of 
those manufactured things from the workshop of politics which have neither edge 
nor handle, which it may hurt one to tread upon, and which it is troublesome to 
kick aside ? 

' I am grieved that my good Milnes, so pure-hearted, so affectionate, should 
mix with the busy adventurers of either faction. His genius is so very far above 
them, and his fortune so independent. We are losing some families, among the 
rest is one I much esteem — the Frenches. Mr. French is the brother of Lord 
Ashbrooke, who has written of old some very elegant poetry, and is an amusing 
and pleasant man. 

['To-day we appear to have a return of fine weather, which I hope may remove 
all impediments to the recovery of your health. I hope Miss Power has a pleasant 
voice, so that you would rather hear her read than read yourself, for I am certain 
that too much study is the principal if not the only cause of your ailments. 
Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, yourLadyship's very obliged and sincere serv*.'] 

75. A. L. S. No date (November 27th, 1839). 2|- pages 4to., with 
Superscription and Seal 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — It must be intirely owing to your kindness that 
Mr. Heath has sent me for Miss Rose Paynter, six proof impressions of her 
portrait. I do not know his address. Perhaps your Ladyship will do me the 

* Edward John TreUwny, 1.792-1881, a native of Cornwall, who went to sea at eleven years 
of age, but is best known as the friend of Shelley and Byron, of whom he published Recollections 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 143 

favour- to forward these few lines to him, which I will write on the other side* 
Yesterday I heard that my friend Kenyon is in Florence, and has been there for 
some time. I take it a little ill of him that he never has written to me since he 
resided there, knowing how glad I must be to hear anything of my family. 
Talberg gave us a concert last evening, which was remarkably well attended 
To-day it is snowing more profusely than I ever remember so early in the winter. 
Miss Power, I can imagine, is giving orders about her sledge, and appointing her 
equerries. ^ What I am less willing to imagine, and yet what forces itself into my 
saddened imagination, is, that it is impossible that you should escape its ill 
effects. The least of these, and I hope the least may be all, is lowness of spirits 
and privation of exercise, for a drive is none. I v/ish I had anything of poetry 
or prose to counteract it. Here are only some verses, poor enough, on an 
alabaster hand adorned with a ring, and armlet above it, presented by Lord 
Elgin, with the most graceful note I ever read. These are not for the Book of 
Beauty, nor for any book, so pray burn them. 

' He who raised high o'er "War's turmoils | ' Of purest alabaster, well 
Rescued from Time his richest spoils, Expressing what our speech would lell, 



Had laid them at thy feet, O Rose. 
But Britain cried, "To me belong 
Trophies beneath whose shadow sung 
The choir of Pallas, where Ilyssus flows. 



Beauteous, but somewhat less divine 
Than Phidias taught by Pallas plann'd 
Elgin present, the only hand 
That throbs not at the gentle touch of thine.' 



76. A. L. S. No date (December 23rd, 1839). 3 pages 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

I Dear Lady Blessington,— [If it should happen not to be inconvenient to you, 
I will take coach or boat, as the Powers above please, and come over to Gore 
House on the second of January.] On last Wednesday I was present at a wedding,t 
the only one I ever was at, excepting my own. I wish it had been the first. 
There was bride-cake, and there were verses in profusion — two heavy com- 
modities ! But what an emblematic thing the bride cake is ; all sugar above, and 
all lumpiness below I But may Heaven grant another, and far different, destiny to 
my sweet-tempered, innocent, sensible, young friend. Lord and Lady Aylmer 
are here, and we have had cose stupende in music. Lady Aylmer gave me a 
different account of Rose Bathurst's sad fate, from the Idlers in Italy. She 
expressed a wish thai your Ladyship had heard it circumstantially from Mills. It 
was most affecting. Lord Aylmer twice dashed into the Tiber, once with hat and 
coat on ; being a bad swimmer, and, finding he could do nothing with these 
impediments, he made for the bank, threw his coat off, and plunged in a second 
time. He would have attempted a third, but Lady A., seeing the horse now at 
last without its rider, held him, and declared if he went in again she would follow. 
His mouth was full of mud, and he was quite distracted. He felt the effect for 
two entire years, and probably his health still suffers from it. A more humane or 
a more generous man does not exist. How he loves his nieces I Rose Bathurst 
kept her seat in the middle of the stream to a great distance, probably some 
stake or fragment of ruin caught her riding habit and drew her off. [I believe 
I once saw her at Lady Wall's, her grandmother, when she was an infant, never 
after. 

in 1858. In Millais' well-known picture, ' The North-West Passage,' the weather-beaten face 
is Trelawny's, the only authentic picture of him existing. When he died his body was taken to 
Gotha, where it was cremated ; the ashes were then taken to Rome, and placed beside the 
remains of Shelley and Keats. 

* The following are the few Unes referred to : " Sir, — Lady Blessington will perhaps do me 
the favour of transmitting to you the expression of the pleasure I received in being permitted by 
you to present to Miss Paynter the six fine impressions of her portrait. In a note to me on the 
occasion, I am commanded to return you many thanks on her part for your politeness. I am, 
sir, your very obedient serv'." 

t That of Miss Sophia Louisa Paynter and the son of Sir Henry Caldwell, who were married 
at Walcot, Bath, December i8th, 1839. 



144 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Well, I must not forget to clear myself of poetizing to excess on the marriage. 
My verses are these : 

' Directed by (he hand of Fate, 
May Love inscribe your lot ; 
And, Sophy, be your wedded state 
All that my own is not. 
' I remain, dear Lady Blessington, ever your obliged.'] 

77. A. L. S. Dated ' Saturday Night ' (1839). 4 pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — [Accept my thousand thanks for the last volume of 
the Id/er in Italy, which I only lay aside to write this. I have been out the 
whole of the day, and returned at twelve, so that, altho' I date at Saturday night, 
I am now devotional at my first Sunday service.] 

' Digby, who became a Catholic, and Padre Pagani, who probably is the next 
in learning to Digby among the Catholics, are inclined to convert me — difficult 
to say to what, more difficult to S3.y from what. Doubtless it is an amusement to 
them to throw the rod and line over the running stream ; the trout laughs in his 
sleeve, and sidles, and shows all his specks. Alas ! I can no longer sing my 
old version of Adeste Fideles, for want of chorus — " Adeste Fideles ! tete 
triumphantes ! " &c. 

' A few months ago I went to occupy my former seat in the Catholic Chapel, 
where I had once been seated between Mrs. Fitzherbert and Helen Walsh Porter. 
On the wall at the extremity of it I saw a marble tablet. I went toward it, and 
there I found the name of my oldest friend, Mrs. Ferrers, and just beyond it was 
her daughter's. I will venture to say, and I do it without pride, I was at that 
moment the most religious and devout man in the whole chapel. It is true I did 
not hear the service and the music, which was so mingled with the affections as 
to be lost among them ; yet, instead of wishing to be reminded of soft words and 
tender looks, which I went for, the faces of old friends rose up from the grave 
before me, and were far more welcome. I waited until all were gone out, and then 
I placed my brow against the edge of the monument. Age has its follies, you see, 
no less than youth. 

[' Sir John Hanmer has sent me his sonnets. There are several of great beauty. 
I must thank him as soon as I rise in the morning, which I expect will be late.] 

' I wish to hear your Ladyship's opinion of my friend Colonel Napier's 
History. In my opinion, he holds incomparably the highest rank among all now 
extant in the literary world. 

[' I hope Miss Power is ambitious ; she must not be contented with making 
men so. Count D'Orsay I imagine is gone into Leicestershire ; fine weather for 
fox-hunting. I should have liked his fox if I had continued in the country, but I 
should have hesitated to receive him as a parlour boarder in my estabhshment.'] 

78. A. L. S. No date (1839). 2 pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 
' Dear Lady Blessington, — Certainly it was my intention to surprise you some 

day with a couple of tragedies. You ought never to have heard that I had 
written one. Forster is the only person to whom I ever spoke a word about it, 
and I requested him to keep it a secret. It is not my intention or wish that either 
of them should come upon the stage. Indeed, I cannot, easily be induced to 
allow them to be printed in my lifetime. I said in my last publication that I 
would publish nothing more. At present, you will not easily believe that I 
finished one of my dramas in thirteen days, the other in eight, from the conception 
to the completion. I must sprain my other ancle before I can take two such 
leaps again. When you read the two tragedies you will then say perhaps, " Yes 
indeed ! I can very easily believe him, for he does not include the transcribing." 
A few copies shall be printed, were it only that your ladyship might have one. 
And now what must you think of me? The Children of the Nobility came to me 
last week, but as I had ordered the volume the moment of its publication I fancied 
my bookseller had procured it for me. A thousand thanks for it. 

' I have heard nothing about Hare, but I will write a letter to him, directing it 
to Torquay, where his brother is residing. Believe me ever, dear Lady Blessing- 
ton, your obliged,' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 145 

79. Verses.* No date (1839). i page folio, with Superscription. 

'A Lament for L. E. L. 

(' The sweet singer departeth, the summer bird from the garden of his love — it hath waited 
for him — will he not come agaia?' — Persian Poet.) 

'A dirge for the departed ! bend we low 

Around the bed of her unwakening rest, 
Still be the hoarse voice of discordant woe, 
Still as the heart within her marble breast, 
Which stirs not at the cry of those she loved the best. 

' A dirge — oh, weave it of low murmurings. 

And count the pauses by warm dropping tears. 
Sweeter, yet sadder than the woodlark sings. 
Amid the shower of April's fitful wings, 
Be the faint melody ; the name it bears 
Shall thrill our England's heart for many linked years. 

' Our far-off England ! ofttimes would she sit. 

With moist eyes gazing o'er the lustrous deep. 
Through distance, change, and time ; beholding it 
In its green beauty, while the sea did keep 
A whispering noise, to lull her spirit's visioned sleep. 

' And fondly would she watch the evening breeze 
Steal, crushing the smooth ocean's sultry blue. 
As 'twere a message from her own tall trees. 
Waving her back to them, and flowers, and bees, 
And loving looks, from which her young heart drew 
Its riches, and all the joys her winged childhood knew. 

' And smiling in their distant loveliness, 

Like phantasms of the desert— till the tide 
Of passionate yearnings burst in wild excess 
Over her gentle heart, the home-sick bride. 
Whelming both lute and life, and the sweet minstrel died. 

' Spring shall return to that beloved shore. 

With wealth of leaves, and buds, and wild wood songs, 
But hers the sweetest, with its tearful lore. 
Its womanly fond gushes come no more, 
Breathing the cadenced poesy that throngs 
To pure and fervid lips unstained by cares and wrongs. 

' Oh ! never more shall her benignant spell 

Fan those dim embers in a worldly heart, 
Which once were love and sympathy — nor tell 
Of griefs borne patiently with such sweet art 
As wins e'en selfish pain from brooding o'er his smart. 

' Oh, never more ! the burden of the strain. 

Be those sad hopeless words ! — then make her bed 
Near shadowy boughs, that she may dwell again 
Where her own English violets bloom and fade. 
The sole sweet records clustered o'er her head 
In this strange land — to tell where our beloved is laid.' 

80. A. L. S. No date (1840). 2 pages 4to., with Superscription and 
Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— I cannot lose the opportunity of sending you a few 

* These verses are not in Landor's handwriting, but are addressed by him on the back to 
Lady Blessington. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

lines by Mrs. Fisher, who carries with her to London my portrait and Lady 
Bulwer's. 

' Lest I should fill my paper with a repetition of thanks, which would never 
satisfy me and would satiate you, I will transcribe some Italian verses I wrote 
a few days ago. 

' Che tempi ho trapassati ! ho visto spesso 
Tanti Amoretti con tante Vestali, 
Gli uni spingendo le altre. Vedo adesso 

Faville gelide e spuntati strali. 
Cantano tutti, " O bella primavera ! 

O bella mattinata della vita ! " 
lo canterei piutosto, "O bella sera, ' 

O bello autumno I " La Memoria addita 
Con vane tenerezze ; qvianti affanni 
Spiegoni le ali e volano con gli amori.' 

'As Mrs. Fisher is waiting, I send two other scraps of poetry — the one of old 
date, the other of later. Believe me ever, dear Lady Blessington, with best 
regards to C* D'Orsay, your obliged.' 

8L A. L. S, Dated 'Warwick, Friday Morning' (October, 1841). \\ 
pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— Yesterday, as many people came to call on me, I 
could only find time for a small portion of the pleasure I shall continue to enjoy 
from your manuscript, and I am afraid you will think me rather negligent in 
omitting to thank you for your very kind enquiries about my sister. She is much 
better than I expected to find her, and really I think the sight of me has done 
her good. 

' I am anxious to go on reading the manuscript, of which I will send you at 
least enough for three sheets every other day. With kindest regards to Coun 
D'Orsay, believe me, yours ever obliged.' 

' I could not leave off— so interesting the story grew. On Monday I will send 
all the remainder, for on that day I go to see a cousin at some distance.' 

82. A. L. S. No date (October 9th, 1841). i page, with Superscription 

and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I grieve deeply to hear your account of your 
health. Let me hope it may soon so improve as to render quite unnecessary 
your departure from England. It seems by your letter that my shy Walter did 
not call at Gore House. He had to make his excuses (which you would have 
accepted) for disappointing me in that duty before we left London in May. His 
grandmother came purposely to see him, and the next day Mr. Fisher had 
invited his uncles to meet him at Warwick. I trust you will find in this conversa- 
tion as much variety as will relieve the criticisms. I have curtailed them and am 
inclined to believe that even what relates to the survivors (is that the word?) of 
Latin poetry is not too heavy for ladies. I see the Book of Beauty is announced. 
I dare to request not only one, but an early one, which I have now an 
opportunity of sending to Paris, where it is expected. Believe me ever, dear 
Lady Blessington, your sincere and obhged.' 

83. A. L. S. Dated Bath, October 19th (1841). 2 pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Yesterday being rainy, I spent the whole of it in 
writing a long " Imaginary Conversation " between Vittoria Colonna and Michael 
Angelo. Formerly I wrote one between her and Pescara. It was little better than 
a long disquisition on glory. I thought it, not indeed pedantic, but scholastic, and 
to look like other men's dialogues, who carry them in small smart particles on the 
two tips of a bifurcated tongue. This is better. I will send it you if you will let 
me, when I can write it out. Curiosity I hope will so far prevail as to obtain me 
a favourable answer. Last week I returned from a visit to my brother in Stafford- 
shire, and here I shall rest, as contented as may be, all the winter. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 147 

' I hope your beautiful nieces and Count D'Orsay are well. Miss Power never 
played my music. Pray tell her she must send it ine back again, as there are 
no other copies (I believe) of either piece. I wait anxiously for the Book of Beauty 
to see her there -not her face — it may engrave, but never can be engraven. I 
remain, ever sincerely, yours.' 

84. A. Article S. No date (184:). 19 pages 4to. 

'VlTTORIA COLONNA AND MiCHEL-ANGELO BUONAROTTI. 

'■Vittoria. — What has detained you so long, Michel-Angelo ? Were we not to 
have read together, early in the forenoon, the little book of poetry which is lying 
there on the table ? 

'Michel-Angelo.— 'E.xcmt me, Madonna. The fault, if mine at all, is mine 
only in part. 

'Vittoria. — I will pardon it the rather, because, whatever it was, it has removed 
the traces of care and of study from your brow, and supplanted them with an 
unwonted smile. Pray now what provokes this hilarity ? 

'Michel-Angelo. — Not the delay, I assure you, which never has any such effect 
when I am coming to the Palazzo Pescara, but merely the mention of poetry. 

'Vittoria. — Why so ? I perceive there is mischief in your countenance; let 
me also have a hand in it, if I find it is such as I like. 

'Michel-Angelo. — When I was walking hither, a middle-aged gentleman, tall, 
round-shouldered, somewhat grizzly, of a complexion rather cindery than pale, 
with a look half leering and half imploring, and in a voice half querulous and half 
compassionate, accosted me. He offered many apologies for never having heard 
of me until this morning, although my fame (he pretested) had filled the universe. 
Whatever he said at one instant he unsaid the next, in like manner. 

' " But you shall forgive me ; you shall soon forgive me," cried he, thrusting into 
my hand a large volume, from its more opportune station under the coat-flap. I 
felt it damp, having lain perhaps in the middle of a thousand, two entire winters ; 
and I apprehended cold and rheumatism as much almost at the cover as at the 
contents. While I held it, uncertain how to reply, he suddenly snatched it back, 
and cut open the leaves with a very sharp penknife, injuring few of them by the 
operation, for he was cautious and tender in the extreme. 

' " I would not delay you in the reading," said he, returning it, " for your praise 
will richly crown my labours." 

'Vittoria. — What was it? and where is it ? 

'Michel-Angelo. — Madonna, let me be an example of patience to you. Wait a 
little, and you shall hear the whole. 

'Vittoiia. — No, no, no ! 

'Michel-Angelo. — I do not mean the whole of the poem, I mean only the whole 
of the occurrence. I saw on the title-page that it was a poem in twenty-four 
cantos, each containing a hundred stanzas, entitled The Stra7igulation ofCethegus. 
Between the moments of my surprise and my dismay, .... 

'"You will find," exclaimed the author, "how wrongfully I have been accused 
by the malevolent and invidious (and there are few others in the world) of 
copying our most celebrated writers, and of being destitute of originality myself. 
If occasionally I resemble them in some sort, it is only to show them how they 
might have written, with a little more care, judgment, and .... we will not say 
.... genius ! " 

'Vittoria. — On such emergencies, a spice of ridicule is our speediest and most 
palatable remedy for disgust. 

'Michel-Angelo. — When I inquired of him to what gentleman I was indebted 
for so valuable a present, he stood in amaze at first ; then he repeated his family 
name, then his baptismal, then a poetical intermediate one of his own invention. 
These, he told me, I must frequently have heard. I now recognised the peculiar 
object of ebullient jocularity among my juvenile scholars, one of whom said, " He 
has cracked a biscuit which was baked for a long voyage, and, pouring a profusion 
of tepid water on it, he has quadrupled its bulk and heaviness ! " 

' Vittoria. — Poor man ! his vanity must often be wounded. 

'Michel-Angelo.— He has none. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Vittoria. — None ? 

''Miiliel-Aiigelo. — He told me so himself. 

' " I have been called vain," said he ; " but only by those who never knew me. 
Proud ! yes, proud I am ! Vanity, in my opinion (and I am certain that you and 
all sensible men must think with me), belongs only to weak minds ; pride to the 
strongest and most sublime. Poets, we hear, are often vain ; ay, but what poets ? " 

'His eyes, which before were only on a level with the cheek-bones and the 
frontal, now expanded beyond, and assumed the full majesty of the orbicular. 

'I'ittoria. — Well, in what manner has he treated his subject 1 

'■Michel- Angela. — He could not resist the pleasure of telling me : 

'"I believe, Signor Buonarotti, you are, among other things, a painter. 
Proportions ! ay, proportions ! The pyramidal, ay ! We look to that, don't we ? 
See here then. Cassar is a striphng, just old enough to fall in love. In Pagan 
Rome they fell early. The man of genius will seize on the most trifling objects in 
nature, and raise up a new creation from them. Did you never see an apple or a 
strawberry which had another more diminutive growing to it? Well, now from 
this double strawberry or apple I have made out a double Caesar, such as never 
was seen before ; one the stern resolute senator ; the other the gentle sentimental 
young lover." 

' On which I submissively asked, whether the stripling who had been received 
so favorably by the lady, would on the same afternoon be sure of the same facility 
at his entrance into the senate ; and whether it was not requisite to have attained 
his fortieth year? He smiled at me, and said, 

' " Surely, no, when a poet of the first order gives him a ticket of admission. 
Does not Horace say we poets have the privilege of daring anything?" 

' I was afraid to answer, "Yes : but, unhappily, we readers have not the power 
of fertr/V/o- anything." He continued, 

' " Cicero is an old gentleman." 

' Here I ventured to interrupt him, asking if there were in reality more than 
five or six years between their ages, and by remarking, that although in obscure 
men and matters, introduced into works of invention, facts might be represented 
not quite accordant with exact chronology, yet that the two most remarkable 
characters in the Roman Commonwealth, known by every schoolboy to have 
entered into public life at the same time, could not safely be pushed so far asunder. 

'" No matter, sir !" repliedhe sharply ; "there they are, the poet's own creation. 
Observe, if you please, I have placed Cethegus between them ; a well-grown 
personage, in his meridian. Behold my pyramid ! " 

' I was silent. 

'"No originality, I suppose?" 

' " Very great indeed ! " answered I. 

'" Here is one man," cried he, seizing my hand, " one man in the world, willing 
to the uttermost of his power to do me justice. Strangers give me praise ; friends 
give me only advice ; and such advice, Signor Buonarotti, as would impoverish 
the realms of literature, if taken." 

' I stared at him even more wildly than before. 

' " Perhaps you do not recognise me ?" said he. " Many have taken me for 
Ariosto ; but I hope I am loftier and graver, and more innocent. Wherever he 
has gone I have followed him, in order to abolish the impression of wantonness, 
and to purify (I repeat the words of our mutual admirers) the too warm air of his 
enchantments." 

'"I hope you have not forgotten," said I, "that in lustral water salt is always an 
ingredient." 

' He thrust his hands into his pockets, misunderstanding me ; at which action 
I could not but smile. He perceived it ; and, after a pause, " Ha ! ha ! ha ! " 
rephed he, in measured laughter, "you are a wit too, Messer Michel-Angelo ! 
Who would have thought it of so considerable a man ? Well now, I never 
venture on it, even among friends. We may be easy and familiar in writing or 
conversing, without letting ourselves down ; we may countenance wit ; we may even 
suggest it ; I am not rigorous on that head, as some other great writers are. You 
see I have helped you to a trifle of it ; a mere trifle. Now you must confess you 
caught the spark from me," added he, coaxingly. " I will never claim it in public ; 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 149 

I will not indeed. I scarcely consider it in the light of a plagiarism. I have 
foreborne greater things very long, and have only been compelled at last to declare, 
in a preface, that I wrote the better part of Orlando Furioso many years before it 
was conceived by Messer Ludovico. I heard his injurious claims, and told 
nobody the fact." 

' " How does your poem end, sir ? " said I, with all the rapidity of impatience. 

' He mistook my motive, and cried, "Really I am flattered and charmed at the 
interest you take in it. You have devoured it in your mind already, and would 
have the very shell. In compliance with your earnestness I will answer the 
question, although it might be hurtful, I fear, to the effect the whole composition, 
grasped at once, would produce on you." 

'!_ declared the contrary, with many protestations. He raised up his head 
from its slanting position of distrust and doubt. Again I assured him of my 
resolution to despatch it at a sitting. 

"■Vittoria. — I never thought you capable of such duplicity. 

'Michel-Angelo. — Of what may I not be capable, if you absolve me with so 
gracious a smile ? 

'"I will then tell you how it ends," continued he, " if you never have read the 
history. Cethegus was, I am sorry to say, a person of bad character, although of 
birth. With perfeci fidelity I have translated the speeches of Sallust ; but Sallust 
had no notion (and history could do nothing for him) of placing the culprit bound 
between two Turkish mutes, with a friar in the rear, while the great bell tolled from 
Santa Maria Maggiore." 

' I started. 

' " That is the place, the real place ; he was strangled just below." 

' " Bell .'" I sohloquized, rather too audibly. 

' " If you never have felt the effect of a bell at executions, and particularly on 
the stage ; if you never have felt the effect of a bell, Signor Buonarotti, through 
your brain and heart," said he, breathing hard, and allowing his watery diagonal 
eyes only half their width, " then do I most sincerely pity you, Signor Buonarotti, 
and wish you a very good morning." 

' I bowed, and fancied my deliverance was accomplished. But he instantly 
turned round again, and added, 

' " If you object to a bell, you may object to a clock. Novv', it was precisely as 
the clock struck midnight that justice was done by me upon the execrable Cethegus, 
as a warning to all future generations." 

' " Nobody can be more firmly convinced," said I, " how execrable is this 
violation of all laws, moral, social, political, and," I was about to add inwardly, 
poetical, when he seized my hand, and said, with firm deliberation, 

'" There are two men in degenerate Rome who abhor the vicious in conduct and 
embrace the pure in poetry. When you have bestowed as much time as I have 
on the contemplation and composition of it, your surprise (but not your admiration, 
I humbly trust) will be considerably diminished, on the repeated perusal of my 
few edited volumes. I am as sure of eternal fame as if I had it in my pocket. 
Fame, Signor Michel-Angelo, has a snail's growth ; true, real, genuine fame has, 
and you may know it by that. But, I promise you, in another century or two you 
shall see mine a very giant. I have sometimes thought I have a host of enemies : 
I now begin to think 1 can have only one : I have him in my eye. He is capable 
of putting on all manner of faces. I myself have seen him looking like an elderly 
man ; some of my friends have seen him looking quite young ; and others have 
seen him what they thought was middle-aged. He manages his voice equally well. 
If you go into twenty streets, only mention me, and you will find him at the same 
moment in all of them. Happily, he always hits in the wrong place. He says I 
am restless for celebrity ! he says I want vigour and originality !" 

' He ended with three little titters ; and these at least were in good metre, and 
shewed care in the composition. 

' Vitioria. — Happy man ! for vanity is rarely attended by vexation of spirit, 
and nobody is oppressed by a sense of emptiness. I must now undertake his 
defence. 

^Michel-Angelo. — Properly then have you exclaimed happy man ! 

'■Vitioria. — The clock and bell indeed are stumbling-blocks; but there are 



150 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

some instances in which even so inopportune an introduction of them is less 
censurable than in others. Suppose for example a dramatic poet in an age when 
the greater part of his audience was rude and ignorant. After he had supplied 
the more learned and intellectual with the requisites of his art, I would not quarrel 
with him for indulging the market-folk with a hearty peal of bells, or perhaps a 
discharge of artillery, while they are following the triumphal car of Cassar, or 
shouting round the conflagration of Persepolis ! But if another, in offering his 
tragedy for the perusal of our times, should neglect to sweep away the remnants 
of an old largess given to the multitude, it can only be from the conviction they 
are his proper company ; that he is about to be tried by his own order ; that his 
services are mostly due to the majority ; and that the world's population in 
simpletons is by no means on the wane. Consider now, my dear Michel-Angelo, 
if inconsistencies, absurdities, anachronisms, are to be found only in one depart- 
ment of the arts. I appeal to >ou, the president, prince, dictator of them all, 
whether it is as ridiculous to represent an angel playing on a violin, for which your 
master Ghirlandaio and some other more ancient painters have been reprehended, 
as it is to represent, what we find on many recent monuments, a poet or a musician 
with a lyre in his hand. For, if angels play on any instrument at all, they may as 
well play on such as men invented late as early ; since, at whatever time men 
invented them, angels may have invented them before. 

' Michel-Angelo.— K lyre in the hand of poet or musician born in our times, is 
a contradiction to ages, a defiance to chronology, and might mislead in regard to 
usages a remote posterity. So indeed might our silly inscriptions about the 
manes z.-aA ashes of our uncles and aunts, who would have been horrified at the 
idea of being burnt like Pagans, bottled up in urns, and standing bolt-upright, 
where milk and honey are lapped and sucked before their faces, by an ugly brood 
of devils unamenable to priest or purgatory. But while emperors and kings are 
hoisted upon columns a hundred palms above the earth, where only a pigeon 
would feel secure, and while saints and martyrs, instead of receiving us at the 
door or on the steps, are perched on the slope of a ballustrade, we need not look 
on the ground for a fresh crop of absurdities. The ancient Romans, quite 
barbarous enough in violating the pure architecture of Greece, abstained from 
such as these, and went no farther (nor truly was there any occasion) than to 
narrow the street, instead of enlarging it, for the march of armies through 
triumphal arches. The idea, so abused, was taken from the boughs and branches 
hung on poles, which shaded their forefathers at their return from plunder, while 
wine was poured out to them in the dusty path by wives and daughters. The songs 
alone continued just the same as they were at first, coarse, ribald, in the trochaic 
measure, which appears to be the commonest and earliest in most nations. 

' Vittoria. — The difference between poetry and all other arts, all other kinds 
of composition, is this : in them utility comes before delight ; in this, delight 
comes before utility. 

' Michel-Attgelo. — In some pleasing poems there is nothing whatsoever of the 
useful. 

' Vittoria. — My friend, I think you are mistaken. An obvious moral is indeed 
a heavy protuberance, which injures the gracefulness of a poem ; but there is 
wisdom of one kind or other in every sentence of a really good composition, and 
it produces its efifect in various ways. You employ gold in your pictures ; not 
always of the same consistency or the same preparation, but several of your 
colours, even the most different, are in part composed of it. This is a matter of 
which those in general who are gratified with the piece are unsuspicious. The 
beautiful in itself is useful by awakening our finer sensibilities, which it must be 
our own fault if we do not often carry with us into action. A well-ordered mind 
touches no branch of intellectual pleasure so brittle and incompliant as never to be 
turned to profit. 

' Michel-Angelo.— Ihe gift that was just now forced into my hand, I sadly 
suspect would have produced but little. 

' ViU07-ia. — Have you brought your treasure with you ^ Where is it ? 

' Michel-Angelo. — Knowing your antipathy to bad smells and bad poems, 
knowing also that Father Tiber is accustomed to both of them, I devoutly made 
my oflfering to him as I crossed the bridge. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 151 

' KifWonVj.— Indeed I am not over-curious about a specimen ; and few things 
that are hopeless ever gave any one less concern. 

^ Mickel-Angelo.—SjVich. resignation merits all possible reward ; and all that 
lies in me you shall receive. As the last page fluttered on the battlement, I caught 
two verses, without the intermediate : 

" Signor Cetego I la preghiera h vana. 
Spicciti ! senti ! suona la campana." 

and these two in sequence, which ai'e the conclusion : 

"Cetego casca in terra come un hove, 
E I'anima gli scappa . . . . chi sa dove ! ' 

' Vittoria. — If I could suppress my smile, perhaps I should reprove you ; but 
at last I will be grave. Men like yourself, men of reputation and authority, should 
not only be lenient and indulgent, but even grateful, to the vain and imbecile who 
attempt to please us. If we are amused at an ebullition of frowardness in 
children, at their little contortions, stamps, and menaces, are not the same things 
at least inoffensive to us, when children of the same character are grey, wrinkled, 
and toothless ? From those of three feet we only see our.- elves in a convex 
mirror ; we see what we were at the same age ; but from others of six feet we 
gather stores for pleasantry, for imagination, and for thought. Against their blank 
wall is inserted the standard by which we may measure our friends and ourselves. 
As we look up at it, Comedy often lays her playful hand on our shoulder ; and, as 
we turn our faces back, we observe Philosophy close behind her. If men in 
general were much nearer to perfection than they are, the noblest of human works 
would be farther from it. From the fall of Adam to the slaughter of Hector, how 
vastly has genius been elevated by our imperfections ! What history, what 
romance, what poem, interests us by unmixed good or by unwavering consistency? 
We require in you strong motives, pertinacious resolves, inflexible wills, and 
ardent passions ; you recjuire in us all our weaknesses. From your shore start 
forth abrupt and lofty precipices ; on ours, diametrically opposite, lie sequestered 
bays and deep recesses. We deride the man who is, or would be, like us in any- 
thing, the vain one in particular. Vanity in women is not invariably, though it 
is too often, the sign of a cold and selfish heart ; in men it always is : therefore 
we ridicule it in society, and in private hate it. 

' Michel-Angelo. —You prove to me, Donna Vittoria, that from base materials 
may rise clear and true reflections ! 

' Vittoria. — I wonder that poets who have encountered what they call the 
injustice of the world, hold with such pertinacity to the objects of attack. 

' Michel-Angelo. — We are unwilling to drown our blind puppies, because they 
are blind ; we are then unwilling to throw them into the pond, because they are 
just beginning to open their eyes ; lastly, we refuse idle boys, who stand ready for 
the sport, the most mis-shapen one of the litter, he having been trodden on in the 
stable, and kicked about by the grooms for his lameness. 

' Vittoria. — Pretty tropes indeed 1 and before one who dabbles in poetry. 

' Michel-Angelo. — So the silver-footed Thetis dabbled in the sea, when she 
could descend at pleasure to its innermost depths. 

' Vittoria. — You must certainly think in good earnest that I lay high claims 
to poetry. Here is more than enough flattery for the vainest woman, who is not 
a poetess also. Speak, if you please, about others, particularising or generalising. 

'Michel-Angelo. — Then to generalise a little. In our days poetry is a vehicle 
which does not carry much within it, but is top-heavy with what is corded on. 
Children, in a hurry to raise plants, cover their allotment of border with all the 
seeds the pinafore will hold ; so do small authors their poetry-plots. Hence what 
springs up in either quarter has nothing of stamen, but only sickly succulence for 
grubs to feed on. 

' Vittoria. — Never say in our days, unless you include many other days in 
most ages. In those when poetry was very flourishing there were complaints 
against it, as we find by Horace and Aristophanes. I am afraid, Michel-Angelo, 
some idle boy has been putting a pebble into his sling and aiming at your 
architraves j in other words, some poetaster or criticaster has been irreverent 



152 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

toward you. I do not mean about your poetry, which perhaps you undervalue, 
but about the greater things in which you are engaged. 

'■ Michel- Angela. — Nothing more Hkely ; but as only the worst can be guilty 
of it, I shall let them fall into other offences, that heavier punishment than I ever 
take the trouble to inflict, may befall them. It is only the few that have found 
the way into my heart, who can wound it ! 

' Vittoria. — You are safe then. 

' Michel-Angelo. — Whoever is engaged in great and difficult works, as I am, 
must inevitably meet with rivals and enemies ! 

' Vittoria. — Enemies ! yes ! Say that word only. What a pyramid of skulls 
from the insanely hostile does every predominant genius erect ! Leave those of 
your light assailants to whiten in their native deserts ; and march on. Indeed 
it is unnecessary to exhort you to magnanimity, for you appear unusually at 
ease and serene. 

' Michel-Angelo. — Serenity is no sign of security. A stream is never so smooth, 
equable, and silvery, as at the instant before it becomes a cataract. The children 
of Niobe fell by the arrows of Diana under a bright and cloudless sky. 

' Vittoria. — Alas ! the intellectual, the beautiful, and the happy, are always 
the nearest to danger. 

'■Michel-Angelo. — I come to you at all times, my indulgent friend, to calm my 
anxieties whensoever they oppress me. You never fail ; you never falter. 
Sometimes a compassionate look, sometimes a cheerful one, alights on the earthly 
thought, and dries up all its noxiousness. Music, and a voice that is more and 
better, are its last resorts. The gentleness of your nature has led you to them 
when we both had paused. There are songs that attract and melt the heart more 
sweetly than the Siren's. Ah ! there is love too, even here below, more precious 
than immortality ; but it is not the love of a Circe or a Calypso. 

' Vittoria. — Nor were they happy themselves ; and yet perhaps they were not 
altogether undeserving of it, they who could select for the object of their affections 
the courageous, the enduring, and the intelligent. There are few men at any time 
whom moral dignity and elevation of genius have made conspicuous above the 
mass of society ; and fewer still are the v/omen who can distinguish them from 
persons of ordinary capacity, endowed with qualities merely agreeable. But if it 
happens that a man of highest worth has been read attentively and thoroughly 
by those eyes which he has taught the art of divination, let another object inter- 
vene and occupy their attention, let the beloved be induced to think it a merit 
and a duty to forget him, yet memory is not an outcast nor an alien when the 
company of the day is gone, but says many things and asks many questions which 
she would not turn away from if she could. 

' Michel-Angelo. — The morning comes, the fresh world opens, and the vestiges 
of one are trodden out by many ; they were only on the dew, and with the dew 
they are departed. 

' Vittoria. — Although you are not alluding to yourself at the present time, nor 
iable to be interrupted in the secreter paths of life, yet I think you too susceptible 
n those you are pursuing, and I was anxious to discover if anything unpleasant 
h.id occurred. For, little minds in high places are the worst impediments to 
great. Chestnuts and esculent oaks permit the traveller to pass onward under 
the'T ; briars and thorns and unthrifty grass entangle him. 

'■Michel-Angelo. — You teach me also to talk figuratively; yet not remotely 
from one of the arts I profess. We may make a large hole in a brick wall and 
easily fill it up ; but the slightest flaw in a ruby or a crysolite is irreparable. 
Thus it is in minds. The ordinary soon take offence and (as they call it) 
make it up again ; the sensitive and delicate are long-suffering, but their 
wounds heal imperfectly, if at all. 

' Vittoria. — Are you quite certain you are without any ? 

'Michel-Angelo. — You and Saint Peter insure me. The immortal are 
invulnerable ! 

' Vittoria. — Evader ! but glad am I that you have spoken the word, although 
you set at nought thereby the authority of Homer. For you remind me that he, 
like Dante, often has a latent meaning by the side of an evident one, which 
indeed is peculiar to great poets. Unvi'ise commanders call out all their forces to 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 153 

the field ; the more prudent have their reserves posted where it is not everybody 
that can discover them. 

' In the IHad two immortals are wounded ; Venus slightly, Mars severely. 
The deities of Love and War are the only ones exposed to violence. In the 
former, weakness is shown to be open to aggression ; in the latter, violence to 
resistance and repulse ; and both are subject to more pain than they can well 
endure. At the same time, Juno and Pallas, Mercury and Apollo and Neptune, do 
not stand aloof, but stand unassailable. Here we perceive that sometimes the 
greater gods are subtilised and attenuated into allegories. Homer bestows on 
them more or less potency at his pleasure. One moment we see a bright and 
beautiful god stand manifest before us ; presently hii form and radiance are 
indistinct ; at last, in the place where he was standing, there are only some 
scattered leaves, inscribed with irregular and uncouth characters ; these invite 
our curiosity with strange similitudes ; we look more attentively, and they seern 
brought closer together : the god has receded to deliver the oracle of his wisdom. 

'' Michel- Angela. — Homer left a highway, over-shadowed with lofty trees and 
perennial leafage, between the regions of Allegory and Olympus. The gloom of 
Dante is deeper, and the boundaries even more indiscernible. We know the one 
is censured for it ; perhaps the other was. 

'Vittoria. — To the glory of our Italy be it spoken, we are less detractive than 
our forefathers the Romans. Dante and Petrarca were estimated highly by those 
nearest them. Indeed, to confess the truth, Petrarca has received for his poetry 
what ought i-ather to have been awarded him for rarer and sublimer deserts. 
Dante has fared less sumptuously, and there are fewer who could entertain him. 
Petty Latin things called classics, as their betters are, smooth, round, light, hollow, 
regularly figured like pasteboard zodiacs, were long compared and even preferred 
to the triple world of Dante. I speak not of Grecian literature, because I know 
it not sufficiently; but I imagine Rome is to Greece what a bull-ring is to a 
palaestra, the games of the circus to the Olympic, fighting bondmen to the brothers 
of Helen, the starry twins of Jupiter and Leda. 

^Michel- Angela. — Boccaccio first scattered the illusion by which the guide 
seemed loftier and grander than the guided. The spirit of the immortal master, 
our Tuscan, no longer led by the hand, nor submissively following, soared beyond 
Italy, and is seen at last, in his just proportions, right against the highest pinnacle 
of Greece. Ariosto has not yet been countenanced by the Italian potentates, nor 
fostered in the genial fur of our Holy Fathers, with the same tenderness as some 
minute poets, who dirty their cold fingers with making little clay models after old 
colossal marbles. But Ariosto is too marked in his features to be fondled, and 
too broad in his shoulders for the chairs they occupy. He is to Ovid what 
Sicily is to Italy; divided by a narrow channel; the same warm climate, the 
same flowery glebe ; less variety, less extent. Not only these, but perhaps all 
poets excepting Pindar and ^schylus, want compression and curtailment ; yet 
the parings of some would be worth the pulp of others. 

'■Vittaria. — Those to whom, I will not say genius, but splendid talents have 
been given, are subject to weaknesses to which inferior men are less liable ; 
as the children of the rich are to diseases from which those of the poorer generally 
are exempt. 

'■ Michel- Angela. —I^a.^ reason,' I conceive, is this. Modern times have pro- 
duced no critic contemporary with an eminent poet. There is a pettishness and 
frowardness about some literary men, in which, at the mention of certain names, 
they indulge without moderation or shame. They are prompt and alert at showing 
their sore places, and strip for it up to the elbow. They feel only a comfortable 
warmth when they are reproved for their prejudices and antipathies, which often 
are no more to be traced to their origin that the diseases of the body, and come 
without contact, without even breathing the same air. No remedy being sought 
for them, they rapidly sink into the mental constitution, weakening its internal 
strength and disfiguring its external character. In some persons at first they are 
covered and concealed ; but afterwards, when they are seen and remarked, are 
exhibited in all their virulence with swaggering effrontery. 

^Vitloria.— Gee.se and buffaloes are enraged at certain colours; there are 
certain colours also of the mind lively enough to excite choler at a distance in the 



154 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

silly and bovine. I have witnessed in authors the most vehement expression of 
hatred against those whose writings they never read, and whose persons they 
never approached : all these are professors of Christianity, and some of moral 
philosophy. 

' Michel-Angelo.—Vio not wonder then if I take my walk at a distance from 
the sibilant throat and short-flighted wing ; at a distance from the miry hide and 
blindly directed horn. Such people as you describe to me may be men of talents ; 
but talents lie below genius. 

' Occasionally we attribute to a want of benevolence what in reality is only 
a want of discernment. The bad sticks as closely as the good, and often more 
readily. If we would cover with gold a cornice or a statue, we require a pre- 
paration for it ; smoke does its business in a moment. 

'Kzy/ij/'/a. — Sometimes we ourselves may have exercised our ingenuity, but 
without any consciousness of spleen or ill-humour, in detecting and discussing the 
peculiar faults of great poets. This has never been done, or done very clumsily, 
by our critics, who fancy that a measureless and shapeless phantom of 
enthusiasm leaves an impression of a powerful mind, and a quick apprehension 
of the beautiful. 

' " Who," they ask us, " who would look for small defects in such an admirable 
writer ? who is not transported by his animation, and blinded by his brightness ?" 

' To this interrogation my answer is, 

'" Very few indeed ; only the deliberate, the instructed, and the wise. Only 
they who partake in some degree of his nature know exactly where to find his 
infirmities." 

' We perhaps on some occasions have spoken of Dante in such a manner as 
would make the unwary, if they heard us, believe that we estimate him no higher 
than Statins, Silius, Valerius, and the like. On the other hand, we have admired 
the versatility, facility, and invention of Ovid, to such a degree as would excite a 
suspicion that we prefer him even to Virgil. But in one we spoke of the worst 
pans, in the other of the best. Censure and praise cannot leave the lips at the 
same breath : one is caught before the other comes : our verdict is distributed 
abroad when we have summed up only one column of the evidence. 

'■Micliel-A?igelo. — Surely I have heard you declare that you could produce 
faults out of Virgil graver than any in Ovid. 

'■Vittoria. — The faults of Ovid are those of a playful and unruly boy: the 
faults of Virgil are those of his master. I do not find in Ovid (as you may 
remember I then observed) the hypallage ; such for instance as Virgil's, " The 
odour brought the wind" instead of " The wind brought the odour ^^ No child 
could refrain from laughter at such absurdity, no pedagogue from whipping him 
for laughing at such authority. This figure (so the grammarians are pleased to 
call it) far exceeds all other faults in language, for it reverses the thing it should 
represent. If I buy a mirror, I would rather buy one which has fifty small flaws 
in it, than one which places my feet where my head should be. 

' There are poems of Ovid which I have been counselled to cast aside, and my 
curiosity has never violated the interdict. But even in Homer himself nothing 
of the same extent is more spirited, or truly epic, than the contest of Ajax and 
Ulysses. You shall hear in this apartment, some day soon, what our Bembo 
thinks about it. No Roman, of any age, either has written more purely or 
shown himself a more consummate judge both of style and matter. 

' Michel- Angelo. — I think so loo ; but some have considered him rather as 
correct and elegant than forcible and original. 

''Vittoria. — Because he is correct ; of which alone they can form a notion, and 
of this imperfectly. Had he written in a negligent and disorderly manner, they 
would have admired his freedom and copiousness, ignorant that, in literature as 
in life, the rich and noble are as often frugal as the indigent and obscure. The 
Cardinal never talks vaguely and superficially on any species of composition ; no, 
not even with his friends. Where a thing is to be admired or censured, he 
explains in what it consists. He points to the star in the ascendant, and tells us 
accurately at what distance other stars are from it. In lighter mood, on lighter 
matters, he shakes the beetle out of the rose, and shows us what species of insect 
that is which he has thrown on its back at our feet, and in what part and to what 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



155 



extent the flower has been corroded by it. He is too noble in his nature to be 
habitually sarcastic, and too conscious of power to be declamatory or diffuse. 

^Michel-Angelo. — Nevertheless, in regard to sarcasm, I have known him to 
wither a fungus of vanity by a single beam of wit. 

'■Vittoria. — He may indeed have chastised an evil-doer, but a glance of the 
eye or a motion of the hand is enough. Throughout the ample palace of his 
mind not an instrument of torture can be found. 

''Michel-Angelo. — Perhaps in the offices below, a scourge may be suspended 
for intrusive curs, or for thieves disguised in stolen liveries. I wish my friend of 
this morning had met the Cardinal instead of me. Possessing no sense of shame 
or decency, and fancying that wherever he has thrust a book he has conferred a 
distinction, he would have taken the same easy liberty with his Eminence. 

^Vittoria. — If he continues to be so prolific, we shall soon see another island 
emerging from the Tiber. Our friend the Cardinal has indeed no time to squander 
on those who, like your waylayer, infest the public roads of literature, by singing 
old songs and screaming old complaints. But I wish his political occupations 
would allow him to pursue his pleasanter studies, and especially in exercising his 
acute judgment on our primary poets. For our country, both anciently and of 
late, has always wanted a philosophical critic on poetical works, and none are 
popular in the present day but such as generalise or joke. Ariosto, in despite of 
them, is, however tardily and difficultly, coming into favour. There is quite 
enough in him for our admiration, although we never can compare him with some 
among the ancients. For the human heart is the world of poetry ; the imagina- 
tion is only its atmosphere. Fairies, and genii, and angels themselves, are at 
best its insects, glancing with unsubstantial wings about its lower regions and less 
noble edifices. 

' Michel-Angelo. — You have been accustomed, O Madonna, to contemplate in 
person those illustrious men who themselves were the destinies of nations, and 
you are therefore less to be satisfied with the imaginative and illusory. 

' Vittoria. — There are various kinds of greatness, as we all know ; however, 
the most part of those who profess one species is ready to acknowledge no other. 
The first and chief is intellectual. But surely those also are to be admitted into 
the number of the eminently great, who move large masses by action, by throwing 
their own ardent minds into the midst of popular assemblies or conflicting armies, 
compelling, directing, and subjeciing. This greatness is indeed far from so 
desirable as that which shines serenely from above, to be our hope, comfort, 
and guidance ; to lead us in spirit from a world of sad realities into one fresh 
from the poet's hand, and blooming with all the variety of his creation. Hence 
the most successful generals, and the most powerful kings, will always be 
considered by the judicious and dispassionate as invested with less dignity, less 
extensive and enduring authority, than great philosophers and great poets. 

' Michel-Angelo. — By the wise indeed ; but little men, like little birds, are 
attracted and caught by false lights. 

' Vittoria. — It was beautifully and piously said in days of old, that, wherever 
a spring rises from the earth, an altar should be erected. Ought not we, my 
friend, to bear the same veneration to the genius which springs from obscurity in 
the loneliness of lofty places, and which descends to irrigate the pastures of the 
mind with a perennial freshness and vivifying force ? If great poets build their 
own temples, as indeed they do, let us at least offer up to them our praises and 
thanksgivings, and hope to render them acceptable by the purest incense of the 
heart. 

' Michel-Angelo. — First we must find the priests, for ours are inconvertible from 
their crumbling altars. Too surely we are without an Aristoteles to precede and 
direct them. 

' Vittoria. — We want him not only for poetry, but philosophy. Much of the 
dusty perfumery, which thickened for a season the pure air of Attica, was 
dissipated by his breath. Calm reasoning, deep investigation, patient experi- 
ment, succeeded to contentious quibbles and trivial irony. The sun of Aristoteles 
dispersed the unwholesome, vapour that arose from the garden of Academus. 
Instead of spectral demons, instead of the monstrous progeny of mystery and 
immodesty, there arose tangible images of perfect symmetry. Homer was 



iS6 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

recalled from banishment : jtschylus followed : the choruses boived before him, 
divided, and took their stands. Symphonies were heard ; what symphonies ! 
So powerful as to lighten the chain that Jupiter had riveted on his rival. The 
conquerors of kings until then omnipotent, kings who had trampled on the 
towers of Babylon and had shaken the eternal sanctuaries of Thebes, the 
conquerors of these kings bowed their olive-crowned heads to the sceptre of 
Destiny, and their tears ran profusely over the immeasurable wilderness of 
human woes. 

^ MicJicl-Angclo. — We have no poetry of this kind now, nor have we auditors 
who could estimate or know it if we had. Yet, as the fine arts have raised up 
their own judges, literature may, ere long, do the same. Instead of undervaluing 
and beating down, let us acknowledge and praise any resemblance we may trace 
to the lineaments of a past and stronger generation. 

' Vittoria. — But by the manners and habitudes of antiquity ours are little to be 
improved. Scholars who scorn the levity of Ariosto, and speak disdainfully of 
the middle ages, in the very centre of the enchantment thrown over them by the 
magician of Ferrara, never think how much we owe, not only to him, but also to 
those ages ; never think by what energies, corporeal and mental, from the 
barbarous soldier rose the partially polished knight, and high above him, 
by slower degrees, the accomplished and perfect gentleman, the summit of 
nobility. 

^ Michel-Angdo. — O that Pescara were present ! Pescara ! whom your words 
seem to have embodied and recalled ! Pescara ! the lover of all glory, but mostly 
of yours. Madonna ! he to whom your beauty was elocjuence and your eloquence 
beauty, inseparable as the influences of deity. 

'■Vittoria — Present ! and is he not? Where I am there is he, for evermore. 
Earth may divide. Heaven never does. The beauty you speak of is the only 
thing departed from me, and that also is with him perhaps. He may, I hope 
he may, see me as he left me, only more pacified, more resigned. After I had 
known Pescara, even if I had never been his, I should have been espoused to him ; 
espoused to him before the assembled testimonies of his innumerable virtues, 
before his genius, his fortitude, his respectful superiority, his manly gentleness. 
Yes, I should have been married to his glory ; and, neither in his lifetime nor 
when he left the world, would I have endured, O Michel-Angelo, any other 
alliance. The very thought, the very words conveying it, are impiety. But 
friendship helps to support that heavy pall to which the devoted cling tenaciously 
for ever. 

'■ Michel-A7tgelo. — Oh ! that at this moment . . . 

' Vittoria. — Hush ! hush ! Wishes are by-paths on the declivity to unhappiness ; 
the weaker terminate in the sterile sand, the stronger in the vale of tears. If 
there are griefs, which we know there are, so intense as to deprive us of our 
intellects, griefs in the next degree of intensity, far from depriving us of them, 
amplify, purify, regulate, and adorn them. We sometimes spring above 
happiness, and fall on the other side. This hath happened to me ; but 
strength enough is left me to raise myself up again, and to follow the guide who 
calls me. 

' Michel-Angelo. — Surely God hath shown that mortal what his own love is, 
for whom he hath harmonised a responsive bosom, warm in the last as in the 
first embraces. One look of sympathy, one regret at parting, is enough, is too 
much ; it burdens the heart with over-payment. You cannot gather up the 
blossoms which, by blast after blast, have been scattered and whirled behind you. 
Are they requisite ? The fruit was formed within them ere they fell upon the 
walk ; you have culled it in its season. 

' FiY&r/a.— Before we go into another state of existence, a thousand things 
occur to detach us imperceptibly from this. To some (who knows to how many.') 
the images of early love return with an inviting yet a saddening glance, and the 
breast that was laid out for the sepulchre bleeds afresh. Such are ready to follow 
where they are beckoned, and look keenly into the darkness they are about to 
penetrate. 

' Did we not begin to converse on another subject ? Why have you not 
spoken to me this half-hour ? 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 157 

'■ MicJtcI-Angelo. — I see, O Donna Vittoria, I may close the volume we were 
to read and criticise. 

' Vittoria. — Then I hope you have something of your own for me instead. 

' Michel- Angela. — Are you not tired of my verses ? Your smile is too splendid 
a reward, but too indistinct an answer. Pray, pray tell me, Madonna ! and yet I 
have hardly the courage to hear you tell me ... . have I not sometimes written to 
you .?.,.. 

' Vittoria. — My cabinet can answer for that. Lift up your sphinx if you 
desire to find it. Anything in particular ? 

' Micliel-Angdo. — I would say, written to you with .... 

' Vittoria. — With what ? a golden pen ? 

' Michel-Angelo. — No, no. 

' Vittoria. — An adamantine one ? 

'You child ! you child ! are you hiding it in my sleeve ? An eagle's plume 'i a 
nightingale's ? a dove's ? I must have recourse to the living sphinx, if there is any, 
not to the porphyry. Have you other pens than these ? I know the traces 
of them all, and am unwilling to give you credit for any fresh variety. But come, 
tell me, what is it ? 

^Michel-Angela. — I am apprehensive that I sometimes have written to you 
with an irrepressible gush of tenderness, which is but narrowed and deepened 
and precipitated by entering the channel of verse. This, falling upon vulgar ears, 
might be misinterpreted. 

' Vittoria. — If I have deserved a wise man's praise and a virtuous man's 
affection, I am not to be defrauded of them by stealthy whispers, nor deterred 
from them by intemperate clamour. She whom Pescara selected for his own, 
must excite the envy of too many ; but the object of envy is not the sufferer by it : 
there are those who convert it even into recreation. One star hath ruled my 
destiny and shaped my course. Perhaps .... no, not perhaps, but surely, under 
that clear light I may enjoy unreproved the enthusiasm of his friend, the greatest 
man, the most ardent and universal genius, he has left behind him. Courage ! 
courage ! Lift up again the head which nothing on earth should lower. When 
death approaches me, be present, Michel-Angelo, and shed as pure tears on this 
hand as I did shed on the hand of Pescara. 

^Michel-Angelo. — Madonna! they are these ; they are these! endure them 
now rather ! 

' Merciful God ! if there is piety in either, grant me to behold her at that hour, 
not in the palace of a hero, not in the chamber of a saint, but from thine ever- 
lasting mansions ! ' 

85. A. L. S. Dated '35 St. James's Street, Wednesday Night ' (1841). 
I page 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I was getting into the Bath coach, when my sister's 
servant gave me the two proof-sheets. I did not lose a moment in correcting 
them wilh a pencil ; and since my return I have looked them carefully over a 
second time. Our compositors spoil our sentences by unnecessary stops. I have 
not yet received my dramas, and I presume that Mr. Bentley will favour me with 
none. 

' Count D'Orsay's letter I did not answer until I knew where he might address 
the prints. Will he have the goodness to order three for my sister, Mrs. Landor 
at Warwick, and mine for the Milneses to Bath. Pray thank him for me again 
and again, and believe me, dear Lady Blessington, yours very sincerely.' 

86. A. L. S. Dated Bath, 'Saturday Morning' (July 4th, 1 841). With 

Superscription and Seal. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — At last I am somewhat settled, for a time at least. 
In the midst of the fourteen notes and letters which I have been answering all the 
four days since my return to Bath, I have been inclined to leave off at every one, 
that I might write to you, for my conscience told me that you must have been 
thinking me at once the most stupid and the most ungrateful of mortals in 



158 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

deferring the letter of apology I owed you. The fact is, Walter and I had agreed 
to be at Gore House about two o'clock on Sunday. But his grandmother was 
announced, and I was most desirous to meet her. Nothing could be more kind 
and just than I found her, and my wife's sisters were, all of them, quite as 
cordial with me as Mrs. Stopford was. 

' On Monday, early in the morning, I started for my brother Robert's, in 
Worcestershire. He possesses, as rector of the parish, a most delightful place at 
Bcrlingham. All the money he receives from his benefice, he spends on the 
education and comforts of the poor. Enough is left for a capitally good table. 
He has neither horse nor servant of the male sex, except a couple of gardeners 
— one for his melons, &c., to keep in perfect order about four acres of lawn before 
the house. 

'I am delighted to find how gloriously my friend Dickens has been received 
at Edinburgh. But the Scotchmen could not avoid ill-placed criticisms, and 
oblique comparisons. One blockhead talked of his deficiency in the female 
character — the very thing in which he and Shakespeare most excel. 

'Juliet herself may, for one moment, turn her eyes from Romeo on little Nell, 
and Desdemona take to heart her hairbreadth escapes. I dare not decide which 
of these three characters is the most interesting and pathetic. 

' There was plenty of heat in this Edinburgh laboratory ; but all that came 
from the leaden alembic came drop by drop. 

'When I return to London to be godfather, I shall claim from Miss Power, 
not only my two pieces of music, but, what is better, her execution of them. 
Meanwhile with best regards to C D'Orsay and the fair sisters, I remain, dear 
Lady Blessington, your ever obliged.' 

87. A. L. S. No date (March 23rd, 1843). i page 4to., with Super- 
scription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — About a week ago I grew impatient, as old men 
are apt to do, worse perhaps than young ones, and I said to myself I must contrive 
to win another letter from Lady Blessington. So, not finding among my 
Imaginary Conversations a single one adapted to the Book of Beauty, I began to 
beat about and found a subject in the land of Egypt. To-day I have finished the 
transcribing. May you and the Miss Powers like it ! 

' Stopford wrote to me yesterday, full of such praises as I have not the 
courage to repeat, lest you should think some of them came purely and 
originally from me. But I may venture to say of Count D'Orsay that 
Stopford thinks him the most perfect gentleman in the world, and other 
things, which, being an author, I ought to love him for from the bottom of 
my heart. 

' How does he do? And pray let me hear too that your affliction is softened. 
Forster tells me of your condescension and humanity. Admiration is very like 
wonder, but I did not wonder at all. Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your 
ever obliged.' 

88. A. L. S. No date (September 6th, 1845). ^ P^g^ 410. 

' On a Passage in the Life of Mozart. 

But that, with all the heart 



' O gentlest of thy race. 
How early do we trace 

The wrath of Fate on Thee ! 
Not only that thy head 
Was hurl'd among the dead. 

The virtuous, wise, and free, 
O, Maria Antoinette, 
Do generous souls regret 

Thy sceptred destiny. 



Of mortal like Mozart, 

His bride thou couldst not be. 
Thou liftedst up the child 
From thy waxt floor : he smiled, 

Kist thee, and call'd thee wife. 
Ah, could it have been so. 
How free wert thou from woe, 

How pure, how great thro' life ! 



' Dear Lady Blessington, — I have been correcting a few verses on reading again 
the anecdote of Mozart. Are they worthy of a pkce in 'Ca^ Book of Beauty f 
Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your ever obliged,' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 159 

89. A. Verses S. No date, i page 410. 

'Lines to Lady Blessington. 

' What language, let me think, is meet 
For you, well called the Marguerite ? 
The Tuscan has too weak a tone, 
Too rough and rigid is our own ; 
The Latin — no — it will not do. 
The Attic is alone for you. 

A Latin version by Mr. Landor, of the above lines, followed : — 
' Quoniam carmine le alloquar decenter 
Vero nomine dicta Margarita ! 
Sermo est durior Anglicanus : atque 
Tuscus dispUcet : est enim vigoris 
Expers : aptior est quidem latinus 
Atque non satis est mihi sibique 
Te sermo Atticus unicfe decent.' 

90. A. Verses. No date (1849). -1- page 4to. 

' To The Countess of Blessington. 
' Stay with me, Time, stay here and rest, 
Altho' (grammercy ! ) 'tis confest 
Men find thee an unwelcome guest. 

' But thou'rt too weary to go on, 
And twenty years must yet have flown 
Ere thou canst get to Kensington. 
' Poor verses in return for rich ones.'* 

LONGMAN (Messrs). The Publishers.! 

Thirteen A. L. S Dated between September, 1839, and May, 1844. 
33 pages 8vo. and 4to. 

(L) London, September idfh, 1839. 

' My dear Madam, — I beg to enclose for your acceptance six copies of the 
second edition of the Desultory Thoughts. I am sorry I was not able to send 
them sooner, but the book was a little longer in coming to a second edition than 
I expected. I hope you will admire the silver lettering, which I think will not 
tarnish, as the binders have adopted a new method, by which I believe this will 
be prevented. Allow me, also, to request your acceptance of the first part 
Blame's Encyclopedia of Ricral Sports. 

'Although the subject of " Rural Sports" is not one in which ladies generally 
take a great interest, I think that as an admirer of art you will be pleased with 
the illustrations, and it will create some interest on your table. I shall have the 
pleasure to send you the work regularly as it appears. I remain,' &c. 

(2.) Paternoster Row, December z^th, 1839. 

' My dear Madam, — It would have given me great pleasure to oblige you by 
informing you of the sales of the Book of Beauty, &c. ; but as the works are not 
our property, only selling them on commission for Mr. Heath, I really do not 
feel myself at liberty to do so. 

' Allow me to wish you many happy returns of the season, and believe me,' &c. 

* Of the above letters, Nos. 3-5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 19, 21-2, 29, 36-8, 41, 44, 49, 55, 58, 
60, 62-3, 67, 73-4, 76-7, have been published in Dr. Madden's Life of Lady Blessington, wiih 
the exception of the portions enclosed in square brackets. 

t Of these letters, Nos. 1-3 are from Mr. Thomas Norton Longman, 1771-1842 ; Nos. 4, 9, 
and 10 are from his eldest son, Thomas Longman, 1804-1879 ; and the remainder ate from 
William Longman, 1813-1877, younger brother of Thomas, 



i6o THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

(3.) 39 Paternoster Row, October su/, 1840. 

'Aly dear Madam,— I am much obliged by your sending me the French 
translation of your little work. I am happy to see that our neighbours are 
inclined to adopt some of the thoughts and ideas of our country. I wish that 
more frequently we thought alike, though I beUeve our neighbours would be the 
greatest gainers. 

' The " Macimes," as I see Mr. Xavier is determined to call them, appear in 
the translation as if that were their original language. Believe me,' &c. 

(4.) Paternoster Row, November 2T,rd, 1842. 

' My dear Madam,— I beg your acceptance of a little work we have just 
published which may afford you some amusement. 

' I cannot omit this opportunity of expressing my sense of your very kind 
sympathy on our recent bereavement. 

' It is a great consolation to be made aware how justly my late excellent father 
was appreciated by those who knew him. Believe me,' &c. 

(5.) Paternoster Row, March list, 1843. 

' My dear Madam, — Enclosed I have the pleasure to send you an early copy 
of a book which I think you cannot fail to be much amused with. 

' Some parts of it appear to me to approach Gil Bias more nearly than any 
book I have read for some time. I remain,' &c. 

(6.) Paternoster Row, April 2\st, 1843. 

' My dear Madam, — If you have determined on the title of your new novel, 
I think it would be desirable to announce it in our monthly list for May ist. For 
this purpose I should receive the title at latest on Monday. I remain,' &c. 

(7.) Paternoster Row, June i^th, 1843. 

'Dear Madam, — The American publishers, Messrs. Lee and Blanchard of 
Philadelphia, have made us an offer of five pounds for the early sheets of your 
forthcoming novel, Meridith. Though the sum is so small, we cannot do 
otherwise than mention it to your Ladyship. 

'We shall be obliged by your informing us what answer we shall give to their 
agents. 

' Will you have the kindness to inform me how soon you expect the work will 
be ready. I remain,' &c. 

(8.) Paternoster Row, J7ily \st, 1843. 

' Dear Madam, — I take the liberty of introducing to you Mr. Bernard Tauch- 
nitz,* of Leipzig, the nephew of a well-known and respectable publisher in that 
city. His object in visiting England is to make arrangements for publishing 
authorized editions of new works in Germany. I remain,' &c. 

(9.) Paternoster Row, July \Zth, 1843. 

'My Lady, — If it were not for the annoyance occasioned to you by the insane 
writer of the letter you enclose me, I should consider his statements and letter of 
no consequence whatever. 

' I believe Mr. Day to be really insane, for he has no ground of complaint 
against us, and still less against your Ladyship. 

' Let me beg of you to treat the whole matter with the contempt it deserves, 
and you may rely on our doing everything possible to prevent future annoyance. 

' A question has arisen respecting the effect of granting permission to print 
abroad authorized editions of English works. Under the Copyright Act it appears 
that such editions could be re-imported into England and the Colonies, but that 
they might be excluded under the Customs and Colonial Acts. 

'We are taking Sir John Bayley'st opinion on the point for the " Society for 

" Christian Bernhard, Baron Tauchnitz, 1816-1895, the well-known publisher, who originated 
the ' Collection of British Authors.' 

+ Sir John Bayley, 1 763-1841, the well-known judge. He was called to the Bar in 1792, in 
1799 became a serjeant-at-law, and in 1808 was made a judge of the King's Bench, and was 
knighted. After sitting in this court for more than twenty-two jears he was, at his own request, 
removed to the Court of Exchequer in 1 830. He resigned his seat on the bench in 1834, when 
he was created a baronet, and admitted to the Privy Council, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. i6i 

the Protection of Literature," and I shall inform your Ladyship of the result. In 
the meantime it would be expedient that Mr. Tauchnitz should be informed that 
some words must be printed on the title-pages of all such works, in order to 
prevent their importation into England. 

' I shall inform your Ladyship of the form which will be advised by Sir John 
Bayley, and in the meantime I remain, my Lady, yours very faithfully.' 

(10.) Paternoster Row, July i(>th^ 1843. 
_ 'Dear Madam,— We forwarded to Mr. Tauchnitz the agreement on the i8th of 
this month, which was the first opportunity after having received it. A copy of 
Meredith shall be sent to Mr Rosenburg. 

' I have requested Mr. Farmer, our solicitor, to send your Ladyship a copy of 
Sir John Bayley's opinion on the copyright question, which probably has reached 
Gore House, or it will very shortly. Yours very faithfully.' 

(11.) Paternoster Row, October 21st, 1843. 

' My dear Madam,— I regret to inform you that Meridith has not hitherto had 
the sucess I had anticipated. I shall be obliged by your informing me whether 
you would wish it to be again advertised next month. It was your wish that we 
should not spend above ^£50 without consulting you; we have spent only abotit £^'^. 

'We have sold about 380 copies only. I remain, my dear Madam, faithfully 
yours.' 

(12.) Paternoster Row, November },rd, 1843. 

' My dear Madam, — I find by your note of yesterday that you are under some 
little misapprehension with regard to the Meridith. We subscribed 300 copies, 
and I have since sold 84 ; copies have been sold in all parts of the country. We do 
not send our books on sale to any bookseller, excepting our agent in Edinburgh, 
and I find that we sent him copies on publication. I also find that immediately 
on publication, copies were sent to Dublin, according to orders. 

' I trust these explanations will be satisfactory to you, & remain, my dear 
Madam, faithfully yours.' 

(13.) Paternoster Row, May 1st, 1844. 

' My dear Madam, — I am glad to hear you are so much pleased with Lady 
Willoughby.* 

' I will have the account of IMeridith made up immediately, as we should 
prefer paying you the exact balance. 

' We will then either pay you the amount, deducting the necessary interest, 
or you can draw on us for the amount. 

' We should prefer paying you in cash. I remain, my dear Madam, faithfully 
yours.' 

LYNDHURST (John Singleton Copley, ist Baron). The eminent 
Lawyer, appointed Lord Chancellor in 1827. (i 772-1 863.) 

1. Twenty-three A. L. S. No dates. (Between 1834 and 1854.) 
66 pages 8vo. 

(1.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I returned to town yesterday, and forward 
three letters addressed to you, which I enclose. I also take the liberty of 
requesting that you will have the kindness to send the volumes which accompany 
this to Count D'Orsay, with my best thanks for the loan of them. 

' I need scarcely add that I received great pleasure in the perusal of them, 
and was delighted that I had so excellent a resource during the rainy morning 
that I passed in the country. The pictures of Irish manners and the consequences 
of Irish agitation are admirably drawn. Excuse, dear Lady Blessington, this 
freedom, and believe me to be most faithfy y"^'.' 

* A fictitious diary, by H. M. Rathbone, then just published, under the title of So much of 
the Diary of Lady Willoughby as relates to her Domestic History, and to the Eventful Period of 
Charles I. 

M 



1 62 THE BLESSTNGTON PAPERS. 

(2.) ' Dear Lady Blessington,— I don't know how sufficiently to thank you for 
your very very kind letter. I feel your sympathy* most sensibly and most grate- 
fully, your flattering expressions with respect to myself I can only refer to your 
courtesy and the known benevolence of your disposition. In return I can only 
endeavour to merit your good opinion and esteem, which no one, believe me, 
prizes more highly than your faithful & truly obliged friend.' 

(■3.) ' Dear Lady Blessington,— Many thanks for your kind note. At present 
my sister is able to attend sufficiently to my daughters, to whom indeed she is so 
good as to devote the whole of her time, or I should have been most happy to 
have availed myself of the assistance of a person who would have suited so well 
as the lady you mention. I hope you have got rid of your workmen. They are no 
quite so bad where you are as in London, but everywhere they are plagues. The 
book amused me much. I shall return it on Sunday, when I shall hope to see 
you in the evening at the Gore. Ever, d'' Lady Blessington, y" most faithfully.' 

(4.) ' Dear Lady Blessington,— I enclose a letter of yours which I accidentally 
opened, but on reading the words, " My dear Lady Blessington," I discovered my 
mistake, and I enclose and forward it to you. Pray excuse my carelessness ; 1 was 
opening several letters at the time, and took for granted that the letter was for 
me. I am here with my children, and the quiet is not disagreeable, though were 
it to continue it mighi become dull. Books, of which you are so fond, enable me 
to set the wind and rain at defiance. 

' I shall be in your near neighbourhood on Sunday. Ever, d'' Lady Blessington, 
y"^^ most truly.' 

(5.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I would make some excuse to Lord George, 
were it possible, for it would give' me great pleasure to dine with you, and I 
should be charmed to meet (may I say to caress ?) the great Russian Lion.t I 
never before dined with Lord George, the invitation is from both Lord and Lady 
G., and is of long standing. He meets me, too, every day in the H. of Lords. 

' Voila ! many and insuperable difficulties. I remain, my dear L^' Blessington, 
yi8 very faithfully.' 

(6.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, ~I send you the order. It delights me that I can 
apply it so well. Thanks for your kind inquiries about my children. They are 
beginning to move about, but I am told that great caution will be for some time 
necessary. I have intended to pay you a visit for some time, but accidental 
circumstances have interfered to prevent me. 

' I must also he allowed to go with you to your new house. I can't say how 
much I am obliged to you about the house in Park Lane, which answers 
admirably. Ever, my dear Lady, y'' most truly.' 

(7.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am beginning a letter of business, and I fear 
before you have got to the end of it, you will think me very tiresome. But Lady 
Sykes is so kind-hearted and so good humoured a person, that I feel very anxious 
to accomplish what she wishes, and I know how essential to her happiness it is 
that she should be agreeably and pleasantly lodged. 

' The house suits her in every respect. It is just what she wishes, and I 
should be sorry that she should be disappointed by NOT getting it. 

'The truth is that Sir Francis is rather a queer person. He will allow her 
500/. a year for her house including everything ; that is not bad, but he says, if I 
pay for this and then pay that, &c., &c., I don't know what it will cost me, and I 
like to be at a certainty, if the house, therefore, can be got as a furnished house 
for 500/. a year, the affair may be settled in a day. He has no objection to the 
15 years. But a furnished house, the landlord of course pays the taxes, &c., which 

* On the occasion of the death of his wife, Sarah Brunsdell, Lady Lyndhurst, 1795-1834, 
daughter of Charles Brunsdell and widow of Colonel Thomas, who was killed six weeks after 
marriage at the battle of Waterloo : she married Lord Lyndhurst in 1819. She was considered 
to be one of the most beautiful and gifted women of the day. 

t This was no doubt Count Matuschewitz, the ' Russian Count who spoke all the languages 
of Europe as well as his,' as Willis describes him in his Pencillings by the Way, under date June 
14th, 1834. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 163 

I suppose are about 60/. or 70/. a year. The House will want some things in the 
shape of furniture, and as usual materials/^?- the kitchen, &c. ; some of the furniture 
is very shabby. I allude particularly to the carpets upstairs. But this is a matter 
of detail, in respect of which Lady S. would, I know, concede much. If the house 
is taken for 15 years as ^furnished house, the landlord would keep it decent. It 
should be painted once in the 1 5 years at his expense, and there should be once 
new carpets and curtains. But as to all this, will you kindly do the best you can. 
It might be arranged in another way, the things might be valued, and a proper 
per centage added to the rent, then the house might be taken in the usual way— 
the tenant to repair and pay taxes, &c. If you can, dear Lady Blessington, bring 
this matter to a happy conclusion, I shall feel most and for ever grateful. I 
remain, very faithf y'^^ ' 

' You see I have not threatened a long letter in vain. I fear you can't read 
this.' 

(8.) 'Dear Lady Blessington,— What says Mr. G. ? I believe Mr. J. has no 
objection to stand in his shoes. Indeed I am sure he has not. 

' Dis's pack is making its way. It is excellent— dog news, &c. Yours most 
sincerely.' 

(9.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — We have seen the House, and it is most 
highly approved—this alteration was suggested, that arrangement of the rooms, 
&c., &c., all was moving prosperously. I hastened to Banting — when alas ! he told 
me that Lady Dillon had Rsgoodas taken it. She was to give her answer on Monday, 
and he had no doubt it would be in affirmative. So we are shipwrecked again ; 
and what makes it the provoking is that SOMEBODY has at length come down with 
the money for furnishing in spite of his queerness. I suppose there is no hope of 
Mr. G. transfering his bargain for the other house. The fixtures, &c., would be 
taken and paid for at the price which he has agreed to give. I am wretchedly 
disappointed. Ever, my d"' U Blessington, y''".' 

(10.) 'Dear Lady Blessington, — I understand the D. de Guiche is staying with 
you. I have taken the liberty of asking him to dine with me. My excuse for 
this liberty is that Berryer has promised to dine with me on that day. Will you 
have the kindness to explain this to him, and pardon me for giving you this 
trouble, for which I trust to your usual goodness. I did not answer your letter 
respecting Mr. Guthrie, because I was sure that you would give me credit for not 
forgetting any promise I had made to you. Ever, dear L^ Blessington.' 

(11.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — The reason I have not called or written about 
the House, is that Lady Sykes has been confined to her bed by sore throat and 
fever ever since the day I last saw you. I have not yet been able to speak to her 
on the subject, but hope to be able to do so in the course of the day. Thanks 
for your kind attention. 

' Disraeli's new book is I think, excellent. He is on all occasions full of 
genius. Ronciere* was the man, I have no doubt, though there are some things 
difficult to explain. Ever, dear L" Blessington, y''' most sincerely.' 

(12.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I will get away if I possibly can, that is if I 
am not depended upon as the escorte. 

' Thanks for your kindness as to house. We are considering another house 
next to Lady Dillon's, that is this side of it. It is a white house within a wall and 
gates. 

' You will know it perhaps by the above lines. I enclose the franks. I have 
taken large covers as they will do for anything. Ever most truly, dear L^ Bles- 
sington, y'^^' 

(13.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — You are very good to interest yourself so 
much about the affair of the House. I have been waiting Lady S.'s return to 

* Lord Lyndhurst is no doubt referring to the French cause cSlibre of 1835, when Emile 
Clement de La Ronci^re, son of Count de La Ronciere, was tried and condemned to ten years' 
seclusion, for an unprovoked assault on Mademoiselle de Morell, a girl of sixteen, whose parents 
had offended La Ronciere by not inviting him to their house. 



l64 THE RLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

town, in order to enable me to answer your note of last night. She is just arrived, 
but unfortunately very unwell with an attack of influenza. The loss of the house 
is a disappointment, and to-day she sees the other (I mean the Villa), she does 
not know what to say about it. She feels reluctant to quit London. You don't 
call it quitting. Lady Sykes is very sensible of your kindness. Yours most 
truly,' &c. 

(14.) ' Dear Lady Blessington,— It was as I anticipated. I was the beau (such 
a beau !) of the evening, and I found I could not desert my charge. I did not 
get home till long after 12. The performance was dull enough, the house empty, 
but very pretty, and the dresses and scenery good. 

' I can say nothing more in the shape of praise. Bro'ham, however, is still in 
vigour. I should be very sorry if the speculation were to fail. 

' The House at the Gore which 1 alluded to yesterday, turns out to be a 
complete mistake. So we fall back on Mr. Grieve. 

' It is not unlike, from my recollection of him, catching at a straw. Ever, d"^ 
Lady Blessington, most truly y".' 

(1.1.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am going for a short time to the Continent, 
but I cannot leave England without thanking you for the many acts of kindness I 
have received from you during my recent residence here. I very much lament on 
every account, the event of the Cambridge election. 

' Disraeli has been more fortunate. 

' I am, as you recollect, a little in your debt, for the additional quantity of 
I. poplin. It was, I believe, j-zV yards at 5^-., ^i \os., which I enclose. I hope I 
am right — if not you must correct me. I remain, dear L^ Blessington, y''* very 
sincerely.' 

(16.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am going to Paris on Friday with one of my 
daughters,* who has a defect in her voice in consequence of a fissure at the back of 
the mouth. Le Rouxt is very celebrated for an operation, of which he was some 
years since the inventor, by which the fissure is closed and the defect cured. I 
arranged to take her at Easter, and from what the English surgeons tell me, 
I hope the operation, which is rather troublesome than painful, will prove 
successful. 

' I should have liked very much to have dined with you on Sunday, and of all 
things to have met EUice : but the Fates forbid. 

' Many thanks for the popUn affair. Madame Palmyra is a -. Dear Lady 

Blessington, y" very faithfully.' 

(17.) 'Dear Lady Blessington, — The operation has been performed, and 
successfully. The child bore it very well, though she became a little faint 
towards the close of it. She is now very quiet. I remain, dear \J, very faithfJ" y".' 

(18.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I shall have very great pleasure in dining 
with you on Sunday. You kindly hope that I have been well and happy. Well, 
I have been ; but as to happiness, it is not, as you know, of this world. Like 
other mortals, however, I have, in this respect, had my ups and downs. At all 
events I prove in myself happiness on Sunday. Ever, my dear Lady Blessington, 
y" most faithfully.' 

(19.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am sorry you should think that any of your 
little commissions are a trouble to me. I assure you I feel flattered and happy in 
obeying your commands. Enclosed is the opinion. I regret it is not and cannot 
be more favourable. I return the copies of the will and the codicil. Everything 
is sadly here, and, as 1 understand — everywhere. Ever, dear U Blessington, 
y" most faithfully.' 

' Poor Durham ! what a martyr he seems to be to an unfortunate constitution.' 

* Lord Lyndhurst took his second daughter, Susan, to Paris for the operation just after 
Easter, 1837. Unfortunately she caught cold and died within a month of rapid consumption at 
the age of fourteen. 

+ Joseph Philibert Roux, 1780-1854, a celebrated French surgeon, Professor of Pathology 
at the School of Medicine, author of various works on surgery. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 165 

(20.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — I shall have much pleasure in dining with you 
on Wednesday. Poor Diss has had a fit. He was senseless for \ an hour. It 
arose, they say, from over-exertion at the Bucks election. Qu. from over- 
indulgence at Gore House ! Chandos told me in a note that he is pretty well 
again. I don't know the nature of the fit. 

' Is what you said about the Lgidy at Paris really so .' She looked very 
blooming when I quitted. She had a niece with her. What a sad position she 
must be in. I will speak about the dress on Wednesday, but if it should suit you 
to get \1 before that, I shall be most grateful. The colour was to be 3. pearl grey. 
Is this intelligible.? I suppose so. The lady is small; the quality was to be 
the very first. Such were my instructions. If you can assist me in this matter, 
you will extricate me out of a considerable difficulty. In politics nothing will 
happen till Monday. On that day the vital question is to come on in the H. of 
Commons. We are requested to be quiet. Ever, dear L^ Blessington, y" very 
faithfully.' 

(21.) 'Dear Lady Blessington, — I very much regret that I cannot have the 
pleasure of dining with you on Sunday, but we are engaged to the Becketts on 
that day. Notwithstanding many good intentions, with which they say a certain 
place is paved, I have not been able to get to the Gore to see you for an age. 
The truth is, we have a place near Henley, and I am constantly induced when I 
have an hour or two to spare to put myself on the railroad in that direction ; but 
I will try to reform my omission. Ever, dear L^ Blessington, y" very sincerely.' 

(23.) 'Dear Lady Blessington,— I shall be most happy to do what you wish 
respecting Mr. Landon, but I do not find either in your letter or in his which you 
enclosed, any mention of what the appointment is, which he is desirous of 
obtaining. Pray have the kindness to send me a note of explanation on this head. 
Perhaps if I had not been for a week, in my journey across France, without the 
sight of an English paper, this explanation would not have been necessary. 

' I left Lord Canterbury better, and Lady C, whom I saw the afternoon before 
I left Paris, was recovering her spirits, but the case from all I could learn is a 
very serious one. 

' Pray remember me in the kindest terms to D'Orsay. I intended to have 
called, but have not yet been able to get so far. I remain, dear L^ Blessington, 
yra ye^ faithfully.' 

(23.) ' Dear Lady Blessington, — Will you have the goodness to read the 
enclosed and return it to me with the particulars required by the memorandum 
which is endorsed on the notice ? 

' I am in town for a day. We shall come to London for the season in about 3 
weeks. All well at home, I hope. Ever, dear L^ Blessington, y".' 

2. A. L. S. to Dr. Madden. No date (1854). i page 8vo. 

'Sir, — I very much regret that I cannot assist you in the way you suggest, as 
I possess no letter of the late Countess of Blessington. Yours faithfully.' 

MACREADY (William Charles). The well-known Actor. (1793 1873.) 

A. L. S. Dated 5 Clarence Terrace, Regent's Park, December ist, 1840. 

\\ pages Svo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I can very inadequately thank you for the kind 
thoughts of me and mine which prompted the soothing assurance of your sym- 
pathy with our sorrows. The visitation* has been very heavy upon us, but it is 
a great comfort to think upon the beautiful spirit in which the partner of my griefs 

* Referring to the death of his daughter Joan, on account of which the production of Bulwer 
Lytton's play of Money had been postponed. The play was, however, produced a week after the 
date of the letter, Count D'Orsay amongst others superintending the mounting of the piece, which 
ran for the then unprecedented number of eighty nights ; Macready of course playing the part of 
Alfred Evelyn, in which he scored a success. Macready had married in 1823 an actress called 
Atk ns, who died in 1852, and by whom he had a large family, most of whom died very young. 



i66 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

has borne her share, with two urgent claimants on her maternal care. She feels 
with myself your most kind interest in our misfortunes and with me is most 
grateful for it. Believe me always, my dear Lady Blessington, smcerely & very 
gratefully yours.' 

MADDEN (Richard Robert). A-miscellaneous Writer, Biographer of 
Lady Blessington. (1798-1886). 

1. Copy of Letter. Dated 7 East Ascent, St. Leonards, May 6th, 1834. 
2\ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,—! took Campbell to Seamore Place, at a very 
unchristian hour of the morning, having to leave town at noon, but I thought 
having once brought him to your door, like every other person who has once 
crossed its threshold, he would be very likely to find it again of his own accord. 
I cannot tell you. Lady Blessington, what pleasure it gave me to pass once more a 
few hours in your society. Much as I have used my locomotive organs, I do not 
avail myself of the privilege which courtesy accords to travellers, when I assure 
you I have been indebted to my evenings in the Belvidere for some of the most 
pleasing recollections of my life, but like all other pleasures these are now dashed 
by the painful recollection that death has broken up that once happy circle, and left 
all who were acquainted with it so many reasons for regret. ^ I have met few men 
who possessed more genuine kindness than poor Lord Blessington, who was less 
indebted to his rank for the esteem of those around him. 

' I am indebted, dear Lady Blessington, to your kind note for this opportunity 
of assuring you I am not forgetful of the obligations I am under to you. I feel I 
might have remained to this day a very obscure son of Machaon amongst the 
lazaroni of Naples had I not known your condescending notice at that period 
when it was of most value, when I had few friends and seldom the advantage of 
kissing the crimson robe of good Society. I remain, dear Lady Blessington, 
yours faithfully.' 

2. Draft of Memorandum of a Conversation between Dr. Madden and 

Lady Blessington. Dated 1843. 21 pages 4to. 

' Original draft of a memorandum of a remarkable conversation of R. R. M. 
with Lady Blessington in 1843 'r> Gore House, wherein Lady B. gave me a full 
and, as I believe, a true and faithful account of those particulars of her early 
history, which relate to her marriage with Cap*" Farmer, his brutal treatment, her 
father's scandalous conduct and evil example in his own family, his career of 
crime and infamy, her abandoning her husband and connexion with Cap'" 
Jenkinson, and ultimately the cessation of that connexion, and her marriage with 
Lord Blessington. These details have been glanced at in my Memoirs of Lady 
B., but not given at any length or very distinctly and clearly. 

' Lady Blessington. 

' The 15th of October, 1843, I called on Lady B., and the conversation turned 
on the persecution and judicial murders of Father Nicholas Sheehy and his 
relative Edmond Sheehy, commonly called Buck Sheehy, the maternal grand- 
father of her Ladyship, who were executed in 1766 in the Clonmell persecution. 

' Lady B., in the course of the conversation which ensued, gave me the fol- 
lowing detailed account of her own history. She was born in the neighbourhood 
of Clonmell ; her father, Edmund Power, of Curragheen, in the county of Water- 
ford, possessed landed property, which at one period amounted to about ;£l5°o P"^ 
annum. Her mother was the daughter of the unfortunate Edmond Sheehy above 
mentioned. Her father's intimacy with Lord Donoughmore* was the cause of his 
ruin. He became a violent partizan of his Lordship and a virulent opponent of his 
enemies. He was put in the commission of the peace, and became one of the 

* Richard Hely Hutchinson, ist Lord Donoughmore, 1756-1825, a lieutenant-general in 
the army, and Governor of Tipperary. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 167 

most dreaded of the terrorists of the county in the rebelhon, and for some years 
subsequent to it. At length, his principal occupation and amusement being 
hunting the people, scouring the country in pursuit of unfortunate wretches pre 
scribed as rebels, or suspected so to be, in one of his excursions he committed a 
murder, for which he was subsequently tried. On the occasion referred to he 
took his son Michael out with him. After riding along the road for some time 
he informed the young man he was going to apprehend a very desperate fellow in 
the neighbourhood, whom none of the constables dare lay hands on. The son, 
whose principles were altogether opposed to the father's, was reluctant to go on 
the mission, but dare not refuse. His father, on approaching the cabin of the 
suspected peasant (on the property of Mr. Bagwell) saw a person at work in an 
adjoining field. Mr. Power galloped into the field attended by his son and a 
servant, and, levelling a pistol at the head of the man, called on him to surrender 
(but exhibited no warrant for his apprehension). The man flung a stone at his 
assailant, whereupon Power, taking deliberate aim at him, mortally wounded him 
in the body. This was not sufficient ; he placed the wounded man on horseback 
behind his servant, had him bound to the latter, and thus conveyed him to town, 
and in the first instance to his own place of abode, and then to gaol. The man 
died, and his landlord Bagwell, from animosity to Power on account of his 
alliance with the Donoughmore interest persuaded the family to prosecute Power. 
Proceedings were commenced against him, but the Grand Jury threw out the bill. 
A second bill was sent up subsequently and found. Power fled to England and 
returned in time to take his trial for the murder. He was acquitted of course by 
a complacent jury, but the Judge, even in those times (it was about 1803), thought 
this murder was going a little too far with the system of terror ; he reprobated 
the conduct of Power, and had his name expunged from the magistracy. Lady 
B. remembers with horror the sight of the wounded man mounted behind the 
servant, as the party entered the stable yard of her father's house. She describes 
the wounded man as pale and ghastly, his head sunk on his breast, his strength 
apparently exhausted, his clothes steeped with blood, for in this condition brought 
into the court yard bound to the servant. The horror of this deed never left the 
mind of young Power ; it haunted him during his short career ; he died at an 
early age in St. Lucia, one of the most noble minded and tender hearted of human 
beings. Such was the influence of his character over the unfortunate wounded 
man, that when he was dying he besought his family to take no steps against his 
murderer, and this was solely in consideration of the humanity exhibited towards 
him by the son. Power's pursuits in carrying out the views of his patron Lord 
Donoughmore caused him to neglect his business ; his affairs became disordered ; 
to retrieve them he entered into partnership in a general mercantile line with 
Messrs. Hunt and O'Brien of Waterford ; he expended a vast deal of money in 
building stores and warehouses. These stores however were burned (it was 
imagined) by the people in revenge of the cruelties he had committed on them. 
His violence, which was formerly of a political kind only, now became a sort of 
constitutional irrascibility, his temper more and more irritable, his habits irregular 
and disorderly ; he became a terror to his wife and children, he treated his wife 
with brutality, he upbraided her frequently with her father's untimely fate, and 
would often say, " What more could be expected from the daughter of a convicted 
rebel." He would fling things in his passion at the heads of his children — he has 
flung a cup at his daughter's (Lady B.'s), and yet in the company of Lord 
Donoughmore or persons of his rank his manners were bland and polished, his 
address that of a high-bred gentleman ; his personal appearance was prepos- 
sessing, and to the last, even so late as 1820, when he came to London to see 
Lady B., and remained with her three months, his person had lost nothing of its 
symmetry, and Lady B. remarked it was painful to notice all the vivacity of youth 
in his bright eyes, and all the levity and thoughlessness of youth in striking con- 
trast with the grey hairs of his old age. His mercantile career was unfortunate ; 
his partners got rid of him after many fruitless remonstrances. He had over- 
drawn the capital he had put into the house by several thousand pounds. His 
next speculation was a newspaper called the Clonmell Ulercury, set up by him 
at the instance of Lord Donoughmore for the support of his lordship's interests 
in the county and his political opinions. The well-known Bernard Wright, the 



i68 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

person flogged by Sir John Judkin Fitzgerald for having a French letter in his 
pocket (he being a teacher of the French language at that period) was for some 
time the manager and editor of this paper. The paper was at length prosecuted 
for a libel written by Lord Donoughmore. But his Lordship left Mr. Power to 
bear the brunt of the action and to pay the damages awarded against him. The 
paper went to ruin. Mr. Power for some years previously had given himself up 
to drink, and his affairs had become involved in difficulties even previously to his 
setting up this paper, so much so that Lady B. and her sister Ellen (Lady 
Canterbury), while at school often felt the humiliation of being debarred from 
learning certain kinds of work, tambour embroidery, &c., on account of the 
irregularity of the payment of their school charges. The brutal treatment of 
Power to his family rendered their home hateful. Mrs. Power's spirit had been 
broken down to a tame acquiescence in her husband's outrageous conduct ; the 
terror it inspired caused Marguerite's brothers and sister to submit to it in silence, 
but she felt no less grieved than disgusted at it, and frequently gave expression 
to the feelings this conduct excited, and the consequence was that she received 
less maltreatment than the other members of her family. Things were in this 
state when in 1804, being then 14 years of age, she was taken home for some 
days from school, but when the time came for her return to it she was informed 
by her father she was to go back to it no more. Her father's house was a 
rendezvous for the military men and magistrates of the district ; it was a kind of 
inn for them. At the Assizes the judges and lawyers were entertained there. It 
was in short "a castle rack rent," where nothing but feasting and revelry went 
on. The most profuse expence was gone to in entertaining officers and others. 
Mr. Power's horses were constantly used in sending dispatches to the government, 
to Lord Donoughmore and his agents throughout the county, and these services 
his Lordship constantly promised would be rewarded ultimately by government, 
but he took care to claim all the merit of them for himself, and to represent these 
services as acts of his, which were the means of getting honors conferred on him- 
self Power was thus duped and ruined by him. He was in this position at the 
time Lady B. was brought home from school a mere child, and treated as such. 
Among his military friends she then saw a Cap'" Farmer for the first time ; he 
appeared on very intimate terms with her father, but when she first met him her 
father did not introduce her to him, in fact she was looked on then as a mere 
school girl, whom it was not necessary to introduce to any stranger. In a day or 
two her father told her she was not to return to school, he had decided that she 
was to marry Cap'"^ Farmer. This intelligence astonished her. She burst out 
crying, and a scene ensued in which her father's menaces and her protestations 
agamst his determinations terminated violently. Her mother unfortunately sided 
with her father, and eventually by caresses, entreaties, and representations of the 
advantages her father looked to from this match with a man of Cap''^ Farmer's 
affluence she was persuaded to sacrifice herself and to marry a man for whom she 
felt the utmost repugnance. 

' She had not been long under her husband's roof when it became evident to 
her that her husband was subject to fits of insanity, and his own relatives informed 
her that her father had been acquainted by them that Cap'"^ Farmer had been 
insane, but the information had been concealed from her by her father. She 
lived with him about three months, and during this time he frequently treated her 
with personal violence. He used to strike her on the face, pinch her till her arms 
were black and blue, lock her up whenever he went abroad, and often has left her 
without food till she felt almost famished. After some time he was ordered to 
join his regiment, which was encamped at the Curragh of Kildare. Lady B. 
refused to accompany him there, and was permitted to remove to her father's 
house, and to remain there during his absence. Cap'"" Farmer joined his reg', 
and had not been many days with it when in a quarrel with his Colonel he drew 
his sword on the former, and the result of this insane act (for such it was allowed 
to be) was that he was obliged to leave his regiment, being allowed to sell his 
commission. The friends of Cap'" Farmer now prevailed on him to go to India 
(I think Lady B. said in the Company's service). She, however, refused to go 
with him, and remained at her father's. She was now growing into womanhood, 
. surrounded by admirers ; and whenever she appeared in public followed by them, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 169 

a wife without the protection of a husband, a daughter without the care of a father, 
or the conduct of one to look to for guidance or example. Her situation even 
with respect to her family was disagreeable ; she was looked upon by her parents 
as standing in the way of the interists of her unmarried sisters, her father's house 
was made anything but a home to her. Things were in this situation when an 

officer, Cap'° Jenkins, an English gentleman of large fortune in the county of 

stationed in the vicinity of Clonraell, visited at her father's house. He soon 
began to pay her attention. She had no particular penchant for him, but at this 
time she was sollicited to accept the protection of a person connected with a 
noble family, whom but for one consideration she could have loved — that person 
was married — and she refused to listen to his proposal. Cap'" Jenkins pressed 
his suit. The present commander of the forces, Sir Edward, then Major, 
Blakeney, was then on duty with his regiment in Clonmell, and also another 
officer, now of high rank. Mrs. F. was intimate with both. They were honorable 
kind-hearted men ; they felt for her situation, and she, having received intelli- 
gence that Cap'" F. was either on his way to England or had just arrived (I 
forget which) with the avowed object of taking her away from her father's, she 
told these gentlemen her miserable condition at her father's, her terrors of her 
husband's return, the pressing nature of the suit of Cap'° Jenkins, and of the 
other person whom she esteemed, but the peace of whose family she had resolved 
she would not injure, and Lady B. states that in these desperate circumstances, 
with the concurrence of the persons she consulted, she quit her father's roof, 
abandoned her claim to the name of a wife, to the character of one, and became 
that despised thing, a kept mistress. The name was odious to her, and the idea 
of deserving it still more so. Her constant efforts were to avoid every thing in 
her deportment, in her demeanour and attire that could recall that idea or 
remind others of it. Cap'" Jenkins' fortune was between 6 and 8 thousand a 
year. His liberality was unbounded, his affectionate treatment every thing that 
could be desired. He constantly pressed on her the most valuable presents, 
which it was absolutely painful to her to be obliged to wear. In the meantime 
Cap'" Jenkins' family, observing her conduct and finding that it was her influence 
alone which prevented their relative's ruin by the imprudence of his habits and 
extravagance in expenditure paid her all the attention she could have received 
had she been the wife of the man she lived with. In this state of things Lord 
Blessington appeared in the neighbourhood, and his fox-hunting pursuits soon 
made him acquainted with Cap'" J. He visited at the abode of the latter, and to 
the lady of the house, whom he had formerly met (I think in Dubhn), his attention 
soon became marked. 

' Lord B.'s first wife was then recently dead.* He made offers of marriage 
contingent on obtaining a divorce of her marriage with Cap'" Farmer to a friend 
of Cap'" J., and the latter was made acquainted with them. In fine these offers 
were accepted ; the conduct of Cap'" J. throughout this business was the same it 
had ever been, full of affection and esteem ; that of the lady had undergone no 
change, her feelings were the same they had ever been towards him, not of 
passionate love, but of regard and friendship ; but the prospect of getting out of 
that horrible position into which she had fallen determined her to quit the pro- 
tection of Cap'" Jenkins. The jewels and apparel given her by Cap'" Jenkins 
being of considerable value, she no sooner parted with him than Lord B. sent a 
check for the presumed value to the amount of ten thousand pounds to Cap'" 
Jenkins, which he received. To the period of her marriage with Lord Blessington 
she lived at the charge of Lord B., that is to say she resided in an establishment 
provided for her by his Lordship, but no illicit intercourse took place between 
them, and it was stipulated they should live apart till such time as the divorce 
should be obtained.t 

' * Old Teggart, the well-known ajjothecary of Pall Mall, informed Mr. Madden that this lady 
was married to Lord Blessington at his cottage in EUham. She was remarkable for her beauty, 
and had been the mistress of an officer in the army.' 

't However improbable such an arrangement may seem, old Mr. Teggart, by whom the estab- 
lishment for Mrs. Farmer was provided by Lord Blessington's wishes, assured Mr. Madden that 
Lord Blessington and Mrs. Farmer lived all the time in question on no other terms than such 
as those which Lady Blessington spoke of to me. ' 



I70 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' CapW Farmer had returned from India about this period, and plunging into 
all kinds of excesses, soon found himself an inmate of the Fleet Prison. Some 
arrangements were pending between him and Lord B. when the unfortunate man 
met with a violent end in the Fleet Prison, which was attended with some mystery 
and gave rise to very unfounded suspicions of foul play in the circumstance of his 
sudden death. One night Cap'" Farmer had a drinliing bout in his room, and in 
the middle of the debauch there was a dispute. Cap'" Farmer, in attempting to 
follow one of the party out of the room, plunged forward, and the staircase window 
of a kind of tower opposite the door being wide open, he dashed thro' it, fell in the 
courtyard of the prison, and was killed on the spot. In a few days, Perry, of the 
AMornijig Chronicle (then unknown to Lord Blessington), addressed a note to 
Lord Blessington, enclosing a statement of the death of Cap'" Farmer sent to 
him for insertion in his paper, plainly attributing the death of Cap'" F. to Lord 
Blessington and the wife of Cap'" F., then alleged to be living with his Lordship. 
The simple statement of the facts on the part of Lord Blessington to Perry 
sufficed to prevent the insertion of this infamous slander, and laid the foundation 
of a lasting friendship between Lord and Lady B. and the worthy man who was 
then editor of the Morniitg Chronicle. 

'The marriage of Lord and Lady B. took place in a private manner, ancT 
shortly after it they went abroad. 

'In the year 1821 my acquaintance commenced with Lord and Lady B. at 
Naples when residing there in that Palazzo Belvedere, the many pleasing recol- 
lections of which, and of the society she enjoyed in it, are touched on in Lady 
B.'s Idler in Italy. 

' A young man, unknown, in an obscure position, with no shining talent to make 
myself noticeable in society, I had the good fortune to receive the most kind 
attention from Lord and Lady Blessington from the first day I knew them to the 
end of the death of the former and to the present hour from the latter. I haive 
known Lady Blessington since the year 1823 ; I have never found a change in 
her friendship. No matter how many changes of fortune may take place in the 
condition of her friends there is no alteration in her kindness towards them. 
Pecuniary obligations I never owed her, nor to Lord Blessington, but I know 
that to her own family her generosity has been unbounded, and to many literary 
people her assistance has been largely given. Knowing her good qualities as I 
do, and the nobleness of her disposition, I cannot help feeling that it is most 
lamentable that she is situated as she is, and most earnestly do I pray that it may 
please God to take her out of it. 

3. It has been considered best to group under this entry a selection of 

letters to Dr. Madden, mostly on the subject of his 'Life of Lady Blessington.' 

(1.) From Mr. Anderson, author of some nautical novels. Dated Bengal Hill, 
August 1st, 1854. 

' My dear Sir, — There is nothing like striking the iron while it is hot. There- 
fore I send you the account of my first meeting with L. Byron, just as it occurred. 
I think, as well as I can recollect, for I was not twenty at the time, that it was in 
the year 1822 or 23 — I was residing at Nice — when I received a letter from Lord 
Byron. He said he heard I had a schooner yacht to dispose of, & wished to 
know tonnage & price. I had not made up my mind to sell the yacht, but I 
thought this too good an opportunity to be thrown away, as his Lordship was said 
to be going to aid the Greeks, & my yacht would get a name, as she was remark- 
ably fast. So I answered his Lordship at once, stating tonnage & price. Shortly 
after I received his Lordship's reply. This letter I gave some years ago to the 
late Mr. Murray, the publisher. In it I think his Lordship stated that a friend of 
his, a Cap" in the Sardinian service, said he could build a new one in the Arsenal 
of Genoa for a less sum, ^800, or something to that purpose. I answered this, 
& shortly after received another letter, requesting to know if I would take less 
for the schooner, & amongst other things, his Lordship asked me what society 
there was in Nice, as he had an idea of taking up his residence there. I wrote in 
reply that I offered him my yacht for ;^3oo less than she cost me. I built her at 
Savona, a rather pretty place some 30 miles from Genoa ; as to the society of 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 171 

Nice, it could not be better anywhere— highly aristocratic, as many of our English 
nobility live there, also the ex-king of Sardinia, & last though not least. Lady 
Blessington had a house there. Her Ladyship was much liked, & behaved very 
liberally to one or two artists who were there at the time, one a first-rate portrait 
painter, but very poor, so much so that he could not make his appearance any- 
where. She reheved him from his difficulties, & enabled him to proceed to Rome 
with a well-filled purse ; but this was not the only charitable act her Ladyship 
performed. But I am wandering away from my subject. The last letter I 
received from his Lordship stated he had begun to build his schooner in the 
Arsenal of Genoa under the superintendance of Cap'' Wright, who then com- 
manded a Sardinian frigate, & regretted giving me so much trouble, & also that 
he abandoned his intention of residing in Nice. Some months after this I went 
to Genoa, & hearing that Lord Byron's yacht was nearly ready for sea & was 
lying in the Arsenal, 1 went with a friend to have a look at her. She was lying 
near the platform, &: she surprized me she was so much smaller than my own 
schooner. There were 3 planks alongside, & on these stood a gentleman very 
intently occupied with the putting on of a narrow gold moulding round the yacht. 
Well, said I, rather loud, to my friend, if that yacht sails with that heavy foremast 
stepped so far forward it's curious. Sire is not half the size of mine after all, but I 
should like to see her inside. The gentleman on the plank turned round, looked 
me in the face & said. Would you like to come aboard, sir ? Very much 
indeed, I replied, thank you, & without thought or more words I jumped down 
on the plank, by which thoughtless proceeding I very nearly sent the gentleman 
& myself into the Arsenal, only saving myself by taking a good grip of him and 
he of the shrouds, & then we both scrambled on deck, leaving the frightened 
painter holding on by the bulwarks. We then went into the cabin, which was 
most luxuriously fitted up, couches, soft & tempting ; marble bath ; in fact not an 
inch space was lost. In the course of conversation the gentleman said, opening a 
desk, &: taking out a letter, I think 1 have the pleasure of speaking to Mr. 
Armstrong : before this I guessed the gentleman 1 was so near ducking was 
Lord Byron, & I said. Then I have the honour of speaking to Lord Byron. He 
bowed and then said. Why did you not mention in this letter the length, beam, 
depth, &c., &c. of your schooner which you say is twice as large as this ? Well, 
I might have done so, certainly, my Lord, but you merely said state tonnage, & 
then saying you could build a new one for ;^8oo put me out ; this has cost you 
more. Double, said his Lordship, & not yet finished. After a very pleasant 
half-hour's conversation & a glass or two of wine I quitted the yacht, but certainly 
not the way I entered it. The schooner of his Lordship turned out afterwards 
but a very dull sailer. I sold mine for the same sum I demanded of his Lordship 
to an American, who sailed with her to America. 

' This, my dear Sir, is just the state of the case. You may perhaps dress it up 
better, or not use it, as you think fit. I would be happy to give you any anecdotes 
of Lady Blessington, but I do not remember any worth recording. I have many 
reminiscences of Nice of my own, but of no manner of use. Do not forget to send 
me, if convenient, some of the two kinds.' 

(2.) Fro77i Mr. Thomas Baker., Lady Harriet D' Or say's Legal Adviser. 
Dated 2^ Spring Gardens, July list, 1854. S^pages \to. 

' D^ Sir, — I am sorry to say I cannot assist you, but Lady Harriet Spencer, 
formerly Lady H' D'Orsay can give you much information — she is at Paris. 

' There is a sole surviving sister of the Countess about London, who knows a 
great deal, and is full of anecdote. 

' I would recommend you to see Mr. Worthington, the surviving Exor. of Lord 
Blessington, before you proceed — he resides at North Frederick Street, Dublin — is 
a solicitor. 

' I believe Miss Power is adm'" of Lady Blessington ; she must have many 
letters. Are you acquainted with her ? 

' There is a tall fellow about town here who used to call himself a cousin of the 
Countess. I forget his name, he has much to say and shew. Do you know of him ? 

' All I know is derived from professional intercourse with Lady D'Orsay, & 
I therefore can do nothing except with her sanction, and I should greatly 



172 THE BLESSINCTON PAPERS. 

regret to see any account published which had not her sanction, so far at least as 
her father's name and letters were in question. 

' She has suffered much from the late Countess, and it would be lamentable 
that her feelings on this subject should not be considered and consulted. I am, 
dear Sir, y" faithfully.' 

(3.) From Dr. Beattie. Dated London, November jth (1854). 

' My dear Madden, — 1 have just had a note from Mr. N. P. Willis, rejoicing 
that Lady B's. " life " has fallen into your hands. He says you will find his 
sketch of D'Orsay in his late work entitled : " Famous Persons & Places," of which 
if you think proper you can make use. With regard to \-i\shealihhe: says : " I am 
struggling up, after having been given up by the physicians, & able to ride ten 
or twelve miles a day." 

' I hope to return to harness to-morrow, and one of my first duties will be to 
see about the Guiccioli & other matters. Mr. Newby has not called, but I intend 
to drop in upon him and keep him on the alert. With best regards to Mrs. Madden, 
believe me cordially yours. How did you find y"' son ? How much is in that 
simple question ? 

(4.) From A9me Cooper, Lady Blessijigton's Maid. Dated '57 St. Giles's, 
Oxford, Thursday' (\%c,2i). 

' A. Cooper presents her duty to Doctor Madden, and can assure him his name 
and writings are both familiar to her. Knowing also Doctor Madden were one of 
my ladies most valued and intimate friends, I think it better to make you 
acquainted with my position in that family. I was her Ladyship's maid the last 
1 5 years of her life, was treated with affection and every confidence. My services 
ended when she was consigned to that tomb of which you were kind enough to 
forward a sketch, from the most and almost only sincere friend I ever had. I 
remained some time in France with the young ladies, but not liking it I returned, 
and I enclose two letters that I received from the poor Count wishing me to 
return with the young ladies, which I did, and remained there untill they were 
settled with the Baroness de Calabrella. Since then I have resided here with my 
sister, therefore if I can be of any service to you I shall be very pleased. Every 
one allowed and appreciated her cleverness. Very, very few knew the woman. 
As to Madame de S' Marsault, I have not the least notion where she is. During 
eight years every communication, her monthly allowance, presents, all were con- 
veyed through me, but when it pleased the Almighty to remove my lady I could 
be very well dispensed Avith. I heard nothing more of any of the family, except 
I was informed by Mr. Du Pasquier that she had spoken very ill of me, but God 
will judge between us. I will trouble you to return my two letters. I keep them 
as souvenirs of a most genrous man. I am sure you will recognize your old 
friend in them. Letters will always find me here. I must entreat your pardon for 
this long and ill-written letter, but it is so trieste a subject that I loose my head. 
I subscribe myself, your obedient servant.' 

(o.) From the same. Dated Churchill Heath, Chipping Norton, April Tth, 1853. 

'Hon'' Sir, — Fearful of being troublesome, I have delayed writing, but having 
enclosed two letters of Count D'Orsay to you directed to 4 Panton Square, Hay- 
market, and receiving no intimation of their arrival, I feel uneasy that they may 
have gone wrong at the Post office or that you may have been from home, and 
are probably lying there now ; as it is near a month ago I should feel greatly 
oblidged if you would let me know or give an order to have them returned, as I 
am quite sure it must have escaped your memory. Yours obediently.' 

(6.) From the same. Dated ' Thursday' (1854). 

' Hon'' Sir, — I am indeed sorry I should have troubled you in your illness, but 
I fear'd the letters had been lost, and I should not liked them to have fallen into 
other hands. I am glad to hear you are better, for I know how necessary health 
is for literary labours. I feel if I was on the spot, how many things I could explain, 
and happy as I should be to go to London any day to serve you, my circumstances 
does not enable me to spend money unnecessarily, otherwise nothing would give 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 173 

so much pleasure, but now I see there would not be time, as you leave London 
Saturday. 

' I lived fifteen years with Lady B. Lord and Lady Blessington's marriage was 
solemnized at Marylebone Church, Lord B. lived at that time at Bryanstone 
Square ; as to Count D'Orsay's marriage with Lady Harriet Gardiner and her 
leaving Seamore Place, Antoinette Balearinghi could inform you of those cir- 
curnstances. She also lived with Lady Blessington fifteen years in the capacity of 
ladies-maid, a Swiss woman, who is now living at the Hotel de France, Nice. 
I succeeded her. 

' Lady B. general health was excellent. She has told me often she never was 
confined to her bed one whole day in her life ; her spirits would have been good 
also ; she was naturally very cheerful, droll, and particularly amusing, this was 
natural to her, but so overwhelmed with care and expenses, and the calls for 
assistance from every one of her family. Madame de St. Marsault depended 
wholly and solely on her father as long as he lived. Mr. Power's eldest son, the 
second was at Charter House, all extra expenses ; the eldest to be fitted out for 
India after an expensive education ; two nieces' clothing ; Mrs. Fairlie's family ; for 
years a great anxiety not to be in debt, trying to curtail all expenses in her own 
establishment, labouring night and day for money, worried and vexed not being 
able to pay when bills was sent ; and no money no sleep at night ; wishing to give 
up Gore House, have a sale and pay off for two years before she left England. 
The famine in Ireland rendered her income more irregular, her payments became 
more difficult ; at last Howell and James put an execution in the house, the cause 
of our departure from England. She did a great many charities ; for instance, 
she gave to poor literary people, poor musicians, something yearly to old servants, 
to Miss Landon's mother, to Mrs. Mathews, in fact too many to mention, and add to 
all other miseries the most shameful ingratitude. I say shameful, because, poor 
soul, her heart was too large for her means. Oh ! the generosity of that woman ! I 
could never tell the number of persons she used her influence with her friends to 
secure situations for, great as well as poor. I fear I shall tire you, but in justice to 
her I cannot withold ; this of course is to one of Lady Blessington's most 
particular friends, and I am sure if she could see it, she would put her seal to it ; 
but of course I should not wish to go to any other person. 

' Neither would I say so much to another, but knowing that her Ladyship 
esteemed you so highly that she would not have scrupled to have told you all I 
have, and a great deal more, I must noAv conclude. As to the glitter and 
magnificence of her house it gave her no pleasure while I knew her. The 
greatest horror she had in this world was debt, but unhappily did not live to see 
her debts paid after the sale realizing so much money, I believe 14 thousand pounds. 
I hope you will not think it necessary to make use of my name to any one, her 
necies might think I ought to have consulted them. I remain, yours obediently.' 

(7.) From the same. Dated 87 Eaton Place, ' Wednesday.^ 
' Hon'' Sir, — I am sorry not to have answered your letter sooner, but I have 
been so very much occupied. I have answered the questions to the best of my 
knowledge in your letter. I heard from a certain Lady that some of her Lady- 
ship's late friends are in great alarm at the announcement of the book. A learned 
lord and a barrister I believe had something to do with the Chronicle ; but this 
was told me in confidence — a Lord that does not live far from Grafton Street. 
The Goucili used to stop at Gore House twice, six weeks, and when we went to 
Paris was very friendly to Lady B. She drove her out in the carriage, and she 
dined at her house. She is now as you know Marquise de Boissy. 

' Madame de Gramont always thought the IVlisses P. stood in the way of 
the Count's attachment, if he had one. I don't think that ever affected my Lady. 
She was wretched from her embarrassments. Lady H. left Seamore Place 
before I went there, and the Count had a small house in Curzon Street. 
I was told the climate killed Captain Purves. I think he was in the Scotch 
Greys. Lady B. never saw Mr. Jenkys after he married Lady Calabrella. We 
left Paris, the Misses P. and myself, the following April, having remained at the 
Duchess de Gramont from the time my Lady died, which was in June. We 
went to Dr. Guthrie's in Berkley Street for a fortnight, and then went to Major 



174 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Purves at Portsmouth, and returned again to Paris tlie i8* of June the same 
year, and I left for good the June following 1852. 

' I heard her Ladyship speak of the friendship of Lord Grey and Lord 
Durham, but I never known them to speak after I came there, but Lord Durham's 
friendship lasted as long as he Uved. My opinion is that no woman ever was 
loaded with such professions of friendship and attachment from so great a 
number of hypocritical friends ; no woman was ever more abused. The greater 
number that eat her dinner and flattered her will now tremble in their shoes for 
fear their name may be mentioned, and that a letter should be forthcoming. I 
am ashamed to add this scrawl, but my duties take every moment of my time, and 
I write in haste as I have delayed so long. I remain, yours obediently.' 

(8.) From Albany Fonblanque. Dated '48 Connaught Sguare, March yd, 
'53.' 1 pages 4/0., -with Superscription. 

' Sir,— i will search my papers for any letters of Lady Blessington's that may 
answer your purpose ; but my impression is that they are all of too private a 
nature, or too slight for publication. As I was in habit of frequent intercourse, 
Lady Blessington did not write to me on topics of conversation, and her notes for 
the most part were invitations or introductions. Should I find any of a different 
nature you shall not fail to have them. Yours most truly.' 

(9.) Fro7n the same. Dated ' B. T., June '^th, '54.' 2 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Sir, — Owing to some neglect in the transmission of letters to me out of 
town, I have only just received your note. Some months ago I was robbed of a 
desk containing many private letters I valued, and amongst them were several of 
Lady Blessington's, some of which might have been useful to you. I have others, 
but hardly know how to lay my hand on them. I will try, however, and if suc- 
cessful shall not forget you. 

' You are welcome to make any use you please of the note, the copy of which 
you have sent me. It must have been written on the occasion of the hoax of 
Lord Brougham's reported death.* Yours most truly.' 

(10.) From R.T. Lane, the Engraver. Dated October 2Tth,i%sa,. 2pagesivo. 

'Dear Sir,— I saw Mr. Mitchell this afternoon, and he begged me to tell you 
that he has great pleasure in giving you authority to copy the two drawings of 
the Guicciole and Miss Power, if you wish to interleave your work with them. 

' He also said that if the present stones could be used for the purpose, 
Mr. Newby could treat with him for the transfer. 

' I have since seen the printer, and find that the stones are safe. If, therefore, 
they are not too large, I apprehend no difficulty. Yours very truly.' 

' You will direct that all care be taken of the wood-cuts for D'Orsay's statuettes, 
as my wife values them.' 

(IL) From the same. Dated 2, Os?iaburg Terrace, November \st. \ pageZvo. 

' Dear Sir, — I am very glad that I have hit your idea of what is right and 
fitting, and that your approval justifies my having cut you out of my letter by the 
omission of the quotation. 

' If not too troublesome to you, I will yet request you to post to me a revise 
of vyhat you print, which I will, without delay & without alteration, forward to 
the press, as you may direct. Yours truly.' 

' Thanks for your kind regrets. I fear I could not possibly do them now, even 
if desired.' 

(15.) From the same . Dated '', Osnaburg Terrace, November ind. \ pageivo. 

' My dear Sir, — I am sure that you will forgive me for having made a few 
erasures, and cutting out altogether the foot-note. I have not time to tell you 
why, but trust me. 

' I dehght in your discretion, and thank you for omitting the scraps. 

' I suppose the passage in my letter will stand : 

* See Letter No. 5, page 52. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 175 

" One letter much valued by me, and, most remarkable letter," &c. 
' Yours truly obliged.' 
'Never mind the sending a proof; I shall see the work early, I trust.' 

{X^^ From the same. Dated November \d,th, \Zi,i,. 2 pages %vo. 

' Dear Sir, — Your anxiety to have a worthy portrait of the Lady deserves all 
consideration that can be shewn, and if I have the opportunity I shall not be 
slow to do my best. 

' Lady Blessington took such extraordinary pains in arranging her hair and 
making up a classical shape for the sketch that I made, that I think I might use 
that form with the features of D'Orsay's bust ; but I will write more when I know 
more, and see my way. I cannot help thinking that, as a gentleman's work, 
D'Orsay's sketch would do no discredit to your page ; but you are, I trust, to 
have your way. 

' I am delighted to read your commendation of my letter in print. 

' I should not in any case like to victimise you. Artists have e'er now sweated 
the purses of authors ; but I never did. 

' I shall be delighted to have a copy presented by the author. Ever yours 
truly.' 

(^^^ From the same. Dated November list, iZ^i,. 2 pages ivo. 

' My dear Sir, — The bust arrived safely yesterday. I delayed to write, 
thinking to come to a decided conviction on the subject, but am not now quite 
convinced. I will then beg one more line from your over-taxed hand. 

'The head that I did her years ago— the hair classically arranged, the shape 
beautiful — may be, by reference to the bust, worked up to a fine thing, qr would 
you prefer a careful rendering of the bust with its lace veil, and its more advanced 
age.? 

' One word, and I set to with spirit and expedition. I have cut the D'Orsay 
as you suggested. Yours most truly.' 

(15.) From the same. Dated November 2%th, 1854. 2 pages Zvo. 

' My dear Sir, — The entire confidence expressed by Mr. Newby in my judge- 
ment, and the carte blanche given me to do one or tiuo drawings as I might decide, 
added to your most kind adoption of my suggestion, has caused more than 
usual hesitation in my mind, and I would not write and multiply letters to you 
until I could report something decided. So, I proceed, detighted, with a drawing 
from the exquisite Daguerreotype, taking a valuable hint or two (also) from the 
photograph, and I promise you a frontispiece that shall please you, all the world, 
and everybody else, and which I hope to send to press on Saturday, then to post 
a folded proof to you, and another to Mr. Newby. 

' I could not look long at the Athlete that providentially is got out of Linden's 
hands. I think such a thing in the book would encourage a disagreeable feeling 
about D'Orsay's— "A Duke of Limbs," "A Boxer," "An Animal." So I flew 
in your face and urged Mr. Newby to finish his own portrait of self done by more 
than me at Gore House, approved by the Lady and everybody. 

' VoilA tout, mon cher auteur. Yours truly.' 

' Nothing was said about the tomb.' 

(16.) From W. C. Macready. Dated March 6th, 1853. i^ pages \2mo. 

' Sir, — Your letter of February's date reached me only last night. In reply 
I beg to assure you that it would give me sincere pleasure to afford you any 
assistance in paying a tribute of respect to the memory of one whom 1 hold in 
such affectionate regard as the late Lady Blessington, but my occupation or 
absence never allowed me to maintain a conespondence with her, and 1 know 
that through my papers I would not find more than three or four short notes, 
which have only reference to social engagements. I have the honour to be, S'', 
your very obedient & humble servant.' 

{yi ) From the same. Dated July xith, \'i<^i\. ipageZvo. 
' Sir, — You have my ready permission to use the letters enclosed to me (which 
I now return) if you will be good enough to correct the first, which 1 have marked, 



rye THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

by the original, as there is evidently some omission, which leaves the sense 
imperfect. I shall object to its pubUcation without correction. I remain, your 
very obedient servant.' 

(18.) From Mrs. Mathews {the jnother of Charles Mathews). Dated'- Friday 
Morning'' (1854). l page %vo. 

' Dear Sir,— I have just found the accompanying 10 letters. I have only 
glanced over them, and think they may interest. A gentleman offers to leave 
them at your door, and I am all haste not to delay him. I trust my last night's 
packet reached you this morning. Y" truly.' 

(19.) From the same. Dated October 26th, 1854. i, pages %vo. 

' Dear Sir, — When I tell you that I drew up the accompanying outhne before I 
went to bed last night, with a determination that nothing should prevent my making 
a fair and improved copy of it to-day before the last post-hour, you will not be sur- 
prised at my chagrin at finding myself compelled — in justification of my voluntary 
promise of forwarding it today— to send off the hastily penned and blotted MS. 
which j'ou will receive with this explanation. I have been broken in upon by 
people and circumstances not to be evaded ; known as I am to be at home I 
cannot do what otherwise I assuredly should — send away any callers that would 
interfere with my time. To day I have been totally occupied by various unexpected 
and not all trivial interruptions, and this evening I am so unwell and fatigued, 
that in my present weak state 1 feel myself utterly unable to make any additional 
effort. Will you, my dear Sir, pardon the rough and imperfect sketch I send ? 
Your assurance that unless it came by the latter end of this week it would be use- 
less, induces me to send it, even as it is, lest my health may to-morrow preclude 
my putting it in better and more readable state. I mean by this, icix your perusal, 
for I am aware that you only require the heads for you to enlarge upon 
or contract. 

' I forwarded you in haste yesterday a parcel of notes, which referred to the 

" literary labours " of Lady B , & which you seemed to think might be of 

service. I hope what you now have may be of use to you. Pray keep them all 
as long as it suits you. Hoping to hear that what I now forward may answer 
your purpose also, I am, dear Sir, yours very truly.' 

' I have this moment received your packet, & sorry that you troubled yourself to 
return it now. You again expressed anxiety to receive my promised memoranda, 
telling me that I am right in losing no time in sending it, although I am much 
ashamed of the slovenly state in which it reaches you. 

' I have also sent some extracts in relation to Charles from Lady Blessington's 
Idler in Italy, in case you choose to use them in their place — also a pithy 
paragraph in Joh7i Bull relative to the opening of the Adelphi Theatre. 

' You will find I have omitted the year of Charles's birth, and 1 will tell you 
why. His line of acting is youthful, and the public is too apt to fancy that an 
actor cannot look or act like a young man when he is no longer such. It is the 
only profession extant where matured age is thrown back upon its possessor in 
the form of a reproach or disadvantage. I hope you will not think it needful to 
your account — if you do, I will relent, though for policy 1 would omit this particular 
at th\s partictilar time.' 

(20.) From the same. Dated October i']th, 1854. 'ii\ pages /^to. 

' My dear Sir, — I begin to fear that you will dread the sight of my 
hieroglyphics, but your last night's request for more letters, if found, urged me 
this morning to open the large trunks in which so many correspondents' letters are 
thrown together without order, and 1 found another large bundle of letters from & 
in reference to Lady Blessington. Just as I was about to peruse them a gentle- 
man called and offered to transact any commission I might give him in London — 
the condition, haste — & thinking it would be a timely addition to my last night's 
parcel, I hurriedly put some of them under cover. I trust he was punctual in the 
delivery. 

' Now, my dear Sir, I send you some letters from which you may extract 
something of interest. I have copied from one of Charles's letters in 1824 
an account of Lady B.'s habits at Naples which I thought would be favourable 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. ijj 

to her. Let me impress upon you that in all I have sent you, you are at liberty 
to use or discard at your pleasure. All has, on my part, been furnished in such 
haste and indeed general ignorance of their contents, that I could form no correct 
judgment upon their fitness for publication— a sentence of interest here and there 
led me to select — your judgment will be better founded. I leave them in your 
hands without restriction to do what you like, even to the publication of my name 
(to which I at first objected). I really thought well of my poor friend, and believe 
I can afford Vo own my friendship for her, and I am glad to contribute aught that 
can do credit to her memory, and at the same time assist the means of the 
benevolent author of the forthcoming work, and so kind and old a friend of my 
son's as yourself; and remain, dear Sir (in my usual hurry), yours most truly.' 

' On a more careful perusal of three letters I meant to send, I find they would 
not be available, & I have withdrawn them.' 

(21.) From Monckton Milnes ta{Mr. Newby ?). Dated Decejnberiith. i^ pages 
8vo. 

' Sir, — I cannot consent to the publication of any correspondence of mine with 
Lady Blessington, unless I first see which portion you desire to use. I should 
also be glad to know whether you have Miss Power's consent to Dr. Madden's 
undertaking. 

' I ask this because I had reason to think Miss Power herself contemplated 
some such work. I remain, y™ obediently.' 

(22.) From Mr. John Du Pasquier, a friend of Count D Or say. Dated Carlton 
Chambers, 8 Regent Street, January iSth, 1854. ij pages 8vo. 

' Dear Sir, — Miss Power requests me to inform you that the sale of Gore 
House realized 11,985/. 4^-. 

' The Marquis of Hertford bought the portrait of Lady Blessington by 
Lawrence for 336/., Mr. Fuller bought that of Lord Blessington by the same 
artist for 68/. c,s. Lord Hertford also bought the portrait of Wellington by Count 
D'Orsay for 189/. 

' Trusting that this information may be of use to you, I am, dear Sir, yours 
faithfully.' 

(2.3.) From the same. Dated July 22nd, 1854. 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Sir, — I have been expecting the pleasure of seeing you on your 
return to Paris. 

' I have looked carefully through our late lamented friend's letters to me, but 
I find that nearly all of them are so mixed up with his own private affairs that it 
would be impossible to make any extracts from them, and those which do not 
relate to his own affairs are marked confidential and relate to political matters in 
France, which it would be desirable not to publish. 

' Many thanks for your kindness in delivering my letter to Miss Power. 

' I have not seen or heard anything further from the .Duke. My dear Sir, 
yours very faithfully.' 

(24.) From the Countess of Tankerville. Dated 23 Hertford Street, July 
2,rd, 1854. 2\pages ivo., with Superscription. 

' Sir, — The letter you sent to me proves to me, what I always thought, that all 
my letters to Lady Blessington were strictly of a private nature, relating to the 
illness of my brother, and to other persons who are still alive. 

' Both Lord Tankerville and my brother (Lord Ossulston) consider, therefore, 
that their publication would be unjustifiable on these grounds, as well as on niy 
own account, as they were written with the full confidence that they would be 
considered private. Though I am sorry to do anything to disoblige you, I must 
decline POSITIVELY the sanction of the publication of any of my correspondence. 
I remain. Sir, your obliged,' &c. 

' P.S. — I return the enclosed copy.' 

(25.) From the 2nd Duke of Wellington to T. C. Newby. Dated 3 Upper 
Belgrave Square, May 2^th, 1854. I page 8vo. 
' Sir, — I am much obhged to you. 

' My father took a kind of interest in Lady Blessington, in consequence of an 

N 



178 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

old family intimacy with an uncle or great-uncle of Lord Blessington's, General 
Goodman. 

' Lady Blessington's reputation is fairly entitled to my father's friendship, & I 
think it much better that I should not in any manner interfere. I have the 
honour to be, Sir, your obedient, humble servant.' 

(26.) From Mr. Wcstmacott. Dated London, Norfolk Square, May 21st, 1855. 
2 pages Zvo. 

' Mr. Westmacott presents his compliments to Dr. Madden, & has to express 
his regret that, owing partly to Mr. W.'s absence from town & other accidents, a 
letter from Dr. M., requesting to be assisted with letters, &c., for a 2°"^ edition of 
the Mcjnoirs of Lady Blessington, has not sooner been acknowledged. He 
apologises for the omission, and in reply to Dr. M.'s request, can only regret that 
he has nothing to communicate upon the subject in which Dr. M. is engaged. 

' Mr. W. will feel obliged if Dr. M. will present his best compliments to Sir B. 
Burke, whose friendly introduction accompanied Dr. M.'s letter.' 



MARRY ATT (Frederick). The Novelist, (i 792-1! 

A. L. S. Dated Wimbledon, January 3rd (1840). 4 pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' Many thanks for your kind wishes, and your invitation, which I am sorry to 
say that I cannot accept, being confined almost totally to my room. I regret this 
the more, as you are aware how very much I admire Mrs. Fairlie, & how happy 
I should have been to meet her and her husband, as well as Count D'Orsay 
and you. 

'And now permit me to enter into my defence with respect to Miss 
Martineau.* I was fully aware that I lay myself open to the charge which you 
have brought forward, and moreover that it will be brought forward as one in 
which the public feelings are likely to be enlisted ; if so, my reply will be such in 
tenor as I now give to you. 

' The lady has thought proper to vault into the arena especially allotted to the 
conflicts of the other sex. She has done so, avowing herself the champion of the 
worst species of democracy and of infidelity. In so doing, she has tinsexed 
herself, and has no claim to sympathy on that score. I consider that a person 
who advocates such doctrines as she has done, at this present time, when every 
energy should be employed to stem the current which is fast bearing down this 
country to destruction, ought to be hooted, pelted, & pursued to death, like the 
rabid dog who has already communicated its fatal virus, & allow me to put 
the question, whether you ever yet heard when the hue and cry was raised, and 
weapons for its destruction seized, that the populace were known to shew the 
unheard-of politeness of inquiring, before they commenced the pursuit, whether 
the animal so necessary to be sacrificed was of the masculine or feminine gender? 
I wage war on the doctrine, not the enunciator, of whom I know nothing, except 
that she is a very clever writer, & therefore the more dangerous. 

' As for your observation, that Miss M. asserts upon her honor that she never 
wrote a line in " The Edinburgh," I can only say that, although it is of no moment, 
I did most truly & sincerely believe she did, and my authority was from her 
having been reported to have said to a friend that "she had paid me off well in 
' The Edinburgh.' " That she did say so I could, I think, satisfactorily prove, 
were not my authority (like all other mischievous ones) under pledge of secresy ; 
but the fact is, I cared very little whether she did or did not write the articles, 
though I confess that I fully believed that she did. 

' As for the attacks of petty reviewers, I care nothing for them. "I take it 
from wherever it comes," as the sailor said when the jackass kicked him ; but 

* Harriet Martineau, 1802-1876, a well-known miscellaneous writer, and a frequent con- 
tributor to the periodical literature of her day. She dots not, however, appear to have written 
anything in the Edinburgh until after 1859, so that she could not have been the author of 
the very damnatory review of Marryatt's Diary in America, which appeared in the number 
for October, 1839. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 179 

I will not permit any influential work like " the Edinburgh '' to ride me rough- 
shod any more than when a boy I would not take a blow from any man, however 
po\yerfi]l, without returning it to the utmost of my power. But a review is a 
legion composed of many ; to attack a review is of little use— like a bundle of 
sticks strong from union, you cannot break them ; but if I can get one stick out, 
I can put that one across my knee, and if strong enough, succeed in smashing it ; 
and in so doing, I really do injure the review, as any contributor fancies that he 
may be the stick selected. 

'The only method, therefore, by which you can retaliate upon a review like "The 
Edinburgh," is to select one of its known contributors, and make the r&fiiy personal 
to him. For instance, I have advised "The Edinburgh " to put a better hand on 
next time. Suppose that it attacks me again, I shall assume that their best 
hand. Lord Brougham, is the writer of the article, & my reply will be most personal 
to him; and you must acknowledge that I shall be able to raise a laugh, which is 
all I care for. You may think that this is not fair ; I reply that it is ; I cannot 
put my strength against a host : all I can do is to select one of the opponents in 
opinion and politics, and try my strength with him. This I am justified in doing, 
until the parties who write a review put their name to the article ; as long as they 
preserve the anonymous, I select what I please, and if I happen to take the 
wrong one, the fault is theirs and not mine. So recollect, that if I am attacked 
in " The Edinburgh " (should I reply to the article when I publish my " Diary of 
a Blas(^ " in June next), my reply will be to Lord Brougham, and will be as bitter 
as gall, although I have the highest respect for his lordship's talents, and have a 
very good feeling towards him. 

_ ' Many thanks for the " Governess," which I have just read. My mother 
finished it last" night, and pronounced it excellent. I prefer giving her opinion 
to my own, as none will ever accuse her of flattery, although you have me. I 
read it with some anxiety, owing to my having intended to have made the 
sister of "Poor Jack" a governess for a short time, and 1 was afraid that you 
would have forestalled me altogether. As far as the serious goes, you have so ; 
but you have left me a portion of the ludicrous. I think I shall pourtray a stout, 
well-formed girl of nineteen, kept up in the nursery by a vain mother, with dolls, 
pinbefores, and all the et ceteras — that is, if I do venture to come after you, which 
will be hardly fair to viyself. Are you not tired of writing? I am, most com- 
pletely, and could I give it up, I would to-morrow ; but as long as my poor mother 
lives, I must write, and therefore, although I detest it, I wish to write a long 
while yet. 

' I have just returned from Norfolk, where I was wet through every day, and 
to escape cold, filled myself with tobacco smoke and gin — these antagonistical 
properties have had the effect of deranging me all over, and I am miserably out 
of tune, and feel terribly ill-natured. I feel as if I could wring off the neck of a 
cock-robin who is staring in at my window. 

' This is a long letter, but it is your own fault ; you sowed the wind, and 
have reaped the whirlwind. If I have written myself down in your good opinion, 
I must, at all events, try to write myself up again. O.fer my best wishes to Mr. 
and Mrs. Fairlie, and the Chevalier, and believe me, yours most sincerely.' 

MATHEWS (Anne Jackson, Mrs.). An Actress and Authoress, and 
the second wife of the actor, Charles Mathews. (Died 1869.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 6 Canning Place. 4 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dearest Friend, — Ladies who have only one child are remarkable for 
referring every event to the period of its birth, christening, &c. &c. In similar 
fondness I turn to my solitary book-bantling,* in all cases of doubt where 
dates are in question, and it generally serves me as in the particular case of 
your question. 

' In the September and October of 1829, says my memorandum in print, my 
husband performed first at Boulogne and afterwards at Paris, returning to 
England at the end of October. 

* Memoirs of Charles HJathews, published in 183S-9. 



i8o THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' I am always glad to find you right, but more so now than ever, for I entertain 
all the haired and reve7ige with which our sex is charged towards the ingrate 
whom you now triumph over, and whom I have loved too, too well. Tell my once 
Love, as well as loved, that I have all the bitterness of a " woman scorned ; " he 
has laken no notice of me for huo years; and when I consider that I could not 
drink a cup of coffee in my own house without remembering how I still love him, 
whose image always is present with the silver that encloses it, and whereon is 
graven in letters of gold the goodness of the giver — I say, when all this is 
considered, how am I to be pitied when he forgets all his friendship and kindness 
to a " lone woman," who has little else to dwell upon in her solitude but " what 
has been?" Well, it will all overtake him, when kneeling at my feet, as I know 
he will some day (for first love never dies), and I punish him by a free pardon. 

' Seriously, I love dear Count D'Orsay still, and shall be happy to tell him so, 
when the frost is over, for at present my mouth is frozen, and my words hang like 
icicles upon my lips. 

' What weather ! I have had another cold, and am at present in my southern 
apartment, visited by no one but the Postman. Your tiger was really an object 
of deep interest, and warmed the very hearts of my maidens— a« event in my 
establishment. 

' I shall really come to you when / can, and when / may, for with our opposite 
habits it will be best to send a formal announcement of the intended visit, in 
order to ensure the meeting. I write in great haste, with my coffee-pot upon the 
table — tell Count D'Orsay — which 1 threaten to melt when he neglects me. 
Dearest friend, yours affectionately,' &c. 

' P.S. — I will attend to your wishes about the song, which you had best send 
to me to-morrow morning.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Russell Place, January 5th, 1844. 4 pages 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

' My dearest Friend, —Since I had the pleasure of your last call, I have been 
reflecting about your last proposition in relation to the Literary Fund, and that 
perhaps, if the advantage resulting from your friendly services in that quarter 
are likely to be only temporary and small, it will be desirable to forego it (that is, 
not make application for it) on account of poor Charles,* as it would serve to make 
known circumstances of my "case" which would injure him as a public man. 

' It is one thing to accept assistance from dear and long-esteemed yrwzrfj, but 
another to apply for bounty from strangers. 

' If I could have any claims to an annuity, however trifling, on the plea of my 
having written a book, I should alter the character of the transaction ; and this I 
vi'as foolish enough, when you spoke to me about the claim, to fancy was possible. 
I must, I now feel, have been mistaken ; and, therefore, dear friend, be so kind 
as to postpone, until L see you again, any prosecution of your intention of exerting 
yourself on this point. 

' I yesterday evening received your parcel and note, the latter quite healed the 
vexation I felt at the return of the paper, which I persuaded myself must be very 
bad to be so rejected. It will serve with others of a similar kind as make-weights 
to the proposed vol. if published. 

' On Wednesday night I forwarded the 2 vols, of Eraser, as you recommended, 
to Mr. Newby, begging him to read the papers I contributed to that work 
previously to those in MS., which I was preparing for him to peruse if he liked 
what was in print. 

' I am happy to say that I have set down as much more of Anecdotes as will 
make from 50 to 60 pages more in addition to Eraser's, and have still many [more] 

* Charles James Mathews, 1803-1878, the well-known actor, who was first apprenticed to 
Na=h, the architect, in which capacity he came into contact with Lord Blessington, whom he 
accompanied to Naples, where he lived with his patron for a year. He finally took the stage as 
a profession in 1835, an<l played until within fifteen days of his death. He was the author of a 
number of plays, or rather adaptations. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. igi 

pages left to work out than I expected. I really believe ^oo pages may be made 
out m some way without difficulty. - i o 

' I ought never to address you, my beloved and excellent friend, without 
repeatmg my grateful thanks for the continuous favours received from you ; but 
your goodness to me is ■' where every day I turn a page to read." Such generous 
and spontaneous friendship as you have shewn to me, at the needful time, 
reconciles a world of ingratitude from those / have served. How few debts of 
magnitude are paid by the recipients ! * Let them repair their injustice by 
prompting others to return such benefits, and thus all is made even. 

' God bless you, my dearest Lady Blessington, and reward you, as He will, for 
your generous and benevolent feehngs, actively manifested to all around you, and 
to your ever affectionate and obliged friend,' &c. 

3. A. L. S. Dated Russell Place, March 4th, 1844. 3 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear & most excellent Friend,— Your gratifying letter has affected me 
deeply. It is a cheering one, independently of the evidence it conveys of your 
friendship for the individual it so powerfully pleads for ; your consideration 
extends to the minutest points. 

' Not one moment before your packet was delivered to me this morning (and how 
truly kind was the haste) the thought struck me about the seal, and I was on the 
point, before I rose from my bed (in which 1 write this), of despatching another 
note to beg you would not omit to seal your letter before you forwarded it. You 
have provided for this, amongst other difficulties, by yom prevoyance. 

' I am not able to use your messenger at this moment, but shall forward in the 
course of to-day your valuable letter, and one from Mr. Adolphus, with the 
books, &c., all of which will take too long time to detain your servant, and 
Russell Street is very near my residence. 

'With respect to the mention of other affairs objected to by you, I shall, when 
we meet, be able to convince you that I could not avoid doing this after my 
interview with the person I have before alluded to. I trust it will not act 
unfavourably to the aims in view. 

' I was truly relieved by your reconcilement to my decision about Mr. Newby. 
You exactly stated what would and must have occurred under the experiment— 
long delay, if not eventual loss of both parties in the affair. 

' And now, my dear, respected, and truly beloved friend (a friend in the most 
extended sense of that too often misapplied word), accept once more my most 
grateful acknowledgments for all your generous and kindly acts, and pray believe 
that I am, dearest Lady, your faithfully aflfectionate,' &c. 

4. A. L. S. Dated Russell House, March 13th, 1844. 4 pages 4to., 
with Superscription. 

' My dearest Friend,— Your letter immediately followed one from Mr. Blewitt, 
which I copy : — 

" My dear Madam, — I hasten to relieve your anxiety by a single line, 

merely to say that I have brought your case into consideration of the 

committee this afternoon (March 13""), and they have granted you fifty 

pounds. 

" I congratulate you upon this result, and sincerely hope too it may relieve 

you from much anxiety." 

' I think this magnificent ! and feel that — under heaven — I owe this as well as 
other benefits Xo you, my most feeling and excellent friend: they have thus placed 
me above a thousand fears and embarrassments. May God bless and fulfill all 
your desires here and reward your goodness hereafter ! 

* Certainly Mrs. Mathews did not show any great anxiety to repay her debt of gratitude, as 
will be seen by referring to her expressions in her letter to Dr. Madden, p. 176, where she 
remarks that she ^ really thought well ' of Lady Blessington, and believed she could ' afford to 
own ' her friendship for her. 



1 82 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' I can now say but this much, in return for what I owe to you, and how j/iuck 
that is ! I am so agitated and so wen/; from my late sufferings, that I can hardly 
guide my pen ; but I could not pause a moment in conveying to your kind, 
benevolent heart this success of your advice for my benefit. I am still in my 
room, and in more confusion and discomfort than yoie can ever grasp at. Upon 
the instant that I am able, and the present tenant has vacated the cottage, I shall 
remove. Let what will occur to me as to sickness after I am there, I now shall 
be quite unembarrassed, and my mind as to self easy, I trust for life ; and when 
you lay your head upon your pillow, do not forget that I owe the means to your 
friendly counsel as well as other aid, & believe that I never close my eyes without 
offering up a prayer for you. 

' I hardly know what I am writing, for I am all in a bubble, and therefore 
pray, pray overlook the manner and the matter of this letter. 

' Mr. Bentley is also in a bubble I find about the book, and begs to see me 
when I am able to admit him ! I wrote word that 1 could not yet, but if he 
would write what he has to say, 1 could answer him with my pen. But he replied 
that he is very sorry to find that I am ill, but begs I will see him when better (!) 

' It is really a pleasure when I think of his i^ormer shifts and tormentings, to 
have to do with a man like Mr. Newby, whose conduct is so full of regularity and 
general integrity. I am now xtctnmg p?'oofs. 

'Heaven bless you! my dear, dear Lady Blessington. Your attached & 
grateful friend.' 

5. A. L. S. Dated March iSth, 1844. 6 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

'My dearest Friend, — Mr. Bentley begged for the MzV'i/ time to be admitted 
yesterday morning, & I was compelled to quit my bedroom for the 1'=' time, and 
have a fire lighted in a roomfull of packages and lumber to receive him. 

' I found him the most affectionate ( !) of men — all kindness and friendliness. 
He came to enquire whether the advertisement he saw was merely put forth as 
Mr. Murray's* once was of the Memoirs, viz., before they were written ; or 
whether I had irrevocably agreed wiih Mr. Newby. If not, he, Mr. Bentley, would 
give me ^150 for the volume in question. You may suppose how I felt at this 
intelligence ! I then explained to him all his misdemeanours against me, my doubts 
from foregone facts whether he was disposed to have anything more to do with 
me, his unpunctualities in keeping my former MSS. a year before he published 
them, and my money a year and a half unoffered ; his retention of my drawings, 
and his non-attention to all my appeals, &c., &c., his evident use of one drawing 
that I had only lent him to look at ; in short, explained why, even in the face 
of my own probable interest, I had abstained eventually from applying to 
him. I also told him you had called several times upon him, without finding him, 
to speak about the book, and afterwards appointed him to call at Gore House on 
the same subject but in consequence of my fear of a refusal from him, I had sent 
to beg^ your aid to put the question. In short, I told him I had " more in sorrow 
than in anger" given the Book to Mr. Newby. After all this Mr. Bentley wrung 
his hands in despair, owned his trespasses and said cowardice about his loss of 
my drawings prevented him answering my letters, &c., &c. " It would be a 
lesson to him for ever," &c., and again he asked me if what he offered would be 
exceeded by my bargain with Mr. Newby .? I then candidly told him how the 
matter stood, and Mr. B. again wrung his hands and asked, " Cannot you get off 
with him? Is it really too late?" I told him I thought it was, & indeed 
could not put the question to Mr. Newby. Mr. B. said, " O ! but Lady Blessing- 
ton fnight/" I told him I considered the matter past recall for me, tho' the 
advertisement would have been no more than what Mr. Murray had done in his 
case, the nearly one hundred pages already corrected by me would of course be 
a reason why I could not put the matter to Mr. Newby's feelings ; in short, Mr. B. 
ended with his " mortification & regret," begged I would let him publish any- 

* John Murray, 1778-1843, the well-known publisher, proprietor and starter of the Quarterly 
Review. He began business in Fleet Street, but in 1812 removed to Albemarle Street, which 
became the centre of a group of famous men of letters, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 183 

thing else I might have, professed himself ready to take whatever I might send 
him for his Magazine, but not at this particular period, it would gratify him to 
show me any attention, &c., &c. 

'Well, all this is vexatious and harassing, my dear friend, but with so much 
,^ood I dare not lament a solitary mishap. If we recei\e good at this hand shall 
we not receive evil also? (Mr. Blewitt transmitted me a fifty-pound note on 
Friday night.) I, however, simply wrote the facts to Mr. Newby, he having been 
aware of Mr. Bentley's application to see mc, and begged to know the result if it 
referred to the Book, & this letter he would get last night. 

' I shall have removed by the end of the week ; when I mean to ask you to 
waste a short time upon me some morning at Gore House, till when I am full 
of business and bustle. I long to flee away and be at rest. I am glad I have 
no more leisure to dwell upon this miss- my oion fault. 

' I trust you are getting better— Ttr//, and trust you will be careful of yourself, 
valuable as is your safety to so many. My constant prayers attend you, my most 
dear and esteemed friend ! V affectionate.' 

' Mr. Murray was to have the Memoirs when written by Charles, and advertised 
them. When Charies could not undertake them Mr. Hook begged to do the book, 
but the impediment was his being then bound not to write for any other publisher 
than Bentley and Colburn. This being represented to Murray, who in his liberal 
kind way waived his right and said he was willing to do anything which best 
accorded with my interests, and although he had advertised the book in every 
possible way for some time, never even claimed the expense he had been at. 
But there are few Murrays now in existence, I fear.' 

MATUSCHEWITZ (Cotmt). A Russian Diplomatist. (1790-1842.) 

1. A. L. S. (in English). Dated Naples, May ist, 1834. 5 pages 4to. 
and 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I will not allow Mr. Keppel Craven to 
leave Naples .for good old England, without availing myself of his kind 
offer to take over a letter to you. Indeed, I cannot mention his name, 
& not return you once more my most sincere thanks for the way in which 
you have been so kind as to recommend me to him. He is no less 
agreeable than well-informed, no less obliging & indulgent than interesting 
& instructive in his conversation. You will have undoubtedly the greatest 
pleasure in seeing him in England, but we cannot well spare him here ; and 
as you abound in resources of pleasant society, which are extremely scanty 
at Naples, I trust you will not charge me with egotistical cant and unfriendly 
feelings, if I candidly declare that upon this occasion what will give you satis- 
faction, gives me unfeigned regret. I have found Naples in mourning for the 
young Queen, without anything like social amusements, or even social spirit, 
without even St. Charles' Theatre, which is shut up, or the usual mildness and 
beauty of the climate ; added to which, my bankers here have failed, & stripped 
me of a good sum of money, part of my establishment has been ship-wrecked, 
& at the moment I am writing to you, reminiscences of yours come again upon 
me. It is not consistent therefore with human nature that 1 should feel the least 
prepossessed in favour of Naples. Still I have experienced considerable pleasure 
in admiring its beautiful situation, in visiting its very picturesque environs, & 
especially in examining those wonderful monuments of antiquity, which, 
independent of their magnificence and exquisite taste, carry one two thousand 
years back, so completely and so magically as to make one fancy oneself a con- 
temporary of the most powerful nation that ruled the world in ancient limes. 
Hence I shall always maintain a journey to Naples to be a delightful one, & 
some stay in that country not only to be pleasant, but necessary to complete one's 
classical education, & one's notions of former grandeur with all its peculiarities, 
customs, & usages. But much as I esteem & delight in Craven, I could not, 
like him, fix myself at Naples. There is no native society to be found ; one is 
therefore thrown back forcibly upon foreigners, & too often obliged to live as it were 
in a sort of anteroom to London, Paris, Vienna, or Petersburgh. Even in the 



1 84 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

best years, good society is but transient ; & it stands to reason, that when one 
has to associate with strangers to the country, it is next to impossible to form 
long friendships or durable connections. Under these circumstances you will 
not be surprised to hear of my not intending to take root amongst the lazaronis, 
& though I don't know yet how long I shall stay with them, I feel much more 
inclined to shorten than to protract my sojourn in the south. 

'With you the Whigs seem to ha\e it all their own way; I could never 
understand upon what foundations the Conservative papers had foretold, about 
three months ago, the present administration's immediate downfall ; & I verily 
think the Conservatives, since they cannot upset it, had much better try by a 
timely coalition to rescue the ministers from the necessity of looking for occasional 
support to the Radicals, & of framing some measure for that purpose. Every 
danger might be averted from the country by such a course ; too disinterested, 
perhaps, to be expected from any political party, but still, in my humble opinion, 
the safest and wisest to follow. There is a great deal of natural conservatism 
growing out from the possession of power, & growing the more, as that 
possession is lengthened & confirmed. Besides which, except upon one 
question, the real diflerences of opinion do not seem to be very considerable, & 
though no ministerialist, I cannot help thinking the ministers would not hesitate 
between Peel & O'Connell, Stanley & Hume, & feel much more inclined to 
come to a rational compromise with the former, than to endanger perpetually 
their own authority by yielding to the destructive impulses ofthe latter. However, 
you will perhaps consider my observations as the mere effect of the distance at 
which I am writing, & not the least applicable to the actual state of affairs. I 
shall therefore drop the subject, not without begging you to remember me to 
E. EUice, with whom I got more thoroughly acquainted in Paris, and whose 
kindness to me I shall always most gratefully recollect. Will you tell Alfred that 
I do shake him by the hand most sincerely ? Yours very truly.' 

2. A. L. S. (in English). Dated Stockholm, November 5th, 1839. 

4 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — How kind & amiable of you not to 
have allowed Alfred's letter to depart without the addition of a few lines 
in your hand-writing, to satisfy me that I still live in your friendly 
recollection. Depend upon it, your remembrance is not thrown away on 
me. I should consider it the climax of ingratitude were I not most 
anxious & impatient to revisit good old England, & to find myself once 
more under the roof of Gore House — that hospitable roof, under which I am 
certain to receive a hearty welcome, & to meet a most instructive variety of 
eminent characters, who move round you as it were by magic, each happy, each 
communicative, each contributing his quota to a general conversation and harmony 
which, I believe, was never known to exist amongst thein, except at your house 
& under your influence. I hope ne.xt spring will restore me for a time at least, if 
not yet for good, to those friends from whom I grieve now so sincerely to be 
separated, & to those social enjoyments to which I am here a perfect stranger. 
There never was a country (though not uninteresting in some respects) so devoid of 
society as this one. I live all but in solitude, & my happiness, if happiness it is 
to be called, is only that which any rational being ought to carry with and within 
himself Under these circumstances, it is real Christian charity in my friends to 
do occasionally what you have done now with so much kindness. Well may I 
say, that the smallest donation will be gratefully received. If, therefore, you ever 
have this winter a few minutes to spare, let me hope that I will hear once more 
from you. Another year will not be ushered in without some charming pubU- 
cation to appear under your patronage. A copy of it would beguile my solitude, 
and if inscribed with your name, it will prove, of course, doubly valuable. Every 
month a huge bag is made up at the Foreign Office for Sir Thomas Cartwright,* 

* Sir Thomas Cartwright, 1795-1850, a diplomalibt, knighted in 1834. After holding 
various diplomatic posts, he went as minister to Sweden in 1838, and remained there until 
his death. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 1S5 

the English minister at the Court of Stockholm, & I have his permission to have 
all my English letters and parcels put under cover to him, & forwarded to J. 
Bandinelle, Esq., at the Foreif;n Office, through which means they are sure to 
reach_ me with safety & expedition. You see to what broad hints my forlorn 
situation prompts me to resort. Your pohtical news are gloomy. Some of my 
friends appear more sanguine, but others are the same opinion w ith you. I, for one, 
perceive in the highest quarters a turn of mind which I cannot sufficiently deplore. 

' Now, my dear Lady Blessington, I have most unscrupulously transgressed on 
your time & indulgence ; but I know you will forgive me, & readily believe that I 
will always remain, yours vei-y sincerely.' 

'When you see L* Lyndhurst & Mr. Bear EUice, will you be so good as to 
remember me particularly to both ?' 

3. A. L. S. (in English). Dated Stockholm, February 8tR, 1840. 
3 pages Svo. 

' ^ly dear Lady Blessington, — A thousand thanks for your beautiful & 
interesting " cadeau," which reached its destination perfectly safe, though rather 
late, for I have not been in possession of it much more than a fortnight. I cannot 
tell you how fond I am of your " Belle of the Season." The engravings are 
beautiful, the poetry charming. If I was Prince Albert, I would have offered 
to the Queen, on the very day of my marriage, those delighful lines in which 
you have contrived, though in one of your richest veins, not to overdraw her 
picture, & keeping as near as possible to reality you have only clothed it in 
admirable language. I have not finished yet your " Governess," but it is 
line excellente peinture de via:urs in every room and story of a London house. 
Now that you have delineated to life, & with such success, Ireland in your 
"Repealers," & England in your " Governess," Scotland is awaiting your pencil. 
You really ought to make an excursion north of the Tweed in the course of this 
autumn. It will amply repay your trouble, & being drawn from a recent and 
personal observation of nature on the spot, your description will be, if possible, 
still more graphic & vivid. 

' Now for a word or two of politics. We have here the English papers only to 
Jan: 27th. Poor Prince Albert ! What an inauspicious political start he has made ! 
The Commons curtail his allowance with an overwhelming majority against him : 
the Lords seem determined to take away from him unanimously the precedency 
he was to have obtained. Upon my word, I don't know that I would not have 
returned to C[oburg] under similar circumstances, & left the little island & its 
ministers to hunt out a more popular Prince. 

' When you wrote to me in the latter end of December, appearances were so 
much against the government, that no one could have insured its existence at any 
price for another month ; but it strikes me that since the opening of Parliament 
they look rather stronger. The last elections had turned against the Con- 
servatives, & some unaccountable "presentiment" whispers into my ear, that 
the government majority on the motion of want of confidence, will have been such 
as to enable them to live on. Next post will enlighten us on this most important 
subject. You have no idea how anxiously I do expect that post. The privilege 
question is also a very curious one. I hope that, acting with the wisdom of the 
Romans & the Albans of old, the Commons & the court of justice will con- 
tribute three champions to fight out their quarrel in mortal combat, Eglintoun 
presiding over the lists. Fancy our having here a Parliament annulled, & a 
triumphant opposition, & a little political crisis. Old Bernadotte is at great 
discount just now, & will have a hard time of it. No greater misfortune in this 
world than to Hve too long. 

' Adieu, my dear Lady Blessington. My kindest remembrances to Alfred. 
If ever you have another minute to spare, let me hear again from you. You 
have no idea what pleasure it is in a remote corner of Europe, & with such 
feelings for you as those of yours very sincerely.' 

4. A. L. S. ' Mathew ' (in English). Dated Stockholm, March 6th, 
1840. 2>\ pages Svo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am so ashamed not to have done justice to 



1 86 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

your charming " Go\'erness " in my last letter to you, that I cannot help availing 
myself of this day's messenger to atone, if possible, for my guilt by a candid 
admission of it. The fact is that when I wrote to you last, 1 had just only gone 
over the two first chapters of the " Governess," & was yet a stranger to many 
of its best characters, & not aware of the sympathy & interest these characters, 
as well as the very natural & simple, but extremely attaching progress of the 
story would excite in me. When I resumed the book, I found it impossible to 
lay It down without having read the last words in the last page ; and I can assure 
you, that for many a day, ay, many a year, I have not been so thoroughly charmed 
with a novel. To say nothing of the governess herself, who will impress every 
one with a strong feeling of love and regard, I dote upon the old Quaker, & 
am excessively partial to U Axminster. You have extricated her very cleverly 
frorrt the toils of a " Wicked Earl," who gets baffled, as the real one invariably 
is ; added to which, the infusion of humour in several parts of the novel is 
excellent, the picture of manners, high & low, to the life, & the language 
remarkable for vivacity, purity of taste, & elegance. I know my opinion can 
only be worth to you what Molifere's handmaiden was to him. But it is merely 
in self-vindication that I have spoken out now to satisfy you that I am no such 
barbarian as to have been dead to the charm & merits of your delightful pro- 
duction. 

'The Conservative opposition have, I see, at last published a decisive war 
manifesto against the government. The sole fact of such a declaration of uncom- 
promising hostility must prove a considerable addition to the cabinet's previous 
& constitutionnal weakness. I doubt more than ever, that, situated & assailed as 
they are now, the ministers should pull through the session ; but whether their 
downfall will be productive of good or evil in the first instance, at least with the 
evident bias of the Queen's personal feelings, is more than I can venture an 
opinion upon at so great a distance. I wonder what our friend the Bear says to 
all this ? will you be so kind as to remember me most friendly to him, and to give 
my best love to Alfred ? Yours most truly and sincerely.' 

MILLINGEN (James). A Classical Antiquary. (1774-1845.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 'Belvedere, Sunday evening.' i page 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I was in hopes of having the happiness of 
seeing you either yesterday or this evening, as I thought your excursion would 
not have exceeded three, and at most four days. I hope my disappointment 
proceeds from no other cause than the agreeableness of the party : I regret 
sincerely that it was not in my power to partake of it. 

' You will be surprised to hear that having nearly finished my preparations of 
departure, instead of taking the road to Rome, that I am first going to Sorrento 
and Amalfi. I start to morrow morning early, and expect to return Wednesday 
evening, when I shall immediately pay you my respects. I should have waited 
for your arrival this evening, but as I am going early in the morning, I must not 
sit up too late. 

' Pray remember me very kindly to his Lordship, to Miss Power, and my good 
friend Alfred. Believe me always, my dear Lady Blessington, your faithful & 
obliged serv*.' 

2, A. L. S. Dated Florence, October 4th, 1824. ij pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I intended to have written to you from Rome, 
but was prevented by constant interruption. 

' I met with no accident on the road, and escaped being robbed and carried 
up to the mountains. Though safe for a time, 1 should advise, however, any 
person to take great precaution between Naples and Rome, as the banditti, who 
are now dispersed and concealed, may unite & make an attack when. least 
expected. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 187 

' I cannot tell you with what regret I quitted Naples, and in consequence how 
dull and melancholy my journey has been. I wished above all things to have 
been able to remain till next spring, and nothing but the most imperious necessity 
could have induced me to go northward at the present advanced season. To add 
to my regret, I found, after passing the Pontine marshes, an entirely new climate ; 
it had rained considerably, and it was as cold as in England. This sudden 
change in the temperature affected my health, and I took a violent cold which 
obliged me to go to bed immediately on my arrival at Rome, and though better 
the day following was very weak and nervous during the 4 or 5 days that I 
remained there. It will suffice to tell you that I neither saw the Vatican nor the 
Capitolean Museum, nor any of the remains of the ancient glory of the Eternal 
City. 

' You have heard, without doubt, of the discovery of the unfortunate Miss 
Bathurst's body. It was the general subject of conversation for two or three 
days, and one not at all calculated to dispel my disposition to gloominess. What 
a contrast between its state at the moment of the fatal accident, and that to which 
it was reduced by remaining so long in the water ; 6 inonths and 10 days I It 
would, perhaps, have been better for her parents and friends, if the discovery had 
not been made, as it renews all their grief. 

' It is incredible how much interest the Romans of all classes expressed on 
the occasion. It was, in fact, an event highly deplorable and tragical. 

' Pray tell Alfred that I saw Mr. Artaud at Rome, who will be most happy to 
show him every possible attention on his arrival ; he recollects having seen him, 
when a very fine child, at his grandmother's. 

'With regard to your books, he says that the best mode would be to take 
those that are prohibited in your carriage, and to send the others, especially the 
English, to Mr. Chiavin, by iht procaccio waggon. 

' Previously to my quitting Rome, I left with Mr. Freeborn a copy of my 
Peiniures de Vases, which I beg you will have the goodness to accept, and honour 
with a place in your library. I hope the label on the book may sometimes catch 
your eye, and recall me to your recollection. 

' I never can express to you, my dear lady, how much I am sensible to all the 
kindness which I have received from you since I had the happiness to make your 
acquaintance, nor can I ever forget the agreeable moments I passed in your 
society. I regret much that I could not enjoy them longer, but I mi^st go to 
England. I have hopes of seeing you next summer at Paris, but they are 
very faint, as I apprehend that Italy will detain you a long time, and perhaps 
I may find you still there. Wherever I may find you, it will be a most i7ifinite 
pleasure. 

' Pray remember me very kindly to his Lordship, to Miss Power, and to Count 
D'Orsay, and tell the latter I shall write to him from Paris. If you leave Naples, 
I hope you will have the goodness to inform me of your movements. Beheve me, 
with sincere regard, my dear Lady Blessington, your ever faithful and 
obliged serv'.' 

MILNES (Richard Monckton), created Lord Houghton in 1863. The 

well-known Poet and Man of Letters. (1809-1885.) 

L A. L. S. No date, i page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — At last " circumstance, that most unspiritual 
God "* permits me to accept your kind invitation for Monday. Your ever & 
obliged.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Bawtrey, June 5th, (?). 2 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I was in town but a few days on my return from 
Egypt, and those full of all sorts of little business incident on an eight months' 
absence. So I have seen nobody and done nothing agreeable, but hope to make 
it up to myself on my return to town next week. 

* Childe Harold, c. iv. 125. 



1 88 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' I shall soon find my way to Gore House. In the meantime I may mention 
that I gave you last summer an Irish ballad (very appropriate for these Repeal 
times), which has not appeared in either of your Annuals, so that I suppose it is 
reserved for this year. If you want any second piece, it is at your service, but I 
had better not give it unless you want it, as your publishers had last year the 
trouble of printing a poem which turned out to have been published before. 
With kind regards to Count D'Orsay, believe me, dear Lady Blessington, y" 
always.' 

3. A. L. S. No date, i page 8vo., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Very happy to dine with you on Sunday and talk 
over copyright and all other rights and wrongs. Y" always.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated Norwich, September 15th (1848). 3^ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Please let me have 2 proofs* at Tomline's, Orwell 
Park, Ipswich. 

' I do not know M. Louis Blanc,tnor sympathise with his opinions, but having 
been in the Assembly all the 15th May, and having carefully read the enqiiite, I 
am convinced in my own mind that the answer of the Assembly was a surprise 
to him, and that his answer to the people, when in the " enceinte," was deprecatory 
and not encouraging. I should certainly say he seemed to desire to get them 
away. I remain, y" very truly.' 

' The D. of Cambridge has been staying here, & was amusing about L'^ Harvey's 
' Memoirs.' He said " G. 2'' was very fond of handsome women, and (turning 
to the bishop), I my Lord, we've all taken after him : it's in the family."' 

NORMANBY (Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquis of). A States- 
man and Diplomatist. (1797-1863.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Mulgrave Castle, December 17th. 3 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have just received your letter, and have to 
thank you much for your prompt attention to my troublesome request. I think it 
would be very desirable that you should write to Paris as you kindly propose. It 
would be as well perhaps that the person before coming over should be told that 
at least for the first few months he would be expected to remain in a Country 
House, and therefore if that was his only objection he would not be expected to 
pay his expenses back. 

' The Neapolitan might do, should you fail in Paris. 

' Lord Melbourne is at present staying here, seems in much better health and 
spirits. Ever very truly y''^.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Paris, March 27 th, 1848. 2 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I forwarded without delay your packet to your 
correspondent, who has taken within these last few days to write so boldly, that 
if there is to be any " terror " he seemis to desire to offer himself as the first 
victim. However, all is now very c|uiet for the moment here, though no one can 
see many weeks, or even days, into the future. 

' It was very kind of you so to express yourself towards me, and to cite such 

* Referring to his translation of a story of Tieck's published in The Keepsake for 1848, under 
the title of ' A Dream.' 

+ Jean Joseph Louis Blanc, 181 1 -1882, the French revolutionist and historian. In the 
struggle of May 15th, 1848, between the Communists and the Assembly, he was distrusted by 
both parties, narrowly escaped death, and, being accused in June and again in August for 
complicity in the outbreak, was condemned by a large majority, and fled to England, where 
he lived for more than twenty years. He returned to France in 1870, and from that time 
until his death was re-elected Deputy for Paris at every election. 

J The Hon. Edward Stanley, 1779-1849, younger brother of the 1st Baron Stanley of 
Alderley. He was elected to the Bishopric of Norwich in 1837. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 189 

an authority to be "laudatus a laudato" (I make no excuse for quoting Latin to 
)'ou), is always welcome. 

' I see D'Orsay is helping to take care of our poor English exports. Yours 
very truly.' 

OSSUNA (Duke d'). A Grandee of Spain. (1809-1844.) 
A. L. S. Dated Paris, January 24th, 1S44. 3 pages 8vo. 

' Milady,— Je vois avec le plus grand plaisir que le petit cadeau que j'ai remit 
pour vous a. ;\Ir. le Comte D'Orsai vous a ete agreable et c'est k moi maintenant Jl 
vous ternoigner toute ma reconnaissance de tant de choses aimables, comme vous 
voulez bien me prodiguer dans votre charmante lettre, et surtout pour I'assurance 
d'une amitie k laquelle j'attache le plus grand prix. 

' On a dit, il est vrai, dans le monde, que j'etais nomme ambassadeur ci 
Naples, et meme k Paris et k Londres, mais il n'en est rien, et jusqu'k present je 
me suis toujouis refuse k repr&anter le Gouvernement Espagnol, qui k men avis, 
n'est pas encore represaniable. 

' L'Espagne est menacee de grands boulversements, et je suis convaincu que 
pour lui rendre une tranquilite durable, et pour y etablir un governement solide, 
national, et compl^tement independant des influences de la France, il n'y a qu'un 
seul moyen, c'est de marier notre jeune Reyne Ysabelle avec le fils aine de Don 
Carlos, qui pourraient regner ensemble tons deux comme au temps de Ferdinand 
et Ysabelle la Catholique, dans nos beaux jours de gloire. 

' J'ai I'intention d'aller faire un voyage en Ytalie pour revenir k Paris au mois 
d'Avril et rentrer en Espagne k la fin de lilai. 

' Veuillez, JNlilady, dire bien de choses aimables k vos charmantes nieces, et 
agreer, je vous prie, I'assurance de tous mes sentimens sincferes et devours.' 

OSSUNA (Duke d'). Younger Brother and Successor in the title of 
the preceding. 

1. A. L. S. Dated Madrid, September 14th, 1844. i4- pages 4to. 

' Madame et chere Comtesse, — C'est avec la plus grande reconnaissance que 
j'ai regu aujourd'hui I'aimable lettre que ^-ous avez eu la bonte de m'ecrire. Vous 
pouvez, Madame la Comtesse, penser le triste eiat ou se trouve mon coeur apr^s 
la perte affreuse et irreparable que je viens de faire. \''ous qui connaissiez mon 
malheureux frfere, et qui lui portiez un si grand attachement, vous pouviez 
seulement juger de I'horrible chagrin et du desespoir ou sa perte si prematura et 
inespdree doit avoir plonge mon ame. J'ai perdu en lui un excellent et tendre 
frere, et le plus cher et le meilleur de mes amis. Le seul soulagement que mon 
coeur pent avoir dans ces tristes momens, ce sont les consolations de I'amitie, 
parmi lesquelles j'apprecie toujours comme les plus chores k mon coeur celles qui 
sont addressees par votre aimable bonte. ^'ous aviez dejk bien des droits k mon 
attachement, en avant meme d'avoir eu I'honneur et la bonheur de vous connaitre, 
ainsi que de votre aimable et si chere famille. Je vous aimais dejk par reconnais- 
sance pour I'amour de mon malheureux fr^re, mais k present que vous avez la bonte 
deme prodiguer tant des marques de votre attachement sincere, et de votre interet 
pour moi, vous pouvez penser que ma reconnaissance et mon attachement pour 
vous s'est acrue en consequence, et je vous regarde maintenant comme les 
personnes les plus chores k mon cceur. 

' Je supporte avec assez de resignation la charge de mon malheur ; et avec 
I'aide de Dieu, et les secours de mes veritables amis, j'espere parvenir k recouvrer 
ma santd avec I'attention que je dois considerer d'apres le pitoyable etat de mon 
esprit. 

'Vous me demandez de vous envoyer une meche des cheveux de mon cher 
frere, et je me ferai un veritable plaisir d'accorder k votre demande, vous les 
apportant moi-meme k mon prochain voyage k Londres que je me propose de 
faire trfes incessament, et aussitot que les afl^aires de ma maison me le permetent, 
mais de toutes les maniferes cella serat bientot. 

' J'espere que vous aurez regu les autres lettres que j'ai eu le honneur de vous 



I90 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

ecrire ainsi que k Monsieur le Comte d'Orsay, et je serai bien heureux de 
continuer cette correspondance, qui m'est si ch&re et qui porte tant des conso- 
lations k mon coeur. 

' Je suis bien fach(f de ne pas pouvoir vous ecrire davantage pour aujourd'hui, 
jemepiopose lefaire laprochainefois ; en attendant veuilliez, ma chfere Comtesse, 
me rappelier au bon et cher souvenir des Mademoiselles vos nieces et de M"-' le 
Comte d'Orsay, et me croire comme toujours et pour la vie votre plus sincere et 
devoue ami et serviteur.' 

2. A. L S. Dated Madrid, October 17th, 1844. 2 pages 4to., with 
Superscription. 

'Ch&re Comtesse, — Vos deux aimables lettres, datees du 18 et 25 Septembre, 
m'ont fait un bien sensible plaisir, comme toutes celles que vous voulez bien 
m'addresser, et qui dans les circonstances ou je me trouve m'ont apporte 
une bien douce consolation, et un grand adoucissement k ma douleur. Je vois 
confirmes dans toutes vos aimables lettres les sentiments si afifectueux et si 
sinceres que vous portiez k mon malbeureux et trfes cher fr^re, et que vous voulez 
bien me porter k moi meme. Je veux done vous exprimer dans ces lignes, 
toute ma reconnaissance pour toutes vos bontes infinies envers moi, mais j'esp^re 
que bientot je pourrai de parole vous t^moigner ce que ma plume ne saurait le 
faire, et je suis persuade que seulement aupres de si bons et si chers amis, je 
pourrois trouver les soulagements dont j'ai tant besoin dans ma grande douleur. 

' J'ai €\€ bien reconnaissant k I'extreme bonte de vos aimables et charmantes 
nieces, Mesdemoiselles Power, d'avoir bien voulu se rappeler de moi en m'adres- 
sent les deux aimable lettres que vous avez eu la bonte de me faire parvenir, et 
aux quelles je prend la liberte de repondre, en vous priant de vouloir bien leur 
remettre les ci-jointes lettres. 

' Les occupations graves et nombreusses qui m'ont occupees pendant ces 
derniers jours, m'ont empeche de pouvoir repondre aussitot que je le voulois k vos 
deux derniferes et aimables lettres. Je compte sur votre indulgence, Madame la 
Comtesse, pour me pardonner cette faute involontaire. 

'Je vous remercie mille fois, Madame la Comtesse, pour tout I'interet et le soin 
que voulez bien prendre pour ma sante qui est toute aussi bonne qu'elle peut I'etre 
aprfes touts et les si graves desagremens que j'ai eprouve depuis le jour 011 j'ai quitte 
Londres. La reflexion, et les consolations de I'amitid, sont les seuls soulagements 
que je peut avoir dans ce moment, et si pour cela que tout suite que mes affaires 
me le permetront je compte partir de Madrid, et aller k Londres, oii je trouverois 
aupres de vous et de votre aimable et si ch^re famille toutes les consolations 
qu'ici je ne pourrai avoir jamais. 

'Je vous prie, ch^re Comtesse, quand vous ^crirez k Lady Canterbury de 
vouloir bien lui presenter mes respects, et de lui dire combien je suis reconnaissant 
k son bon et aimable souvenir pour moi. 

'Je ne puis encore vous dire positivement pour quelle epoqueje pourrai me 
trouver k Londres, mais je compte m'y rendre le plutot possible, et dans I'etat ou 
je me trouve, mon esprit a bien besoin de trouver quelque soulagement, et aussi de 
se remettre un peu de tout ce travail qui p^se sur moi, et qui k peine me laisse 
libre de la journee, et bien de fois le soir aussi je suis oblige de travailler presque 
jusque fort tard dans la nuit ; mais tout cela j'espere finira bientot. 

' Permettez moi, chfere Comtesse, de terminer cettre lettre, ma prochaine sera 
plus longue, et en attendant veuillez quelque fois me faire I'honneur de me donner 
de vos nouvelles, ainsi que de votre chere famille, au souvenir si aimable et si cher, 
de la quelle je vous prie de vouloir me rappeler, en vous assurant qu'aucune conso- 
lation ne peut m'etre plus agr^able, que celle de recevoir vos aimables lettres. 

'Veuillez, ch^re Comtesse, offrir mes sinc&res amities k vos aimables et char- 
mantes nieces, ainsi qu'k Monsieur le Comte D'Orsay, et profitant de cette 
nouvelle occasion j'ai I'honneur de vous assurer de toute I'amitie si sincere de 
votre tout devoue.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated 'M^ 4 Avril, 1845.' 4 pages 8vo. 

' Ch^re et aimable Comtesse, — II y a longtemps que je voulai vous ecrire, mais 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 191 

mes nombreuses et graves occupations m'en ont empech^ jusqu'k aujourd'hui que je 
suis bien heureux de pouvoir dedier ces courts instants k votre bonne et si chere 
amitid, et me rappeler en meme temps k votre ciimable souvenir. 

' J'esptire dans peuts des jours pouvoir partir d'ici pour Paris, et de \k je 
compte me rendre k Londres, mais cela ne sera pas avant la fin de Mai, car je 
devrais raster quelque temps a Paris pour regler quelques affaires que j'ai Ik, et 
quoique je le preserais le plus que possible, car je desire bien vivement aller en 
Angleterre oil je pourrai trouver le bonheur et la tranquility dant j'ai tant besoin 
apr^s tout ce que j'ai souffert depuis mon arrivde k Madrid, et apres I'horrible 
malheur qui m'est plus dur k supporter tous les jours, et seulement la raison peut 
me donner la resignation dant j'ai tant besoin dans la tristesse qui m'accable ; 
enfin, j'esp^re etre plus heureux en Juin, et je crois bien le ineriter apres tant de 
chagrins et tant de souflrances. 

' J'ai eu derniferement le plaisir de recevoir de vos chores nouvelles aussi que 
des M^'"' vos ni&ces et de M'' le Comte d'Orsay par votre bon ami le Comte de 
Courcy que je desire aussi revoir bientot, c'est une personne bien estimable et un 
bien veritable ami et que j'aprecie beaucoup. M"' le Comte d'Orsay a eu aussi la 
bonte de m'ecrire il y a quelques jours ; je me suis empresse de lui repondre et 
j'esp^re qu'il aurait regu ma lettre. 

' Avec la vie si triste et retiree que je mene ici, peut ou presque rien je sais de 
ce qui se passe k Madrid. Je sors fort rarement de chez moi, si ce n'est pour aller 
au Congres, que comme vous pouvez bien penser au milieu de tout comme j'ai k 
faire, cette nouvelle charge contribue beaucoup aussi k augmenter mon ennui, et 
tant de travaux k la fois ont alters beaucoup ma sante, mais je prends patience 
avec I'espoir que tout sera fini bientot. 

' Je vois trfes souvent M"' Bulwer, et nous parlons souvent du charmant s^jour 
de Gore House que je desire tant revoir. M" Bulwer m'a charg6 quand je vous 
ecrirai de le rappeler k votre bon et aimable souvenir, de meme qu'k celui de 
M"^ le C" d'Orsay. 

' Si je pouvais vous etre utile en quelque chose ici je serai bien charme de 
pouvoir faire quelque chose qui peut vous etre agreable, mais probablement si 
vous avez la bonte de me r6pondre votre lettre ne me trouvera plus k Madrid, car 
je compte partir incessament. 

'Je vous prie, Madame la Comtesse, de vouloir bien me rappeler au bon et 
cher souvenir des M'''=' vos nieces et du C^ d'Orsay, et avec le plus grand desir 
de vous revoir bientot croyez moi pour toujours votre ami bien sincere et tant 
ddvoud.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated Paris, July 7th, 1845. 3 pages 8vo. 

' Chfere et aimable Comtesse, — Je viens de recevoir avec le plus grand plaisir 
I'aimable lettre que vous m'avez fait I'honneur de m'ecrire, et quoique tr&s occupe 
aujourd'hui, je n'ai pas voulu diferer ma r^ponse. 

' Je suis heureux de voir chaque jour se confirmer de plus en plus les 
tdmoignages de votre affection pour moi, aussi que de votre bonte ; et le desir que 
vous me dittes avez de me revoir me le prouve pareillement, et je vous assure 
que j'ai pour vous les memes sentiments, aussi que pour votre aimable et ch^re 
famille. 

' Dans peut de jours je compte etre a Londres, oil je serai dt^jk depuis long- 
temps si mes affaires ici et en Belgique me I'avais permis, et vous pouvez bien 
etre persuadee que jamais je n'aurai manque de tenir ma promesse et d'aller vous 
voir, mais malheureusement en ce monde on desire souvent, et tr^s souvent aussi 
ont ait contrarie dans ses projets, aussi pour cette fois je suis sure de pouvoir 
tenir ma promesse et dans peu de jours je serai a Londres, et j'aurai un bien 
agreable moment aprfes tant et tant de mauvais et tristes que j'ai passe depuis 
bientot un an. 

' Je vois par votre lettre que vous avez eu votre excellent ami M' Bulwer, moi 
aussi je lui suis bien smcferement attache, et c'est un bien estimable homme en 
touts les moments, et je serai bien charme de le revoir en Angleterre. 

'Pardonnez moi, chfere Comtesse, d'etre laconique pour aujourd'hui, mais le 
temps me manque pour tout. 

'Veuillez en attendant le plaisir de vous revoir, offrir mes hommages bien 



192 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

affectionn^s Ji M"" vos nieces et leur dire combien je suis reconnaissant k leur 
bon souvenir pour moi. Veuillez aussi offrir mes amities sinceres k mon excellent 
et cher ami le C"= d'Orsay, et me croire avec le plus profond respect votre serviteur 
et ami tout ddvou^. 

'P.S.— Je vous pi-ie de vouloir bien dire au C'"^ d'Orsay que j'ai regu sa lettre 
et que je lui r^pondrai aussitot que je le pourrai.' 

5. A. L. S. Dated Paris, November 24th, 1845. 2\ pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' iMa ch6re Comtesse, — J'ai appris I'affreuse malheur qui vient de vous arriver, 
et qui comme \ vous a frappe de douleur tout votre chfere famille. Je n'essayerpis 
de vous addresser des consolations, car malheureusement je sais par une bien 
triste et rdcente experience que pour cette douleur il n'y a point de soulagement. 
Vous devez etre persuadee, ma ch&re et aimable Comtesse, de toute la part si 
sincere que je prend k votre malheur, car vous savez tout I'int^ret et reconnaissante 
amitid que je vous porte. 

'J'esp^rais avoir eu le bonheur de vous revoir cet autome, mais malheur- 
eusement il m'a €\.€ impossible d'avoir ce plaisir toujours si grand pour moi par 
masant^, qui a ^te bien chancelante tout ce derniers temps, et par ma nomination 
au Senat que m'oblige k aller en Espagne pour quelque temps ; mais je compte 
avoir ce plaisir au printemps prochain, car je me propose d'aller \ Londres vers 
cette ^poque, et avant si je le peut. 

' Je ne veut pas abuser de votre bonte plus longtemps, car je me figure bien 
toute la tristesse de vos moments : et ma prochaine lettre sera plus longue. 

'Veuillez en attendant offrir mes humbles hommages k vos aimables et 
charmantes niSces, Misses Power, et mes amitids sincferes pour le cher Comte 
D'Orsay ; et vous, Madame la Comtesse, assurez-vous, je vous prie, du respect et 
sincere attachement que vous porterais pour la vie, votre tout devout et recon- 
naissant serviteur et ami.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated Paris, June i6th, 1846. 4 pages 8vo. 

' Ma chfere Comtesse, — II y a un sifecle que je voulois avoir I'honneur et le 
plaisir de vous ecrire et me rappeler en meme temps k votre bon et aimable 
souvenir ; mais ayant ete tr&s souffrant pendant mon dernier sejour en Espagne, 
et avec mes nombreuses et continuelles occupations le temps m'a manque pour 
tout. 

' Je suis de retour \ Paris depuis quelque jours seulement, et je m'empresse de 
vous adresser ces lignes, et vous reitdrer I'assurance de ma sincere amitie et 
eternelle reconnaissance k vos bontes infinies pour moi. 

' Je crois que bientot j'aurai I'honneur et le plaisir de vous revoire, ainsi qu'k 
votre aimable et tres chere famille ; il y a longtemps que je m'etais propose de 
revenir en Angleterre, vous savez combien j'aime votre beau pays, mais mal- 
heureusement, et comme il m'arrive d'ordinaire, c'est assez que je desire une chose 
pour que je sois force de faire le contraire ; enfin patiance, puisque le sort le veut 
ainsi. 

' Connaissant la bonne amitie que vous portiez k mon malheureux et bien aimd 
frfere, ainsi que celle que vous voulez bien me porter, k laquelle je suis si sensible 
et reconnaissant, j'ai pris la liberie de me permettre de vous envoyer une caisse 
qui contient deux statuettes de mon cher fr^re, et deux autres de moi, desquelles 
je vous prie de vouloir bien en remettre deux de ma part k mon bien cher ami le 
Comte d'Orsay ; si toutefois on vous reclamait quelque somme pour le transport 
de la dite caisse, vous voudrez bien ne rien satisfaire, ayant ete tout satisfait ici 
par mon homme d'affaires. 

'J'ai eu le plaisir de revoir ici I'autre jour le Comte de Courcy, par lequel j'ai 
eu le plaisir d'apprendre de vos nouvelles, ainsi que de votre aimable famille ; je 
crois, d'aprfes ce qu'il m'a dit, qu'il se prepare de retourner bientot en Angleterre. 

' Je ne veut pas vous fatiguer plus longtemps avec mon griffonage, et avec le 
plus impatient desir de vous revoir bientot, je vous dirai adieu pour aujourd'hui, 
vous priant de vouloir bien offrir mes amities sinceres aux aimables Misses 
Marguerite et Helene, et au Comte d'Orsay, auquel j'ai eu I'honneur de lui 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 193 

adresser une lettre de Madrid, il y a dejk bientot trois mois, mais que je crains 
qu'elle ne lui aura pas parvenu, n'en ayant pas regu de r^ponse. 

'Et vous, Madame la Comtesse, veuillez agreer I'expression de ma sincere 
amiti^ et mon profond respect, avec lequel j'ai I'honneur d'etre votre tout devoud 
serviteur et ami.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated Dover, August nth, 1847. 3 pages 8vo., with Super- 
scription. 

'Madame la Comtesse, — Ce matin j'ai eu I'honneur de vous ^crire pour vous 
anoncer mon depart pour la Belgique, et rdclamer votre indulgente bonte pour me 
pardonner si je ne suis pas alle en personne prendre conge de vous, ainsi que des 
aimables Misses Power et mon cher ami le Comte d'Orsay ; mais une lettre que- 
j'ai regue ce matin de Bruxelles m'obligent k m'y trouver demain Jeudi pour 
cause d'une affaire importante de ma maison; et craignant que mon autre lettre 
ne se soit ^gare, grace k la maladresse de mon domestique, je vous ^cris cette 
autre, esperant que vous ne me refuserez pas le pardon que je reclame de votre 
bonte, et esperant aussi avoir I'honneur et le plaisir toujours si grand pour moi de 
vous revoire, ainsi que votre aimable et si chfere famille. Je compte etre de retour 
en Angleterre dans tous le courant du mois prochain ; et au plus tard dans les 
premiers jours d'Octobre, et j'esp&re alors avoir I'honneur de vous voire plus 
souvent que je n'ai pu le faire cette fois ici. 

'Avec le plus grand et vif desir de vous revoir, permettez moi, Madame la 
Comtesse, de vous prier d'offrir mes respectueux hommages k M"''^ vos nieces, et 
mes sincferes amities pour le Comte d'Orsay. 

' Et vous, Madame la Comtesse, veuillez agrder pour vous la nouvelle assurance 
du profond respect et reconnoissance de votre tout devoue serviteur et ami. Tout 
k vous de cceur.' 

PEEL (Sir Robert). The distinguished Orator and Statesman. 
(1788-1850.) 

A. L. S. Dated Whitehall, September 24th, (?). \\ pages. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I beg leave to return to you this accompanying 
letter from Captain Marryat. 

' The appUcations which I have received for employment in this public service 
from parties qualified for it in point of character and acquirements, and with 
claims on a Conservative government (which each party deems unquestionable 
in his own case) so far exceed any probable means on my part of meeting even 
a small proportion of them, that I do not feel justified by vague assurances of a 
disposition to obhge in encouraging expectations which I have little hope of 
being able to realize. 

' For the consideration of professional services I must refer Captain Marryatt 
to the department to which he is attached. 

' I cannot say that I think foreign distinctions ought to be recognised in this 
counti-y, except under very special circumstances. I have the honor to be, dear 
Lady Blessington, your faithful serv'.' 

REYNOLDS (Frederick Mansell).~ An Author, and the first Editor of 
the Keepsake. (1801-1850.) 

L A. L. S. Dated 'Wednesday' (December 23rd, 1840). 3 pages 
i2mo. and 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— A thousand thanks for your kind present, which 
I received last Thursday. I purpose to have the pleasure of reading it again. 

' The reason I have not before written to you is a very unpleasant and 
mournful one for myself. As servile annoyances are most dull and uninteresting 
to all but the unhappy sufferer, I believe that I have never given you even a 
hint of the wretchedness which servants have compelled me to undergo in this 
place. Within the last five months, I have had fifteen servants. 



194 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' The last fortnight, however, has brought the catastrophe to this miserable 
home. On the second of the month, a man-servant absconded with plate and 
property of mine ; and no less than three of the female servants were participators 
in a more or less degree to this felony. One of them I have had already all 
the trouble of prosecuiing at the sessions, and all the annoyance of seeing her 
(the most depraved of the whole set) escape for the want of a sufficiency of 
legal evidence. Her moral guilt was apparent to the whole court. 

'This prosecution cost me twenty-five hours' attendance altogether in one of 
the most poisonous atmospheres I ever had the ill fortune to encounter. While 
peifectly prostrated by this fatigue, the man-servant surrenders himself, after having 
opened a vein in his arm, in an attempt (a dastardly one) to commit suicide. 

'After I know not how many more hours' attendance before the magistrates, 
the fellow was sent (ihe day before yesterday) to gaol, to await his trial at the 
next Old Bailey sessions, where I shall be obliged to prosecute him. 

'Pity me, dear Lady Blessington, I pray. The loss of time, the loss of health, 
the loss of property, and money, and worse than all, the base ingratitude with 
which a toleration and lenity almost unequalled have been repaid, combine to 
render me more uncomfortable than I ever was in all my life before. However, 
I have given you quite enough of this Jeremiad for the present, and therefore 
will subscribe myself, dear Lady Blessington, ever most faithfully yours.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday' (April 20th, 1841). 4 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — As I cannot consent that you should deem 
me slow to acknowledge your kindness, I must acquaint you with a circumstance 
which has infiititely vexed me. 

'Yesterday I sfnt the carrier to the Athenffium, and last night, instead of the 
parcel, he brought me the utterly confounding answer that the officious dolts of 
servants had despatched it to my former residence at Highgate, which I have 
quitted for above three-quarters of a year ! 

' This morning 1 sent to Highgate, and I have learned that not only the 
present inmates of my former abode have not received the parcel, but that it 
has never been in the possession of a Highgate carrier. 

'What therefore the idiots at the Athenjeum have done with it I cannot 
imagine, but I have now sent to London to enquire. Independently on its 
exceeding carelessness, their proceeding I believe to be most irregular, for I do 
not think that a servant is permitted to quit the club house for the purpose of 
booking a parcel for a member. 

' Your kindness to Miss Harris was so exceedingly gratifying to me that I 
cannot tell you how much the disappointment has vexed — I may say distressed — 
me. However, I hope that I shall have to announce to you to-morrow the 
receipt of the parcel. 

' The trial of my servant will occur next week at the Old Bailey ; and during 
the whole of the six days, I may be compelled to be in attendance. Ever, dear 
Lady Blessington, most cordially yours.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated Tinchley, Saturday' (May 29th, 1 841). 4pages 8vo., 
with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have not had the happiness of writing to you 
before now, for my mother has been in a sad state of spirits and all things have 
been in gloom and confusion here ; I have been much occupied too by legal 
business and contrarieties. Will you believe that we have not yet been able to 
obtain any of our money ? 

' This reference to the recent past, reminds me to thank you for your kind and 
obliging proposal to send your carriage to my father's* funeral. I assure you I 

* Frederick Reynolds, 1765-1841, the son of John Wilkes's attorney, left his legal studies for 
dramatic authorship, and wrote about 100 plays. Byron says of him in English Bards and 
Scotch Reviewers, — 

'While Reynolds vents his "dammes," "poohs,'' and "zounds," 
And common-place and common-sense confounds.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



195 



was much gratified when I was acquainted with this last proof of the unvarying 
consideration of the feehngs of others which has always so conspicuously 
characterized you. 

' I noiv want to learn from you when you will fulfil your promise of visiting 
me ? New potatoes, peas, and strawberries are all pining in the garden to be 
eaten by you. When will you and the Misses Power dine with me.? This day 
week or on any succeeding day you will be kind enough to name. 

'With our best regards to Count D'Orsay. Believe me ever, dear Lady 
Blessington, most faithfully yours.' 

-t. A. L. S. Dated 'Finchley, Monday M^' (Decemberi2th, 1842). 2\ 
pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Will you pardon me if I write a line to you in 
great haste, to say that unfortunately the servant forgot to put my clogs into the 
carriage, and not having another pair in proper condition, I am somewhat in a 
state of misfortune ? Could you therefore oblige me by permitting the first 
servant that shall pass Fortnum and Mason's to leave them at their shop ; and I 
will daily desire the carrier to call for them, until I shall obtain them thence. You 
who suffer from damp feet, will I know, sympathise in my bereavement. I shall 
have the pleasure of writing to you during the week, for all your kindness to us 
on Saturday. In the interim, believe me, dear Lady Blessington, ever most faith- 
fully yours.' 

5. A. L. S. Dated 'Thursday' (April, 1843). 4 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I had no idea that you had witnessed the 
melancholy event; * your presence occasioned you at the time, no doubt, an 
increase of pain ; but the recollection of it has since, I trust, been proportionately 
consolatory to you. With all my heart I hope you will be speedily restored to the 
serenity you so rightfully merit. 

' Your kind proposition respecting the house has not been at all productive to 
my serenity. It is probably the most important communicaiion I ever received, 
and has consequently wrought me into a state of ferment, which no words can 
express. Nothing in this world can be more utterly opposite than the life which 
it suggests, and that which we have been so long contemplating to lead. On the 
one hand, is entire seclusion and inactivity descending ultimately, perhaps, to 
complete isolation and supineness : on the other hand, is the most estimable and 
beneficial society, and a general scene incentive to every kind of intellectual and 
honourable exertion. A man must have something wrong indeed in his nature, if 
spontaneously he hesitate in his choice. 

' My difficulties are of a very different nature. Wretched health might be 
remedied by a year's sojourn abroad ; securing the house now, but delaying, for 
that period, to take possession of it. But money ! where is the remedy for the 
want of that ? I need not say, I do not refer to the rent, I never expected to obtain 
in Jersey a residence for a sum so small ; but I refer to the temptation to, I may 
almost say, the necessity for, expenditure created by the locality in which you so 
kindly endeavour to induce rne to dwell. 

' However, tomorrow, I shall see my attorney ; when I have reason to hope 
that, at length, I shall learn what my income is likely to be. My troubles and 
uncertainty have arisen in the expiration of two long leases ; and (owing to the 
want of supervision) a devastation comm'tted by the tenants, which is perfectly 
horrible. I assure you, if you could have seen us contemplating, the other day, 
the remnants of a wood on a farm in Essex, you would have compassionated our 
wretched feelings. 

' After our visit to Lincoln's Inn, if you will permit us, we will have the pleasure 
of seeing you ; may I add, that z/you can tell us, we shall not be burthensome, 



* No doubt the death of Mrs. Fairhe. 



196 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

we shall be delighted lo dine with you. Always, dear Lady Blessington, most 
faithfully yours.' 

' The MS., of course, I shall bring with me.' 

G. A. L. S. Dated ' Finchley, Thursday ' (June ist, 1843). 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— The most unexpected arrival of my brother at 
this place last Saturday week has totally deranged all my plans and prevented 
me from having the pleasure (if pleasure it may be called), of proposing to you a 
day to receive us, to permit us to pay you our farewell visit. 

' The quantity of lingering legal business which his return has enabled us to 
transact is scarcely describable, but, at the same time, is very gratifying, for I am 
happy to add that my brother has been very kind, and I stand in relation to the 
pecuniary future of my wife in a very different position to what I did previously 
to his visit. 

' I am sure that you will not suppose that egotism incites me to thrust upon 
you this detail, but will feel that my belief in your kindness and friendship has 
alone prompted it. Even now, however, I am so hampered by business that I 
cannot request you to name a day in which without inconvenience you would 
receive us. 1 merely write because I am reluctant to leave your last kind letter 
any longer unanswered. 

' Last Tuesday we were in the city, and I made an attempt to visit you, but 
when at a late hour in the day we arrived at Eaton Square, Mrs. Reynolds was so 
unwell that I was necessitated to return directly to Finchley. 

' Our residence in Jersey we have abandoned for the present ; but all our 
secrets I reserve for oral confession. 

' With the kindest regards of Jessie and myself to Count D'Orsay and the 
Misses Power, believe me, dear Lady Blessington, ever most faithfully yours.' 

' Pray do not trouble yourself to answer this note ; I know how greatly you 
are occupied.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated La Malque, prfes de Toulon, August 25th (1843). 
4 pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — If you have seen in the newspapers the 
announcement of the birth of my child, I am afraid you will have thought me 
very ungracious, and negligent in omitting to write to you ; and yet, I cannot 
refrain from hoping that you will have done me the justice to believe that my 
silence has originated in some very different causes. The moment that all 
necessity for concealing my abode ceased to exist, that moment I was at liberty 
to address a letter ; and not one day has elapsed since the accouchment of 
Mrs. Reynolds on which I have not sat down to commence a letter to you ; but 
when I shall have briefly sketched to you the anxiety I have endured, and the 
perilous position in which I am still placed, you will understand but too clearly the 
causes of my silence. 

' I have been the victim here of a fraud more base than it is possible to express ; 
for the mask of hospitality and humanity under which it was executed imparts 
features of disgust to an action, which otherwise is but a heavy pecuniary decep- 
tion. In the most unbounded confidence, I permitted the bankers here, to whom I 
was addressed by our bankers in London, to engage for me a country house. 
Instead of stating that " I permitted" I ought to say that I was most grateful to 
them for their proposition, and thanked them a thousand times for their kindness, 
which I thought was most gracious and humane, speaking in relation to the con- 
dition of Mrs. Reynolds, who was incapable of quitting Toulon. I ought to have 
mentioned that I sought these persons originally, to take care of gold, and to give me 
from time to time silver for it in order to pay the rent of a country house which I 
had engaged. They told me that the persons with whom I was going to live 
en pension, at the price of 5000 frs. for 10 months, were cheats, and a thousand 
other worse villainies touching their reputation. After this announcement, I was 
in despair ; for the trouble and difficulty we had sustained in searching for a house 
nobody can imagine but those who know this place and its ineffably knavish 
irhabitants. When however they spontaneously added that they would undertake 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. iq-j 

the whole trouble of finding for me a place of tranquility, one in every respect 
fitted for the condition of my wife, my gratitude, as I have stated, was 
unbounded. 

' I signed an agreement giving 1620 fr. for a house for 9 months. When I 
took possession of it, I found it was everything that was dirty, noisy, and 
uncomfortable, and with a discomfort which no Englishman could even imagine ; 
that of the farmer's house belonging to the campagne being united to mine. You 
may conceive the community of tongues, scents, vulgar sounds, and familiarities of 
all descriptions. But at the end of fifteen days oifeie, of which we were ignorant, 
commenced for us, and recommenced for surrounding inhabitants, the over- 
whelming and fatal calamity of the district. Our house is the boundary of 
military guard, and every evening, between four and half-past four, and seven 
and eight o'clock, a regiment of soldiers arrives to practise firing at a target. 
They are not fifty yards from the head of my wife's bed, and consequently you 
may imagine the effect upon her. Invited to delay our abandonment of the house 
by reiterated promises to obtain the withdrawal of this overwhelming annoyance, 
and innumerable other devices, we remained, the sport of their manoeuvres, until 
occurred the announcement of the event which they trusted would make us 
prisoners. Last Saturday week, in the morning, my wife was suddenly attacked 
with the pains of child-birth, and in the midst of these overwhelming pains we were 
obliged to issue from our house to go by sea to Toulon. At six o'clock, supported 
by the servants and myself, my wife was still walking the streets in vain search 
of a house, and at a quarter past eight she was delivered of a daughter in the 
chamber of an inn. If I live a miUion years, I shall never forget the sufferings 
of that day. When the villains who had subjected us to this unequalled adversity 
discovered that they were unmasked, they waited upon the Consul of this place, 
and acquainted him that, as I was a foreigner, they should apply the whole of the 
monies of mine what they then held as bankers to the payment of the rent of the 
whole term. This they have done, and the consequence is I have been ever 
since that day without one single half franc in my pocket. If the remittance 
from Ravenna, for which I wrote instantly on the intimation of this proceeding, 
should not arrive to-morrow, my position will be most painful. At this present 
moment I am in a foreign city in which is not one Enghshman, nor even a 
likelihood of the temporary visit of one, with three servants, two expensive 
establishments, the daily attendance of a physician, and I know not how many 
other necessities for disbursements, but not one sou to pay for them. 

' This is a long detail, and I fear it will weary you ; but I wish you to know how 
impossible it has been for me to have the pleasure of writing to you until the present 
moment. Having discovered that the rascals only paid 300 francs for the year for 
the house, for which the year's price to me was 2 160 francs, the Consul commenced 
for me legal proceedings, and the consequence was that, between the necessity 
of attending procztreurs du roi, avocats, atioues, et id genus omne, and that of 
solacing my poor wife, who has been very ill indeed, and even now suffers 
sadly under the grievous disappointment of being unable to suckle her child, 
I have not had one instant to myself. Add to this monopoly of time that 
I have been necessitated to write to England several letters regarding worldly 
affairs of vital importance to wife, child, and self, and I thinly you will 
own that, much as I desired the pleasure of again addressing you, I had not 
the power. 

' I cannot give you a better idea of the state of engrossing anxiety in which I 
have lived than to state to you that I made an appointment with the Consul to 
accompany him to register the birth of the child. I went to him, was with him 
about two hours, during which our whole conversation was the embezzlement of 
my money, and returned without either of us recollecting the object of my visit. 
The consequence was that when we subsequently went to the register office, we 
discovered that the time allowed by the Legislature for the registry had expired. 
The difficulty and length of time experienced and consumed in vain endeavour 
to remedy this misfortune were unbounded. 

' You have a friend who writes to you pleasant accounts of the north of France 
(would to God that we were there ! the very word Dinan sounds almost like a 
home), you shall also have a friend who, if you will not be bored, will write to 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

you occasional accounts of a city in the south of France, which is perhaps less 
known to Enghsh people than the city of Timbuctoo. 

'The expense of the inn, in which I now am, and at which I have been for 
nearly six weeks, is so ruinous that (as I have hope of being enabled to remove 
the practise of the target) I prefix to this letter the address of my country resi- 
dence, proposing to return to it, and to strive hard to occupy it for some time. 
At all events, the circumstances which, previous to the accouchement of Mrs. 
Reynolds, might have been productive of fatal consequences, can now only be 
personal inconveniences. 

' Let me entreat that you will write to me as soon as you conveniently can. I 
assure you it will be a happiness you cannot understand, once more to see your 
hand. Pray remember me most kindly to C. d'Orsay, and tell him that I will not 
believe that he is a Frenchman. Similar cordial regards for the Misses Power, 
and believe me, dear Lady Blessington, ever yours.' 

8. A. L. S. Dated 41 Avenue Champs Elys^es, Paris, November 9th, 
(1843). si pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — My last letter to you was of a character so 
entirely personal and selfish that subsequently I resolved to send to you no repeti- 
tion of similar infirmities. And this is why I have so long delayed to write to you ; 
for in the wretched, most wretched circumstances in which we have been, the 
fortitude was not mine which would have enabled me to refrain from revealing to 
you the distress and adversity we were experiencing. I assure you if I had the wish, 
I could not succeed in giving you even the feeblest idea of the knavery and 
suffering we encountered at La Malque. However, we have escaped, with the 
loss of all our money, and almost equal bankrupts in health and, I may add, in 
happiness ; for independently of existing calamities to recall the past, we do not 
find it easy to dismiss from our minds a sense of the heavy wrongs we have 
sustained. 

'The long journey oi five days z.ViA.five nights from Toulon to this place, has 
seriously affected the health of our child. 

'This is the reason of our stay here, where we had only intended to 
have rested sufficiently long to have enabled us to proceed to Jersey. But 
on our arrival here, the poor little thmg was so ill that we were neces- 
sitated to resolve to remain until it shall regain its strength, though you 
may conceive the melancholy which actuates us when / tell you that I have the 
worst fears with regard to it. I emphasize myself because, though my wife sees 
the illness of the child, she does not entertain equal apprehensions respecting 
the result. The fact is, she takes her opinion from the report of the nurse, and 
I draw mine from the aspect and fragility of the baby. But that these are not 
the criteria which they would be in a more advanced period of life, I am perfectly 
aware, and therefore I endeavour to hope. I myself am still a recent and most 
striking example of the truth of the old adage, that " while there is life, there is 
hope," for since I last wrote to you, I have had the fever of the accursed South of 
France, and for many weeks never again expected to have the happiness of 
addressing you. Indeed my restoration to existence is a miracle ; but I have 
pledged myself not to be again egotistical, and therefore will repress any further 
allusion to what I endured. 

' In your most kind letter to me, you ask why we did not select Hyferes for 
a residence ? Such was our object, but when we went there, found the im- 
possibility of fulfilling it. I wish I were in health and spirits, and I think I could 
make you laugh by a description of the place, which I can only characterize 
by the coarse word "humbug," for it is one of the greatest I ever detected. 
We traveled nine hundred miles in the intention of inhabiting the place. 
The '■'■pays agricole," the sequestered, primitive, innocent, rural, and most 
economical spot, which French guide-books affirm, and which we really innocents 
believed it to be. We approached it with every prepossession in its favour, and 
with every advantage, for the weather was most beautiful. Along the greater 
portion of the route the very hedges were composed of the hibiscus syriacus, all 
in full bloom, the effectof which was magnificent, and no Mussulman pilgrim could 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 199 

ever have entered Mecca with a more devout faith in its excellence. When we 
reached the inn we were shown into a room of which all the windows &nAjalousies 
were closed, whereof the scent was aught but agreeable. We immediately 
opened the windows, and the extensive and really striking spectacle of the plain 
of Hy feres presented itself. Imagine our raptures; but from that moment they 
commenced a descent until they arrived at an abyss of disgust ineffable. Within 
ten minutes after opening the windows, we obtained an emphatic and most 
painful exoneration of the conduct of the persons who had closed them. But 
even to you, who have resided so much in Italy, I do not think I can give any 
idea of the plagues of flies at Hy^res. They poured into the room in one black 
stream ; and during the rest of the morning, instead of eating our breakfast, we 
were engaged in bootless attempts to disperse them. Of course we too quickly 
shut out the brilliant pageant of Nature, and as it vanished from us, and our 
bright sunshine was converted into a deep and dismal twilight, we thought, " It 
certainly is very beautiful, but it will not be productive of much delight, if we are 
never to look upon it." 

' Thus commenced and rapidly proceeded the dispersion of our illusions. The 
place is composed of a landscape which you cannot see, of paths where you cannot 
walk, of a sea which you cannot reach, and of fruit which you cannot eat. The 
whole scene, in fact, is one great deception, and that of Tantalus must be the fate 
of him who occupies it. But this is the fault of the climate, which renders the 
atmosphere an insupportable oven in summer, and, judging from the stunted 
orange and olive trees, little better than an ice-house in winter. 

' Such are a few of the natural disadvantages of the place ; the houses and the 
inhabitants are much worse. Of course we returned immediately to Toulon, re- 
solving to proceed to Marseilles, and there arrange our subsequent proceedings in 
respect to our selection of a residence. But only two hours before the moment 
of our arranged departure for the latter place, commenced all our misfortunes; 
for my wife was suddenly attacl>ed with an indisposition which she believed 
announced her approaching accouchement. Of course, against this conviction 
there was no possibihty of venturing, and I was consequently necessitated, though 
most reluctantly, to engage instantly a house for her reception. Then came the 
fraud of the wicked bankers, and this is the history of the origin of our com- 
pulsory abode at Toulon, a place which most assuredly I should never have 
dreamed of voluntarily selecting for a residence. 

' Pray do not trouble yourself to answer this letter, unless you really are 
entirely unoccupied. For your kindness in going for me spontaneously to the 
bankers, I cannot thank you enough ; but you have so often laid me under 
obligations that I become quite accustomed to bear it. Perhaps z/you should 
write, you will give me some account of the novel which was proceeding when 
I left London ; for during a period of nearly five months I never even saw an 
Enghsh newspaper, and as for these French newspapers, in one of the gravest 
and best of them, Le Globe, it was gravely stated the other day, in a long article in 
advocacy of smoking, that Comte " Dorsay " (as they called him) was accustomed 
every day, at the corner of Regent Street, to give a guinea to a beggar for lighting 
his cigar ! ! And now, dear Lady Blessington, with our kindest remembrances to 
all your well remembered and well beloved friends, beheve me, ever yours.' 

9. A. L. S. Dated '70 Milton Street, Dorset Square, Sunday' (1844). 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— In case you should be kind enough to purpose 
to call upon us to-morrow (Monday) I write a line to say that I shall be 
necessitated to take my wife to my attorney's to examine into the condition of our 
jointure. Friday and Saturday she was, and every subsequent day she wiU be, at 
home by three o'clock, until we shall have had the pleasure of seeing you here, 
as we deem some time between that hour and five the most probable peiiod for 
your visit. I speak in the strong hope that Jessie will be enabled to go out daily, 
though to-day she was quite too unwell to quit the house. 

' My wife has never ceased to reproach me for having omitted, the day I had 
the pleasure of seeing you, to request that you would be so good as to give her 
kindest remembrances to the Misses Power ; perhaps, therefore, you will now be 
so obliging as to aid me to atone for my very rude forgetfulness ? 



200 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' I heard yesterday, and from a lady well qualified to report the prevalent 
opinion, that " Lady Blessington's were the only works which sold at present." 
If not glad of the negative inference of this speech, most cordially del desire 
the truth of its affirmative proposition. Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, 
always most faithfully yours.' 

10. A. L. S. Dated '^Vilton House, St. Heliers, Jersey,' June 9th, 
1847. 4 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I have the pleasure of sending to you 
Bcrengaria, with whom I Iiope and trust you will be content. I daresay that by 
this time you have found that it is not very easy to write a history of a person of 
whom no history is extant, for the desultory sketch of Miss Strickland* supplies no 
new facts, and I could not exactly pirate from her her rambling description of 
dresses, eSigies, and steward's bills ; besides, which is worse, I have detected her 
in so many mistakes that I feared to trust myself to her piloting. Left, therefore, 
to my own shifts and expedients, I have endeavoured to concoct, a sequent, 
distinct & light narrative ; in fact, to compose a few pages of what is termed 
" pleasant reading." I mention my objects because I may have failed so utterly 
to attain them that you may not even be able to perceive that I ever aimed at 
them. 

' I presume the length is what you desire. I imagine that my 22 pages will 
print about 30 pages. 

' And now with regard to Philipa. I entreat you to assure me by return of 
post that if I send it to you on or before June 30'''' that you will be satisfied with 
me. Pray observe that I do not mean the 3'''', 2"'', or i"' of July. I mean what I 
say — to be within the time I have named. But you cannot conceive how writing 
against time impedes me. My hope is to finish Philipa next week, but this 
assurance from you would make me very comfortable. You know the haste of our 
friend is a perfect farce ; the volume could as easily be printed in twelve days as 
in twelve months. I edited the book nine times, and never once escaped his 
urgency, though each successive year he was himself too late, in spite of all my 
entreaties and exhortations. With our united kindest remembrances to most 
kind Comte d'Orsay & to the Misses Power, beheve me, dear Lady Blessington, 
ever yours.' 

' P.S. — I enclosed this note separately from the MSS. in case of any accident.' 

IL A. L. S. Dated Wilton House, St. Heliers, Jersey, February i6th, 
1848. 8 pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady Blessington, — Not a post has arrived during several past 
weeks that I have not hoped would have brought a letter from you. Long ago, 
however, I should have written to you to expatiate on the annuals, but Mrs. 
Reynolds, in a desire to be courteous, lent them on the very day we received 
them to a lady, the wife of our medical attendant, whose very humble servants we 
both are. On the very day too of their return, the news of my mother's death 
was communicated to me, and the anxious and painful correspondence it entailed 
for a time engrossed all my thoughts, exhausted all the little energy that remained 
to me & made me wretchedly ill in body into the bargain. 

'As it is not in my power (if it were in my inclination) to play the hypocrite, to 
nobody do I mention this circumstance, for it is not pleasant to be compelled either 
to feign to grieve or to seem obdurate and unnatural. But though I think it would 
be degrading to myself and disingenuous to you to pretend to a sorrow which I do 
not entertain, it would be worse than bad taste, it would be eminently culpable, to 
permit the existence of an opposite feeling. God knows I have it not, for never 
did I pass three more miserable weeks fhan those which followed my receipt of 
the announcement of my mother's death. But whatever my feelings may have 

* Agnes Strickland, 1796-1874, an authoress, best known by her Lives of the Queens of 
England. Notices of ' Berengaria ' and of ' Philippa,' by Mr. Reynolds, appeared in the Book 
of Beauty for 1848. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS 201 

been, or ever may be, the result is the same ; and at last, at 47 years of age, I 
am free in mind and in body, the sole controller of my own acts and property, 
and capable of bestowing pecuniary independence on my wife and child. 

' Having thus disburthened my mind of a subject which I shall never mention 
willingly to any other earthly person (Mrs. Holme learnt it on Sunday last, by 
questioning one of our servants), I will now proceed to a topic which though not 
woful certainly I cannot say is wholly cheerful — the Annuals. I read with much 
gratification (shall I displease if I say also surprise ?) your biographies. Certainly 
your improvement since you commenced your literary vocation has been wonderful ; 
the ease, lucidness with which you tell your facts would have established a few 
years ago your reputation as a biographer. Did you not find your task horrible? 
or was it the difficulty arising in an insufficiency of books which made it so 
troublesome to me ? 

'But now for the plates. What rt'o^.r Comte d'Orsay say to them ? I know 
his good nature and his tranquillity ; but surely in his fine esteem of art he must 
be in a rage, though he may muster self-command enough to prevent the ex- 
pression of it. But I cannot persuade myself that he can see your name brought 
into such close contact with such wicked trumpery without losing the balance of his 
circulation. Long habit has made me feel that degree of interest in Heath that I 
can only use a favourite female word, " spiteful," to characterize my sensations 
when I gaze on his misdeeds. I do hate most cordially to see any friend sustain 
even the slightest diminution of income ; but I can almost bring myself to say 
that I wish still more cordially that you will discard all further connection with the 
annuals. 

' And now, dear Lady Blessington, considering that I have a cut in my right 
thumb, almost " as deep as a well and as wide as a church door," and which pains 
me. acutely while I write, I must conclude, & subscribe myself, with mine & 
Mrs. Reynold's kindest regards to yourself & Comte d'Orsay & the Misses Power, 
ever yours most faithfully.' 

12. A. L. S. Dated Wilton House, St. Heliers, Jersey, March 31st, 
1849. 4 pages 8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have long been hoping that every post day 
would bring me a letter from you ; but I know well the extent of your occupa- 
tions, & shall attribute to them, & not to a supposition that you may be unwell, 
your silence. 

' Yet, when you do write, you are seldom kind enough to tell me aught about 
yourself & your own fireside. The subject of your letter, when not referring to 
literary matters, is really myself & my family — two topics doubtless very 
interesting to human nature ; but still one need not be so entirely selfish & heartless 
as to be incapable of sympathising in the welfare of others. Pray oblige me 
by amending this self-dereliction when you shall next be so good as to com- 
municate with me, and give me at least some little history respecting yourself & 
Comte d'Orsay, to whom I need not say I beg you will give my most affectionate 
remembrances. 

' What has been determined with regard to the Annuals ? will they be con- 
tinued ? If they be, and you still think that I am capable of rendering you any 
assistance, it is scarcely necessary for me to state that I am now, as always, 
cordially at your service. 

'Only the other day I was re-reading one of your last biographies, and I 
repeat to you what I previously stated, that the improvement you have made 
in the art and tone of composition since I first had the pleasure and honour 
of becoming acquainted with you is really wonderful. 

' As an incentive to you to communicate to me respecting yourself, I will tell you 
something about ourselves which is very disagreeable. After six years of good 
conduct, Mrs. Reynolds has taken it into her head to fall into evil ways, and is 
very shortly going to have a baby. 

' I know what will be your opinion of this unconscientious proceeding, and 
how much you will commiserate yours, my dear Lady Blessington, always most 
faithfully.' 



202 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

ROBERTS (Emma). An Authoress, (i 794-1 840.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Portland Cottage, Portland Road (1837?). 2 pages 
4to. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Will you permit me to introduce to your notice a 
very learned friend of mine, Dr. Loewe, who is distinguished for his acquaintance 
with all the dead and living languages, and whose researches have thrown light 
upon many interesting remains of ancient times, which were previously involved in 
obscurity? Dr. Loewe is honoured with the acquaintance of all the savans of the day, 
both in Germany, of which he is a native, France, and England, but unfortunately 
the course of his studies does not lead to emolument. There is little pecuniary 
encouragement for the pursuit of abstruse branches of learning ; and, while Dr. 
Loewe is courted in society, he is left entirely to his own resources. He is 
anxious, therefore, in order to enable him to prosecute a great design, that of 
producing a lexicon of all languages, to procure some pupils in German, which, 
of course, he can teach with the greatest facility. It would be a great advantage 
to any one desirous to acquire a perfect knowledge of German to learn of a 
master who is not only perhaps the most erudite person in the ranks of literature, 
but who takes pleasure in imparting the knowledge he has gained, and who, in 
explaining the roots of old languages, would, in the course of his lessons, teach 
more than any master, however skilled in his native tongue, could possibly do. 
I feel very anxious to promote Dr. Loewe's views, but my acquaintance with 
the rich and great is of a very limited description, & I can, therefore, only 
recommend him to the notice of those who have influence over a wide circle of 
accomplished and wealthy persons. You will, perhaps, with your usual kindness, 
interest yourself in procuring a few pupils for my friend, whom I have little doubt 
will, in the course of time, obtain a professorship in some learned institution. 
Meanwhile, notwithstanding the economical habits of foreigners, he finds it 
difficult to live ; for, in addition to the actual means of subsistance, it is necessary 
that he should purchase books, in order to make himself acquainted with all that 
others have written on the same subject. I am sure that you will excuse this 
long trespass on your time, and believe me to be always sincerely and gratefully 
yours.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Parell, December 26th, 1839. i,\ pages 4to., with 

Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — You will be glad, I am sure, to hear that I am 
spending my Christmas at Government-house with Sir James* and Lady Carnac, 
and that if amusement was my sole object in this country, I should pass my time 
delightfully, for we have a most agreeable family party, and see the best society 
that the place affords. My residence at Parell, however, will, I hope, be pro- 
ductive of something more important, in enabling me to gather the information 
of which I am in pursuit. Unfortunately I am obliged to restrict myself in my 
pecuniary arrangements. I entertained an apprehension before I left England 
that my funds would not be adequate to the carrying out of the plans which I 
had formed. I entertained an expectation of adding to them by writing for the 
Indian press, but do not find it in a sufficiently flourishing state to offer a fair 
remuneration ; and even were it otherwise, I could scarcely devote my time to 
literary labours which would cause me to neglect the object I have in view. I 
am most anxiously desirous to seek opportunities of making myself thoroughly 
acquainted with the state of the country, in order that I may write a book that 
will be useful at home. I feel persuaded that the failure of many well-intentioned 
endeavours for the improvement of the people of India is attributable to ignorance 
concerning the character, manners, wants, and resources of the numerous races 

* Sir James Rivett Carnac, 1785-1846, entered the East India Company's service in 1801, 
and afterwards became resident at the Court of Gaikwar ; retired from ihe service as major in 
1822 ; in 1836 was created a baronet, rnd in 1838 was appointed Governor of Bombay, a post his 
health compelled him to resign in 1841. Sir James married in 1815 Miss Anna Maria Richards, 
who died in 1859. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 203 

who have become British subjects. The attempt, therefore, to afford a clearer 
view of the actual state of British India than is easily attainable by society at large, 
deserves encouragement. I flatter myself that if I had more ample funds at my 
disposal, I should be able to render a statistical work entertaining, by illustrating 
the drier details with characteristic anecdotes. To accomplish this, I must travel 
through the country ; my unwillingness to force myself into notice while in England, 
prevented me from making an attempt to interest rich and influential people in 
my undertaking. I often wished to procure a commission from the Duke of 
Devonshire, or other wealthy patron, for the collection of botanical, horticultural, 
or zoological specimens, which would have assisted to defray the enormous expenses 
of travelling. Were I to remain at Bombay, I could limit my expenditure within 
very reasonable bounds, but in this case I should acquire a very small quantity of 
information. I have therefore determined upon making a journey into the 
provinces, and should you have an opportunity of recommending me as a useful 
agent to some liberal person at home, I feel assured you would do your utmost to 
forward my plans. Amid many other objects of interest for a nobleman's park, 
the yak or cow of Thibet is the most desirable ; it will not live in India on the 
plains, but might in the cold season be carried up the Red Sea ; and I should be 
most happy to go myself into the Himalaya to procure specimens. The kind 
interest which you have shewn in my welfare, has encouraged me to trouble you 
with these details. I feel that I have some claim upon patronage, since my patri- 
otic feelings have induced me to prefer travelling in British dependencies for the 
purposes of making them better known, instead of going to America, notwith- 
standing the offers made to me by publishers at home, who would have made very 
liberal advances for the expenses of my journey. I had the gratification of 
meeting with a warm friend and sincere admirer of yours, Mr. Lettsom Elliot, 
and have accepted an invitation from him to spend a few weeks in Guzerat, which 
is quite a new field. I do not expect to be repaid by any book or books which I 
may write, for the 600/. that I must inevitably spend before I reach home ; but I 
hope, by the devotion of my time and money to the purpose I have undertaken 
to effect some good. I am going about in the Governor's carriage like the 
Queen, with an escort of cavalry, and all sorts of salutes, guards turning out, 
drums beating, &c. 

'Sir James Carnac is one of the most delightful persons imaginable, a perfect 
gentleman of the old school. I am much pleased also with the ladies, who are 
lively, unaffected, and most kind and friendly to me. Lord Jocelyn is expected 
to join the party to-morrow for a few days, which will make us very gay. 
Should you feel inclined to favour me with a letter, if not franked to Sir James 
Carnac by some of your friends, be kind enough to address it to the care of 
Messrs. Leckie & Co., who are my bankers. Believe me to remain, dear Lady 
Blessington, sincerely and gratefully yours.' 

ROSSLYN (Sir James St. Clair Erskine, 2nd Earl). A General 
Officer and Lord Lieutenant of Fifeshire. (1762-1837.) 

1. A. L. S. to Lord Blessington. Dated 'St. James's Square' (1829). 
2J pages 4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

'My dear Lord Blessington,— Knowing the deep interest you have always 
taken in the peace and prosperity of Ireland, and the anxious zeal with which 
you have upon every occasion exerted yourself in favour of the repeal of the civil 
disabilities upon the Catholics, I take the earliest opportunity of apprizing you of 
the present situation of that question. 

' It has become of the utmost consequence to obtain the best attendance of 
the friends of civil and religious liberty, in order to give all possible support to 
the measure proposed by the Duke of Wellington. 

' I am persuaded that you will feel with me that the present is a crisis that 
calls for every possible exertion and sacrifice from those who have as strong 
feelings and as deep a stake in the peace and prosperity of Ireland as you have ; 
and you cannot fail to be aware that the object of the Orange and Brunswick 
Clubs, in both countries is to defeat the salutary measures proposed by the Duke 



204 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

of Wellington, and consequently to endanger the security of all property in 
Ireland and the peace of the empire. 

' If you see this subject in the same light that I do, you will not hesitate to 
come over to take your seat ; and I should venture to suggest to your Lordship, 
if that should be your determination, that you should come before the second 
reading of the Bill, and remain till after the Committee ; and, if you will do me 
the honour to signify your commands to me, I will take care to give you 
timely notice of the day on which it may be necessary for you to be in 
the House of Lords for the purpose of taking the oaths, and will take the 
charge of seeing that your writ is ready. I will beg of you to offer my 
most sincere and devoted homage to Lady Blessington, & to believe me to 
be yours most faithfully.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated St. James's Square, February 13th, 1832. i\ 
pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Your kind note of yesterday did not reach me 
till it was brought to me at the House of Lords this day, which prevented me 
from expressing my gratitude for your flattering recollection of me so soon as you 
might have expected. 

' I shall have great pleasure in profiting by your gracious invitation, and will 
avail myself , of the first moment I can to pay my court to you in Seamore Place, 
but I regret that I am unfortunately engaged to dinner on Saturday next. Yours 
faithfully.' 

RUTLAND (John Manners, the 7th and present Duke of). A States- 
man and Politician, best known as Lord John Manners. 

1. A. L. S. Dated Petworth, July 28th, 1841. 2^ pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I would have answered your obliging letter 
before, but I have been travelling about, and that gives me but little time for 
anything. I was afraid that the " Spanish Trip " would be too long for your book, 
but, having nothing else to offer, made bold to send it you, and, if, as you are 
kind enough to say, it has amused you, I am well satisfied. Pray do with it what 
you like. 

' You will laugh when I tell you that I have for several days been bothering 
my brains at your request, having literally not written one line since I published 
my little volume.* 

' I am really and truly ashamed of sending such doggrel, but do in all honesty 
implore you not to insert the accompanying stanzas if you have anything else 
wherewith to supply their place. 

' The incident itself, as related by Clarendon, is poetical enough. I fear I 
cannot offer anything for your other book, as the Muse chooses to be so unpro- 
pitious ; indeed, after this specimen you will not regret that it should be so. 
If the balladt is longer than you like, pray cut out any stanzas you like, & 
believe me, dear Lady Blessington, very truly yours.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Albany, July ist, 1846. i| pages 8vo., with Super- 
scription. 

'My dear Lady Blessington, — My Helicon runs drier every year, but if the 
accompanying stanzas will suit, they are heartily at your service. 

' I shall be sorry if our old friends the Keepsake and the Book of Beauty come 
to an end and die ; there was something kindly and cheerful about their annual 
reappearance. 

* England's Trust, and other Poems, published in 1841. 

t The verses referred to were published in the Keepsake for 1842, under the title of 
'A Ballad of 1660.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 205 

' Hoping, if they must die, their funeral obsequies, under your graceful auspices, 
rnay be celebrated with successful pomp, I am, my dear Lady Blessington, very 
sincerely yours.' 

SHERIDAN (Louisa Henrietta). An Authoress; afterwards Lady 
Wyatt. (Died 1841.) 

L A. L. S. Dated 7 Belgrave Street South, Belgrave Square, July 9th, 

1836. I page 4to. 

' Madam, — I have this moment received the accompanying letter, whose 
external appearance perfectly accords with its contents ! and I should not have 
thought of troubling your Ladyship or any one respecting such, siupid nojisense, 
but this being the second I have had on this subject, it is apparently dictated by 
some motive more than extraordinary. There is a kind of wilful pleasure in 
acting in direct opposition to these literary daggers, and as the object of the two 
communications evidently is to prevent me from giving my name to the work 
tmder your Ladyship's direction, I should much like to counteract their purpose ! 
Although I now vv'rite not for any annual but my own (relinquished this year, 
with all other literary compositions, through delicate health), yet I conclude your 
volume must be nearly filled ; but in my portfolio I find two stanzas of eight lines, 
which in filling HALF a page, will effect all the mischief desired! and if your 
Ladyship will insert them in this year's volume to prove my bonne volo7ttc, they 
are much at your service. I have the honour to be, Madam, your Ladyship's 
obedient servant.' 

2. A. L. S. (in the third person). Dated 7 Belgrave Street South, 
Belgrave Square, November 17th, 1836. \\ P^g^ ^vo. 

' Miss Sheridan presents her comp*" to Lady Blessington, and has the pleasure 
of transmitting a review of the "Beautiful Book" which she has written (with the 
exception of the concluding paragraph) for a monthly magazine. 

' Of the periodical Miss Sheridan knows nothing — nor is she at all concerned 
in it — beyond the person who conducts it (who wrote one in the " Comic Offering") 
having civilly offered the pages for any critique she might wish to write. And 
this privilege Miss Sheridan will feel much pleasure in using for any work Lady 
Blessington wishes to have thus noticed ; — indeed, under her present sad feelings, 
anything yi^ excites a momentary interest without yto^xun^ prolonged sXt^aXAorv is 
the only class of occupation she can undertake. 

'Two other literary notices of the Book of Beauty shall be transmitted to the 
talented Editress, who is decidedly " the pride of her own bool'C." And next year, 
when another volume is in progress, Miss Sheridan hopes her mind and spirits 
may have recovered their tone sufficiently to write something of greater length as 
a companion for the beautiful illustrations.' 

3. A.L. S. Dated 7 Belgrave Street South, Belgrave Square, March 30th, 

1837. 2 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Madam, — If ill-health be not a palliation for apparent ill manners, I 
fear you will not excuse my tardy acknowledgement of y"^ beautiful annual, which 
received just as the influenza had reduced me to the sudden & extraordinary 
weakness with which it has affected so many, & after the removal of this symptom 
I had a more provoking one (for a person of my habits), viz., a stiffness in the 
nerves of my eyes, which prevented me almost from seeing. 

' I vainly tried dictation to an amanuensis ; my poor little notes seemed to be 
composed of the '■'■legs 6-» wings" of setitences, without connection^ so I resolved 
in desperation to be rude to every one until my recovery. 

'Your book is quite a gem. I had the pleasure of composing a review of its 
contents, which I will enclose with my note j and now that I am again a ready 
writer, pray remember I am also a willing one for any book of yours. Believe 
me, my dear Madam, most sincerely yours.' 



2o6 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

4. A. L. S. Dated 7 Belgrave Street South, Belgrave Square, May i8th, 
1837. 2 pages Svo. 

' Dear Madam, — I have been so much pleased with the plate you kindly sent 
for my illustraiion that I have affixed to it some details of my own " Convent 
days"* which I had intended for another purpose ; their truth, I hope, may lend 
some trifling interest to the very slender fiction of the two little girls. 

' I have read, and reperused, and read aloud, and pondered over your 
luonderful book. The Victims of Society. My praise can only be the echo of 
thousands, for so true a picture of the world I never met, so painfully., so 
dreadfully true. Where to select extracts from it is my only difficulty — when I 
write out a paragraph I find it impossible to omit the next, and the next. 

' If you Uke my Convent sketch, may I ask permission to revise my own proof.' 
And with many thanks I remain, dear Madam, yours much obliged.' 

5. A. L. S. Dated 7 Belgrave Street South, July 20th, 1837. 3 pages Svo. 

' Dear Madam, — Having been engaged during the last two months in editing 
and revising a MS. novel, written in the most alarming scrawl, my close attention 
to it has again occasioned an accident in my throat, such as obliged me to 
relinquish my Comic Offering two years ago. 

' IVIy poor dear mama being also indisposed, I intend going out of town with 
her as soon as I have seen 2 or 3 Uttle sketches of mine in the proofs, and if the 
story I had the pleasure of writing for the Book of Beauty be ready, perhaps you 
would have the kindness to order the printer to forward it to me here soon. 

' You are so good in your flattering commendations of the talents you ascribe 
to me. I fear, even if I were in good health, my mind is too anxious in its 
nature for me to comrnence so long an undertaking as a novel. At present the 
physicians say that rapid consumption & even death w* result from close 
literary application. This is the more distressing to me because hitherto the 
fortunate productions of my pen have enabled me to secure a few of the 
luxuries to w"*" an elegant invalid parent was accustomed in her youth. But 
regret is vain ; I have only to hope for recovery. 

' I suppose y"^ beautiful Annual is nearly all in type ; Friendships Offering is 
printed and bound already ; but I know the Keepsake cannot be complete because 
I only sent my illustration of one of its plates yesterday. 

' To gratify a childish whim for collecting all the plates I have illustrated, 
might I ask to have z.fi}iished engraving of the dear little sisters, who belong to 
my Convent Days. 

' Will there be another volume of the Gems of Loveliness .? 

' I am so weak that I am forced to pause between every phrase, w'' really has 
rendered my note a thing of shreds and patches. Believe me, dear Madam, 
yours truly obliged.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated 7 Belgrave Street South, Belgrave Square, August 
4th, 1838. 3 pages Svo. 

' It quite shames me to receive your valuable lengthened contribution before 
I have sent you my tiny one. 

' I need not say how much pleased I am with it. I do love a little history 
attached plates, instead of odes to Celia and Delia, in the old-fashioned way. 

' I enclose you my lines on the portrait of Lady Fitzharris,t exactly twenty ; 
and not, I hope, Celia-Delias, in point of over-civility, which is an awful defect in 
a printed tribute. 

' " We editors " shall be very late this year, I fancy. I was hurrying my 
publisher about the tardiness of the plates, and to console me, he said that three 
plates for the Book of Beauty were in the hands of our engraver, still unworked. 

* ' Convent Days ' appeared in the Book of Beauty for 1838. 

+ Emma, Lady Fitzharris. afterwards Lady Malmesbury, only daughter of the 5th Earl of 
Tankerville, and first wife of James Howard, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury. She died in 1876. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 207 

' How I wish publishers could form their decisions and arrangements a little 
earlier. I have had scarcely a month allowed me, between the time of applying 
to my literary contributors and " printing day." 

' Under the " high pressure " system, dear Madam, your interesting and 
prompt contribution has greatly obliged yours most sincerely,' &c. 

' P.S. — I must risk the vanity of telling you a civil speech, in which you take 
a conspicuous place ; last week I declined and returned some MSS., which did 
not suit my work, with an ordinary note of thanks ; the poor author wrote again 
to thank me for my attention, saying it was gratifying, at least, to meet so much 
courtesy, and adding, that of all the Editors he had ever addressed respecting 
literature, none but Lady Blessington, Lady E. S. Wortley, and myself, seemed to 
know how to take the trouble fo be well bred in reply. 

'Our editress told me, as "a clever thing," that when an author applied for 
her answer or his MS., she sent down a drawer full of detached MSS. to him in 
her hall, desiring he would take what he pleased. 

' This vulgarity and bad feeling had not even the advantage of originality ; 
for you remember the same being told of the inanai^er and the dramatists! 

SIGOURNEY (Lydia Howard). A well-known American Authoress. 
(1791-1865.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Hartford, Connecticut, May 28th, 1842. 3 pages 
4to., with Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear .Madam, — Your letter was received with much pleasure, though it 
grieved me to hear of the severe indisposition with which you had been suffering. 
I trust that long ere this your health is perfectly restored. How shall I thank 
you for the sweet poem you were so good as to enclose for me ? Still, the very 
sweetness of its nature has frustrated my hopes. I had desired to adorn a 
periodical circulated very widely among American ladies with some original 
effusion of yours, but the very flattering manner in which it alludes to me, and 
which would be considered on this side of the water as exceedingly beyond my 
deserts, will oblige me to confine the tuneful guest to my own portfolio. I have 
been re-perusing lately, with new interest, some of your works, especially your 
" Conversations with Lord Byron." Are you well acquainted with his sister ? I 
had hopes of seeing her while in London, but was prevented by her ill health. 
I received from Mr. Murray a gift of his elegant edition of Byron, which with the 
beautiful " Italy " of Rogers, highly valued as a present from the accomplished 
author, form quite a tasteful range in my plam republican library. 

' Do you know that you quite won my heart by the enthusiastic manner in 
which you spoke of my dear Mrs. Hemans* when I was at Gore House ? I pray 
you accept, as a little mark of this gratitude, the last American edition of that 
beloved author, which I have seen, and which is, in its style of execution, more 
d, PAnglaise than our publishers on this side usually favour us with. I hope your 
lovely nieces are well. Please remember me to them. I should like to be kept 
apprised of the welfare of your younger one, now absent from your country, and of 
the progress of so precocious and original a mind. 

' When you so kindly offered in your letter to execute any commissions for me, 
did you suppose that with such a ready frankness I should avail myself of it ? 
When in London I purchased a true Irish poplin, which has been niy delight as 
a house costume ever since, except during our summer months. With sorrow, I 
detect some ravages of time in my constant friend, and should be happy to 
replace it by one of a similar nature, which it is not easy to find with us. Might 
I ask that you would have the goodness to appropriate the enclosed three 
sovereigns to the purchase of such a dress for me ? The colour of the one which 
I now wear is a pleasant green, but I shall be better satisfied to trust to your taste, 
as it would add to my value of the garment to know that you had chosen it for 
me. The one in which I am now arrayed was less expensive, and should there 



* Felicia Dorothea Browne, Mrs. Hemans, 1794-1835, a favourite poetess of her day. Her 
works were particularly popular in America. 



2o8 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

be a small surplus, I will venture to ask that it may be applied to the purchase of 
some nice Bath paper, which I am partial to using, and find it difficult to obtain. 
The friend, Mr. Goodrich* from Boston, who i hope will deliver to you the 
accompanying volumes— will on his return bring to me these articles— or should 
it not be convenient to you to send them by him. Cap' Marshall of the Ship 
Europe will at any time transmit them safely to me. I feel truly ashamed of 
what I have thus taken the strange liberty to request. I hope you will write and 
say that I am forgiven, and believe me yours with respect and regard.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated Hartford, Connecticut, October 31st, 1842. 3 pages 
4to., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Accept my thanks for your letter, for your 
kindness in executing my commission, and for the beautiful gifts you have had the 
goodness to send me. Indeed I very highly value all the marks of your remem- 
brance, and your expressions of interest in the literature and welfare of my country. 
You can scarcely imagine with what enthusiastic gratitude I think of Lord 
Ashburton, and the results of his embassy. May the amity which has sprung out 
of the ratification of the treaty be perpetual ; for besides the inexpediency and 
impolicy of hostility between our nations, it would be to me, since my delightful 
visit to the glorious mother-land, a deep and sore grief of heart, should aught be 
suffered to embroil our relations, or embitter the blood that flowed from the same 
old Saxon fountain. 

' I have seen with great admiration your Keepsake and Book of Beauty for the 
present year, which are embelUshing the centre tables of some of our aristocracy ; 
for we are not so pure a republic as to have no shadow of aristocracy, and we give 
too much prominence, perhaps, to that which is based solely on wealth. The 
beauty of your engravings might almost discourage our attempt at Annuals on 
this side of the water. I searched out and read first all from your pen which those 
volumes contained. Is the Miss Power who has written an interesting article in 
\ki& Keepsake one of those beautiful nieces whom I saw at Gore House ? May 
I ask where Walter Savage Landor is now ? He was on the list of distinguished 
persons whom I desired to see while in Great Britain, but he was not there at 
that time. 

'You are very kind to desire an engraving of me. There in none with which 
my friends are satisfied ; but there is one now . in progress in Philadelphia, 
from a likeness taken in London, which, should it be more successful, I will have 
the honour of forwarding to you. 

' I am so pleased that you liked my friend, the Hon^^"= Mr. Goodrich. I have 
not seen him since his return, but he wrote me of your politeness to him. He is 
a man of original & versatile talents, and uncommon energy of character. 

'I recollect your requesting of me, when in England, a lock of hair, which was 
forgotten to be sent while I was there. Will you now allow it to cross the ocean 
in the form of a simple bracelet, accompanied by a bottle of the pure otto of rose 
which I have recently received from Constantinople ? Your acceptance of these 
trifling mementoes will much oblige me. My best regard to your nieces. When you 
send to the little distant one in whom your description so much interested me, 
will you please add with my love the purse which my young daughter sends, and 
which derives its only value from being the work of the poor aborigines of the 
country. Believe me, dear Madam, yours with grateful respect.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated Hartford, Connecticut, August 12th, 1843. 3 pages 
4to., with Superscription. 

' My dear Madam, — It has recently occurred to me that a letter addressed to 
you several months since, and entrusted to a private opportunity, may not have 
reached you, and I am the more inclined to that opinion from having myself but 

* Samuel Griswold Goodrich, 1793-1860, an American author and publisher, better known 
as ' Peter Parley.' He edited an original annual called The Toketi, in which some of Hawthorne's 
best ' Twice-told Tales ' appeared. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 209 

just received a parcel from London, dispatched to me last winter through the 
zealous agency of a similar mode of conveyance. Lest even a more hopeless fate 
should have overtaken my missive allow to me to say that it was accompanied by 
some otto of roses which had reached me from a friend in Constantinople, in a 
state of such freshness and purity that I was desirous that it should be honoured 
with a place on your toilette. Last December, being in the city of Boston, where 
my " Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands" were in the process of publication, I 
put on board the steamship, then on the verge of sailing, one of the first copies 
that I obtained from the press, directed to yourself, to the care of John Murray, of 
Albemarle Street. Was that also unfortunate in its destination ! I am inchned 
to think that ill-fortune in such matters pursues me, as I received only by the 
last steamer an acknowledgment from a friend in England of a similar volume 
having but just reached her, which was sent eight months since, in the same 
package with your own. 

'Are you aware how much your novel of "Meredith" is admired in these 
United States ? I see it ranked in some of our leading periodicals as the "best 
work of the noble and talented authoress." This they mean as high praise, since 
your other productions have been widely and warmly commended. We are, as 
you doubtless know, emphatically a reading people. Our magazines, and many of 
the works that they announce, go into the'humble dwelling of the manufacturer, 
into the brown hand of the farmer, into the log-hut of the emigrant, who 
sees around him the dark forms of the remnant of our aboriginal tribes, & 
hears the murmurs of the turbid Missouri, perhaps the breaking billows of 
the Pacific. 

' I have recently become interested for the present year in one of those 
periodicals published for ladies in New York, which announces 20,000 subscribers, 
& assumes to have ten times that number of readers. Might I presume to ask of 
you so great a favour as to send in your next letter to me any scrap of poetry for 
it which you may happen to have by you ? I am sure it would greatly delight the 
publisher thus to be permitted to place your name upon his pages : but if I have 
requested anything inconvenient or improper, please to forgive it. 

' I hope your beautiful nieces are well. I wish to be remembered to them. 
Have you recently heard from the brilliant one in the far Orient ? I write this with 
one of the pens from the tasteful little writing-box you were so good as to send 
me, and repeat my thanks for that gift so acceptable in itself, and so valued as 
from your hand. You had not been quite well when you last wrote. I hope you 
have long ere this quite recovered, and that you will soon write me so, and believe 
me yours, with admiring and grateful regard.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated Hartford, Connecticut, September 13th, 1845. 3 pages 
4to., with Superscription. 

'My dear Lady Blessington, — Your last kind letter was truly welcome. It 
came opportunely to dispel some dim fears of forgetfulness, which were gathering 
like chilling mists around your protracted silence. 

' Accept my thanks for the elegant copy of Heath's Book of Beauty, which 
derives its principal interest in my view from your supervision. I felt quite 
humble at the lameness and inappropriateness of my own Httle poem,* at 
the 271st page, and the more so, from the circumstance that the omission of 
one of the lines, at the close of the fifth stanza, deprives it both of rhythm and 
meaning. I have not been as tardy in acknowledging your gift as it would seem. 
It did not reach me until July, though your letter was dated in May. I was then 
on a summer journey with my young daughter, and soon after my return was 
attacked with severe illness, from which I have only yet sufficiently recovered to 
take a short drive on a fine day, and to write a little at long intervals. I was 
grieved to hear of the delicate health of your sister, Lady Canterbury, and hope 
she has, ere this, perfectly recovered. I was sorry to see in the public papers 
that our friend, Mr. Willis, had suffered from ill health soon after his arrival in 

* ' The Lesson of the Sea,' which appeared in the Book of Beauty for 1845. 

P 



210 - THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

London. I trust, from the naiveU of his pubhshed letters, that he is quite well 
again. We consider him as one of our most gifted writers, and of course follow 
all his movements with interest. It gave me pleasure to be informed by you of 
the successful enterprizes of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall. They are excellent people, 
and I rejoice in their prosperity. Mrs. Hall showed me much friendship when I 
was in your country, which I shall never forget. 

' Among my obligations to her, I remember my delightful call at Gore House, 
and the first sight of yourself and your beautiful nieces, a combination of 
imagery which has lost none of its freshness or fascination by the lapse of 
time. 

' It would give me pleasure to hear from you, as often as your inclination moves 
thee to honour me. I am compelled to write with more brevity than I could wish 
by the commands of the physician, and a hand still tremulous with debility. 
Please remember me to the Misses Power and to the lovely genius in Van Diemens 
Land, whom you so eloquently described to me, and believe me, yours with high 
regard.' 

SIMMONS (Bartholomew Bootle). An Author and Man of Letters. 
(1804-1850.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated April 2nd, 1840. 4 pages 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I shall be happy to be of use to you about the 
drawings. I think Plunkett said it was the landscape which you would wish to 
have something said of. 

' Myhealthhasbeen very unfavourable this time back to composition ; but if you 
will be kind enough to let me know the very farthest time at which I must produce 
the illustration, I shall be glad to be industrious in your cause. I may, perhaps, ask 
you for a corner in both the Annuals (for I understand the Keepsake is now under 
the same auspices as the Book of Beauty), sufficient to give me a claim for a 
contributor's copy for those books, which are a source of gratification far away, 
deep in the mountains, amongst a host of country cousins. I thank you for 
associating me with your Ladyship and Ireland. I passed last autumn there, and 
assure you that you interfere with the popularity of Messrs. Moore and O'Connell 
(and this is saying much). Those magnates of the villages, the priest and the 
doctor, drink your health, and never by any chance say " Lady," but the " Countess 
of Blessington," a kind of oriental grandiloquence that the Irish are the more 
profuse of the poorer they grow. 

' Allow me to thank y'' Ladyship for your kind invitation for Monday, which I 
regret the state of my health at present does not permit me to avail myself of, & 
I beg you to believe me your Ladyship's faithful, aflfec"'" servant.' 

' Is the landscape (or ferry) not an early morning? Mr. Plunkett says 
evening.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 4 Ashley Crescent, City Road, April 27th, 1840. 
2\ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I send you an alarming looking manuscript as an 
illustration for the drawing, and I hope the verses may meet your approbation. 
The stanza is a rude imitation of that in Sir L. Bulwer's beautiful poem of 
" Milton " (which you will doubtless remember), and has been carried to the 
highest point of art in Lycidas. 

' I shall offer two very short things for the Book of Beauty, should you be 
graciously disposed to receive them. 

- ' You should know how deeply I remember you as the friend of the two 
greatest poets of the age— Lord Byron and Moore ; & with what pride I con- 
template your magical influence over our literature and times, to learn the 
pleasure I derive at finding that any of my unworthy compositions can afford 
your Ladyship a moment's gratification. 

' With the truest respect, I am, dear Lady Blessington, your obliged, faithful 
servant.' 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 211 

3. A. L. S. Dated 4 Ashley Crescent, City Road, April 27th (1840). 
2 pages 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington,— I beg to return Gerfaut, with a thousand thanks. 
With half the De Stael's works at my finger's eud, I could not have believed the 
French language capable of the power of passionate eloquence of the book, — it 
is full too of melancholy truth, which, though perhaps not very new, I never 
remember meeting brightened up with such enchanting fancy before. I have 
bought the book — the best proof of the obligation you laid me under. 

'At all times, clear Lady Blessington, your faithful & most humble servant.' 

' The volumes go by the Convey<"=' Company.' 

4. A. L. S. Dated 4 Ashley Crescent, City Road, June 26th (1840). 
4 pages 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington,— Wiih the proof which I return, I received, through 
the medium of your fair secretary, the second print you wished me to illustrate 
for the annual, and it is with grief and contrition I have to confess that as yet 
I have been unable to do anything for it. I not only agreed to supply the people 
beyond Tweed with a hymn of triumph on the Queen's escape (a most im- 
practicable subject), but also an article for six consecutive numbers of their 
magazine, and which has absorbed nearly all my spare time ; and now I dare say 
your people are waiting for copy, and all is at the eleventh hour. If this is not 
the case, I should be glad to show you I am not insensible to your wishes ; but, 
should you be at a loss for the services of some of your "Genii of the Lamp," I 
think Mr. Plunkett would be happy to give his talents and attention to illustrate 
the print in question, which I retain until I hear further from you. 

' Were some verses I sent you on a picture by Raffaelle of any use for either 
of this year's books ? If not, I would be glad to withdraw them (I have got a 
dupUcate copy), & promise something more worthy for next year. Dear Lady 
Blessington, your obliged, humble serv'.' 

' I have just seen Mr. Plunkett, who begs me to say that his story for the 
Book of Beauty, which ought to have been in your hands before this, will be 
forwarded next week.' 

5. A. L. S. Dated ' Sunday, July sth' (1840). 4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Under the supposition that the rhapsody I sent 
you on ) csterday has found favour in your sight (you are generally indulgent to my 
vagaries), and, being on the eve of departure for Ireland for some weeks, I am going 
to make what in our country is called a modest request ; it is, that you will order 
me, when the book is printed, a large-paper copy of the Annual that contains the 
verses* inscribed to Lady Jane Moore, as I would not think of offering her a small- 
paper one. By doing so you will save me a couple of pounds, always, alas ! an 
object to a poet, and essentially so to an improvident Irish one. Will you grant 
me this request and your pardon for making it "i 

' Should you think it worth while to send a proof of the late verses\ (without a 
name, on the picture of the Lady and Child), they will find me by being directed 
to my address, " Kilworth," Ireland, and you can have them in three days again, 
or Mr. Plunkett will do as well as the author, perhaps, or any other arrangement 
you like, only one would not like the demons of the press to make what is already 
bad worse, and I leave town to-morrow. 

' With your usual benevolence don't forget me about the book I ask, and add 
another to several obligations I am always glad to acknowledge you have con- 
ferred on, dear Lady Blessington, your faithful servant.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated 4 Ashley Crescent, City Road, November 12th, 1840. 
4 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Do you remember that greedy creature in Roman 

* The verses referred to appeared in the Keepsake for 1841 under the title of ' Morning.' 
t Published, under the title of 'Julia,' in the Keepsake for 1841. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

story, who, on her betraying the city to the Gauls, for the sake of the gold chains 
upon their bucklers, sank under the shields which they flung upon her as they 
entered, and so perished miserably ? 

' I assure you I feel at this moment something like the traitress in question ; 
you have overwhelmed and punished me for my shabby request of last summer, 
by the reproachful costliness of the books I have just received. But as, in the 
words of your familiar adage, "little said is soon mended," I shall merely say 
that your present is worthy of that magnificent spirit which characterises every- 
thing connected with you ; and that if anything were v/anting to enhance its 
value, you have supplied it in the gratification afforded me by the perusal of one 
of the articles in those volumes— your admirable, faithful, & useful story of " The 
Old Irish Gentleman."* 

' Pray accept my best thanks and sincere wishes that you may long continue 
to exercise your varied and delightful talents. And believe me, dear Lady 
Blessington, with respectful compliments to Miss Power, your obliged servant.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated January 2nd, 1841. 2\ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— I have just seen my friend, Mr. Arthur Plunkett, 
who tells me there is some alarming superstition connected with the bestowal of 
presents with points, which, however, he says, may be averted by the exchange of 
a small piece of silver. If the mischief, then, be neutralised in proportion to the 
smallness of the coin, let me hope that the monies I beg to enclose will com- 
pletely propitiate the fairy people, whose influence, I presume, is dreaded upon 
such occasions, & once more let me subscribe myself your obliged, humble 
servant' 

8. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday Night, June 26th' (1841). 2-1- pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — To offer the enclosed verses* for one of your books 
is, perhaps, like placing a gauntlet among the bijouterie of the graces. If, how- 
ever, you don't think there's too much clangor in them, it is not unlikely they 
will please at the other side of the Atlantic, where I believe you are as popular as 
in Europe. 

' I have lauded the States, & one who is above all praise —Washington Irving — 
and have quoted an old and valued friend of mine (& countryman), Isaac Wild — 
perhaps you know him ? — the traveller who published the beautiful quarto on 
Killarney long ago. In great haste, ever, dear Lady Blessington, your faithful, 
humble servant.' 

' If you don't like the rhymes, pray burn them, and I will begin again.' 

9. A. L. S. Dated '4 Ashley Crescent, Saturday Morning' (1841). 
4 pages 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — Business of an urgent and tormenting nature 
(which very seldom troubles me) has prevented me from thanking you before now 
for your new book, with a copy of which I was favoured some days ago. It is 
the only thing I have had time to look into for several evenings, and it has 
refreshed and delighted me at every perusal. I prefer it, for several reasons, to 
its predecessor, principally for a strain of graceful feminine fearlessness that 
pervades several portions of it. It is perhaps impertinent in me to make this 
remark, but you cannot know how inseparably you, who have so triumphantly 
asserted by those most potent of earthly spells (when united) beauty and genius, 
our poor country's supremacy, are associated with the natural pride of your 
countrymen. Indeed I could give you some amusing instances of this feeling, 
which I have noticed amongst my compatriots since I came to London — if it 
were not presumptuous in me thus to take up your Ladyship's time. 

' The picture is here, enclosed and addressed as you have directed. I 
wish I knew whether you preferred prose or verse ; but as I suppose 
you are pretty well deluged with the former, I shall commit a very few lines 

* Published in the Book of Beauty for 1 841. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 213 

of rhyme, and send them shortly— taking the view as it is— one upon the 
Hudson. With every sentiment of respect, your Ladyship's faithful and very 
humble servant,' iSic. 

10. A. L. S. Dated January ist, 1S42. 2\ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— I have just been honoured with the flattering and 
valuable proofs of your kind remembrance, 1 wish I had deserved them better. 
In thanking you deeply, as I now do, for giving my humble name a place in your 
recollection, and for your recent note of inquiry through Miss Power, I beg of you 
to believe that, though silent and at a distance, I never forget your friendship ; 
and that when louder and livelier visitors have passed away, you will be 
remembered, as ever, with pride, admiration, and gratitude by, dear Lady 
Blessington, your most obliged, humble serv'.' 

' Will you permit me by this means to wish Miss Power as many & as happy 
returns of this festival as I now wish yourself.' 

SMITH (Albert). A Novelist and Humourist. (1816-1860.) 

L A. L. S. Dated ' Friday Evening, \ past 8.' 2 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am very sorry to say that we must give up the 
pleasure of coming down to Gore House this evening. Poor Arthur^^ is so very 
poorly that he has just gone to bed, and I have transported all my work to his 
room for the night. I shall take him down to Chertsey to-morrow, and hope on 
Monday to give a better bulletin. 

' He has just been undressed and stethescoped all over. His lungs and heart 
are pronounced as sound as bells : so far that is all right. 

' You may conceive that I am rather anxious, as you know what a second 
existence he is to me. 

' We unite in kindest regards to your circle, and hope at the beginning of the 
week to be with you. Meanwhile, believe me to be yours most truly.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 14 Percy Street, January 2nd, 1846. 4 pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am completely at a loss for expressions that 
would really convey to you a notion of the gratification I feel at being so kindly 
remembered by >ou. 1 found your elegant eb-enne on my return from Chertsey 
yesterday, and cannot remember that 1 was ever more pleased and surprised. It 
is very difficult to get rid of conventional methods of expressing thanks in a case 
of the kind, but I hope you will believe me when I say that I have nothing in the 
world of which I shall be so proud. 

' My mother came up with me from home, and I think she was equally 
pleased ; so at all events you have made two people most contented with New 
Year's Day. 

'And what can I do in return? I fear very little except to otfer my services 
at all times, and in all ways they can possibly be of use to you or yours. 1 have 
so much to thank you for, so many very happy hours in the past years, and the 
prospect, as I hope, of an equal number in the present one, that an equivalent is 
out of the question. 

' But if I can assure you of the sincere regard I entertain for the inmates of 
Gore House (and you will give me credit for it, and not think I am merely putting 
down set phrases) I shall feel still happier than your attention has already 
made me. 

' With wishes for many years of health & happiness, believe me to remain 
most sincerely yours,' &c. 

* The writer'.s brother, Arthur Smith, 1824-1861, a well-known angler and his brother's 
business manager. 



214 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

3. A. L. S. Dated 14 Percy Street, Monday, January 3rd (1848). 3 pages 
8vo., with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — It has been so frequently my task to thank you 
for so many kindnesses, that I begin to fear I shall run into some set phrases of 
expression of gratitude from having exhausted all my own sentiments. I only wish 
that I could fully make you understand how charmed I am with the handsome 
ctreime you were so good as to send me. I have made up my mind to produce 
a great effect with them during the ensuing season. 

' My absence from London will, I hope, be an excuse for not having sent you 
Tadpole* before together with another little bantling. We are all in spirits, I am 
happy to say, and doing capitally. I want if possible to get into an open avowed 
war with Punch. If so I shall go ahead. 

' I start for Boulogne early to-morrow morning, but return this week, when I 
hope to see you. In the meantime pray accept my most sincere wishes for a very 
happy new year for all your circle and yourself from yours most sincerely,' &c. 

4. A. L. to Dr. Madden (in the third person). Dated 12 Percy 
Street, Bedford Square, March 4th, 1853. i page 8vo., with Super- 
scription. 

' Mr. Albert Smith presents his compliments to Mr. Madden, and would be 
happy to oblige him, but most of his correspondence with Lady Blessington was of 
a domestic and private character which could not very well go before the public' 

SMITH (James). A Man of Letters, Author (with his brother Horace) 

of the Rejected Addresses, (1775-1839.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 18 Austin Friars, February 21st, 1820. 2\ pages 8vo. 

' I enclose, dear Madam, my promised lines upon the Beard. I cannot say 
much in their commendation for " I am ill at these (serious) numbers." 

' Are they fit for your album ? 

' With respectful remembrances to Lord B., I have the honor to remain your 
Ladyship's grateful and obliged humble servant.' 

' .Stanzas on a Lock of the Late King's Beard. 

' There thou felt'st no fierce emotion 



' Snow-white emblem ! sacred token ! 

Relic of the " Fall of years," 
Who, worn down at length — time-broken, 
Drowns a pitying Realm in tears. 

' O'er that breast, thy white veil sweeping, 
While it fell in graceful flow, 
Cloth'd no bosom worn with weeping, 
Hid no throbbing heart below. 



Thy white hairs in sorrow steep. 
Placid as the foam of ocean, 
Hangs upon th' unruffled deep. 

' Thoughts opaque and vision clouded 
Him, opprest by age's chill, 
From observance vainly shrouded, 
Grateful memory loved him still. 



' By all meaner cares unbroken, 
Next my heart for ever dwell ! 
Snow-white emblem ! silver token 
Best of monarchs, fare thee well. ' 

2. A. L. S. Dated ' 18 Austin Friars, Thursday Morning? 2 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Madam, — It will give me great pleasure to join your party at the 
Adelphi Theatre this evening, provided I can shake off a stiff neck, which I 
obtained by riding yesterday in a Paddington omnibus. The "air" proceeded 
from a quarter uncongenial to singers, namely from the back of the head, in lieu 
of the inside of the throat. I, as a melodist, ought to have known that Horace 
long ago warned the sons of song from venturing in such vehicles — " Omnibus hoc 
vitium est Canloribus."i Your Ladyship's faithful & devoted servant.' 

* The Struggles and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole came out in 1848. 
t S. 3, i. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 215 

A. Verses S. Dated July nth, 1832. i page 8vo. 
'To The Countess of Blessington. 



' The bird of paradise that flies 
O'er blest Arabia's plains, 
Devoid of feet, forbears to rise 
And, where she rests, remains. 



' Like her, of footing reft, I fain 

Would sail your blest dominions, 
And there content, till death, remain ; 
But ah ! I lack the pinions.' 



4. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Wednesday, May 29th (1833). 
\\ pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I have not forgotten Sunday next. 

' I did not see the Book of Beauty until last Sunday at Hampton Court. A 
lady who showed it to me there expressed an opinion that such a succession of 
beauties was cloying to the eye, and that the book would have been improved by 
throwing in a specimen or two of venerable beauty, by way of contrast to the 
juvenility of the rest. 

' This by way of trial for your " Beau Ideal." Your Ladyship's faithful and 
devoted serv'. 



5. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Monday, June 24th (1833). '2 
pages 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I left "My Grandmama West"* at your door 
yesterday, who I hope meets with your approbation. 

' I mentioned that I should have great pleasure in contributing to your Book of 
Beauty. Have the goodness to send by the bearer another portrait that I may 
do so. I feel the picture advantageous to my Muse, and I hope to your book. 
Your Ladyship's faithful & devoted servant.' 

6. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Tuesday Morning (June 2sth, 

1833)- I page 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I feel much pleasure that " My Grandmama West " 
meets with your approbation. I will take your other sober Beauty into my 
sober consideration. I fear that prose is not my forte, my present notion is in 
favour of verse. But, "verseman or proseman," I remain your Ladyship's faithful 
& devoted.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated 18 Austin Friars, Saturday, July 21st (1833). i^ 
pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I am now better positively. I hope not, theoretically 
speaking, " positively for the last time." By the aid of two sticks I can make 
a devilish sort of movement — not, I regret to say, like Asmodeus through the air, 
but through the medium of a hackney coach. 

' I have no engagements during the next week. 

' I need not say how much pleasure I should derive from partaking of your 
family dinner either on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday next. 
Your Ladyship's faithful and devoted servant.' 

8. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, 'Saturday' (April 5th, 1834). i| 

pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Please to send me the portrait. My hand is daily 
improving, and I should like to have time 'to study the subject. I have not yet 
seen the New Monthly. Has any scribbler, as Martial in London, animadverted 
upon your conversations with Lord Byron. The newspapers tell us that your 
" new carriage is very highly varnished." This, I presume, means your wheeled 

* The verses entitled 'Phoebe, or My Grandmama West ' appeared in the Booli of Beatify 
for 1834. 



2l6 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 



carriage. The merit of your personal carriage has always been to my mind its 
absence from all varnish. The question requires that a jury should be im- 
pannclled. Your Ladyship's faithful & devoted.' -v 

9. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Saturday, October 24th (1835). 
I page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— I accept with great pleasure your invitation to 
dinner on Sunday the I Nov. 

' I am happy that the expression meets your approbation. I think it would 
be better to change its title to "Day and Nights," in which case the two final 
verses might be spelt properly — Knights and Days. Your Ladyship's faithful 
cS: devoted.' 

10. A. Verses. Dated January 8th, 1836. \\ pages. 



' The River D. 

Runs to the C. 
Expansive to the view 

Thus led by grace 

To Seamore Place, 
/ always follows U. 

' Your style's so terse. 

In prose and verse, 
No critic sting can trouble you : 

'Twould take a score 

Of pens and more, 
In grace of style to W. 



' Dear Lady B., 

'Twixt you and me. 
The difference all may tell. 

Both canvass gain 

From artists twain. 
Whose names begin with L. 

' But Locks, I vow. 

Adorn your brow. 
By Beauty's judges prized ; 

While bare to view. 

And void of O., 
How bald appears my Y. Z. ! 

' As final grants. 

Four consonants. 
Fast dropping from my pen see. 

To nature's part 

(Conjoined with art) 
U. O. yourX. L.N. C. !' 

IL A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Saturday, April 30th (1836). i 

page. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I was in hopes to have enjoyed the pleasure of 
your society to-morrow evening by adjournment from the Count's dining-table ; 
but as Doctor Johnson says, "What are the hopes of man?" I am slowly 
recovering from a tedious attack of gout and dread a relapse by dining out. Your 
Ladyship's faithful & devoted.' 

12. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Monday, September 13th, 1836. 

I page 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Mrs. Torre Holme (whom we last night likened to 
Minerva) has a daughter, Emily, now at Ramsgate, but soon to return to Shere. 
This premised, read the following : 

' Emily, a Mythological Sonnet. 
'Round Thanet's cliff disputing Naiads twine ; 
Huge Triton on the billow sails his shell, 
And yellow Ceres, on that face of thine 
Gazing in fondness, sighs a sad farewell, 
Oblivious of her long-lost Proserpine. 

Nymphs elastic, heel and eye of fire, 
Hygeia, Esculapius' daughter, now 
Invokes for thee her death-averting sire. 
And pours the cup of gladness on thy brow. 
But hark, maternal love from inland shire, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 217 

Jove's favourite daughter chides thy longer stay : 
A goddess calls thee, hearken and obey, 
V Severe Minerva bids thee halt not here, 

And woos thee homeward to the shades of Share. 

' I have send a copy of this to the goddess, apprizing her of her installation. 
Your faithful and devoted,' &c. 

13. A. L. S. Dated ' Saturday ' (1836). i page 8vo. 

' I send you a report. 

' Rex v. Ward. 

'"This was an indictment for projecting a pier into the River Medina, at 
Cowes.' — Morning Herald. 

' Debrett the wondrous fact allows, 
You'll find it printed in his book : 
The Pier that stemn'd the tide at Cows, 
Could only be Lord Bull in brook! 

U. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Monday, September 26th, 1836. 
i| pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— I have accidentally alighted upon the foundation of 
Madame de Stael's " Corinne," Dodsley's Annual Register, 1776, Chronicle, 
p. 176, 31st August.— "They have a custom at Rome, of solemnly crowning extra- 
ordinary poetical genius in the Capitol ; nor is the honour confined to men. 
Porfetti and Petrarch were the last Italian poets who obtained it. This day it 
was conferred on a young lady of the name of Morelli Fernandez, called Gorilla 
Olimpia, by the Academy of the Arcades, who had long gained the admiration of 
Italy by her extempore verse on any subject proposed. She was conducted to 
the Capitol by the Contessas Cardelli, Dandini, and Ginessi. The Chevalier 
Jean Paul de Cinque placed the laurel upon her head," &c. 

' I wish Madame de Stael had retained the original name. Corinne is de- 
based (at least to English ears) by Swift's Corinna, Pride of Dunbar, not to 
mention Curll's Corinna. Your Ladyship's faithful & devoted.' 

15. A. L. S. Dated '27 Craven Street, Monday Morning' (October 3rd, 
1836). li pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Our second correspondent, Mrs. Torre Holme, is 
very desirous of knowing whether her "Dolorida" will appear in your forthcoming 
Book of Beauty.* She wishes to apprize Alfred de Vigny thereof, and to desire 
him in that event to send a translation of his poem. 

' When you answer this matter about which Mrs. Holme feels interested 
pray inform me on a matter in which I and all who know you are interested, 
namely, the state of your health. Your Ladyship's faithful & devoted.' 

'P.S. — Mrs. Grahamt denies the receipt of the ^100. The Duke therefore 
came down in the dust, but not with it.' 

16. A. L. S. Dated '27 Craven Street, Tuesday ' (November isth, 1836). 
I J pages 8vo. 

'Gore House— An Impromptu. 
' Mild Wilberforce, by all beloved, 
Once own'd this hallowed spot; 
Whose zealous eloquence improved 
The fetter'd negro's lot. 

* ' Dolorida ' appeared in the Book of Beauty for 1838. 

+ The Annual Register iot 1836 gives an account of a balloon ascent by Mrs. Graham and 
the Duke of Brunswick, which ended in the fall of both of them. The lady was most seriously 
injured, but the Duke escaped unhurt. 



2i8 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

Yet here still slavery attacks 

When B n invites — 

The chains, from which he freed the blacks, 
She rivets on the whites. 
' Dear Lady Blessington,— I have taken charge of Mrs. Torre Holme's portrait 
which I will shew you, if you are visitable at dinner on Thursday next. Your 
Ladyship's faithful & devoted.' 

' P.S. — I have sent the above to the New Monthly.' 

17. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Tuesday, January 31st (1837). 
1 5 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — The enclosed letter will speak for itself. It relates 
to a projected invasion of your neighbouring territory. Moore says " they may 
rail at this life," but Kensington Gore should prove an exception. I send you 
the letter that you may be awake to the mischief brewing. I think, however, it 
will end in smoke. I am instructed to oppose the bill on behalf of the Board of 
Ordnance ; and the Comm™ of Woods and Forests have intimated to the 
promoters of it that his Majesty has been advised not to consent to any invasion 
of Hyde Park. Your Ladyship's faithful and devoted serv'.' 

' P.S. — Do you dine at home on Saturday next ? ' 

18. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Wednesday, February 15th (1837). 
3 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Many thanks for your message. I regret to learn 
that you have been unwell. I too am a sufferer from gout in my ancle and knee, 
which has confined me at home since yesterday. 

'I have just seen a plan of the projected Richmond railroad, and find that it 
passes through your garden and the Count's. Tom Moore says, "they may rail 
at this life ; " and Shylock talks of railing a seal off a bond : but to rail away half 
a garden is to imitate the Dragon of Wantley : 
"Houses and churches 
Were to him geese and turkeys." 

' I am told Lord L has just returned from Paris with a model of a wig. 

Have you seen him ? 

' B[entley] told Poole that he meant to call his new magazine " The Wit's 

Miscellany ; " but that, thinking the title too ambitious, he altered it to " B 's 

Miscellany." " Was that not going from one extreme to the other ?" enquired 
Poole. Jerdan has withdrawn from the Garrick Club, because the Committee 
found fault with his noticing in his paper a dinner given to Charles Kemble. 
Considering the object, and the place of meeting (the Albion Tavern), I do not 
think it much of a secret. General Phipps* came up from Brighton to canvass for 
his nephew Augustus last Monday, at the Athenaeum, who got in, notwith- 
standing. There is a waiter at Graham's, whole sole business is to pare the 
thumb-nails of the members. This is paring off without going to St. Stephen's. 
I have no more news.' 

19. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Friday, June 2nd (1837). i^ 
pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Most unluckily I yesterday engaged myself to 
dinner on Sunday. I am attacked by lumbago, and fear, however, that I shall 
not be able to quit my house. 

' Your amiable niece has written to me requesting my poetical aid to illustrate 
a portrait of two children of the Duke of Beaufort.t Will you when you next 
write to her say that I shall be most happy to do so. Your Ladyship's faithful 
& devoted servant.' 

* The Hon. Edmund Phipps, 1760-1837, a general in the army, and for many years M.P. 
for Scarborough. He died at Venice. 

t Henry, 7th Duke of Beaufort, 1792-1853, eldest son of the 6th Duke, whom he succeeded 
in 1835. The letter refers to the portrait of the Duke's two daughters, which appeared in Mrs. 
Fairlie's Children of the Nobility. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 219 

20. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Friday, June 20th (1837). 2 
pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have been visiting the Rev'' H. Torre Hohne 
and his talented wife. That lady read over to me " Dolorida." I suggested, and 
she acquiesced in the following emendations : 

^ For "Tranquil she seems, but in her anguish vain 

Bites the unconcious hand," c&c. 
' Read "But wounds in anguish vain. 

With jealous tooth the hand that feels no pain." 
' For " So young, so beautiful," &c. 

' Read " She sees him beautiful in manhood's bloom 

Approach her couch as tho' it were his tomb." 

'Will you (if these emendations receive the royal sanction) alter your MS. in 
conformity. Your Ladyship's faithful and devoted,' &c. 

' P.S. — Do you dine at home on Monday next or on any future day in that 
week.' 

2L A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Tuesday, July nth (1837). 3 

pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I transmit a new Mrs. Lane Fox, and remain your 
faithful & devoted serv'.' 

' P.S. — I hope Niobe arrived safe. 

' To Mrs. Lane Fox {with a Portfolio of Engravings).''' 
' The book that in your lap reclines. 

Where many a leaf hke Zephyr wavers. 
Within its ample scope combines 

The skill of Britain's best engravers. 
Fishers are there with humid nets, 

Dutch boors intent upon their duties, 
And Egypt's mendicant brunettes, 
And mild Circassia's snowy beauties. 

' Mountains whereon the clouds recline. 

Whence many a Tuscan bravo sallies. 
Castles that crown the rapid Rhine, 

Cots that repose on Arno's vallies. 
Divers o'er Indian surge reclined. 

Where Phcebus glares with added brightness. 
Delving for pearls ordained to find 

On arms like yours a rival whiteness. 

' Great painters here their colours strike, 

Rubens no longer feeds on roses. 
In sober brown reclines Vandyke, 

Untinted Titian here reposes ; 
Artists whose palettes to the sight 

Present a gay prismatic olio 
Arrayed in modest black and white 

Repose within this huge portfolio. 

' Yet not ev'n Bartolozzi's school 

Can give all copies equal spirit. 
Vainly the graver plies his tool. 

To give to all impartial merit. 
Each with what skill soever planned. 

Grows than its predecessor fainter, 
Falls faded from the wearied hand. 

And disappoints the peevish painter. 



These verses appeared in the Book of Beauty for 1838. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

' Would he a gainful trade pursue, 

His now superfluous labour saving, 
Let the glad artist learn of you, 

Lady, the art of true engraving ; 
You, who at every glance awake 

A portrait teeming with expression. 
And cleverly contrive to make 

Where'er you go a Proof Impression ! ' 

1-2. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Saturday, August 26th (1837). 
i]^ pages 8vo. 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — I send you Coombe's philosophical work, which I 
shall not again want until Thursday, the 7"' of September, when I must return 
it " to the place from whence it came." I am to go to-day till Monday to 
Croker at Manby, and on Monday for a few days to our friend Lord Abinger, 
near Dorking. On my return to town I will write to you again soliciting another 
dinner. 

' Pray present my compliments to your interesting Italian visitor, and believe 
me to remain your Ladyship's faithful & devoted servant.' 

23. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Wednesday, September 13th 
(1837). I page 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I hope that you are still at Gore House, and 
I further hope that you are visitable at dinner either to-morrow or Friday. 

'The enclosed \s A7Z£-/o-Gali'!c, that the Countess may at all events compre- 
hend half Your Ladyship's sincere & devoted friend.' 

24. A. Epigram to Count D'Orsay No date (September 27th, 1837). 

I page 8vo., with Superscription and Seal. 

'From Mount Street, Phipps to distant Venice hies, 
And breathes his last sigh on the Bridge of Sighs.' 

2.5. A. Verses. Dated October 9th, 1837. i^ pages 4to. 
' Shakespeare Sonnets. 

jSt 

'Absence and Presence 
O'er common mortals hold a common sway ; 
Absence alights when Presence takes her flight. 
Presence presides when Absence is away. 
O'er life's dull ocean born with steady sail. 
Alike as brother oft resembles brother. 
By cold indifference poised in equal scale 
The one may well pass current for the other. 
But (thee once known) what heart can ever know 
Oblivion, weed that rots on Lethe's wharf? 
Presence dispensing joy, and Absence woe. 
This soars a giant, and that droops a dwarf. 
Oh ! disproportioned size of joy and grief, 
Absence, how endless long, and Presence brief! 

2. 

' Thou'lt still survive when I to time shall bow. 
When my leaves scatter'd lie, thy rose will bloom ; 
Thou'lt walk the earth, alert as thou art now. 
When I am mould'ring in the silent tomb. 
My face, my form, traced by the graver's tool, 
Thou boldest ; hold them then ; and, with a sigh, 
When shadowy night shall o'er the welkin rule. 
Bethink thee, musing of the days gone by. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 221 

Be not too happy, or my jealous sprite 

Shall deem thy laughter light, thy spirits folly ; 

But gazing on my portraiture unite 

Serene content with sober melancholy. 

And cast, in thy belov'd sobriety. 

Some thoughts on him, whose all thoughts dwelt on thee.' 

26. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Thursday, November 2nd (1837). 
i^ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— You may remember our conversation when I 
last dined at Gore House, about Mrs. Torre Holme's poem. The rejected of 
Murray hopes to become the accepted of Moxon, as the accompanying letter from 
her to you will, I presume, testify. I also transmit her book of MS. poems. 
Pray look them over and tell me whether you agree with me upon the subject of 
their merits. 

' On what day after Sunday next shall I have the pleasure of dining with you ? 
Your Ladyship's faithful & devoted.' 

27. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, 'Monday Morning' (November 
20th, 1837). i\ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Many thanks to you for the Book of Beauty. I 
have forwarded Mrs. Torre Holme's copy to that lady near Norwich to her 
desire. When she passed through London on her road thither, she called on 
me and desired me to express to you her sincere thanks for your kindness and 
trouble in the affair of her book. She requested me to add that when she re- 
visits the metropolis, she intends having the pleasure of repeating those thanks 
to you at Gore House. Your Ladyship's faithful & devoted.' 

' P.S.— I have looked hastily through the book. How came W"^ Jas. Denison, 
the M.P., to perpetrate such a rhyme as Newwzarket and forget (see p. 148). 
Had you or I been consulted, we should have constructed the stanza as 
follows : — 

' Newmarket no more he invokes, 

Dull Tattersall's darkens in gloom ; 
Adieu to the Derby and Oaks, 

Farewell to his trainer and groom.' * 

28. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Wednesday, February 7th (1S38). 
\\ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Many thanks for your kind enquiries. I have 
been confined to the house by gout and rheumatism for a month. My first visit 
abroad shall be to Gore House. How are you in health .' The latest news with 
me is a letter from the widow of George Colmant (late Mrs. Gibbs) ? They are 
about to put up a tablet in Kensington Church, and have asked me for an epitaph. 
I have sent her the following : 

' Colman, the Drama's lord, the Muses' pride, 

Whose works now waken woe, now joy impart, 

Humour with pathos, wit with sense allied, 

A playful fancy, and a feeling heart ; 

His task accomplish'd, and his circuit run. 

Here finds at last his monumental bed. 

Take then, departed shade, this lay from one 

Who loved thee living, and laments thee dead.' 

* Appeared in the Book of Beauty for 1836. 

t George Colman, the younger, 1762-1836, dramatist, miscellaneous writer, and theatrical 
manager. Colman's biographer, Peake, states that Colman was secretly married to Mrs. Gibbs, 
but ihis is generally disbelieved. A writer in the Gentleman! s Magazine, in noticing this 
inscription, considers it ' somewhat singular that more accomplished verses were not provided for 
the poet's monument.' 



222 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

29. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Monday, December 3rd (1838). 
2\ pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Meeting Blanche Bury, daughter of Lady 
Charlotte, at dinner a few days ago, I told her, half in joke, that I thought she 
should have a place in your Book of Beauty for the ensuing year. The girl seemed 
not at all averse, neither did her mother. 

' Your Ladyship will of course look upon the affair as I do as a matter of 
business. If you think such an arrangement would benefit your Book I will of 
course undertake to do the poetry. 

' Something more might be said about the transmission of beauty through three 
generations, the grandmother, one of the celebrated Miss Gunnings, being the 
originatrix. There exists, I am told, a very good portrait of Blanche, painted 
about three years ago. Believe me to remain, dear Lady Blessington, your faithful 
& devoted friend & servant.' 

30. A. L. S. Dated 27 Craven Street, Friday, May 17th (1839). ij 
pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Your idea of a book, entitled the '■'•Beau Ideal" 
likes me much, and I will most willingly contribute my humble aid to illustrate one 
of the portraits. 

' To-morrow I visit Twickenham till Monday. Perhaps the Muse of Pope 
may inspire me. Your Ladyship's faithful friend,' &c. 

' P.S.— I have not seen the Book of Beauty, but I " catch the idea." ' 

SOMERVILLE (Sir William Meredyth). Afterwards ist Baron 
Athlumney, Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1847 to 1852. (1802- 

1873.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated 6 Seamore Place, August loth. 3 pages 8vo. 

'My dear Lady Blessington, — Will you be so kind as to look over the accom- 
panying MS. at your leisure, and to give me your opinion upon it, not in your 
usual kind and partial manner, but with uncompromising justice. 

' I will not point out to you the objects or the faults of the tragedy — they will 
be evident to your discriminating judgment — but the original contains nevertheless 
many and striking beauties if they could but be faithfully rendered, and I cannot 
but think that unless the difficulty of doing so were considerable this performance 
of the greatest poet that Germany has produced (I am quite aware what I am 
bringing down upon myself by this opinion) would not so long have remained 
untranslated. Pray be unsparing in your censure wherever it may be wanted, and 
the greater will be the obligation conferred on your very sincere.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated ' 5 Hamilton Place, Sunday' (1835 ?). 2 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — Accept my warm thanks for your kind note. The 
little stranger is doing as well as possible. Lady Maria,* I am sorry to say, has not 
been as well as we could wish since twelve o'clock. Her medical attendant, how- 
ever, has just been here, and declares the uncomfortable symptoms to be con- 
siderably abated. I hope soon to be able to give you a verbal assurance of her 
perfect safety, and at the same time to thank you for your kind and (to make use 
of a word much laughed at nowadays, but which I am very fond of) good-natured 
attention. Yours very faithfully.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated Bifrons, Canterbury, September 21st, 1835. 4 pages 
8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, —Accept my best thanks for your very kind letter of 
the 17th, which is, I almost fear, in the present instance too kind. If you would 

' Sir William married first, in 1832, Lady Maria Harriet Conyngham ; she died in 1843. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 223 

really advise me to do so, I would almost venture to have my translation printed, 
but there is much of it that is done in a slovenly manner, and would require 
revision ; there is besides a long essay upon the use of the chorus in tragedy and 
upon the author's views and object in making use of it, which it would be unfair 
towards the immortal dead not to bring forward with the tragedy. Do you know 
any good German scholar who would take the trouble of reading my translation 
with the original and of making his remarks? If so, perhaps you would engage 
his services. It is strange that of all Schiller's tragedies this is the only one which 
has not been translated or rather published, for you tell me that Mr. Irvine has 
translated the same work, and I hope that your usual good-nature has not got the 
better of your judgment when you say that mine is the better of the two. 

' I am sorry the little poem you are about to publish is not more worthy of your 
Book of Beauty, I fear the other stories are too long, and I assure you I am not 
one of those who would take huff at their productions being laid on the shelf, I 
know too well the value of them for that. 

' I fear the day is gone by for producing a tragedy on the stage — the public 
taste is directed in another channel. 

' I am very glad to hear that your excursion into the country has been of service 
to your health. I hope while you were about it that you have laid in a good 
stock of that most valuable commodity. 

' We have here infamous weather, nothing but rain. 

' Lady Maria is quite well, and Miss Somerville you will, I trust, find much 
improved when she next does herself the honour of paying you a visit. Believe 
me, my dear Lady Blessington, most faithfully yours.' 

SUTTON (Charles Manners-), afterwards Viscount Canterbury. 

Speaker of the House of Commons from 18 17 to 1834. (1780- 

1845.) 

A. L. S. Dated Palace Yard, March 12th, 1827. 3 pages 4to., with 

Superscription and Seal. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I have been not only such a defaulter in 
writing, but I must admit so absolutely abominable, that I hardly can account for 
my effrontery in again attempting to write to you, but my ingenuousness as to 
your faults and my estimate of your placabiUty give me great courage with a pen 
in my hand ; when perhaps I should not dare to be so bold in person. Well, 
now let me thank you most warmly first, for your congratulations on my 
re-election to the chair — next for the ring you were so kind-hearted as to send 
me — also for the monies, which have safely arrived, and in a lump for all your 
kind wishes and affectionate remembrances from time to time innumerable. 
Injustice to myself I must say that I prize them as they deserve, and with such 
eagerness and delight I hear any improved report of your health, spirits, and 
general comfort from week to week from your dear sister and my dearest friend. 
So bad as I am, I am not so unpardonable for carelessness and indifference as I 
am for incivility and inattention. Of news, the first and best I can give you, is 
the health and spirits and most religious sociability of all at Wilton Green. I 
am sure you would not think Mrs. Power in looks an hour older since you 
saw her last ; whilst in every other respect that can engage admiration and 
respect there is a constant increase and improvement, or rather addition, for 
as to improvement there is not room for it. Well, that is my judgment, 
and I hardly think there lives in the world the person who could or would 
attempt to gainsay it, if they know her as well as we do. Louisa and Mary,* 
what the world would call very nice girls, though such a description does 
not one quarter do them justice — admirably disposed, well educated, well 
mannered, and good tempered — Louisa bearing the palm, as you will readily con- 
ceive as to beauty, the lesser ones of the troop Marg' and EUy, dear little girls, 

* Louisa and Mary Manners-Sutton were the writer's sisters. Mary, the elder of the two, 
married Hugh Percy, Bishop of Carlisle, and died in 183 1 ; Louisa died unmarried in 1856. 



224 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

and John * wonderfully improved by Eton and a fine healthy ingenuous boy. 
God prosper them all, I say, from the bottom of my heart ! Now for a fevy words 
more interesting to others, though not so to me. Who is to be Prime Minister ? 
and it is all question, for none of us can get an answer ; and yet the mystery 
cannot last much longer : the government has been walking without a head for 
more than three weeks ; and even the Catholic miracle does not give a precedent 
for so lengthened a walk. You can have no conception how deeply, generally, 
and lastingly, the poor Duke of York's death has been and is felt — even the 
present derangement of the government has not suspended the feeling — but on 
the contrary I shall say present circumstances bring it all back most strongly. As 
to news of a less public nature, commonly called gossip, I hear mighty little of 
it ; you know how my life keeps me out of the way of entering into it, though not 
always free from being flung at by it ; but I suppose that I must pay with others. 
Well, as long as I retain the good opinion of my friends and the effectual regard 
of those I love best, I am content to take my chance. Lord Normanby dined with 
me on Saturday ; and he is come over alone, leaving Lady Normanby at Florence, 
where they seem almost to be domiciled ; so I suppose the Private Theatricals 
thrive there as well as they did in Rome. However, these sort of gaieties are not 
particularly in your way, I fancy ; and yet, though I know nothing of Pisa, and 
although I don't know whether it would equally agree with you, I cannot help 
wondering (foolishly perhaps) that you did not prefer Florence. Well, be this as 
it may, and go where you may, from the bottom of my heart you have always, 
and in all places, my most hearty good wishes, of whatever value they are. I have 
now written a dullish and a longish letter — read as much as you like and leave the 
rest as very unimportant — though, by-the-bye, it would have been wisdom to have 
given this hint in the first line. Can you say anything to Lord B. in the way of 
apology for my not having answered his letter of congratulation ? I really thought 
he was then coming over on business, and the time has slipped through my 
fingers since. To Count Alfred I will write very soon ; but I must brush up 
my French. You will be glad to hear my trio of children are quite well — the two 
boys at Eton. With kindest and best remembrances to all. Lord B., Count A,, and 
Miss P., ever, my dear Lady Blessington, your truly faithful and affectionate friend.' 

TALBOT (Christopher Rice Mansel). Father of the House of 
Commons.t (1803-1890.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated Fenton's Hotel, July 29th, 1846. 3^ pages 4to., 
with Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — Would that I could avail myself of your very 
kind invitation, but believe me, I am totally unfit for any kind of society. I 
avoid that of even my own relations, and have never had courage to return to my 
own house, either in London or Glamorganshire. 

' I can look to time only, which blunts all feelings, to give me strength to 
live on, and when I recover it, there is nothing that will give me more pleasure 
than to renew old and grateful associations. It is soothing to me to think 
there are those who know how to sympathise with feelings like mine. 1 1 is not 
simply Death, nor simply the loss of those we deplore that forms the worst 
portion of human woe, those feelings indeed are severe enough, but fall far short 
of the horror attendant upon the watching the progress of such a dise.T.se as 
consumption. A dangerous miscarriage brought on by over-exertion and fatal 
confidence in her own strength was the beginning in my poor wife's| case of 

* Charles John Manners-Sutton, 1812-1869, the writer's eldest son and successor. 

t Mr. Talbot was so named from the fact of having retained his seat fur Glamorgan from 
1830 to 1890. He was elected fifteen times, and was only twice opposed. lie sat as a Liberal up 
to 1886, and, not voting for Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill, was ever after a doubtful Liberal 
Unionist. It is a curious circumstance that in all the years he sat in it his voice was never once 
heard in the House. 

J Mr. Talbot had married in 1835 Lady Charlotte Butler, second daughter of the 1st Earl 
of Glengall. She was born in 1809. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 22 ^ 

all my troubles. For nearly two years I have been in a state of constant and 
increasing anxiety ; for the last nine months that anxiety was uncheered by the 
slightest hope of recovery, and when I took her abroad last October it was with 
the moral certainty that she could never return alive. Yet throughout it was my 
duty to appear cheerful and to make her believe all was well, lest the full know- 
ledge of her danger should precipitate the fatal crisis. I took with me a doctor, 
and my cook, a faithful servant of seven or eight years ; the latter died by (I fear) 
' the mismanagement of tJie doctor, and the former I was obliged to send home 
from Malta in a state of hypochondria verging on madness. You may imagine 
what a sad position mine was, under such circumstances, and I do not feel that 
I can ever recover the injury my constitution received from the constant sense of 
imminent danger hanging over me night and day for so long a time. I did not 
believe human nature could exist so long without a single happy or even tranquil 
moment ; but it is past now, and there remains at least the conviction that the 
worst is past, and that this life now can bear no fruit more bitter than that I have 
been compelled to live on so long. The very doctor at Malta who attended on 
my poor sufferer, hard as medical hearts necessarily are, declared to me that 
nothing but an imperative sense of duty would induce him to watch so cruel and 
hopeless a disease, yet she never complained, and her only fear seemed to be that 
she might communicate the disease to me. My children were with me at Malta. 
Had it not been for them I should hardly have had courage to live. I am now 
about to leave London, and when I return I hope I may be well enough to come 
in person to thank you for recollecting me. Believe me, my dear Lady B., yours 
ever most truly.' 

2. A. I^. S. Dated Margam Park, Taiback, Glamorganshire, December 
31st (1849). 4 pages 4to. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I beg you to accept my best thanks for the 
present of your two beautiful books, which I received very safely. Nothing can 
exceed the manner in which they are got up ; and as works of art it is no 
exaggeration to say the engravings are not to be surpassed. I am particularly 
struck with the one representing Lady Constance Gower,* and also with that 
of Lady Elizabeth Lascelles,t as being the very perfection of female love- 
liness. 

' I am almost sorry I ever saw the two ladies in question, for I must own the 
beauty so striking in the picture is not to be found in the originals. Then Lady 
G. CodringtonJ comes out quite radiant in the Kee;psake, though she is, alas ! but 
an ugly, cross-looking woman, with a large nose. Certainly the Keepsake ought 
to be a popular work with ces dames j but if anything can prove the superiority of 
imagination over reality, it would be the picture of the Queens of England. Only 
compare those magnificent eyes of our earher queens (I marvel that you speak of 
Queen Mary as unlovely) with the boiled gooseberry peepers of our own gracious 
Sovereign. 

' I am glad you admire M. Dubufe's picture of my children. Undoubtedly the 
likenesses are very good, but the style of painting is too French to please me. 
The picture ought to be in a Louis XIV. room, full of looking-glasses and gilt 
furniture ; but modern painters like glitter and glare, and what they call colour, and 
thereby, in my opinion, spoil their correct and beautiful design. I am glad you have 
had fine weather in London. We have had nothing but a succession of storms of 
wind and rain since the beginning of November. BeUeve me ever most truly 
yours.' 



* Lady Constance Gertrude Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Westminster, 1S34-18S0, one of 
the most beautiful women of her time, youngest daughter of the Duke of Sutherland, married in 
1852 to the present Duke of Westminster. . . 

t Lady Elizabeth Joanna Lascelles, 1826-1S54, eldest daughter of the first Marquis ot 
Clanricarde, married in 1 845 to Henry Thynne, Viscount Lascelles, afterwards 4th Earl ot 

Harewood. , t^ , c -a <■ f 

X Lady Georgiana Charlotte Anne Codrington, second daughter of the 7th Duke of lieautort, 
and wife of Christopher William Codrington, M.P., of Dodington. She died m 1884. 



226 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

TANKERVILLE (Armandine Sophie L6onie Corisande de Grammont, 
Countess of). Daughter of Antoine, Duke de Grammont, and wife 
of Charles Augustus, 5th Earl of Tankerville. (1782-1865.) 

A. L. S. Dated Hertford Street, April 19th (1849). 2\ pages 8vo., with 
Superscription. 

' My dear Lady Blessington,— Many, many thanks for your kind & amiable 
letter. I am so happy to hear that you found my dear brother better than you 
expected. The same post brought me from him a melancholy account of himself 
& his sufferings, so yours was doubly welcomed. Thank D'Orsay for me with 
my love for his letter. I will answer it as soon as I can. I have been very 
unwell ever since last Saturday with a bilious attack brought on by this horrible 
weather— frost & snow, & now damp & snow. I have not yet received any 
prospectus about Gore House, but I have already made many people promise 
to go, and I shall take there my daughter. To-day Massey Stanley's plate is 
going to be sold at Foster's. The number of racing cups are enormous. My 
brother was delighted to see you, & he gives me a most charming description 
of your house at St. Germains, & its situation. I feel sure that you will like it, 
& that I shall see you there one of these days, happy & contented, & going to 
church every Sundays; you remember our conversation ! I leave my dear 
brother to do the rest, poor dear suffering angel has well deserved his reward 
hereafter. God grant that I may see him again without sufferings ; but as long 
as these sores remain there is no hopes of that. I hope you will give my love 
to your niece, & believe me, dear Lady Blessington, y" affec' 

TURNER (Alfred). Secretary to the Society for the Protection of 
Literature. 

A. L. S. Dated 32 Red Lion Square, July 13th, 1843. 2 pages 4to. 
' Madam, — I am requested by Mr. Longman to address your Ladyship 
on the subject of your pending arrangements with Mr. Tauchnitz for the 
reprinting your works abroad, and to mention that doubts exist how far the 
present Acts for protection of Literature will prevent such reprints from being 
imported into this country and sold at the reduced price which would materially 
affect the sale of the London editions, and that Sir John Bayley's opinion is now 
taking on this subject, that the matter may be fully and sufficiently considered 
before anything is definitively settled with Mr. Tauchnitz. As soon as this 
opinion is obtained a special meeting of the Society for the Protection of 
Literature will be called to decide on the course which it will be advisable for 
authors to pursue on the subject, and I hope your Ladyship will be so kind in the 
meantime as to suspend any final arrangements. I have the honour to be your 
Ladyship's most obedient servant.' 

TYNTE (Charles John Kemeys). M.P. first for West Somerset and 
afterwards for Bridgwater. (1800-1882.) 

A. L. S. Dated 2 Rue Neuve de Berry, Paris, February 8th, 1842. 
6 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Madam, — Upon my return here from a short tour to the north, I 
had the pleasure of receiving your very kind note of the 13"' of January, and 
I beg to offer your Ladyship my best thanks for your most kind and ready 
acquiescence in the request I ventured to make. I have notified to the fair 
" artiste" your kindness, and doubt not of her gratitude, 1 have likewise to thank 
your Ladyship in regard to the portrait for the Book of Beauty. The portrait 
that I am anxious to appear in that work is one of my second wife, a countrywoman 
of your Ladyship's (of the Meath family n<!e Brabazon), and not having been married 
long, I am still lover enongh to consider will not be surpassed by many portraits 
in that repository of loveliness. I fear, however, that we shall be too late, as the 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS, 227 

portrait is not quite finished. If it is not asking too much of your Ladyship, will you 
kindly inform me what is the latest period at which a portrait can be received, and 
to whom It should be sent. I shall take advantage of forwarding soon for your 
Ladyship's (I hope) approbation, some lines. Alas ! I cannot but consider myself 
(though married before I was twenty) older than I am, having two sons* in the 
Dragoons. The eldest (now in the Prince Albert's Hussars) I had once the 
^M^"*^ '° present to your Ladyship, when he attracted your notice as a " pretty 
child" He is now at 19 a very good-looking, and more, very gentlemanlike 
youth, and I venture to direct him to wait upon your Ladyship with this note (if 
he has an hour to go to town from Hounslow Barracks before leaving for this 
place, where I am daily expecting him). The younger is in the Royal Irish 
Dragoon Guards, and is a poet, and very anxious that I should request a place 
for some lines of his, which I will venture to forward to your Ladyship. I feel quite 
ashamed of having taken up so much of your Ladyship's time. There is little 
news to send from here. The British Embassy is still with closed doors, and 
both English and other nations lament the loss of the Granvilles.t The bal 
(r«?.f/«OT£'of the Duke of Orleans on Saturday night was by far the most splendid 
and the best party that has taken place this " season," and some of the characters 
admirably "got up." If I can at any time be of the most humble service to 
your Ladyship here, where you so deservedly hold so high a respect and regard, 
it will be a great pleasure to me to execute any commissions for you. I am, my 
dear madam, your ladyship's sincerely obliged,'' &c. 

WESTMACOTT (Richard). The well-known Sculptor. (1799-1872.) 

1. A. L. S. Dated ' 21 Wilton Place, Monday Evening.' 2 pages 8vo. 

' Mr. R. Westmacott presents his comphments to Lady Blessington, and does 
himself the pleasure to enclose a copy of the lines by Mrs. Hemans he spoke of 
last evK. He hopes Lady B. will think as well of them as he does. He is quite 
vain of the share he has had in calling forth so sweet a song. He takes 
advantage of being in good company to send some wildish lines " written on the 
spot " as authors say — that is, in a storm literally — and presuming on his know- 
ledge of Lady Blessing ton's kindness he ventures to beg her to read them over, 
& to tell him whether honor or profit maybe derived from such productions. 
He has divers scraps of the sort, but knows no editors, and has a very respectful 
fear of them. He asks Lady Blessington z'« amicitia whether she thinks he has 
any chance of picking up guineas by pen as well as pencil in a small way.' 

2. A. L. S. Dated ' Wilton Place.' 2 pages 8vo. 

' Madam, — I hoped to have done myself the pleasure of calling in Seymour 
Place last night to make my enquiries after your Ladyship's health, & fearing 
indisposition might be the cause of my not having been favoured with the 
intended visit, but I was prevented till too late to venture to disturb you ; I hope 
my fears are unfounded. I beg to say I shall be most happy to see your Lady- 
ship whenever it may suit your convenience to honour me with a visit. To-day 
I shall be free after three. I beg to remain, madam, your Ladyship's obliged & 
faithful.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated 21 Wilton Place, May 2nd, 1836. 2 pages 8vo. 

' Madam,— I have been so worried about some matters with which I need not 
trouble your Ladyship, that I have hardly been out anywhere, & now am almost 
ashamed to go at all ; but 1 do not for all that forget my friends, and, be sure, 

* These two sons by Mr. Tynte's first wife, Miss Swinnerton, who died in 1838, weie 
Charles Kemeys Tynte, 1822-1891, who suceeded to the property, first in the nth Hussars, 
then in the Grenadier Guards, and Milbourne, a lieutenant in the Royal Irish Dragoon 
Guards, who was killed by a fall from his horse at the age of 22. 

t Granville Leveson-Gower, ist Earl Granville, 1773-1846, had just left Paris, where he 
had been ambassador for some years. He married, in 1809, Henrietta Elizabeth Cavendish 
da.ughter of William, Jth Duke of Devonshire, She died in 1862, ' 



228 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

your Ladyship & your kindnesses least of all. I intended long ago, as I believe I 
mentioned, to send you a little Ricordo of my studio, but I was unable to complete 
the work till just before the Exhibition, & have it moulded, and now beg your 
Ladyship to accept a cast of it. I call it "Blue Bell ;" the original belongs to 
Lord Francis Eijerton. 

'The Count' has given me up. I used sometimes to have the pleasure of 
seeing him. I beg to remain, madam, your Ladyship's ob' se'.' 

WESTMORLAND (John Fane, loth Earl of). A Statesman. 

(1759-1841.) 

A. L. S. Dated Berlin, January 21st, 1840. 4 pages 8vo. 

My dear Lady Blessington, — I have written to recommend that the wishes in 
favour of your pi-oteg^e should be attended to, and if Mrs. Percival will call at or 
send to the Royal Academy in Tenterden Street, asking for the Rev. Mr. 
Hamilton, she will learn what has been the decision of the Committee. I shall 
be most happy if T'have succeeded thus in forwarding a wish of yours. I shall 
be very anxious to see the statue of Alfred's, of which you speak. He is an 
extraordinary creature, with his talents of all sorts — coming out as a sculptor of 
high repute and perfection, is a singular proof of what I have said above. Pray 
remember me to him, and believe me very sincerely yours,' &c. 

WILLIS (Nathaniel Parker). An American Author. (1806-1867.) 

L A. L. S. Dated Gordon Castle, September 23rd (1834). 3|pages4to. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I am in a place which wants nothing but the 
sunshine of heaven and your presence (the latter by much the greater want), and 
I should while away the morning in gazing out upon its lovely park, were I not 
doomed to find a provoking pleasure (more than in anything else) in writing 
to you. 

' I am laid up with the gout (parole) and a prisoner to my own thoughts — 
thanks to Lady Blessington, sweet and dear ones. 

' I left Dalhousie a week ago, and returned to Edinburgh. I breakfasted 
ictc-a-tete with Wilson,* who gave me execrable food but brilliant conversation, and 
dined with Jeffrey,+ who had all the distinction of Auld Reekie at his table, besides 
Count Flahaultt and Lady Keith. His dinner was merueilleuxior Scotland, but I 
heard nothing worth remembering, and spent my time talking to an old solicitor, 
Cocburn§ (pronounced Cfjburn) and in watching the contortions of a lady who out- 
Broughams Brougham in crispations nerveuses. 

' I went afterwards to a ball, and then sat down, as I do after coming from 
your house, to make a mem. of the good things I had heard ; but the page under 
that date is still innocent of a syllable. Oh ! you have no idea, dear Lady 
Blessington, in what a brilliant atmosphere you live, compared with the dull 
world abroad. I long to get back to you. 

' From Edinboro' I meant to have come north by Loch Leven, but my ankle 

* John Wilson, 1785-1854, a well-known Scotch man of letters who, under the pseudonym of 
' Christopher North,' contributed to Blackwood, between 1822 and 1S35, the series of dialogues 
called ' Noctes Ambrosianx.' He was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University. 

t Francis, Lord Jeffrey, 1773-1850, a judge in the Court of Session in Scotland and one of 
the founders, and at one time editor, of the Edinbui-gh Review. In 1831 he became Lord 
Advocate, and in 1834 was raised to the Bench as Lord Jeffrey. His life and correspondence, 
by Lord Cockburn, appeared in 1S52. 

% Auguste Charles Joseph, Count de La Billarderie Flahaut, 1785-1870, a French general 
and diplomatist, who married, in 1817, Margaret Elphinstone, daughter of Admiral Lord Keith, 
afterwards Baroness Nairn, 178S-1867. The Lady Keith mentioned in the letter was the 
Countess's stepmother, Hester Marie Thrale, daughter of Mr. Thrale. 

§ Henry Thomas, Lord Cockburn, 1779-1854, a Scotch judge, who shared with Jeffrey 
the leadership of the Scottish Bar. A month after the date of the letter he was appointed, as 
Lord Cockburn, one of the Lords of Session, and in 1837 became a Lord Justiciary. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS, 229 

swelled suddenly, and was excessively painful, and the surgeon forbad me to set it 
to the ground, so I took the steamer for Aberdeen, and lay on a sofa in that 
detestable place for four days, when the Duke of Gordon* wrote to me to come and 
nurse it at the castle ; and here I am, just able to crawl down slipshod to 
dmner. 

' The house is full of people. Lord Aberdeen,+ who talks to me all the time, and 
who is kmd enough to give me a frank to you, is here with his son and daughter 
(she is a tall and very fine girl, and very conversable), and Lordj: and Lady Morton, 
and Lord Stormont,§ and Colonel Gordon, || Lord Aberdeen's brother, and the 
Duchess of Richmond,^ and three or four other ladies, and half-a-dozen other 
gentlemen, whom I do not know ; altogether, a party of twenty-two. There is a 
Lady Sophia Something,** very pale, tall, and haughty, twenty-three, and sarcastic, 
whom I sat next at dinner yesterday— a woman I come as near an antipathy for, 
as is possible, with a very handsome face for an apology. She entertained me 
with a tirade against human nature generally, and one or two individuals 
particularly, in a tone which was quite unnatural in a woman. 

' I have had a letter from Chorley, who says Rothwell has done wonders with 
your portrait, and has succeeded in what I believed he 'fiever would do— getting 
the character all into his picture. 

' I wish the art of transferring would extend to taking images from the heart ; 
I should believe then that an adequate likeness of you were possible. I envy 
Rothwell the happiness of merely working on it. If he takes half the pleasure in 
it that I do in transferring to my memory the features of your mind, he would get 
a princely price for his portrait. 

' I am dehghted with the Duke and Duchess. He is a delightful, hearty old 
fellow, full of fun and conversation ; and she is an uncommonly fine women, and, 
without beauty, has something agreeable in her countenance. She plays well and 
sings tolerably, and, on the whole, I like her. Pour moi-mhne, I get on every- 
where better than in your presence. I only fear I talk too much; but all the 
world is particularly civil to me, and among a score of people, no one of whom I 
had ever seen yesterday, I find myself quite at home to-day— ;^n?cf cl Dieu ! 

' I have no idea when I shall leave here, my elephant leg being at present 
the arbiter of my fate. I hope, however, to be at Dalhousie by the ist of 
October. Shall I find there the present I most value — a letter from your 
Ladyship ? 

' Pray give my warmest regards to D'Orsay and Barry ; and believe me, dear 
Lady Blessington, ever faithfully yours.'' 

' I long to see the proof sheets of your book. How is it getting on ? Is the 
Book of Beauty out yet ?' 

2. A. L. S. Dated 'Saturday Morning' (1835). 3 pages 8vo. 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — A letterturn'd up among my papers this morning, 
of which I once spoke to you; and, at the hazard of its offending you by its American 
impertinence, I enclose it to you, as an exponent of the tone of reputation you 

* George, 5th Duke of Gordon, 1770-1S36, Colonel of the Scots Fusiliers and Governor 
of Edinburgh Castle. He married, in 1813, Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Brodie, Esq. 

t George, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, 1784-1860, a distinguished statesman, who filled various 
high public offices, diplomatic and ministerial, having been Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs from 1828 to 1830 and again from 1 841 to 1846, and was First Lord of the Treasury from 
1852 to 1855. 

X George Sholto Douglas, 19th Earl of Morton, 1789-1858, a Representative Lord 
of Scotland. He married, in 1817, Frances Theodora, daughter of Sir George Henry Rose. 
She died in 1879. 

§ William David Murray, Lord Stormont, 4th and present Earl of Mansfield, born 1S06. 

II Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Gordon, 1790-1835, of the 42nd Highlanders. 

ir Caroline, Duchess of Richmond, eldest daughter of the Marquis of Anglesey and wife of 
Charles, 5th Duke of Richmond. She died in 1874. 

** Willis, in his PetuUlings by the Way, betrays that this was Lady Sophia Lennox, 
1811-1873, seventh daughter of Charles, 4th Duke of Richmond. Sh? married, in 183S, Lord 
Jhomas Cecil, 



230 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

have abroad. The remarks I refer to are on the back of the letter. The man is 
an extraordinary genius, self-educated, but full of talent, and his enthusiasm was 
suggested by my speaking of Rothwell's picture of you, and wishing he was here 
to try his hand at a better. 

' I am just through with my monthly labours, and with the corrections to my 
volume, and at leisure (the first hour these two months). The first use I make of 
it is to go quietly through your book, and I shall make to-morrow the digest for the 
Herald^ which I have so long wished to do. 

' I shall send you, to-morrow or Monday, the shgets of Melanie, which I hope 
you will like. The close is better than the beginning. Believe me to be, my dear 
Lady Blessington, ever faithfully yours.' 

' Do not think I have forgotten the Book of Beauty. I have an idea laid away 
which I can produce for you at any moment, and you know you have only to give 
me any orders you please, for all my possible in your service.' 

3. A. L. S. Dated ' Friday ' (1835). 

'Dear Lady Blessington, — My mind has run a great deal on your book, since 
the delightful morning I passed with you, and several titles have occurred to me, 
only two of which I think at all eligible ; one is " Risks in High Life," and the 
other " Under-Currents in High Life," both of which seem to me taking titles, 
and descriptive of the plot. You will have seen that your plot is so varied and 
complicated, that it is exceedingly difficult to find a brief tA\^ that at all defines 
it. Reflection confirms me in the the opinion that it is an admirable and racy 
design ; and I will promise you success without having seen a line of it. Pray 
elaborate well the poetical passages which so struck me ! Depend upon it, the 
reading world feels them, whatever the critics may do. 

' Moore has called twice on me at the club, but I have not seen him. I look 
forward with the greatest delight to meeting him on Monday. 

' I have not seen Procter ; but I have met him in thought, I doubt not, at the 
shrine where we both worship. Believe me, dear Lady Blessington, wholly yours.' 

' Look at my seal and see the pretty ' W.' I have had cut on your pencil case, 
for which thank you, thank you. It will be an inheritance to my child if I ever 
get one.' 

4. A. L. S. No date (1836). 2 pages 8vo. and i| pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I send you a rough draft of my idea for Lady 
Buckinghamshire's* picture. If you think it will do, I will elaborate it before 
you want it. It is at present a little indistinct. 

' Fonblanque has written me a note which, without giving me grounds for 
a quarrel, is very ungentlemanlike I think. Bulwer has written me, too, and a 
more temperate, just (tho' severe), and gentlemanly letter I never read. He 
gives me no quarter, but I like him better for having written it, and he makes 
me tenfold more ashamed of those silly, ill-starr'd letters. I enclose his letter 
to you, which I beg may not be seen by another eye than your own. 

' I shall soon have the pleasure to see you, I trust, and remain, dear Lady 
Blessington, ever faithfully yours.' 

'The Countess of Buckinghamshire. 

' The music of the waken'd lyre 

Dies not within the quivering strings ; 
Nor burns alone the minstrel's fire 

Upon the lip that trembling sings ; 
Nor shines the moon in Heaven unseen ; 

Nor shuts the flower its fragrant cells ; 
Nor sleeps the fountain's wealth, I ween, 

Forever in its sparry wells 
The charms of th' enchanter lie 
Not in his own lone heart — his own rapt ear and eye. 

** Eleanor Agnes Eden, Countess of Buckinghamshire, 1778-1851, eldest daughter of 
William, 1st Lord Auckland, and wife of Robert, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire. The verses, 
with some few differences, appeared under her portrait in the Book of Beauty for 1836. 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 231 

' I gaze upon a face as fair 

As ever made a lip of Heaven 
Falter amid its music-prayer. 

The first-lit star of summer even 
Springs scarce so softly on the eye, 

Nor grows with watching half so bright, 
Nor, 'mid its sisters of the sky. 

So seems of Heaven the dearest light. 
Men murmur, where that shape is seen, 
" iVIy youth's angelic dream was of that form and mien." 

' Yet, though we deem the stars are blest, 

And envy in our grief the flower 
That bears but sweetness in its breast, 

Ancf praise the enchanter for his power. 
And love the minstrel for the spell 
He winds from out his lyre so well — 
The starlight doth the wanderer bless, 

The lyre the listener's tears beguile. 
And — lady, in thy loneliness. 

Whose is to-day that radiant smile ? 
A lamp is lit in beauty's eyes. 
That souls, else lost on earth, remember angels by.' 

5. A. L. S. Date 'Manor House, Lee, Kent, Monday, iSth' (1836). 

' My dear Lady Blessington, — I enclose you a copy of a letter I have sent to Cap- 
tain Marryatt, who is abroad. I don't know whether you have seen his attack,* but 
I have been advised to print and send to my friends the letter you now receive, 
while I am waiting for his answer. It will eventually be pubhshed, but meantime 
his abuse rests on my reputation. I scarce regret his attack, since it gives me 
an opportunity^ once for all, of meeting these matters in a tangible shape ; and 
once for all, I shall carry the point well through. 

'I have written quietly, and given Marryatt an opportunity to explain, which 
I hope he will do ; but an explanation I must have. Pray write me your 
opinion of my document, for I am not much skilled in this kind of corre- 
spondence.' 

6. A. L. S. (to Dr. Madden). Dated Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, April 
6th (1836). 

' My dear Sir, — The severe indisposition of my wifet has confined me for the 
month past almost entirely to the house, and I have been out of the way either of 
seeing persons or of hearing news. I learned to-day for the first time that in 
a late No. of the Examiner{v/\nch I have not seen) there has appeared an extract 
from your new book, in which you complain of an American gentleman to whom 
you entrusted your MSS. The enclosed note will explain to you the history of 
the books & INiSS. you were kind enough to commit to my charge up to their 
arrival in London. Since that time they have remained at an American 
publisher's in Red Lion Square, subject to your order. I had immediately 
informed Lady Blessington of the arrival, and presuming that you must have 
known of the fact through her Ladyship, I have expected to receive directions 
from you respecting them. 

' I feel sure that you will immediately acquit me of any intentional neglect 

* Both Willis himself and his Pencillings by the Way were severely commented upon in the 
Metropolitan Magazine for January 1836, of which Marryatt was the editor. Willis's letter to 
Marryatt, which he had lithographed and sent copies to seven of his friends, eventually resulted 
in a challenge from Marryatt, and a. meeting was arranged at Chatham. Marryatt's second, 
however, finding his principal in the wrong, made him concede what was necessary, and the 
affair ended peacefully. 

t Willis married, October 1st, 183S, Mary, daughter of General Stace, Royal Ordnance Store« 
keeper at Woolwich Arsenal. She died in 1845. 



-32 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

towards you after this explanation, and omit, if it is not too late, any remarks in 
your book which may (as I am afraid they will) reflect on my fairness. Your 
hospitality to me when I was in Italy, aside from my sincere and often expressed 
admiration of your genius, prevent me effectually from making any other appeal 
than to yourself for a justification. I trust I have not & shall never forfeit the 
claim to your friendship founded on your own gratifying and flattering kindness. 
I remain, my dear sir, very faithfully yours. 

' Mr. Fay,* the author of the enclosed note, sailed for America on the i'' of 
October last.' 

7. A. L. S. Dated ' Old Charlton, Blackheath, Friday Morning ' (1836). 
3 pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— Though I knew what to expect of your warm- 
hearted nature, I was not the less gratified and grateful in receiving your kind 
reply to my request. With Count D'Orsay's generous influence added to your 
own, I am sure Lieut. Stace can scarcely fail to get the appointment. Mrs. 
Willis begs for leave to call and thank you for the very great kindness of your 
interest for her brother. We shall be in town for a day or two next week, and 
with your permission we will give ourselves this pleasure some morning before 
your hour of going out. 

' I don't know whether you and D'Orsay have discovered the rkhauffdes of 
your own stories in my last book. Do you remember the Count's telling us one 
evening the story of the Bandit of Austria, the horse-stealer of Vienna ? Your 
tale of the Roman girl is almost literally repeated in Violani Cesarini, wanting, 
it is true, the unrivalled charm of your manner as a raconteuse. You would 
recognize too, I think, the description of your house in Lady Ravelgold's 
Romance. Indeed, dear Lady Blessington, you must look on everything I have 
done since I first knew you as being partly your own creation, for never was a 
mind so completely impressed upon another as yours upon mine. But all this 
you know. 

' My address in town which you so kindly ask is Otley's, Conduit Street. I 
am there every other day, and anything sent there is transmitted to me by the 
evening's post. 

' With my best thanks and remembrance to Count D'Orsay, beheve me, my 
dear Lady Blessington, ever faithfully yours.' 

8. A. L. S. Dated ' Charlton, Thursday Morning,' 1836. 3! pages 8vo. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — I must express to you the pleasure I had in making 
Mrs. Willis acquainted with you, she, like all Avho approach you, having formed 
an immediate and strong attachment. She begs me to renew her adieus to you, 
and tell you how happy she shall be to meet you again on her return. She 
started an hour since for Chichester, whither I follow to-morrow. 

' I cannot leave England without hoping, dear Lady Blessington, that I am 
counted among your friends the warmest and most attached. The best part of 
the many kind services you have rendered me, is the presumption it gives me 
that you consider me a friend. Believe me, there are few I ever loved more, and 
none whose remembrance I more covet when I am absent. Once more, 
adieu, dear Lady Blessington, and believe me, most faithfully yours.' 

'Anything sent to John Miller, Publisher, Henrietta Street, Covent Gardeti, 
will be forwarded to me in the dispatch bag of the Minister.' 

' Kindest remembrance and farewell to Count D'Orsay. Should you see 
D'Israeli soon, will you tell him I still trust to his promise of visiting us on his 
way to Niagara ? Will you make my compliments acceptable to Miss Power, 
and say that the letter she proposed to charge me with will reach me at Ports- 
mouth, if mailed on Friday evening and directed to me there paste restante. I 

* Theodore Sedgwick Fay, born in 1807, an American author, joint-editor with Willis of 
the New York Mirror. He was American Secretary of Legation at Berlin from 1837 to 1853, 
and from 1853 to 1861 was Minister at Berne. After 1861 he lived in retirement in Berlin, 



THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 233 

shall be too happy to be her messenger, or to execute any commission for her in 
America. 

9. A. L. S. Dated Dublin, January 25th, 1840. 3 pages 4to. 

' Dear Lady Blessington,— Your very kind note was forwarded to me here by 
Saunders and Otley, and I need scarce say it gave me great pleasure. One of the 
strongest feelmgs of my life was the friendship you suffered me to cherish for you 
when I first came to England ; and while I have no more treasured leaf in my 
memory than the brilliant and happy hours I passed in Seamore Place, I have 
I assure you, no deeper regret than that my indiscretion (in Pencillings) should 
have check'd the freedom of my approach to you. Still my attachment and 
admiration (so unhappily recorded) are always on the alert for some trace that 
I am still remembered by you, and so you will easily fancy that the kind friendli- 
ness of your note gave me unusual happiness. My first pleasure when I return 
to town will be to avail myself of your kind invitation, and call at Gore 
House. 

' By the same post which brought me your note I received another from 
Anierica, signed " Lady Blessington," and I must perform a promise to the writer 
of it, at the risk of your thinking both her and myself very silly, if not intrusive. 
She is one of the most beautiful girls I ever saw, and the daughter of one of our 
few acknowledged gentry, a gentleman who lives upon his fortune on the Hudson. 
She chances to be singularly like your picture by Parris, much more like than 
most originals are like their pictures. She has been told of this so often, and com- 
plimented so much in consequence, that her head is quite turned (literally indeed, 
for she always sits in the attitude of the picture), and for two years I have refused 
to do what she has prevailed on me to do at last, to ask you to write to her ! ! 
She thinks of nothing but the hope of procuring this honour, and I positively 
think it has become a monomania. So now I have put myself into the " category 
of bores," but I have discharged my errand, and after you have laughed at it, 
you will, I presume, think no more about it ; still, if you took it into your head to 
gratify her, I should feel it as a very condescending and important favour to 
myself She is a high-spirited, romantic, fearless girl, tete monUe, as you may 
suppose, but magnificently beautiful, and as she has a large fortune, and will 
probably travel the first year of her marriage, she would doubtless call on you 
soon in London, and present her thanks very eloquently. Her name is Van 
Wyck — Miss Van Wyck, of Grove Hill ; and if you should write, if you will be 
kind enough to enclose the note to me, I will forward it. 

' I am in Ireland, picking up materials for one of Virtue's pictorial books,* and 
next week I go to the Giant's Causeway, &c. I shall be in the country perhaps a 
fortnight, and in London probably in the course of a month. Meantime, dear 
Lady Blessington, I remain yours most faithfully.' 

' Remember me most kindly to D'Orsay.' 

10. A. L. S. Dated 137 Regent Street, Friday Evening, January 24th, 
1845. 4 pages Svo., with Superscription. 

' Dear Lady Blessington, — After some argument, with a reluctant heart, I 
have persuaded myself that it is better to say adieu to you on paper, partly 
from a fear that I might not find you alone, should I call to-morrow (my last 
day in England) ; and partly because my visit to you the other day forms 
a sweet memory, which I would not willingly risk o\erlaying with one less 
sympathetic. 

'As a man is economical with his last sixpence, I am a miser of what is 
probably my last remembrance of you, believing as I do that I shall never again 
cross the Atlantic. 

' I unwillingly forego, however, my expression of thanks and happiness for 
your delightful reception of my daughter's visit ; and you were too tenderly human 

• Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland, by N. P. Willis and J. Stirling Coyne, published i 
1842. 

R 



534 THE BLESSINGTON PAPERS. 

not to value what I could tell you of your impression on my mulatto servant* 
She saw you to love you, as any human being would, who saw you as she did, 
without knowing the value of rank. Little Imogen talked a great deal of her 
visit when she returned, and your kind gift to her will be treasured. 

' I hope, dear Lady Blessington, that the new tho' sad leaf of life that death 
has turned over for you, will not be left wholly uncopied for the world. You 
would make so sweet a book, if you did but embody the new spirit in which you 
now think and feel. Pardon my mention of it ; but I thought, while you were 
talking to me the other day, as if you could scarce be conscious how with the 
susceptibilities and fresh view of genius you were looking upon the mournful web 
weaving around you. 

' I leave here on Sunday morning for Portsmouth to embark with the most 
grateful feeling for the kindness with which you have renew'd your friendship 
towards me. I remain, dear Lady Blessington, most faithfully yours.' 

' My best remembrances, with my adieux, to Count d'Orsay.' 

* This mulatto servant, Harriet Jacobs, had an interesting history. She was an escaped 
slave from a plantation in North Carolina, who took refuge with a family of free negroes, by 
whom she was kept hidden for five years, at the end of which time she escaped to the North in 
1842, and became Willis's house servant. She remained in his household until 1861, having 
meantime been bought by Willis in order to protect her effectually against her former owners, 
who had tracked her out. When the Civil War began she went to Washington, and became 
matron to a soldiers' hospital. She was still living there in 1885. 




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