Part 17 (1/2)

Moore's Life of Byron;

Lady Byron's own account of the separation, published in 1830;

Lady Byron's stateiving an extract from Lady Anne Barnard's diary, and a copy of a letter froe;

Mrs Miiven in a daily paper published at Newcastle, England;

And Lady Byron's letters, as given recently in the late 'London Quarterly'

All which docue themselves into a connected series

Fro to Mrs Mimms' account, which is likely to be accurate, the ti was three weeks at Halnaby Hall, and six weeks at Seaha this first period of three weeks, Lord Byron's treatment of his wife, as testified to by the servant, was such that she advised her young mistress to return to her parents; and, at one time, Lady Byron had almost resolved to do so

What the particulars of his conduct were, the servant refuses to state; being bound by a promise of silence to her mistress She, however, testifies to a war between Lady Byron and Mrs

Leigh, in a manner which would lead us to feel that Lady Byron received and was received by Lord Byron's sister with the greatest affection Lady Byron herself says to Lady Anne Barnard, 'I had heard that he was the best of brothers;' and the inference is, that she, at an early period of her reatest confidence in his sister, and wished to have her with them as much as possible In Lady Anne's account, this wish to have the sister with her was increased by Lady Byron's distress at her husband's atteion and e

In Moore's Life, vol iii, letter 217, Lord Byron writes fro a copy of his verses in Lady Byron's handwriting, and saying, 'We shall leave this place to-morrow, and shall stop on our way to town, in the interval of taking a house there, at Colonel Leigh's, near Newmarket, where any epistle of yours will find its welco to that d---d entlemen call conversation, in which , save one, when he played upon the fiddle However, they have been vastly kind and hospitable, and I like them and the place vastly; and I hope they will live ood-hu and parting'

Nine days after this, under date of March 17, Lord Byron says, 'We mean to metropolize to-morrow, and you will address your next to Piccadilly'

The inference is, that the days interh's The next letters, and all subsequent ones for six months, are dated from Piccadilly

As we have shown, there is every reason to believe that a warh and Lady Byron, and that, during all this time, Lady Byron desired as much of the society of her sister-in-law as possible She was a married woman and a mother, her husband's nearest relative; and Lady Byron could with more propriety ask, from her, counsel or aid in respect to his peculiarities than she could from her own parents If we consider the character of Lady Byron as given by Mrs

Mi, without sister or brother, longing for hu with a faithful dependant,--we h Lord Byron s which he checked and rejected for hiht have flowed out towards his sister with enthusiash's visit does not appear

The first domestic indication in Lord Byron's letters from London is the announcement of the death of Lady Byron's uncle, Lord Wentworth, froe expectations of property Lord Byron had mentioned him before in his letters as so kind to Bell and himself that he could not find it in his heart to wish hi here

In his letter of April 23, hethis news, 'although,' as he says, 'he ought to have stayed at home in sackcloth for ”unc”'

On June 12, he writes that Lady Byron is ress towards maternity; and that they have been out very little, as he wishes to keep her quiet We are informed by Moore that Lord Byron was at this time a member of the Drury-Lane Theatre Committee; and that, in this unlucky connection, one of the fatalities of the first year of trial as a husband lay Froiven in Moore, it is apparent, that, while he thinks it best for his wife to remain at home, he does not propose to share the retire his own separate career with such persons as thronged the greenroo on Lord Byron's course, we must not by anyanydrunk at dinner-parties, and leading, generally, ould, in these days, be called a disorderly life, was great We should infer that none of the literarydrunk occasionally The Noctes A, in the broadest terhest condition of a civilised being {178a}

But drunkenness upon Lord Byron had a peculiar and specific effect, which he notices afterwards, in his Journal, at Venice: 'The effect of all wines and spirits upon loomy at the very h sullenly' {178b} And, again, in another place, he says, 'Wine and spirits e to ferocity'

It is well known that the effects of alcoholic excitement are various as the natures of the subjects But by far the worst effects, and the most destructive to domestic peace, are those that occur in cases where spirits, instead of acting on the nerves ofthe subject of power in that direction, stimulate the brain so as to produce there the ferocity, the steadiness, the utter deadness to compassion or conscience, which characterise aht be the return of such a madman to the domestic roof! Nor can we account for those scenes described in Lady Anne Barnard's letters, where Lord Byron returned fro experiments on his wife, otherwise than by his own statelooe to ferocity'

Take for exa home fronantly collected, and bearing all with such a determined calmness, that a rush of remorse seemed to coh his sister was present, threw hiive him such injuries! He had lost me forever!” Astonished at this return to virtue, my tears, I believe, flowed over his face; and I said, ”Byron, all is forgotten; never, never shall you hear of ithis arhter ”What do you mean?” said I ”Only a philosophical experiment; that's all,” said he ”I wished to ascertain the value of your resolutions”'

To ascribe such deliberate cruelty as this to the effect of drink upon Lord Byron, is the most charitable construction that can be put upon his conduct

Yet the manners of the period were such, that Lord Byronwhat many of his acquaintances did freely, and without fear of consequences