CHAPTER XVIII.

RETURN TO FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH LORD BYRON AND THOMAS MOORE.

First sight of Lord Byron.-Jackson the prize-fighter.-Bathing Westminster.-Sympathy with early poems.—More prison recollections.-Lord Byron and the House of Peers.-Thomas Moore and the Liberal.—Mistaken conclusions of his.—His appearance, manners, and opinions.—Letters of Lord Byron.

LORD BYRON was at Leghorn; the bad weather has disappeared; the vessel is about to enter port; and as everything concerning the noble lord is interesting, and the like may be said of his brother wit and poet, Thomas Moore, who introduced me to him, I will take this opportunity of doing what had better, perhaps, been done when I first made his lordship's acquaintance; namely, state when it was that I first saw the one, and how I became acquainted with the other. My intimacy with Lord Byron is about to become closer; the results of it are connected both with him and his friend, and as these results are on the eve of commencing, my own

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interest in the subject is strengthened, and I call things to mind which I had suffered to escape me.

The first time I saw Lord Byron, he was rehearsing the part of Leander, under the auspices of Mr. Jackson the prize-fighter. It was in the river Thames, before he went to Greece. There used to be a bathing-machine stationed on the eastern side of Westminster Bridge; and I had been bathing, and was standing on this machine adjusting my clothes, when I noticed a respectable-looking manly person, who was eyeing something at a distance. This was Mr. Jackson waiting for his pupil. The latter was swimming with somebody for a wager. I forgot what his tutor said of him; but he spoke in terms of praise. I saw nothing in Lord Byron at that time, but a young man who, like myself, had written a bad volume of poems; and though I had a sympathy with him on this account, and more respect for his rank than I was willing to suppose, my sympathy was not an agreeable one; so, contenting myself with seeing his lordship's head bob up and down in the water, like a buoy, I came away.

Lord Byron, when he afterwards came to see me in prison, was pleased to regret that I had not stayed. He told me, that the sight of my volume at Harrow had been one of his incentives to write verses, and that he had had the same passion for friendship which I had displayed in it. To my

astonishment he quoted some of the lines, and would not hear me speak ill of them. His harbinger in the visit was Moore. Moore told me, that, besides liking my politics, his lordship liked the Feast of the Poets, and would be glad to make my acquaintance. I said I felt myself highly flattered, and should be proud to entertain his lordship as well as a poor patriot could. He was accordingly invited to dinner. His friend only stipulated that there should be "fish and vegetables for the noble bard;" his lordship at that time being anti-carnivorous in his eating. He came, and we passed a very pleasant afternoon, talking of books, and school, and of their friend and brother poet the late Rev. Mr. Bowles; whose sonnets were among the early inspirations of Coleridge.

Lord Byron, as the reader has seen, subsequently called on me in the prison several times. He used to bring books for the Story of Rimini, which I was then writing. He would not let the footman bring them in. He would enter with a couple of quartos under his arm; and give you to understand that he was prouder of being a friend and a man of letters, than a lord. It was thus that by flattering one's vanity he persuaded us of his own freedom from it ; for he could see very well that I had more value for lords than I supposed.

In the correspondence which closes the present

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volume, the reader will find some letters addressed to me at this period by Lord Byron. The noble poet was a warm politician, earnest in the cause of liberty. His failure in the House of Lords is well known. He was very candid about it; said he was much frightened, and should never be able to do anything that way. Lords of all parties came about him, and consoled him. He particularly mentioned Lord Sidmouth, as being unexpectedly kind.

It was very pleasant to see Lord Byron and Moore together. They harmonized admirably : though their knowledge of one another began in talking of a duel, in consequence of his lordship attacking the license of certain early verses. Moore's acquaintance with myself (as far as concerned correspondence by letter), originated in the mention of him in the Feast of the Poets. He subsequently wrote an opera, called the Blue Stocking, respecting which he sent me a letter, at once deprecating and warranting objection to it. I was then editor of the Examiner; I did object to it, though with all acknowledgment of his genius. He came to see me, saying I was very much in the right; and an intercourse took place, which was never ostensibly interrupted till I thought myself aggrieved by his opposition to the periodical work proposed to me by his noble friend. I say "thought myself aggrieved," because I have long since acquitted him of any intention

towards me, more hostile than that of zeal in behalf of what he supposed best for his lordship. He was desirous of preventing him from coming before the Tory critics under a new and irritating aspect, at a time when it might be considered prudent to keep quiet, and propitiate objections already existing. The only thing which remained for me to complain of, was his not telling me so frankly; for this would have been a confidence which I deserved; and it would either have made me, of my own accord, object to the project at once, without the least hesitation, or, at all events, have been met by me with such a hearty sense of the plain dealing, and in so friendly a spirit of difference, that no ill-will, I think, could have remained on either side. Moore, at least, was of too generous a spirit for it; and I was of too grateful a one.

Unfortunately, this plan was not adopted by his lordship's friends; and hence a series of bitter feel-. ings on both sides, which, as I was the first to express them, so I did not hesitate to be the first to regret publicly, when on both sides they had tacitly been done away.

Moore fancied, among other things, that I meant to pain him by speaking of his small stature; and perhaps it was wrong to hazard a remark on so delicate a subject, however inoffensively meant; especially as it led to other personal characteristics, which might