BYRON'S LETTERS TO DOUGLAS KINNAIRD ... - Get a Free Blog

Shadwell was their first referee – & yet to him the Arbitrators refer for an impartial law opinion! –
I never heard of such a thing. –
2d ly . – I will have the question settled in Chancery. –
3d ly . M r . Davidson has no pretensions to a pension from the Noel estates – he served twenty years on
the Halnaby but only seven on the Noel – besides he is a most improper person – from drunkenness &
incapacity – ask Barrett – or Hobhouse –
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or even Lady B. herself whom I have heard laugh at him a thousand times.
4th ly . You say what “has Surveying the estate to do with raising the rents” now – in the devil’s name
did ever any one hear of surveying an estate to lower them? – & would you at such a time have me
throw away hundreds of pounds on a survey? for what? since you say it is not to raise the rents? –
I really do not quite understand you – all that I know is – first you agree with me – & then with the next
person who talks differently on the subject. –
The Affair must go into Chancery – I will not allow their Counsel M r . Shadwell
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to decide for me – and I wonder how Sir Francis could consent to such a reference. – but anything I
suppose because D r . Lushington is a pretended reformer. I can tell you Gentlemen reformers – that
whatever happens – or whenever it does happen. the people will never have confidence in any lawyer
or similar scum of the worst earth, nor will I – and I suspect that some of these days if I come to live in
England – will startle Some of your politicians –
y rs . ever & truly
N. B.
P.S.
I do reiterate
once for all – send
me my fee – you have
no idea of the inconvenience
& anxiety I have undergone from this omission.
Byron to Douglas Kinnaird, from Pisa, August 24th 1822:
(Source: text from NLS Ms.43453; not in 1922 II; BLJ IX 195-6)
[To, The Honorable / Douglas Kinnaird. / Messrs Ransom & C o . Bankers. / Pall Mall. / London. /
Angleterre. // Inghilterra.]
Pisa. August 24 th . 1822.
My dear Douglas /
I am pacified – & soothed by the arrival of “fee” though tardy – but {do
not} send your notes on the tour of Europe another time – it is making them too Circular – by nature as
well as by name. – By the way – you “have stinted me in my sizings” 45 – the sum ought to have been
more – the whole interest – is 2525 £ S.D. – for fee besides 190 £S.D. from Sir Jacob annually – Now –
you only sent me {in January} twelve hundred {of regular fee} & ditto now – {making but 2400
£S.D.} & besides kept back 81. at the beginning of the year to meet any sundries – – what have you
done with those parings? – paid the insurance – or what? – if so I wonder at your assurance – let the
Noel Assetts pay for their insurance
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I will have my own fee entire – and then the Rochdale Swop of 500 – have you been liquidating
Spooney or others therewith? – – And now when will be the first Noel incoming? at Michaelmas eh? –
& how much do you have the modesty to propose that I should give up to liquidation? – please to
recollect no “Davidson” – he has no claim to a pension except from Halnaby – having only
mismanaged Kirkby for seven years – surely it is not honest to wish to quarter a drunken
supernumerary upon me – it is base – & you should think & say so. – And the 4000 £ which you say
Sir Jacob means to pay – where will it be invested? – not in the funds I hope at their present price –
45: Shakespeare, King Lear II iv 172-6: (mutilated): “‘Tis not in thee / To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my
train, / To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes, / And in conclusion to oppose the bolt / Against my coming in …”
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