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

emaining account – but I cannot decide what or how much I shall pay – till I know what we have to
receive. – I will do my best to live on a thousand or twelve hundred
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pounds per annum till I have realized. – My present ordinary expences do not in fact amount to half
that sum. – – –
Can’t you sell – Webster’s bond – (Hanson has it) with ten years interest due – (an excellent
recommendation!) principal a thousand, interest five hundred pounds. – It hath a judgement – or a
“Vision of judgement” to it. – I would take almost anything for it. – After all the D. J.s must bring
something even if less than expected – rating them by the former ones, – and “Werner” (in a few
months) be not altogether unproductive – as it will be added by former purchasers to the {former}
works. – –
Much of all this must be casual – & may be chimerical – but it is worth attending to – Mind the
insurances – if it is a good year – I would carry them to 25000 even. – –
I shall be very willing to settle with Deardon – if he is at all practicable – but in all cases
3:1 [NOT YET FOUND: text adapted from BLJ]
the will of the Gods must be obeyed. – Send me a good Cocker 99 – or the best Simplifier of Arithmetic
– I cast up my household accounts – & settle them daily myself – and you cannot imagine the
difference. – – Enclosed is a slip of a note which please to present to Hobhouse – tell him also that I
have written to Whitton. He thought proper to send Lady M.’s [book?] 100 to me here from Turin – &
has nearly gotten me into a scrape – although I positively desired him not. – I pray you to accelerate –
or rather facilitate these subjects which I submit to your experience – and it is not impossible (if they
are adjusted) that we may meet in England some years sooner than we think.
ever y rs . & truly
N B
From Douglas Kinnaird to Byron, from London, December 17th 1822:
(Source: text from NLS Ms.43456)
… I shall by next Post to make a very pleasant communication from Goethe who is delighted with y r
dedication of Sardanapalus to him …
Byron to Douglas Kinnaird, from Genoa, December 19th 1822:
(Source: text from NLS Ms.43454; 1922 II 238-9; BLJ X 61-3)
[To, The Honorable Douglas Kinnaird. / Messrs Ransom & C o . Bankers. / Pall Mall. / London. /
Angleterre. // Inghilterra.]
10b re . 19 o 1822.
My dear Douglas,
As you are convalescent – that is to say not quite well – but not ill enough to find
yourself not ennuyè – I have less hesitation in writing frequently – because after having yawned
sufficiently over present friends – you can fairly go to sleep over an epistle from the absent. – When
you are once abroad again – haranguing – galloping – banking – and prospering – I shall have less
chance of attention – but nevertheless I pray you – to “ride gently over the testicles” as M rs . Matlock 101
of Cambridge memory was wont in her improvement of language – to direct her Coachman in driving
over the Stones. – One would think you had been breaking in my Pegasus – by the falls you have
undergone. – Prithee – be careful – after a Man
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is turned of thirty – why should he ride a mad horse – except in case of war or woman? in all other
respects a hackney – or other Coach – is more becoming his age and station. – I have been pondering
over the late vicissitudes of our D.J.s – I am not quite clear that if we had a proper security for the
accompts being as correct as Cocker – it would not be the best plan of the two. – As for M.’s intrigues
– and R.’s demons – they are not worth a thought; – I tell you that the two most successful things that
99: Edward Cocker’s Arithmetic was the standard Do-It-Yourself calculating book.
100: Lady Morgan, Italy (1821).
101: Could be “Mortlock”.
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