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

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should do – without any real enmity, or affected generosity towards those who have not set me a very
violent example of forbearance. –
Enclosed are letters {from} M r . Hanson (and another Solicitor) on some Rochdale business
– by which it seems that I may obtain two thousand pounds more or less – for permission to the town to
{to take toll} for the new Market place. – I will accept whatever you and he deem fair & reasonable –
or I will be as unreasonable as you please. – Will you request Sir Francis Burdett to accept my
nomination – he knows Leicestershire – and he knows Lawyers – and he is a man of {the loftiest}
talents and integrity, with whom I have lived a little & for whom I have the highest esteem. – Will not
my address through you suffice – without my
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writing to him in person? – – – –
Believe me ever & very truly
yours most affectionately
and (since it must be so)
Noel Byron
[scrawl]
Byron to Douglas Kinnaird, from Pisa, February 19th 1822:
(Source: text from NLS Ms.43453; 1922 II 213-14; BLJ IX 107-9)
[To The Honorable Douglas Kinnaird / Messrs Ransom & C o . Bankers. / Pall Mall. / London. /
Angleterre. // Inghilterra.]
Pisa. Feb y 19 th . 1822.
My dear Douglas /
By last post y r . letter was answered at some length; – I also wrote to M r . Hanson –
and to Sir Francis Burdett requesting the latter to accept my nomination of referee in the case of Wife
versus Husband on the score of Monies to be divided. – I also pressed and press upon you, (my Attorno
of power) that L y . B’s life must be forthwith ensured for ten thousand pounds – by which I can – (in
case of accidents) pay my creditors – while – if she lives, and I live – I will set aside a sum in
proportion to my share of the carrion, to pay the crows who hover about {it}; in two, three, or more
years. I will either reimburse to you the expence of insurance in your own circulars – or by such
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{deduction} from our next account – as may liquidate {the same;} whichever you please – but pray –
insure her life; – I have so little confidence of any Good coming from such a quarter – that I have
been rather deprest in spirits than otherwise since the intelligence that I had an enemy the less in this
world. – – By the same post I also transmitted to you a letter of M r . Hanson upon some Rochdale toll
business, {from} which there are Monies in prospect – he says two thousand pounds – but
supposing it {to be} one {only;} or even one hundred; still – they be monies – and I have lived long
enough to have an {exceeding} respect for the smallest current coin of any realm, or the
least sum which, though I may not want it myself, may at least do something for my children, or for
others who may want it more than me. – – –
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They say “Knowledge is power – – I used to think so, but they meant “Money” – who said so – &
when Socrates declared “that all that he knew was that he knew nothing” – he merely intended to
{declare} that he had not a drachma in the Athenian World. – – –
The principal points for the consideration of my refereè – besides those more technical ones
(wherewithal M r . Hanson should possess him) are – firstly – the large Settlement (Sixty thousand
pounds, {i.e.} ten thousand pounds {more} than I was advised to make upon the Miss Milbanke) –
made by me upon this female; – secondly – the comparative smallness of her {then} fortune –
(twenty thousand pounds – and that never paid) when surely as a young man with an old title – – of a
fortune independent enough at that time (as Newstead would have made me had {then} the
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