Page:The Literary Magnet 1828 vol 5.djvu/37

see very well at that time, that I had more value for lords than I supposed. He was a warm politican, and thought himself 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 any thing that way. Lords of all parties came about him, and consoled him; he particularly mentioned Lord Sidmouth as being unaffectedly kind. When I left prison I was too ill to return his visits. He pressed me very much to go to the theatre with him; but illness, and the dread of committing my critical independence, alike prevented me. His Lordship was one of a management that governed Drury-lane Theatre at that time, and that made a sad business of their direction, as amateur managers have always done. He got nothing by it but petty vexations, and a good deal of scandal.

"I was then living at Paddington. I had a study looking over the fields towards Westbourne Green; which I mention, because, besides the pleasure I took in it after my prison, and the gratitude I owe to a fair cousin, who saved me from being burnt there one fine morning, I received visits in it from two persons of a remarkable discrepancy of character—Lord Byron, and Mr. Wordsworth. Lord Byron, I thought, took a pleasure in it, as contrasted with the spiendour of his great house. He had too much reason to do so. His domestic troubles were then about to become public. His appearance at that time was the finest I ever saw it, a great deal finer than it was afterwards, when he was abroad. He was fatter than before his marriage, but only just enough so to complete the manliness of his person: and the turn of his head and countenance had a spirit and elevation in it, which, though not unmixed with disquiet, gave him altogether a nobler look than I ever knew him to have before or since. His dress, which was black, with white trowsers, and which he wore buttoned close over the body, completed the succinctness and gentlemanliness of his appearance. I remember one day, as he stood looking out of the window, he resembled, in a lively manner, the portrait of him by Phillips, by far the best that has appeared; I mean, the best of him at his best time of life, and the most like him in features as well as expression. He sat one morning so long, that Lady Byron sent up twice, to let him know she was waiting. Lady Byron used to go on in the carriage to Henderson's nursery-ground to get flowers. I had not the honour of knowing her, nor ever saw her but once, when I caught a glimpse of her at the door. I thought she had a pretty earnest look, with her "pippin" face; an epithet by which she playfully designated herself.

"The first visit I paid Lord Byron, was just after their separation. The public, who took part with the lady, as they ought to do, (women in their relations with the other sex being under the most unhandsome disadvantages) had, nevertheless, no idea of the troubles which her husband was suffering at that time. He was very ill, his face jaundiced with bile; the renouncement of his society by Lady Byron, had disconcerted him extremely, and was, I believe, utterly unlooked for; then the journals, and their attacks upon him, were felt severely; and, to crown all, he had an execution in his house. I was struck with the real trouble he manifested, compared with what the public thought of