English History

  • Poets
    • Byron
      • Letters
      • Poems
      • General
    • Keats
      • Letters
      • Poetry
    • Shakespeare
      • Plays
    • Tennyson
  • Vikings
  • Middle Ages
  • Stuarts
    • English Civil War
  • Tudor
    • Monarchs
    • Citizens
    • Relatives
    • Letters
    • Quizzes
  • Vikings
  • About
    • Start a History Blog
    • Cookie Policy
    • Contact
    • The Right to Display Public Domain Images
    • Author & Reference Information For Students

Lord Byron to Francis Hodgson, 3 November 1808

My dear Hodgson,

I expected to have heard ere this the event of your interview with the mysterious Mr. Hayne, my volunteer correspondent; however, as I had no business to trouble you with the adjustment of my concerns with that illustrious stranger, I have no right to complain of your silence. Hobhouse and your humble are still here. Hobhouse hunts, &c., and I do nothing. We dined the other day with a neighbouring esquire (not Collet of Staines), and regretted your absence, as the banquet of Staines was scarcely to be compared to our last “feast of Reason.” You know laughing is the sign of a rational animal, so says Dr. Smollett; I think so too, but unluckily my spirits don’t always keep pace with my opinions. I had not so much scope for risibility the other day as I could have wished, for I was seated near a woman, to whom, when a boy, I was as much attached as boys generally are, and more than a man should be. I knew this before I went, and was determined to be valiant, and converse with sang froid, but, instead, I forgot my valour and my nonchalance, and never opened my lips even to laugh, far less to speak, and the lady was almost as absurd as myself, which made both the objects of more observation than if we had conducted ourselves with easy indifference. You will think all this great nonsense; if you had seen it you would have thought it still more ridiculous.

I have tried for Gifford’s Epistle to Pindar, and the bookseller says the copies were cut up for waste paper: if you can procure me a copy I shall be much obliged. Adieu!

Believe me yours ever sincerely,

BYRON.

Read More English History Topics

Link/cite this page

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "Lord Byron to Francis Hodgson, 3 November 1808" https://englishhistory.net/byron/selected-letters/lord-byron-francis-hodgson-3-november-1808/, February 8, 2017

Search English History

Popular Posts

On first looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats
John Keats Letters To Fanny Keats, 26 October 1819
Scottish Tudor Genealogy & Family Tree
Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892 – Chapter III
Ode on a Grecian Urn Poem by John Keats

Related Posts

Lord Byron’s Lovers

Thomas Moore, Venice, February 2, 1818

Thomas Moore September 1814

John Keats Poem

Lord Byron Critical Opinion

The Tudors

Lord Byron

John Keats

shakespeare

Copyright © 1999-2021 All Rights Reserved.
English History
Other Sites: Learn Web Development

Copyright © 2021 · English History 2015 on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This site uses cookies More info