"8. St. James's Street, November 1, 1811.
"Sir,
"As I should be very sorry to interrupt your Sunday's engagement,
if Monday, or any other day of the ensuing week, would be equally
convenient to yourself and friend, I will then have the honour of
accepting his invitation. Of the professions of esteem with which
Mr. Rogers has honoured me, I cannot but feel proud, though
undeserving. I should be wanting to myself, if insensible to the
praise of such a man; and, should my approaching interview with him
and his friend lead to any degree of intimacy with both or either,
I shall regard our past correspondence as one of the happiest
events of my life. I have the honour to be,
"Your very sincere and obedient servant,
"BYRON."
* * * * *
It can hardly, I think, be necessary to call the reader's attention to
the good sense, self-possession, and frankness, of these letters of Lord
Byron. I had placed him,--by the somewhat national confusion which I had
made of the boundaries of peace and war, of hostility and
friendship,--in a position which, ignorant as he was of the character of
the person who addressed him, it required all the watchfulness of his
sense of honour to guard from surprise or snare. Hence, the judicious
reserve with which he abstained from noticing my advances towards
acquaintance, till he should have ascertained exactly whether the
explanation which he was willing to give would be such as his
correspondent would be satisfied to receive. The moment he was set at
rest on this point, the frankness of his nature displayed itself; and
the disregard of all further mediation or etiquette with which he at
once professed himself ready to meet me, "when, where, and how" I
pleased, showed that he could be as pliant and confiding _after_ such an
understanding, as he had been judiciously reserved and punctilious
_before_ it.
Such did I find Lord Byron, on my first experience of him; and such,--so
open and manly-minded,--did I find him to the last.
It was, at first, intended by Mr. Rogers that his company at dinner
should not extend beyond Lord Byron and myself; but Mr. Thomas Campbell,
having called upon our host that morning, was invited to join the party,
and consented. Such a meeting could not be otherwise than interesting to
us all. It was the first time that Lord Byron was ever seen by any of
his three companions; while he, on his side, for the first time, found
himself in the society of persons, whose names had been associated with
his first literary dreams, and to _two_[33] of whom he looked up with
that tributary admiration which youthful genius is ever ready to pay
its precursors.
Among the impressions which this meeting left upon me, what I chiefly
remember to have remarked was the nobleness of his air, his beauty, the
gentleness of his voice and manners, and--what was, naturally, not the
least attraction--his marked kindness to myself. Being in mourning for
his mother, the colour, as well of his dress, as of his glossy, curling,
and picturesque hair, gave more effect to the pure, spiritual paleness
of his features, in the expression of which, when he spoke, there was a
perpetual play of lively thought, though melancholy was their habitual
character when in repose.
As we had none of us been apprised of his peculiarities with respect to
food, the embarrassment of our host was not a little, on discovering
that there was nothing upon the table which his noble guest could eat or
drink. Neither meat, fish, nor wine, would Lord Byron touch; and of
biscuits and soda-water, which he asked for, there had been, unluckily,
no provision. He professed, however, to be equally well pleased with
potatoes and vinegar; and of these meagre materials contrived to make
rather a hearty dinner.