6 —to his Mother

Southwell, [Sept. 1803].

My Dear Mother

, — I have sent Mealey

to day to you, before William came, but now I shall write myself. I

promise

you, upon my

honour

, I will come over tomorrow in the

Afternoon

. I was not wishing to resist your

Commands

, and really seriously intended coming over tomorrow, ever since I received your last Letter; you know as well as I do that it is not your Company I dislike, but the place you reside in. I know it is time to go to Harrow. It will make me

unhappy

; but I will

obey

. I only desire, entreat, this one day, and on my

honour

I will be over tomorrow in the evening or afternoon. I am sorry you disapprove my Companions, who, however, are the first this County affords, and my equals in most respects; but I will be permitted to chuse for myself. I shall never interfere in your's and I desire you will not molest me in mine. If you grant me this favour, and allow me this one day unmolested, you will eternally oblige your

Unhappy Son,

Byron

I shall attempt to offer no excuse as you do not desire one. I only entreat you as a Governor, not as a Mother, to allow me this one day. Those that I most love live in this County; therefore in the name of Mercy I entreat this one day to take leave, and then I will join you again at Southwell to prepare to go to a place where — I will write no more; it would only incense you. Adieu. Tomorrow I come.

Footnote 1:

This letter is endorsed by Hanson, "Lord Byron to his mother, "1803." In September, 1803, at the end of the summer holidays, Byron did not return to Harrow. Dr. Drury asked the reason, received no reply, and, on October 4, applied to Hanson for an explanation. Hanson's inquiry drew from Mrs. Byron, on October 30, the following answer, with which was enclosed the above letter from Byron:—

"You may well be surprized, and so may Dr. Drury, that Byron is not returned to Harrow. But the Truth is, I cannot get him to return to school, though I have done all in my power for six weeks past. He has no indisposition that I know of, but love, desperate love, the worst of all maladies in my opinion. In short, the Boy is distractedly in love with Miss Chaworth, and he has not been with me three weeks all the time he has been in this county, but spent all his time at Annesley.

If my son was of a proper age and the lady disengaged, it is the last of all connexions that I would wish to take place; it has given me much uneasiness. To prevent all trouble in future, I am determined he shall not come here again till Easter; therefore I beg you will find some proper situation for him at the next Holydays. I don't care what I pay. I wish Dr. Drury would keep him.

I shall go over to Newstead to-morrow and make a last effort to get him to Town."

The effort, if made, failed. On November 7, 1803, Mrs. Byron wrote again:—

"Byron is really so unhappy that I have agreed, much against my inclination, to let him remain in this County till after the next Holydays."

It was not till January, 1804, that Byron returned to Harrow.

Miss Mary Anne Chaworth, the object of Byron's passion, was then living with her mother, Mrs. Clarke, at Annesley, near Newstead (see

Poems

, vol. i. p. 189, and

note

1). The grand-niece of the Mr. Chaworth who was killed in a duel by William, fifth Lord Byron, on January 26, 1765 (

Annual Register

, 1765, pp. 208-212; and

State Trials

, vol. xix. pp. 1178-1236), and the heiress of Annesley, she married, in August, 1805, John Musters, by whom she had a daughter, born in 1806. (See "Well! thou art happy!"

Poems

, vol. i. p. 277; see also, for other allusions to Mrs. Chaworth Musters,

ibid

., pp. 210, 239, 282, 285; and "The Dream" of July, 1816.) In Byron's memorandum-book, he describes a visit which he paid to Matlock with Miss Chaworth's mother, her stepfather Mr. Clarke, some friends,

"and my M. A. C. Alas! why do I say MY? Our union would have healed feuds in which blood had been shed by our fathers, — it would have joined lands broad and rich, it would have joined at least one heart, and two persons not ill matched in years (she is two years my elder) and — and — and — what has been the result?"

Life

, p. 27).

Mrs. Musters, after an unhappy married life, died in February, 1832, at Wiverton Hall, near Nottingham.

The connection between the families of Chaworth and Byron came through the marriage of William, third Lord Byron (died 1695), with Elizabeth Chaworth (died 1683), daughter of George Chaworth, created (1627) Viscount Chaworth of Armagh (Thoroton's

Nottinghamshire

, vol. i. p. 198).

return to footnote mark

Footnote 2:

Owen Mealey, the steward at Newstead.

List of Letters