Lady Byron Vindicated

ey to visit the Rev. C. Kingsley. On our way, we stopped, by Lady Byron's invitation, to lunch with her at her summer residence on Ham Common, near Richmond; and it

rsley, we arrived at h

ut her house with her usual air of quiet simplicity; as full of little acts of conside

en she left the room for a moment, they looked after her with a singular expression of respect and affection, and express

ued was not entirely new to me. In the interval between my first and second visits to England, a lady who for many years had enjoyed Lady Byron's friendshi

apt to make unconsidered confidences, can have known very little of her, of her reser

ays, 'Though I accuse Lady Byron of an excess of self-respect, I must in candour admit that, if ever a person had excuse for an extraordinary portion of it, she has; as, in all her

this distance of time, I cannot remember all the language used. Some particular words and forms of expressio

emotion which she showed as she proceeded. The great fact upon

of incest wit

ay, 'My dear friend, I have heard that.' She asked quickly, 'From whom?' and I an

tions; in reply to which s

p in retirement, and living much within herself, had been, as deep natures often were, intensely stirred by his po

own power to be to him all that a wife should be. She declined his offer, therefore, but desired to retain his friendship. After this, as she

mself again. 'I thought,' she added, 'that it was sincere, and that

his journals this notice of my letter: "A l

she spoke these words; but it was gone in a moment. I said, 'And did h

u?' She laid her hand on mine, and

r. The visit was to her full of disappointment. His appearance was so strange, moody, and unaccountable, and his treatment of

uld never blame him if he wished to dissolve it; that his nature was exceptional; and if, on a nearer v

said, he fainte

if speaking with great effort, adde

'What other cause could

ry sadly, and said,

, 'did that ca

ture, which judged itself by higher standards, and condemned itself unsparingly for what most young men of his times regarded as venial faults. She had every hope for his future, and all the enthusiasm of belief that so many men and women of those times and ours have had in his intrinsic nobleness. She said the gloom, however, seemed to be even deeper when he came to the marriage; but she looked at it as the suffering of a peculiar being, to whom she was calle

rd's Diary, seems only a continuation of the for

he became certain

of the family state. He tried to undermine her faith in Christianity as a rule of life by argument and by ridicule. He set before her the Continental idea of the liberty of marriage; it being a simple partnership of friendship and property, the parties to which were allowed by one another to pursue their o

this was tending till after they came to Lo

. She said that one night, in her presence, he treated his sister with a liberty which both shocked and astonished her. Seeing her amazement and alarm, he came up to

wn on my knees, and prayed to my heavenly Father t

which she seemed struggling with thoughts and emotions; and,

the connection as having existed in time past, and as one that was to continue in time to come; and implied that she must submit to it. She put it to his conscience as concerning his sister's soul, and he said that it was no sin

yron, those are the very argumen

e 'longed for the stimulus of a new kind of vice.' She set before him the dread of detection; and then he became furious. She should never be the means of his detection, he said. She should leave him; that he was resolved upon: but she should always bear all the blame of the separation. In the sneering tone which was common with him, he said, 'Th

, that she knew not what else to think of it; that he seemed resolved to drive her out of the house at all hazards, and threatened her, if she should remain, in a way to alarm the heart of any woman: yet, t

conversation whether Mrs. Leigh was a p

ear: she

nguished for genius o

weak, relatively to him, an

ecame of he

he mentioned that she had frequently seen and conversed with Mrs. Leigh in the

een told by Mrs. ---- that there was

od that at one time this daughter escaped from her friends to the Continent, and that Lady Byron assisted in efforts to recover h

whether there was ever any meeting between Lord Byron and his sister after he left England, answered

I said, 'Have you no evidence that he repented?' and alluded to

g at that hour, she felt sure he had finally repented; and added with great earnestness

to my feelings, but that I had always rega

nt, are indelibly fixed in my mind. She l

ome from indulging that hope, like the

'What danger comes

to try and save them. I once knew a lady,' she added, 'who was in a state of scepticis

istianity as it is commonly received, he could not reason himself out of it; and I think it made him desperate. He us

uence of any kind to restrain it; that the manners of his day were corrupt; that what were now considered vices in society were then spoken of as matters of course among young noblemen; that drinking, gaming, and licentiousness everywhere abounded and that, up to a certain time, he was no worse than multitudes of other young men of his day,-only that the vices of his day were worse for him. The excesses of passion, the disregard of physical laws in eating, drinking, and living, wrought e

thinking it might be her duty fully to pub

ord Byron had demoralised the moral sense of England, and he had done it in a great degree by the sympathy excited by falsehood. This had been pleaded in extenuation of all his crimes and vices, and led to a lower

nces of sins here follow us there; and it was strongly impressed upon her mind that Lord Byron must suffer in loo

nnot be at peace until this injustice has been righted. Such is t

whether it might not be her duty to make a full

it was communicated was not to enable me to prove it to the world, but to ask my opinion whether she should show it to the world b

had letters and documents in proof of her story. Knowing Lady Byron's strength of mind, her clear-headedness,

own apartment, I related to her the whole history, and we spent the night in talking of it. I was powerfully impressed with the justice and propriety of a

ome memoranda of such dates and outlines of the general story as w

me to return it to her when it had ceased t

n a hasty note, as I was then leaving London for Paris,

to vice are the result of a taint of constitutional insanity. This has always seemed to me the only way of accounting for instances of u

, Nov.

! How strange! how unaccountable! Have you ever subjected the fa

not i

o madness nea

tions do their

fully what I think of this matter. I am going

of a charity in which Lady Byron had been engaged with

not lost yet. {168} Farewell! I love you, my dear friend, as never be

B.

etter is a

Dec. 1

xpress to Miss ---- their gratitude for the five pounds she sent them. I am not

nce, enclosing the reply of

to me the last time we were togeth

he case, I could wish that the sacred veil of silence, so bravely thrown over

reet friends, who, after both have passed fr

s of this world are; and I would not that what I so much respect, love, and rever

hing. "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nei

hey were since first I heard that strange, sad history. Meanw

ionatel

B.

e be inserted as confirming a

OF 'MACMILLA

ication of a book having for its object the vindication of Lord Byron's character, and the subsequent appearance in your magazine of Mrs. Stowe's article

ke at Seaham, where the marriage took place; and, from all my recollections of what he told me of the affair (and he used often to talk of it, up to the time

of his time pistol-shooting in the plantations adjoining the hall, often ma

place in the drawing-room of the hall), Byron had to be sought f

out forty miles; to which place my father accompanied them, and he always spoke

journey. At Halnaby, a number of persons, tenants and others, were met to cheer them on their arrival. Of these he took not the slightest notice, but jumped out of the carriage, and walk

he deep and kind interest which they took in the welfare of all connected with them, and directing the distribution of various charities, etc. Pensions were allowed both to the old servants

forward in defence of one whose character has been much misrepres

ur to be, sir, y

H. A

HAMPTONSHIRE,