Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (CMSW) - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/

Document : 244

Title: Letter from Hogg to Byron, 18 Oct 1814

Author(s): Hogg, James

Grieve & Scott's Edin. Octr 18th 1814
My lord

I have had a very pleasant crack with
Mr. Murray and we have sorted very well I hope
we shall long do so; he made me a present of a proof
copy of your picture and seems indeed very much
attached to you — I am very sorry for having joked
you so freely about a certain fair I did not know it
was true but [weened] that it had been put into the papers
by some officious person, but now I promise not to
cast up the miller trade any more to your lordship.
Indeed the picture which Murray has drawn to me
of the charms both of her person and mind has
quite enamoured me of her and I look upon you already
as raised a step higher in the [scale] of being and just
beginning to experience a new existence.

You once said of my dedication that if I thought of
transferring it to another I needed not to [seraph]


on your account — I take you at your word
and if before my title page is required there is
then a Lady Byron living I will transfer it to her
in a single stanza or sonnet which you shall previously
see — if there is none the lord is still to the fore
If it be true that you will pass a part of the
Winter in the county of Durham I would not say
but that I might pop in on you some day as
I have a small stewartship in Northumberland
where I have to appear once or twice a year
I have not a word of news to day therefore adieu for
the present and may all the kind and benevolent
powers that watch over the daytimes of men linger
nigh your lordship and shed on your mind those energies
and feelings of delight the breathings of which are so
likely to charm the souls of the unborn is the
earnest wish of your lordship's most obedt.
James Hogg





Right Hon Lord Byron
Albany
London

Hogg 1814
