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