NOTE ON THE CHAWORTH DUEL "The Coroner's jury brought in a verdict of Wilful Murder, and on the presentation of their testimony to the House of Lords, Byron pleaded for a trial by God and his peers', whereupon he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The case was tried by the Lords Temporal (the Lords Spiritual asked permission to withdraw), and after a defence had been read by the prisoner, 119 peers brought in a verdict of 'Not guilty of murder; guilty of manslaughter, on my honour'. Four peers only returned a verdict of 'Not guilty'. The result of the verdict was that Lord Byron claimed the benefit of the statute of Edward VI, and was discharged on paying the fees. “The defence . . . is able and convincing . . . the accused contrived to throw the onus of criminality upon his antagonist. It was Mr. Chaworth who began the quarrel . . . it was he who insisted on an interview, not on the stairs but in a private room, who locked the door, and whose demeanour made a challenge' to draw' inevitable. . . Lord Byron came to close quarters with his adversary, and 'as he supposed, gave the unlucky wound which he would ever reflect upon with the utmost regret'" (Poems, iv. note to p. 542). The poet, in his famous letter to Coulmann of 1823, said that, so far from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr. Chaworth, who was a fire-eater (spadassin) . . . his grand-uncle "always kept the sword.. in his bed-chamber, where it still was when he died" (Elze, Life of Byron, Authorised translation, 1872, Appendix, p. 445). CHAPTER III HARROW-1801-1805 Dr. Drury of Harrow-Lord Carlisle-Friendships: Clare, Delawarr, Wingfield, Long-Intellectual development - Oratory-First lettersTurbulence at Harrow-The quarrel with Dr. Butler-End of schooldays H' E had been two years with Dr. Glennie when Mrs. Byron finally flamed forth. She declared herself dissatisfied with his progress: "he must go to a public school". Lord Carlisle was appealed to, and, remembering former encounters, he hastily acquiesced. And so, at thirteen (April 1801), the boy entered at last upon the manner of life which properly belonged to his rank, and entered upon it dispossessed of every advantage-for, peer of the realm1 though he was, he came (and his schoolfellows knew he came) from social circles wholly undistinguished, with a fortune that corresponded in no way to his title, and, despite a rich store of odd general knowledge, as "half-baked" in the formal school education as he was in everything else. When to all this is added his lameness, we can figure to ourselves the state of mind which made him write in later life: "I always hated Harrow till the last year and a half ". John Hanson, on bringing him to the school, had 1At Dulwich School he had been nicknamed the "Old English Baron" -from his "frequent boast of the superiority of an old English Barony over later creations": a kind of vapouring soon cut short at Harrow. warned the Head-Master, Dr. Joseph Drury, that his education had been much neglected, but "thought there was a cleverness about him". Drury was at once convinced not only of that-" there was mind in his eye"but of something far more valid for the boy's immediate happiness. He perceived that it was "a wild mountaincolt" that Hanson had left behind, but the colt, he thought, was "to be led by a silken string rather than by a cable❞—and he obeyed the intuition. Wisest of his indulgences was that for the supersensitive vanity which was so marked a trait in Byron. The new boy, hearing from a comrade that many younger than himself were immensely more advanced in learning, fell into a mood of deep dejection. He would be placed in a class below these juniors-he would be humbled and degraded—everything would be hopeless! Drury divined the apprehensive misery, and promised him that he should not be "placed" at all until it could be with boys of his own age. From that moment he revived, and soon his shyness (he suffered much all through life from shyness) began to give way. The master kept a discreet look-out, and found some of his first impressions confirming themselves. When, not long afterwards, Lord Carlisle expressed a wish to see him, Drury hastened up to London. Carlisle was anxious to discuss future prospects, and to hear his view of the boy's abilities. "He will never be a rich man", said the guardian. Drury made no comment on that, but remarked with emphasis, "He has talents, my lord, which will add lustre to his rank". Lord Carlisle raised his eyebrows. "Indeed!" said he coldly; and Drury, with some repugnance, felt that he would rather have been told of mediocrity in mind as well as in fortune. The truth was that Mrs. Byron had left an indelible VOL. 1.-3 impression on Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle-at one time among the most prodigious dandies of his period, and now a perfect type of the reformed rake. He desired to be kind; but to like the son of such a woman, even to wish him well in any but the most conventional sense, was more than he could achieve. And probably he had disturbing memories of his own mother —that Isabella Byron (sister of the notorious fifth lord) whom Fox had satirised as "a recluse in pride and rags ", and who, when her eldest son was ten years old, had taken for second husband a mere baronet! Isabella was, indeed, of the pure Byron tradition. She wrote Maxims for Young Ladies, and she also wrote an answer to one Mrs. Greville's Ode on Indifference. The answer contained two stanzas which most of her near relatives might have signed: "Let me drink deep the dang'rous cup In hopes the prize to gain, Nor tamely give the pleasure up, For fear to share the pain. Give me, whatever I possess, To know and feel it all; When youth and love no more may bless, By the time her son comes on the stage of our story, he had been thoroughly sobered by much public officeTreasurer of the Household, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and so forth. He was also a renowned collector of pictures and statuary, and a poet to the extent of writing and publishing an enormous quantity of mediocre versewhich, in process of time, became the object of his young ward's savage satire. The Byronic doom, then, had followed our youth in 1 This was Sir William Musgrave, of Heaton Castle, Cumberland. 2 L. and J. i. 36. this relationship as in so many others; but now at last, as the school-life developed, he was to know what kindness and judicious authority and (above all) passionate friendship could mean. For Dr. Drury he had a deep and reverent affection. In his letters to Augusta at this period, and in his later diaries, there are many warm tributes; and Drury himself told Moore an entertaining anecdote of the later days of renown. None of the publications of which the world was talking had ever been presented to him, and, meeting in London just after The Corsair had appeared in 1814, he asked Byron why, "as in duty bound", he had never sent his old master any of his books. "Because you are the only man I never wish to read them", Byron answered, delightfully in the tone of them all; but then, forgetting the pose of a profligate abashed before the beloved mentor of youth, he added eagerly, "What do you think of The Corsair?” Truly he could do nothing that did not epitomise himself—all pose yet all spontaneity as he inveterately was! The Corsair was selling at "a perfectly unprecedented rate" (as Murray had already panted), and not only so, but glorious whisperings were rife. "Its author was the veritable Conrad, the actual Corsair; part of his travels had been spent in real piracy"; and that author was helping on the craze with beautiful dark hints, with "I could an if I woulds"; and Drury was sure to have read it, and this would the more deeply move him since he was sure to have been shocked; and above all, beyond all, had Drury read it, and read the others? . . . We may not mock overmuch-not those of us, at any rate, who have published, and met old friends afterwards. And he was, with Napoleon Buonaparte, the most talked-of creature at that time alive! |