1830.] Lady Byron and Moore. 385 



fred," that would blacken for ever the moral reputation of any man alive, 

 if the offence were not to be diluted by the lunacy of the writer. 



On the whole, Lady Byron seems to have perfectly justified her 

 parents, which was her principal purpose; and deeply as she has 

 suffered for her headlong determination to choose a husband, whose 

 known vices she overlooked in his poetic fame ; she is now entitled to 

 rest from those perpetual references to her conduct,, which have so long 

 amounted to a virtual persecution. 



REMARKS, OCCASIONED BY MR. MOORE*S NOTICES OF LORD BYRON*S LIFE. 



" I have disregarded various publications, in which facts within my own 

 knowledge have been grossly misrepresented ; but I am called upon to no- 

 tice some of the erroneous statements proceeding from one who claims to be 

 considered as Lord Byron's confidential and authorised friend. Domestic de- 

 tails ought not to be intruded on the public attention ; if, however, they are so 

 intruded, the persons affected by them have a right to refute injurious charges. 

 Mr. Moore has promulgated his own impressions of private events in which I 

 was most nearly concerned, as if he possessed a competent knowledge of the 

 subject. Having survived Lord Byron, I feel increased reluctance to advert to 

 any circumstances connected with the period of my marriage ; nor is it now 

 my intention to disclose them, further than may be indispensably requisite for 

 the end I have in view. Self-vindication is not the motive which actuates me 

 to make this appeal, and the spirit of accusation is unmirigled with it ; but 

 when the conduct of my parents is brought forward in a disgraceful light, by 

 the passages selected from Lord ^Byron's letters, and by the remarks of his 

 biographer, I feel bound to justify their characters from imputations which I 

 know to be false. The passages from Lord Byron's letters, to which I refer, 

 are the aspersions on my mother's character, p. (548. 1. 4 : 



" ' My child is very well, and flourishing, I hear, but I must see also. I feel 

 no disposition to resign it to the contagion of its grandmother's society.' 



" The assertion of her dishonourable conduct in employing a spv, p. 645. 

 1. 7, &c. 



" ' A Mrs. C. (now a kind of housekeeper, and spyofLadyN.'s), who, in 

 her better days, was a washerwoman, is supposed to be by the learned very 

 much the occult cause of our domestic discrepancies/ 



" The seeming exculpation of myself, in the extract, p. 646, with the words 

 immediately following it: 



" ' Her nearest relatives are a ;' where the blank clearly implies some- 

 thing too offensive for publication. These passages tend to throw suspicion 

 on my parents, and give reason to ascribe the separation either to their direct 

 agency, or to that of ' officious spies/ employed by them. From the follow- 

 ing part of the narrative, p. 642, it must also be inferred that an undue influ- 

 ence was exercised by them for the accomplishment of this purpose : 



" ' It was in a few weeks after the latter communication between us (Lord 

 Byron and Mr. Moore) that Lady Byron adopted the determination of parting 

 from him. She had left London at the latter end of January, on a visit to her 

 father's house, in Leicestershire, and Lord Byron was in a short time to follow 

 her. They had parted in the utmost kindness she wrote him a letter, full of 

 playfulness and affection, on the road ; and immediately on her arrival at 

 Kirkby Mallory, her father wrote to acquaint Lord Byron that she would 

 return to him no more/ 



" In my observations upon this statement, I shall, as far as possible, avoid 

 touching on any matters relating personally to Lord Byron and myself. The 

 facts are : I left London for Kirkby Mallory, the residence of my father and 

 mother, on the 15th of January 1816. Lord Byron had signified to me in 

 writing (Jan. 6th) his absolute desire that I should leave London on the ear- 

 liest day that I could conveniently fix. It was not safe for me to undertake 

 the fatigue of a journey sooner than the 15th. Previously to my departure, it 

 had been strongly impressed on my mind, that Lord Byron was under the 



M.M. New Series. Voi>. IX. 3 D 



