[1]
Yours ever,
B.
[Footnote 1: To appease the pangs of hunger, and keep down his fat,
Byron was in the habit of chewing gum-mastic and tobacco. For the same
reason, at a later date, he took opium. The mistake which he makes in
his letter to Hodgson (December 8,1811), "I do nothing but eschew
tobacco," is repeated in 'Don Juan' (Canto XII. stanza xiiii.)--
"In fact, there's nothing makes me so much grieve,
As that abominable tittle-tattle,
Which is the cud eschewed by human cattle."]
* * * * *
182.--To Francis Hodgson.
Newstead Abbey, Sept. 9, 1811.
Dear Hodgson,--I have been a good deal in your company lately, for I
have been reading 'Juvenal' and 'Lady Jane', [1] etc., for the first
time since my return. The Tenth Sat'e has always been my favourite, as I
suppose indeed of everybody's. It is the finest recipe for making one
miserable with his life, and content to walk out of it, in any language.
I should think it might be redde with great effect to a man dying
without much pain, in preference to all the stuff that ever was said or
sung in churches. But you are a deacon, and I say no more. Ah! you will
marry and become lethargic, like poor Hal of Harrow, [2] who yawns at 10
o' nights, and orders caudle annually.
I wrote an answer to yours fully some days ago, and, being quite alone
and able to frank, you must excuse this subsequent epistle, which will
cost nothing but the trouble of deciphering.
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