" It was at his suggestion that Byron wrote the
'Hebrew Melodies' and the 'Monody on the Death of Sheridan'. Talking of
Kinnaird to Lady Blessington ('Conversations', p. 215), Byron said,
"My friend Dug is a proof that a good heart cannot compensate for an
irritable temper; whenever he is named, people dwell on the last and
pass over the first; and yet he really has an excellent heart, and a
sound head, of which I, in common with many others of his friends,
have had various proofs. He is clever, too, and well informed, and I
do think would have made a figure in the world, were it not for his
temper, which gives a dictatorial tone to his manner, that is
offensive to the 'amour propre' of those with whom he mixes."]
[Footnote 8: The Alfred Club (1808-55), established at 23, Albemarle
Street, was the Savile of the day. Beloe, in his 'Sexagenarian' (vol.
ii. chaps, xx.-xxv.), describes among the members of the Symposium, as
he calls it, Sir James Mackintosh, George Ellis, William Gifford, John
Reeves, Sir W. Drummond, and himself. Byron, in his 'Detached Thoughts',
says,
"I was a member of the Alfred. It was pleasant; a little too sober and
literary, and bored with Sotheby and Sir Francis d'Ivernois; but one
met Peel, and Ward, and Valentia, and many other pleasant or known
people; and it was, upon the whole, a decent resource in a rainy day,
in a dearth of parties, or parliament, or in an empty season."
It was, says Mr.
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