Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/529

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THE WALTZ.
485

Cocked, fired, and missed his man—but gained his aim;
Hail, moving muse! to whom the fair one's breast
Gives all it can, and bids us take the rest.
Oh! for the flow of Busby,[1] or of Fitz,

The latter's loyalty, the former's wits,

    Lord Mornington, a nephew of the great Duke of Wellington, married, in March, 1812, Catharine, daughter and heiress of Sir Tylney Long, Bart. On his marriage he added his wife's double surname to his own, and, thereby, gave the wits their chance. In Rejected Addresses Fitzgerald is made to exclaim—

    "Bless every man possess'd of aught to give,
    Long may Long-Tilney-Wellesley-Long-Pole live."

    The principals in the duel to which Byron alludes were Wellesley-Pole and Lord Kilworth. The occasion of the quarrel was a misconception of some expression of Pole's at an assembly at Lady Hawarden's (August 6, 1811). A meeting took place on Wimbledon Common (August 9), at which the seconds intervened, and everything was "amicably adjusted." Some days later a letter appeared in the Morning Post (August 14, 1811), signed "Kilworth," to the effect that an apology had been offered and accepted. This led to a second meeting on Hounslow Heath (August 15), when shots were exchanged. Again the seconds intervened, and, after more explanations, matters were finally arranged. A jeu d'esprit which appeared in the Morning Chronicle (August 16, 1811) connects the "mortal fracas" with Pole's prowess in waltzing at a fête at Wanstead House, near Hackney, where, when the heiress had been wooed and won, his guests used to dine at midnight after the opera.

    "Mid the tumult of waltzing and wild Irish reels,
    A prime dancer, I'm sure to get at her—
    And by Love's graceful movements to trip up her heels,
    Is the Long and the short of the matter."]

  1. [Thomas Busby, Mus. Doc. (1755-1838), musical composer, and author of A New and Complete Musical Dictionary, 1801, etc. He was also a versifier. As early as 1785 he published The Age of Genius, A Satire; and, after he had ceased to compose music for the stage, brought out a translation of Lucretius, which had long been in MS. His "rejected address" on the reopening of Drury Lane Theatre,