Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 8.djvu/34

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8
CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL.
[CHAP. I.

could attend me every night at a separate hour from the Miss Parkynses, and I am astonished you do not acquiesce in this Scheme which would keep me in Mind of what I have almost entirely forgot. I recommend this to you because, if some plan of this kind is not adopted, I shall be called, or rather branded with the name of a dunce, which you know I could never bear. I beg you will consider this plan seriously and I will lend it all the assistance in my power. I shall be very glad to see the Letter you talk of, and I have time just to say I hope every body is well at Newstead,

And remain, your affectionate Son,

Byron

.

P.S.—Pray let me know when you are to send in the Horses to go to Newstead. May[1] desires her Duty and I also expect an answer by the miller.


3.—To John Hanson.[2]

Sir,—I am not a little disappointed at your Stay, for this last week I expected you every hour; but, however,

    from the position in which his foot was kept; and Rogers one day said to him, "It makes me uncomfortable, my Lord, to see you sitting there in such pain as I knoww you must be suffering." "Never mind, Mr. Rogers," answered the boy; "you shall not see any signs of it in me." Many years after, when in the neighbourhood of Nottingham, Byron sent a kind message to his old instructor, bidding the bearer tell him that he could still recite twenty verses of Virgil which he had read with Rogers when suffering torture all the time.

  1. Byron's nurse, who had accompanied him from Aberdeen (see p. 10, note 1).
  2. John Hanson, of 6, Chancery Lane, a well-known London solicitor, was introduced to the Byron family by an Aberdeenshire friend of Mrs. Byron, Mr. Farquhar, a member of Parliament, and a civilian practising in Doctors' Commons. The acquaintance began in January, 1788, with Byron's birth, for the midwife and the nurse were recommended by Mrs. Hanson. Six years later, Hanson was