On April 1 1814, Lady Melbourne writes to Lord Byron.
Dear Ld. B – I send you two more Vols & you shall have the fifth to morrow they are heavy & thick or I should have read them quicker, especially as I was not well yesterday & staid at home; to night I am going to Carlton House to a party for the Grand Dss who seems by what I hear to expect the Strictest Etiquette here, tho’ in Russia she was reckoned very Affable, & very clever so says Ly Granville Leveson I was in hopes I might have seen you to day as they went to Roehampton yesterday – but I dare not propose to you to come when they order their Horses to go there as they so often ride here, unexpectedly but I hope I shall find an opportunity soon & that no arrival will have taken place to prevent your coming – for this last wish – you do not feel much obliged to me though it is a very friendly one – So you are settled in Albany, where most of my happiest days were pass’d, – whilst I lived in that House, no Misfortune reach’d me, & I should not have disliked to be an appendage to yr Lease to live in it again. – every despairing and distressing event of my Life has happened since I lived at Whitehall.
I never was much in the Apartments you have taken, but the furniture which used to be in your Sitting room would have now been pleasant & useful to you, opposite to the fire hung the view of Constantinople which you see here, & over the Chimney a painting of Joseph turning in disgust from Potiphar’s Wife – Thus on one side you would have been delighted with the resemblance to ce beau Ciel you love so much, & on the other you would have seen a moral precept – of which I do not mean to say you stand in need – but there there can be no disadvantage in having a good example always before your Eyes.
I am rejoiced for another reason that I did not ask you to come & see me to day – as so many people have appeared during the whole Morng that I am bored, & should not have been able to say five Words to you – amongst them Ld Holland, who is very Gouty & says Ly H– has not been well. They are settled at Holland house –
pastnow 