In November 1840 a tall athletic gentleman in black called upon Mr. Murray offering a MS. for perusal and publication. George Borrow had been a travelling missionary of the Bible Society in Spain, though in early life he had prided himself on being an athlete, and had even taken lessons in pugilism from Thurtell, who was a fellow-townsman. He was a native of Dereham, Norfolk, but had wandered much in his youth, first following his father, who was a Captain of Militia. He went from south to north, from Kent to Edinburgh, where he was entered as pupil in the High School, and took part in the "bickers" so well described by Sir Walter Scott. Then the boy followed the regiment to Ireland, where he studied the Celtic dialect. From early youth he had a passion, and an extraordinary capacity, for learning languages, and on reaching manhood he was appointed agent to the Bible Society, and was sent to Russia to translate and introduce the Scriptures. While there he mastered the language, and learnt besides the Solavonian and the gypsy dialects. He translated the New Testament into the Tartar Mantchow, and published versions from English into thirty languages. He made successive visits into Russia, Norway, Turkey, Bohemia, Spain and Barbary. In fact, the sole of his foot never rested. While an agent for the Bible Society in Spain, he translated the New Testament into Spanish, Portuguese, Romany, and Basque—which language, it is said, the devil himself never could learn—and when he had learnt the Basque he acquired the name of Lavengro, or word-master.
Such was George Borrow when he called upon Murray to offer him the MSS. of his first book, "The Gypsies in Spain." Mr. Murray could not fail to be taken at first sight with this extraordinary man. He had a splendid physique, standing six feet two in his stockings, and he had brains as well as muscles, as his works sufficiently show. The book now submitted was of a very uncommon character, and neither the author nor the publisher was very sanguine about its success. Mr. Murray agreed, after perusal, to print and publish 750 copies of "The Gypsies in Spain," and divide the profits with the author. But this was only the beginning, and Borrow reaped much better remuneration from future editions of the volume. Indeed, the book was exceedingly well received, and met with a considerable sale; but not so great as his next work, "The Bible in Spain," which he was now preparing.
Mr. George Borrow to John Murray.August23, 1841.
"A queer book will be this same 'Bible in Spain,' containing all my queer adventures in that queer country whilst engaged in distributing the Gospel, but neither learning, nor disquisition, fine writing, or poetry. A book with such a Bible and of this description can scarcely fail of success. It will make two nice foolscap octavo volumes of about 500 pages each. I have not heard from Ford since I had last the pleasure of seeing you. Is his book out? I hope that he will not review the 'Zincali' until the Bible is forthcoming, when he may, if he please, kill two birds with one stone. I hear from Saint Petersburg that there is a notice of the 'Zincali' in theRevue Britannique; it has been translated into Russian. Do you know anything about it?"
Mr. George Borrow to John Murray. OULTON HALL, LOWESTOFT,January1842.
We are losing time. I have corrected seven hundred consecutive pages of MS., and the remaining two hundred will be ready in a fortnight. I do not think there will be a dull page in the whole book, as I have made one or two very important alterations; the account of my imprisonment at Madrid cannot fail, I think, of being particularly interesting…. During the last week I have been chiefly engaged in horse-breaking. A most magnificent animal has found his way to this neighbourhood—a half-bred Arabian. He is at present in the hands of a low horse-dealer, and can be bought for eight pounds, but no one will have him. It is said that he kills everybody who mounts him. I have beencharminghim, and have so far succeeded that he does not fling me more than once in five minutes. What a contemptible trade is the author's compared with that of the jockey's!
Mr. Borrow prided himself on being a horse-sorcerer, an art he learned among the gypsies, with whose secrets he claimed acquaintance. He whispered some unknown gibberish into their ears, and professed thus to tame them.
He proceeded with "The Bible in Spain." In the following month he sent to Mr. Murray the MS. of the first volume. To the general information as to the contents and interest of the volume, he added these words:
Mr. George Borrow to John Murray.
February, 1842.
"I spent a day last week with our friend Dawson Turner at Yarmouth. What capital port he keeps! He gave me some twenty years old, and of nearly the finest flavour that I ever tasted. There are few better things than old books, old pictures, and old port, and he seems to have plenty of all three."
May10, 1842.
"I am coming up to London tomorrow, and intend to call at Albemarle Street…. I make no doubt that we shall be able to come to terms; I like not the idea of applying to second-rate people. I have been dreadfully unwell since I last heard from you—a regular nervous attack; at present I have a bad cough, caught by getting up at night in pursuit of poachers and thieves. A horrible neighbourhood this—not a magistrate that dares to do his duty.
"P.S.—Ford's book not out yet?"
There seems to have been some difficulty about coming to terms. Borrow had promised his friends that his book should be out by October 1, and he did not wish them to be disappointed:
Mr. George Borrow to John Murray.
July4, 1842.
Why this delay? Mr. Woodfall [the printer] tells me that the state of trade is wretched. Well and good! But you yourself told me so two months ago, when you wrote requesting that I would give you the preference, provided I had not made arrangements with other publishers. Between ourselves, my dear friend, I wish the state of the trade were ten times worse than it is, and then things would find their true level, and an original work would be properly appreciated, and a set of people who have no pretensions to write, having nothing to communicate but tea-table twaddle, could no longer be palmed off upon the public as mighty lions and lionesses. But to the question: What are your intentions with respect to "The Bible in Spain"? I am a frank man, and frankness never offends me. Has anybody put you out of conceit with the book? There is no lack of critics, especially in your neighbourhood. Tell me frankly, and I will drink your health in Rommany. Or, would the appearance of "The Bible" on the first of October interfere with the Avatar, first or second, of some very Lion or Divinity, to whom George Borrow, who is neither, must, of course, give place? Be frank with me, my dear sir, and I will drink your health in Rommany and Madeira.
In case of either of the above possibilities being the fact, allow me to assure you that I am quite willing to release you from your share of the agreement into which we entered. At the same time, I do not intend to let the work fall to the ground, as it has been promised to the public. Unless you go on with it, I shall remit Woodfall the necessary money for the purchase of paper, and when it is ready offer it to the world. If it be but allowed fair play, I have no doubt of its success. It is an original book, on an original subject. Tomorrow, July 5, I am thirty-nine. Have the kindness to drink my health in Madeira.
Ever most sincerely yours,
Terms were eventually arranged to the satisfaction of both parties. Borrow informed Murray that he had sent the last proofs to the printer, and continued:
Mr. George Borrow to John Murray.
November25, 1842.
Only think, poor Allan Cunningham dead! A young man, only fifty-eight, strong and tall as a giant, might have lived to a hundred and one; but he bothered himself about the affairs of this world far too much. That statue shop [of Chantrey's] was his bane! Took to bookmaking likewise—in a word, was too fond of Mammon. Awful death—no preparation—came literally upon him like a thief in the dark. I'm thinking of writing a short life of him; old friend of twenty years' standing. I know a good deal about him; "Traditional Tales," his best work, first appeared inLondon Magazine, Pray send Dr. Bowring a copy of the Bible-another old friend. Send one to Ford, a capital fellow. God bless you—feel quite melancholy.
Ever yours,
"The Bible in Spain" was published towards the end of the year, and created a sensation. It was praised by many critics, and condemned by others, for Borrow had his enemies in the press.
Mr. George Borrow to John Murray, Junior.
LOWESTOFT,December1, 1842.
I received your kind letter containing the bills. It was very friendly of you, and I thank you, though, thank God, I have no Christmas bills to settle. Money, however, always acceptable. I dare say I shall be in London with the entrance of the New Year; I shall be most happy to see you, and still more your father, whose jokes do one good. I wish all the world were as gay as he; a gentleman drowned himself last week on my property, I wish he had gone somewhere else. I can't get poor Allan out of my head. When I come up, intend to go and see his wife. What a woman! I hope our book will be successful. If so, shall put another on the stocks. Capital subject; early life, studies, and adventures; some account of my father, William Taylor, Whiter, Big Ben, etc., etc. Had another letter from Ford; wonderful fellow; seems in high spirits. Yesterday read "Letters from the Baltic"; much pleased with it; very clever writer; critique inDespatchharsh and unjust; quite uncalled for; blackguard affair altogether.
I remain, dear Sir, ever yours,
December31, 1842.
I have great pleasure in acknowledging your very kind letter of the 28th, and am happy to hear that matters are going on so prosperously. It is quite useless to write books unless they sell, and the public has of late become so fastidious that it is no easy matter to please it. With respect to the critique in theTimes, I fully agree with you that it was harsh and unjust, and the passages selected by no means calculated to afford a fair idea of the contents of the work. A book, however, like "The Bible in Spain" can scarcely be published without exciting considerable hostility, and I have been so long used to receiving hard knocks that they make no impression upon me. After all, the abuse of theTimesis better than its silence; it would scarcely have attacked the work unless it had deemed it of some importance, and so the public will think. All I can say is, that I did my best, never writing but when the fit took me, and never delivering anything to my amanuensis but what I was perfectly satisfied with. You ask me my opinion of the review in theQuarterly. Very good, very clever, very neatly done. Only one fault to find—too laudatory. I am by no means the person which the reviewer had the kindness to represent me. I hope you are getting on well as to health; strange weather this, very unwholesome, I believe, both for man and beast: several people dead, and great mortality amongst the cattle. Am tolerably well myself, but get but little rest—disagreeable dreams—digestion not quite so good as I could wish; been on the water system—won't do; have left it off, and am now taking lessons in singing. I hope to be in London towards the end of next month, and reckon much upon the pleasure of seeing you. On Monday I shall mount my horse and ride into Norwich to pay a visit to a few old friends. Yesterday the son of our excellent Dawson Turner rode over to see me; they are all well, it seems. Our friend Joseph Gurney, however, seems to be in a strange way—diabetes, I hear. I frequently meditate upon "The Life," and am arranging the scenes in my mind. With best remembrances to Mrs. M. and all your excellent family,
Truly and respectfully yours,
Mr. Richard Ford's forthcoming work—"The Handbook for Spain"—about which Mr. Borrow had been making so many enquiries, was the result of many years' hard riding and constant investigation throughout Spain, one of the least known of all European countries at that time. Mr. Ford called upon Mr. Murray, after "The Bible in Spain" had been published, and a copy of the work was presented to him. He was about to start on his journey to Heavitree, near Exeter. A few days after his arrival Mr. Murray received the following letter from him:
Mr. Richard Ford to John Murray.
"I read Borrow with great delight all the way down per rail, and it shortened the rapid flight of that velocipede. You may depend upon it that the book will sell, which, after all, is the rub. It is the antipodes of Lord Carnarvon, and yet how they tally in what they have in common, and that is much—the people, the scenery of Galicia, and the suspicions and absurdities of Spanish Jacks-in-office, who yield not in ignorance or insolence to any kind of red-tapists, hatched in the hot-beds of jobbery and utilitarian mares-nests … Borrow spares none of them. I see he hits right and left, and floors his man wherever he meets him. I am pleased with his honest sincerity of purpose and his graphic abrupt style. It is like an old Spanish ballad, leaping inres medias, going from incident to incident, bang, bang, bang, hops, steps, and jumps like a cracker, and leaving off like one, when you wish he would give you another touch orcoup de grâce… He really sometimes puts me in mind of Gil Blas; but he has not the sneer of the Frenchman, nor does he gild the bad. He has a touch of Bunyan, and, like that enthusiastic tinker, hammers away,à la Gitano, whenever he thinks he can thwack the Devil or his man-of-all-work on earth—the Pope. Therein he resembles my friend and everybody's friend—Punch—who, amidst all his adventures, never spares the black one. However, I am not going to review him now; for I know that Mr. Lockhart has expressed a wish that I should do it for theQuarterly Review. Now, a wish from my liege master is a command. I had half engaged myself elsewhere, thinking that he did not quite appreciate such atrumpas I know Borrow to be. He is as full of meat as an egg, and a fresh laid one—not one of your Inglis breed, long addled by over-bookmaking. Borrow will lay you golden eggs, and hatch them after the ways of Egypt; put salt on his tail and secure him in your coop, and beware how any poacher coaxes him with 'raisins' or reasons out of the Albemarle preserves. When you see Mr. Lockhart tell him that I will do the paper. I owe my entire allowance to theQ. R. flag … Perhaps my understanding thefull forceof this 'gratia' makes me over partial to this wild Missionary; but I have ridden over the same tracks without the tracts, seen the same people, and know thatheis true, and I believe that he believes all that he writes to be true."
Mr. Lockhart himself, however, wrote the review for theQuarterly(No. 141, December 1842). It was a temptation that he could not resist, and his article was most interesting. "The Gypsies in Spain" and "The Bible in Spain" went through many editions, and there is still a large demand for both works. Before we leave George Borrow we will give a few extracts from his letters, which, like his books, were short, abrupt, and graphic. He was asked to become a member of the Royal Institution.
Mr. George Borrow to John Murray.
February26, 1843.
"I should like to become a member. The thing would just suit me, more especially as they do not wantclevermen, butsafemen. Now, I am safe enough; ask the Bible Society, whose secrets I have kept so much to their satisfaction, that they have just accepted at my hands an English Gypsy Gospel gratis. What would the Institution expect me to write? I have exhausted Spain and the Gypsies, though an essay on Welsh language and literature might suit, with an account of the Celtic tongue. Or, won't something about the ancient North and its literature be more acceptable? I have just received an invitation to join the Ethnological Society (who are they?), which I have declined. I am at present in great demand; a bishop has just requested me to visit him. The worst of these bishops is that they are skin-flints, saving for their families. Their cuisine is bad, and their port wine execrable, and as for their cigars!—I say, do you remember those precious ones of the Sanctuary? A few days ago one of them turned up again. I found it in my great-coat pocket, and thought of you. I have seen the article in theEdinburghabout the Bible—exceedingly brilliant and clever, but rather too epigrammatic, quotations scanty and not correct. Ford is certainly a most astonishing fellow; he quite flabbergasts me—handbooks, review's, and I hear that he has just been writing a 'Life of Velasquez' for the 'Penny Cyclopaedia'!"
OULTON HALL, LOWESTOFT,March13, 1843.
"So the second edition is disposed of. Well and good. Now, my dear friend, have the kindness to send me an account of the profits of it and let us come to a settlement. Up to the present time do assure you I have not made a penny by writing, what with journeys to London and tarrying there. Basta! I hate to talk of money matters.
"Let them call me a nonentity if they will; I believe that some of those who say I am a phantom would alter their tone provided they were to ask me to a good dinner; bottles emptied and fowls devoured are not exactly the feats of a phantom: no! I partake more of the nature of a Brownie or Robin Goodfellow—goblins, 'tis true, but full of merriment and fun, and fond of good eating and drinking. Occasionally I write a page or two of my life. I am now getting my father into the Earl of Albemarle's regiment, in which he was captain for many years. If I live, and my spirits keep up tolerably well, I hope that within a year I shall be able to go to press with something which shall beat the 'Bible in Spain.'"
And a few days later:
"I have received your account for the two editions. I am perfectly satisfied. We will now, whenever you please, bring out a third edition.
"The book which I am at present about will consist, if I live to finish it, of a series of Rembrandt pictures, interspersed here and there with a Claude. I shall tell the world of my parentage, my early thoughts and habits, how I become asap-engro,or viper-catcher: my wanderings with the regiment in England, Scotland, and Ireland, in which last place my jockey habits first commenced: then a great deal about Norwich, Billy Taylor, Thurtell, etc.: how I took to study and became alav-engro.What do you think of this for a bill of fare? I am now in a blacksmith's shop in the south of Ireland taking lessons from the Vulcan in horse charming and horse-shoe making. By the bye, I wish I were acquainted with Sir Robert Peel. I could give him many a useful hint with respect to Ireland and the Irish. I know both tolerably well. Whenever there's a row, I intend to go over with Sidi Habesmith and put myself at the head of a body of volunteers."
During the negotiations for the publication of Mr. Horace Twiss's "Life of the Earl of Eldon," Mr. Murray wrote to Mr. Twiss:
John Murray to Mr. Twiss.
May11, 1842.
"I am very sorry to say that the publishing of books at this time involves nothing but loss, and that I have found it absolutely necessary to withdraw from the printers every work that I had in the press, and to return to the authors any MS. for which they required immediate publication."
Mr. Murray nevertheless agreed to publish the "Life of Eldon" on commission, and it proved very successful, going through several editions.
Another work offered to Mr. Murray in 1841 was "The Moor and the Loch," by John Colquhoun, of Luss. He had published the first edition at Edinburgh through Mr. Blackwood; and, having had some differences with that publisher, he now proposed to issue the second edition in London. He wrote to Mr. Murray desiring him to undertake the work, and received the following reply:
John Murray to Mr. Colquhoun.
March16, 1841.
I should certainly have had much pleasure in being the original publisher of your very interesting work "The Moor and the Loch," but I have a very great dislike to theappearance evenof interfering with any other publisher. Having glass windows, I must not throw stones. With Blackwood, indeed, I have long had particular relations, and they for several years acted as my agents in Edinburgh; so pray have the kindness to confide to me the cause of your misunderstanding with that house, and let me have the satisfaction of at least trying in the first place to settle the matter amicably. In any case, however, you may rely upon all my means to promote the success of your work, the offer of which has made me, dear Sir,
Your obliged and faithful Servant,
Mr. Colquhoun to John Murray.
March20, 1841.
I am much obliged by your note which I received yesterday. I shall endeavour to see you directly, and when I explain the cause of my dissatisfaction with Messrs. Blackwood, I am sure you will at once see that it would be impossible for us to go on comfortably together with my second edition; and even if any adjustment was brought about, I feel convinced that the book would suffer. I do not mean to imply anything against the Messrs. Blackwood as men of business, and should be sorry to be thus understood; but this case has been a peculiar one, and requires too long an explanation for a letter. In the meantime I have written to you under the strictest confidence, as the Messrs. B. are not aware of my intention of bringing out a second edition at the present time, or of my leaving them. My reasons, however, are such that my determination cannot be altered; and I hope, after a full explanation with you, that we shall at once agree to publish the book with the least possible delay. I shall be most happy to return your note, which you may afterwards show to Messrs. B., and I may add that had you altogether refused to publish my book, it could in no way have affected my decision of leaving them.
I remain, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
Mr. Colquhoun came up expressly to London, and after an interview with Mr. Murray, who again expressed his willingness to mediate with the Edinburgh publishers, Mr. Colquhoun repeated his final decision, and Mr. Murray at length agreed to publish the second edition of "The Moor and the Loch." It may be added that in the end Mr. Colquhoun did, as urged by Murray, return to the Blackwoods, who still continue to publish his work.
Allan Cunningham ended his literary life by preparing the "Memoirs" of his friend Sir David Wilkie. Shortly before he undertook the work he had been prostrated by a stroke of paralysis, but on his partial recovery he proceeded with the memoirs, and the enfeebling effects of his attack may be traced in portions of the work. Towards the close of his life Wilkie had made a journey to the East, had painted the Sultan at Constantinople, and afterwards made his way to Smyrna, Rhodes, Beyrout, Jaffa, and Jerusalem. He returned through Egypt, and at Alexandria he embarked on board theOrientalsteamship for England. While at Alexandria, he had complained of illness, which increased, partly in consequence of his intense sickness at sea, and he died off Gibraltar on June 1, 1841, when his body was committed to the deep. Turner's splendid picture of the scene was one of Wilkie's best memorials. A review of Allan Cunningham's work, by Mr. Lockhart, appeared in theQuarterly, No. 144. Previous to its appearance he wrote to Mr. Murray as follows:
Mr. Lockhart to John Murray.
February25, 1843.
I don't know if you have read much of "The Life of Wilkie." All Cunningham's part seems to be wretched, but in the "Italian and Spanish Journals and Letters" Wilkie shines out in a comparatively new character. He is a very eloquent and, I fancy, a deep and instructive critic on painting; at all events, Vol. ii. is full of very high interest…. Is there anywhere a good criticism on the alteration that Wilkie's style exhibited after his Italian and Spanish tours? The general impression always was, and I suppose will always be, that the change was for the worse. But it will be a nice piece of work to account for an unfortunate change being the result of travel and observation, which we now own to have produced such a stock of admirable theoretical disquisition on the principles of the Art. I can see little to admire or like in the man Wilkie. Some good homely Scotch kindness for kith and kin, and for some old friends too perhaps; but generally the character seems not to rise above the dull prudentialities of a decent man in awe of the world and the great, and awfully careful about No. 1. No genuine enjoyment, save in study of Art, and getting money through that study. He is a fellow that you can't suppose ever to have been drunk or in love—too much a Presbyterian Elder for either you or me.
Mr. Murray received a communication (December 16, 1841), from Mr. John Sterling, Carlyle's friend, with whom he had had transactions on his own account. "Not," he said, "respecting his own literary affairs, but those of a friend." The friend was Mr. John Stuart Mill, son of the historian of British India. He had completed his work on Logic, of which Mr. Sterling had the highest opinion. He said it had been the "labour of many years of a singularly subtle, patient, and comprehensive mind. It will be our chief speculative monument of this age." Mr. Mill himself addressed Mr. Murray, first on December 20, 1841, while he was preparing the work for the press, and again in January and February, 1842, when he had forwarded the MS. to the publisher, and requested his decision. We find, however, that Mr. Murray was very ill at the time; that he could not give the necessary attention to the subject; and that the MS. was eventually returned.
When Copyright became the subject of legislation in 1843, Mr. Murray received a letter from Mr. Gladstone.
Mr. Gladstone to John Murray.
WHITEHALL,February6, 1843.
I beg leave to thank you for the information contained in and accompanying your note which reached me on Saturday. The view with which the clauses relating to copyright in the Customs Act were framed was that those interested in the exclusion of pirated works would take care to supply the Board of Customs from time to time with lists of all works under copyright which were at all likely to be reprinted abroad, and that this would render the law upon the whole much more operative and more fair than an enormous catalogue of all the works entitled to the privilege, of which it would be found very difficult for the officers at the ports to manage the use.
Directions in conformity with the Acts of last Session will be sent to the Colonies.
But I cannot omit to state that I learn from your note with great satisfaction, that steps are to be taken here to back the recent proceedings of the Legislature. I must not hesitate to express my conviction that what Parliament has done will be fruitless, unless thelawbe seconded by the adoption of such modes of publication, as will allow the public here and in the colonies to obtain possession of new and popular English works at moderate prices. If it be practicable for authors and publishers to make such arrangements, I should hope to see a great extension of our book trade, as well as much advantage to literature, from the measures that have now been taken and from those which I trust we shall be enabled to take in completion of them; but unless the proceedings of the trade itself adapt and adjust themselves to the altered circumstances, I can feel no doubt that we shall relapse into or towards the old state of things; the law will be first evaded and then relaxed.
I am, my dear Sir,
Faithfully yours,
Here it is fitting that a few paragraphs should be devoted to the closing years of Robert Southey, who for so many years had been the friend and coadjutor of the publisher of theQuarterly.
Between 1808 and 1838, Southey had written ninety-four articles for theQuarterly; the last was upon his friend Thomas Telford, the engineer, who left him a legacy. He had been returned Member of Parliament for Downton (before the Reform Bill passed), but refused the honour—a curious episode not often remembered in the career of this distinguished man of letters. When about fifty-five years old, his only certain source of income was from his pension, from which he received £145, and from his laureateship, which was £90. But the larger portion of these sums went in payment for his life insurance, so that not more than £100 could be calculated on as available. His works were not always profitable. In one year he only received £26 for twenty-one of his books, published by Longman.
Murray gave him £1,000 for the copyright of the "Peninsular War"; but his "Book of the Church" and his "Vindiciae" produced nothing.
Southey's chief means of support was the payments (generally £100 for each article) which he received for his contributions to theQuarterly; but while recognizing this, as he could not fail to do, as well as Murray's general kindness towards him, he occasionally allowed a vein of discontent to show itself even in his acknowledgment of favours received.
In 1835 Southey received a pension of £300 from the Government of Sir Robert Peel. He was offered a Baronetcy at the same time, but he declined it, as his circumstances did not permit him to accept the honour.
Mr. Southey to John Murray.
June17, 1835.
"What Sir Robert Peel has done for me will enable me, when my present engagements are completed, to employ the remainder of my life upon those works for which inclination, peculiar circumstances, and long preparation, have best qualified me. They are "The History of Portugal," "The History of the Monastic Orders," and "The History of English Literature," from the time when Wharton breaks off. The possibility of accomplishing three such works at my age could not be dreamt of, if I had not made very considerable progress with one, and no little, though not in such regular order, with the others."
Shortly after his second marriage, Southey's intellect began to fail him, and he soon sank into a state of mental imbecility. He would wander about his library, take down a book, look into it, and then put it back again, but was incapable of work. When Mr. Murray sent him the octavo edition of the "Peninsular War," his wife answered:
Mrs. Southey to John Murray.
GRETA HALL,May15, 1840.
If the wordpleasurewere not become to me as adead letter, Ishould tell you with how much I took possession of your kind gift. But Imaytell you truly that it gratified, and more than gratified me, by giving pleasure to my dear husband, as a token of your regard for him, so testified towards myself. The time is not far passed when we should have rejoiced together like children over such an acquisition.
Yours very truly and thankfully,
May23, 1840.
Very cordially I return your friendly salutations, feeling, as I do, that every manifestation of kindness for my husband's sake is more precious to me than any I could receive for my own exclusively. Two-and-twenty years ago, when he wished to put into your hands, as publisher, a first attempt of mine, of which he thought better than it deserved, he little thought in that so doing he was endeavouring to forward the interests of his future wife; of her for whom it was appointed (a sad but honoured lot) to be the companion of his later days, over which it has pleased God to cast the "shadow before" of that "night in which no man can work." But twelve short months ago he was cheerfully anticipating (in the bright buoyancy of his happy nature) a far other companionship for the short remainder of our earthly sojourn; never forgetting, however, that ours must be short at the longest, and that "in the midst of life we are in death." He desires me to thank you for your kind expressions towards him, and to be most kindly remembered to you. Your intimation of the favourable progress of his 8vo "Book of the Church" gave him pleasure, and he thanks you for so promptly attending to his wishes about a neatly bound set of his "Peninsular War." Accept my assurances of regard, and believe me to be, dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
On September 17, 1840, Mr. Murray sent to Mr. Southey a draft for £259, being the balance for his "Book of the Church," and informed him that he would be pleased to know that another edition was called for. Mrs. Southey replied:
Mrs. Southey to John Murray.
"He made no remark on your request to be favoured with any suggestions he might have to offer.Mysad persuasion is that Robert Southey's works have received their last revision and correction from his mind and pen."
GRETA HALL,October 5, 1840.
I will not let another post go out, without conveying to you my thanks for your very kind letter last night received. It will gratify you to know that its contents (the copy of the critique included), aroused and fixed Mr. Southey's attention more than anything that has occurred for months past—gratifying him, I believe, far more than anything more immediately concerning himself could have done. "Tell Murray," he said, "I am very much obliged to him." It is long since he has sent a message to friend or relation.
Now let me say for myself that I am very thankful toyou—very thankful to my indulgent reviewer—and that if I could yet feel interest about anything of my own writing, I should be pleased and encouraged by his encomium—as well as grateful for it. But if it didnot sound thanklessly, I should say, "too late—too late—it comes too late!" and that bitter feeling came upon me so suddenly, as my eyes fell upon the passage in question, that they overflowed with tears before it was finished.
But hedid take interest init, at least for a few moments, and so it was notquitetoo late; and (doing as Iknow he would have me), I shall act upon your mostkindandfriendlyadvice, and transmit it to Blackwood, who will, I doubt not, be willingly guided by it.
It was one of my husband's pleasant visions before our marriage, and his favourite prospect, to publish a volume of poetry conjointly with me, not weighing the disproportion of talent.
I must tell you that immediately on receiving theReview, I should have written to express my sense of your kindness, and of the flattering nature of the critique; but happening totellMiss Southey and her brother that you had sent it me, as I believed, as an obliging personal attention, they assured me I was mistaken, and that the numbers were only intended for "their set." Fearing, therefore, to arrogate to myself more than was designed for me, I kept silence; and now exposemy simplicityrather thanleavemyselfopento the imputation of unthankfulness. Mr. Southey desires to be very kindly remembered to you, and I am, my dear Sir,
Very thankfully and truly yours, Car. Southey.
P.S.—I had almost forgotten to thank you for so kindly offering to send theReviewto any friends of mine, I may wish to gratify. Iwillaccept the proffered favour, and ask you to send one addressed to Miss Burnard, Shirley, Southampton, Hants. The other members of my family and most of my friends take theQ.R., or are sure of seeing it. This last number is an excellent one.
Southey died on March 21, 1843. The old circle of friends was being sadly diminished. "Disease and death," his old friend Thomas Mitchell, one of the survivors of the early contributors to theQuarterly, wrote to Murray, "seem to be making no small havoc among our literary men—Maginn, Cunningham, Basil Hall, and poor Southey, worst of all. Lockhart's letters of late have made me very uneasy, too, about him. Has he yet returned from Scotland, and is he at all improved?" Only a few months later Mr. Murray himself was to be called away from the scene of his life's activity. In the autumn of 1842 his health had already begun to fail rapidly, and he had found it necessary to live much out of London, and to try various watering-places; but although he rallied at times sufficiently to return to his business for short periods, he never recovered, and passed away in sleep on June 27, 1843, at the age of sixty-five.
In considering the career of John Murray, the reader can hardly fail to be struck with the remarkable manner in which his personal qualities appeared to correspond with the circumstances out of which he built his fortunes.
When he entered his profession, the standard of conduct in every department of life connected with the publishing trade was determined by aristocratic ideas. The unwritten laws which regulated the practice of bookselling in the eighteenth century were derived from the Stationers' Company. Founded as it had been on the joint principles of commercial monopoly and State control, this famous organization had long lost its old vitality. But it had bequeathed to the bookselling community a large portion of its original spirit, both in the practice of cooperative publication which produced the "Trade Books," so common in the last century, and in that deep-rooted belief in the perpetuity of copyright, which only received its death-blow from the celebrated judgment of the House of Lords in the case of Donaldsonv. Becket in 1774. Narrow and exclusive as they may have been in their relation to the public interest, there can be no doubt that these traditions helped to constitute, in the dealings of the booksellers among themselves, a standard of honour which put a certain curb on the pursuit of private gain. It was this feeling which provoked such intense indignation in the trade against the publishers who took advantage of their strict legal rights to invade what was generally regarded as the property of their brethren; while the sense of what was due to the credit, as well as to the interest, of a great organized body, made the associated booksellers zealous in the promotion of all enterprises likely to add to the fame of English literature.
Again, there was something, in the best sense of the word, aristocratic in the position of literature itself. Patronage, indeed, had declined. The patron of the early days of the century, who, like Halifax, sought in the Universities or in the London Coffee-houses for literary talent to strengthen the ranks of political party, had disappeared, together with the later and inferior order of patron, who, after the manner of Bubb Dodington, nattered his social pride by maintaining a retinue of poetical clients at his country seat. The nobility themselves, absorbed in politics or pleasure, cared far less for letters than their fathers in the reigns of Anne and the first two Georges. Hence, as Johnson said, the bookseller had become the Maecenas of the age; but not the bookseller of Grub Street. To be a man of letters was no longer a reproach. Johnson himself had been rewarded with a literary pension, and the names of almost all the distinguished scholars of the latter part of the eighteenth century—Warburton, the two Wartons, Lowth, Burke, Hume, Gibbon, Robertson—belong to men who either by birth or merit were in a position which rendered them independent of literature as a source of livelihood. The author influenced the public rather than the public the author, while the part of the bookseller was restricted to introducing and distributing to society the works which the scholar had designed.
Naturally enough, from such conditions arose a highly aristocratic standard of taste. The centre of literary judgment passed from the half-democratic society of the Coffee-house to the dining-room of scholars like Cambridge or Beauclerk; and opinion, formed from the brilliant conversation at such gatherings as the Literary Club; afterwards circulated among the public either in the treatises of individual critics, or in the pages of the two leading Monthly Reviews. The society from which it proceeded, though not in the strict sense of the word fashionable, was eminently refined and widely representative; it included the politician, the clergyman, the artist, the connoisseur, and was permeated with the necessary leaven of feminine intuition, ranging from the observation of Miss Burney or the vivacity of Mrs. Thrale, to the stately morality of Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Hannah More.
On the other hand, the whole period of Murray's life as a publisher, extending, to speak broadly, from the first French Revolution to almost the eve of the French Revolution of 1848, was characterized in a marked degree by the advance of Democracy. In all directions there was an uprising of the spirit of individual liberty against the prescriptions of established authority. In Politics the tendency is apparent in the progress of the Reform movement. In Commerce it was marked by the inauguration of the Free Trade movement. In Literature it made itself felt in the great outburst of poetry at the beginning of the century, and in the assertion of the superiority of individual genius to the traditional laws of form.
The effect produced by the working of the democratic spirit within the aristocratic constitution of society and taste may without exaggeration be described as prodigious. At first sight, indeed, there seems to be a certain abruptness in the transition from the highly organized society represented in Boswell's "Life of Johnson," to the philosophical retirement of Wordsworth and Coleridge. It is only when we look beneath the surface that we see the old traditions still upheld by a small class of Conservative writers, including Campbell, Rogers, and Crabbe, and, as far as style is concerned, by some of the romantic innovators, Byron, Scott, and Moore. But, generally speaking, the age succeeding the first French Revolution exhibits the triumph of individualism. Society itself is penetrated by new ideas; literature becomes fashionable; men of position are no longer ashamed to be known as authors, nor women of distinction afraid to welcome men of letters in their drawing-rooms. On all sides the excitement and curiosity of the times is reflected in the demand for poems, novels, essays, travels, and every kind of imaginative production, under the name ofbelles lettres.
A certain romantic spirit of enterprise shows itself in Murray's character at the very outset of his career. Tied to a partner of a petty and timorous disposition, he seizes an early opportunity to rid himself of the incubus. With youthful ardour he begs of a veteran author to be allowed the privilege of publishing, as his first undertaking, a work which he himself genuinely admired. He refuses to be bound by mere trading calculations. "The business of a publishing bookseller," he writes to a correspondent, "is not in his shop, or even in his connections, but in his brains." In all his professional conduct a largeness of view is apparent. A new conception of the scope of his trade seems early to have risen in his mind, and he was perhaps the first member of the Stationers' craft to separate the business of bookselling from that of publishing. When Constable in Edinburgh sent him "a miscellaneous order of books from London," he replied: "Country orders are a branch of business which I have ever totally declined as incompatible with my more serious plans as a publisher."
With ideas of this kind, it may readily be imagined that Murray was not what is usually called "a good man of business," a fact of which he was well aware, as the following incident, which occurred in his later years, amusingly indicates.
The head of one of the larger firms with which he dealt came in person to Albemarle Street to receive payment of his account. This was duly handed to him in bills, which, by some carelessness, he lost on his way home, He thereupon wrote to Mr. Murray, requesting him to advertise in his own name for the lost property. Murray's reply was as follows:
TWICKENHAM,October26, 1841.
I am exceedingly sorry for the vexatious, though, I hope, only temporary loss which you have met with; but I have so little character for being a man of business, that if the bills were advertised inmyname it would be publicly confirming the suspicion—but in your own name, it will be only considered as a very extraordinary circumstance, and I therefore give my impartial opinion in favour of the latter mode. Remaining, my dear——-,
Most truly yours,
The possession of ordinary commercial shrewdness, however, was by no means the quality most essential for successful publishing at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Both Constable and Ballantyne were men of great cleverness and aptitude for business; but, wanting certain higher endowments, they were unable to resist the whirl of excitement accompanying an unprecedented measure of financial success. Their ruin was as rapid as their rise. To Murray, on the other hand, perhaps their inferior in the average arts of calculation, a vigorous native sense, tempering a genuine enthusiasm for what was excellent in literature, gave precisely that mixture of dash and steadiness which was needed to satisfy the complicated requirements of the public taste.
A high sense of rectitude is apparent in all his business transactions; and Charles Knight did him no more than justice in saying that he had "left an example of talent and honourable conduct which would long be a model for those who aim at distinction in the profession." He would have nothing to do with what was poor and shabby. When it was suggested to him, as a young publisher, that his former partner was ready to bear part of the risk in a contemplated undertaking, he refused to associate his fortunes with a man who conducted his business on methods that he did not approve. "I cannot allow my name to stand with his, because he undersells all other publishers at the regular and advertised prices." Boundless as was his admiration for the genius of Scott and Byron, he abandoned one of the most cherished objects of his ambition-to be the publisher of new works by the author of "Waverley"—rather than involve himself further in transactions which he foresaw must lead to discredit and disaster; and, at the risk of a quarrel, strove to recall Byron to the ways of sound literature, when through his wayward genius he seemed to be drifting into an unworthy course.
In the same way, when the disagreement between the firms of Constable and Longmans seemed likely to turn to his own advantage, instead of making haste to seize the golden opportunity, he exerted himself to effect a reconciliation between the disputants, by pointing out what he considered the just and reasonable view of their mutual interests. The letters which, on this occasion, he addressed respectively to Mr. A.G. Hunter, to the Constables, and to the Longmans, are models of good sense and manly rectitude. Nor was his conduct to Constable, after the downfall of the latter, less worthy of admiration. Deeply as Constable had injured him by the reckless conduct of his business, Murray not only retained no ill-feeling against him, but, anxious simply to help a brother in misfortune, resigned in his favour, in a manner full of the most delicate consideration, his own claim to a valuable copyright. The same warmth of heart and disinterested friendship appears in his efforts to re-establish the affairs of the Robinsons after the failure of that firm. Yet, remarkable as he was for his loyalty to his comrades, he was no less distinguished by his spirit and independence. No man without a very high sense of justice and self-respect could have conducted a correspondence on a matter of business in terms of such dignified propriety as Murray employed in addressing Benjamin Disraeli after the collapse of theRepresentative. It is indeed a proof of power to appreciate character, remarkable in so young a man, that Disraeli should, after all that had passed between them, have approached Murray in his capacity of publisher with complete confidence. He knew that he was dealing with a man at once shrewd and magnanimous, and he gave him credit for understanding how to estimate his professional interest apart from his sense of private injury.
Perhaps his most distinguishing characteristic as a publisher was his unfeigned love of literature for its own sake. His almost romantic admiration for genius and its productions raised him above the atmosphere of petty calculation. Not unfrequently it of course led him into commercial mistakes, and in his purchase of Crabbe's "Tales" he found to his cost that his enthusiastic appreciation of that author's works and the magnificence of his dealings with him were not the measure of the public taste. Yet disappointments of this kind in no way embittered his temper, or affected the liberality with which he treated writers like Washington Irving, of whose powers he had himself once formed a high conception. The mere love of money indeed was never an absorbing motive in Murray's commercial career, otherwise it is certain that his course in the suppression of Byron's Memoirs would have been something very different to that which he actually pursued. On the perfect letter which he wrote to Scott, presenting him with his fourth share in "Marmion," the best comment is the equally admirable letter in which Scott returned his thanks. The grandeur—for that seems the appropriate word—of his dealings with men of high genius, is seen in his payments to Byron, while his confidence in the solid value of literary excellence appears from the fact that, when theQuarterlywas not paying its expenses, he gave Southey for his "Life of Nelson" double the usual rate of remuneration. No doubt his lavish generosity was politic as well as splendid. This, and the prestige which he obtained as Byron's publisher, naturally drew to him all that was vigorous and original in the intellect of the day, so that there was a general desire among young authors to be introduced to the public under his auspices. The relations between author and publisher which had prevailed in the eighteenth century were, in his case, curiously inverted, and, in the place of a solitary scholar like Johnson, surrounded by an association of booksellers, the drawing-room of Murray now presented the remarkable spectacle of a single publisher acting as the centre of attraction to a host of distinguished writers.
In Murray the spirit of the eighteenth century seemed to meet and harmonize with the spirit of the nineteenth. Enthusiasm, daring, originality, and freedom from conventionality made him eminently a man of his time, and, in a certain sense, he did as much as any of his contemporaries to swell that movement in his profession towards complete individual liberty which had been growing almost from the foundation of the Stationers' Company. On the other hand, in his temper, taste, and general principles, he reflected the best and most ancient traditions of his craft. Had his life been prolonged, he would have witnessed the disappearance in the trade of many institutions which he reverenced and always sought to develop. Some of them, indeed, vanished in his own life-time. The old association of booksellers, with its accompaniment of trade-books, dwindled with the growth of the spirit of competition and the greater facility of communication, so that, long before his death, the co-operation between the booksellers of London and Edinburgh was no more than a memory. Another institution which had his warm support was the Sale dinner, but this too has all but succumbed, of recent years, to the existing tendency for new and more rapid methods of conducting business. The object of the Sale dinner was to induce the great distributing houses and the retail booksellers to speculate, and buy an increased supply of books on special terms. Speculation has now almost ceased in consequence of the enormous number of books published, which makes it difficult for a bookseller to keep a large stock of any single work, and renders the life of a new book so precarious that the demand for it may at any moment come to a sudden stop.
The country booksellers—a class in which Murray was always deeply interested—are dying out. Profits on books being cut down to a minimum, these tradesmen find it almost impossible to live by the sale of books alone, and are forced to couple this with some other kind of business.
The apparent risk involved in Murray's extraordinary spirit of adventure was in reality diminished by the many checks which in his day operated on competition, and by the high prices then paid for ordinary books. Men were at that time in the habit of forming large private libraries, and furnishing them with the sumptuous editions of travels and books of costly engraving issued from Murray's press. The taste of the time has changed. Collections of books have been superseded, as a fashion, by collections of pictures, and the circulating library encourages the habit of reading books without buying them. Cheap bookselling, the characteristic of the age, has been promoted by the removal of the tax on paper, and by the fact that paper can now be manufactured out of refuse at a very low cost. This cheapness, the ideal condition for which Charles Knight sighed, has been accompanied by a distinct deterioration in the taste and industry of the general reader. The multiplication of reviews, magazines, manuals, and abstracts has impaired the love of, and perhaps the capacity for, study, research, and scholarship on which the general quality of literature must depend. Books, and even knowledge, like other commodities, may, in proportion to the ease with which they are obtained, lose at once both their external value and their intrinsic merit.
Murray's professional success is sufficient evidence of the extent of his intellectual powers. The foregoing Memoir has confined itself almost exclusively to an account of his life as a publisher, and it has been left to the reader's imagination to divine from a few glimpses how much of this success was due to force of character and a rare combination of personal qualities. A few concluding words on this point may not be inappropriate.
Quick-tempered and impulsive, he was at the same time warm-hearted and generous to a fault, while a genuine sense of humour, which constantly shows itself in his letters, saved him many a time from those troubles into which the hasty often fall. "I wish," wrote George Borrow, within a short time of the publisher's death, "that all the world were as gay as he."
He was in some respects indolent, and not infrequently caused serious misunderstandings by his neglect to answer letters; but when he did apply himself to work, he achieved results more solid than most of his compeers. He had, moreover, a wonderful power of attraction, and both in his conversation and correspondence possessed a gift of felicitous expression which rarely failed to arouse a sympathetic response in those whom he addressed. Throughout "the trade" he was beloved, and he rarely lost a friend among those who had come within his personal influence.
He was eager to look for, and quick to discern, any promise of talent in the young. "Every one," he would say, "has a book in him, or her, if one only knew how to extract it," and many was the time that he lent a helping hand to those who were first entering on a literary career.
To his remarkable powers as a host, the many descriptions of his dinner parties which have been preserved amply testify; he was more than a mere entertainer, and took the utmost pains so to combine and to place his guests as best to promote sympathetic conversation and the general harmony of the gathering. Among the noted wits and talkers, moreover, who assembled round his table he was fully able to hold his own in conversation and in repartee.
On one occasion Lady Bell was present at one of these parties, and wrote: "The talk was of wit, and Moore gave specimens. Charles thought that our host Murray said the best things that brilliant night."
Many of the friends whose names are most conspicuous in these pages had passed away before him, but of those who remained there was scarcely one whose letters do not testify to the general affection with which he was regarded. We give here one or two extracts from letters received during his last illness.
Thomas Mitchell wrote to Mr. Murray's son:
"Give my most affectionate remembrances to your father. More than once I should have sunk under the ills of life but for his kind support and countenance, and so I believe would many others say besides myself. Be his maladies small or great, assure him that he has the earnest sympathies of one who well knows and appreciates his sterling merits."
Sir Francis Palgrave, who had known Mr. Murray during the whole course of his career, wrote to him affectionately of "the friendship and goodwill which," said he, "you have borne towards me during a period of more than half my life. I am sure," he added, "as we grow older we find day by day the impossibility of findinganyequivalent for old friends." Sharon Turner also, the historian, was most cordial in his letters.
"Our old friends," he said, "are dropping off so often that it becomes more and more pleasing to know that some still survive whom we esteem and by whom we are not forgotten…. Certainly we can look back on each other now for forty years, and I can do so as to you with great pleasure and satisfaction, when, besides the grounds of private satisfaction and esteem, I think of the many works of great benefit to society which you have been instrumental in publishing, and in some instances of suggesting and causing. You have thus made your life serviceable to the world as well as honourable to yourself…. You are frequently in my recollections, and always with those feelings which accompanied our intercourse in our days of health and activity. May every blessing accompany you and yours, both here and hereafter."
It was not only in England that his loss was felt, for the news of his death called forth many tokens of respect and regard from beyond the seas, and we will close these remarks with two typical extracts from the letters of American correspondents.
To Mr. Murray's son, Dr. Robinson of New York summed up his qualities in these words:
"I have deeply sympathised with the bereaved family at the tidings of the decease of one of whom I have heard and read from childhood, and to whose kindness and friendship I had recently been myself so much indebted. He has indeed left you a rich inheritance, not only by his successful example in business and a wide circle of friends, but also in that good name which is better than all riches. He lived in a fortunate period—his own name is inseparably connected with one of the brightest eras of English literature—one, too, which, if not created, was yet developed and fostered by his unparalleled enterprise and princely liberality. I counted it a high privilege to be connected with him as a publisher, and shall rejoice in continuing the connection with his son and successor."
Mrs. L.H. Sigourney wrote from Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.:
"Your father's death is a loss which is mourned on this side of the Atlantic. His powerful agency on the patronage of a correct literature, which he was so well qualified to appreciate, has rendered him a benefactor in that realm of intellect which binds men together in all ages, however dissevered by political creed or local prejudice. His urbanity to strangers is treasured with gratitude in many hearts. To me his personal kindness was so great that I deeply regretted not having formed his acquaintance until just on the eve of my leaving London. But his parting gifts are among the chief ornaments of my library, and his last letter, preserved as a sacred autograph, expresses the kindness of a friend of long standing, and promises another 'more at length,' which, unfortunately, I had never the happiness of receiving."
Abercorn, Marq. and Marchioness of,Allegra, death of; buried at Harrow,Athenaeum Club,Austen, Miss Jane, "NorthangerAbbey,"; Novels publishedby Murray,Austria, Empress of,
Baillie, Miss Joanna, Ballantyne & Co. (John & James), bill transactions with Murray; partnership with Scott; proposed edition of "British Novelists,"; Works of De Foe; James B. meets Murray at Boroughbridge; appointed Edinburgh agents forQ.R.; views onQ.R.; close alliance with Murray; financial difficulties; breach with Murray; failure ofEdinburgh Ann. Reg.; "Waverley,"; "Lord of the Isles,"; "Don Roderick,"; Scott's proposed letters from the Continent; proposal to Murray and Blackwood about Scott's works; in debt to Scott; "Tales of my Landlord," "The Black Dwarf,"; bankruptcy; death of John Ballantyne, Barker, Miss, Barrow, Sir John, induced by Canning to write forQ. R.; visit to Gifford; consulted by Murray about voyages or travels; nicknamed "Chronometer" by B. Disraeli, Bartholdy, Baron, Barton, Bernard, Basevi, junr., George, Bastard, Capt., Beattie, Dr., Bedford, Grosvenor, Bell, Lady, Bell & Bradfute, Bellenden, Mary, Belzoni, Giovanni, Berry, Miss, edits "Horace Walpole's Reminiscences," Blackwood, William, appointed Murray's Agent for Scotland; visits Murray; intimacy with Murray; early career; threatens Constable with proceedings for printing Byron's "Poems,"; refuses to sell "Don Juan,"; alliance and correspondence with Murray; Ballantyne's proposals about Scott's works;Blackwood's Magazinestarted; Murray's remonstrance about the personality of articles; Hazlitts libel action; interested with Murray in various works,Blackwood's Magazinestarted (first calledEdinburgh Magazine); article attacking Byron; "Ancient Chaldee MS.,"; "The Cockney School of Poetry,"; personality of articles,; "Hypocrisy Unveiled," etc.; Murray retires from—Cadell and Davies appointed London Agents for, Blessington, Countess of, "Conversations with Lord Byron," Blewitt, Octavian, Borrow, George, his youth; capacity for learning languages; appointed Agent to the Bible Society—Russia, Norway, Turkey and Spain, his translation of the Bible; called Lavengro, his splendid physique, "Gypsies of Spain," "The Bible in Spain," as a horse-breaker, remarks on Allan Cunningham's death, asked to become a member of the Royal Institution, "Boswell's Johnson," Croker's edition of, Bray, Mrs., Brockedon, William, his portrait of the Countess Guiccioli, his help in Murray's Handbooks, Brougham, Lord, his article inEd. Rev.on Dr. Young's theory of light, Chairman of the Society for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Broughton, Lord,seeHobhouse. Buccleuch, Duke of, his present of a farm to James Hogg, Butler, Charles, "Books on the R. Cath. Church," Burney, Dr., Buxton, Thos. Powell, "Slave Trade and its Remedy," Byron, Lord, first association and meeting with Murray, "Childe Harold," presented to Prince Regent, friendship with Scott, "Giaour," "Bride of Abydos," "Corsair," "Ode to Napoleon," "Lara," marriage, meets Scott at Murray's house, remarks on Battle of Waterloo, portrait by Phillips, kindness to Maturin, dealings with Murray, residence in Piccadilly, pecuniary embarrassments, Murray's generous offer, Murray's remonstrance, "Siege of Corinth" and "Parisina," separation from wife, sale of effects, "Sketch from Private Life," leaves England, "Childe Harold" and "Prisoner of Chillon," remarks on Scott's Review of "Childe Harold," Canto III., "Manfred," attack of fever at Venice, "Childe Harold," Canto IV., visit from Hobhouse, his bust by Thorwaldsen, correspondence with Murray in 1817 to 1822, "Beppo," Frere's "Whistlecraft," at Venice, opinion of Southey, "Don Juan," Cantos I. and II.; Murray's suggestions as to, hatred of Romilly, "Letter of Julia," "Mazeppa," "Ode to Venice," Copyright of "Don Juan," Countess Guiccioli: proposal to visit S. America, "Don Juan," Cantos III. and IV., "Don Juan," Canto V., Murray's refusal to publish further Cantos of "Don Juan," "My boy Hobby O!" Hobhouse's anger, Whig Club at Cambridge, pamphlet on "Bowles' strictures," "Sardanapalus," "The Two Foscari," "Cain, a Mystery," injunction in case of "Cain," death and burial of Allegra, illness, and last letter to Murray, adopts Hato or Hatagée, the Suliotes incident, death: Murray's application for his burial in Westminster Abbey refused, Memoirs and Moore, destruction of Memoirs, agreement between Moore and Murray, Moore undertakes to write "Life," Murray's negotiations with Moore as to "Life," agreement as to "Life," Vol. I. of "Life" published, Vol. II., Murray's proposed edition of his works, Thorwaldsen's statue refused by Dean of Westminster, attempt to alter Dean's decision; the statue placed in library of Trinity College, Cambridge, Byron, Lady, her offer to Murray for redemption of Byron's Memoirs,
Cadell & Davies, appointed London AgentsforBlackwood's Magazine,Callcott, Lady,seeGraham, Mrs.Campbell, Thomas, "Pleasures oHope," "Hohenlinden," "TheExile of Erin," "Ye Mariners ofEngland," "Battle of the Baltic,""Lochiel's Warning"; correspondencewith Scott; intimacywith Murray;proposed "Selection from BritishPoets"; "Gertrudeof Wyoming"; Lectures onPoetry; "Now Barabbaswas a Publisher"; hisopinion of Mrs. Hemans's "Recordsof Woman,"Canning, George, startsAnti-Jacobin;assists in startingQuarterly Review;article inQ.R.on "AustrianState Papers"; on Spain;views on the Royal Societyof Literature; opinion of"Waverley"; letters fromGifford; called "X."by Benjamin Disraeli,Canning, Stratford, "The Miniature";connection withQ.R.; introduces Giffordto Murray; his mission toConstantinople,Carlyle, Thomas, recommended toMurray by Lord Jeffrey;correspondence with Murrayabout "Sartor Resartus";"Sartor Resartus" declinedby other publishers;returns to Craigenputtock;"Sartor Resartus" published inFraser's Magazine, and, throughEmerson's influence, in UnitedStates,Cawthorn, publisher of "EnglishBards and Scotch Reviewers,"Cervetto,Chantrey, Sir F., calls Murray "abrother Cyclops,"noteChesterfield, Lord,Cleghorn, James, Editor ofBlackwood'sMagazine,Colburn, the publisher, "VivianGrey"; declines "SartorResartus,"Coleridge, John Taylor; appointedEditor toQuarterlyReview; wishes to resigneditorship,Coleridge, Samuel Taylor;correspondence with Murray;Goethe's "Faust";"Wallenstein"; "TheFriend"; "Remorse,""Glycine," "Christabel,""Christmas Tale," "Zapolya";opinion of Frere,Colman's Comedy, "John Bull,"Colquhoun, Rt. Hon. J.C. (LordAdvocate),Colquhoun, John, "The Moor andthe Loch"; correspondencewith Murray; dissatisfactionwith Blackwood; visit toLondon and interview withMurray,Constable, Archibald (Constable &Co.);Farmer's Magazine,Scots Magazine, EdinburghReview; his partner,A.G. Hunter; appointedMurray's agent; "Sir Tristram"and "Lay of the LastMinstrel"; breach withLongman; injunction as toEdin. Rev.obtained by Longman;letter from Jeffrey;Murray's remonstrances as todrawing bills;establishes London House;breach with Murray;final breach with Murray;fresh alliance with Scott;Campbell's "Selections from the British Poets";Poems by Byron on his Domestic Circumstances;Mrs. Markham's "History of England";bankruptcy;renews friendship with Murray;death,Cooper, James Fenimore,Coplestone,Copyright Bill, the, Mr. Gladstone's remarks on,Coxe, Archdeacon,Crabbe, "Tales of the Hall," and other poems,Creech and ElliotCroker, CroftonCroker, John Wilson,visit to Prince Regent,portrait by Eddis,"Stories for Children on Hist. of England",on "Don Juan" and Byron,takes charge ofQ.R.during Gifford's illness,views on theMonthly Register,edits Lady Hervey's Letters,opinion of the Waldegrave and Walpole Memoirs,edits the Suffolk Papers,edits Mrs. Delany's Letters,Lockhart's opinion of him,"Boswell's Johnson",opinion of Moore's "Life of Byron",Moore's "Life of Lord Fitzgerald"Cumberland, Richard,"John de Lancaster"Cumming, ThomasCunningham, Allan,"Paul Jones: a Romance",his death,"Memoirs of Sir D. Wilkie",Lockhart's article inQ.R.on the "Memoirs"Cunningham, Rev. J.W.,and the burial of Allegra at HarrowCuthill
Dacre, Lady (Mrs. Wilmot)Dagley (the engraver)Dallas, Mr.Davies, Annie,Gifford's housekeeperDavy, Sir Humphry,"Salmonia, or Days of Fly-Fishing"D'Haussez, BaronDelany, Mrs.De QuincyDe Staël, Madame,ordered to quit Paris,a frequenter of Murray's drawing-roomDisraeli, Benjamin,"Aylmer Papillon," "History of Paul Jones",correspondence with Murray,pamphlets on Mining Speculations,connection with Messrs. Powles,partner with Murray and Powles inRepresentative,letters to Murray on theRepresentativenegotiations,description of York Cathedral,visits Lockhart,interview with Scott at Chiefswood,second visit to Scotland, and exertions on behalf ofRepresentativedrops his connection withRepresentative,"Vivian Grey" and "Contarini Fleming",renewal of correspondence with Murray,travels in Spain, etc.,Radical candidate for Wycombe,attended by Tita (Byron's Gondolier),"Gallomania",publishes reply to criticisms on "Gallomania"D'Israeli, Isaac,"Curiosities of Literature",friendship with Murray,"Flim-Flams",birth of his son Benjamin,Murray's marriage-settlement,Trustee,advice aboutQ.R.,"Calamities of Authors","Character of James I.",impromptu on Belzoni,meets Washington Irving at Murray's,consulted by Murray as toRepresentative,proposed pamphlet on his misunderstanding with MurrayD'Oyley, Rev. Dr.Dudley, Lord,his "Letters"