A Preamble to Matrimony…
Byron’s second proposal of marriage in September 1814 would lay the foundation stone for his eventual exile.
Year: 2021
Can YOU Make ME Happy?
I will trust to YOU for ALL I should look up to – ALL I can love?
A Proposal of Marriage – Possibly?
Marry Me?
I confess that my attention wandered to the alluring and haughty figure of Mr Darcy in conversation with a certain Miss Bennet…
A Regency Recondite!
Born ‘out of my time’ and with a fond heart for Regency history – it is no secret that I also have a passionate interest in the life of the poet Lord Byron!
My Lady Brigante!
The Lady Brigante loves nothing more than shocking unsuspecting folk with the tale that she was abandoned at birth by gypsies…
Marilyn and a Million OR Three!
I have been reading the book by Ghislaine McDayter which places Byron and the heady years of stardom as the patriarch of all of our modern celebrities and so in addition to being a brilliant and irreverent poet, and despite his own cynicism on the matter – Byron is also honoured as the first ever celebrity…
Adieu Most Amiable Mamma…
In the hagiography which often passes for the writing of Byron’s life, Catherine Gordon Byron is somewhat of a ‘Marmite’ figure for you will either love OR hate her!
Let Me Have Implora Pace! Please?
In 1824, the church of St Mary Magdalene in the town of Hucknall in Nottingham welcomed the safe arrival of Byron’s remains for burial after his death at the age of 36 on April 19 in the town of Missolonghi in Greece…
It’s Daggers at Dawn!
One July evening – Lord Byron attended a ‘Small Waltzing Party’ in London despite his intense dislike for the ‘fashionable Waltz’ on account of his lameness AND for his disdain for anything remotely fashionable…
Stone Me! Such a Pretentious Poseur!
One wonders if he had to try hard to persuade his ‘dearest friend’ to actually sit for Thorvaldsen as the first meeting between the artist and Byron was one of wry amusement on the part of one and studied indifference by the other…
To the Vale of Graves…
And one glorious afternoon in October I took a stroll through this fabulous cemetery to the grave of Byron’s spouse…
Thursday’s Angel Child HAS Far to Go!
More than 228 years have now passed since that ‘involuntary Act of coming into the World’ for May 17 is the birthday of Anne Isabella, Lady Noel Byron, the Poet’s ‘Princess of Parallelograms’ and the woman he later said was ‘born for my destruction.’
Born on Ascension Day in 1792 in County Durham, she was the cherished only child of Sir Ralph and the Hon. Judith Milbanke who had lived through a marriage of over 15 years, childlessness and hope in anticipation of the arrival of their ‘’little angel’…
Blest Her! The Angel Suffers No More…
“Oh! my God! how has my poor Child been sacrificed! not only to a wicked, but unmanly Creature!”
The agitated author of this letter was the Hon. Judith Noel in the dying days of January 1816 as the marriage separation between her beloved only daughter and Lord Byron became increasingly acrimonious and as the latter prepared for a life in exile far away from the marital home of 13 Piccadilly Terrace in London.
However, Judith was QUITE mistaken in her distraught prediction about her ‘poor child’s’ imminent demise…
MAY You Marry in Haste?
With her Scottish ancestry for omens and superstition perhaps Catherine’s confusion is understandable for she did indeed marry ‘Mad Jack’ Byron on Friday May 13 AND by all accounts their brief marriage was a disaster!
