‘A Great Sensation’

Abstract

[To Edward J. Trelawny, 28 July 1824.] You will not wonder that the late loss of L[ord] B[yron] makes me cling with greater zeal [to] those dear friends who remain to me — He could be hardly called a friend — but connected with him in a thousand ways, admiring his talents and with all his faults feeling affection for him, it went to my heart when the other day [12 July] the hearse that contained his lifeless form, a form of beauty which in life I often delighted to behold, passed my window going up Highgate Hill on his last journey to the last seat of his ancestors. Your account of his last moments was infinitely interesting to me. Going about a fortnight ago to the house where his remains lay, I found there Fletcher and Lega. Lega looking a most preposterous rogue — Fletcher I expect to call on me when he returns from Nottingham — From a few words he imprudently let fall, it w[oul]d seem that his Lord spoke of C[laire] in his last moments, and of his wish to do something for her at a time when his mind, vaccillating between consciousness and delirium, would not permit him to do any thing. Did F[letcher] mention this to you.