Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-06-07
DEATH ANNE EIsABELLA,BARO
NOEL BYRON

race, Regents Park, London She was sixty
eight years of age at the time of her decease
Dowsger Lady Byron, Baroness Wentworth
was born May IL, 1892. She was the only
daughter of Sir Ralph Milbank, afterward
Noel, Of Seaham, in the county Of Durham
She was nearly connected by blood with the
families Of Lord Wentworth, Lord Melbourne
and others of the English nobility.
On the ID of January, 1915, she was married
to Lord Noel Byron.
Lord Byron addressed her about a year pre-
vious, and, although his suit was not at TINT
un accepted, yet her refusal was accompanied
Win every assurance OF esteem and regard
and a friendly correspondence was kept up be-
tween item. A second application in Septeuu-
Der proved successful.
Prior to the nuptials, in a letter to Leigh
Hunt dated Oct. Is, 1914 Byron wrote:
L am about to be married, and
am, of course, in all the misery of man in
the pursuit of happiness My intended is two
hundred miles off, and the efforts am making
with lawyers, &c, &C., to join my future con-
nectlOns are, for parsonage of my single and
lnyeterate habits, to say nothing of Incidence.
quite prOdigiOus.
In another letter, speaking of Lady B during
the term OF his engagement, he said:
bat an odd situation and friendship is ours
Without one spark of love on either side and
produced by circumstances which, in general,
lead TO cOldneSs on one side and aversion on
the other. She Is very superior woman and
wy little spoiled, which is strange in an heir
esS-a girl Of twenty peeress that is to be in
her own right-an only child and savante
who has always had her own way She is a
poetess, mathematician, and withaI, yerv
KIND, generous, and gentle, and with very
little pretensions. Any other head wouId he
turned with half her acquisitions and a tenth
Of her advantages
Lord Byron, in a letter to Mr.. Murray. dated
hlroy, Jan 3, 1915, four days subsequent to
the marriage, says:
The marriage took place on the 2d inst so
pray make haste and congratulate away.
In letter 10 Mr.. Moore, dated the 10th of
the same month, Byron alluded 10 his mar
risge in these words:
was married this day week The parson
mas pronounced it-Perry has pronounced it
:. Lord Byron's Marriage" :" as if il were a fab
rlcatlOn, or the puff direct Of a new story
maker ''0i1
The disastrous result of the marriage apnesrs
20 nave been anticipated by Byron even at the
orldal altar The looming events cast their
s9adoWs before. Lord ByrOn's prose account
OF the wedding, in his suppressed memoirs ;s
said by Moore to have agreed closely in ali rs
circumstances with his poetieal dissertation of
II In . The Dream" II is to be inferred from,
byron published correspondence that. even
at his wedding, the thoughts of his first love of
-haly CnaWorth, OF Annesley Hall, whom he so
Peeteally termed his " Bright Morning Star of
AnnesIey- were present to his imagination
Annesley Hall and all its fond associations
hoated like vision before his thoughts and
on the point OF pronouncing his nuptial vows
a marriage contracted under such circum
stances could not but be unhappy.
Aitsr the marriage, or towards the month
o. march following that event, Lord Byron and
lady took up their residence in London. where
they lived in splendOr and expense far beyond
Byron 8 income, and be soon became involved
IN the most distressing pecuniary embarrass-
ments.
About the lst Of February, 1915, separa-
tion between Lady Byron and her husband
took place. She had left London a few davs
before on visit 10 her father in I,eicestcrs
shire, and Lord Byron was to follow her "a
soon as ne could make some arrangements of
his financial affairs. The two parted in kind
ness She wrote him on the road letter in a
style OF the most playful fondness imaginable,
out Immediately ON her arrival at Kirby MuI
iory-the seat Of her family-her father wrote.
informing him (Byron) that she would moi
again return. They never afterwards met
LIE particular causes of this event still re-
main In obScurlty; and in all that can be
gathered from the epistles and poems of the
great poet, although somewhat contradictory
IN themselves, be takes the onus Of blame of
the separation from his wife on himself
Us NuA"i e1heto aiidllceI ana It's consequent
unhappy results, hare become a part OF the
poets history, and probably the facts con-
neeted with the separation Of Lord Byron and
hIs wife have too often caused unrenerous
speculatieDs on the conduct of the latter We
therefore, IN justice to the memory of the de-
parted lady, and from the fact of the letters
having been published in the standard wort
OF Byron s poems, tske the following extracts
from them, which will speak for themselves
Id letter to Moore, June, 1915, Byron said:
Lord Westmeath died last week The bulk of
his property CfrOm seven TO eight thousand
pounds per annum) is entailed on Lady Mil
banke and Lady Byron.
In letter to Leigh Hunt, dated June /. 1915
ne aiiudeS TO Lady Byron in very coarse terms
In another letter TO Moore, dated Feb. %.
1915, he wrote: In the mean time. / am at war
with all the world land his wife" or rather
all the world and my wife are at war with me
and have not yet crushed me- whatever thew
may do don't know that in the course of
halT-breadth existence / was ever at home or
abroad, In situation so completely uprootiug
OF present pleasure, or natural hope for the fn,
ture, as this same L say this because tbint
20, and feel it. But 1 shall not sink under il
the more for that mode of considering the
question. have made up my mind By the
way, however, you must not believe ali Won
hear on the subject; and don't attempt to de-
fend me In another letter to Moore, dated
"A
one point, however. The fault was not-no
nor even the misfortune-in my choice, (unless
In choosing at all, for 1 do not believe, and /
must say ii, in the very dregs of this bitter
business, that there never was better or even
brighter, kinder or a more amiable and 1
agreeable being than Lady b. I never had,
nor can nave any reproach TO make her while
with me. While there is blame. it belongs TO
myself; and II cannot redeem must bear il.
In 1915, after the separation from his wife.
Byron poetizes his griefs in the following man,
ner; and which, it is quite evident. il n direct
contradiction TO the letter be wrote 10 Leigh
Hunt, May 3, 1916:
And thou vert sad-yet was not with ,b..
And thou wert sick, and yet was not ne.,.
Meth0ught Joy and health alone could he
Where was not-and pain and sorrow h.,s,
And is 10 thus,-it Is as foretoId
And shall be more so; for the mind recoils
Upon itself, and the wrecked heart lies cold
While heaviness collects the shattered spoils
IL Is not In the storm nor In the strife
We feel benumb'd and long to be no more.
But in the after silence on the shore
w ben all 10 lost, except little life
I am too well syenged,-but twas NV right.
whate'er my sins might be- thou wert not sent
To be the Nemesis who should REQ ute
Nor did Heaven choose new an Instrument 4
Mercy Is for the merciful.-If thou q "A