Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-09-11
Lord byron and MIR. Hoppner.

| than the interest which was taken by tn
, public in the private life and adventure
of Lord Byron during his short ant
: stormy avatar" in English society
: And we all know in how strange a man
ner that interest was revived, fifty year.
afterward, by the indecent intrusion of /
scandal-loving authoress into the secrets
of the buried past. Those who have
these matters in their recollection will
: not fail to have noticed with some slight
attention the announcement just pub
: lished of the death of Richard Belgrave
Hoppner, at the age of eighty-six-just
two years more than Lord Byron would
himself have attained if he had lived.
Since the decease of Lord Broughton,
Mr.. Hoppner had survived as the very
last of those male personages who played
their parts along with the poet in the
brief drama Of life; unless, indeed, ex-
ception may be made for his faithful SER
want, Tita," or Baptiste, whose still
portly figure may be observed by any one
who has business call to make at the
door of the India Office, where he is a
messenger. Mr.. Hoppner was originally
a clerk in the foreign Office and was
consul at Venice from 1914 to 1926;
afterward, for short time, at Lisbon;
but he had left public life for many
years before his decease. Those who
remember the details of Lord Byron's
| Venetian sojourn are well aware of the
poets liking for the consul, and of the
services and kindnesses which the latter
was able to render him at very critical
| period. He was a witness, though not
exactly conidant, of Lord Byron's
growing passion for the Contessa Guic-
cioli. He seems to have thought it no
more than passing fancy, distinguished
only by its object from the vulgar loves
in which the poet had so ungovernably
INDUCED during the first discreditable
years of his Venetian life. Mrs. Hopp.
ner-with a true lady, instinct-judged
differently; and truly pronounced, as
the event proved, that the lady would
compel her inspired lover to follow her
wherever she pleased. But Mr.. Hopp-
ner himself addressed letter to the
Atheneum newspaper MAY 22, 1869,
in which, in answer to some misstate
ments of the fair countess in her work,
" Lord Byron juge par les Temoins," he
explains his own view OF the case:
81 certainly did not approve (he says |
the life Lord Byron led in Venice, and
as far as felt warranted in doing so |
never failed to tell him SO; but we were
very nearly OF the same age, which with |
our different positions in life, would have
only rendered me ridiculous if had at
tempted to play the Mentor with him.
/ well remember to have told him
he made himself ridiculous in the eyes
of every one; and / have little doubt it
was with disgust with the very life he
was leading which made him take dis
like to Venice, and glad of the opportu-
nifty the connection he about this time
formed with Nine Guiccioli offered him
to quit altogether. y
And he adds that he never did believe
in the enduring coastancy of the at
tachment, and ungallantly opined that
one reason for the poets visit to Greece
was the desire TO break knot which he
could not unite.
However this may be, Mr.. Hoppner
was in other respects a kind friend
and agreeable associate. Lord Byron's
letters to him from Ravenna, in the
fourth and fifth volumes of Moore's Life,
prove this. And the poet !
celebrated the birth of a child of the
cousin in four lines, which, as Moore
truly says, are in mo other respect re- s
than that they were thought
worthy of being translated into no less !
han ten different anguages-Greek, 2
Latin, Italian, German, French, Span
sh, Illyrian, Hebrew, Armenian and I
But the greatest service .
which Mr.. Hoppner had the power to Q
ender him was in taking charge OF his I
latural daughter Allegra. Nsthing could I
,e more melancholy than the circum- q
tances under which this poor child of o
wenty months old, under the care of an l
gnorant Swiss nurse, was received in its
Isolation into the home of father oc- "
upied with two or three Venetian mis- s.
resses. From this unhappy fate II
lr. and Mrs. Hoppner relieved
er; although according to the ae- a
cunt both of the consul and the lord, lc
he was disagreeable child" as W
Estimate as a mule, and as ravenous as te
vHlture; health good, to judge of the n,
temper tolerable, but for OF
aniIy and pertinacity." With the l
Ioppners the poor little thing remained m
ntil removed to a convent, where she Oil
led at five years old. 1t is sad SO
title episode in her fathers history, and, e.
oreover, any one whois idle and curious HI
lough to investigate the subject with
Iat groveling accuracy with which Lord Il
yron's doings and misdoings have been :sn
lronicled will see from dates and cir nn ,n
Imstances-both in Moore's Life and %
Rossetti's Biography Of Shelley-that T.,
e commonly received story respecting e.,
7 birth can only by bare possibility be ~; NJ
ne. Something is unrevealed, but -,
suredly it matters little what. With m
IRONS removal from Ravenna to Pisa -
o2l) the connection between his career -, ~
-d that of Hnnnnnr nnnrnr .oN