if I do return, I am determined to go immediately to a special pleader, by which I shall be put into a train of doing something, and fall into the habit of business, if anything can counteract the effects of the desultory manner in which everything is done at Eton and King's. Since we parted I have been present at some Harrow speeches, which are far superior to those at Eton, even if the entertainment after them be not considered. I have also been spending a day or two with B. Drury at Eton, who brought me back in his curricle by way of Richmond on Saturday. The day was fine, and consequently I cannot say how beautiful I thought that place. Eton looks all lovely, always excepting Carter's chamber, which is more beastly than

ever.

Believe me, dear Hodgson, very sincerely yours,
JNO. LONSDALE.

In the spring of this year, the Laureateship having fallen vacant by the death of poet Pye, Hodgson published a series of imitations of living poets, in the style of the 'Rejected Addresses' which had appeared in the previous autumn. They are entitled 'Leaves of Laurel,' or 'New Probationary Odes for the vacant Laureateship,' and are prefaced by the Miltonian

'LEAVES OF LAUREL.'

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motto, 'Yet once more, oh ye laurels,' &c. The judge of the rival performances is supposed to be the celebrated clown Grimaldi, whose successive criticisms are singularly appropriate. Campbell and Rogers commence the competition, and the 'Pleasures of Hope' are aptly contrasted with the 'Pleasures of Memory.' By a sudden transition Scott supplants the rivals, and full justice is done to the extreme beauty of his descriptive powers, while the rapidity of his execution is very cleverly parodied. Byron follows, and in a mournful monologue bewails the nothingness of all earthly existence, where 'dust is all in all, and all in all is dust.' His inordinate fondness for that poetical device which he used himself to term 'alliteration's apt and artful aid,' and his habit of introducing obsolete words and phrases, were often the subjects of goodhumoured banter among his friends, and are here amusingly ridiculed. Moore continues the contest with an eulogy of Dryden in the metre of 'Love's Young Dream,' and is followed by Crabbe, whom the judge pronounces to be Nature itself, and by Wordsworth, whose simplicity is declared to exceed even that of Nature. After the introduction of several minor poets, the Resurrection Tragedy by Coleridge, and Southey's 'Blessings of a Sinecure' conclude the series

The Leaves of Laurel' were much discussed and admired in literary society at the time of their publication, and, as in the case of the 'Rejected Addresses,' the poets whose style they imitated were not the last to appreciate their spirit and humour.

INTENDED

CHAPTER XIII.

MARRIAGE BYRON'S

GENEROSITY

LETTERS FROM BYRON, ROGERS, PRINCE LUCIEN

BUONAPARTE, MRS. LEIGH, AND MISS MILBANKE.

1813-14.

IN this and the following year (1813-14) Hodgson spent the greater part of his Cambridge vacations in London, where he was pretty constantly in the company of Lord Byron, and was cordially admitted into that brilliant society, of which those who had opportunities of contemporary observation have declared that it has never been surpassed. Holland House opened its hospitable doors to him, and he was brought into close contact with many of those stars of the literary firmament whose brightness shed undying lustre upon the age in which they shone.

There is unfortunately no detailed record of this most interesting period of his life; but the ensuing letters testify sufficiently to the high estimation in

which his character and talents were held by two at least of his associates, whose praise was fame.

It was most unfortunate that at this very time those pecuniary embarrassments, to which allusion has previously been made, were pressing most heavily upon him-embarrassments from which he was suddenly relieved in a manner equally unsolicited and unexpected. It was in the autumn of the first of these years that Byron gave proof of the depth of his regard for his friend, no less than of the natural nobility of his disposition, by his generous gift of 1,000l. Hodgson had become attached to a Miss Tayler, a young lady of great beauty and refinement, whose sister was married to his old friend and schoolfellow, Henry Drury. The mother refused her consent to the marriage unless all previous liabilities were completely cleared. Byron at once offered to discharge his friend's debts-an offer which Hodgson, after repeated refusals, ultimately accepted, although he resolved to consider the assistance as merely temporary, as a loan rather than a gift.

In a letter to his uncle, the Rev. Francis Coke, written in November of this year, Hodgson thus comments upon this signal instance of true friendship :

My noble-hearted friend Lord Byron, after many