’In vain would flattery steal a wreath from fame,
  And Rome’s best sculptor only half succeed,
If England owned no share in Byron’s name
  Nor hailed the laurel she before decreed.’

Of course you are very welcome to a copy—­I don’t mean of the verses, but of the bust.  But, with the exception of Mr. Kinnaird, who has applied, and Mr. Davies, who may apply, no other will be granted.  Farewell, dear Sir.”

The fourth canto duly reached London in Mr. Hobhouse’s portmanteau, and was published in the spring of 1818.

CHAPTER XV

LORD BYRON’S DEALINGS WITH MR. MURRAY—­continued—­THE DEATH OF ALLEGRA, ETC.

Lord Byron informed Mr. Murray, on October 12, 1817, that he had written “a poem in or after the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft (whom I take to be Frere)”; and in a subsequent letter he said, “Mr. Whistlecraft has no greater admirer than myself.  I have written a story in eighty-nine stanzas in imitation of him, called ‘Beppo,’ the short name for Giuseppe, that is the Joe of the Italian Joseph.”  Lord Byron required that it should be printed anonymously, and in any form that Mr. Murray pleased.  The manuscript of the poem was not, however, sent off until the beginning of 1818; and it reached the publisher about a month later.

Meanwhile the friendly correspondence between the poet and his publisher continued: 

John Murray to Lord Byron.

September 22, 1818.

“I was much pleased to find, on my arrival from Edinburgh on Saturday night, your letter of August 26.  The former one of the 21st I received whilst in Scotland.  The Saturday and Sunday previous I passed most delightfully with Walter Scott, who was incessant in his inquiries after your welfare.  He entertains the noblest sentiments of regard towards you, and speaks of you with the best feelings.  I walked about ten miles with him round a very beautiful estate, which he has purchased by degrees, within two miles of his favourite Melrose.  He has nearly completed the centre and one wing of a castle on the banks of the Tweed, where he is the happiness as well as pride of the whole neighbourhood.  He is one of the most hospitable, merry, and entertaining of mortals.  He would, I am confident, do anything to serve you; and as the Paper [Footnote:  The review of the fourth canto of “Childe Harold,” Q.R., No.37.] which I now enclose is a second substantial proof of the interest he takes in your literary character, perhaps it may naturally enough afford occasion for a letter from you to him.  I sent you by Mr. Hanson four volumes of a second series of ‘Tales of my Landlord,’ and four others are actually in the press.  Scott does not yet avow them, but no one doubts his being their author....  I sent also by Mr. Hanson a number or two of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, and I have in a recent parcel sent the whole.