“The only thing would be to avoid a party on the night of delivery—­afterwards, the more the better, and the whole transaction inevitably tends to a good deal of discussion.  Murray tells me there are myriads of ironical Addresses ready—­some, in imitation of what is called my style.  If they are as good as the Probationary Odes, or Hawkins’s Pipe of Tobacco, it will not be bad fun for the imitated.

     “Ever,” &c.

[Footnote 54:  These added lines, as may be seen by reference to the printed Address, were not retained.]

* * * * *

The time comprised in the series of letters to Lord Holland, of which the above are specimens, Lord Byron passed, for the most part, at Cheltenham; and during the same period, the following letters to other correspondents were written.

LETTER 107.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “High Street, Cheltenham, Sept. 5. 1812.

“Pray have the goodness to send those despatches, and a No. of the Edinburgh Review with the rest.  I hope you have written to Mr. Thompson, thanked him in my name for his present, and told him that I shall be truly happy to comply with his request.—­How do you go on? and when is the graven image, ’with bays and wicked rhyme upon ’t,’ to grace, or disgrace, some of our tardy editions?

“Send me ‘Rokeby.’  Who the devil is he?—­no matter, he has good connections, and will be well introduced.  I thank you for your enquiries:  I am so so, but my thermometer is sadly below the poetical point.  What will you give me or mine for a poem of six cantos, (when complete—­no rhyme, no recompense,) as like the last two as I can make them?  I have some ideas that one day may be embodied, and till winter I shall have much leisure.

     “P.S.—­My last question is in the true style of Grub Street; but,
     like Jeremy Diddler, I only ’ask for information.’—­Send me Adair
     on Diet and Regimen, just republished by Ridgway.”

* * * * *

LETTER 108.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “Cheltenham, Sept. 14. 1812.

“The parcels contained some letters and verses, all but one anonymous and complimentary, and very anxious for my conversion from certain infidelities into which my good-natured correspondents conceive me to have fallen.  The books were presents of a convertible kind.  Also, ‘Christian Knowledge’ and the ‘Bioscope,’ a religious Dial of Life explained;—­and to the author of the former (Cadell, publisher,) I beg you will forward my best thanks for his letter, his present, and, above all, his good intentions.  The ‘Bioscope’ contained a MS. copy of very excellent verses, from whom I know not,