Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/131

 Before the spring of the year had passed away Byron was an exile. On 20 April 1816 he presented to Scrope a copy of the Philadelphia edition of his poems (1813; 2 vols.) which had been given to him in the previous June by George Ticknor. The volumes afterwards passed to sir Francis Burdett. Three days later Byron at half-past nine in the morning fled to the continent, just escaping the bailiffs. "Polidori and Hobhouse went in Scrope Davies's chaise; Byron and Davies in Byron's new Napoleonic carriage built by Baxter for £500." They arrived at Dover by half-past eight and dined at the Ship. On 25 April Hobhouse was up to an eight o'clock breakfast but Byron did not appear. The captain was impatient, "even the serenity of Scrope was disturbed," but after some bustle out came Byron and walked down to the quay. Slowly the packet glided out of the harbour bearing the poet, never again to return to his native shores. Disconsolate and overwhelmed in gloom, Davies and Hobhouse returned to London (Lord Broughton, recollections of a long life, I, 334–6.)

Davies was entrusted at Dover with a parcel for Miss Mercer, who afterwards married the comte de Flahault. He was to give it to her with Byron's message "had I been fortunate enough to marry a woman like you, I should not now be obliged to exile myself from my country." The friends had their portraits painted in miniature and on ivory by James Holmes for presentation to one another. The portrait of Byron, an admirable likeness, was painted in 1815; it afterwards became the property of Mr. Alfred Morrison. That of Davies, 4¾ by 3½ inches, in gold frame, was among the relics of the poet which were sold at Christie's on 5 Dec. 1906 and was subsequently on sale by Mr. Bertram Dobell. On the back was the autograph inscription "Painted by Js. Holmes 1816 for lord Byron — Scrope