Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/138

118 him an excessive price for it. Some inkling of the intentions of Davies must have reached Tom Moore; possibly it came through Grattan. For Moore wrote to John Murray in 1828 that "Scrope Davies both from his cleverness and the materials he must possess is rather a formidable competitor and it might at least be worth your while to enter into negotiations with him for his work."

The same jokes, anecdotes and quotations flowed from the lips of Davies on their renewal of intercourse in August 1836. Grattan then noticed on this occasion his ignorance of modern languages; he talked "even French very imperfectly." But there was an improvement in his habits of life and he walked on the digue at Ostend in the early morning hours of 7 and 8. He repeated "word for word" the statement about his contemplated life of Byron, adding that Moore had applied to him for information but that he had refused to give any assistance. By next year Davies had "a bachelor's residence" at Dunkerque, but the friends met again at Ostend in August and next month at Calais. Once more he spoke about his life of Byron and Grattan saw John Murray about the book. His "papers were a sort of chaos, without form and void." The completed pages were few and unconnected and he wanted a library for his work; but after this conversation with Grattan he announced his intention, on returning to Dunkerque, to set to the composition in earnest. These good intentions soon flickered out: nothing came of the enterprise nor indeed of that "account of Porson and other literary friends" which Pryse Lockhart Gordon, another refugee in Belgium, announced that "Porson's intimate friend and associate Mr. Scrope Davies is preparing for the press."

Another of these enforced sojourners on the un-English side of the channel, Tom Raikes of diary-fame, makes