Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 13.djvu/25



OUTCRY AGAINST CAIN — WERNER — DON JUAN CANTOS VI., VII., VIII. —QUARREL WITH SOUTHEY — DEATH OF LADY NOEL — AFFRAY AT PISA — DEATH OF ALLEGRA.

Pisa, January 12, 1822.

MY DEAR SIR WALTER, — I need not say how grateful I am for your letter, but I must own my ingratitude in not having written to you again long ago. Since I left England (and it is not for all the usual term of transportation) I have scribbled to five hundred blockheads on business, etc., without difficulty, though with no great pleasure; and yet, with the notion of addressing you a hundred times in my head, and always in my heart, I

I. "I have just got a letter," said Lord Byron, "and an admirable one it is, from Sir Walter Scott, to whom I dedicated Cain. 'The sight of one of his letters always does me good " (Medwin, Conversations of Lord Byron, vol. i. p. 179). VOL. VI. B