9.--To the Hon. Augusta Byron.


[At General Harcourt's, St. Leonard's Hill, Windsor, Berkshire.]

Burgage Manor, April 2d, 1804.


I received your present, my beloved Augusta, which was very
acceptable, not that it will be of any use as a token of remembrance,
No, my affection for you will never permit me to forget you.

I am afraid, my Dear Girl, that you will be absent when I am in town.
I cannot exactly say when I return to Harrow, but however it will be
in a very short time. I hope you were entertained by Sir Wm. Fawcet's
funeral on Saturday. [1] Though I should imagine such spectacles rather
calculated to excite Gloomy ideas. But I believe _your motive was not
quite of so mournful a cast_.

You tell me that you are tired of London. I am rather surprised to
hear that, for I thought the Gaieties of the Metropolis were
particularly pleasing to _young ladies_. For my part I detest it; the
smoke and the noise feel particularly unpleasant; but however it is
preferable to this horrid place, where I am oppressed with _ennui_,
and have no amusement of any kind, except the conversation of my
mother, which is sometimes very _edifying_, but not always very
_agreeable_. There are very few books of any kind that are either
instructive or amusing, no society but old parsons and old Maids;--I
shoot a Good deal; but, thank God, I have not so far lost my reason as
to make shooting my only amusement. There are indeed some of my