Add MS 89382/3/6

Poems, songs, drawings, and other papers removed from the Bessborough Granville correspondence by Castalia Leveson-Gower during her research for Lord Granville Leveson Gower: Private Correspondence (1916).

ff. 1-10: Papers and drawings.

• Visiting card of Le Comte de Lambert, counsellor in the Embassy of the Czar of Russia, Albemarle Street, no. 7.
• ‘Verses found in Ld. Hollands pocket’. English satirical verse relating to Lord and Lady Holland. Drafts with corrections.
• Itinerary of Lord Granville’s journey through Europe, 1792.
• Manuscript document headed ’Moniteur no. 151’, dated ‘1 ventose an 11’ and 19 February 1794. Under the heading ‘Tribunal Criminel Revolutionaire’ announces the conviction of J J De Beaune, F. N. Brichard, F. Messivier, J B Vierté, and J B Chaudot of involvement in a plot laid in June 1790, to put in circulation 1,000 stock of 100 pounds sterling each to the profit of George Prince of Wales, Frederick of York and William-Henry Duke of Clarence, sons of King George III of England. Signature illegible. Pencil note by Castalia Leveson-Gower: ‘Copied, not used’.
• Ink sketch of a decorated horse drawn chariot with classical figures at front and back (possibly a funeral cortege). Inscribed in French: ‘Voila le char … a J F Br… que j’avais eprise pour H [etc].’ Pencil note by Castalia Leveson-Gower at bottom right: ‘1804?’.
• Ink sketch of building, labelled Garden, Court, Churchyard, Church; with floorplan labelled Parlour, Hall, Parlour.
• List of cypher names for members of their circle. Pencil note by Castalia Leveson-Gower: ‘Oct 1804’.
• Note in French from an unidentified correspondent, addressed to someone with beautiful feet who has been at the theatre in St Petersburg. Undated.

ff. 11-18: Italian and French songs, mostly in the hand of Lady Bessborough.

• ‘Erma valle amico rio’. Italian song. Draft with corrections. Begins: ‘Erma valle amico rio / a cui fido il mio dolore / nelle vostre ombre segrete / Nascondete il pianto mio / nel silenzio e nel horror [?] - / un ingrato che adorai / mi sedusse m’ingannó / del suo amor pegno mi dai / la mia fede a lui giurai / e il crudel m’abandannó’.
• ‘A toi, qui n’eut jamais du naitre’. French song addressed to a love child. In the same hand. Begins: ‘A toi, qui n’eut jamais du naitre / Gage trop cher d’un fol amour / puisses-tu ne jamais connaitre / l’erreur qui te donna le jour / que ton enfance / Goute en silence’ [etc.]. One of three songs referred to in letter of Lady Bessborough to Lord Granville, 30 September 1800 (Add MS 89382/2/15 ff. 62-65).
• ‘A voyager passant sa vie’. French song. Begins: ‘A Voyager passant sa vie / Certain Vieillard nommé le Tems / Pres d’une Fleuve arive et s’ecrie / Ayez pitie de mes vieux ans / Et quoi! sur ces bords on m’oublie?’ Attributed to Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, vicomte de Ségur (1756-1805). Followed by quotations from Crebillon, Rousseau, Ninon de l’Enclos, and others. One of three songs referred to in letter of Lady Bessborough to Lord Granville, 30 September 1800 (Add MS 89382/2/15 ff. 62-65).
• ‘La Naissance de l’Amour’, French song. Begins: ‘Quand l’Amour naquit a Cythere / Ce fut grand bruit dans le pays / Dit Venus ‘Je suis bonne Mere / C’est moi qui nourirai mon fils’ [etc.]’. Followed by a quotation from Crebillon. Followed by a poem by M. G. Lewis Esq. ‘Pleasure & desire’. Begins: ‘In yonder bower lies Pleasure sleeping / And near him mourns a blooming Maid! / He will not wake, & she sits weeping / When Lo! A Stranger proffers aid’. One of three songs referred to in letter of Lady Bessborough to Lord Granville, 30 September 1800 (Add MS 89382/2/15 ff. 62-65).
• Two French songs with accompaniment, in score. ‘Cause adornée de ma souffrance’; and ‘Ce que je cheri ce que j’aime c’est toujours toi’.

ff. 19-24: Poems.

• Poem and letter from Lady Bessborough, probably sent to Lord Granville. Inscribed in pencil by Castalia Leveson-Gower, ‘Lady B. [illegible]’. Heading: ‘A qui le comprend’. Chiefly consists of a 3 ½ page poem, in English, with corrections, followed by a letter in a cramped hand on part of the final page. Poem starts: ‘Observe how often from a trifle springs / The fate of Empires or the doom of kings / and social life’s small stream must roughly flow / Oer rocks (however hid) if forc’d to go’.
• Part of a poem in English written roughly on the verso of a fragment of a letter in French.
• ‘A free translation of an ode from the Emperor of China to Lord Macartney upon his audience of leave at the court of Pekin’. Begins: ‘When a King or a Queen sends a great Mandarin, and our footstool he humbly approaches’.
• English manuscript poem. Begins ‘Let thy fond smile, whateer my fate shall be / Cherish such hope, & soothe such anxious fear’. On writing paper within an embossed and black bordered frame.