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February 8, 2011
CAAF: The worst houseguests in the world
In 1822, Leigh Hunt, his pregnant wife and their six children moved into the ground floor of Lord Byron's house in Pisa. As one scholar notes, "the [Hunt] children were encouraged to express their personalities rather than to submit to discipline." Byron put it more colorfully, referring to the kids as "six little blackguards."
But it's Marianne Hunt's own record of the stay that makes me laugh. From an 1822 diary entry:
Mr. Hunt was much annoyed by Lord Byron behaving so meanly about the Children disfiguring his house, which his nobleship chose to very severe upon. How much I wish I could esteem him more! It is so painful, to be under any obligation to a person you cannot esteem! Can anything be more absurd than a peer of the realm--and a poet--making such a fuss about three or four children disfiguring the walls of a few rooms. The very children would blush for him, fye Lord B.--fye.
Such a fuss about the disfigurement of only a few rooms! Fye!
Posted February 8, 2011 12:01 AM
