Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/218

1 82 JOHN MURRAY. Among the many instances of Murray's munificence was the offer of 3000 to Crabbe for his " Tales of the Hall," and the copyright of his prior works. Some zealous friends, however, thought this too small a sum, and opened negotiations with another firm, but the other firm offered considerably less ; and Crabbe, fearing that Murray might consider the bargain as out of his hands entirely now, went straightway to Albe- marle Street with Rogers and Moore as mediators. Murray, however, assured them that he had from the first considered the matter as entirely settled. Lord Byron's personal connection with the Albemarle Street clique was of comparatively short existence, for, in 1816, he left England for the last time ; but to the time of his death he kept up a regular correspondence with Murray of the frankest and most cordial kind. Now, Murray hearing that Lord Byron was in diffi- culties, sends him a draft for 1500, promising another for the same amount in the course of a few months, and offering to sell the copyright of his works for his use, if that were not sufficient. Then, again, in a freak, Byron presents Murray with " Parisina " and the "Siege of Corinth," and returns the cheque for 1000 which the publisher had forwarded. " Your offer is liberal in the extreme, and much more than the two poems can possibly be worth ; but I cannot accept it, nor will not. You are most wel- come to them as an addition to the collected volumes,* without any demand or expectation on my part what- ever. " P.S. I have enclosed your draft, torn, for fear of accidents by the way. I wish you would not throw temptation in mine ; it is not from a disdain of the universal idol, nor from a present superfluity of his