BYRON (GEORGE GORDON, LORD) Autograph letter signed ('Byron') to Mr Lunmoor? ('Sir'), asking why, as Mr Leigh has paid for the furniture '...on what pretext it is retained in your hands?...' and ordering '...that it must immediately be accounted for... I do protest against its being left to your pleasure to fix a time for accounting between that gentleman and myself...', docketed by recipient on verso, 2 pages, dust-staining, marks, creased at folds, 8vo (178 x 108mm.), [n.p., but London], 19 May 1815 Footnotes: 'IT MUST IMMEDIATELY BE ACCOUNTED FOR': IN AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER, BYRON ANGRILY ENGAGES IN A DISPUTE OVER FURNITURE. After a period of perhaps his greatest creativity, the year 1815 was a chaotic one for Byron. He had entered into what was to be a disastrous marriage to Anna Isabella Millbank in January and, despite a small income from her marriage settlement and with the promise of a substantial inheritance to come, money was a constant concern. His publisher John Murray urged him to take payment for his poems, which he refused, and he was still deeply embroiled in the longstanding legal battle over his uncle's estates. His debts at this time are believed to have been in the region of £30,000 and Byron considered selling off his property, including his beloved library, to satisfy his creditors. At 'the first sign of opulence' at their marital home 13 Piccadilly Terrace, a substantial house overlooking Green Park, bailiffs demanding settlement of long-standing debts reappeared: '...on the 15th he had written to Hanson to say that one of them (Randall) had brought action without giving notice... Others followed, and soon duns dogged his every step...' (Leslie A. Marchand, Byron: A Biography, Vol.2, 1957, pp.530-531). Here, Byron angrily writes to demand the return of furniture that Mr Leigh has paid for, presumably on his behalf. The 'Mr Leigh' mentioned here is likely to be Byron's brother-in-law Colonel George Leigh (1771-1850) who had married Byron's half-sister Augusta in 1807, despite rumours that she and Byron were having an incestuous relationship. Leigh, equerry and roistering companion of the Prince of Wales, was also profligate with money and it is said Byron assisted him with his own gambling debts. Our letter is not published in Marchand's Byron's Letters & Journals, 1975. Provenance: Christie's New York, 18 December 2003, lot 76 (part). This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing