A Female Genius: How Ada Lovelace Started the Computer Age Read Online Free PDF Page A

obviously missing the excitement of London and her conquest of sorts; Lord Byron, the man whose name had been on everyone’s lips. She sought to resuscitate her friendship with him by letter after sounding out her aunt, Lady Melbourne. After the failed marriage proposal and presumably declaration of his love, she appeared unsure of their relationship and the letter has no salutation, though it is signed formally ‘Yours faithfully, A. Milbanke’.
    You have remarked the serenity of my countenance, but mine is not the serenity of one who is a stranger to care, nor are the prospects of my future years untroubled. It is my nature to feel long, deeply and secretly, and the strangest affections of my heart are without hope. I disclose to you what I conceal even from those who have most claim to my confidence because it will be the surest basis of that unreserved friendship which I wish to establish between us – because you will not reject my admirations as the result of cold calculation when you know that I can suffer as you have suffered.
    With little to do in Seaham and hearing fresh news about him, she laid out an ambitious plan for Byron’s well-being:
    No longer suffer yourself to be the slave of the moment, nor trust your noble impulses to the chances of life. Have an object that will permanently occupy your feelings and exercise your reason. Be good.
    Feel benevolence and you will inspire it. You will do good.
    Annabella’s letter to Byron started a strange correspondence in which they deepened their intimacy without actually meeting, rather like two people who meet on an internet dating site.
    For Annabella, who delighted in writing critical accounts of people in Seaham, the medium of correspondence was perfect. She could continue to put into practice her theory about Byron – that he was misunderstood by most people and was really a sensitive and admirable person who would respond to the doting love of a cautious and prudent individual such as her.
    As 1813 progressed into the autumn, Annabella began to fancy herself in love. In early October 1813 she sent her aunt Lady Melbourne (with whom she warily ‘felt little sympathy’ in summer) her reactions to Byron’s poem The Giaour .
    The description of Love almost makes me in love. Certainly he excels in the language of passion… I consider his acquaintance as so desirable that I would risk being called a Flirt for the sake of enjoying it, provided I may do so without detriment to myself – for you know that his welfare has been as much the object of my consideration as if it were connected with his own.
    Byron, at this time, was writing at Augusta’s home at the small village of Six Mile Bottom near Newmarket in Cambridgeshire. In response to Lady Melbourne’s attempts to caution him against an affair with Augusta, Byron wrote to Lady Melbourne that he thought the risk he ran was ‘worth while’, but said ‘I can’t tell you why – and it is not an ‘ Ape ’ and if it is – that must be my fault.’ What exactly he meant by Ape is not clear; he might have meant the common idea that the child of incest would be an ape.
    Nonetheless, on November 10 1813 Byron wrote to her that he was writing another poem, also set in Turkey, and that he would like to send her a copy. This poem was The Bride of Abydos. In the same letter he enquired when she was likely to be in town, and flirtatiously added; ‘I imagine I am about to add to your thousand and one pretendants’, adding ‘I have taken exquisite care to prevent the possibility of that’. While Annabelle remained on the short list, on March 22, Byron nonetheless noted in his journal that he might marry Lady Charlotte Leveson Gower, apparently because (as Byron put it) ‘she is a friend of Augusta, and whatever she loves, I can’t help liking.’
    Fanned by Lady Melbourne – who no doubt had also provided Byron with an informed view of Annabella’s financial future – Annabella was now deeply in love.