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

‘Pray write to me,’ she begged him on June 19 1814, ‘for I have been rendered uneasy by your long silence, & you cannot wish me so.’ And on August 6 1814, Annabella wrote coquettishly to Byron to question whether he should come to Seaham as there might be a danger that he felt ‘more than friendship’ towards her.
    All this time, Byron had continued wooing Lady Charlotte Leveson Gower, his main prospect – marrying rather than writing for gain being the more noble pursuit. But in a major setback, on September 8 or 9 1814, Lady Charlotte wrote to Byron to tell him that her family had other plans for her romantically.
    Byron, confronted with this news, panicked. ‘I could not exist without some object of attachment,’ he often acknowledged during this time and scrambled to get one and decided it would be Annabella. He showed the draft of his proposal to Augusta, who said: ‘Well, this is a very pretty letter; it is a pity it shall not go. I never read a prettier one. ‘Then it shall go,’ said Byron.
    Annabella, overjoyed, accepted at once. Byron, busy with literary business and with telling his friends about his forthcoming marriage, was in no hurry, however, to visit his prospective wife.
    It was only when Annabella wrote to him on October 22 1814 to tell him that a wealthy childless uncle of hers, Lord Wentworth, had journeyed some three days to the Milbanke home at Seaham from Leicestershire expressly to meet Byron and had been most disappointed not to find him there. She added ‘It is odd that my task should be to pacify the old ones, and teach them patience. They are growing quite ungovernable, and I must have your assistance to manage them.’
    On the way to his betrothed, Byron stopped off to see Augusta and her husband Colonel Leigh who was staying with his wife, as he sometimes did. The colonel was not at all happy to learn of Byron’s impending marriage, as the colonel had hoped Augusta would be Byron’s only heir.
    There was a more welcoming reception at Seaham. Byron was buoyed by his meeting with Lord Wentworth, who had announced he now intended to make Annabella his heiress by his will. Then there was Annabella’s family who said they would be providing a dowry of £20,000 (£18 million). This would be immediate help to alleviate his debts, which had mounted to a monumental £30,000 at the time (£28 million).
    On the morning of his wedding, Monday, January 2 1815, Byron awoke in gloomy spirits, but with a determination to go ahead with the deed. By eleven o’clock in the morning Byron and Annabella were man and wife. At Six Mile Bottom, at that very hour when Augusta knew the vows would have been completed, she felt, as she put it, ‘as the sea trembles when the earth quakes’.
    ‘ Had Lady Byron on the sofa before dinner,’ Byron laconically reported on his marriage day in his memoirs which were partly remembered by various friends who had seen some of the memoirs prior to their destruction.
    The newly-wed couple had arranged to spend the first few days of their wedded bliss at a Yorkshire country house, Halnaby, that belonged to the Milbanke family. Arriving at Halnaby, the ground was covered in deep snow. The servants and tenants of the Milbankes were waiting in the wintry weather to greet Annabella and Byron. A reliable source testifies that when the carriage stopped, Byron at once jumped out and walked away, not bothering to help Lady Byron down from the carriage.
    Annabella, Lady Byron, painted during her marriage (Charles Hayter).
    As to Annabella’s demeanour on arrival at Halnaby; there is conflicting evidence about this. An old butler who was there among the welcoming party remembered that Annabella came up the steps of Halnaby alone ‘with a countenance and frame agonized and listless with evident horror and despair’.
    A maid who had accompanied them on the journey, however, recalled her mistress as being as ‘buoyant and cheerful as a bride can be.’ In any event, that