West End Story
THE Byrd family is one of the most august in Virginia, represented today by the senior senator from the Old Dominion and by his brother, the famous explorer. The second William Byrd was the most versatile Virginian of his day and the colony's most distinguished writer. He was an amateur, a 'dilettante,' and he was also a 'virtuoso,' a fellow of the Royal Society while, still a young man, and almost as observant and versatile in his interests as Mr. Jefferson was to be. But although the editors of this volume have printed some of the writings to which he owed his serious literary and scientific fame, notably his History of the Dividing Line, with its unkind account of 'Lubber- land' (North Carolina), it is not the main dish set before us. That is a transcription of the diary he kept in shorthand in which he recounts his daily (and nightly) routine in the London of George I. There is a little about Virginia at the end, but the main centre of Byrd's activities is the parish of St. James's, White's, the Cocoa Tree, the Cockpit and the bagnios. He, of course, moved into the City from time to time and went as far afield as Oxford, but this is a West End story and a story mainly of fornication. In its candour it recalls Pepys and Boswell, but somehow the great Virginia planter is a less attractive snapper-up of unconsidered trifles than the Admiralty official or the Lowland laird. His amours had as little of the angelic part in them as those of His Majesty King Charles II, and his repeated and automatic peni- tence becomes as monotonous and offputting as his repeated falls from grace. This is, indeed, rather the world of Fanny Hill than of Boswell or Pepys, and while the narrative is of great interest for the historian of prostitution (there are interesting variations in the range of prices), there is comparatively little that has human interest. A hostile critic might stress the role of petting in American erotic behaviour, but except for the use of an historically minded Dr. Kinsey, this part of the Diary rapidly becomes boring.
On the other hand, there is a good deal of interesting detail about London life. We find Byrd buying brandy from a smuggler; we are told in great detail about his diet (including its meta- bolic results); we are fully informed of his illness (including an attack of gonorrhea during which he behaved with, great irresponsibility and must have helped to spread justified alarm and despon- dency all through St. James's). We also see Byrd dutifully reading his Greek and Hebrew and generally remembering to say his prayers, repent- ing when he omitted to do so.
All good things have an end and he returned to the less lush pastures of Virginia, though the ser- vant, Annie, whom he brought out with him, was usually obliging. But in Virginia, if he was remote from the seats of the mighty, he was deeply in- volved in the politics of the colony and in the extension of his great estates. He helped to con- demn pirates, made war on Governor Spotswood, went to church and to balls, looked after his slaves and collected the most magnificent library out- side New England (in which, alas, he miscon- ducted himself with Annie). This is eminently a document pour servir and it has been admirably edited by Professor Louis Wright and Miss Marion Tinting. Possibly they do not pursue every personal reference with the almost excessive tenacity of Mr. Wilmarth Lewis and they seem to have promoted Lord Islay and demoted his brother, the Duke of Argyll. But this is an impres- sive work of scholarship and a credit to the Vir-
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