A Very Good Sort of Man ─ A Life of Dr Charles Lewis Meryon (1783-1877), Physician to Lady Hester Stanhope

This is the first ever biography of Dr. Charles Lewis Meryon (1783-1877), physician to Lady Hester Stanhope and companion on her travels on various different occasions (to Malta, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and the Lebanon). During these travels he met Lord Byron, the Pasha of Egypt, and famed traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, among many other characters and personalities. Dr. Meryon was shipwrecked, attacked by pirates, and lost for several days in the desert; he was the father of tormented French artist Charles Meryon (the artist's mother's unrequited love for his father is told by means of their original correspondence); author of the two three-volume sets The Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope and The Travels of the Lady Hester Stanhope; and translator (Meryon mastered various languages both ancient and modern). This biography also includes an edition of his poem 'Tis all my Eye and Betty Martin, of which only five copies were ever printed. The last remaining copy in the UK was destroyed in the bombing of London in the Second World War, and the work was believed to be lost forever, but the last surviving copy was recently unearthed in Canada. This title is a companion volume to the newly discovered Additional Memoirs of Lady Hester Stanhope (ISBN 9781845198732). [Subject: History, Biography]