Thomas Moore - France

France

Exposed to the debt of £6,000 following the ruling of the Admiralty Court against him in 1819, Moore rejected numerous offers of financial aid from his friends and admirers and was forced to leave Britain. In company with Lord John Russell he went to the European Continent and after a Grand Tour through France, Switzerland and Italy lived in Paris until 1822 (notably with the family of Martin de Villamil), when the debt was finally paid off partly with the help of his latest patron Lord Lansdowne and with an advance given him by his publishers Longmans.

During his travels across Europe he briefly spent time with Lord Byron in Venice: this was to be their last meeting. Byron gave Moore his memoirs with instruction to publish them after his death as a literary executor. Moore was much criticised later for allowing himself to be persuaded to destroy Byron's memoirs at the behest of Byron's family because of their damningly honest content. Moore did, however, edit and publish Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with Notices of his Life in 1830, six years after Byron's 1824 death in Greece.

After returning to Britain, Moore published new poetry but in spite of good reviews and good sales, he was growing disillusioned with writing poetry and he began to consider writing novels, a genre made increasingly popular by the success of Walter Scott. In October 1825 Moore's Memoirs of the Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan was finally published after nine years of work on and off. It proved very popular, went through a number of editions quickly, and helped give Moore a more serious reputation among his literary contemporaries.