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+Project Gutenberg's Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.), by Thomas  Moore
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.)
+       With his Letters and Journals.
+
+Author: Thomas  Moore
+
+Release Date: February 6, 2006 [EBook #17684]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LORD BYRON, VOL. I. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sankar Viswanathan, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber's Note:
+
+          This is the first volume of the Six volume series
+
+                          Life of Lord Byron
+                     with his Letters and Journals
+
+                                  by
+                             Thomas Moore.
+
+                   Links to the other five volumes.
+
+   Volume Two. E-Text No.16570--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16570
+   Volume Three. E-Text No.16548--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16548
+   Volume Four. E-Text No.16549--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16549
+   Volume Five. E-Text No.16609--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16609
+   Volume Six. E-Text No.14841--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14841
+
+
+
+
+                                 LIFE
+                                  OF
+                              LORD BYRON:
+
+                    WITH HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS.
+
+
+                         BY THOMAS MOORE, ESQ.
+
+
+                       IN SIX VOLUMES.--VOL. I.
+
+
+                                LONDON
+                     JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
+                                 1854.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
+
+
+LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON, WITH NOTICES OF HIS LIFE, TO
+THE PERIOD OF HIS RETURN FROM THE CONTINENT, JULY, 1811.
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+SIR WALTER SCOTT, BARONET,
+
+
+THESE VOLUMES
+
+ARE INSCRIBED
+
+BY HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND,
+
+THOMAS MOORE.
+
+
+December, 1829.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE
+
+FIRST VOLUME OF THE FIRST EDITION.[1]
+
+
+In presenting these Volumes to the public I should have felt, I own,
+considerable diffidence, from a sincere distrust in my own powers of
+doing justice to such a task, were I not well convinced that there is
+in the subject itself, and in the rich variety of materials here
+brought to illustrate it, a degree of attraction and interest which it
+would be difficult, even for hands the most unskilful, to extinguish.
+However lamentable were the circumstances under which Lord Byron
+became estranged from his country, to his long absence from England,
+during the most brilliant period of his powers, we are indebted for
+all those interesting letters which compose the greater part of the
+Second Volume of this work, and which will be found equal, if not
+superior, in point of vigour, variety, and liveliness, to any that
+have yet adorned this branch of our literature.
+
+What has been said of Petrarch, that "his correspondence and verses
+together afford the progressive interest of a narrative in which the
+poet is always identified with the man," will be found applicable, in
+a far greater degree, to Lord Byron, in whom the literary and the
+personal character were so closely interwoven, that to have left his
+works without the instructive commentary which his Life and
+Correspondence afford, would have been equally an injustice both to
+himself and to the world.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE
+
+SECOND VOLUME OF THE FIRST EDITION.
+
+
+The favourable reception which I ventured to anticipate for the First
+Volume of this work has been, to the full extent of my expectations,
+realised; and I may without scruple thus advert to the success it has
+met with, being well aware that to the interest of the subject and the
+materials, not to any merit of the editor, such a result is to be
+attributed. Among the less agreeable, though not least valid, proofs
+of this success may be counted the attacks which, from more than one
+quarter, the Volume has provoked;--attacks angry enough, it must be
+confessed, but, from their very anger, impotent, and, as containing
+nothing whatever in the shape either of argument or fact, not
+entitled, I may be pardoned for saying, to the slightest notice.
+
+Of a very different description, both as regards the respectability of
+the source from whence it comes, and the mysterious interest involved
+in its contents, is a document which made its appearance soon after
+the former Volume,[2] and which I have annexed, without a single line
+of comment, to the present;--contenting myself, on this painful
+subject, with entreating the reader's attention to some extracts, as
+beautiful as they are, to my mind, convincing, from an unpublished
+pamphlet of Lord Byron, which will be found in the following pages.[3]
+
+Sanguinely as I was led to augur of the reception of our First Volume,
+of the success of that which we now present to the public, I am
+disposed to feel even still more confident. Though self-banished from
+England, it was plain that to England alone Lord Byron continued to
+look, throughout the remainder of his days, not only as the natural
+theatre of his literary fame, but as the tribunal to which all his
+thoughts, feelings, virtues, and frailties were to be referred; and
+the exclamation of Alexander, "Oh, Athenians, how much it costs me to
+obtain your praises!" might have been, with equal truth, addressed by
+the noble exile to his countrymen. To keep the minds of the English
+public for ever occupied about him,--if not with his merits, with his
+faults; if not in applauding, in blaming him,--was, day and night,
+the constant ambition of his soul; and in the correspondence he so
+regularly maintained with his publisher, one of the chief mediums
+through which this object was to be effected lay. Mr. Murray's house
+being then, as now, the resort of most of those literary men who are,
+at the same time, men of the world, his Lordship knew that whatever
+particulars he might wish to make public concerning himself, would, if
+transmitted to that quarter, be sure to circulate from thence
+throughout society. It was on this presumption that he but rarely, as
+we shall find him more than once stating, corresponded with any others
+of his friends at home; and to the mere accident of my having been,
+myself, away from England, at the time, was I indebted for the
+numerous and no less interesting letters with which, during the same
+period, he honoured me, and which now enrich this volume.
+
+In these two sets of correspondence (given, as they are here, with as
+little suppression as a regard to private feelings and to certain
+other considerations, warrants) will be found a complete history, from
+the pen of the poet himself, of the course of his life and thoughts,
+during this most energetic period of his whole career;--presenting
+altogether so wide a canvass of animated and, often, unconscious
+self-portraiture, as even the communicative spirit of genius has
+seldom, if ever, before bestowed on the world.
+
+Some insinuations, calling into question the disinterestedness of the
+lady whose fate was connected with that of Lord Byron during his
+latter years, having been brought forward, or rather revived, in a
+late work, entitled "Galt's Life of Byron,"--a work wholly unworthy of
+the respectable name it bears,--I may be allowed to adduce here a
+testimony on this subject, which has been omitted in its proper
+place,[4] but which will be more than sufficient to set the idle
+calumny at rest. The circumstance here alluded to may be most clearly,
+perhaps, communicated to my readers through the medium of the
+following extract from a letter, which Mr. Barry (the friend and
+banker of Lord Byron) did me the favour of addressing to me soon after
+his Lordship's death[5]:--"When Lord Byron went to Greece, he gave me
+orders to advance money to Madame G----; but that lady would never
+consent to receive any. His Lordship had also told me that he meant to
+leave his will in my hands, and that there would be a bequest in it of
+10,000_l._ to Madame G----. He mentioned this circumstance also to
+Lord Blessington. When the melancholy news of his death reached me, I
+took for granted that this will would be found among the sealed papers
+he had left with me; but there was no such instrument. I immediately
+then wrote to Madame G----, enquiring if she knew any thing concerning
+it, and mentioning, at the same time, what his Lordship had said as to
+the legacy. To this the lady replied, that he had frequently spoken to
+her on the same subject, but that she had always cut the conversation
+short, as it was a topic she by no means liked to hear him speak upon.
+In addition, she expressed a wish that no such will as I had mentioned
+would be found; as her circumstances were already sufficiently
+independent, and the world might put a wrong construction on her
+attachment, should it appear that her fortunes were, in any degree,
+bettered by it."
+
+
+
+
+NOTICES
+
+OF THE
+
+LIFE OF LORD BYRON.
+
+
+It has been said of Lord Byron, "that he was prouder of being a
+descendant of those Byrons of Normandy, who accompanied William the
+Conqueror into England, than of having been the author of Childe
+Harold and Manfred." This remark is not altogether unfounded in truth.
+In the character of the noble poet, the pride of ancestry was
+undoubtedly one of the most decided features; and, as far as antiquity
+alone gives lustre to descent, he had every reason to boast of the
+claims of his race. In Doomsday-book, the name of Ralph de Burun ranks
+high among the tenants of land in Nottinghamshire; and in the
+succeeding reigns, under the title of Lords of Horestan Castle,[6] we
+find his descendants holding considerable possessions in Derbyshire;
+to which, afterwards, in the time of Edward I., were added the lands
+of Rochdale in Lancashire. So extensive, indeed, in those early times,
+was the landed wealth of the family, that the partition of their
+property, in Nottinghamshire alone, has been sufficient to establish
+some of the first families of the county.
+
+Its antiquity, however, was not the only distinction by which the name
+of Byron came recommended to its inheritor; those personal merits and
+accomplishments, which form the best ornament of a genealogy, seem to
+have been displayed in no ordinary degree by some of his ancestors. In
+one of his own early poems, alluding to the achievements of his race,
+he commemorates, with much satisfaction, those "mail-covered barons"
+among them,
+
+                             who proudly to battle
+    Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain.
+
+Adding,
+
+    Near Askalon's towers John of Horiston slumbers,
+    Unnerved is the hand of his minstrel by death.
+
+As there is no record, however, as far as I can discover, of any of
+his ancestors having been engaged in the Holy Wars, it is possible
+that he may have had no other authority for this notion than the
+tradition which he found connected with certain strange groups of
+heads, which are represented on the old panel-work, in some of the
+chambers at Newstead. In one of these groups, consisting of three
+heads, strongly carved and projecting from the panel, the centre
+figure evidently represents a Saracen or Moor, with an European female
+on one side of him, and a Christian soldier on the other. In a second
+group, which is in one of the bed-rooms, the female occupies the
+centre, while on each side is the head of a Saracen, with the eyes
+fixed earnestly upon her. Of the exact meaning of these figures there
+is nothing certain known; but the tradition is, I understand, that
+they refer to some love-adventure, in which one of those crusaders, of
+whom the young poet speaks, was engaged.
+
+Of the more certain, or, at least, better known exploits of the
+family, it is sufficient, perhaps, to say, that, at the siege of
+Calais under Edward III., and on the fields, memorable in their
+respective eras, of Cressy, Bosworth, and Marston Moor, the name of
+the Byrons reaped honours both of rank and fame, of which their young
+descendant has, in the verses just cited, shown himself proudly
+conscious.
+
+It was in the reign of Henry VIII., on the dissolution of the
+monasteries, that, by a royal grant, the church and priory of
+Newstead, with the lands adjoining, were added to the other
+possessions of the Byron family.[7] The favourite upon whom these
+spoils of the ancient religion were conferred, was the grand-nephew
+of the gallant soldier who fought by the side of Richmond at Bosworth,
+and is distinguished from the other knights of the same Christian name
+in the family, by the title of "Sir John Byron the Little, with the
+great beard." A portrait of this personage was one of the few family
+pictures with which the walls of the abbey, while in the possession of
+the noble poet, were decorated.
+
+At the coronation of James I. we find another representative of the
+family selected as an object of royal favour,--the grandson of Sir
+John Byron the Little, being, on this occasion, made a knight of the
+Bath. There is a letter to this personage, preserved in Lodge's
+Illustrations, from which it appears, that notwithstanding all these
+apparent indications of prosperity, the inroads of pecuniary
+embarrassment had already begun to be experienced by this ancient
+house. After counselling the new heir as to the best mode of getting
+free of his debts, "I do therefore advise you," continues the
+writer,[8] "that so soon as you have, in such sort as shall be fit,
+finished your father's funerals, to dispose and disperse that great
+household, reducing them to the number of forty or fifty, at the most,
+of all sorts; and, in my opinion, it will be far better for you to
+live for a time in Lancashire rather than in Notts, for many good
+reasons that I can tell you when we meet, fitter for words than
+writing."
+
+From the following reign (Charles I.) the nobility of the family date
+its origin. In the year 1643, Sir John Byron, great grandson of him
+who succeeded to the rich domains of Newstead, was created Baron Byron
+of Rochdale in the county of Lancaster; and seldom has a title been
+bestowed for such high and honourable services as those by which this
+nobleman deserved the gratitude of his royal master. Through almost
+every page of the History of the Civil Wars, we trace his name in
+connection with the varying fortunes of the king, and find him
+faithful, persevering, and disinterested to the last. "Sir John
+Biron," says the writer of Colonel Hutchinson's Memoirs, "afterwards
+Lord Biron, and all his brothers, bred up in arms, and valiant men in
+their own persons, were all passionately the king's." There is also,
+in the answer which Colonel Hutchinson, when governor of Nottingham,
+returned, on one occasion, to his cousin-german, Sir Richard Biron, a
+noble tribute to the valour and fidelity of the family. Sir Richard
+having sent to prevail on his relative to surrender the castle,
+received for answer, that "except he found his own heart prone to such
+treachery, he might consider there was, if nothing else, so much of a
+Biron's blood in him, that he should very much scorn to betray or quit
+a trust he had undertaken."
+
+Such are a few of the gallant and distinguished personages, through
+whom the name and honours of this noble house have been transmitted.
+By the maternal side also Lord Byron had to pride himself on a line of
+ancestry as illustrious as any that Scotland can boast,--his mother,
+who was one of the Gordons of Gight, having been a descendant of that
+Sir William Gordon who was the third son of the Earl of Huntley, by
+the daughter of James I.
+
+After the eventful period of the Civil Wars, when so many individuals
+of the house of Byron distinguished themselves,--there having been no
+less than seven brothers of that family on the field at Edgehill,--the
+celebrity of the name appears to have died away for near a century. It
+was about the year 1750, that the shipwreck and sufferings of Mr.
+Byron[9] (the grandfather of the illustrious subject of these pages)
+awakened, in no small degree, the attention and sympathy of the
+public. Not long after, a less innocent sort of notoriety attached
+itself to two other members of the family,--one, the grand-uncle of
+the poet, and the other, his father. The former in the year 1765,
+stood his trial before the House of Peers for killing, in a duel, or
+rather scuffle, his relation and neighbour Mr. Chaworth; and the
+latter, having carried off to the Continent the wife of Lord
+Carmarthen, on the noble marquis obtaining a divorce from the lady,
+married her. Of this short union one daughter only was the issue, the
+Honourable Augusta Byron, now the wife of Colonel Leigh.
+
+In reviewing thus cursorily the ancestors, both near and remote, of
+Lord Byron, it cannot fail to be remarked how strikingly he combined
+in his own nature some of the best and, perhaps, worst qualities that
+lie scattered through the various characters of his predecessors,--the
+generosity, the love of enterprise, the high-mindedness of some of the
+better spirits of his race, with the irregular passions, the
+eccentricity, and daring recklessness of the world's opinion, that so
+much characterised others.
+
+The first wife of the father of the poet having died in 1784, he, in
+the following year, married Miss Catherine Gordon, only child and
+heiress of George Gordon, Esq. of Gight. In addition to the estate of
+Gight, which had, however, in former times, been much more extensive,
+this lady possessed, in ready money, bank shares, &c. no
+inconsiderable property; and it was known to be solely with a view of
+relieving himself from his debts, that Mr. Byron paid his addresses to
+her. A circumstance related, as having taken place before the marriage
+of this lady, not only shows the extreme quickness and vehemence of
+her feelings, but, if it be true that she had never at the time seen
+Captain Byron, is not a little striking. Being at the Edinburgh
+theatre one night when the character of Isabella was performed by Mrs.
+Siddons, so affected was she by the powers of this great actress,
+that, towards the conclusion of the play, she fell into violent fits,
+and was carried out of the theatre, screaming loudly, "Oh, my Biron,
+my Biron!"
+
+On the occasion of her marriage there appeared a ballad by some Scotch
+rhymer, which has been lately reprinted in a collection of the
+"Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland;" and as it bears
+testimony both to the reputation of the lady for wealth, and that of
+her husband for rakery and extravagance, it may be worth extracting:--
+
+    MISS GORDON OF GIGHT.
+
+    O whare are ye gaen, bonny Miss Gordon?
+      O whare are ye gaen, sae bonny an' braw?
+    Ye've married, ye've married wi' Johnny Byron,
+      To squander the lands o' Gight awa'.
+
+    This youth is a rake, frae England he's come;
+      The Scots dinna ken his extraction ava;
+    He keeps up his misses, his landlord he duns,
+      That's fast drawen' the lands o' Gight awa'.
+                               O whare are ye gaen, &c.
+
+    The shooten' o' guns, an' rattlin' o' drums,
+      The bugle in woods, the pipes i' the ha',
+    The beagles a howlin', the hounds a growlin';
+      These soundings will soon gar Gight gang awa'.
+                               O whare are ye gaen, &c.
+
+Soon after the marriage, which took place, I believe, at Bath, Mr.
+Byron and his lady removed to their estate in Scotland; and it was
+not long before the prognostics of this ballad-maker began to be
+realised. The extent of that chasm of debt, in which her fortune was
+to be swallowed up, now opened upon the eyes of the ill-fated heiress.
+The creditors of Mr. Byron lost no time in pressing their demands; and
+not only was the whole of her ready money, bank shares, fisheries,
+&c., sacrificed to satisfy them, but a large sum raised by mortgage on
+the estate for the same purpose. In the summer of 1786, she and her
+husband left Scotland, to proceed to France; and in the following year
+the estate of Gight itself was sold, and the whole of the purchase
+money applied to the further payment of debts,--with the exception of
+a small sum vested in trustees for the use of Mrs. Byron, who thus
+found herself, within the short space of two years, reduced from
+competence to a pittance of 150_l._ per annum.[10]
+
+From France Mrs. Byron returned to England at the close of the year
+1787; and on the 22d of January, 1788, gave birth, in Holles Street,
+London, to her first and only child, George Gordon Byron. The name of
+Gordon was added in compliance with a condition imposed by will on
+whoever should become husband of the heiress of Gight; and at the
+baptism of the child, the Duke of Gordon, and Colonel Duff of
+Fetteresso, stood godfathers.
+
+In reference to the circumstance of his being an only child, Lord
+Byron, in one of his journals, mentions some curious coincidences in
+his family, which, to a mind disposed as his was to regard every thing
+connected with himself as out of the ordinary course of events, would
+naturally appear even more strange and singular than they are. "I have
+been thinking," he says, "of an odd circumstance. My daughter (1), my
+wife (2), my half-sister (3), my mother (4), my sister's mother (5),
+my natural daughter (6), and myself (7), are, or were, all _only_
+children. My sister's mother (Lady Conyers) had only my half-sister by
+that second marriage, (herself, too, an only child,) and my father had
+only me, an only child, by his second marriage with my mother, an only
+child too. Such a complication of _only_ children, all tending to
+_one_ family, is singular enough, and looks like fatality almost." He
+then adds, characteristically, "But the fiercest animals have the
+fewest numbers in their litters, as lions, tigers, and even elephants,
+which are mild in comparison."
+
+From London, Mrs. Byron proceeded with her infant to Scotland; and, in
+the year 1790, took up her residence in Aberdeen, where she was soon
+after joined by Captain Byron. Here for a short time they lived
+together in lodgings at the house of a person named Anderson, in Queen
+Street. But their union being by no means happy, a separation took
+place between them, and Mrs. Byron removed to lodgings at the other
+end of the street.[11] Notwithstanding this schism, they for some
+time continued to visit, and even to drink tea with each other; but
+the elements of discord were strong on both sides, and their
+separation was, at last, complete and final. He would frequently,
+however, accost the nurse and his son in their walks, and expressed a
+strong wish to have the child for a day or two, on a visit with him.
+To this request Mrs. Byron was, at first, not very willing to accede,
+but, on the representation of the nurse, that "if he kept the boy one
+night, he would not do so another," she consented. The event proved as
+the nurse had predicted; on enquiring next morning after the child,
+she was told by Captain Byron that he had had quite enough of his
+young visitor, and she might take him home again.
+
+It should be observed, however, that Mrs. Byron, at this period, was
+unable to keep more than one servant, and that, sent as the boy was on
+this occasion to encounter the trial of a visit, without the
+accustomed superintendence of his nurse, it is not so wonderful that
+he should have been found, under such circumstances, rather an
+unmanageable guest. That as a child, his temper was violent, or rather
+sullenly passionate, is certain. Even when in petticoats, he showed
+the same uncontrollable spirit with his nurse, which he afterwards
+exhibited when an author, with his critics. Being angrily reprimanded
+by her, one day, for having soiled or torn a new frock in which he had
+been just dressed, he got into one of his "silent rages" (as he
+himself has described them), seized the frock with both his hands,
+rent it from top to bottom, and stood in sullen stillness, setting his
+censurer and her wrath at defiance.
+
+But, notwithstanding this, and other such unruly outbreaks,--in which
+he was but too much encouraged by the example of his mother, who
+frequently, it is said, proceeded to the same extremities with her
+caps, gowns, &c.,--there was in his disposition, as appears from the
+concurrent testimony of nurses, tutors, and all who were employed
+about him, a mixture of affectionate sweetness and playfulness, by
+which it was impossible not to be attached; and which rendered him
+then, as in his riper years, easily manageable by those who loved and
+understood him sufficiently to be at once gentle and firm enough for
+the task. The female attendant of whom we have spoken, as well as her
+sister, Mary Gray, who succeeded her, gained an influence over his
+mind against which he very rarely rebelled; while his mother, whose
+capricious excesses, both of anger and of fondness, left her little
+hold on either his respect or affection, was indebted solely to his
+sense of filial duty for any small portion of authority she was ever
+able to acquire over him.
+
+By an accident which, it is said, occurred at the time of his birth,
+one of his feet was twisted out of its natural position, and this
+defect (chiefly from the contrivances employed to remedy it) was a
+source of much pain and inconvenience to him during his early years.
+The expedients used at this period to restore the limb to shape, were
+adopted by the advice, and under the direction, of the celebrated John
+Hunter, with whom Dr. Livingstone of Aberdeen corresponded on the
+subject; and his nurse, to whom fell the task of putting on these
+machines or bandages, at bedtime, would often, as she herself told my
+informant, sing him to sleep, or tell him stories and legends, in
+which, like most other children, he took great delight. She also
+taught him, while yet an infant, to repeat a great number of the
+Psalms; and the first and twenty-third Psalms were among the earliest
+that he committed to memory. It is a remarkable fact, indeed, that
+through the care of this respectable woman, who was herself of a very
+religious disposition, he attained a far earlier and more intimate
+acquaintance with the Sacred Writings than falls to the lot of most
+young people. In a letter which he wrote to Mr. Murray, from Italy, in
+1821 after requesting of that gentleman to send him, by the first
+opportunity, a Bible, he adds--"Don't forget this, for I am a great
+reader and admirer of those books, and had read them through and
+through before I was eight years old,--that is to say, the Old
+Testament, for the New struck me as a task, but the other as a
+pleasure. I speak as a boy, from the recollected impression of that
+period at Aberdeen, in 1796."
+
+The malformation of his foot was, even at this childish age, a subject
+on which he showed peculiar sensitiveness. I have been told by a
+gentleman of Glasgow, that the person who nursed his wife, and who
+still lives in his family, used often to join the nurse of Byron when
+they were out with their respective charges, and one day said to her,
+as they walked together, "What a pretty boy Byron is! what a pity he
+has such a leg!" On hearing this allusion to his infirmity, the
+child's eyes flashed with anger, and striking at her with a little
+whip which he held in his hand, he exclaimed impatiently, "Dinna speak
+of it!" Sometimes, however, as in after life, he could talk
+indifferently and even jestingly of this lameness; and there being
+another little boy in the neighbourhood, who had a similar defect in
+one of his feet, Byron would say, laughingly, "Come and see the twa
+laddies with the twa club feet going up the Broad Street."
+
+Among many instances of his quickness and energy at this age, his
+nurse mentioned a little incident that one night occurred, on her
+taking him to the theatre to see the "Taming of the Shrew." He had
+attended to the performance, for some time, with silent interest; but,
+in the scene between Catherine and Petruchio, where the following
+dialogue takes place,--
+
+     _Cath._ I know it is the moon.
+     _Pet._ Nay, then, you lie,--it is the blessed sun,--
+
+little Geordie (as they called the child), starting from his seat,
+cried out boldly, "But I say it is the moon, sir."
+
+The short visit of Captain Byron to Aberdeen has already been
+mentioned, and he again passed two or three months in that city,
+before his last departure for France. On both occasions, his chief
+object was to extract still more money, if possible, from the
+unfortunate woman whom he had beggared; and so far was he successful,
+that, during his last visit, narrow as were her means, she contrived
+to furnish him with the money necessary for his journey to
+Valenciennes,[12] where, in the following year, 1791, he died. Though
+latterly Mrs. Byron would not see her husband, she entertained, it is
+said, a strong affection for him to the last; and on those occasions,
+when the nurse used to meet him in her walks, would enquire of her
+with the tenderest anxiety as to his health and looks. When the
+intelligence of his death, too, arrived, her grief, according to the
+account of this same attendant, bordered on distraction, and her
+shrieks were so loud as to be heard in the street. She was, indeed, a
+woman full of the most passionate extremes, and her grief and
+affection were bursts as much of temper as of feeling. To mourn at
+all, however, for such a husband was, it must be allowed, a most
+gratuitous stretch of generosity. Having married her, as he openly
+avowed, for her fortune alone, he soon dissipated this, the solitary
+charm she possessed for him, and was then unmanful enough to taunt her
+with the inconveniences of that penury which his own extravagance had
+occasioned.
+
+When not quite five years old, young Byron was sent to a day-school at
+Aberdeen, taught by Mr. Bowers,[13] and remained there, with some
+interruptions, during a twelvemonth, as appears by the following
+extract from the day-book of the school:--
+
+     George Gordon Byron.
+     19th November, 1792.
+     19th November, 1793--paid one guinea.
+
+The terms of this school for reading were only five shillings a
+quarter, and it was evidently less with a view to the boy's advance in
+learning than as a cheap mode of keeping him quiet that his mother had
+sent him to it. Of the progress of his infantine studies at Aberdeen,
+as well under Mr. Bowers as under the various other persons that
+instructed him, we have the following interesting particulars
+communicated by himself, in a sort of journal which he once began,
+under the title of "My Dictionary," and which is preserved in one of
+his manuscript books.
+
+"For several years of my earliest childhood, I was in that city, but
+have never revisited it since I was ten years old. I was sent, at five
+years old, or earlier, to a school kept by a Mr. Bowers, who was
+called '_Bodsy_ Bowers,' by reason of his dapperness. It was a school
+for both sexes. I learned little there except to repeat by rote the
+first lesson of monosyllables ('God made man'--'Let us love him'), by
+hearing it often repeated, without acquiring a letter. Whenever proof
+was made of my progress, at home, I repeated these words with the most
+rapid fluency; but on turning over a new leaf, I continued to repeat
+them, so that the narrow boundaries of my first year's accomplishments
+were detected, my ears boxed, (which they did not deserve, seeing it
+was by ear only that I had acquired my letters,) and my intellects
+consigned to a new preceptor. He was a very devout, clever, little
+clergyman, named Ross, afterwards minister of one of the kirks
+(_East_, I think). Under him I made astonishing progress; and I
+recollect to this day his mild manners and good-natured pains-taking.
+The moment I could read, my grand passion was _history_, and, why I
+know not, but I was particularly taken with the battle near the Lake
+Regillus in the Roman History, put into my hands the first. Four years
+ago, when standing on the heights of Tusculum, and looking down upon
+the little round lake that was once Regillus, and which dots the
+immense expanse below, I remembered my young enthusiasm and my old
+instructor. Afterwards I had a very serious, saturnine, but kind young
+man, named Paterson, for a tutor. He was the son of my shoemaker, but
+a good scholar, as is common with the Scotch. He was a rigid
+Presbyterian also. With him I began Latin in 'Ruddiman's Grammar,'
+and continued till I went to the 'Grammar School, (_Scotice_, 'Schule;
+_Aberdonice_, 'Squeel,') where I threaded all the classes to the
+_fourth_, when I was recalled to England (where I had been hatched) by
+the demise of my uncle. I acquired this handwriting, which I can
+hardly read myself, under the fair copies of Mr. Duncan of the same
+city: I don't think he would plume himself much upon my progress.
+However, I wrote much better then than I have ever done since. Haste
+and agitation of one kind or another have quite spoilt as pretty a
+scrawl as ever scratched over a frank. The grammar-school might
+consist of a hundred and fifty of all ages under age. It was divided
+into five classes, taught by four masters, the chief teaching the
+fourth and fifth himself. As in England, the fifth, sixth forms, and
+monitors, are heard by the head masters."
+
+Of his class-fellows at the grammar-school there are many, of course,
+still alive, by whom he is well remembered;[14] and the general
+impression they retain of him is, that he was a lively, warm-hearted,
+and high-spirited boy--passionate and resentful, but affectionate and
+companionable with his schoolfellows--to a remarkable degree venturous
+and fearless, and (as one of them significantly expressed it) "always
+more ready to give a blow than take one." Among many anecdotes
+illustrative of this spirit, it is related that once, in returning
+home from school, he fell in with a boy who had on some former
+occasion insulted him, but had then got off unpunished--little Byron,
+however, at the time, promising to "pay him off" whenever they should
+meet again. Accordingly, on this second encounter, though there were
+some other boys to take his opponent's part, he succeeded in
+inflicting upon him a hearty beating. On his return home, breathless,
+the servant enquired what he had been about, and was answered by him
+with a mixture of rage and humour, that he had been paying a debt, by
+beating a boy according to promise; for that he was a Byron, and would
+never belie his motto, "_Trust Byron_."
+
+He was, indeed, much more anxious to distinguish himself among his
+school-fellows by prowess in all sports[15] and exercises, than by
+advancement in learning. Though quick, when he could be persuaded to
+attend, or had any study that pleased him, he was in general very low
+in the class, nor seemed ambitious of being promoted any higher. It is
+the custom, it seems, in this seminary, to invert, now and then, the
+order of the class, so as to make the highest and lowest boys change
+places,--with a view, no doubt, of piquing the ambition of both. On
+these occasions, and only these, Byron was sometimes at the head, and
+the master, to banter him, would say, "Now, George, man, let me see
+how soon you'll be at the foot again."[16]
+
+During this period, his mother and he made, occasionally, visits among
+their friends, passing some time at Fetteresso, the seat of his
+godfather, Colonel Duff, (where the child's delight with a humorous
+old butler, named Ernest Fidler, is still remembered,) and also at
+Banff, where some near connections of Mrs. Byron resided.
+
+In the summer of the year 1796, after an attack of scarlet-fever, he
+was removed by his mother for change of air into the Highlands; and it
+was either at this time, or in the following year, that they took up
+their residence at a farm-house in the neighbourhood of Ballater, a
+favourite summer resort for health and gaiety, about forty miles up
+the Dee from Aberdeen. Though this house, where they still show with
+much pride the bed in which young Byron slept, has become naturally a
+place of pilgrimage for the worshippers of genius, neither its own
+appearance, nor that of the small bleak valley, in which it stands, is
+at all worthy of being associated with the memory of a poet. Within a
+short distance of it, however, all those features of wildness and
+beauty, which mark the course of the Dee through the Highlands, may be
+commanded. Here the dark summit of Lachin-y-gair stood towering before
+the eyes of the future bard; and the verses in which, not many years
+afterwards, he commemorated this sublime object, show that, young as
+he was, at the time, its "frowning glories" were not unnoticed by
+him.[17]
+
+    Ah, there my young footsteps in infancy wandered,
+      My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid;
+    On chieftains long perish'd my memory ponder'd
+      As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade.
+    I sought not my home till the day's dying glory
+      Gave place to the rays of the bright polar-star;
+    For Fancy was cheer'd by traditional story,
+      Disclosed by the natives of dark Loch-na-gar.
+
+To the wildness and grandeur of the scenes, among which his childhood
+was passed, it is not unusual to trace the first awakening of his
+poetic talent. But it may be questioned whether this faculty was ever
+so produced. That the charm of scenery, which derives its chief power
+from fancy and association, should be much felt at an age when fancy
+is yet hardly awake, and associations but few, can with difficulty,
+even making every allowance for the prematurity of genius, be
+conceived. The light which the poet sees around the forms of nature is
+not so much in the objects themselves as in the eye that contemplates
+them; and Imagination must first be able to lend a glory to such
+scenes, before she can derive inspiration _from_ them. As materials,
+indeed, for the poetic faculty, when developed, to work upon, these
+impressions of the new and wonderful retained from childhood, and
+retained with all the vividness of recollection which belongs to
+genius, may form, it is true, the purest and most precious part of
+that aliment, with which the memory of the poet feeds his imagination.
+But still, it is the newly-awakened power within him that is the
+source of the charm;--it is the force of fancy alone that, acting upon
+his recollections, impregnates, as it were, all the past with poesy.
+In this respect, such impressions of natural scenery as Lord Byron
+received in his childhood must be classed with the various other
+remembrances which that period leaves behind--of its innocence, its
+sports, its first hopes and affections--all of them reminiscences
+which the poet afterwards converts to his use, but which no more
+_make_ the poet than--to apply an illustration of Byron's own--the
+honey can be said to make the bee that treasures it.
+
+When it happens--as was the case with Lord Byron in Greece--that the
+same peculiar features of nature, over which Memory has shed this
+reflective charm, are reproduced before the eyes under new and
+inspiring circumstances, and with all the accessories which an
+imagination, in its full vigour and wealth, can lend them, then,
+indeed, do both the past and present combine to make the enchantment
+complete; and never was there a heart more borne away by this
+confluence of feelings than that of Byron. In a poem, written about a
+year or two before his death,[18] he traces all his enjoyment of
+mountain scenery to the impressions received during his residence in
+the Highlands; and even attributes the pleasure which he experienced
+in gazing upon Ida and Parnassus, far less to classic remembrances,
+than to those fond and deep-felt associations by which they brought
+back the memory of his boyhood and Lachin-y-gair.
+
+    He who first met the Highland's swelling blue,
+    Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue,
+    Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face,
+    And clasp the mountain in his mind's embrace.
+    Long have I roam'd through lands which are not mine,
+    Adored the Alp, and loved the Apennine,
+    Revered Parnassus, and beheld the steep
+    Jove's Ida and Olympus crown the deep:
+    But 'twas not all long ages' lore, nor all
+    Their nature held me in their thrilling thrall;
+    The infant rapture still survived the boy,
+    And Loch-na-gar with Ida look'd o'er Troy,
+    Mix'd Celtic memories with the Phrygian mount,
+    And Highland linns with Castalie's clear fount.
+
+In a note appended to this passage, we find him falling into that sort
+of anachronism in the history of his own feelings, which I have above
+adverted to as not uncommon, and referring to childhood itself that
+love of mountain prospects, which was but the after result of his
+imaginative recollections of that period.
+
+"From this period" (the time of his residence in the Highlands) "I
+date my love of mountainous countries. I can never forget the effect,
+a few years afterwards in England, of the only thing I had long seen,
+even in miniature, of a mountain, in the Malvern Hills. After I
+returned to Cheltenham, I used to watch them every afternoon at
+sunset, with a sensation which I cannot describe." His love of
+solitary rambles, and his taste for exploring in all directions, led
+him not unfrequently so far, as to excite serious apprehensions for
+his safety. While at Aberdeen, he used often to steal from home
+unperceived;--sometimes he would find his way to the sea-side; and
+once, after a long and anxious search, they found the adventurous
+little rover struggling in a sort of morass or marsh, from which he
+was unable to extricate himself.
+
+In the course of one of his summer excursions up Dee-side, he had an
+opportunity of seeing still more of the wild beauties of the Highlands
+than even the neighbourhood of their residence at Ballatrech afforded,
+--having been taken by his mother through the romantic passes that
+lead to Invercauld, and as far up as the small waterfall, called the
+Linn of Dee. Here his love of adventure had nearly cost him his life.
+As he was scrambling along a declivity that overhung the fall, some
+heather caught his lame foot, and he fell. Already he was rolling
+downward, when the attendant luckily caught hold of him, and was but
+just in time to save him from being killed. It was about this period,
+when he was not quite eight years old, that a feeling partaking more
+of the nature of love than it is easy to believe possible in so young
+a child, took, according to his own account, entire possession of his
+thoughts, and showed how early, in this passion, as in most others,
+the sensibilities of his nature were awakened.[19] The name of the
+object of this attachment was Mary Duff; and the following passage
+from a Journal, kept by him in 1813, will show how freshly, after an
+interval of seventeen years, all the circumstances of this early love
+still lived in his memory:--
+
+"I have been thinking lately a good deal of Mary Duff. How very odd
+that I should have been so utterly, devotedly fond of that girl, at an
+age when I could neither feel passion, nor know the meaning of the
+word. And the effect!--My mother used always to rally me about this
+childish amour; and, at last, many years after, when I was sixteen,
+she told me one day, 'Oh, Byron, I have had a letter from Edinburgh,
+from Miss Abercromby, and your old sweetheart Mary Duff is married to
+a Mr. Co^e.' And what was my answer? I really cannot explain or
+account for my feelings at that moment; but they nearly threw me into
+convulsions, and alarmed my mother so much, that after I grew better,
+she generally avoided the subject--to _me_--and contented herself with
+telling it to all her acquaintance. Now, what could this be? I had
+never seen her since her mother's faux-pas at Aberdeen had been the
+cause of her removal to her grandmother's at Banff; we were both the
+merest children. I had and have been attached fifty times since that
+period; yet I recollect all we said to each other, all our caresses,
+her features, my restlessness, sleeplessness, my tormenting my
+mother's maid to write for me to her, which she at last did, to quiet
+me. Poor Nancy thought I was wild, and, as I could not write for
+myself, became my secretary. I remember, too, our walks, and the
+happiness of sitting by Mary, in the children's apartment, at their
+house not far from the Plain-stones at Aberdeen, while her lesser
+sister Helen played with the doll, and we sat gravely making love, in
+our way.
+
+"How the deuce did all this occur so early? where could it originate?
+I certainly had no sexual ideas for years afterwards; and yet my
+misery, my love for that girl were so violent, that I sometimes doubt
+if I have ever been really attached since. Be that as it may, hearing
+of her marriage several years after was like a thunder-stroke--it
+nearly choked me--to the horror of my mother and the astonishment and
+almost incredulity of every body. And it is a phenomenon in my
+existence (for I was not eight years old) which has puzzled, and will
+puzzle me to the latest hour of it; and lately, I know not why, the
+_recollection_ (_not_ the attachment) has recurred as forcibly as
+ever. I wonder if she can have the least remembrance of it or me? or
+remember her pitying sister Helen for not having an admirer too? How
+very pretty is the perfect image of her in my memory--her brown, dark
+hair, and hazel eyes; her very dress! I should be quite grieved to see
+_her now_; the reality, however beautiful, would destroy, or at least
+confuse, the features of the lovely Peri which then existed in her,
+and still lives in my imagination, at the distance of more than
+sixteen years. I am now twenty-five and odd months....
+
+"I think my mother told the circumstances (on my hearing of her
+marriage) to the Parkynses, and certainly to the Pigot family, and
+probably mentioned it in her answer to Miss A., who was well
+acquainted with my childish _penchant_, and had sent the news on
+purpose for _me_,--and thanks to her!
+
+"Next to the beginning, the conclusion has often occupied my
+reflections, in the way of investigation. That the facts are thus,
+others know as well as I, and my memory yet tells me so, in more than
+a whisper. But, the more I reflect, the more I am bewildered to assign
+any cause for this precocity of affection."
+
+Though the chance of his succession to the title of his ancestors was
+for some time altogether uncertain--there being, so late as the year
+1794, a grandson of the fifth lord still alive--his mother had, from
+his very birth, cherished a strong persuasion that he was destined not
+only to be a lord, but "a great man." One of the circumstances on
+which she founded this belief was, singularly enough, his
+lameness;--for what reason it is difficult to conceive, except that,
+possibly (having a mind of the most superstitious cast), she had
+consulted on the subject some village fortune-teller, who, to ennoble
+this infirmity in her eyes, had linked the future destiny of the child
+with it.
+
+By the death of the grandson of the old lord at Corsica in 1794, the
+only claimant, that had hitherto stood between little George and the
+immediate succession to the peerage, was removed; and the increased
+importance which this event conferred upon them was felt not only by
+Mrs. Byron, but by the young future Baron of Newstead himself. In the
+winter of 1797, his mother having chanced, one day, to read part of a
+speech spoken in the House of Commons, a friend who was present said
+to the boy, "We shall have the pleasure, some time or other, of
+reading your speeches in the House of Commons."--"I hope not," was his
+answer: "if you read any speeches of mine, it will be in the House of
+Lords."
+
+The title, of which he thus early anticipated the enjoyment, devolved
+to him but too soon. Had he been left to struggle on for ten years
+longer, as plain George Byron, there can be little doubt that his
+character would have been, in many respects, the better for it. In the
+following year his grand-uncle, the fifth Lord Byron, died at Newstead
+Abbey, having passed the latter years of his strange life in a state
+of austere and almost savage seclusion. It is said, that the day after
+little Byron's accession to the title, he ran up to his mother and
+asked her, "whether she perceived any difference in him since he had
+been made a lord, as he perceived none himself:"--a quick and natural
+thought; but the child little knew what a total and talismanic change
+had been wrought in all his future relations with society, by the
+simple addition of that word before his name. That the event, as a
+crisis in his life, affected him, even at that time, may be collected
+from the agitation which he is said to have manifested on the
+important morning, when his name was first called out in school with
+the title of "Dominus" prefixed to it. Unable to give utterance to the
+usual answer "adsum," he stood silent amid the general stare of his
+school-fellows, and, at last, burst into tears.
+
+The cloud, which, to a certain degree, undeservedly, his unfortunate
+affray with Mr. Chaworth had thrown upon the character of the late
+Lord Byron, was deepened and confirmed by what it, in a great measure,
+produced,--the eccentric and unsocial course of life to which he
+afterwards betook himself. Of his cruelty to Lady Byron, before her
+separation from him, the most exaggerated stories are still current in
+the neighbourhood; and it is even believed that, in one of his fits of
+fury, he flung her into the pond at Newstead. On another occasion, it
+is said, having shot his coachman for some disobedience of orders, he
+threw the corpse into the carriage to his lady, and, mounting the box,
+drove off himself. These stories are, no doubt, as gross fictions as
+some of those of which his illustrious successor was afterwards made
+the victim; and a female servant of the old lord, still alive, in
+contradicting both tales as scandalous fabrications, supposes the
+first to have had its origin in the following circumstance:--A young
+lady, of the name of Booth, who was on a visit at Newstead, being one
+evening with a party who were diverting themselves in front of the
+abbey, Lord Byron by accident pushed her into the basin which receives
+the cascades; and out of this little incident, as my informant very
+plausibly conjectures, the tale of his attempting to drown Lady Byron
+may have been fabricated.
+
+After his lady had separated from him, the entire seclusion in which
+he lived gave full scope to the inventive faculties of his neighbours.
+There was no deed, however dark or desperate, that the village gossips
+were not ready to impute to him; and two grim images of satyrs, which
+stood in his gloomy garden, were, by the fears of those who had caught
+a glimpse of them, dignified by the name of "the old lord's devils."
+He was known always to go armed; and it is related that, on some
+particular occasion, when his neighbour, the late Sir John Warren, was
+admitted to dine with him, there was a case of pistols placed, as if
+forming a customary part of the dinner service, on the table.
+
+During his latter years, the only companions of his solitude--besides
+that colony of crickets, which he is said to have amused himself with
+rearing and feeding[20]--were old Murray, afterwards the favourite
+servant of his successor, and the female domestic, whose authority I
+have just quoted, and who, from the station she was suspected of being
+promoted to by her noble master, received generally through the
+neighbourhood the appellation of "Lady Betty."
+
+Though living in this sordid and solitary style, he was frequently, as
+it appears, much distressed for money; and one of the most serious of
+the injuries inflicted by him upon the property was his sale of the
+family estate of Rochdale in Lancashire, of which the mineral produce
+was accounted very valuable. He well knew, it is said, at the time of
+the sale, his inability to make out a legal title; nor is it supposed
+that the purchasers themselves were unacquainted with the defect of
+the conveyance. But they contemplated, and, it seems, actually did
+realise, an indemnity from any pecuniary loss, before they could, in
+the ordinary course of events, be dispossessed of the property. During
+the young lord's minority, proceedings were instituted for the
+recovery of this estate, and as the reader will learn hereafter with
+success.
+
+At Newstead, both the mansion and the grounds around it were suffered
+to fall helplessly into decay; and among the few monuments of either
+care or expenditure which their lord left behind, were some masses of
+rockwork, on which much cost had been thrown away, and a few
+castellated buildings on the banks of the lake and in the woods. The
+forts upon the lake were designed to give a naval appearance to its
+waters, and frequently, in his more social days, he used to amuse
+himself with sham fights,--his vessels attacking the forts, and being
+cannonaded by them in return. The largest of these vessels had been
+built for him at some seaport on the eastern coast, and, being
+conveyed on wheels over the Forest to Newstead, was supposed to have
+fulfilled one of the prophecies of Mother Shipton, which declared that
+"when a ship laden with _ling_ should cross over Sherwood Forest, the
+Newstead estate would pass from the Byron family." In Nottinghamshire,
+"ling" is the term used for _heather_; and, in order to bear out
+Mother Shipton and spite the old lord, the country people, it is said,
+ran along by the side of the vessel, heaping it with heather all the
+way.
+
+This eccentric peer, it is evident, cared but little about the fate of
+his descendants. With his young heir in Scotland he held no
+communication whatever; and if at any time he happened to mention him,
+which but rarely occurred, it was never under any other designation
+than that of "the little boy who lives at Aberdeen."
+
+On the death of his grand-uncle, Lord Byron having become a ward of
+chancery, the Earl of Carlisle, who was in some degree connected with
+the family, being the son of the deceased lord's sister, was appointed
+his guardian; and in the autumn of 1798, Mrs. Byron and her son,
+attended by their faithful Mary Gray, left Aberdeen for Newstead.
+Previously to their departure, the furniture of the humble lodgings
+which they had occupied was, with the exception of the plate and
+linen, which Mrs. Byron took with her, sold, and the whole sum that
+the effects of the mother of the Lord of Newstead yielded was 74_l._
+17_s_. 7_d_.
+
+From the early age at which Byron was taken to Scotland, as well as
+from the circumstance of his mother being a native of that country, he
+had every reason to consider himself--as, indeed, he boasts in Don
+Juan--"half a Scot by birth, and bred a whole one." We have already
+seen how warmly he preserved through life his recollection of the
+mountain scenery in which he was brought up; and in the passage of Don
+Juan, to which I have just referred, his allusion to the romantic
+bridge of Don, and to other localities of Aberdeen, shows an equal
+fidelity and fondness of retrospect:--
+
+    As Auld Lang Syne brings Scotland, one and all,
+      Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams,
+    The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's brig's black wall,
+      All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams
+    Of what I _then dreamt_, clothed in their own pall,
+      Like Banquo's offspring;--floating past me seems
+    My childhood in this childishness of mine;
+    I care not--'tis a glimpse of "Auld Lang Syne."
+
+He adds in a note, "The Brig of Don, near the 'auld town' of Aberdeen,
+with its one arch and its black deep salmon stream, is in my memory as
+yesterday. I still remember, though perhaps I may misquote the awful
+proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it with a
+childish delight, being an only son, at least by the mother's side.
+The saying, as recollected by me, was this, but I have never heard or
+seen it since I was nine years of age:--
+
+    "'Brig of Balgounie, _black_'s your wa',
+    Wi' a wife's _ae son_, and a mear's ae foal,
+    Down ye shall fa'.'"[21]
+
+To meet with an Aberdonian was, at all times, a delight to him; and
+when the late Mr. Scott, who was a native of Aberdeen, paid him a
+visit at Venice in the year 1819, in talking of the haunts of his
+childhood, one of the places he particularly mentioned was
+Wallace-nook, a spot where there is a rude statue of the Scottish
+chief still standing. From first to last, indeed, these recollections
+of the country of his youth never forsook him. In his early voyage
+into Greece, not only the shapes of the mountains, but the kilts and
+hardy forms of the Albanese,--all, as he says, "carried him back to
+Morven;" and, in his last fatal expedition, the dress which he himself
+chiefly wore at Cephalonia was a tartan jacket.
+
+Cordial, however, and deep as were the impressions which he retained
+of Scotland, he would sometimes in this, as in all his other amiable
+feelings, endeavour perversely to belie his own better nature; and,
+when under the excitement of anger or ridicule, persuade not only
+others, but even himself, that the whole current of his feelings ran
+directly otherwise. The abuse with which, in his anger against the
+Edinburgh Review, he overwhelmed every thing Scotch, is an instance of
+this temporary triumph of wilfulness; and, at any time, the least
+association of ridicule with the country or its inhabitants was
+sufficient, for the moment, to put all his sentiment to flight. A
+friend of his once described to me the half playful rage, into which
+she saw him thrown, one day, by a heedless girl, who remarked that she
+thought he had a little of the Scotch accent. "Good God, I hope not!"
+he exclaimed. "I'm sure I haven't. I would rather the whole d----d
+country was sunk in the sea--I the Scotch accent!"
+
+To such sallies, however, whether in writing or conversation, but
+little weight is to be allowed,--particularly, in comparison with
+those strong testimonies which he has left on record of his fondness
+for his early home; and while, on his side, this feeling so indelibly
+existed, there is, on the part of the people of Aberdeen, who consider
+him as almost their fellow-townsman, a correspondent warmth of
+affection for his memory and name. The various houses where he resided
+in his youth are pointed out to the traveller; to have seen him but
+once is a recollection boasted of with pride; and the Brig of Don,
+beautiful in itself, is invested, by his mere mention of it, with an
+additional charm. Two or three years since, the sum of five pounds was
+offered to a person in Aberdeen for a letter which he had in his
+possession, written by Captain Byron a few days before his death; and,
+among the memorials of the young poet, which are treasured up by
+individuals of that place, there is one which it would have not a
+little amused himself to hear of, being no less characteristic a relic
+than an old china saucer, out of which he had bitten a large piece, in
+a fit of passion, when a child.
+
+It was in the summer of 1798, as I have already said, that Lord Byron,
+then in his eleventh year, left Scotland with his mother and nurse, to
+take possession of the ancient seat of his ancestors. In one of his
+latest letters, referring to this journey, he says, "I recollect Loch
+Leven as it were but yesterday--I saw it in my way to England in
+1798." They had already arrived at the Newstead toll-bar, and saw the
+woods of the Abbey stretching out to receive them, when Mrs. Byron,
+affecting to be ignorant of the place, asked the woman of the
+toll-house--to whom that seat belonged? She was told that the owner of
+it, Lord Byron, had been some months dead. "And who is the next heir?"
+asked the proud and happy mother. "They say," answered the woman, "it
+is a little boy who lives at Aberdeen."--"And this is he, bless him!"
+exclaimed the nurse, no longer able to contain herself, and turning to
+kiss with delight the young lord who was seated on her lap.
+
+Even under the most favourable circumstances, such an early elevation
+to rank would be but too likely to have a dangerous influence on the
+character; and the guidance under which young Byron entered upon his
+new station was, of all others, the least likely to lead him safely
+through its perils and temptations. His mother, without judgment or
+self-command, alternately spoiled him by indulgence, and irritated,
+or--what was still worse--amused him by her violence. That strong
+sense of the ridiculous, for which he was afterwards so remarkable,
+and which showed itself thus early, got the better even of his fear of
+her; and when Mrs. Byron, who was a short and corpulent person, and
+rolled considerably in her gait, would, in a rage, endeavour to catch
+him, for the purpose of inflicting punishment, the young urchin, proud
+of being able to out-strip her, notwithstanding his lameness, would
+run round the room, laughing like a little Puck, and mocking at all
+her menaces. In a few anecdotes of his early life which he related in
+his "Memoranda," though the name of his mother was never mentioned but
+with respect, it was not difficult to perceive that the recollections
+she had left behind--at least, those that had made the deepest
+impression--were of a painful nature. One of the most striking
+passages, indeed, in the few pages of that Memoir which related to his
+early days, was where, in speaking of his own sensitiveness, on the
+subject of his deformed foot, he described the feeling of horror and
+humiliation that came over him, when his mother, in one of her fits of
+passion, called him "a lame brat." As all that he had felt strongly
+through life was, in some shape or other, reproduced in his poetry, it
+was not likely that an expression such as this should fail of being
+recorded. Accordingly we find, in the opening of his drama, "The
+Deformed Transformed,"
+
+     _Bertha_. Out, hunchback!
+     _Arnold_. I was born so, mother!
+
+It may be questioned, indeed, whether that whole drama was not
+indebted for its origin to this single recollection.
+
+While such was the character of the person under whose immediate eye
+his youth was passed, the counteraction which a kind and watchful
+guardian might have opposed to such example and influence was almost
+wholly lost to him. Connected but remotely with the family, and never
+having had any opportunity of knowing the boy, it was with much
+reluctance that Lord Carlisle originally undertook the trust; nor can
+we wonder that, when his duties as a guardian brought him acquainted
+with Mrs. Byron, he should be deterred from interfering more than was
+absolutely necessary for the child by his fear of coming into
+collision with the violence and caprice of the mother.
+
+Had even the character which the last lord left behind been
+sufficiently popular to pique his young successor into an emulation of
+his good name, such a salutary rivalry of the dead would have supplied
+the place of living examples; and there is no mind in which such an
+ambition would have been more likely to spring up than that of Byron.
+But unluckily, as we have seen, this was not the case; and not only
+was so fair a stimulus to good conduct wanting, but a rivalry of a
+very different nature substituted in its place. The strange anecdotes
+told of the last lord by the country people, among whom his fierce
+and solitary habits had procured for him a sort of fearful renown,
+were of a nature livelily to arrest the fancy of the young poet, and
+even to waken in his mind a sort of boyish admiration for
+singularities which he found thus elevated into matters of wonder and
+record. By some it has been even supposed that in these stories of his
+eccentric relative his imagination found the first dark outlines of
+that ideal character, which he afterwards embodied in so many
+different shapes, and ennobled by his genius. But however this may be,
+it is at least far from improbable that, destitute as he was of other
+and better models, the peculiarities of his immediate predecessor
+should, in a considerable degree, have influenced his fancy and
+tastes. One habit, which he seems early to have derived from this
+spirit of imitation, and which he retained through life, was that of
+constantly having arms of some description about or near him--it being
+his practice, when quite a boy, to carry, at all times, small loaded
+pistols in his waistcoat pockets. The affray, indeed, of the late lord
+with Mr. Chaworth had, at a very early age, by connecting duelling in
+his mind with the name of his race, led him to turn his attention to
+this mode of arbitrament; and the mortification which he had, for some
+time, to endure at school, from insults, as he imagined, hazarded on
+the presumption of his physical inferiority, found consolation in the
+thought that a day would yet arrive when the law of the pistol would
+place him on a level with the strongest.
+
+On their arrival from Scotland, Mrs. Byron, with the hope of having
+his lameness removed, placed her son under the care of a person, who
+professed the cure of such cases, at Nottingham. The name of this man,
+who appears to have been a mere empirical pretender, was Lavender; and
+the manner in which he is said to have proceeded was by first rubbing
+the foot over, for a considerable time, with handsful of oil, and then
+twisting the limb forcibly round, and screwing it up in a wooden
+machine. That the boy might not lose ground in his education during
+this interval, he received lessons in Latin from a respectable
+schoolmaster, Mr. Rogers, who read parts of Virgil and Cicero with
+him, and represents his proficiency to have been, for his age,
+considerable. He was often, during his lessons, in violent pain, from
+the torturing position in which his foot was kept; and Mr. Rogers one
+day said to him, "It makes me uncomfortable, my Lord, to see you
+sitting there in such pain as I _know_ you must be suffering."--"Never
+mind, Mr. Rogers," answered the boy; "you shall not see any signs of
+it in _me_."
+
+This gentleman, who speaks with the most affectionate remembrance of
+his pupil, mentions several instances of the gaiety of spirit with
+which he used to take revenge on his tormentor, Lavender, by exposing
+and laughing at his pompous ignorance. Among other tricks, he one day
+scribbled down on a sheet of paper all the letters of the alphabet,
+put together at random, but in the form of words and sentences, and,
+placing them before this all-pretending person, asked him gravely
+what language it was. The quack, unwilling to own his ignorance,
+answered confidently, "Italian,"--to the infinite delight, as it may
+be supposed, of the little satirist in embryo, who burst into a loud,
+triumphant laugh at the success of the trap which he had thus laid for
+imposture.
+
+With that mindfulness towards all who had been about him in his youth,
+which was so distinguishing a trait in his character, he, many years
+after, when in the neighbourhood of Nottingham, sent a message, full
+of kindness, to his old instructor, and bid the bearer of it tell him,
+that, beginning from a certain line in Virgil which he mentioned, he
+could recite twenty verses on, which he well remembered having read
+with this gentleman, when suffering all the time the most dreadful
+pain.
+
+It was about this period, according to his nurse, May Gray, that the
+first symptom of any tendency towards rhyming showed itself in him;
+and the occasion which she represented as having given rise to this
+childish effort was as follows:--An elderly lady, who was in the habit
+of visiting his mother, had made use of some expression that very much
+affronted him; and these slights, his nurse said, he generally
+resented violently and implacably. The old lady had some curious
+notions respecting the soul, which, she imagined, took its flight to
+the moon after death, as a preliminary essay before it proceeded
+further. One day, after a repetition, it is supposed, of her original
+insult to the boy, he appeared before his nurse in a violent rage.
+"Well, my little hero," she asked, "what's the matter with you now?"
+Upon which the child answered, that "this old woman had put him in a
+most terrible passion--that he could not bear the sight of her," &c.
+&c.--and then broke out into the following doggerel, which he repeated
+over and over, as if delighted with the vent he had found for his
+rage:--
+
+    In Nottingham county there lives at Swan Green,
+    As curst an old lady as ever was seen;
+    And when she does die, which I hope will be soon,
+    She firmly believes she will go to the moon.
+
+It is possible that these rhymes may have been caught up at
+second-hand; and he himself, as will presently be seen, dated his
+"first dash into poetry," as he calls it, a year later:--but the
+anecdote altogether, as containing some early dawnings of character,
+appeared to me worth preserving.
+
+The small income of Mrs. Byron received at this time the
+addition--most seasonable, no doubt, though on what grounds accorded,
+I know not--of a pension on the Civil List, of 300_l._ a year. The
+following is a copy of the King's warrant for the grant:--(Signed)
+
+     "GEORGE R.
+
+     "WHEREAS we are graciously pleased to grant unto Catharine
+     Gordon Byron, widow, an annuity of 300_l._, to commence from
+     5th July, 1799, and to continue during pleasure: our will
+     and pleasure is, that, by virtue of our general letters of
+     Privy Seal, bearing date 5th November, 1760, you do issue
+     and pay out of our treasure, or revenue in the receipt of
+     the Exchequer, applicable to the uses of our civil
+     government, unto the said Catharine Gordon Byron, widow, or
+     her assignees, the said annuity, to commence from 5th July,
+     1799, and to be paid quarterly, or otherwise, as the same
+     shall become due, and to continue during our pleasure; and
+     for so doing this shall be your warrant. Given at our Court
+     of St. James's, 2d October, 1799, 39th year of our reign.
+
+     "By His Majesty's command,
+
+                                              (Signed) "W. PITT.
+
+                                                    "S. DOUGLAS.
+
+     "EDW^D. ROBERTS, Dep. Cler^us. Pellium."
+
+Finding but little benefit from the Nottingham practitioner, Mrs.
+Byron, in the summer of the year 1799, thought it right to remove her
+boy to London, where, at the suggestion of Lord Carlisle, he was put
+under the care of Dr. Baillie. It being an object, too, to place him
+at some quiet school, where the means adopted for the cure of his
+infirmity might be more easily attended to, the establishment of the
+late Dr. Glennie, at Dulwich, was chosen for that purpose; and as it
+was thought advisable that he should have a separate apartment to
+sleep in, Dr. Glennie had a bed put up for him in his own study. Mrs.
+Byron, who had remained a short time behind him at Newstead, on her
+arrival in town took a house upon Sloane Terrace; and, under the
+direction of Dr. Baillie, one of the Messrs. Sheldrake[22] was
+employed to construct an instrument for the purpose of straightening
+the limb of the child. Moderation in all athletic exercises was, of
+course, prescribed; but Dr. Glennie found it by no means easy to
+enforce compliance with this rule, as, though sufficiently quiet when
+along with him in his study, no sooner was the boy released for play,
+than he showed as much ambition to excel in all exercises as the most
+robust youth of the school;--"an ambition," adds Dr. Glennie, in the
+communication with which he favoured me a short time before his death,
+"which I have remarked to prevail in general in young persons
+labouring under similar defects of nature."[23]
+
+Having been instructed in the elements of Latin grammar according to
+the mode of teaching adopted at Aberdeen, the young student had now
+unluckily to retrace his steps, and was, as is too often the case,
+retarded in his studies and perplexed in his recollections, by the
+necessity of toiling through the rudiments again in one of the forms
+prescribed by the English schools. "I found him enter upon his tasks,"
+says Dr. Glennie, "with alacrity and success. He was playful,
+good-humoured, and beloved by his companions. His reading in history
+and poetry was far beyond the usual standard of his age, and in my
+study he found many books open to him, both to please his taste and
+gratify his curiosity; among others, a set of our poets from Chaucer
+to Churchill, which I am almost tempted to say he had more than once
+perused from beginning to end. He showed at this age an intimate
+acquaintance with the historical parts of the Holy Scriptures, upon
+which he seemed delighted to converse with me, especially after our
+religious exercises of a Sunday evening; when he would reason upon the
+facts contained in the Sacred Volume with every appearance of belief
+in the divine truths which they unfold. That the impressions," adds
+the writer, "thus imbibed in his boyhood, had, notwithstanding the
+irregularities of his after life, sunk deep into his mind, will
+appear, I think, to every impartial reader of his works in general;
+and I never have been able to divest myself of the persuasion that, in
+the strange aberrations which so unfortunately marked his subsequent
+career, he must have found it difficult to violate the better
+principles early instilled into him."
+
+It should have been mentioned, among the traits which I have recorded
+of his still earlier years, that, according to the character given of
+him by his first nurse's husband, he was, when a mere child,
+"particularly inquisitive and puzzling about religion."
+
+It was not long before Dr. Glennie began to discover--what instructors
+of youth must too often experience--that the parent was a much more
+difficult subject to deal with than the child. Though professing
+entire acquiescence in the representations of this gentleman, as to
+the propriety of leaving her son to pursue his studies without
+interruption, Mrs. Byron had neither sense nor self-denial enough to
+act up to these professions; but, in spite of the remonstrances of Dr.
+Glennie, and the injunctions of Lord Carlisle, continued to interfere
+with and thwart the progress of the boy's education in every way that
+a fond, wrong-headed, and self-willed mother could devise. In vain was
+it stated to her that, in all the elemental parts of learning which
+are requisite for a youth destined to a great public school, young
+Byron was much behind other youths of his age, and that, to retrieve
+this deficiency, the undivided application of his whole time would be
+necessary. Though appearing to be sensible of the truth of these
+suggestions, she not the less embarrassed and obstructed the teacher
+in his task. Not content with the interval between Saturday and
+Monday, which, contrary to Dr. Glennie's wish, the boy generally
+passed at Sloane Terrace, she would frequently keep him at home a week
+beyond this time, and, still further to add to the distraction of such
+interruptions, collected around him a numerous circle of young
+acquaintances, without exercising, as may be supposed, much
+discrimination in her choice. "How, indeed, could she?" asks Dr.
+Glennie--"Mrs. Byron was a total stranger to English society and
+English manners; with an exterior far from prepossessing, an
+understanding where nature had not been more bountiful, a mind almost
+wholly without cultivation, and the peculiarities of northern
+opinions, northern habits, and northern accent, I trust I do no great
+prejudice to the memory of my countrywoman, if I say Mrs. Byron was
+not a Madame de Lambert, endowed with powers to retrieve the fortune,
+and form the character and manners, of a young nobleman, her son."
+
+The interposition of Lord Carlisle, to whose authority it was found
+necessary to appeal, had more than once given a check to these
+disturbing indulgences. Sanctioned by such support, Dr. Glennie even
+ventured to oppose himself to the privilege, so often abused, of the
+usual visits on a Saturday; and the scenes which he had to encounter
+on each new case of refusal were such as would have wearied out the
+patience of any less zealous and conscientious schoolmaster. Mrs.
+Byron, whose paroxysms of passion were not, like those of her son,
+"silent rages," would, on all these occasions, break out into such
+audible fits of temper as it was impossible to keep from reaching the
+ears of the scholars and the servants; and Dr. Glennie had, one day,
+the pain of overhearing a school-fellow of his noble pupil say to him,
+"Byron, your mother is a fool;" to which the other answered gloomily,
+"I know it." In consequence of all this violence and impracticability
+of temper, Lord Carlisle at length ceased to have any intercourse with
+the mother of his ward; and on a further application from the
+instructor, for the exertion of his influence, said, "I can have
+nothing more to do with Mrs. Byron,--you must now manage her as you
+can."
+
+Among the books that lay accessible to the boys in Dr. Glennie's study
+was a pamphlet written by the brother of one of his most intimate
+friends, entitled, "Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Juno on the
+coast of Arracan, in the year 1795." The writer had been the second
+officer of the ship, and the account which he had sent home to his
+friends of the sufferings of himself and his fellow-passengers had
+appeared to them so touching and strange, that they determined to
+publish it. The pamphlet attracted but little, it seems, of public
+attention, but among the young students of Dulwich Grove it was a
+favourite study; and the impression which it left on the retentive
+mind of Byron may have had some share, perhaps, in suggesting that
+curious research through all the various Accounts of Shipwrecks upon
+record, by which he prepared himself to depict with such power a scene
+of the same description in Don Juan. The following affecting incident,
+mentioned by the author of this pamphlet, has been adopted, it will be
+seen, with but little change either of phrase or circumstance, by the
+poet:--
+
+"Of those who were not immediately near me I knew little, unless by
+their cries. Some struggled hard, and died in great agony; but it was
+not always those whose strength was most impaired that died the
+easiest, though, in some cases, it might have been so. I particularly
+remember the following instances. Mr. Wade's servant, a stout and
+healthy boy, died early and almost without a groan; while another of
+the same age, but of a less promising appearance, held out much
+longer. The fate of these unfortunate boys differed also in another
+respect highly deserving of notice. Their fathers were both in the
+fore-top when the lads were taken ill. The father of Mr. Wade's boy
+hearing of his son's illness, answered with indifference, 'that he
+could do nothing for him,' and left him to his fate. The other, when
+the accounts reached him, hurried down, and watching for a favourable
+moment, crawled on all fours along the weather gunwale to his son, who
+was in the mizen rigging. By that time, only three or four planks of
+the quarter deck remained, just over the weather-quarter gallery; and
+to this spot the unhappy man led his son, making him fast to the rail
+to prevent his being washed away. Whenever the boy was seized with a
+fit of retching, the father lifted him up and wiped the foam from his
+lips; and, if a shower came, he made him open his mouth to receive the
+drops, or gently squeezed them into it from a rag. In this affecting
+situation both remained four or five days, till the boy expired. The
+unfortunate parent, as if unwilling to believe the fact, then raised
+the body, gazed wistfully at it, and, when he could no longer
+entertain any doubt, watched it in silence till it was carried off by
+the sea; then, wrapping himself in a piece of canvass, sunk down and
+rose no more; though he must have lived two days longer, as we judged
+from the quivering of his limbs, when a wave broke over him."[24]
+
+It was probably during one of the vacations of this year, that the
+boyish love for his young cousin, Miss Parker, to which he attributes
+the glory of having first inspired him with poetry, took possession of
+his fancy. "My first dash into poetry (he says) was as early as 1800.
+It was the ebullition of a passion for my first cousin, Margaret
+Parker (daughter and grand-daughter of the two Admirals Parker), one
+of the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the
+verses, but it would be difficult for me to forget her--her dark
+eyes--her long eye-lashes--her completely Greek cast of face and
+figure! I was then about twelve--she rather older, perhaps a year. She
+died about a year or two afterwards, in consequence of a fall, which
+injured her spine, and induced consumption. Her sister Augusta (by
+some thought still more beautiful) died of the same malady; and it
+was, indeed, in attending her, that Margaret met with the accident
+which occasioned her own death. My sister told me, that when she went
+to see her, shortly before her death, upon accidentally mentioning my
+name, Margaret coloured through the paleness of mortality to the eyes,
+to the great astonishment of my sister, who (residing with her
+grandmother, Lady Holderness, and seeing but little of me, for family
+reasons,) knew nothing of our attachment, nor could conceive why my
+name should affect her at such a time. I knew nothing of her illness,
+being at Harrow and in the country, till she was gone. Some years
+after, I made an attempt at an elegy--a very dull one.[25]
+
+"I do not recollect scarcely any thing equal to the _transparent_
+beauty of my cousin, or to the sweetness of her temper, during the
+short period of our intimacy. She looked as if she had been made out
+of a rainbow--all beauty and peace.
+
+"My passion had its usual effects upon me--I could not sleep--I could
+not eat--I could not rest: and although I had reason to know that she
+loved me, it was the texture of my life to think of the time which
+must elapse before we could meet again, being usually about twelve
+hours of separation! But I was a fool then, and am not much wiser
+now."
+
+He had been nearly two years under the tuition of Dr. Glennie, when
+his mother, discontented at the slowness of his progress--though
+being, herself, as we have seen, the principal cause of it--entreated
+so urgently of Lord Carlisle to have him removed to a public school,
+that her wish was at length acceded to; and "accordingly," says Dr.
+Glennie, "to Harrow he went, as little prepared as it is natural to
+suppose from two years of elementary instruction, thwarted by every
+art that could estrange the mind of youth from preceptor, from school,
+and from all serious study."
+
+This gentleman saw but little of Lord Byron after he left his care;
+but, from the manner in which both he and Mrs. Glennie spoke of their
+early charge, it was evident that his subsequent career had been
+watched by them with interest; that they had seen even his errors
+through the softening medium of their first feeling towards him, and
+had never, in his most irregular aberrations, lost the traces of those
+fine qualities which they had loved and admired in him when a child.
+Of the constancy, too, of this feeling, Dr. Glennie had to stand no
+ordinary trial, having visited Geneva in 1817, soon after Lord Byron
+had left it, when the private character of the poet was in the very
+crisis of its unpopularity, and when, among those friends who knew
+that Dr. Glennie had once been his tutor, it was made a frequent
+subject of banter with this gentleman that he had not more strictly
+disciplined his pupil, or, to use their own words, "made a better boy
+of him."
+
+About the time when young Byron was removed, for his education, to
+London, his nurse May Gray left the service of Mrs. Byron, and
+returned to her native country, where she died about three years
+since. She had married respectably, and in one of her last illnesses
+was attended professionally by Dr. Ewing of Aberdeen, who, having been
+always an enthusiastic admirer of Lord Byron, was no less surprised
+than delighted to find that the person tinder his care had for so many
+years been an attendant on his favourite poet. With avidity, as may be
+supposed, he noted down from the lips of his patient all the
+particulars she could remember of his Lordship's early days; and it is
+to the communications with which this gentleman has favoured me, that
+I am indebted for many of the anecdotes of that period which I have
+related.
+
+As a mark of gratitude for her attention to him, Byron had, in parting
+with May Gray, presented her with his watch,--the first of which he
+had ever been possessor. This watch the faithful nurse preserved
+fondly through life, and, when she died, it was given by her husband
+to Dr. Ewing, by whom, as a relic of genius, it is equally valued. The
+affectionate boy had also presented her with a full-length miniature
+of himself, which was painted by Kay of Edinburgh, in the year 1795,
+and which represents him standing with a bow and arrows in his hand,
+and a profusion of hair falling over his shoulders. This curious
+little drawing has likewise passed into the possession of Dr. Ewing.
+
+The same thoughtful gratitude was evinced by Byron towards the sister
+of this woman, his first nurse, to whom he wrote some years after he
+left Scotland, in the most cordial terms, making enquiries of her
+welfare, and informing her, with much joy, that he had at last got his
+foot so far restored as to be able to put on a common boot,--"an event
+for which he had long anxiously wished, and which he was sure would
+give her great pleasure."
+
+In the summer of the year 1801 he accompanied his mother to
+Cheltenham, and the account which he himself gives of his sensations
+at that period[26] shows at what an early age those feelings that lead
+to poetry had unfolded themselves in his heart. A boy, gazing with
+emotion on the hills at sunset, because they remind him of the
+mountains among which he passed his childhood, is already, in heart
+and imagination, a poet. It was during their stay at Cheltenham that a
+fortune-teller, whom his mother consulted, pronounced a prediction
+concerning him which, for some time, left a strong impression on his
+mind. Mrs. Byron had, it seems, in her first visit to this person,
+(who, if I mistake not, was the celebrated fortune-teller, Mrs.
+Williams,) endeavoured to pass herself off as a maiden lady. The
+sibyl, however, was not so easily deceived;--she pronounced her wise
+consulter to be not only a married woman, but the mother of a son who
+was lame, and to whom, among other events which she read in the stars,
+it was predestined that his life should be in danger from poison
+before he was of age, and that he should be twice married,--the second
+time, to a foreign lady. About two years afterwards he himself
+mentioned these particulars to the person from whom I heard the
+story, and said that the thought of the first part of the prophecy
+very often occurred to him. The latter part, however, seems to have
+been the _nearer_ guess of the two.
+
+To a shy disposition, such as Byron's was in his youth--and such as,
+to a certain degree, it continued all his life--the transition from a
+quiet establishment, like that of Dulwich Grove, to the bustle of a
+great public school was sufficiently trying. Accordingly, we find from
+his own account, that, for the first year and a half, he "hated
+Harrow." The activity, however, and sociableness of his nature soon
+conquered this repugnance; and, from being, as he himself says, "a
+most unpopular boy," he rose at length to be a leader in all the
+sports, schemes, and mischief of the school.
+
+For a general notion of his dispositions and capacities at this
+period, we could not have recourse to a more trust-worthy or valuable
+authority than that of the Rev. Dr. Drury, who was at this time head
+master of the school, and to whom Lord Byron has left on record a
+tribute of affection and respect, which, like the reverential regard
+of Dryden for Dr. Busby, will long associate together honourably the
+names of the poet and the master. From this venerable scholar I have
+received the following brief, but important statement of the
+impressions which his early intercourse with the young noble left upon
+him:--
+
+"Mr. Hanson, Lord Byron's solicitor, consigned him to my care at the
+age of 13-1/2, with remarks, that his education had been neglected;
+that he was ill prepared for a public school, but that he thought
+there was a _cleverness_ about him. After his departure I took my
+young disciple into my study, and endeavoured to bring him forward by
+enquiries as to his former amusements, employments, and associates,
+but with little or no effect;--and I soon found that a wild mountain
+colt had been submitted to my management. But there was mind in his
+eye. In the first place, it was necessary to attach him to an elder
+boy, in order to familiarise him with the objects before him, and with
+some parts of the system in which he was to move. But the information
+he received from his conductor gave him no pleasure, when he heard of
+the advances of some in the school, much younger than himself, and
+conceived by his own deficiency that he should be degraded, and
+humbled, by being placed below them. This I discovered, and having
+committed him to the care of one of the masters, as his tutor, I
+assured him he should not be placed till, by diligence, he might rank
+with those of his own age. He was pleased with this assurance, and
+felt himself on easier terms with his associates;--for a degree of
+shyness hung about him for some time. His manner and temper soon
+convinced me, that he might be led by a silken string to a point,
+rather than by a cable;--on that principle I acted. After some
+continuance at Harrow, and when the powers of his mind had begun to
+expand, the late Lord Carlisle, his relation, desired to see me in
+town;--I waited on his Lordship. His object was to inform me of Lord
+Byron's expectations of property when he came of age, which he
+represented as contracted, and to enquire respecting his abilities. On
+the former circumstance I made no remark; as to the latter, I replied,
+'He has talents, my Lord, which will _add lustre to his rank_.'
+'Indeed!!!' said his Lordship, with a degree of surprise, that,
+according to my reeling, did not express in it all the satisfaction I
+expected.
+
+"The circumstance to which you allude, as to his declamatory powers,
+was as follows. The upper part of the school composed declamations,
+which, after a revisal by the tutors, were submitted to the master: to
+him the authors repeated them, that they might be improved in manner
+and action, before their public delivery. I certainly was much pleased
+with Lord Byron's attitude, gesture, and delivery, as well as with his
+composition. All who spoke on that day adhered, as usual, to the
+letter of their composition, as, in the earlier part of his delivery,
+did Lord Byron. But to my surprise he suddenly diverged from the
+written composition, with a boldness and rapidity sufficient to alarm
+me, lest he should fail in memory as to the conclusion. There was no
+failure:--he came round to the close of his composition without
+discovering any impediment and irregularity on the whole. I questioned
+him, why he had altered his declamation? He declared he had made no
+alteration, and did not know, in speaking, that he had deviated from
+it one letter. I believed him; and from a knowledge of his temperament
+am convinced, that, fully impressed with the sense and substance of
+the subject, he was hurried on to expressions and colourings more
+striking than what his pen had expressed."
+
+In communicating to me these recollections of his illustrious pupil,
+Dr. Drury has added a circumstance which shows how strongly, even in
+all the pride of his fame, that awe with which he had once regarded
+the opinions of his old master still hung around the poet's sensitive
+mind:--
+
+"After my retreat from Harrow, I received from him two very
+affectionate letters. In my occasional visits subsequently to London,
+when he had fascinated the public with his productions, I demanded of
+him; why, as in _duty bound_, he had sent none to me? 'Because,' said
+he, 'you are the only man I never wish to read them:'--but, in a few
+moments, he added--'What do you think of the Corsair?'"
+
+I shall now lay before the reader such notices of his school-life as I
+find scattered through the various note-books he has left behind.
+Coming, as they do, from his own pen, it is needless to add, that they
+afford the liveliest and best records of this period that can be
+furnished.
+
+"Till I was eighteen years old (odd as it may seem) I had never read a
+review. But while at Harrow, my general information was so great on
+modern topics as to induce a suspicion that I could only collect so
+much information from _Reviews_, because I was never _seen_ reading,
+but always idle, and in mischief, or at play. The truth is, that I
+read eating, read in bed, read when no one else read, and had read all
+sorts of reading since I was five years old, and yet never _met_ with
+a Review, which is the only reason I know of why I should not have
+read them. But it is true; for I remember when Hunter and Curzon, in
+1804, told me this opinion at Harrow, I made them laugh by my
+ludicrous astonishment in asking them '_What is_ a Review?' To be
+sure, they were then less common. In three years more, I was better
+acquainted with that same; but the first I ever read was in 1806-7.
+
+"At school I was (as I have said) remarked for the extent and
+readiness of my _general_ information; but in all other respects idle,
+capable of great sudden exertions, (such as thirty or forty Greek
+hexa-meters, of course with such prosody as it pleased God,) but of
+few continuous drudgeries. My qualities were much more oratorical and
+martial than poetical, and Dr. Drury, my grand patron, (our head
+master,) had a great notion that I should turn out an orator, from my
+fluency, my turbulence, my voice, my copiousness of declamation, and
+my action.[27] I remember that my first declamation astonished him
+into some unwonted (for he was economical of such) and sudden
+compliments, before the declaimers at our first rehearsal. My first
+Harrow verses, (that is, English, as exercises,) a translation of a
+chorus from the Prometheus of AEschylus, were received by him but
+coolly. No one had the least notion that I should subside into poesy.
+
+"Peel, the orator and statesman, ('that was, or is, or is to be,') was
+my form-fellow, and we were both at the top of our remove (a
+public-school phrase). We were on good terms, but his brother was my
+intimate friend. There were always great hopes of Peel, amongst us
+all, masters and scholars--and he has not disappointed them. As a
+scholar he was greatly my superior; as a declaimer and actor, I was
+reckoned at least his equal; as a schoolboy, _out_ of school, I was
+always _in_ scrapes, and _he never_; and _in school_, he _always_ knew
+his lesson, and I rarely,--but when I knew it, I knew it nearly as
+well. In general information, history, &c. &c., I think I was _his_
+superior, as well as of most boys of my standing.
+
+"The prodigy of our school-days was George Sinclair (son of Sir John);
+he made exercises for half the school, (_literally_) verses at will,
+and themes without it.... He was a friend of mine, and in the same
+remove, and used at times to beg me to let him do my exercise,--a
+request always most readily accorded upon a pinch, or when I wanted to
+do something else, which was usually once an hour. On the other hand,
+he was pacific and I savage; so I fought for him, or thrashed others
+for him, or thrashed himself to make him thrash others when it was
+necessary, as a point of honour and stature, that he should so
+chastise;--or we talked politics, for he was a great politician, and
+were very good friends. I have some of his letters, written to me
+from school, still.[28]
+
+"Clayton was another school-monster of learning, and talent, and hope;
+but what has become of him I do not know. He was certainly a genius.
+
+"My school-friendships were with _me passions_,[29] (for I was always
+violent,) but I do not know that there is one which has endured (to be
+sure some have been cut short by death) till now. That with Lord Clare
+begun one of the earliest, and lasted longest--being only interrupted
+by distance--that I know of. I never hear the word '_Clare_' without a
+beating of the heart even _now_, and I write it with the feelings of
+1803-4-5, ad infinitum."
+
+The following extract is from another of his manuscript journals:--
+
+"At Harrow I fought my way very fairly.[30] I think I lost but one
+battle out of seven; and that was to H----;--and the rascal did not
+win it, but by the unfair treatment of his own boarding-house, where
+we boxed--I had not even a second. I never forgave him, and I should
+be sorry to meet him now, as I am sure we should quarrel. My most
+memorable combats were with Morgan, Rice, Rainsford, and Lord
+Jocelyn,--but we were always friendly afterwards. I was a most
+unpopular boy, but _led_ latterly, and have retained many of my school
+friendships, and all my dislikes--except to Dr. Butler, whom I treated
+rebelliously, and have been sorry ever since. Dr. Drury, whom I
+plagued sufficiently too, was the best, the kindest (and yet strict,
+too,) friend I ever had--and I look upon him still as a father.
+
+"P. Hunter, Curzon, Long, and Tatersall, were my principal friends.
+Clare, Dorset, C^s. Gordon, De Bath, Claridge, and J^no. Wingfield,
+were my juniors and favourites, whom I spoilt by indulgence. Of all
+human beings, I was, perhaps, at one time, the most attached to poor
+Wingfield, who died at Coimbra, 1811, before I returned to England."
+
+One of the most striking results of the English system of education
+is, that while in no country are there so many instances of manly
+friendships early formed and steadily maintained, so in no other
+country, perhaps, are the feelings towards the parental home so early
+estranged, or, at the best, feebly cherished. Transplanted as boys are
+from the domestic circle, at a time of life when the affections are
+most disposed to cling, it is but natural that they should seek a
+substitute for the ties of home[31] in those boyish friendships which
+they form at school, and which, connected as they are with the scenes
+and events over which youth threw its charm, retain ever after the
+strongest hold upon their hearts. In Ireland, and I believe also in
+France, where the system of education is more domestic, a different
+result is accordingly observable:--the paternal home comes in for its
+due and natural share of affection, and the growth of friendships, out
+of this domestic circle, is proportionably diminished.
+
+To a youth like Byron, abounding with the most passionate feelings,
+and finding sympathy with only the ruder parts of his nature at home,
+the little world of school afforded a vent for his affections, which
+was sure to call them forth in their most ardent form. Accordingly,
+the friendships which he contracted, both at school and college, were
+little less than what he himself describes them, "passions." The want
+he felt at home of those kindred dispositions, which greeted him among
+"Ida's social band," is thus strongly described in one of his early
+poems[32]:--
+
+    "Is there no cause beyond the common claim,
+    Endear'd to all in childhood's very name?
+    Ah! sure some stronger impulse vibrates here,
+    Which whispers, Friendship will be doubly dear
+    To one who thus for kindred hearts must roam,
+    And seek abroad the love denied at home:
+    Those hearts, dear Ida, have I found in thee,
+    A home, a world, a paradise to me."
+
+This early volume, indeed, abounds with the most affectionate tributes
+to his school-fellows. Even his expostulations to one of them, who had
+given him some cause for complaint, are thus tenderly conveyed:--
+
+    "You knew that my soul, that my heart, my existence,
+      If danger demanded, were wholly your own;
+    You know me unaltered by years or by distance,
+      Devoted to love and to friendship alone.
+
+    "You knew--but away with the vain retrospection,
+      The bond of affection no longer endures.
+    Too late you may droop o'er the fond recollection,
+      And sigh for the friend who was formerly yours."
+
+The following description of what he felt after leaving Harrow, when
+he encountered in the world any of his old school-fellows, falls far
+short of the scene which actually occurred but a few years before his
+death in Italy,--when, on meeting with his friend, Lord Clare, after a
+long separation, he was affected almost to tears by the recollections
+which rushed on him.
+
+    "If chance some well remember'd face,
+    Some old companion of my early race,
+    Advance to claim his friend with honest joy,
+    My eyes, my heart proclaim'd me yet a boy;
+    The glittering scene, the fluttering groups around,
+    Were all forgotten when my friend was found."
+
+It will be seen, by the extracts from his memorandum-book, which I
+have given, that Mr. Peel was one of his contemporaries at Harrow; and
+the following interesting anecdote of an occurrence in which both were
+concerned, has been related to me by a friend of the latter gentleman,
+in whose words I shall endeavour as nearly as possible to give it.
+
+While Lord Byron and Mr. Peel were at Harrow together, a tyrant, some
+few years older, whose name was ----, claimed a right to fag little
+Peel, which claim (whether rightly or wrongly I know not) Peel
+resisted. His resistance, however, was in vain:-- ---- not only
+subdued him, but determined also to punish the refractory slave; and
+proceeded forthwith to put this determination in practice, by
+inflicting a kind of bastinado on the inner fleshy side of the boy's
+arm, which, during the operation, was twisted round with some degree
+of technical skill, to render the pain more acute. While the stripes
+were succeeding each other, and poor Peel writhing under them, Byron
+saw and felt for the misery of his friend; and although he knew that
+he was not strong enough to fight ---- with any hope of success, and
+that it was dangerous even to approach him, he advanced to the scene
+of action, and with a blush of rage, tears in his eyes, and a voice
+trembling between terror and indignation, asked very humbly if ----
+would be pleased to tell him "how many stripes he meant to inflict?"
+--"Why," returned the executioner, "you little rascal, what is that to
+you?"--"Because, if you please," said Byron, holding out his arm, "I
+would take half!"
+
+There is a mixture of simplicity and magnanimity in this little trait
+which is truly heroic; and however we may smile at the friendships of
+boys, it is but rarely that the friendship of manhood is capable of
+any thing half so generous.
+
+Among his school favourites a great number, it may be observed, were
+nobles or of noble family--Lords Clare and Delaware, the Duke of
+Dorset and young Wingfield--and that their rank may have had some
+share in first attracting his regard to them, might appear from a
+circumstance mentioned to me by one of his school-fellows, who, being
+monitor one day, had put Lord Delaware on his list for punishment.
+Byron, hearing of this, came up to him, and said, "Wildman, I find
+you've got Delaware on your list--pray don't lick him."--"Why
+not?"--"Why, I don't know--except that he is a brother peer. But pray
+don't." It is almost needless to add, that his interference, on such
+grounds, was anything but successful. One of the few merits, indeed,
+of public schools is, that they level, in some degree, these
+artificial distinctions, and that, however the peer may have his
+revenge in the world afterwards, the young plebeian is, for once, at
+least, on something like an equality with him.
+
+It is true that Lord Byron's high notions of rank were, in his boyish
+days, so little disguised or softened down, as to draw upon him, at
+times, the ridicule of his companions; and it was at Dulwich, I think,
+that from his frequent boast of the superiority of an old English
+barony over all the later creations of the peerage, he got the
+nickname, among the boys, of "the Old English Baron." But it is a
+mistake to suppose that, either at school or afterwards, he was at all
+guided in the selection of his friends by aristocratic sympathies. On
+the contrary, like most very proud persons, he chose his intimates in
+general from a rank beneath his own, and those boys whom he ranked as
+_friends_ at school were mostly of this description; while the chief
+charm that recommended to him his younger favourites was their
+inferiority to himself in age and strength, which enabled him to
+indulge his generous pride by taking upon himself, when necessary, the
+office of their protector.
+
+Among those whom he attached to himself by this latter tie, one of the
+earliest (though he has omitted to mention his name) was William
+Harness, who at the time of his entering Harrow was ten years of age,
+while Byron was fourteen. Young Harness, still lame from an accident
+of his childhood, and but just recovered from a severe illness, was
+ill fitted to struggle with the difficulties of a public school; and
+Byron, one day, seeing him bullied by a boy much older and stronger
+than himself, interfered and took his part. The next day, as the
+little fellow was standing alone, Byron came to him and said,
+"Harness, if any one bullies you, tell me, and I'll thrash him, if I
+can." The young champion kept his word, and they were from this time,
+notwithstanding the difference of their ages, inseparable friends. A
+coolness, however, subsequently arose between them, to which, and to
+the juvenile friendship it interrupted, Lord Byron, in a letter
+addressed to Harness six years afterwards, alludes with so much kindly
+feeling, so much delicacy and frankness, that I am tempted to
+anticipate the date of the letter, and give an extract from it here.
+
+"We both seem perfectly to recollect, with a mixture of pleasure and
+regret, the hours we once passed together, and I assure you, most
+sincerely, they are numbered among the happiest of my brief chronicle
+of enjoyment. I am now _getting into years_, that is to say, I was
+_twenty_ a month ago, and another year will send me into the world to
+run my career of folly with the rest. I was then just fourteen,--you
+were almost the _first_ of my Harrow friends, certainly the first in
+my esteem, if not in date; but an absence from Harrow for some time,
+shortly after, and new connections on your side, and the difference in
+our conduct (an advantage decidedly in your favour) from that
+turbulent and riotous disposition of mine, which impelled me into
+every species of mischief,--all these circumstances combined to
+destroy an intimacy, which affection urged me to continue, and memory
+compels me to regret. But there is not a circumstance attending that
+period, hardly a sentence we exchanged, which is not impressed on my
+mind at this moment. I need not say more,--this assurance alone must
+convince you, had I considered them as trivial, they would have been
+less indelible. How well I recollect the perusal of your 'first
+flights!' There is another circumstance you do not know;--the _first
+lines_ I ever attempted at Harrow were addressed to _you_. You were to
+have seen them; but Sinclair had the copy in his possession when we
+went home;--and, on our return, we were _strangers_. They were
+destroyed, and certainly no great loss; but you will perceive from
+this circumstance my opinions at an age when we cannot be hypocrites.
+
+"I have dwelt longer on this theme than I intended, and I shall now
+conclude with what I ought to have begun. We were once friends,--nay,
+we have always been so, for our separation was the effect of chance,
+not of dissension. I do not know how far our destinations in life may
+throw us together, but if opportunity and inclination allow you to
+waste a thought on such a hare-brained being as myself, you will find
+me at least sincere, and not so bigoted to my faults as to involve
+others in the consequences. Will you sometimes write to me? I do not
+ask it often; and, if we meet, let us be what we _should_ be, and what
+we _were_."
+
+Of the tenaciousness with which, as we see in this letter, he clung to
+all the impressions of his youth, there can be no stronger proof than
+the very interesting fact, that, while so little of his own boyish
+correspondence has been preserved, there were found among his papers
+almost all the notes and letters which his principal school
+favourites, even the youngest, had ever addressed to him; and, in some
+cases, where the youthful writers had omitted to date their scrawls,
+his faithful memory had, at an interval of years after, supplied the
+deficiency. Among these memorials, so fondly treasured by him, there
+is one which it would be unjust not to cite, as well on account of the
+manly spirit that dawns through its own childish language, as for the
+sake of the tender and amiable feeling which, it will be seen, the
+re-perusal of it, in other days, awakened in Byron:--
+
+
+"TO THE LORD BYRON, &c. &c.
+
+"Harrow on the Hill, July 28. 1805.
+
+
+"Since you have been so unusually unkind to me, in calling me names
+whenever you meet me, of late, I must beg an explanation, wishing to
+know whether you choose to be as good friends with me as ever. I must
+own that, for this last month, you have entirely cut me,--for, I
+suppose, your new cronies. But think not that I will (because you
+choose to take into your head some whim or other) be always going up
+to you, nor do, as I observe certain other fellows doing, to regain
+your friendship; nor think that I am your friend either through
+interest, or because you are bigger and older than I am. No,--it
+never was so, nor ever shall be so. I was only your friend, and am so
+still,--unless you go on in this way, calling me names whenever you
+see me. I am sure you may easily perceive I do not like it;
+therefore, why should you do it, unless you wish that I should no
+longer be your friend? And why should I be so, if you treat me
+unkindly? I have no interest in being so. Though you do not let the
+boys bully me, yet if _you_ treat me unkindly, that is to me a great
+deal worse.
+
+"I am no hypocrite, Byron, nor will I, for your pleasure, ever suffer
+you to call me names, if you wish me to be your friend. If not, I
+cannot help it. I am sure no one can say that I will cringe to regain
+a friendship that you have rejected. Why should I do so? Am I not your
+equal? Therefore, what interest can I have in doing so? When we meet
+again in the world, (that is, if you choose it,) _you_ cannot advance
+or promote _me_, nor I you. Therefore I beg and entreat of you, if you
+value my friendship,--which, by your conduct, I am sure I cannot think
+you do,--not to call me the names you do, nor abuse me. Till that
+time, it will be out of my power to call you friend. I shall be
+obliged for an answer as soon as it is convenient; till then
+
+I remain yours,
+
+----
+
+"I cannot say your friend."
+
+Endorsed on this letter, in the handwriting of Lord Byron, is the
+following:--
+
+"This and another letter were written at Harrow, by my _then_, and I hope
+_ever_, beloved friend, Lord ----, when we were both school-boys, and sent
+to my study in consequence of some childish misunderstanding,--the only
+one which ever arose between us. It was of short duration, and I retain
+this note solely for the purpose of submitting it to his perusal, that we
+may smile over the recollection of the insignificance of our first and
+last quarrel.
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+In a letter, dated two years afterwards, from the same boy,[33] there
+occurs the following characteristic trait:--"I think, by your last
+letter, that you are very much piqued with most of your friends; and,
+if I am not much mistaken, you are a little piqued with me. In one
+part you say, 'There is little or no doubt a few years, or months,
+will render us as politely indifferent to each other as if we had
+never passed a portion of our time together.' Indeed, Byron, you wrong
+me, and I have no doubt--at least, I hope--you wrong yourself."
+
+As that propensity to self-delineation, which so strongly pervades his
+maturer works is, to the full, as predominant in his early
+productions, there needs no better record of his mode of life, as a
+school-boy, than what these fondly circumstantial effusions supply.
+Thus the sports he delighted and excelled in are enumerated:--
+
+    "Yet when confinement's lingering hour was done,
+    Our sports, our studies, and our souls were one:
+    Together we impell'd the flying ball,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Together join'd in cricket's manly toil,
+    Or shared the produce of the river's spoil;
+    Or, plunging from the green, declining shore,
+    Our pliant limbs the buoyant waters bore;
+    In every element, unchanged, the same,
+    All, all that brothers should be, but the name."
+
+The danger which he incurred in a fight with some of the neighbouring
+farmers--an event well remembered by some of his school-fellows--is
+thus commemorated.--
+
+    "Still I remember, in the factious strife,
+    The rustic's musket aim'd against my life;
+    High poised in air the massy weapon hung,
+    A cry of horror burst from every tongue:
+    Whilst I, in combat with another foe,
+    Fought on, unconscious of the impending blow.
+    Your arm, brave boy, arrested his career--
+    Forward you sprung, insensible to fear;
+    Disarm'd and baffled by your conquering hand,
+    The grovelling savage roll'd upon the sand."
+
+Some feud, it appears, had arisen on the subject of the
+cricket-ground, between these "clods" (as in school-language they are
+called) and the boys, and one or two skirmishes had previously taken
+place. But the engagement here recorded was accidentally brought on by
+the breaking up of school and the dismissal of the volunteers from
+drill, both happening, on that occasion, at the same hour. This
+circumstance accounts for the use of the musket, the butt-end of which
+was aimed at Byron's head, and would have felled him to the ground,
+but for the interposition of his friend Tatersall, a lively,
+high-spirited boy, whom he addresses here under the name of Davus.
+
+Notwithstanding these general habits of play and idleness, which might
+seem to indicate a certain absence of reflection and feeling, there
+were moments when the youthful poet would retire thoughtfully within
+himself, and give way to moods of musing uncongenial with the usual
+cheerfulness of his age. They show a tomb in the churchyard at Harrow,
+commanding a view over Windsor, which was so well known to be his
+favourite resting-place, that the boys called it "Byron's tomb;"[34]
+and here, they say, he used to sit for hours, wrapt up in
+thought,--brooding lonelily over the first stirrings of passion and
+genius in his soul, and occasionally, perhaps, indulging in those
+bright forethoughts of fame, under the influence of which, when little
+more than fifteen years of age, he wrote these remarkable lines:--
+
+    "My epitaph shall be my name alone;
+    If that with honour fail to crown my clay,
+    Oh may no other fame my deeds repay;
+    That, only that, shall single out the spot,
+    By that remember'd, or with that forgot."
+
+In the autumn of 1802, he passed a short time with his mother at Bath,
+and entered, rather prematurely, into some of the gaieties of the
+place. At a masquerade given by Lady Riddel, he appeared in the
+character of a Turkish boy,--a sort of anticipation, both in beauty
+and costume, of his own young Selim, in "The Bride." On his entering
+into the house, some person in the crowd attempted to snatch the
+diamond crescent from his turban, but was prevented by the prompt
+interposition of one of the party. The lady who mentioned to me this
+circumstance, and who was well acquainted with Mrs. Byron at that
+period, adds the following remark in the communication with which she
+has favoured me:--"At Bath I saw a good deal of Lord Byron,--his
+mother frequently sent for me to take tea with her. He was always very
+pleasant and droll, and, when conversing about absent friends, showed
+a slight turn for satire, which after-years, as is well known, gave a
+finer edge to."
+
+We come now to an event in his life which, according to his own
+deliberate persuasion, exercised a lasting and paramount influence
+over the whole of his subsequent character and career.
+
+It was in the year 1803 that his heart, already twice, as we have
+seen, possessed with the childish notion that it loved, conceived an
+attachment which--young as he was, even then, for such a
+feeling--sunk so deep into his mind as to give a colour to all his
+future life. That unsuccessful loves are generally the most lasting,
+is a truth, however sad, which unluckily did not require this instance
+to confirm it. To the same cause, I fear, must be traced the perfect
+innocence and romance which distinguish this very early attachment to
+Miss Chaworth from the many others that succeeded, without effacing it
+in his heart;--making it the only one whose details can be entered
+into with safety, or whose results, however darkening their influence
+on himself, can be dwelt upon with pleasurable interest by others.
+
+On leaving Bath, Mrs. Byron took up her abode, in lodgings, at
+Nottingham,--Newstead Abbey being at that time let to Lord Grey de
+Ruthen,--and during the Harrow vacations of this year, she was joined
+there by her son. So attached was he to Newstead, that even to be in
+its neighbourhood was a delight to him; and before he became
+acquainted with Lord Grey, he used sometimes to sleep, for a night, at
+the small house near the gate which is still known by the name of "The
+Hut."[35] An intimacy, however, soon sprang up between him and his
+noble tenant, and an apartment in the abbey was from thenceforth
+always at his service. To the family of Miss Chaworth, who resided at
+Annesley, in the immediate neighbourhood of Newstead, he had been made
+known, some time before, in London, and now renewed his acquaintance
+with them. The young heiress herself combined with the many worldly
+advantages that encircled her, much personal beauty, and a disposition
+the most amiable and attaching. Though already fully alive to her
+charms, it was at the period of which we are speaking that the young
+poet, who was then in his sixteenth year, while the object of his
+admiration was about two years older, seems to have drunk deepest of
+that fascination whose effects were to be so lasting;--six short
+summer weeks which he now passed in her company being sufficient to
+lay the foundation of a feeling for all life.
+
+He used, at first, though offered a bed at Annesley, to return every
+night to Newstead, to sleep; alleging as a reason that he was afraid
+of the family pictures of the Chaworths,--that he fancied "they had
+taken a grudge to him on account of the duel, and would come down from
+their frames at night to haunt him."[36] At length, one evening, he
+said gravely to Miss Chaworth and her cousin, "In going home last
+night I saw a _bogle_;"--which Scotch term being wholly unintelligible
+to the young ladies, he explained that he had seen a _ghost_, and
+would not therefore return to Newstead that evening. From this time he
+always slept at Annesley during the remainder of his visit, which was
+interrupted only by a short excursion to Matlock and Castleton, in
+which he had the happiness of accompanying Miss Chaworth and her
+party, and of which the following interesting notice appears in one of
+his memorandum-books:--
+
+"When I was fifteen years of age, it happened that, in a cavern in
+Derbyshire, I had to cross in a boat (in which two people only could
+lie down) a stream which flows under a rock, with the rock so close
+upon the water as to admit the boat only to be pushed on by a ferryman
+(a sort of Charon) who wades at the stern, stooping all the time. The
+companion of my transit was M.A.C., with whom I had been long in love,
+and never told it, though _she_ had discovered it without. I recollect
+my sensations, but cannot describe them, and it is as well. We were a
+party, a Mr. W., two Miss W.s, Mr. and Mrs. Cl--ke, Miss R. and _my_
+M.A.C. Alas! why do I say MY? Our union would have healed feuds in
+which blood had been shed by our fathers,--it would have joined lands
+broad and rich, it would have joined at least _one_ heart, and two
+persons not ill matched in years (she is two years my elder),
+and--and--and--_what_ has been the result?"
+
+In the dances of the evening at Matlock, Miss Chaworth, of course,
+joined, while her lover sat looking on, solitary and mortified. It is
+not impossible, indeed, that the dislike which he always expressed for
+this amusement may have originated in some bitter pang, felt in his
+youth, on seeing "the lady of his love" led out by others to the gay
+dance from which he was himself excluded. On the present occasion, the
+young heiress of Annesley having had for her partner (as often happens
+at Matlock) some person with whom she was wholly unacquainted, on her
+resuming her seat, Byron said to her pettishly, "I hope you like your
+friend?" The words were scarce out of his lips when he was accosted by
+an ungainly-looking Scotch lady, who rather boisterously claimed him
+as "cousin," and was putting his pride to the torture with her
+vulgarity, when he heard the voice of his fair companion retorting
+archly in his ear, "I hope _you_ like your friend?"
+
+His time at Annesley was mostly passed in riding with Miss Chaworth
+and her cousin, sitting in idle reverie, as was his custom, pulling at
+his handkerchief, or in firing at a door which opens upon the terrace,
+and which still, I believe, bears the marks of his shots. But his
+chief delight was in sitting to hear Miss Chaworth play; and the
+pretty Welsh air, "Mary Anne," was (partly, of course, on account of
+the name) his especial favourite. During all this time he had the pain
+of knowing that the heart of her he loved was occupied by
+another;--that, as he himself expresses it,
+
+    "Her sighs were not for him; to her he was
+    Even as a brother--but no more."
+
+Neither is it, indeed, probable, had even her affections been
+disengaged, that Lord Byron would, at this time, have been selected as
+the object of them. A seniority of two years gives to a girl, "on the
+eve of womanhood," an advance into life with which the boy keeps no
+proportionate pace. Miss Chaworth looked upon Byron as a mere
+school-boy. He was in his manners, too, at that period, rough and odd,
+and (as I have heard from more than one quarter) by no means popular
+among girls of his own age. If, at any moment, however, he had
+flattered himself with the hope of being loved by her, a circumstance
+mentioned in his "Memoranda," as one of the most painful of those
+humiliations to which the defect in his foot had exposed him, must
+have let the truth in, with dreadful certainty, upon his heart. He
+either was told of, or overheard, Miss Chaworth saying to her maid,
+"Do you think I could care any thing for that lame boy?" This speech,
+as he himself described it, was like a shot through his heart. Though
+late at night when he heard it, he instantly darted out of the house,
+and scarcely knowing whither he ran, never stopped till he found
+himself at Newstead.
+
+The picture which he has drawn of his youthful love, in one of the
+most interesting of his poems, "The Dream," shows how genius and
+feeling can elevate the realities of this life, and give to the
+commonest events and objects an undying lustre. The old hall at
+Annesley, under the name of "the antique oratory," will long call up
+to fancy the "maiden and the youth" who once stood in it: while the
+image of the "lover's steed," though suggested by the unromantic
+race-ground of Nottingham, will not the less conduce to the general
+charm of the scene, and share a portion of that light which only
+genius could shed over it.
+
+He appears already, at this boyish age, to have been so far a
+proficient in gallantry as to know the use that may be made of the
+trophies of former triumphs in achieving new ones; for he used to
+boast, with much pride, to Miss Chaworth, of a locket which some fair
+favourite had given him, and which probably may have been a present
+from that pretty cousin, of whom he speaks with such warmth in one of
+the notices already quoted. He was also, it appears, not a little
+aware of his own beauty, which, notwithstanding the tendency to
+corpulence derived from his mother, gave promise, at this time, of
+that peculiar expression into which his features refined and kindled
+afterwards.
+
+With the summer holidays ended this dream of his youth. He saw Miss
+Chaworth once more in the succeeding year, and took his last farewell
+of her (as he himself used to relate) on that hill near Annesley[37]
+which, in his poem of "The Dream," he describes so happily as
+"crowned with a peculiar diadem." No one, he declared, could have told
+how _much_ he felt--for his countenance was calm, and his feelings
+restrained. "The next time I see you," said he in parting with her, "I
+suppose you will be Mrs. Chaworth[38],"--and her answer was, "I hope
+so." It was before this interview that he wrote, with a pencil, in a
+volume of Madame de Maintenon's letters, belonging to her, the
+following verses, which have never, I believe, before been
+published:--[39]
+
+    "Oh Memory, torture me no more,
+      The present's all o'ercast;
+    My hopes of future bliss are o'er,
+      In mercy veil the past.
+    Why bring those images to view
+      I henceforth must resign?
+    Ah! why those happy hours renew,
+      That never can be mine?
+    Past pleasure doubles present pain,
+      To sorrow adds regret,
+    Regret and hope are both in vain,
+      I ask but to--forget."
+
+In the following year, 1805, Miss Chaworth was married to his
+successful rival, Mr. John Musters; and a person who was present when
+the first intelligence of the event was communicated to him, thus
+describes the manner in which he received it.--"I was present when he
+first heard of the marriage. His mother said, 'Byron, I have some news
+for you.'--'Well, what is it?'--'Take out your handkerchief first,
+for you will want it.'--'Nonsense!'--Take out your handkerchief, I
+say.' He did so, to humour her. 'Miss Chaworth is married.' An
+expression very peculiar, impossible to describe, passed over his pale
+face, and he hurried his handkerchief into his pocket, saying, with an
+affected air of coldness and nonchalance, 'Is that all?'--'Why, I
+expected you would have been plunged in grief!'--He made no reply,
+and soon began to talk about something else."
+
+His pursuits at Harrow continued to be of the same truant description
+during the whole of his stay there;--"always," as he says himself,
+"cricketing, rebelling,[40] _rowing_, and in all manner of mischiefs."
+The "rebelling," of which he here speaks, (though it never, I believe,
+proceeded to any act of violence,) took place on the retirement of Dr.
+Drury from his situation as head master, when three candidates for
+the vacant chair presented themselves,--Mark Drury, Evans, and
+Butler. On the first movement to which this contest gave rise in the
+school, young Wildman was at the head of the party for Mark Drury,
+while Byron at first held himself aloof from any. Anxious, however, to
+have him as an ally, one of the Drury faction said to Wildman--"Byron,
+I know, will not join, because he doesn't choose to act second to any
+one, but, by giving up the leadership to him, you may at once secure
+him." This Wildman accordingly did, and Byron took the command of the
+party.
+
+The violence with which he opposed the election of Dr. Butler on this
+occasion (chiefly from the warm affection which he had felt towards
+the last master) continued to embitter his relations with that
+gentleman during the remainder of his stay at Harrow. Unhappily their
+opportunities of collision were the more frequent from Byron's being a
+resident in Dr. Butler's house. One day the young rebel, in a fit of
+defiance, tore down all the gratings from the window in the hall; and
+when called upon by his host to say why he had committed this
+violence, answered, with stern coolness, "Because they darkened the
+hall." On another occasion he explicitly, and so far manfully, avowed
+to this gentleman's face the pique he entertained against him. It has
+long been customary, at the end of a term, for the master to invite
+the upper boys to dine with him; and these invitations are generally
+considered as, like royal ones, a sort of command. Lord Byron,
+however, when asked, sent back a refusal, which rather surprising Dr.
+Butler, he, on the first opportunity that occurred, enquired of him,
+in the presence of the other boys, his motive for this step:--"Have
+you any other engagement?"--"No, sir."--"But you must have _some_
+reason, Lord Byron."--"I have."--"What is it?"--"Why, Dr. Butler,"
+replied the young peer, with proud composure, "if you should happen to
+come into my neighbourhood when I was staying at Newstead, I certainly
+should not ask you to dine with me, and therefore feel that I ought
+not to dine with _you_."[41]
+
+The general character which he bore among the masters at Harrow was that
+of an idle boy, who would never learn anything; and, as far as regarded
+his tasks in school, this reputation was, by his own avowal, not
+ill-founded. It is impossible, indeed, to look through the books which
+he had then in use, and which are scribbled over with clumsy interlined
+translations, without being struck with the narrow extent of his
+classical attainments. The most ordinary Greek words have their English
+signification scrawled under them, showing too plainly that he was not
+sufficiently familiarised with their meaning to trust himself without
+this aid. Thus, in his Xenophon we find {~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA~}, _young_--{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+NU~}, _bodies_--{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, _good men_, &c. &c.--and even
+in the volumes of Greek plays which he presented to the library on his
+departure, we observe, among other instances, the common word {~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} provided with its English
+representative in the margin.
+
+But, notwithstanding his backwardness in the mere verbal scholarship,
+on which so large and precious a portion of life is wasted,[42] in all
+that general and miscellaneous knowledge which is alone useful in the
+world, he was making rapid and even wonderful progress. With a mind
+too inquisitive and excursive to be imprisoned within statutable
+limits, he flew to subjects that interested his already manly tastes,
+with a zest which it is in vain to expect that the mere pedantries of
+school could inspire; and the irregular, but ardent, snatches of study
+which he caught in this way, gave to a mind like his an impulse
+forwards, which left more disciplined and plodding competitors far
+behind. The list, indeed, which he has left on record of the works, in
+all departments of literature, which he thus hastily and greedily
+devoured before he was fifteen years of age, is such as almost to
+startle belief,--comprising, as it does, a range and variety of
+study, which might make much older "helluones librorum" hide their
+heads.
+
+Not to argue, however, from the powers and movements of a mind like
+Byron's, which might well be allowed to take a privileged direction of
+its own, there is little doubt, that to _any_ youth of talent and
+ambition, the plan of instruction pursued in the great schools and
+universities of England, wholly inadequate as it is to the
+intellectual wants of the age,[43] presents an alternative of evils
+not a little embarrassing. Difficult, nay, utterly impossible, as he
+will find it, to combine a competent acquisition of useful knowledge
+with that round of antiquated studies which a pursuit of scholastic
+honours requires, he must either, by devoting the whole of his
+attention and ambition to the latter object, remain ignorant on most
+of those subjects upon which mind grapples with mind in life, or by
+adopting, as Lord Byron and other distinguished persons have done, the
+contrary system, consent to pass for a dunce or idler in the schools,
+in order to afford himself even a chance of attaining eminence in the
+world.
+
+From the memorandums scribbled by the young poet in his school-books,
+we might almost fancy that, even at so early an age, he had a sort of
+vague presentiment that everything relating to him would one day be an
+object of curiosity and interest. The date of his entrance at
+Harrow,[44] the names of the boys who were, at that time, monitors,
+the list of his fellow pupils under Doctor Drury,[45]--all are noted
+down with a fond minuteness, as if to form points of retrospect in his
+after-life; and that he sometimes referred to them with this feeling
+will appear from one touching instance. On the first leaf of his
+"Scriptores Graeci," we find, in his schoolboy hand, the following
+memorial:--"George Gordon Byron, Wednesday, June 26th, A. D. 1805, 3
+quarters of an hour past 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 3d
+school,--Calvert, monitor; Tom Wildman on my left hand and Long on my
+right. Harrow on the Hill." On the same leaf, written five years
+after, appears this comment:--
+
+     "Eheu fugaces, Posthume! Posthume!
+      Labuntur anni."
+
+"B. January 9th, 1809.--Of the four persons whose names are here
+mentioned, one is dead, another in a distant climate, _all_ separated,
+and not five years have elapsed since they sat together in school, and
+none are yet twenty-one years of age."
+
+The vacation of 1804[46] he passed with his mother at Southwell, to
+which place she had removed from Nottingham, in the summer of this
+year, having taken the house on the Green called Burgage Manor. There
+is a Southwell play-bill extant, dated August 8th, 1804, in which the
+play is announced as bespoke "by Mrs. and Lord Byron." The gentleman,
+from whom the house where they resided was rented, possesses a library
+of some extent, which the young poet, he says, ransacked with much
+eagerness on his first coming to Southwell; and one of the books that
+most particularly engaged and interested him was, as may be easily
+believed, the life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
+
+In the month of October, 1805, he was removed to Trinity College,
+Cambridge, and his feelings on the change from his beloved Ida to this
+new scene of life are thus described by himself:--
+
+"When I first went up to college, it was a new and a heavy-hearted
+scene for me: firstly, I so much disliked leaving Harrow, that though
+it was time (I being seventeen), it broke my very rest for the last
+quarter with counting the days that remained. I always _hated_ Harrow
+till the last year and a half, but then I liked it. Secondly, I wished
+to go to Oxford, and not to Cambridge. Thirdly, I was so completely
+alone in this new world, that it half broke my spirits. My companions
+were not unsocial, but the contrary--lively, hospitable, of rank and
+fortune, and gay far beyond my gaiety. I mingled with, and dined, and
+supped, &c., with them; but, I know not how, it was one of the
+deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life to feel that I was no
+longer a boy."
+
+But though, for a time, he may have felt this sort of estrangement at
+Cambridge, to remain long without attaching himself was not in his
+nature; and the friendship which he now formed with a youth named
+Eddleston, who was two years younger than himself, even exceeded in
+warmth and romance all his schoolboy attachments. This boy, whose
+musical talents first drew them together, was, at the commencement of
+their acquaintance, one of the choir at Cambridge, though he
+afterwards, it appears, entered into a mercantile line of life; and
+this disparity in their stations was by no means without its charm for
+Byron, as gratifying at once both his pride and good-nature, and
+founding the tie between them on the mutually dependent relations of
+protection on the one side, and gratitude and devotion on the
+other;--the only relations,[47] according to Lord Bacon, in which the
+little friendship that still remains in the world is to be found. It
+was upon a gift presented to him by Eddleston, that he wrote those
+verses entitled "The Cornelian," which were printed in his first,
+unpublished volume, and of which the following is a stanza:--
+
+    "Some, who can sneer at friendship's ties,
+      Have for my weakness oft reproved me;
+    Yet still the simple gift I prize,
+      For I am sure the giver loved me."
+
+Another friendship, of a less unequal kind, which had been begun at
+Harrow, and which he continued to cultivate during his first year at
+Cambridge, is thus interestingly dwelt upon in one of his journals:--
+
+"How strange are my thoughts!--The reading of the song of Milton,
+Sabrina fair,' has brought back upon me--I know not how or why--the
+happiest, perhaps, days of my life (always excepting, here and there,
+a Harrow holiday in the two latter summers of my stay there) when
+living at Cambridge with Edward Noel Long, afterwards of the
+Guards,--who, after having served honourably in the expedition to
+Copenhagen (of which two or three thousand scoundrels yet survive in
+plight and pay), was drowned early in 1809, on his passage to Lisbon
+with his regiment in the St. George transport, which was run foul of
+in the night by another transport. We were rival swimmers--fond of
+riding--reading--and of conviviality. We had been at Harrow together;
+but--_there_, at least--his was a less boisterous spirit than mine. I
+was always cricketing--rebelling--fighting--_row_ing (from _row_, not
+_boat_-rowing, a different practice), and in all manner of mischiefs;
+while he was more sedate and polished. At Cambridge--both of
+Trinity--my spirit rather softened, or his roughened, for we became
+very great friends. The description of Sabrina's seat reminds me of
+our rival feats in _diving_. Though Cam's is not a very translucent
+wave, it was fourteen feet deep, where we used to dive for, and pick
+up--having thrown them in on purpose--plates, eggs, and even
+shillings. I remember, in particular, there was the stump of a tree
+(at least ten or twelve feet deep) in the bed of the river, in a spot
+where we bathed most commonly, round which I used to cling, and
+'wonder how the devil I came there.'
+
+"Our evenings we passed in music (he was musical, and played on more
+than one instrument, flute and violoncello), in which I was audience;
+and I think that our chief beverage was soda-water. In the day we
+rode, bathed, and lounged, reading occasionally. I remember our
+buying, with vast alacrity, Moore's new quarto (in 1806), and reading
+it together in the evenings.
+
+"We only passed the summer together;--Long had gone into the Guards
+during the year I passed in Notts, away from college. _His_
+friendship, and a violent, though _pure_, love and passion--which held
+me at the same period--were the then romance of the most romantic
+period of my life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I remember that, in the spring of 1809, H---- laughed at my being
+distressed at Long's death, and amused himself with making epigrams
+upon his name, which was susceptible of a pun--_Long, short_, &c. But
+three years after, he had ample leisure to repent it, when our mutual
+friend and his, H----'s, particular friend, Charles Matthews, was
+drowned also, and he himself was as much affected by a similar
+calamity. But _I_ did not pay him back in puns and epigrams, for I
+valued Matthews too much myself to do so; and, even if I had not, I
+should have respected his griefs.
+
+"Long's father wrote to me to write his son's epitaph. I promised--but
+I had not the heart to complete it. He was such a good amiable being
+as rarely remains long in this world; with talent and accomplishments,
+too, to make him the more regretted. Yet, although a cheerful
+companion, he had strange melancholy thoughts sometimes. I remember
+once that we were going to his uncle's, I think--I went to accompany
+him to the door merely, in some Upper or Lower Grosvenor or Brook
+Street, I forget which, but it was in a street leading out of some
+square,--he told me that, the night before, he 'had taken up a
+pistol--not knowing or examining whether it was loaded or no--and had
+snapped it at his head, leaving it to chance whether it might or might
+not be charged.' The letter, too, which he wrote me, on leaving
+college to join the Guards, was as melancholy in its tenour as it
+could well be on such an occasion. But he showed nothing of this in
+his deportment, being mild and gentle;--and yet with much turn for the
+ludicrous in his disposition. We were both much attached to Harrow,
+and sometimes made excursions there together from London to revive our
+schoolboy recollections."
+
+These affecting remembrances are contained in a Journal which he kept
+during his residence at Ravenna, in 1821, and they are rendered still
+more touching and remarkable by the circumstances under which they
+were noted down. Domesticated in a foreign land, and even connected
+with foreign conspirators, whose arms, at the moment he was writing,
+were in his house, he could yet thus wholly disengage himself from the
+scene around him, and, borne away by the current of memory into other
+times, live over the lost friendships of his boyhood again. An English
+gentleman (Mr. Wathen) who called upon him, at one of his residences
+in Italy, having happened to mention in conversation that he had been
+acquainted with Long, from that moment Lord Byron treated him with the
+most marked kindness, and talked with him of Long, and of his amiable
+qualities, till (as this gentleman says) the tears could not be
+concealed in his eyes.
+
+In the summer of this year (1806) he, as usual, joined his mother at
+Southwell,--among the small, but select, society of which place he
+had, during his visits, formed some intimacies and friendships, the
+memory of which is still cherished there fondly and proudly. With the
+exception, indeed, of the brief and bewildering interval which he
+passed, as we have seen, in the company of Miss Chaworth, it was at
+Southwell alone that an opportunity was ever afforded him of profiting
+by the bland influence of female society, or of seeing what woman is
+in the true sphere of her virtues, home. The amiable and intelligent
+family of the Pigots received him within their circle as one of
+themselves: and in the Rev. John Becher[48] the youthful poet found
+not only an acute and judicious critic, but a sincere friend. There
+were also one or two other families--as the Leacrofts, the
+Housons--among whom his talents and vivacity made him always welcome;
+and the proud shyness with which, through the whole of his minority,
+he kept aloof from all intercourse with the neighbouring gentlemen
+seems to have been entirely familiarised away by the small, cheerful
+society of Southwell. One of the most intimate and valued of his
+friends, at this period, has given me the following account of her
+first acquaintance with him:--"The first time I was introduced to him
+was at a party at his mother's, when he was so shy that she was forced
+to send for him three times before she could persuade him to come into
+the drawing-room, to play with the young people at a round game. He
+was then a fat bashful boy, with his hair combed straight over his
+forehead, and extremely like a miniature picture that his mother had
+painted by M. de Chambruland. The next morning Mrs. Byron brought him
+to call at our house, when he still continued shy and formal in his
+manner. The conversation turned upon Cheltenham, where we had been
+staying, the amusements there, the plays, &c.; and I mentioned that I
+had seen the character of Gabriel Lackbrain very well performed. His
+mother getting up to go, he accompanied her, making a formal bow, and
+I, in allusion to the play, said, "Good by, Gaby." His countenance
+lighted up, his handsome mouth displayed a broad grin, all his shyness
+vanished, never to return, and, upon his mother's saying 'Come, Byron,
+are you ready?'--no, she might go by herself, he would stay and talk a
+little longer; and from that moment he used to come in and go out at
+all hours, as it pleased him, and in our house considered himself
+perfectly at home."
+
+To this lady was addressed the earliest letter from his pen that has
+fallen into my hands. He corresponded with many of his Harrow
+friends,--with Lord Clare, Lord Powerscourt, Mr. William Peel, Mr.
+William Bankes, and others. But it was then little foreseen what
+general interest would one day attach to these school-boy letters; and
+accordingly, as I have already had occasion to lament, there are but
+few of them now in existence. The letter, of which I have spoken, to
+his Southwell friend, though containing nothing remarkable, is perhaps
+for that very reason worth insertion, as serving to show, on comparing
+it with most of its successors, how rapidly his mind acquired
+confidence in its powers. There is, indeed, one charm for the eye of
+curiosity in his juvenile manuscripts, which they necessarily want in
+their printed form; and that is the strong evidence of an irregular
+education which they exhibit,--the unformed and childish handwriting,
+and, now and then, even defective spelling of him who, in a very few
+years after, was to start up one of the giants of English literature.
+
+
+LETTER 1.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+Burgage Manor, August 29. 1804.
+
+
+"I received the arms, my dear Miss ----, and am very much obliged to
+you for the trouble you have taken. It is impossible I should have any
+fault to find with them. The sight of the drawings gives me great
+pleasure for a double reason,--in the first place, they will ornament
+my books, in the next, they convince me that you have not entirely
+_forgot_ me. I am, however, sorry you do not return sooner--you have
+already been gone an _age_. I perhaps may have taken my departure for
+London before you come back; but, however, I will hope not. Do not
+overlook my watch-riband and purse, as I wish to carry them with me.
+Your note was given me by Harry, at the play, whither I attended Miss
+L---- and Dr. S. ----; and now I have set down to answer it before I go
+to bed. If I am at Southwell when you return,--and I sincerely hope
+you will soon, for I very much regret your absence,--I shall be happy
+to hear you sing my favourite, 'The Maid of Lodi.' My mother, together
+with myself, desires to be affectionately remembered to Mrs. Pigot,
+and, believe me, my dear Miss ----,
+
+I remain your affectionate friend,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+"P.S. If you think proper to send me any answer to this, I shall be
+extremely happy to receive it. Adieu.
+
+"P.S. 2d. As you say you are a novice in the art of knitting, I hope
+it don't give you too much trouble. Go on _slowly_, but surely. Once
+more, adieu."
+
+
+We shall often have occasion to remark the fidelity to early habits
+and tastes by which Lord Byron, though in other respects so versatile,
+was distinguished. In the juvenile letter, just cited, there are two
+characteristics of this kind which he preserved unaltered during the
+remainder of his life;--namely, his punctuality in immediately
+answering letters, and his love of the simplest ballad music. Among
+the chief favourites to which this latter taste led him at this time
+were the songs of the Duenna, which he had the good taste to delight
+in; and some of his Harrow contemporaries still remember the
+joyousness with which, when dining with his friends at the memorable
+mother Barnard's, he used to roar out, "This bottle's the sun of our
+table."
+
+His visit to Southwell this summer was interrupted, about the
+beginning of August, by one of those explosions of temper on the part
+of Mrs. Byron, to which, from his earliest childhood, he had been but
+too well accustomed, and in producing which his own rebel spirit was
+not always, it may be supposed, entirely blameless. In all his
+portraits of himself, so dark is the pencil which he employs, that the
+following account of his own temper, from one of his journals, must be
+taken with a due portion of that allowance for exaggeration, which his
+style of self-portraiture, "overshadowing even the shade," requires.
+
+"In all other respects," (he says, after mentioning his infant passion
+for Mary Duff,) "I differed not at all from other children, being
+neither tall nor short, dull nor witty, of my age, but rather
+lively--except in my sullen moods, and then I was always a Devil.
+They once (in one of my silent rages) wrenched a knife from me, which
+I had snatched from table at Mrs. B.'s dinner (I always dined
+earlier), and applied to my breast;--but this was three or four years
+after, just before the late Lord B.'s decease.
+
+"My _ostensible_ temper has certainly improved in later years; but I
+shudder, and must, to my latest hour, regret the consequence of it and
+my passions combined. One event--but no matter--there are others not
+much better to think of also--and to them I give the preference....
+
+"But I hate dwelling upon incidents. My temper is now under
+management--rarely _loud_, and _when_ loud, never deadly. It is when
+silent, and I feel my forehead and my cheek paling, that I cannot
+control it; and then.... but unless there is a woman (and not any or
+every woman) in the way, I have sunk into tolerable apathy."
+
+Between a temper at all resembling this, and the loud hurricane bursts
+of Mrs. Byron, the collision, it may be supposed, was not a little
+formidable; and the age at which the young poet was now arrived;
+when--as most parents feel--the impatience of youth begins to champ
+the bit, would but render the occasions for such shocks more frequent.
+It is told, as a curious proof of their opinion of each other's
+violence, that, after parting one evening in a tempest of this kind,
+they were known each to go privately that night to the apothecary's,
+enquiring anxiously whether the other had been to purchase poison,
+and cautioning the vender of drugs not to attend to such an
+application, if made.
+
+It was but rarely, however, that the young lord allowed himself to be
+provoked into more than a passive share in these scenes. To the
+boisterousness of his mother he would oppose a civil and, no doubt,
+provoking silence,--bowing to her but the more profoundly the higher
+her voice rose in the scale. In general, however, when he perceived
+that a storm was at hand, in flight lay his only safe resource. To
+this summary expedient he was driven at the period of which we are
+speaking; but not till after a scene had taken place between him and
+Mrs. Byron, in which the violence of her temper had proceeded to
+lengths, that, however outrageous they may be deemed, were not, it
+appears, unusual with her. The poet, Young, in describing a temper of
+this sort, says--
+
+    "The cups and saucers, in a whirlwind sent,
+    Just intimate the lady's discontent."
+
+But poker and tongs were, it seems, the missiles which Mrs. Byron
+preferred, and which she, more than once, sent resounding after her
+fugitive son. In the present instance, he was but just in time to
+avoid a blow aimed at him with the former of these weapons, and to
+make a hasty escape to the house of a friend in the neighbourhood;
+where, concerting the best means of baffling pursuit, he decided upon
+an instant flight to London. The letters, which I am about to give,
+were written, immediately on his arrival in town, to some friends at
+Southwell, from whose kind interference in his behalf, it may fairly
+be concluded that the blame of the quarrel, whatever it may have been,
+did not rest with him. The first is to Mr. Pigot, a young gentleman
+about the same age as himself, who had just returned, for the
+vacation, from Edinburgh, where he was, at that time, pursuing his
+medical studies.
+
+
+LETTER 2.
+
+TO MR. PIGOT.
+
+"16. Piccadilly, August 9. 1806.
+
+
+"My dear Pigot,
+
+"Many thanks for your amusing narrative of the last proceedings of
+----, who now begins to feel the effects of her folly. I have just
+received a penitential epistle, to which, apprehensive of pursuit, I
+have despatched a moderate answer, with a _kind_ of promise to return
+in a fortnight;--this, however (_entre nous_), I never mean to fulfil.
+Seriously, your mother has laid me under great obligations, and you,
+with the rest of your family, merit my warmest thanks for your kind
+connivance at my escape.
+
+"How did S.B. receive the intelligence? How many _puns_ did he utter
+on so _facetious_ an event? In your next inform me on this point, and
+what excuse you made to A. You are probably, by this time, tired of
+deciphering this hieroglyphical letter;--like Tony Lumpkin, you will
+pronounce mine to be a d----d up and down hand. All Southwell, without
+doubt, is involved in amazement. Apropos, how does my blue-eyed nun,
+the fair ----? is she '_robed in sable garb of woe_?'
+
+"Here I remain at least a week or ten days; previous to my departure
+you shall receive my address, but what it will be I have not
+determined. My lodgings must be kept secret from Mrs. B. You may
+present my compliments to her, and say any attempt to pursue me will
+fail, as I have taken measures to retreat immediately to Portsmouth,
+on the first intimation of her removal from Southwell. You may add, I
+have now proceeded to a friend's house in the country, there to remain
+a fortnight.
+
+"I have now _blotted_ (I must not say written) a complete double
+letter, and in return shall expect a _monstrous budget_. Without
+doubt, the dames of Southwell reprobate the pernicious example I have
+shown, and tremble lest their _babes_ should disobey their mandates,
+and quit, in dudgeon, their mammas on any grievance. Adieu. When you
+begin your next, drop the 'lordship,' and put 'Byron' in its place.
+
+Believe me yours, &c.
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+From the succeeding letters, it will be seen that Mrs. Byron was not
+behind hand, in energy and decision, with his young Lordship, but
+immediately on discovering his flight, set off after him.
+
+
+LETTER 3.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"London, August 10. 1806.
+
+
+"My dear Bridget,
+
+"As I have already troubled your brother with more than he will find
+pleasure in deciphering, you are the next to whom I shall assign the
+employment of perusing this second epistle. You will perceive from my
+first, that no idea of Mrs. B.'s arrival had disturbed me at the time
+it was written; _not_ so the present, since the appearance of a note
+from the _illustrious cause_ of my _sudden decampment_ has driven the
+'natural ruby from my cheeks,' and completely blanched my woe-begone
+countenance. This gun-powder intimation of her arrival breathes less
+of terror and dismay than you will probably imagine, and concludes
+with the comfortable assurance of all _present motion_ being prevented
+by the fatigue of her journey, for which my _blessings_ are due to the
+rough roads and restive quadrupeds of his Majesty's highways. As I
+have not the smallest inclination to be chased round the country, I
+shall e'en make a merit of necessity; and since, like Macbeth,
+'they've tied me to the stake, I cannot fly,' I shall imitate that
+valorous tyrant, and 'bear-like fight the course,' all escape being
+precluded. I can now engage with less disadvantage, having drawn the
+enemy from her intrenchments, though, like the _prototype_ to whom I
+have compared myself, with an excellent chance of being knocked on the
+head. However, 'lay on, Macduff, and d----d be he who first cries,
+Hold, enough.'
+
+"I shall remain in town for, at least, a week, and expect to hear from
+_you_ before its expiration. I presume the printer has brought you the
+offspring of my _poetic mania_. Remember in the first line to '_loud_
+the winds whistle,' instead of 'round,' which that blockhead Ridge has
+inserted by mistake, and makes nonsense of the whole stanza.
+Addio!--Now to encounter my _Hydra_.
+
+Yours ever."
+
+
+LETTER 4.
+
+TO MR. PIGOT.
+
+"London, Sunday, midnight, August 10. 1806.
+
+
+"Dear Pigot,
+
+"This _astonishing_ packet will, doubtless, amaze you; but having an
+idle hour this evening, I wrote the enclosed stanzas, which I request
+you will deliver to Ridge, to be printed _separate_ from my other
+compositions, as you will perceive them to be improper for the perusal
+of ladies; of course, none of the females of your family must see
+them. I offer 1000 apologies for the trouble I have given you in this
+and other instances.
+
+Yours truly."
+
+
+LETTER 5.
+
+TO MR. PIGOT.
+
+"Piccadilly, August 16. 1806.
+
+
+"I cannot exactly say with Caesar, 'Veni, vidi, vici:' however, the
+most important part of his laconic account of success applies to my
+present situation; for, though Mrs. Byron took the _trouble_ of
+'_coming_,' and '_seeing_,' yet your humble servant proved the
+_victor_. After an obstinate engagement of some hours, in which we
+suffered considerable damage, from the quickness of the enemy's fire,
+they at length retired in confusion, leaving behind the artillery,
+field equipage, and some prisoners: their defeat is decisive for the
+present campaign. To speak more intelligibly, Mrs. B. returns
+immediately, but I proceed, with all my laurels, to Worthing, on the
+Sussex coast; to which place you will address (to be left at the post
+office) your next epistle. By the enclosure of a second _gingle_ of
+_rhyme_, you will probably conceive my muse to be _vastly prolific_;
+her inserted production was brought forth a few years ago, and found
+by accident on Thursday among some old papers. I have recopied it,
+and, adding the proper date, request it may be printed with the rest
+of the family. I thought your sentiments on the last bantling would
+coincide with mine, but it was impossible to give it any other garb,
+being founded on _facts_. My stay at Worthing will not exceed three
+weeks, and you may _possibly_ behold me again at Southwell the middle
+of September.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Will you desire Ridge to suspend the printing of my poems till he
+hears further from me, as I have determined to give them a new form
+entirely. This prohibition does not extend to the two last pieces I
+have sent with my letters to you. You will excuse the _dull vanity_ of
+this epistle, as my brain is a _chaos_ of absurd images, and full of
+business, preparations, and projects.
+
+"I shall expect an answer with impatience;--believe me, there is
+nothing at this moment could give me greater delight than your
+letter."
+
+
+LETTER 6.
+
+TO MR. PIGOT.
+
+"London, August 18. 1806.
+
+
+"I am just on the point of setting off for Worthing, and write merely
+to request you will send that _idle scoundrel Charles_ with my horses
+immediately; tell him I am excessively provoked he has not made his
+appearance before, or written to inform me of the cause of his delay,
+particularly as I supplied him with money for his journey. On _no_
+pretext is he to postpone his _march_ one day longer; and if, in
+obedience to Mrs. B., he thinks proper to disregard my positive
+orders, I shall not, in future, consider him as my servant. He must
+bring the surgeon's bill with him, which I will discharge immediately
+on receiving it. Nor can I conceive the reason of his not acquainting
+Frank with the state of my unfortunate quadrupeds. Dear Pigot, forgive
+this _petulant_ effusion, and attribute it to the idle conduct of that
+_precious_ rascal, who, instead of obeying my injunctions, is
+sauntering through the streets of that _political Pandemonium_,
+Nottingham. Present my remembrances to your family and the Leacrofts,
+and believe me, &c.
+
+"P.S. I delegate to _you_ the unpleasant task of despatching him on
+his journey--Mrs. B.'s orders to the contrary are not to be attended
+to: he is to proceed first to London, and then to Worthing, without
+delay. Every thing I have _left_ must be sent to London. My _Poetics_
+_you_ will _pack up_ for the same place, and not even reserve a copy
+for yourself and sister, as I am about to give them an _entire new
+form_: when they are complete, you shall have the _first fruits_. Mrs.
+B. on no account is to _see_ or touch them. Adieu."
+
+
+LETTER 7.
+
+TO MR. PIGOT.
+
+"Little Hampton, August 26. 1806.
+
+
+"I this morning received your epistle, which I was obliged to send for
+to Worthing, whence I have removed to this place, on the same coast,
+about eight miles distant from the former. You will probably not be
+displeased with this letter, when it informs you that I am
+30,000_l._ richer than I was at our parting, having just received
+intelligence from my lawyer that a cause has been gained at Lancaster
+assizes,[49] which will be worth that sum by the time I come of age.
+Mrs. B. is, doubtless, acquainted of this acquisition, though not
+apprised of its exact _value_, of which she had better be ignorant.
+You may give my compliments to her, and say that her detaining my
+servant's things shall only lengthen my absence; for unless they are
+immediately despatched to 16. Piccadilly, together with those which
+have been so long delayed, belonging to myself, she shall never again
+behold my _radiant countenance_ illuminating her gloomy mansion. If
+they are sent, I may probably appear in less than two years from the
+date of my present epistle.
+
+"Metrical compliment is an ample reward for my strains; you are one of
+the few votaries of Apollo who unite the sciences over which that
+deity presides. I wish you to send my poems to my lodgings in London
+immediately, as I have several alterations and some additions to make;
+_every_ copy must be sent, as I am about to _amend_ them, and you
+shall soon behold them in all their glory. _Entre nous_,--you may
+expect to see me soon. Adieu.
+
+Yours ever."
+
+
+From these letters it will be perceived that Lord Byron was already
+engaged in preparing a collection of his poems for the press. The
+idea of printing them first occurred to him in the parlour of that
+cottage which, during his visits to Southwell, had become his adopted
+home. Miss Pigot, who was not before aware of his turn for versifying,
+had been reading aloud the poems of Burns, when young Byron said that
+"he, too, was a poet sometimes, and would write down for her some
+verses of his own which he remembered." He then, with a pencil, wrote
+those lines, beginning "In thee I fondly hoped to clasp,"[50] which
+were printed in his first unpublished volume, but are not contained in
+the editions that followed. He also repeated to her the verses I have
+already referred to, "When in the hall my father's voice," so
+remarkable for the anticipations of his future fame that glimmer
+through them.
+
+From this moment the desire of appearing in print took entire
+possession of him;--though, for the present, his ambition did not
+extend its views beyond a small volume for private circulation. The
+person to whom fell the honour of receiving his first manuscripts was
+Ridge, the bookseller, at Newark; and while the work was printing, the
+young author continued to pour fresh materials into his hands, with
+the same eagerness and rapidity that marked the progress of all his
+maturer works.
+
+His return to Southwell, which he announced in the last letter we have
+given was but for a very short time. In a week or two after he again
+left that place, and, accompanied by his young friend Mr. Pigot, set
+out for Harrowgate. The following extracts are from a letter written
+by the latter gentleman, at the time to his sister.
+
+"Harrowgate is still extremely full; Wednesday (to-day) is our
+ball-night, and I meditate going into the room for an hour, although I
+am by no means fond of strange faces. Lord B., you know, is even more
+shy than myself; but for an hour this evening I will shake it off....
+How do our theatricals proceed? Lord Byron can say _all_ his part, and
+I _most_ of mine. He certainly acts it inimitably. Lord B. is now
+_poetising_, and, since he has been here, has written some very pretty
+verses.[51] He is very good in trying to amuse me as much as possible,
+but it is not in my nature to be happy without either female society
+or study.... There are many pleasant rides about here, which I have
+taken in company with Bo'swain, who, with Brighton,[52] is universally
+admired. _You_ must read this to Mrs. B., as it is a little _Tony
+Lumpkinish_. Lord B. desires some space left: therefore, with respect
+to all the comedians _elect_, believe me to be," &c. &c.
+
+
+To this letter the following note from Lord Byron was appended:--
+
+
+"My dear Bridget,
+
+"I have only just dismounted from my _Pegasus_, which has prevented me
+from descending to _plain_ prose in an epistle of greater length to
+your _fair_ self. You regretted, in a former letter, that my poems
+were not more extensive; I now for your satisfaction announce that I
+have nearly doubled them, partly by the discovery of some I conceived
+to be lost, and partly by some new productions. We shall meet on
+Wednesday next; till then believe me yours affectionately,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+"P.S.--Your brother John is seized with a poetic mania, and is now
+rhyming away at the rate of three lines _per hour_--so much for
+_inspiration_! Adieu!"
+
+
+By the gentleman, who was thus early the companion and intimate of
+Lord Byron, and who is now pursuing his profession with the success
+which his eminent talents deserve, I have been favoured with some
+further recollections of their visit together to Harrowgate, which I
+shall take the liberty of giving in his own words:--
+
+"You ask me to recall some anecdotes of the time we spent together at
+Harrowgate in the summer of 1806, on our return from college, he from
+Cambridge, and I from Edinburgh; but so many years have elapsed since
+then, that I really feel myself as if recalling a distant dream. We, I
+remember, went in Lord Byron's own carriage, with post-horses; and he
+sent his groom with two saddle-horses, and a beautifully formed, very
+ferocious, bull-mastiff, called Nelson, to meet us there.
+Boatswain[53] went by the side of his valet Frank on the box, with us.
+
+"The bull-dog, Nelson, always wore a muzzle, and was occasionally sent
+for into our private room, when the muzzle was taken off, much to my
+annoyance, and he and his master amused themselves with throwing the
+room into disorder. There was always a jealous feud between this
+Nelson and Boatswain; and whenever the latter came into the room while
+the former was there, they instantly seized each other: and then,
+Byron, myself, Frank, and all the waiters that could be found, were
+vigorously engaged in parting them,--which was in general only
+effected by thrusting poker and tongs into the mouths of each. But,
+one day, Nelson unfortunately escaped out of the room without his
+muzzle, and going into the stable-yard fastened upon the throat of a
+horse, from which he could not be disengaged. The stable-boys ran in
+alarm to find Frank, who taking one of his Lord's Wogdon's pistols,
+always kept loaded in his room, shot poor Nelson through the head, to
+the great regret of Byron.
+
+"We were at the Crown Inn, at Low Harrowgate. We always dined in the
+public room, but retired very soon after dinner to our private one;
+for Byron was no more a friend to drinking than myself. We lived
+retired, and made few acquaintance; for he was naturally shy, _very_
+shy, which people who did not know him mistook for pride. While at
+Harrowgate he accidentally met with Professor Hailstone from
+Cambridge, and appeared much delighted to see him. The professor was
+at Upper Harrowgate: we called upon him one evening to take him to the
+theatre, I think,--and Lord Byron sent his carriage for him, another
+time, to a ball at the Granby. This desire to show attention to one of
+the professors of his college is a proof that, though he might choose
+to satirise the mode of education in the university, and to abuse the
+antiquated regulations and restrictions to which under-graduates are
+subjected, he had yet a due discrimination in his respect for the
+individuals who belonged to it. I have always, indeed, heard him speak
+in high terms of praise of Hailstone, as well as of his master, Bishop
+Mansel, of Trinity College, and of others whose names I have now
+forgotten.
+
+"Few people understood Byron; but I know that he had naturally a kind
+and feeling heart, and that there was not a single spark of malice in
+his composition."[54]
+
+The private theatricals alluded to in the letters from Harrowgate
+were, both in prospect and performance, a source of infinite delight
+to him, and took place soon after his return to Southwell. How
+anxiously he was expected back by all parties, may be judged from the
+following fragment of a letter which was received by his companion
+during their absence from home:--
+
+"Tell Lord Byron that, if any accident should retard his return, his
+mother desires he will write to her, as she shall be miserable if he
+does not arrive the day he fixes. Mr. W. B. has written a card to Mrs.
+H. to offer for the character of 'Henry Woodville,'--Mr. and Mrs. ----
+not approving of their son's taking a part in the play: but I believe
+he will persist in it. Mr. G. W. says, that sooner than the party
+should be disappointed, _he_ will take any part,--sing--dance--in
+short, do any thing to oblige. Till Lord Byron returns, nothing can be
+done; and positively he must not be later than Tuesday or Wednesday."
+
+We have already seen that, at Harrow, his talent for declamation was
+the only one by which Lord Byron was particularly distinguished; and
+in one of his note-books he adverts, with evident satisfaction, both
+to his school displays and to the share which he took in these
+representations at Southwell:--
+
+"When I was a youth, I was reckoned a good actor. Besides Harrow
+speeches (in which I shone), I enacted Penruddock in the Wheel of
+Fortune, and Tristram Fickle in Allingham's farce of the Weathercock,
+for three nights (the duration of our compact), in some private
+theatricals at Southwell, in 1806, with great applause. The occasional
+prologue for our volunteer play was also of my composition. The other
+performers were young ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and
+the whole went off with great effect upon our good-natured audience."
+
+It may, perhaps, not be altogether trifling to observe, that, in thus
+personating with such success two heroes so different, the young poet
+displayed both that love and power of versatility by which he was
+afterwards impelled, on a grander scale, to present himself under such
+opposite aspects to the world;--the gloom of Penruddock, and the whim
+of Tristram, being types, as it were, of the two extremes, between
+which his own character, in after-life, so singularly vibrated.
+
+These representations, which form a memorable era at Southwell, took place
+about the latter end of September, in the house of Mr. Leacroft, whose
+drawing-room was converted into a neat theatre on the occasion, and whose
+family contributed some of the fair ornaments of its boards. The prologue
+which Lord Byron furnished, and which may be seen in his "Hours of
+Idleness," was written by him between stages, on his way from Harrowgate.
+On getting into the carriage at Chesterfield, he said to his companion,
+"Now, Pigot, I'll spin a prologue for our play;" and before they reached
+Mansfield, he had completed his task,--interrupting, only once, his
+rhyming reverie, to ask the proper pronunciation of the French word
+_debut_, and, on being told it, exclaiming, in the true spirit of Byshe,
+"Ay, that will do for rhyme to _new_."
+
+The epilogue on the occasion was from the pen of Mr. Becher; and for
+the purpose of affording to Lord Byron, who was to speak it, an
+opportunity of displaying his powers of mimicry, consisted of
+good-humoured portraits of all the persons concerned in the
+representation. Some intimation of this design having got among the
+actors, an alarm was felt instantly at the ridicule thus in store for
+them; and to quiet their apprehensions, the author was obliged to
+assure them that if, after having heard his epilogue at rehearsal,
+they did not, of themselves, pronounce it harmless, and even request
+that it should be preserved, he would most willingly withdraw it. In
+the mean time, it was concerted between this gentleman and Lord Byron
+that the latter should, on the morning of rehearsal, deliver the
+verses in a tone as innocent and as free from all point as
+possible,--reserving his mimicry, in which the whole sting of the
+pleasantry lay, for the evening of representation. The desired effect
+was produced;--all the personages of the green-room were satisfied,
+and even wondered how a suspicion of waggery could have attached
+itself to so well-bred a production. Their wonder, however, was of a
+different nature a night or two after, when, on hearing the audience
+convulsed with laughter at this same composition, they discovered, at
+last, the trick which the unsuspected mimic had played on them, and
+had no other resource than that of joining in the laugh which his
+playful imitation of the whole dramatis personae excited.
+
+The small volume of poems, which he had now for some time been
+preparing, was, in the month of November, ready for delivery to the
+select few among whom it was intended to circulate; and to Mr. Becher
+the first copy of the work was presented.[55] The influence which this
+gentleman had, by his love of poetry, his sociability and good sense,
+acquired at this period over the mind of Lord Byron, was frequently
+employed by him in guiding the taste of his young friend, no less in
+matters of conduct than of literature; and the ductility with which
+this influence was yielded to, in an instance I shall have to mention,
+will show how far from untractable was the natural disposition of
+Byron, had he more frequently been lucky enough to fall into hands
+that "knew the stops" of the instrument, and could draw out its
+sweetness as well as its strength.
+
+In the wild range which his taste was now allowed to take through the
+light and miscellaneous literature of the day, it was but natural that
+he should settle with most pleasure on those works from which the
+feelings of his age and temperament could extract their most congenial
+food; and, accordingly, Lord Strangford's Camoens and Little's Poems
+are said to have been, at this period, his favourite study. To the
+indulgence of such a taste his reverend friend very laudably opposed
+himself,--representing with truth, (as far, at least, as the latter
+author is concerned,) how much more worthy models, both in style and
+thought, he might find among the established names of English
+literature. Instead of wasting his time on the ephemeral productions
+of his contemporaries, he should devote himself, his adviser said, to
+the pages of Milton and of Shakspeare, and, above all, seek to elevate
+his fancy and taste by the contemplation of the sublimer beauties of
+the Bible. In the latter study, this gentleman acknowledges that his
+advice had been, to a great extent, anticipated, and that with the
+poetical parts of the Scripture he found Lord Byron deeply
+conversant:--a circumstance which corroborates the account given by
+his early master, Dr. Glennie, of his great proficiency in scriptural
+knowledge while yet but a child under his care.
+
+To Mr. Becher, as I have said, the first copy of his little work was
+presented; and this gentleman, in looking over its pages, among many
+things to commend and admire, as well as some almost too boyish to
+criticise, found one poem in which, as it appeared to him, the
+imagination of the young bard had indulged itself in a luxuriousness
+of colouring beyond what even youth could excuse. Immediately, as the
+most gentle mode of conveying his opinion, he sat down and addressed
+to Lord Byron some expostulatory verses on the subject, to which an
+answer, also in verse, was returned by the noble poet as promptly,
+with, at the same time, a note in plain prose, to say that he felt
+fully the justice of his reverend friend's censure, and that, rather
+than allow the poem in question to be circulated, he would instantly
+recall all the copies that had been sent out, and cancel the whole
+impression. On the very same evening this prompt sacrifice was carried
+into effect;--Mr. Becher saw every copy of the edition burned, with
+the exception of that which he retained in his own possession, and
+another which had been despatched to Edinburgh, and could not be
+recalled.
+
+This trait of the young poet speaks sufficiently for itself;--the
+sensibility, the temper, the ingenuous pliableness which it exhibits,
+show a disposition capable, by nature, of every thing we most respect
+and love.
+
+Of a no less amiable character were the feelings that, about this time,
+dictated the following letter;--a letter which it is impossible to peruse
+without acknowledging the noble candour and conscientiousness of the
+writer:--
+
+
+LETTER 8.
+
+TO THE EARL OF CLARE.
+
+"Southwell, Notts, February 6. 1807.
+
+
+"My dearest Clare,
+
+"Were I to make all the apologies necessary to atone for my late
+negligence, you would justly say you had received a petition instead
+of a letter, as it would be filled with prayers for forgiveness; but
+instead of this, I will acknowledge my _sins_ at once, and I trust to
+your friendship and generosity rather than to my own excuses. Though
+my health is not perfectly re-established, I am out of all danger, and
+have recovered every thing but my spirits, which are subject to
+depression. You will be astonished to hear I have lately written to
+Delawarre, for the purpose of explaining (as far as possible without
+involving some _old friends_ of mine in the business) the cause of my
+behaviour to him during my last residence at Harrow (nearly two years
+ago), which you will recollect was rather '_en cavalier_.' Since that
+period, I have discovered he was treated with injustice both by those
+who misrepresented his conduct, and by me in consequence of their
+suggestions. I have therefore made all the reparation in my power, by
+apologising for my mistake, though with very faint hopes of success;
+indeed I never expected any answer, but desired one for form's sake;
+_that_ has not yet arrived, and most probably never will. However, I
+have _eased_ my own _conscience_ by the atonement, which is
+humiliating enough to one of my disposition; yet I could not have
+slept satisfied with the reflection of having, _even unintentionally_,
+injured any individual. I have done all that could be done to repair
+the injury, and there the affair must end. Whether we renew our
+intimacy or not is of very trivial consequence.
+
+"My time has lately been much occupied with very different pursuits. I
+have been _transporting_ a servant,[56] who cheated me,--rather a
+disagreeable event;--performing in private theatricals;--publishing a
+volume of poems (at the request of my friends, for their
+perusal);--making _love_,--and taking physic. The two last amusements
+have not had the best effect _in the world_; for my attentions have
+been divided amongst so many _fair damsels_, and the drugs I swallow
+are of such variety in their composition, that between Venus and
+Aesculapius I am harassed to death. However, I have still leisure to
+devote some hours to the recollections of past, regretted
+friendships, and in the interval to take the advantage of the moment,
+to assure you how much I am, and ever will be, my dearest Clare,
+
+"Your truly attached and sincere
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+Considering himself bound to replace the copies of his work which he
+had withdrawn, as well as to rescue the general character of the
+volume from the stigma this one offender might bring upon it, he set
+instantly about preparing a second edition for the press, and, during
+the ensuing six weeks, continued busily occupied with his task. In the
+beginning of January we find him forwarding a copy to his friend, Dr.
+Pigot, in Edinburgh:--
+
+
+LETTER 9.
+
+TO MR. PIGOT.
+
+"Southwell, Jan. 13. 1807.
+
+
+"I ought to begin with _sundry_ apologies, for my own negligence, but
+the variety of my avocations in _prose_ and _verse_ must plead my
+excuse. With this epistle you will receive a volume of all my
+_Juvenilia_, published since your departure: it is of considerably
+greater size than the _copy_ in your possession, which I beg you will
+destroy, as the present is much more complete. That _unlucky_ poem to
+my poor Mary[57] has been the cause of some animadversion from
+_ladies in years_. I have not printed it in this collection, in
+consequence of my being pronounced a most _profligate sinner_, in
+short, a '_young Moore_,' by ----, your ---- friend. I believe, in
+general, they have been favourably received, and surely the age of
+their author will preclude _severe_ criticism. The adventures of my
+life from sixteen to nineteen, and the dissipation into which I have
+been thrown in London, have given a voluptuous tint to my ideas; but
+the occasions which called forth my muse could hardly admit any other
+colouring. This volume is _vastly_ correct and miraculously chaste.
+Apropos, talking of love,...
+
+"If you can find leisure to answer this farrago of unconnected
+nonsense, you need not doubt what gratification will accrue from your
+reply to yours ever," &c.
+
+
+To his young friend, Mr. William Bankes, who had met casually with a
+copy of the work, and wrote him a letter conveying his opinion of it,
+he returned the following answer:--
+
+
+LETTER 10.
+
+TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES.
+
+"Southwell, March 6. 1807.
+
+
+"Dear Bankes,
+
+"Your critique is valuable for many reasons: in the first place, it is
+the only one in which flattery has borne so slight a part; in the
+_next_, I am _cloyed_ with insipid compliments. I have a better
+opinion of your judgment and ability than your _feelings_. Accept my
+most sincere thanks for your kind decision, not less welcome, because
+totally unexpected. With regard to a more exact estimate, I need not
+remind you how few of the _best poems_, in our language, will stand
+the test of _minute_ or _verbal_ criticism: it can, therefore, hardly
+be expected the effusions of a boy (and most of these pieces have been
+produced at an early period) can derive much merit either from the
+subject or composition. Many of them were written under great
+depression of spirits, and during severe indisposition:--hence the
+gloomy turn of the ideas. We coincide in opinion that the '_poesies
+erotiques_' are the most exceptionable; they were, however, grateful
+to the _deities_, on whose altars they were offered--more I seek not.
+
+"The portrait of Pomposus was drawn at Harrow, after a _long sitting_;
+this accounts for the resemblance, or rather the _caricatura_. He is
+_your_ friend, he _never was mine_--for both our sakes I shall be
+silent on this head. _The collegiate_ rhymes are not personal--one of
+the notes may appear so, but could not be omitted. I have little doubt
+they will be deservedly abused--a just punishment for my unfilial
+treatment of so excellent an Alma Mater. I sent you no copy, lest _we_
+should be placed in the situation of _Gil Blas_ and the _Archbishop_
+of Grenada; though running some hazard from the experiment, I wished
+your _verdict_ to be unbiassed. Had my '_Libellus_' been presented
+previous to your letter, it would have appeared a species of bribe to
+purchase compliment. I feel no hesitation in saying, I was more
+anxious to hear your critique, however severe, than the praises of
+the _million_. On the same day I was honoured with the encomiums of
+_Mackenzie_, the celebrated author of the 'Man of Feeling.' Whether
+_his_ approbation or _yours_ elated me most, I cannot decide.
+
+"You will receive my _Juvenilia_,--at least all yet published. I have
+a large volume in manuscript, which may in part appear hereafter; at
+present I have neither time nor inclination to prepare it for the
+press. In the spring I shall return to Trinity, to dismantle my rooms,
+and bid you a final adieu. The _Cam_ will not be much increased by my
+_tears_ on the occasion. Your further remarks, however _caustic_ or
+bitter, to a palate vitiated with the _sweets of adulation_, will be
+of service. Johnson has shown us that _no poetry_ is perfect; but to
+correct mine would be an Herculean labour. In fact I never looked
+beyond the moment of composition, and published merely at the request
+of my friends. Notwithstanding so much has been said concerning the
+'Genus irritabile vatum,' we shall never quarrel on the
+subject--poetic fame is by no means the 'acme' of my wishes. Adieu.
+
+"Yours ever,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+This letter was followed by another, on the same subject, to Mr.
+Bankes, of which, unluckily, only the annexed fragment remains:--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"For my own part, I have suffered severely in the decease of my two
+greatest friends, the only beings I ever loved (females excepted); I
+am therefore a solitary animal, miserable enough, and so perfectly a
+citizen of the world, that whether I pass my days in Great Britain or
+Kamschatka, is to me a matter of perfect indifference. I cannot evince
+greater respect for your alteration than by immediately adopting
+it--this shall be done in the next edition. I am sorry your remarks
+are not more frequent, as I am certain they would be equally
+beneficial. Since my last, I have received two critical opinions from
+Edinburgh, both too flattering for me to detail. One is from Lord
+Woodhouselee, at the head of the Scotch literati, and a most
+_voluminous_ writer (his last work is a life of Lord Kaimes); the
+other from Mackenzie, who sent his decision a second time, more at
+length. I am not personally acquainted with either of these gentlemen,
+nor ever requested their sentiments on the subject: their praise is
+voluntary, and transmitted through the medium of a friend, at whose
+house they read the productions.
+
+"Contrary to my former intention, I am now preparing a volume for the
+public at large: my amatory pieces will be exchanged, and others
+substituted in their place. The whole will be considerably enlarged,
+and appear the latter end of May. This is a hazardous experiment; but
+want of better employment, the encouragement I have met with, and my
+own vanity, induce me to stand the test, though not without _sundry
+palpitations_. The book will circulate fast enough in this country,
+from mere curiosity, what I prin--"[58]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following modest letter accompanied a copy which he presented to
+Mr. Falkner, his mother's landlord:--
+
+
+LETTER 11.
+
+TO MR. FALKNER.
+
+
+"Sir,
+
+"The volume of little pieces which accompanies this, would have been
+presented before, had I not been apprehensive that Miss Falkner's
+indisposition might render such trifles unwelcome. There are some
+errors of the printer which I have not had time to correct in the
+collection: you have it thus, with 'all its imperfections on its
+head,' a heavy weight, when joined with the faults of its author. Such
+'Juvenilia,' as they can claim no great degree of approbation, I may
+venture to hope, will also escape the severity of uncalled for, though
+perhaps _not_ undeserved, criticism.
+
+"They were written on many and various occasions, and are now
+published merely for the perusal of a friendly circle. Believe me,
+sir, if they afford the slightest amusement to yourself and the rest
+of my _social_ readers, I shall have gathered all the _bays_ I ever
+wish to adorn the head of yours,
+
+very truly,
+
+"BYRON.
+
+"P.S.--I hope Miss F. is in a state of recovery."
+
+
+Notwithstanding this unambitious declaration of the young author, he
+had that within which would not suffer him to rest so easily; and the
+fame he had now reaped within a limited circle made him but more eager
+to try his chance on a wider field. The hundred copies of which this
+edition consisted were hardly out of his hands, when with fresh
+activity he went to press again,--and his first published volume, "The
+Hours of Idleness," made its appearance. Some new pieces which he had
+written in the interim were added, and no less than twenty of those
+contained in the former volume omitted;--for what reason does not very
+clearly appear, as they are, most of them, equal, if not superior, to
+those retained.
+
+In one of the pieces, reprinted in the "Hours of Idleness," there are
+some alterations and additions, which, as far as they may be supposed
+to spring from the known feelings of the poet respecting birth, are
+curious. This poem, which is entitled "Epitaph on a Friend," appears,
+from the lines I am about to give, to have been, in its original
+state, intended to commemorate the death of the same lowly born youth,
+to whom some affectionate verses, cited in a preceding page, were
+addressed:--
+
+    "Though low thy lot, since in a cottage born,
+     No titles did thy humble name adorn;
+     To me, far dearer was thy artless love
+     Than all the joys wealth, fame, and friends could prove."
+
+But, in the altered form of the epitaph, not only this passage, but
+every other containing an allusion to the low rank of his young
+companion, is omitted; while, in the added parts, the introduction of
+such language as
+
+    "What, though thy sire lament his failing line,"
+
+seems calculated to give an idea of the youth's station in life,
+wholly different from that which the whole tenour of the original
+epitaph warrants. The other poem, too, which I have mentioned,
+addressed evidently to the same boy, and speaking in similar terms, of
+the "lowness" of his "lot," is, in the "Hours of Idleness," altogether
+omitted. That he grew more conscious of his high station, as he
+approached to manhood, is not improbable; and this wish to sink his
+early friendship with the young cottager may have been a result of
+that feeling.
+
+As his visits to Southwell were, after this period, but few and
+transient, I shall take the present opportunity of mentioning such
+miscellaneous particulars respecting his habits and mode of life,
+while there, as I have been able to collect.
+
+Though so remarkably shy, when he first went to Southwell, this
+reserve, as he grew more acquainted with the young people of the
+place, wore off; till, at length, he became a frequenter of their
+assemblies and dinner-parties, and even felt mortified if he heard of
+a rout to which he was not invited. His horror, however, at new faces
+still continued; and if, while at Mrs. Pigot's, he saw strangers
+approaching the house, he would instantly jump out of the window to
+avoid them. This natural shyness concurred with no small degree of
+pride to keep him aloof from the acquaintance of the gentlemen in the
+neighbourhood, whose visits, in more than one instance, he left
+unreturned;--some under the plea that their ladies had not visited his
+mother; others, because they had neglected to pay him this compliment
+sooner. The true reason, however, of the haughty distance, at which,
+both now and afterwards, he stood apart from his more opulent
+neighbours, is to be found in his mortifying consciousness of the
+inadequacy of his own means to his rank, and the proud dread of being
+made to feel this inferiority by persons to whom, in every other
+respect, he knew himself superior. His friend, Mr. Becher, frequently
+expostulated with him on this unsociableness; and to his
+remonstrances, on one occasion, Lord Byron returned a poetical answer,
+so remarkably prefiguring the splendid burst, with which his own
+volcanic genius opened upon the world, that as the volume containing
+the verses is in very few hands, I cannot resist the temptation of
+giving a few extracts here:--
+
+    "Dear Becher, you tell me to mix with mankind,--
+      I cannot deny such a precept is wise;
+    But retirement accords with the tone of my mind,
+      And I will not descend to a world I despise.
+
+    "Did the Senate or Camp my exertions require,
+      Ambition might prompt me at once to go forth;
+    And, when infancy's years of probation expire,
+      Perchance, I may strive to distinguish my birth.
+
+   _"The fire, in the cavern of AEtna concealed,
+      Still mantles unseen, in its secret recess;--
+    At length, in a volume terrific revealed,
+      No torrent can quench it, no bounds can repress.
+
+    "Oh thus, the desire in my bosom for fame
+      Bids me live but to hope for Posterity's praise;
+    Could I soar, with the Phoenix, on pinions of flame,
+      With him I would wish to expire in the blaze._
+
+    "For the life of a Fox, of a Chatham the death,
+      What censure, what danger, what woe would I brave?
+    Their lives did not end when they yielded their breath,--
+      Their glory illumines the gloom of the grave!"
+
+In his hours of rising and retiring to rest he was, like his mother,
+always very late; and this habit he never altered during the remainder
+of his life. The night, too, was at this period, as it continued
+afterwards, his favourite time for composition; and his first visit in
+the morning was generally paid to the fair friend who acted as his
+amanuensis, and to whom he then gave whatever new products of his
+brain the preceding night might have inspired. His next visit was
+usually to his friend Mr. Becher's, and from thence to one or two
+other houses on the Green, after which the rest of the day was devoted
+to his favourite exercises. The evenings he usually passed with the
+same family, among whom he began his morning, either in conversation,
+or in hearing Miss Pigot play upon the piano-forte, and singing over
+with her a certain set of songs which he admired,[59]--among which
+the "Maid of Lodi," (with the words, "My heart with love is beating,")
+and "When Time who steals our years away," were, it seems, his
+particular favourites. He appears, indeed, to have, even thus early,
+shown a decided taste for that sort of regular routine of
+life,--bringing round the same occupations at the stated
+periods,--which formed so much the system of his existence during the
+greater part of his residence abroad.
+
+Those exercises, to which he flew for distraction in less happy days,
+formed his enjoyment now; and between swimming, sparring, firing at a
+mark, and riding,[60] the greater part of his time was passed. In the
+last of these accomplishments he was by no means very expert. As an
+instance of his little knowledge of horses, it is told, that, seeing a
+pair one day pass his window, he exclaimed, "What beautiful horses! I
+should like to buy them."--"Why, they are your own, my Lord," said his
+servant. Those who knew him, indeed, at that period, were rather
+surprised, in after-life, to hear so much of his riding;--and the
+truth is, I am inclined to think, that he was at no time a very adroit
+horse-man.
+
+In swimming and diving we have already seen, by his own accounts, he
+excelled; and a lady in Southwell, among other precious relics of him,
+possesses a thimble which he borrowed of her one morning, when on his
+way to bathe in the Greet, and which, as was testified by her brother,
+who accompanied him, he brought up three times successively from the
+bottom of the river. His practice of firing at a mark was the
+occasion, once, of some alarm to a very beautiful young person, Miss
+H.,--one of that numerous list of fair ones by whom his imagination
+was dazzled while at Southwell. A poem relating to this occurrence,
+which may be found in his unpublished volume, is thus introduced:--"As
+the author was discharging his pistols in a garden, two ladies,
+passing near the spot, were alarmed by the sound of a bullet hissing
+near them, to one of whom the following stanzas were addressed the
+next morning."
+
+Such a passion, indeed, had he for arms of every description, that
+there generally lay a small sword by the side of his bed, with which
+he used to amuse himself, as he lay awake in the morning, by thrusting
+it through his bed-hangings. The person who purchased this bed at the
+sale of Mrs. Byron's furniture, on her removal to Newstead, gave
+out--with the view of attaching a stronger interest to the holes in
+the curtains--that they were pierced by the same sword with which the
+old lord had killed Mr. Chaworth, and which his descendant always kept
+as a memorial by his bedside. Such is the ready process by which
+fiction is often engrafted upon fact;--the sword in question being a
+most innocent and bloodless weapon, which Lord Byron, during his
+visits at Southwell, used to borrow of one of his neighbours.
+
+His fondness for dogs--another fancy which accompanied him through
+life--may be judged from the anecdotes already given, in the account
+of his expedition to Harrowgate. Of his favourite dog Boatswain, whom
+he has immortalised in verse, and by whose side it was once his
+solemn purpose to be buried, some traits are told, indicative, not
+only of intelligence, but of a generosity of spirit, which might well
+win for him the affections of such a master as Byron. One of these I
+shall endeavour to relate as nearly as possible as it was told to me.
+Mrs. Byron had a fox-terrier, called Gilpin, with whom her son's dog,
+Boatswain, was perpetually at war,[61] taking every opportunity of
+attacking and worrying him so violently, that it was very much
+apprehended he would kill the animal. Mrs. Byron therefore sent off
+her terrier to a tenant at Newstead; and on the departure of Lord
+Byron for Cambridge, his "friend" Boatswain, with two other dogs, was
+intrusted to the care of a servant till his return. One morning the
+servant was much alarmed by the disappearance of Boatswain, and
+throughout the whole of the day he could hear no tidings of him. At
+last, towards evening, the stray dog arrived, accompanied by Gilpin,
+whom he led immediately to the kitchen fire, licking him and lavishing
+upon him every possible demonstration of joy. The fact was, he had
+been all the way to Newstead to fetch him; and having now established
+his former foe under the roof once more, agreed so perfectly well with
+him ever after, that he even protected him against the insults of
+other dogs (a task which the quarrelsomeness of the little terrier
+rendered no sinecure), and, if he but heard Gilpin's voice in
+distress, would fly instantly to his rescue.
+
+In addition to the natural tendency to superstition, which is usually
+found connected with the poetical temperament, Lord Byron had also the
+example and influence of his mother, acting upon him from infancy, to
+give his mind this tinge. Her implicit belief in the wonders of second
+sight, and the strange tales she told of this mysterious faculty, used
+to astonish not a little her sober English friends; and it will be
+seen, that, at so late a period as the death of his friend Shelley,
+the idea of fetches and forewarnings impressed upon him by his mother
+had not wholly lost possession of the poet's mind. As an instance of a
+more playful sort of superstition I may be allowed to mention a slight
+circumstance told me of him by one of his Southwell friends. This lady
+had a large agate bead with a wire through it, which had been taken
+out of a barrow, and lay always in her work-box. Lord Byron asking one
+day what it was, she told him that it had been given her as an amulet,
+and the charm was, that as long as she had this bead in her
+possession, she should never be in love. "Then give it to me," he
+cried, eagerly, "for that's just the thing I want." The young lady
+refused;--but it was not long before the bead disappeared. She taxed
+him with the theft, and he owned it; but said, she never should see
+her amulet again.
+
+Of his charity and kind-heartedness he left behind him at
+Southwell--as, indeed, at every place, throughout life, where he
+resided any time--the most cordial recollections. "He never," says a
+person, who knew him intimately at this period, "met with objects of
+distress without affording them succour." Among many little traits of
+this nature, which his friends delight to tell, I select the
+following,--less as a proof of his generosity, than from the interest
+which the simple incident itself, as connected with the name of Byron,
+presents. While yet a school-boy, he happened to be in a bookseller's
+shop at Southwell, when a poor woman came in to purchase a Bible. The
+price, she was told by the shopman, was eight shillings. "Ah, dear
+sir," she exclaimed, "I cannot pay such a price; I did not think it
+would cost half the money." The woman was then, with a look of
+disappointment, going away,--when young Byron called her back, and
+made her a present of the Bible.
+
+In his attention to his person and dress, to the becoming arrangement
+of his hair, and to whatever might best show off the beauty with which
+nature had gifted him, he manifested, even thus early, his anxiety to
+make himself pleasing to that sex who were, from first to last, the
+ruling stars of his destiny. The fear of becoming, what he was
+naturally inclined to be, enormously fat, had induced him, from his
+first entrance at Cambridge, to adopt, for the purpose of reducing
+himself, a system of violent exercise and abstinence, together with
+the frequent use of warm baths. But the embittering circumstance of
+his life,--that, which haunted him like a curse, amidst the buoyancy
+of youth, and the anticipations of fame and pleasure, was, strange to
+say, the trifling deformity of his foot. By that one slight blemish
+(as in his moments of melancholy he persuaded himself) all the
+blessings that nature had showered upon him were counterbalanced. His
+reverend friend, Mr. Becher, finding him one day unusually dejected,
+endeavoured to cheer and rouse him, by representing, in their
+brightest colours, all the various advantages with which Providence
+had endowed him,--and, among the greatest, that of "a mind which
+placed him above the rest of mankind."--"Ah, my dear friend," said
+Byron, mournfully,--"if this (laying his hand on his forehead) places
+me above the rest of mankind, that (pointing to his foot) places me
+far, far below them."
+
+It sometimes, indeed, seemed as if his sensitiveness on this point led
+him to fancy that he was the only person in the world afflicted with
+such an infirmity. When that accomplished scholar and traveller, Mr.
+D. Baillie, who was at the same school with him at Aberdeen, met him
+afterwards at Cambridge, the young peer had then grown so fat that,
+though accosted by him familiarly as his school-fellow, it was not
+till he mentioned his name that Mr. Baillie could recognise him. "It
+is odd enough, too, that you shouldn't know me," said Byron--"I
+thought nature had set such a mark upon me, that I could never be
+forgot."
+
+But, while this defect was such a source of mortification to his
+spirit, it was also, and in an equal degree, perhaps, a stimulus:--and
+more especially in whatever depended upon personal prowess or
+attractiveness, he seemed to feel himself piqued by this stigma, which
+nature, as he thought, had set upon him, to distinguish himself above
+those whom she had endowed with her more "fair proportion." In
+pursuits of gallantry he was, I have no doubt, a good deal actuated by
+this incentive; and the hope of astonishing the world, at some future
+period, as a chieftain and hero, mingled little less with his young
+dreams than the prospect of a poet's glory. "I will, some day or
+other," he used to say, when a boy, "raise a troop,--the men of which
+shall be dressed in black, and ride on black horses. They shall be
+called 'Byron's Blacks,' and you will hear of their performing
+prodigies of valour."
+
+I have already adverted to the exceeding eagerness with which, while
+at Harrow, he devoured all sorts of learning,--excepting only that
+which, by the regimen of the school, was prescribed for him. The same
+rapid and multifarious course of study he pursued during the holidays;
+and, in order to deduct as little as possible from his hours of
+exercise, he had given himself the habit, while at home, of reading
+all dinner-time.[62] In a mind so versatile as his, every novelty,
+whether serious or light, whether lofty or ludicrous, found a welcome
+and an echo; and I can easily conceive the glee--as a friend of his
+once described it to me--with which he brought to her, one evening, a
+copy of Mother Goose's Tales, which he had bought from a hawker that
+morning, and read, for the first time, while he dined.
+
+I shall now give, from a memorandum-book begun by him this year, the
+account, as I find it hastily and promiscuously scribbled out, of all
+the books in various departments of knowledge, which he had already
+perused at a period of life when few of his school-fellows had yet
+travelled beyond their _longs_ and _shorts_. The list is,
+unquestionably, a remarkable one;--and when we recollect that the
+reader of all these volumes was, at the same time, the possessor of a
+most retentive memory, it may be doubted whether, among what are
+called the regularly educated, the contenders for scholastic honours
+and prizes, there could be found a single one who, at the same age,
+has possessed any thing like the same stock of useful knowledge.
+
+
+    "LIST OF HISTORICAL WRITERS WHOSE WORKS I HAVE PERUSED IN
+     DIFFERENT LANGUAGES."
+
+     _"History of England._--Hume, Rapin, Henry, Smollet, Tindal,
+     Belsham, Bisset, Adolphus, Holinshed, Froissart's Chronicles
+     (belonging properly to France).
+
+     _"Scotland._--Buchanan, Hector Boethius, both in the Latin.
+
+     _"Ireland._--Gordon.
+
+     _"Rome._--Hooke, Decline and Fall by Gibbon, Ancient History
+     by Rollin (including an account of the Carthaginians, &c.),
+     besides Livy, Tacitus, Eutropius, Cornelius Nepos, Julius
+     Caesar, Arrian. Sallust.
+
+     "_Greece._--Mitford's Greece, Leland's Philip, Plutarch,
+     Potter's Antiquities, Xenophon, Thucydides, Herodotus.
+
+     "_France._--Mezeray, Voltaire.
+
+     "_Spain._--I chiefly derived my knowledge of old Spanish
+     History from a book called the Atlas, now obsolete. The
+     modern history, from the intrigues of Alberoni down to the
+     Prince of Peace, I learned from its connection with European
+     politics.
+
+     "_Portugal._--From Vertot; as also his account of the Siege
+     of Rhodes,--though the last is his own invention, the real
+     facts being totally different.--So much for his Knights of
+     Malta.
+
+     "_Turkey._--I have read Knolles, Sir Paul Rycaut, and Prince
+     Cantemir, besides a more modern history, anonymous. Of the
+     Ottoman History I know every event, from Tangralopi, and
+     afterwards Othman I., to the peace of Passarowitz, in
+     1718,--the battle of Cutzka, in 1739, and the treaty between
+     Russia and Turkey in 1790.
+
+     "_Russia._--Tooke's Life of Catherine II., Voltaire's Czar
+     Peter.
+
+     "_Sweden._--Voltaire's Charles XII., also Norberg's Charles
+     XII.--in my opinion the best of the two.--A translation of
+     Schiller's Thirty Years' War, which contains the exploits of
+     Gustavus Adolphus, besides Harte's Life of the same Prince.
+     I have somewhere, too, read an account of Gustavus Vasa, the
+     deliverer of Sweden, but do not remember the author's name.
+
+     "_Prussia._--I have seen, at least, twenty Lives of
+     Frederick II., the only prince worth recording in Prussian
+     annals. Gillies, his own Works, and Thiebault,--none very
+     amusing. The last is paltry, but circumstantial.
+
+     "_Denmark_--I know little of. Of Norway I understand the
+     natural history, but not the chronological.
+
+     "_Germany._--I have read long histories of the house of
+     Suabia, Wenceslaus, and, at length, Rodolph of Hapsburgh and
+     his _thick-lipped_ Austrian descendants.
+
+     "_Switzerland._--Ah! William Tell, and the battle of
+     Morgarten, where Burgundy was slain.
+
+     "_Italy._--Davila, Guicciardini, the Guelphs and
+     Ghibellines, the battle of Pavia, Massaniello, the
+     revolutions of Naples, &c. &c.
+
+     "_Hindostan_--Orme and Cambridge.
+
+     "_America._--Robertson, Andrews' American War.
+
+     "_Africa_--merely from travels, as Mungo Park, Bruce.
+
+
+     "BIOGRAPHY.
+
+     "Robertson's Charles V.--Caesar, Sallust (Catiline and
+     Jugurtha), Lives of Marlborough and Eugene, Tekeli, Bonnard,
+     Buonaparte, all the British Poets, both by Johnson and
+     Anderson, Rousseau's Confessions, Life of Cromwell, British
+     Plutarch, British Nepos, Campbell's Lives of the Admirals,
+     Charles XII., Czar Peter, Catherine II., Henry Lord Kaimes,
+     Marmontel, Teignmouth's Sir William Jones, Life of Newton,
+     Belisaire, with thousands not to be detailed.
+
+
+     "LAW.
+
+     "Blackstone, Montesquieu.
+
+
+     "PHILOSOPHY.
+
+     "Paley, Locke, Bacon, Hume, Berkeley, Drummond, Beattie, and
+     Bolingbroke. Hobbes I detest.
+
+
+     "GEOGRAPHY.
+
+     "Strabo, Cellarius, Adams, Pinkerton, and Guthrie.
+
+
+     "POETRY.
+
+     "All the British Classics as before detailed, with most of
+     the living poets, Scott, Southey, &c.--Some French, in the
+     original, of which the Cid is my favourite.--Little
+     Italian.--Greek and Latin without number;--these last I
+     shall give up in future.--I have translated a good deal from
+     both languages, verse as well as prose.
+
+
+     "ELOQUENCE.
+
+     "Demosthenes, Cicero, Quintilian, Sheridan, Austin's
+     Chironomia, and Parliamentary Debates from the Revolution to
+     the year 1742.
+
+
+     "DIVINITY.
+
+     "Blair, Porteus, Tillotson, Hooker,--all very tiresome. I
+     abhor books of religion, though I reverence and love my God,
+     without the blasphemous notions of sectaries, or belief in
+     their absurd and damnable heresies, mysteries, and
+     Thirty-nine Articles.
+
+
+     "MISCELLANIES.
+
+     "Spectator, Rambler, World, &c. &c.--Novels by the thousand.
+
+     "All the books here enumerated I have taken down from
+     memory. I recollect reading them, and can quote passages
+     from any mentioned. I have, of course, omitted several in my
+     catalogue; but the greater part of the above I perused
+     before the age of fifteen. Since I left Harrow, I have
+     become idle and conceited, from scribbling rhyme and making
+     love to women. B.--Nov. 30. 1807.
+
+"I have also read (to my regret at present) above four thousand
+novels, including the works of Cervantes, Fielding, Smollet,
+Richardson, Mackenzie, Sterne, Rabelais, and Rousseau, &c. &c. The
+book, in my opinion, most useful to a man who wishes to acquire the
+reputation of being well read, with the least trouble, is "Burton's
+Anatomy of Melancholy," the most amusing and instructive medley of
+quotations and classical anecdotes I ever perused. But a superficial
+reader must take care, or his intricacies will bewilder him. If,
+however, he has patience to go through his volumes, he will be more
+improved for literary conversation than by the perusal of any twenty
+other works with which I am acquainted,--at least, in the English
+language."
+
+
+To this early and extensive study of English writers may be attributed
+that mastery over the resources of his own language with which Lord
+Byron came furnished into the field of literature, and which enabled
+him, as fast as his youthful fancies sprung up, to clothe them with a
+diction worthy of their strength and beauty. In general, the
+difficulty of young writers, at their commencement, lies far less in
+any lack of thoughts or images, than in that want of a fitting organ
+to give those conceptions vent, to which their unacquaintance with the
+great instrument of the man of genius, his native language, dooms
+them. It will be found, indeed, that the three most remarkable
+examples of early authorship, which, in their respective lines, the
+history of literature affords--Pope, Congreve, and Chatterton--were
+all of them persons self-educated,[63] according to their own
+intellectual wants and tastes, and left, undistracted by the worse
+than useless pedantries of the schools, to seek, in the pure "well of
+English undefiled," those treasures of which they accordingly so very
+early and intimately possessed themselves.[64] To these three
+instances may now be added, virtually, that of Lord Byron, who, though
+a disciple of the schools, was, intellectually speaking, _in_
+them, not _of_ them, and who, while his comrades were prying
+curiously into the graves of dead languages, betook himself to the
+fresh, living sources of his own,[65] and from thence drew those
+rich, varied stores of diction, which have placed his works, from the
+age of two-and-twenty upwards, among the most precious depositories of
+the strength and sweetness of the English language that our whole
+literature supplies.
+
+In the same book that contains the above record of his studies, he has
+written out, also from memory, a "List of the different poets,
+dramatic or otherwise, who have distinguished their respective
+languages by their productions." After enumerating the various poets,
+both ancient and modern, of Europe, he thus proceeds with his
+catalogue through other quarters of the world:--
+
+
+    "_Arabia._--Mahomet, whose Koran contains most sublime
+     poetical passages, far surpassing European poetry.
+
+     "_Persia._--Ferdousi, author of the Shah Nameh, the Persian
+     Iliad--Sadi, and Hafiz, the immortal Hafiz, the oriental
+     Anacreon. The last is reverenced beyond any bard of ancient
+     or modern times by the Persians, who resort to his tomb near
+     Shiraz, to celebrate his memory. A splendid copy of his
+     works is chained to his monument.
+
+     "_America._--An epic poet has already appeared in that
+     hemisphere, Barlow, author of the Columbiad,--not to be
+     compared with the works of more polished nations.
+
+     "_Iceland, Denmark, Norway_, were famous for their Skalds.
+     Among these Lodburgh was one of the most distinguished. His
+     Death Song breathes ferocious sentiments, but a glorious and
+     impassioned strain of poetry.
+
+     "_Hindostan_ is undistinguished by any great bard,--at least
+     the Sanscrit is so imperfectly known to Europeans, we know
+     not what poetical relics may exist.
+
+     "_The Birman Empire._--Here the natives are passionately
+     fond of poetry, but their bards are unknown.
+
+     "_China._--I never heard of any Chinese poet but the Emperor
+     Kien Long, and his ode to _Tea_. What a pity their
+     philosopher Confucius did not write poetry, with his
+     precepts of morality!
+
+     "_Africa._--In Africa some of the native melodies are
+     plaintive, and the words simple and affecting; but whether
+     their rude strains of nature can be classed with poetry, as
+     the songs of the bards, the Skalds of Europe, &c. &c., I
+     know not.
+
+     "This brief list of poets I have written down from memory,
+     without any book of reference; consequently some errors may
+     occur, but I think, if any, very trivial. The works of the
+     European, and some of the Asiatic, I have perused, either in
+     the original or translations. In my list of English, I have
+     merely mentioned the greatest;--to enumerate the minor poets
+     would be useless, as well as tedious. Perhaps Gray,
+     Goldsmith, and Collins, might have been added, as worthy of
+     mention, in a _cosmopolite_ account. But as for the others,
+     from Chaucer down to Churchill, they are 'voces et praeterea
+     nihil;'--sometimes spoken of, rarely read, and never with
+     advantage. Chaucer, notwithstanding the praises bestowed on
+     him, I think obscene and contemptible:--he owes his
+     celebrity merely to his antiquity, which he does not deserve
+     so well as Pierce Plowman, or Thomas of Ercildoune. English
+     living poets I have avoided mentioning;--we have none who
+     will not survive their productions. Taste is over with us;
+     and another century will sweep our empire, our literature,
+     and our name, from all but a place in the annals of mankind.
+
+     "November 30. 1807.
+
+     BYRON."
+
+
+Among the papers of his in my possession are several detached poems
+(in all nearly six hundred lines), which he wrote about this period,
+but never printed--having produced most of them after the publication
+of his "Hours of Idleness." The greater number of these have little,
+besides his name, to recommend them; but there are a few that, from
+the feelings and circumstances that gave rise to them, will, I have no
+doubt, be interesting to the reader. When he first went to Newstead,
+on his arrival from Aberdeen, he planted, it seems, a young oak in
+some part of the grounds, and had an idea that as it flourished so
+should he. Some six or seven years after, on revisiting the spot, he
+found his oak choked up by weeds, and almost destroyed. In this
+circumstance, which happened soon after Lord Grey de Ruthen left
+Newstead, originated one of these poems, which consists of five
+stanzas, but of which the few opening lines will be a sufficient
+specimen:--
+
+    "Young Oak, when I planted thee deep in the ground,
+      I hoped that thy days would be longer than mine;
+    That thy dark-waving branches would flourish around,
+      And ivy thy trunk with its mantle entwine.
+
+    "Such, such was my hope, when, in infancy's years,
+      On the land of my fathers I rear'd thee with pride;
+    They are past, and I water thy stem with my tears,--
+      Thy decay, not the weeds that surround thee can hide.
+
+    "I left thee, my Oak, and, since that fatal hour,
+      A stranger has dwelt in the hall of my sire," &c. &c.
+
+The subject of the verses that follow is sufficiently explained by the
+notice which he has prefixed to them; and, as illustrative of the
+romantic and almost lovelike feeling which he threw into his school
+friendships, they appeared to me, though rather quaint and elaborate,
+to be worth preserving.
+
+"Some years ago, when at H----, a friend of the author engraved on a
+particular spot the names of both, with a few additional words as a
+memorial. Afterwards, on receiving some real or imagined injury, the
+author destroyed the frail record before he left H----. On revisiting
+the place in 1807, he wrote under it the following stanzas:--
+
+    "Here once engaged the stranger's view
+      Young Friendship's record simply traced;
+    Few were her words,--but yet though few,
+      Resentment's hand the line defaced.
+
+    "Deeply she cut--but, not erased,
+      The characters were still so plain,
+    That Friendship once return'd, and gazed,--
+      Till Memory hail'd the words again.
+
+    "Repentance placed them as before;
+      Forgiveness join'd her gentle name;
+    So fair the inscription seem'd once more
+      That Friendship thought it still the same.
+
+    "Thus might the record now have been;
+      But, ah, in spite of Hope's endeavour,
+    Or Friendship's tears, Pride rush'd between,
+      And blotted out the line for ever!"
+
+The same romantic feeling of friendship breathes throughout another of
+these poems, in which he has taken for the subject the ingenious
+thought "L'Amitie est l'Amour sans ailes," and concludes every stanza
+with the words, "Friendship is Love without his wings." Of the nine
+stanzas of which this poem consists, the three following appear the
+most worthy of selection:--
+
+    "Why should my anxious breast repine,
+      Because my youth is fled?
+    Days of delight may still be mine,
+      Affection is _not_ dead.
+    In tracing back the years of youth,
+    One firm record, one lasting truth
+      Celestial consolation brings;
+    Bear it, ye breezes, to the seat,
+    Where first my heart responsive beat,--
+      'Friendship is Love without his wings!'
+
+    "Seat of my youth! thy distant spire
+      Recalls each scene of joy;
+    My bosom glows with former fire,--
+      In mind again a boy.
+    Thy grove of elms, thy verdant hill,
+    Thy every path delights me still,
+      Each flower a double fragrance flings;
+    Again, as once, in converse gay,
+    Each dear associate seems to say,
+      'Friendship is Love without his wings!'
+
+    "My Lycus! wherefore dost thou weep?
+      Thy falling tears restrain;
+    Affection for a time may sleep,
+      But, oh, 'twill wake again.
+    Think, think, my friend, when next we meet,
+    Our long-wish'd intercourse, how sweet!
+      From this my hope of rapture springs,
+    While youthful hearts thus fondly swell,
+    Absence, my friend, can only tell,
+      'Friendship is Love without his wings!'"
+
+Whether the verses I am now about to give are, in any degree, founded
+on fact, I have no accurate means of determining. Fond as he was of
+recording every particular of his youth, such an event, or rather era,
+as is here commemorated, would have been, of all others, the least
+likely to pass unmentioned by him;--and yet neither in conversation
+nor in any of his writings do I remember even an allusion to it.[66]
+On the other hand, so entirely was all that he wrote,--making
+allowance for the embellishments of fancy,--the transcript of his
+actual life and feelings, that it is not easy to suppose a poem, so
+full of natural tenderness, to have been indebted for its origin to
+imagination alone.
+
+    "TO MY SON!
+
+    "Those flaxen locks, those eyes of blue,
+    Bright as thy mother's in their hue;
+    Those rosy lips, whose dimples play
+    And smile to steal the heart away,
+    Recall a scene of former joy,
+    And touch thy Father's heart, my Boy!
+
+    "And thou canst lisp a father's name--
+    Ah, William, were thine own the same,
+    No self-reproach--but, let me cease--
+    My care for thee shall purchase peace;
+    Thy mother's shade shall smile in joy,
+    And pardon all the past, my Boy!
+
+    "Her lowly grave the turf has prest,
+    And thou hast known a stranger's breast.
+    Derision sneers upon thy birth,
+    And yields thee scarce a name on earth;
+    Yet shall not these one hope destroy,--
+    A Father's heart is thine, my Boy!
+
+    "Why, let the world unfeeling frown,
+    Must I fond Nature's claim disown?
+    Ah, no--though moralists reprove,
+    I hail thee, dearest child of love,
+    Fair cherub, pledge of youth and joy--
+    A Father guards thy birth, my Boy!
+
+    "Oh, 'twill be sweet in thee to trace,
+    Ere age has wrinkled o'er my face,
+    Ere half my glass of life is run,
+    At once a brother and a son;
+    And all my wane of years employ
+    In justice done to thee, my Boy!
+
+    "Although so young thy heedless sire,
+    Youth will not damp parental fire;
+    And, wert thou still less dear to me,
+    While Helen's form revives in thee,
+    The breast, which beat to former joy,
+    Will ne'er desert its pledge, my Boy!
+
+    "B----, 1807."[67]
+
+But the most remarkable of these poems is one of a date prior to any I
+have given, being written in December, 1806, when he was not yet
+nineteen years old. It contains, as will be seen, his religious creed
+at that period, and shows how early the struggle between natural piety
+and doubt began in his mind.
+
+    "THE PRAYER OF NATURE.
+
+    "Father of Light! great God of Heaven!
+      Hear'st thou the accents of despair?
+    Can guilt like man's be e'er forgiven?
+      Can vice atone for crimes by prayer?
+    Father of Light, on thee I call!
+      Thou see'st my soul is dark within;
+    Thou who canst mark the sparrow's fall,
+      Avert from me the death of sin.
+    No shrine I seek, to sects unknown,
+      Oh point to me the path of truth!
+    Thy dread omnipotence I own,
+      Spare, yet amend, the faults of youth.
+    Let bigots rear a gloomy fane,
+      Let superstition hail the pile,
+    Let priests, to spread their sable reign,
+      With tales of mystic rites beguile.
+    Shall man confine his Maker's sway
+      To Gothic domes of mouldering stone?
+    Thy temple is the face of day;
+      Earth, ocean, heaven, thy boundless throne.
+    Shall man condemn his race to hell
+      Unless they bend in pompous form;
+    Tell us that all, for one who fell,
+      Must perish in the mingling storm?
+    Shall each pretend to reach the skies,
+      Yet doom his brother to expire,
+    Whose soul a different hope supplies,
+      Or doctrines less severe inspire?
+    Shall these, by creeds they can't expound,
+      Prepare a fancied bliss or woe?
+    Shall reptiles, grovelling on the ground,
+      Their great Creator's purpose know?
+    Shall those who live for self alone,
+      Whose years float on in daily crime--
+    Shall they by Faith for guilt atone,
+      And live beyond the bounds of Time?
+    Father! no prophet's laws I seek,--
+      _Thy_ laws in Nature's works appear;--
+    I own myself corrupt and weak,
+      Yet will I pray, for thou wilt hear!
+    Thou, who canst guide the wandering star
+      Through trackless realms of AEther's space;
+    Who calm'st the elemental war,
+      Whose hand from pole to pole I trace:
+    Thou, who in wisdom placed me here,
+      Who, when thou wilt, can take me hence,
+    Ah! whilst I tread this earthly sphere,
+      Extend to me thy wide defence.
+    To Thee, my God, to Thee I call!
+      Whatever weal or woe betide,
+    By thy command I rise or fall,
+      In thy protection I confide.
+    If, when this dust to dust restored,
+      My soul shall float on airy wing,
+    How shall thy glorious name adored,
+      Inspire her feeble voice to sing!
+    But, if this fleeting spirit share
+      With clay the grave's eternal bed,
+    While life yet throbs, I raise my prayer,
+      Though doom'd no more to quit the dead.
+    To Thee I breathe my humble strain,
+      Grateful for all thy mercies past,
+    And hope, my God, to thee again
+      This erring life may fly at last.
+
+    "29th Dec. 1806.
+
+    BYRON."
+
+In another of these poems, which extends to about a hundred lines, and
+which he wrote under the melancholy impression that he should soon
+die, we find him concluding with a prayer in somewhat the same spirit.
+After bidding adieu to all the favourite scenes of his youth,[68] he
+thus continues,--
+
+    "Forget this world, my restless sprite,
+      Turn, turn thy thoughts to Heav'n:
+    There must thou soon direct thy night,
+      If errors are forgiven.
+    To bigots and to sects unknown.
+    Bow down beneath the Almighty's throne;--
+      To him address thy trembling prayer;
+    He, who is merciful and just,
+    Will not reject a child of dust,
+      Although his meanest care.
+    Father of Light, to thee I call,
+      My soul is dark within;
+    Thou, who canst mark the sparrow fall,
+      Avert the death of sin.
+    Thou, who canst guide the wandering star,
+    Who calm'st the elemental war,
+      Whose mantle is yon boundless sky,
+    My thoughts, my words, my crimes forgive;
+    And, since I soon must cease to live,
+      Instruct me how to die.
+
+     1807."
+
+We have seen, by a former letter, that the law proceedings for the
+recovery of his Rochdale property had been attended with success in
+some trial of the case at Lancaster. The following note to one of his
+Southwell friends, announcing a second triumph of the cause, shows how
+sanguinely and, as it turned out, erroneously, he calculated on the
+results.
+
+
+"Feb. 9. 1807.
+
+
+Dear ----,
+
+"I have the pleasure to inform you we have gained the Rochdale cause a
+second time, by which I am, L60,000 plus. Yours ever,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+In the month of April we find him still at Southwell, and addressing
+to his friend, Dr. Pigot, who was at Edinburgh, the following
+note[69]:--
+
+
+"Southwell, April, 1807.
+
+
+"My dear Pigot,
+
+"Allow me to congratulate you on the success of your first
+examination--'_Courage_, mon ami.' The title of Doctor will do wonders
+with the damsels. I shall most probably be in Essex or London when you
+arrive at this d----d place, where I am detained by the publication of
+my rhymes.
+
+"Adieu.--Believe me yours very truly,
+
+"BYRON.
+
+"P.S. Since we met, I have reduced myself by violent exercise, much
+physic, and hot bathing, from 14 stone 6 lb. to 12 stone 7 lb. In all I
+have lost 27 pounds. Bravo!--what say you?"
+
+
+His movements and occupations for the remainder of this year will be
+best collected from a series of his own letters, which I am enabled,
+by the kindness of the lady to whom they were addressed, to give.
+Though these letters are boyishly[70] written, and a good deal of
+their pleasantry is of that conventional kind which depends more upon
+phrase than thought, they will yet, I think, be found curious and
+interesting, not only as enabling us to track him through this period
+of his life, but as throwing light upon various little traits of
+character, and laying open to us the first working of his hopes and
+fears while waiting, in suspense, the opinions that were to decide, as
+he thought, his future fame. The first of the series, which is without
+date, appears to have been written before he had left Southwell. The
+other letters, it will be seen, are dated from Cambridge and from
+London.
+
+
+LETTER 12.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"June 11. 1807.
+
+
+"Dear Queen Bess,
+
+"_Savage_ ought to be _immortal_:--though not a _thorough-bred
+bull-dog_, he is the finest puppy I ever _saw_, and will answer much
+better; in his great and manifold kindness he has already bitten my
+fingers, and disturbed the _gravity_ of old Boatswain, who is
+_grievously discomposed_. I wish to be informed what he _costs_, his
+_expenses_, &c. &c., that I may indemnify Mr. G----. My thanks are
+_all_ I can give for the trouble he has taken, make a _long speech_,
+and conclude it with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.[71] I am out of practice, so
+_deputize_ you as legate,--_ambassador_ would not do in a matter
+concerning the _Pope_, which I presume this must, as the _whole_ turns
+upon a _Bull_.
+
+"Yours,
+
+"BYRON.
+
+"P.S. I write in bed."
+
+
+LETTER 13.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"Cambridge, June 30. 1807.
+
+
+"'Better late than never, Pal,'" is a saying of which you know the
+origin, and as it is applicable on the present occasion, you will
+excuse its conspicuous place in the front of my epistle. I am almost
+superannuated here. My old friends (with the exception of a very few)
+all departed, and I am preparing to follow them, but remain till
+Monday to be present at three _Oratorios_, two _Concerts_, a _Fair_,
+and a Ball. I find I am not only _thinner_ but _taller_ by an inch
+since my last visit. I was obliged to tell every body my _name_,
+nobody having the least recollection of my _visage_, or person. Even
+the hero of _my Cornelian_ (who is now sitting _vis-a-vis_, reading a
+volume of my _Poetics_) passed me in Trinity walks without recognising
+me in the least, and was thunderstruck at the alteration which had
+taken place in my countenance, &c. &c. Some say I look _better_,
+others _worse_, but all agree I am _thinner_--more I do not require. I
+have lost two pounds in my weight since I left your _cursed_,
+_detestable_, and _abhorred_ abode of _scandal_,[72] where, excepting
+yourself and John Becher, I care not if the whole race were consigned
+to the _Pit of Acheron_, which I would visit in person rather than
+contaminate my _sandals_ with the polluted dust of Southwell.
+_Seriously_, unless obliged by the _emptiness_ of my purse to revisit
+Mrs. B., you will see me no more.
+
+"On Monday I depart for London. I quit Cambridge with little regret,
+because our _set_ are _vanished_, and my _musical protege_ before
+mentioned has left the choir, and is stationed in a mercantile house
+of considerable eminence in the metropolis. You may have heard me
+observe he is exactly to an hour two years younger than myself. I
+found him grown considerably, and, as you will suppose, very glad to
+see his former _Patron_. He is nearly my height, very _thin_, very
+fair complexion, dark eyes, and light locks. My opinion of his mind
+you already know;--I hope I shall never have occasion to change it.
+Every body here conceives me to be an _invalid_. The University at
+present is very gay from the fetes of divers kinds. I supped out last
+night, but eat (or ate) nothing, sipped a bottle of claret, went to
+bed at two, and rose at eight. I have commenced early rising, and find
+it agrees with me. The Masters and the Fellows all very _polite_, but
+look a little _askance_--don't much admire _lampoons_--truth always
+disagreeable.
+
+"Write, and tell me how the inhabitants of your _Menagerie_ go _on_,
+and if my publication goes _off_ well: do the quadrupeds _growl_?
+Apropos, my bull-dog is deceased--'Flesh both of cur and man is
+grass.' Address your answer to Cambridge. If I am gone, it will be
+forwarded. Sad news just arrived--Russians beat--a bad set, eat
+nothing but _oil_, consequently must melt before a _hard fire_. I get
+awkward in my academic habiliments for want of practice. Got up in a
+window to hear the oratorio at St. Mary's, popped down in the middle
+of the _Messiah_, tore a _woeful_ rent in the back of my best black
+silk gown, and damaged an egregious pair of breeches. Mem.--never
+tumbled from a church window during service. Adieu, dear ----! do not
+remember me to any body:--to _forget_ and be forgotten by the people
+of Southwell is all I aspire to."
+
+
+LETTER 14.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"Trin. Coll. Camb. July 5. 1807.
+
+
+"Since my last letter I have determined to reside _another year_ at
+Granta, as my rooms, &c. &c. are finished in great style, several old
+friends come up again, and many new acquaintances made; consequently my
+inclination leads me forward, and I shall return to college in October if
+still _alive_. My life here has been one continued routine of
+dissipation--out at different places every day, engaged to more dinners,
+&c. &c. than my _stay_ would permit me to fulfil. At this moment I write
+with a bottle of claret in my _head_ and _tears_ in my _eyes_; for I have
+just parted with my '_Cornelian_,' who spent the evening with me. As it
+was our last interview, I postponed my engagement to devote the hours of
+the _Sabbath_ to friendship:--Edleston and I have separated for the
+present, and my mind is a chaos of hope and sorrow. To-morrow I set out
+for London: you will address your answer to 'Gordon's Hotel, Albemarle
+Street,' where I _sojourn_ during my visit to the metropolis.
+
+"I rejoice to hear you are interested in my _protege_; he has been my
+_almost constant_ associate since October, 1805, when I entered
+Trinity College. His _voice_ first attracted my attention, his
+_countenance_ fixed it, and his _manners_ attached me to him for ever.
+He departs for a _mercantile house_ in _town_ in October, and we shall
+probably not meet till the expiration of my minority, when I shall
+leave to his decision either entering as a _partner_ through my
+interest, or residing with me altogether. Of course he would in his
+present frame of mind prefer the _latter_, but he may alter his
+opinion previous to that period;--however, he shall have his choice. I
+certainly love him more than any human being, and neither time nor
+distance have had the least effect on my (in general) changeable
+disposition. In short, we shall put _Lady E. Butler_ and _Miss
+Ponsonby_ to the blush, _Pylades_ and _Orestes_ out of countenance,
+and want nothing but a catastrophe like _Nisus_ and _Euryalus_, to
+give _Jonathan_ and _David_ the 'go by.' He certainly is perhaps more
+attached to _me_ than even I am in return. During the whole of my
+residence at Cambridge we met every day, summer and winter, without
+passing _one_ tiresome moment, and separated each time with
+increasing reluctance. I hope you will one day see us together, he is
+the only being I esteem, though I _like_ many.[73]
+
+"The Marquis of Tavistock was down the other day; I supped with him at
+his tutor's--entirely a Whig party. The opposition muster strong here
+now, and Lord Hartington, the Duke of Leinster, &c. &c. are to join us
+in October, so every thing will be _splendid_. The _music_ is all over
+at present. Met with another '_accidency_'--upset a butter-boat in the
+lap of a lady--look'd very _blue_--_spectators_ grinned--'curse
+'em!' Apropos, sorry to say, been _drunk_ every day, and not quite
+_sober_ yet--however, touch no meat, nothing but fish, soup, and
+vegetables, consequently it does me no harm--sad dogs all the
+_Cantabs_. Mem.--_we mean_ to reform next January. This place is a
+_monotony of endless variety_--like it--hate Southwell. Has Ridge sold
+well? or do the ancients demur? What ladies have bought?
+
+"Saw a girl at St. Mary's the image of Anne ----, thought it was
+her--all in the wrong--the lady stared, so did I--I _blushed_, so did
+_not_ the lady,--sad thing--wish women had _more modesty_. Talking of
+women, puts me in mind of my terrier Fanny--how is she? Got a
+headache, must go to bed, up early in the morning to travel. My
+_protege_ breakfasts with me; parting spoils my appetite--excepting
+from Southwell. Mem. _I hate Southwell._
+
+Yours, &c."
+
+
+LETTER 15.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"Gordon's Hotel, July 13, 1807.
+
+
+"You write most excellent epistles--a fig for other correspondents,
+with their nonsensical apologies for _'knowing nought about
+it_,'--you send me a delightful budget. I am here in a perpetual
+vortex of dissipation (very pleasant for all that), and, strange to
+tell, I get thinner, being now below eleven stone considerably. Stay
+in town a _month_, perhaps six weeks, trip into Essex, and then, as a
+favour, _irradiate_ Southwell for three days with the light of my
+countenance; but nothing shall ever make me _reside_ there again. I
+positively return to Cambridge in October; we are to be uncommonly
+gay, or in truth I should _cut_ the University. An extraordinary
+circumstance occurred to me at Cambridge; a girl so very like ----
+made her appearance, that nothing but the most _minute inspection_
+could have undeceived me. I wish I had asked if _she_ had ever been at
+H----.
+
+"What the devil would Ridge have? is not fifty in a fortnight, before
+the advertisements, a sufficient sale? I hear many of the London
+booksellers have them, and Crosby has sent copies to the principal
+watering places. Are they liked or not in Southwell?... I wish
+Boatswain had _swallowed_ Damon! How is Bran? by the immortal gods,
+Bran ought to be a _Count_ of the _Holy Roman Empire_.
+
+"The intelligence of London cannot be interesting to you, who have
+rusticated all your life--the annals of routs, riots, balls and
+boxing-matches, cards and crim. cons., parliamentary discussion,
+political details, masquerades, mechanics, Argyle Street Institution
+and aquatic races, love and lotteries, Brookes's and Buonaparte,
+opera-singers and oratorios, wine, women, wax-work, and
+weather-cocks, can't accord with your _insulated_ ideas of decorum and
+other _silly expressions_ not inserted in _our vocabulary_.
+
+"Oh! Southwell, Southwell, how I rejoice to have left thee, and how I
+curse the heavy hours I dragged along, for so many months, among the
+Mohawks who inhabit your kraals!--However, one thing I do not regret,
+which is having _pared off_ a sufficient quantity of flesh to enable
+me to slip into 'an eel skin,' and vie with the _slim_ beaux of modern
+times; though I am sorry to say, it seems to be the mode amongst
+_gentlemen_ to grow _fat_, and I am told I am at least fourteen pound
+below the fashion. However, I _decrease_ instead of enlarging, which
+is extraordinary, as _violent_ exercise in London is impracticable;
+but I attribute the phenomenon to our _evening squeezes_ at public and
+private parties. I heard from Ridge this morning (the 14th, my letter
+was begun yesterday): he says the poems go on as well as can be
+wished; the seventy-five sent to town are circulated, and a demand for
+fifty more complied with, the day he dated his epistle, though the
+advertisements are not yet half published. Adieu.
+
+"P.S. Lord Carlisle, on receiving my poems, sent, before he opened the
+book, a tolerably handsome letter:--I have not heard from him since.
+His opinions I neither know nor care about: if he is the least
+insolent, I shall enrol him with _Butler_[74] and the other worthies.
+He is in Yorkshire, poor man! and very ill! He said he had not had
+time to read the contents, but thought it necessary to acknowledge the
+receipt of the volume immediately. Perhaps the Earl '_bears no brother
+near the throne_,'--_if so_, I will make his _sceptre_ totter _in his
+hands_.--Adieu!"
+
+
+LETTER 16.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"August 2. 1807.
+
+
+"London begins to disgorge its contents--town is empty--consequently I
+can scribble at leisure, as occupations are less numerous. In a
+fortnight I shall depart to fulfil a country engagement; but expect
+two epistles from you previous to that period. Ridge does not proceed
+rapidly in Notts--very possible. In town things wear a more promising
+aspect, and a man whose works are praised by _reviewers_, admired by
+_duchesses_, and sold by every bookseller of the metropolis, does not
+dedicate much consideration to _rustic readers_. I have now a review
+before me, entitled 'Literary Recreations,' where my _hardship_ is
+applauded far beyond my deserts. I know nothing of the critic, but
+think _him_ a very discerning gentleman, and _myself_ a devilish
+_clever_ fellow. His critique pleases me particularly, because it is
+of great length, and a proper quantum of censure is administered, just
+to give an agreeable _relish_ to the praise. You know I hate insipid,
+unqualified, common-place compliment. If you would wish to see it,
+order the 13th Number of 'Literary Recreations' for the last month. I
+assure you I have not the most distant idea of the writer of the
+article--it is printed in a periodical publication--and though I have
+written a paper (a review of Wordsworth),[75] which appears in the
+same work, I am ignorant of every other person concerned in it--even
+the editor, whose name I have not heard. My cousin, Lord Alexander
+Gordon, who resided in the same hotel, told me his mother, her Grace
+of Gordon, requested he would introduce my _Poetical_ Lordship to her
+_Highness_, as she had bought my volume, admired it exceedingly, in
+common with the rest of the fashionable world, and wished to claim
+her relationship with the author. I was unluckily engaged on an
+excursion for some days afterwards, and as the Duchess was on the eve
+of departing for Scotland, I have postponed my introduction till the
+winter, when I shall favour the lady, _whose taste I shall not
+dispute_, with my most sublime and edifying conversation. She is now
+in the Highlands, and Alexander took his departure, a few days ago,
+for the same _blessed_ seat of _'dark rolling winds.'_
+
+"Crosby, my London publisher, has disposed of his second importation,
+and has sent to Ridge for a _third_--at least so he says. In every
+bookseller's window I see my _own name_, and _say nothing_, but enjoy
+my fame in secret. My last reviewer kindly requests me to alter my
+determination of writing no more; and 'A Friend to the Cause of
+Literature' begs I will _gratify_ the _public_ with some new work 'at
+no very distant period.' Who would not be a bard?--that is to say, if
+all critics would be so polite. However, the others will pay me off, I
+doubt not, for this _gentle_ encouragement. If so, have at 'em? By the
+by, I have written at my intervals of leisure, after two in the
+morning, 380 lines in blank verse, of Bosworth Field. I have luckily
+got Hutton's account. I shall extend the poem to eight or ten books,
+and shall have finished it in a year. Whether it will be published or
+not must depend on circumstances. So much for _egotism_! My _laurels_
+have turned my brain, but the _cooling acids_ of forthcoming
+criticisms will probably restore me to _modesty_.
+
+"Southwell is a damned place--I have done with it--at least in all
+probability: excepting yourself, I esteem no one within its precincts.
+You were my only _rational_ companion; and in plain truth, I had more
+respect for you than the whole _bevy_, with whose foibles I amused
+myself in compliance with their prevailing propensities. You gave
+yourself more trouble with me and my manuscripts than a thousand
+_dolls_ would have done. Believe me, I have not forgotten your good
+nature in _this circle of sin_, and one day I trust I shall be able to
+evince my gratitude. Adieu,
+
+yours, &c.
+
+"P.S. Remember me to Dr. P."
+
+
+LETTER 17.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"London, August 11, 1807.
+
+
+"On Sunday next I set off for the Highlands.[76] A friend of mine
+accompanies me in my carriage to Edinburgh. There we shall leave it,
+and proceed in a _tandem_ (a species of open carriage) through the
+western passes to Inverary, where we shall purchase _shelties_, to
+enable us to view places inaccessible to _vehicular conveyances_. On
+the coast we shall hire a vessel, and visit the most remarkable of the
+Hebrides; and, if we have time and favourable weather, mean to sail
+as far as Iceland, only 300 miles from the northern extremity of
+Caledonia, to peep at _Hecla_. This last intention you will keep a
+secret, as my nice _mamma_ would imagine I was on a Voyage of
+Discovery, and raise the accustomed _maternal warwhoop_.
+
+"Last week I swam in the Thames from Lambeth through the two bridges,
+Westminster and Blackfriars, a distance, including the different turns
+and tacks made on the way, of three miles! You see I am in excellent
+training in case of a _squall_ at sea. I mean to collect all the Erse
+traditions, poems, &c. &c., and translate, or expand the subject to
+fill a volume, which may appear next spring under the denomination of
+_'The Highland Harp_,' or some title equally _picturesque_. Of
+Bosworth Field, one book is finished, another just began. It will be a
+work of three or four years, and most probably never conclude. What
+would you say to some stanzas on Mount Hecla? they would be written at
+least with _fire_. How is the immortal Bran? and the Phoenix of canine
+quadrupeds, Boatswain? I have lately purchased a thorough-bred
+bull-dog, worthy to be the coadjutor of the aforesaid celestials--his
+name is _Smut_!--'Bear it, ye breezes, on your _balmy_ wings.'
+
+"Write to me before I set off, I conjure you, by the fifth rib of your
+grandfather. Ridge goes on well with the books--I thought that worthy
+had not done much in the country. In town they have been very
+successful; Carpenter (Moore's publisher) told me a few days ago they
+sold all theirs immediately, and had several enquiries made since,
+which, from the books being gone, they could not supply. The Duke of
+York, the Marchioness of Headfort, the Duchess of Gordon, &c. &c.,
+were among the purchasers; and Crosby says, the circulation will be
+still more extensive in the winter, the summer season being very bad
+for a sale, as most people are absent from London. However, they have
+gone off extremely well altogether. I shall pass very near you on my
+journey through Newark, but cannot approach. Don't tell this to Mrs.
+B., who supposes I travel a different road. If you have a letter,
+order it to be left at Ridge's shop, where I shall call, or the
+post-office, Newark, about six or eight in the evening. If your
+brother would ride over, I should be devilish glad to see him--he can
+return the same night, or sup with us and go home the next
+morning--the Kingston Arms is my inn.
+
+"Adieu, yours ever,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+LETTER 18.
+
+TO MISS ----.
+
+"Trinity College, Cambridge, October 26. 1807.
+
+
+"My dear Elizabeth,
+
+"Fatigued with sitting up till four in the morning for the last two
+days at hazard,[77] I take up my pen to enquire how your highness and
+the rest of my female acquaintance at the seat of archiepiscopal
+grandeur go on. I know I deserve a scolding for my negligence in not
+writing more frequently; but racing up and down the country for these
+last three months, how was it possible to fulfil the duties of a
+correspondent? Fixed at last for six weeks, I write, as _thin_ as ever
+(not having gained an ounce since my reduction), and rather in better
+humour;--but, after all, Southwell was a detestable residence. Thank
+St. Dominica, I have done with it: I have been twice within eight
+miles of it, but could not prevail on myself to _suffocate_ in its
+heavy atmosphere. This place is wretched enough--a villanous chaos of
+din and drunkenness, nothing but hazard and burgundy, hunting,
+mathematics, and Newmarket, riot and racing. Yet it is a paradise
+compared with the eternal dulness of Southwell. Oh! the misery of
+doing nothing but make love, enemies, and _verses_.
+
+"Next January, (but this is _entre nous only_, and pray let it be so,
+or my maternal persecutor will be throwing her tomahawk at any of my
+curious projects,) I am going to _sea_ for four or five months, with
+my cousin Capt. Bettesworth, who commands the Tartar, the finest
+frigate in the navy. I have seen most scenes, and wish to look at a
+naval life. We are going probably to the Mediterranean, or to the West
+Indies, or--to the d----l; and if there is a possibility of taking me to
+the latter, Bettesworth will do it; for he has received four and
+twenty wounds in different places, and at this moment possesses a
+letter from the late Lord Nelson, stating Bettesworth as the only
+officer in the navy who had more wounds than himself.
+
+"I have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a _tame bear_.
+When I brought him here, they asked me what I meant to do with him,
+and my reply was, 'he should _sit for a fellowship_.' Sherard
+will explain the meaning of the sentence, if it is ambiguous. This
+answer delighted them not. We have several parties here, and this
+evening a large assortment of jockeys, gamblers, boxers, authors,
+parsons, and poets, sup with me,--a precious mixture, but they go on
+well together; and for me, I am a _spice_ of every thing except a
+jockey; by the by, I was dismounted again the other day.
+
+Thank your brother in my name for his treatise. I have written 214
+pages of a novel,--one poem of 380 lines,[78] to be published (without
+my name) in a few weeks, with notes,--560 lines of Bosworth Field, and
+250 lines of another poem in rhyme, besides half a dozen smaller
+pieces. The poem to be published is a Satire. _Apropos_, I have been
+praised to the skies in the Critical Review,[79] and abused greatly in
+another publication.[80] So much the better, they tell me, for the
+sale of the book: it keeps up controversy, and prevents it being
+forgotten. Besides, the first men of all ages have had their share,
+nor do the humblest escape;--so I bear it like a philosopher. It is
+odd two opposite critiques came out on the same day, and out of five
+pages of abuse, my censor only quotes _two lines_ from different
+poems, in support of his opinion. Now, the proper way to _cut up_, is
+to quote long passages, and make them appear absurd, because simple
+allegation is no proof. On the other hand, there are seven pages of
+praise, and more than _my modesty_ will allow, said on the subject.
+Adieu.
+
+"P.S. Write, write, write!!!"
+
+
+It was at the beginning of the following year that an acquaintance
+commenced between Lord Byron and a gentleman, related to his family by
+marriage, Mr. Dallas,--the author of some novels, popular, I believe,
+in their day, and also of a sort of Memoir of the noble Poet,
+published soon after his death, which, from being founded chiefly on
+original correspondence, is the most authentic and trust-worthy of any
+that have yet appeared. In the letters addressed by Lord Byron to this
+gentleman, among many details, curious in a literary point of view, we
+find, what is much more important for our present purpose, some
+particulars illustrative of the opinions which he had formed, at this
+time of his life, on the two subjects most connected with the early
+formation of character--morals and religion.
+
+It is but rarely that infidelity or scepticism finds an entrance into
+youthful minds. That readiness to take the future upon trust, which is
+the charm of this period of life, would naturally, indeed, make it the
+season of belief as well as of hope. There are also then, still fresh
+in the mind, the impressions of early religious culture, which, even
+in those who begin soonest to question their faith, give way but
+slowly to the encroachments of doubt, and, in the mean time, extend
+the benefit of their moral restraint over a portion of life when it is
+acknowledged such restraints are most necessary. If exemption from the
+checks of religion be, as infidels themselves allow,[81] a state of
+freedom from responsibility dangerous at all times, it must be
+peculiarly so in that season of temptation, youth, when the passions
+are sufficiently disposed to usurp a latitude for themselves, without
+taking a licence also from infidelity to enlarge their range. It is,
+therefore, fortunate that, for the causes just stated, the inroads of
+scepticism and disbelief should be seldom felt in the mind till a
+period of life when the character, already formed, is out of the reach
+of their disturbing influence,--when, being the result, however
+erroneous, of thought and reasoning, they are likely to partake of the
+sobriety of the process by which they were acquired, and, being
+considered but as matters of pure speculation, to have as little share
+in determining the mind towards evil as, too often, the most orthodox
+creed has, at the same age, in influencing it towards good.
+
+While, in this manner, the moral qualities of the unbeliever himself
+are guarded from some of the mischiefs that might, at an earlier age,
+attend such doctrines, the danger also of his communicating the
+infection to others is, for reasons of a similar nature, considerably
+diminished. The same vanity or daring which may have prompted the
+youthful sceptic's opinions, will lead him likewise, it is probable,
+rashly and irreverently to avow them, without regard either to the
+effect of his example on those around him, or to the odium which, by
+such an avowal, he entails irreparably on himself. But, at a riper
+age, these consequences are, in general, more cautiously weighed. The
+infidel, if at all considerate of the happiness of others, will
+naturally pause before he chases from their hearts a hope of which his
+own feels the want so desolately. If regardful only of himself, he
+will no less naturally shrink from the promulgation of opinions which,
+in no age, have men uttered with impunity. In either case there is a
+tolerably good security for his silence;--for, should benevolence not
+restrain him from making converts of others, prudence may, at least,
+prevent him from making a martyr of himself.
+
+Unfortunately, Lord Byron was an exception to the usual course of such
+lapses. With him, the canker showed itself "in the morn and dew of
+youth," when the effect of such "blastments" is, for every reason,
+most fatal,--and, in addition to the real misfortune of being an
+unbeliever at any age, he exhibited the rare and melancholy spectacle
+of an unbelieving schoolboy. The same prematurity of developement
+which brought his passions and genius so early into action, enabled
+him also to anticipate this worst, dreariest result of reason; and at
+the very time of life when a spirit and temperament like his most
+required control, those checks, which religious pre-possessions best
+supply, were almost wholly wanting.
+
+We have seen, in those two Addresses to the Deity which I have
+selected from among his unpublished poems, and still more strongly in
+a passage of the Catalogue of his studies, at what a boyish age the
+authority of all systems and sects was avowedly shaken off by his
+enquiring spirit. Yet, even in these, there is a fervour of adoration
+mingled with his defiance of creeds, through which the piety implanted
+in his nature (as it is deeply in all poetic natures) unequivocally
+shows itself; and had he then fallen within the reach of such guidance
+and example as would have seconded and fostered these natural
+dispositions, the licence of opinion into which he afterwards broke
+loose might have been averted. His scepticism, if not wholly removed,
+might have been softened down into that humble doubt, which, so far
+from being inconsistent with a religious spirit, is, perhaps, its best
+guard against presumption and uncharitableness; and, at all events,
+even if his own views of religion had not been brightened or elevated,
+he would have learned not wantonly to cloud or disturb those of
+others. But there was no such monitor near him. After his departure
+from Southwell, he had not a single friend or relative to whom he
+could look up with respect; but was thrown alone on the world, with
+his passions and his pride, to revel in the fatal discovery which he
+imagined himself to have made of the nothingness of the future, and
+the all-paramount claims of the present. By singular ill fortune, too,
+the individual who, among all his college friends, had taken the
+strongest hold on his admiration and affection, and whose loss he
+afterwards lamented with brotherly tenderness, was, to the same extent
+as himself, if not more strongly, a sceptic. Of this remarkable young
+man, Matthews, who was so early snatched away, and whose career in
+after-life, had it been at all answerable to the extraordinary
+promise of his youth, must have placed him upon a level with the first
+men of his day, a Memoir was, at one time, intended to be published by
+his relatives; and to Lord Byron, among others of his college friends,
+application, for assistance in the task, was addressed. The letter
+which this circumstance drew forth from the noble poet, besides
+containing many amusing traits of his friend, affords such an insight
+into his own habits of life at this period, that, though infringing
+upon the chronological order of his correspondence, I shall insert it
+here.
+
+
+LETTER 19.
+
+TO MR. MURRAY.
+
+"Ravenna, 9bre 12. 1820.
+
+
+"What you said of the late Charles Skinner Matthews has set me to my
+recollections; but I have not been able to turn up any thing which
+would do for the purposed Memoir of his brother,--even if he had
+previously done enough during his life to sanction the introduction of
+anecdotes so merely personal. He was, however, a very extraordinary
+man, and would have been a great one. No one ever succeeded in a more
+surpassing degree than he did, as far as he went. He was indolent,
+too; but whenever he stripped, he overthrew all antagonists. His
+conquests will be found registered at Cambridge, particularly his
+_Downing_ one, which was hotly and highly contested, and yet easily
+_won_. Hobhouse was his most intimate friend, and can tell you more of
+him than any man. William Bankes also a great deal. I myself recollect
+more of his oddities than of his academical qualities, for we lived
+most together at a very idle period of _my_ life. When I went up
+to Trinity, in 1805, at the age of seventeen and a half, I was
+miserable and untoward to a degree. I was wretched at leaving Harrow,
+to which I had become attached during the two last years of my stay
+there; wretched at going to Cambridge instead of Oxford (there were no
+rooms Vacant at Christ-church); wretched from some private domestic
+circumstances of different kinds, and consequently about as unsocial
+as a wolf taken from the troop. So that, although I knew Matthews, and
+met him often _then_ at Bankes's, (who was my collegiate pastor,
+and master, and patron,) and at Rhode's, Milnes's, Price's, Dick's,
+Macnamara's, Farrell's, Galley Knight's, and others of that _set_
+of contemporaries, yet I was neither intimate with him nor with any
+one else, except my old schoolfellow Edward Long (with whom I used to
+pass the day in riding and swimming), and William Bankes, who was
+good-naturedly tolerant of my ferocities.
+
+"It was not till 1807, after I had been upwards of a year away from
+Cambridge, to which I had returned again to _reside_ for my
+degree, that I became one of Matthews's familiars, by means of H----,
+who, after hating me for two years, because I wore a _white hat_, and
+a _grey_ coat, and rode a _grey_ horse (as he says himself), took me
+into his good graces because I had written some poetry. I had always
+lived a good deal, and got drunk occasionally, in their company--but
+now we became really friends in a morning. Matthews, however, was not
+at this period resident in College. I met _him_ chiefly in
+London, and at uncertain periods at Cambridge. H----, in the mean
+time, did great things: he founded the Cambridge 'Whig Club' (which he
+seems to have forgotten), and the 'Amicable Society,' which was
+dissolved in consequence of the members constantly quarrelling, and
+made himself very popular with 'us youth,' and no less formidable to
+all tutors, professors, and beads of Colleges. William B---- was gone;
+while he stayed, he ruled the roast--or rather the _roasting_--and was
+father of all mischiefs.
+
+"Matthews and I, meeting in London, and elsewhere, became great
+cronies. He was not good tempered--nor am I--but with a little tact
+his temper was manageable, and I thought him so superior a man, that I
+was willing to sacrifice something to his humours, which were often,
+at the same time, amusing and provoking. What became of his _papers_
+(and he certainly had many), at the time of his death, was never
+known. I mention this by the way, fearing to skip it over, and _as_ he
+_wrote_ remarkably well, both in Latin and English. We went down to
+Newstead together, where I had got a famous cellar, and _Monks'_
+dresses from a masquerade warehouse. We were a company of some seven
+or eight, with an occasional neighbour or so for visiters, and used to
+sit up late in our friars' dresses, drinking burgundy, claret,
+champagne, and what not, out of the _skull-cup_, and all sorts of
+glasses, and buffooning all round the house, in our conventual
+garments. Matthews always denominated me 'the Abbot,' and never called
+me by any other name in his good humours, to the day of his death.
+The harmony of these our symposia was somewhat interrupted, a few days
+after our assembling, by Matthews's threatening to throw ---- out of a
+_window_, in consequence of I know not what commerce of jokes ending
+in this epigram. ---- came to me and said, that 'his respect and
+regard for me as host would not permit him to call out any of my
+guests, and that he should go to town next morning.' He did. It was in
+vain that I represented to him that the window was not high, and that
+the turf under it was particularly soft. Away he went.
+
+"Matthews and myself had travelled down from London together, talking
+all the way incessantly upon one single topic. When we got to
+Loughborough, I know not what chasm had made us diverge for a moment
+to some other subject, at which he was indignant. 'Come,' said he,
+'don't let us break through--let us go on as we began, to our
+journey's end;' and so he continued, and was as entertaining as ever
+to the very end. He had previously occupied, during my year's absence
+from Cambridge, my rooms in Trinity, with the furniture; and Jones,
+the tutor, in his odd way, had said, on putting him in, 'Mr. Matthews,
+I recommend to your attention not to damage any of the movables, for
+Lord Byron, Sir, is a young man of _tumultuous passions_.' Matthews
+was delighted with this; and whenever anybody came to visit him,
+begged them to handle the very door with caution; and used to repeat
+Jones's admonition in his tone and manner. There was a large mirror in
+the room, on which he remarked, 'that he thought his friends were
+grown uncommonly assiduous in coming to see _him_, but he soon
+discovered that they only came to _see themselves_.' Jones's phrase of
+'_tumultuous passions_,' and the whole scene, had put him into such
+good humour, that I verily believe that I owed to it a portion of his
+good graces.
+
+"When at Newstead, somebody by accident rubbed against one of his
+white silk stockings, one day before dinner; of course the gentleman
+apologised. 'Sir,' answered Matthews, 'it may be all very well for
+you, who have a great many silk stockings, to dirty other people's;
+but to me, who have only this _one pair_, which I have put on in
+honour of the Abbot here, no apology can compensate for such
+carelessness; besides, the expense of washing.' He had the same sort
+of droll sardonic way about every thing. A wild Irishman, named F----,
+one evening beginning to say something at a large supper at Cambridge,
+Matthews roared out 'Silence!' and then, pointing to F----, cried out,
+in the words of the oracle, '_Orson is endowed with reason_.' You may
+easily suppose that Orson lost what reason he had acquired, on hearing
+this compliment. When H---- published his volume of poems, the
+Miscellany (which Matthews _would_ call the '_Miss-sell-any_'), all
+that could be drawn from him was, that the preface was 'extremely like
+_Walsh_.' H---- thought this at first a compliment; but we never could
+make out what it was,[82] for all we know of _Walsh_ is his Ode
+to King William, and Pope's epithet of '_knowing Walsh_.' When the
+Newstead party broke up for London, H---- and Matthews, who were the
+greatest friends possible, agreed, for a whim, to _walk together_ to
+town. They quarrelled by the way, and actually walked the latter half
+of their journey, occasionally passing and repassing, without
+speaking. When Matthews had got to Highgate, he had spent all his
+money but three-pence halfpenny, and determined to spend that also in
+a pint of beer, which I believe he was drinking before a public-house,
+as H---- passed him (still without speaking) for the last time on
+their route. They were reconciled in London again.
+
+"One of Matthews's passions was 'the Fancy;' and he sparred uncommonly
+well. But he always got beaten in rows, or combats with the bare fist.
+In swimming, too, he swam well; but with _effort_ and _labour_, and
+_too high_ out of the water; so that Scrope Davies and myself, of whom
+he was therein somewhat emulous, always told him that he would be
+drowned if ever he came to a difficult pass in the water. He was so;
+but surely Scrope and myself would have been most heartily glad that
+
+            "'the Dean had lived,
+    And our prediction proved a lie.'
+
+"His head was uncommonly handsome, very like what _Pope_'s was in
+his youth.
+
+"His voice, and laugh, and features, are strongly resembled by his
+brother Henry's, if Henry be _he_ of _King's College_. His passion for
+boxing was so great, that he actually wanted me to match him with
+Dogherty (whom I had backed and made the match for against Tom
+Belcher), and I saw them spar together at my own lodgings with the
+gloves on. As he was bent upon it, I would have backed Dogherty to
+please him, but the match went off. It was of course to have been a
+private fight, in a private room.
+
+"On one occasion, being too late to go home and dress, he was equipped
+by a friend (Mr. Baillie, I believe,) in a magnificently fashionable
+and somewhat exaggerated shirt and neckcloth. He proceeded to the
+Opera, and took his station in Fops' Alley. During the interval
+between the opera and the ballet, an acquaintance took his station by
+him and saluted him: 'Come round,' said Matthews, 'come round.'--'Why
+should I come round?' said the other; 'you have only to turn your
+head--I am close by you.'--'That is exactly what I cannot do,' said
+Matthews; 'don't you see the state I am in?' pointing to his buckram
+shirt collar and inflexible cravat,--and there he stood with his head
+always in the same perpendicular position during the whole spectacle.
+
+"One evening, after dining together, as we were going to the Opera, I
+happened to have a spare Opera ticket (as subscriber to a box), and
+presented it to Matthews. 'Now, sir,' said he to Hobhouse afterwards,
+'this I call _courteous_ in the Abbot--another man would never have
+thought that I might do better with half a guinea than throw it to a
+door-keeper;--but here is a man not only asks me to dinner, but gives
+me a ticket for the theatre.' These were only his oddities, for no
+man was more liberal, or more honourable in all his doings and
+dealings, than Matthews. He gave Hobhouse and me, before we set out
+for Constantinople, a most splendid entertainment, to which we did
+ample justice. One of his fancies was dining at all sorts of
+out-of-the-way places. Somebody popped upon him in I know not what
+coffee-house in the Strand--and what do you think was the attraction?
+Why, that he paid a shilling (I think) to _dine with his hat on_. This
+he called his '_hat_ house,' and used to boast of the comfort of being
+covered at meal-times.
+
+"When Sir Henry Smith was expelled from Cambridge for a row with a
+tradesman named 'Hiron,' Matthews solaced himself with shouting under
+Hiron's windows every evening,
+
+    "'Ah me! what perils do environ
+      The man who meddles with _hot Hiron_.'
+
+"He was also of that band of profane scoffers who, under the auspices
+of ----, used to rouse Lort Mansel (late Bishop of Bristol) from his
+slumbers in the lodge of Trinity; and when he appeared at the window
+foaming with wrath, and crying out, 'I know you, gentlemen, I know
+you!' were wont to reply, 'We beseech thee to hear us, good
+_Lort_'--'Good _Lort_ deliver us!' (Lort was his Christian name.) As
+he was very free in his speculations upon all kinds of subjects,
+although by no means either dissolute or intemperate in his conduct,
+and as I was no less independent, our conversation and correspondence
+used to alarm our friend Hobhouse to a considerable degree.
+
+"You must be almost tired of my packets, which will have cost a mint
+of postage.
+
+"Salute Gifford and all my friends.
+
+"Yours, &c."
+
+
+As already, before his acquaintance with Mr. Matthews commenced, Lord
+Byron had begun to bewilder himself in the mazes of scepticism, it
+would be unjust to impute to this gentleman any further share in the
+formation of his noble friend's opinions than what arose from the
+natural influence of example and sympathy;--an influence which, as it
+was felt perhaps equally on both sides, rendered the contagion of
+their doctrines, in a great measure, reciprocal. In addition, too, to
+this community of sentiment on such subjects, they were both, in no
+ordinary degree, possessed by that dangerous spirit of ridicule, whose
+impulses even the pious cannot always restrain, and which draws the
+mind on, by a sort of irresistible fascination, to disport itself most
+wantonly on the brink of all that is most solemn and awful. It is not
+wonderful, therefore, that, in such society, the opinions of the noble
+poet should have been, at least, accelerated in that direction to
+which their bias already leaned; and though he cannot be said to have
+become thus confirmed in these doctrines,--as neither now, nor at any
+time of his life, was he a confirmed unbeliever,--he had undoubtedly
+learned to feel less uneasy under his scepticism, and even to mingle
+somewhat of boast and of levity with his expression of it. At the very
+first onset of his correspondence with Mr. Dallas, we find him
+proclaiming his sentiments on all such subjects with a flippancy and
+confidence far different from the tone in which he had first ventured
+on his doubts,--from that fervid sadness, as of a heart loth to part
+with its illusions, which breathes through every line of those
+prayers, that, but a year before, his pen had traced.
+
+Here again, however, we should recollect, there must be a considerable
+share of allowance for his usual tendency to make the most and the
+worst of his own obliquities. There occurs, indeed, in his first
+letter to Mr. Dallas, an instance of this strange ambition,--the very
+reverse, it must be allowed, of hypocrisy,--which led him to court,
+rather than avoid, the reputation of profligacy, and to put, at all
+times, the worst face on his own character and conduct. His new
+correspondent having, in introducing himself to his acquaintance,
+passed some compliments on the tone of moral and charitable feeling
+which breathed through one of his poems, had added, that it "brought
+to his mind another noble author, who was not only a fine poet,
+orator, and historian, but one of the closest reasoners we have on the
+truth of that religion of which forgiveness is a prominent principle,
+the great and good Lord Lyttleton, whose fame will never die. His
+son," adds Mr. Dallas, "to whom he had transmitted genius, but not
+virtue, sparkled for a moment and went out like a star,--and with him
+the title became extinct." To this Lord Byron answers in the following
+letter:--
+
+
+LETTER 20.
+
+TO MR. DALLAS.
+
+"Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Jan. 20. 1808.
+
+
+"Sir,
+
+"Your letter was not received till this morning, I presume from being
+addressed to me in Notts., where I have not resided since last June,
+and as the date is the 6th, you will excuse the delay of my answer.
+
+"If the little volume you mention has given pleasure to the author of
+_Percival_ and _Aubrey_, I am sufficiently repaid by his praise.
+Though our periodical censors have been uncommonly lenient, I confess
+a tribute from a man of acknowledged genius is still more flattering.
+But I am afraid I should forfeit all claim to candour, if I did not
+decline such praise as I do not deserve; and this is, I am sorry to
+say, the case in the present instance.
+
+"My compositions speak for themselves, and must stand or fall by their
+own worth or demerit: _thus far_ I feel highly gratified by your
+favourable opinion. But my pretensions to virtue are unluckily so few,
+that though I should be happy to merit, I cannot accept, your applause
+in that respect. One passage in your letter struck me forcibly: you
+mention the two Lords Lyttleton in a manner they respectively deserve,
+and will be surprised to hear the person who is now addressing you has
+been frequently compared to the _latter_. I know I am injuring myself
+in your esteem by this avowal, but the circumstance was so remarkable
+from your observation, that I cannot help relating the fact. The
+events of my short life have been of so singular a nature, that,
+though the pride commonly called honour has, and I trust ever will,
+prevent me from disgracing my name by a mean or cowardly action, I
+have been already held up as the votary of licentiousness, and the
+disciple of infidelity. How far justice may have dictated this
+accusation, I cannot pretend to say; but, like the _gentleman_ to whom
+my religious friends, in the warmth of their charity, have already
+devoted me, I am made worse than I really am. However, to quit myself
+(the worst theme I could pitch upon), and return to my poems, I cannot
+sufficiently express my thanks, and I hope I shall some day have an
+opportunity of rendering them in person. A second edition is now in
+the press, with some additions and considerable omissions; you will
+allow me to present you with a copy. The Critical, Monthly, and
+Anti-Jacobin Reviews have been very indulgent; but the Eclectic has
+pronounced a furious Philippic, not against the _book_ but the
+_author_, where you will find all I have mentioned asserted by a
+reverend divine who wrote the critique.
+
+Your name and connection with our family have been long known to me,
+and I hope your person will be not less so: you will find me an
+excellent compound of a 'Brainless' and a 'Stanhope.'[83] I am afraid
+you will hardly be able to read this, for my hand is almost as bad as
+my character; but you will find me, as legibly as possible,
+
+"Your obliged and obedient servant,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+There is here, evidently, a degree of pride in being thought to
+resemble the wicked Lord Lyttleton; and, lest his known irregularities
+should not bear him out in the pretension, he refers mysteriously, as
+was his habit, to certain untold events of his life, to warrant the
+parallel.[84] Mr. Dallas, who seems to have been but little prepared
+for such a reception of his compliments, escapes out of the difficulty
+by transferring to the young lord's "candour" the praise he had so
+thanklessly bestowed on his morals in general; adding, that from the
+design Lord Byron had expressed in his preface of resigning the
+service of the Muses for a different vocation, he had "conceived him
+bent on pursuits which lead to the character of a legislator and
+statesman;--had imagined him at one of the universities, training
+himself to habits of reasoning and eloquence, and storing up a large
+fund of history and law." It is in reply to this letter that the
+exposition of the noble poet's opinions, to which I have above
+alluded, is contained.
+
+
+LETTER 21.
+
+TO MR. DALLAS.
+
+"Dorant's, January 21. 1808.
+
+
+"Sir,
+
+"Whenever leisure and inclination permit me the pleasure of a visit, I
+shall feel truly gratified in a personal acquaintance with one whose
+mind has been long known to me in his writings.
+
+"You are so far correct in your conjecture, that I am a member of the
+University of Cambridge, where I shall take my degree of A. M. this
+term; but were reasoning, eloquence, or virtue, the objects of my
+search, Granta is not their metropolis, nor is the place of her
+situation an 'El Dorado,' far less an Utopia. The intellects of her
+children are as stagnant as her Cam, and their pursuits limited to the
+church--not of Christ, but of the nearest benefice.
+
+"As to my reading, I believe I may aver, without hyperbole, it has
+been tolerably extensive in the historical; so that few nations exist,
+or have existed, with whose records I am not in some degree
+acquainted, from Herodotus down to Gibbon. Of the classics, I know
+about as much as most schoolboys after a discipline of thirteen years;
+of the law of the land as much as enables me to keep 'within the
+statute'--to use the poacher's vocabulary. I did study the 'Spirit of
+Laws' and the Law of Nations; but when I saw the latter violated every
+month, I gave up my attempts at so useless an accomplishment;--of
+geography, I have seen more land on maps than I should wish to
+traverse on foot;--of mathematics, enough to give me the headache
+without clearing the part affected;--of philosophy, astronomy, and
+metaphysics, more than I can comprehend;[85] and of common sense so
+little, that I mean to leave a Byronian prize at each of our 'Almae
+Matres' for the first discovery,--though I rather fear that of the
+longitude will precede it.
+
+"I once thought myself a philosopher, and talked nonsense with great
+decorum: I defied pain, and preached up equanimity. For some time this
+did very well, for no one was in _pain_ for me but my friends, and none
+lost their patience but my hearers. At last, a fall from my horse
+convinced me bodily suffering was an evil; and the worst of an argument
+overset my maxims and my temper at the same moment: so I quitted Zeno
+for Aristippus, and conceive that pleasure constitutes the {~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}. I hold virtue, in
+general, or the virtues severally, to be only in the disposition, each a
+_feeling_, not a principle.[86] I believe truth the prime attribute of
+the Deity, and death an eternal sleep, at least of the body. You have
+here a brief compendium of the sentiments of the _wicked_ George Lord
+Byron; and, till I get a new suit, you will perceive I am badly clothed.
+
+I remain," &c.
+
+
+Though such was, doubtless, the general cast of his opinions at this
+time, it must be recollected, before we attach any particular
+importance to the details of his creed, that, in addition to the
+temptation, never easily resisted by him, of displaying his wit at the
+expense of his character, he was here addressing a person who,
+though, no doubt, well meaning, was evidently one of those officious,
+self-satisfied advisers, whom it was the delight of Lord Byron at all
+times to astonish and _mystify_. The tricks which, when a boy, he
+played upon the Nottingham quack, Lavender, were but the first of a
+long series with which, through life, he amused himself, at the
+expense of all the numerous quacks whom his celebrity and sociability
+drew around him.
+
+The terms in which he speaks of the university in this letter agree in
+spirit with many passages both in the "Hours of Idleness," and his
+early Satire, and prove that, while Harrow was remembered by him with
+more affection, perhaps, than respect, Cambridge had not been able to
+inspire him with either. This feeling of distaste to his "nursing
+mother" he entertained in common with some of the most illustrious
+names of English literature. So great was Milton's hatred to
+Cambridge, that he had even conceived, says Warton, a dislike to the
+face of the country,--to the fields in its neighbourhood. The poet
+Gray thus speaks of the same university:--"Surely, it was of this
+place, now Cambridge, but formerly known by the name of Babylon, that
+the prophet spoke when he said, 'The wild beasts of the deserts shall
+dwell there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and
+owls shall build there, and satyrs shall dance there,'" &c. &c. The
+bitter recollections which Gibbon retained of Oxford, his own pen has
+recorded; and the cool contempt by which Locke avenged himself on the
+bigotry of the same seat of learning is even still more
+memorable.[87]
+
+In poets, such distasteful recollections of their collegiate life may
+well be thought to have their origin in that antipathy to the trammels
+of discipline, which is not unusually observable among the
+characteristics of genius, and which might be regarded, indeed, as a
+sort of instinct, implanted in it for its own preservation, if there
+be any truth in the opinion that a course of learned education is
+hurtful to the freshness and elasticity of the imaginative faculty. A
+right reverend writer,[88] but little to be suspected of any desire to
+depreciate academical studies, not only puts the question, "Whether
+the usual forms of learning be not rather injurious to the true poet,
+than really assisting to him?" but appears strongly disposed to answer
+it in the affirmative,--giving, as an instance, in favour of this
+conclusion, the classic Addison, who, "as appears," he says, "from
+some original efforts in the sublime, allegorical way, had no want of
+natural talents for the greater poetry,--which yet were so restrained
+and disabled by his constant and superstitious study of the old
+classics, that he was, in fact, but a very ordinary poet."
+
+It was, no doubt, under some such impression of the malign influence
+of a collegiate atmosphere upon genius, that Milton, in speaking of
+Cambridge, gave vent to the exclamation, that it was "a place quite
+incompatible with the votaries of Phoebus," and that Lord Byron,
+versifying a thought of his own, in the letter to Mr. Dallas just
+given, declares,
+
+    "Her Helicon is duller than her Cam."
+
+The poet Dryden, too, who, like Milton, had incurred some mark of
+disgrace at Cambridge, seems to have entertained but little more
+veneration for his Alma Mater; and the verses in which he has praised
+Oxford at the expense of his own university[89] were, it is probable,
+dictated much less by admiration of the one than by a desire to spite
+and depreciate the other.
+
+Nor is it genius only that thus rebels against the discipline of the
+schools. Even the tamer quality of Taste, which it is the professed
+object of classical studies to cultivate, is sometimes found to turn
+restive under the pedantic _manege_ to which it is subjected. It was
+not till released from the duty of reading Virgil as a task, that Gray
+could feel himself capable of enjoying the beauties of that poet; and
+Lord Byron was, to the last, unable to vanquish a similar
+prepossession, with which the same sort of school association had
+inoculated him, against Horace.
+
+                  --"Though Time hath taught
+      My mind to meditate what then it learn'd,
+      Yet such the fix'd inveteracy wrought
+      By the impatience of my early thought,
+      That, with the freshness wearing out before
+      My mind could relish what it might have sought,
+      If free to choose, I cannot now restore
+    Its health; but what it then detested, still abhor.
+
+    "Then farewell, Horace; whom I hated so,
+    Not for thy faults, but mine; it is a curse
+    To understand, not feel thy lyric flow,
+    To comprehend, but never love thy verse."
+
+    CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO IV
+
+To the list of eminent poets, who have thus left on record their
+dislike and disapproval of the English system of education, are to be
+added, the distinguished names of Cowley, Addison, and Cowper; while,
+among the cases which, like those of Milton and Dryden, practically
+demonstrate the sort of inverse ratio that may exist between college
+honours and genius, must not be forgotten those of Swift, Goldsmith,
+and Churchill, to every one of whom some mark of incompetency was
+affixed by the respective universities, whose annals they adorn. When,
+in addition, too, to this rather ample catalogue of poets, whom the
+universities have sent forth either disloyal or dishonoured, we come
+to number over such names as those of Shakspeare and of Pope, followed
+by Gay, Thomson, Burns, Chatterton, &c., all of whom have attained
+their respective stations of eminence, without instruction or sanction
+from any college whatever, it forms altogether, it must be owned, a
+large portion of the poetical world, that must be subducted from the
+sphere of that nursing influence which the universities are supposed
+to exercise over the genius of the country.
+
+The following letters, written at this time, contain some particulars
+which will not be found uninteresting.
+
+
+LETTER 22.
+
+TO MR. HENRY DRURY.
+
+"Dorant's Hotel, Jan. 13. 1808.
+
+
+"My dear Sir,
+
+"Though the stupidity of my servants, or the porter of the house, in
+not showing you up stairs (where I should have joined you directly),
+prevented me the pleasure of seeing you yesterday, I hoped to meet you
+at some public place in the evening. However, my stars decreed
+otherwise, as they generally do, when I have any favour to request of
+them. I think you would have been surprised at my figure, for, since
+our last meeting, I am reduced four stone in weight. I then weighed
+fourteen stone seven pound, and now only _ten stone and a half_. I
+have disposed of my _superfluities_ by means of hard exercise and
+abstinence.
+
+"Should your Harrow engagements allow you to visit town between this
+and February, I shall be most happy to see you in Albemarle Street. If
+I am not so fortunate, I shall endeavour to join you for an afternoon
+at Harrow, though, I fear, your cellar will by no means contribute to
+my cure. As for my worthy preceptor, Dr. B., our encounter would by no
+means prevent the _mutual endearments_ he and I were wont to lavish on
+each other. We have only spoken once since my departure from Harrow in
+1805, and then he politely told Tatersall I was not a proper associate
+for his pupils. This was long before my strictures in verse; but, in
+plain _prose_, had I been some years older, I should have held my
+tongue on his perfections. But, being laid on my back, when that
+schoolboy thing was written--or rather dictated--expecting to rise no
+more, my physician having taken his sixteenth fee, and I his
+prescription, I could not quit this earth without leaving a memento of
+my constant attachment to Butler in gratitude for his manifold good
+offices.
+
+"I meant to have been down in July; but thinking my appearance,
+immediately after the publication, would be construed into an insult,
+I directed my steps elsewhere. Besides, I heard that some of the boys
+had got hold of my Libellus, contrary to my wishes certainly, for I
+never transmitted a single copy till October, when I gave one to a
+boy, since gone, after repeated importunities. You will, I trust,
+pardon this egotism. As you had touched on the subject I thought some
+explanation necessary. Defence I shall not attempt, 'Hic murus aheneus
+esto, nil conscire sibi'--and 'so on' (as Lord Baltimore said on his
+trial for a rape)--I have been so long at Trinity as to forget the
+conclusion of the line; but though I cannot finish my quotation, I
+will my letter, and entreat you to believe me,
+
+gratefully and affectionately, &c.
+
+"P.S. I will not lay a tax on your time by requiring an answer, lest
+you say, as Butler said to Tatersall (when I had written his reverence
+an impudent epistle on the expression before mentioned), viz. 'that I
+wanted to draw him into a correspondence.'"
+
+
+LETTER 23.
+
+TO MR. HARNESS.
+
+"Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Feb. 11. 1808.
+
+
+"My dear Harness,
+
+"As I had no opportunity of returning my verbal thanks, I trust you
+will accept my written acknowledgments for the compliment you were
+pleased to pay some production of my unlucky muse last November,--I am
+induced to do this not less from the pleasure I feel in the praise of
+an old schoolfellow, than from justice to you, for I had heard the
+story with some slight variations. Indeed, when we met this morning,
+Wingfield had not undeceived me, but he will tell you that I displayed
+no resentment in mentioning what I had heard, though I was not sorry
+to discover the truth. Perhaps you hardly recollect, some years ago, a
+short, though, for the time, a warm friendship between us? Why it was
+not of longer duration, I know not. I have still a gift of yours in my
+possession, that must always prevent me from forgetting it. I also
+remember being favoured with the perusal of many of your compositions,
+and several other circumstances very pleasant in their day, which I
+will not force upon your memory, but entreat you to believe me, with
+much regret at their short continuance, and a hope they are not
+irrevocable,
+
+yours very sincerely, &c.
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+I have already mentioned the early friendship that subsisted between
+this gentleman and Lord Byron, as well as the coolness that succeeded
+it. The following extract from a letter with which Mr. Harness
+favoured me, in placing at my disposal those of his noble
+correspondent, will explain the circumstances that led, at this time,
+to their reconcilement; and the candid tribute, in the concluding
+sentences, to Lord Byron, will be found not less honourable to the
+reverend writer himself than to his friend.
+
+"A coolness afterwards arose, which Byron alludes to in the first of
+the accompanying letters, and we never spoke during the last year of
+his remaining at school, nor till after the publication of his 'Hours
+of Idleness.' Lord Byron was then at Cambridge; I, in one of the upper
+forms, at Harrow. In an English theme I happened to quote from the
+volume, and mention it with praise. It was reported to Byron that I
+had, on the contrary, spoken slightingly of his work and of himself,
+for the purpose of conciliating the favour of Dr. Butler, the master,
+who had been severely satirised in one of the poems. Wingfield, who
+was afterwards Lord Powerscourt, a mutual friend of Byron and myself,
+disabused him of the error into which he had been led, and this was
+the occasion of the first letter of the collection. Our conversation
+was renewed and continued from that time till his going abroad.
+Whatever faults Lord Byron might have had towards others, to myself he
+was always uniformly affectionate. I have many slights and neglects
+towards him to reproach myself with; but I cannot call to mind a
+single instance of caprice or unkindness, in the whole course of our
+intimacy, to allege against him."
+
+In the spring of this year (1808) appeared the memorable critique
+upon the "Hours of Idleness" in the Edinburgh Review. That he had some
+notice of what was to be expected from that quarter, appears by the
+following letter to his friend, Mr. Becher.
+
+
+LETTER 24.
+
+TO MR. BECHER.
+
+"Dorant's Hotel, Feb. 26. 1803.
+
+
+"My dear Becher,
+
+"Now for Apollo. I am happy that you still retain your predilection,
+and that the public allow me some share of praise. I am of so much
+importance, that a most violent attack is preparing for me in the next
+number of the Edinburgh Review. This I had from the authority of a
+friend who has seen the proof and manuscript of the critique. You know
+the system of the Edinburgh gentlemen is universal attack. They praise
+none; and neither the public nor the author expects praise from them.
+It is, however, something to be noticed, as they profess to pass
+judgment only on works requiring the public attention. You will see
+this when it comes out;--it is, I understand, of the most unmerciful
+description; but I am aware of it, and hope you will not be hurt by
+its severity.
+
+"Tell Mrs. Byron not to be out of humour with them, and to prepare her
+mind for the greatest hostility on their part. It will do no injury
+whatever, and I trust her mind will not be ruffled. They defeat their
+object by indiscriminate abuse, and they never praise except the
+partisans of Lord Holland and Co. It is nothing to be abused when
+Southey, Moore, Lauderdale, Strangford, and Payne Knight, share the
+same fate.
+
+"I am sorry--but 'Childish Recollections' must be suppressed during
+this edition. I have altered, at your suggestion, the _obnoxious
+allusions_ in the sixth stanza of my last ode.
+
+"And now, my dear Becher, I must return my best acknowledgments for
+the interest you have taken in me and my poetical bantlings, and I
+shall ever be proud to show how much I esteem the _advice_ and the
+_adviser_.
+
+Believe me, most truly," &c.
+
+
+Soon after this letter appeared the dreaded article,--an article
+which, if not "witty in itself," deserved eminently the credit of
+causing "wit in others." Seldom, indeed, has it fallen to the lot of
+the justest criticism to attain celebrity such as injustice has
+procured for this; nor as long as the short, but glorious race of
+Byron's genius is remembered, can the critic, whoever he may be, that
+so unintentionally ministered to its first start, be forgotten.
+
+It is but justice, however, to remark,--without at the same time
+intending any excuse for the contemptuous tone of criticism assumed by
+the reviewer,--that the early verses of Lord Byron, however
+distinguished by tenderness and grace, give but little promise of
+those dazzling miracles of poesy with which he afterwards astonished
+and enchanted the world; and that, if his youthful verses now have a
+peculiar charm in our eyes, it is because we read them, as it were, by
+the light of his subsequent glory.
+
+There is, indeed, one point of view, in which these productions are
+deeply and intrinsically interesting. As faithful reflections of his
+character at that period of life, they enable us to judge of what he
+was in his yet unadulterated state,--before disappointment had begun
+to embitter his ardent spirit, or the stirring up of the energies of
+his nature had brought into activity also its defects. Tracing him
+thus through these natural effusions of his young genius, we find him
+pictured exactly such, in all the features of his character, as every
+anecdote of his boyish days proves him really to have been, proud,
+daring, and passionate,--resentful of slight or injustice, but still
+more so in the cause of others than in his own; and yet, with all this
+vehemence, docile and placable, at the least touch of a hand
+authorised by love to guide him. The affectionateness, indeed, of his
+disposition, traceable as it is through every page of this volume, is
+yet but faintly done justice to, even by himself;--his whole youth
+being, from earliest childhood, a series of the most passionate
+attachments,--of those overflowings of the soul, both in friendship
+and love, which are still more rarely responded to than felt, and
+which, when checked or sent back upon the heart, are sure to turn into
+bitterness. We have seen also, in some of his early unpublished poems,
+how apparent, even through the doubts that already clouded them, are
+those feelings of piety which a soul like his could not but possess,
+and which, when afterwards diverted out of their legitimate channel,
+found a vent in the poetical worship of nature, and in that shadowy
+substitute for religion which superstition offers. When, in addition,
+too, to these traits of early character, we find scattered through
+his youthful poems such anticipations of the glory that awaited
+him,--such, alternately, proud and saddened glimpses into the future,
+as if he already felt the elements of something great within him, but
+doubted whether his destiny would allow him to bring it forth,--it is
+not wonderful that, with the whole of his career present to our
+imaginations, we should see a lustre round these first puerile
+attempts not really their own, but shed back upon them from the bright
+eminence which he afterwards attained; and that, in our indignation
+against the fastidious blindness of the critic, we should forget that
+he had not then the aid of this reflected charm, with which the
+subsequent achievements of the poet now irradiate all that bears his
+name.
+
+The effect this criticism produced upon him can only be conceived by
+those who, besides having an adequate notion of what most poets would
+feel under such an attack, can understand all that there was in the
+temper and disposition of Lord Byron to make him feel it with tenfold
+more acuteness than others. We have seen with what feverish anxiety he
+awaited the verdicts of all the minor Reviews, and, from his
+sensibility to the praise of the meanest of these censors, may guess
+how painfully he must have writhed under the sneers of the highest. A
+friend, who found him in the first moments of excitement after reading
+the article, enquired anxiously whether he had just received a
+challenge?--not knowing how else to account for the fierce defiance of
+his looks. It would, indeed, be difficult for sculptor or painter to
+imagine a subject of more fearful beauty than the fine countenance of
+the young poet must have exhibited in the collected energy of that
+crisis. His pride had been wounded to the quick, and his ambition
+humbled;--but this feeling of humiliation lasted but for a moment. The
+very re-action of his spirit against aggression roused him to a full
+consciousness of his own powers;[90] and the pain and the shame of the
+injury were forgotten in the proud certainty of revenge.
+
+Among the less sentimental effects of this review upon his mind, he
+used to mention that, on the day he read it, he drank three bottles of
+claret to his own share after dinner;--that nothing, however, relieved
+him till he had given vent to his indignation in rhyme, and that
+"after the first twenty lines, he felt himself considerably better."
+His chief care, indeed, afterwards, was amiably devoted,--as we have
+seen it was, in like manner, _before_ the criticism,--to allaying,
+as far as he could, the sensitiveness of his mother; who, not having
+the same motive or power to summon up a spirit of resistance, was, of
+course, more helplessly alive to this attack upon his fame, and felt
+it far more than, after the first burst of indignation, he did
+himself. But the state of his mind upon the subject will be best
+understood from the following letter.
+
+
+LETTER 25.
+
+TO MR. BECKER.
+
+"Dorant's, March 28. 1808.
+
+
+"I have lately received a copy of the new edition from Ridge, and it
+is high time for me to return my best thanks to you for the trouble
+you have taken in the superintendence. This I do most sincerely, and
+only regret that Ridge has not seconded you as I could wish,--at
+least, in the bindings, paper, &c., of the copy he sent to me. Perhaps
+those for the public may be more respectable in such articles.
+
+You have seen the Edinburgh Review, of course. I regret that Mrs.
+Byron is so much annoyed. For my own part, these 'paper bullets of the
+brain' have only taught me to stand fire; and, as I have been lucky
+enough upon the whole, my repose and appetite are not discomposed.
+Pratt, the gleaner, author, poet, &c. &c., addressed a long rhyming
+epistle to me on the subject, by way of consolation; but it was not
+well done, so I do not send it, though the name of the man might make
+it go down. The E. R^s. have not performed their task well; at least
+the literati tell me this; and I think _I_ could write a more
+sarcastic critique on _myself_ than any yet published. For instance,
+instead of the remark,--ill-natured enough, but not keen,--about
+Macpherson, I (quoad reviewers) could have said, 'Alas, this imitation
+only proves the assertion of Dr. Johnson, that many men, women, and
+_children_, could write such poetry as Ossian's.'
+
+"I am _thin_ and in exercise. During the spring or summer I trust we
+shall meet. I hear Lord Ruthyn leaves Newstead in April. As soon as he
+quits it for ever, I wish much you would take a ride over, survey the
+mansion, and give me your candid opinion on the most advisable mode of
+proceeding with regard to the _house_. _Entre nous_, I am cursedly
+dipped; my debts, _every_ thing inclusive, will be nine or ten
+thousand before I am twenty-one. But I have reason to think my
+property will turn out better than general expectation may conceive.
+Of Newstead I have little hope or care; but Hanson, my agent,
+intimated my Lancashire property was worth three Newsteads. I believe
+we have it hollow; though the defendants are protracting the
+surrender, if possible, till after my majority, for the purpose of
+forming some arrangement with me, thinking I shall probably prefer a
+sum in hand to a reversion. Newstead I may _sell_;--perhaps I will
+not,--though of that more anon. I will come down in May or June.
+
+"Yours most truly," &c.
+
+
+The sort of life which he led at this period between the dissipations
+of London and of Cambridge, without a home to welcome, or even the
+roof of a single relative to receive him, was but little calculated to
+render him satisfied either with himself or the world. Unrestricted as
+he was by deference to any will but his own,[91] even the pleasures
+to which he was naturally most inclined prematurely palled upon him,
+for want of those best zests of all enjoyment, rarity and restraint. I
+have already quoted, from one of his note-books, a passage descriptive
+of his feelings on first going to Cambridge, in which he says that
+"one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of his life was to feel
+that he was no longer a boy."--"From that moment (he adds) I began to
+grow old in my own esteem, and in my esteem age is not estimable. I
+took my gradations in the vices with great promptitude, but they were
+not to my taste; for my early passions, though violent in the extreme,
+were concentrated, and hated division or spreading abroad. I could
+have left or lost the whole world with, or for, that which I loved;
+but, though my temperament was naturally burning, I could not share in
+the common-place libertinism of the place and time without disgust.
+And yet this very disgust, and my heart thrown back upon itself, threw
+me into excesses perhaps more fatal than those from which I shrunk, as
+fixing upon one (at a time) the passions which spread amongst many
+would have hurt only myself."
+
+Though, from the causes here alleged, the irregularities he, at this
+period, gave way to were of a nature far less gross and miscellaneous
+than those, perhaps, of any of his associates, yet, partly from the
+vehemence which this concentration caused, and, still more, from that
+strange pride in his own errors, which led him always to bring them
+forth in the most conspicuous light, it so happened that one single
+indiscretion, in his hands, was made to _go farther_, if I may so
+express it, than a thousand in those of others. An instance of this,
+that occurred about the time of which we are speaking, was, I am
+inclined to think, the sole foundation of the mysterious allusions
+just cited. An amour (if it may be dignified with such a name) of that
+sort of casual description which less attachable natures would have
+forgotten, and more prudent ones at least concealed, was by him
+converted, at this period, and with circumstances of most unnecessary
+display, into a connection of some continuance,--the object of it not
+only becoming domesticated with him in lodgings at Brompton, but
+accompanied him afterwards, disguised in boy's clothes, to Brighton.
+He introduced this young person, who used to ride about with him in
+her male attire, as his younger brother; and the late Lady P----, who
+was at Brighton at the time, and had some suspicion of the real nature
+of the relationship, said one day to the poet's companion, "What a
+pretty horse that is you are riding!"--"Yes," answered the pretended
+cavalier, "it was _gave_ me by my brother!"
+
+Beattie tells us, of his ideal poet,--
+
+    "The exploits of strength, dexterity, or speed,
+     To him nor vanity nor joy could bring."
+
+But far different were the tastes of the real poet, Byron; and among
+the least romantic, perhaps, of the exercises in which he took delight
+was that of boxing or sparring. This taste it was that, at a very
+early period, brought him acquainted with the distinguished professor
+of that art, Mr. Jackson, for whom he continued through life to
+entertain the sincerest regard, one of his latest works containing a
+most cordial tribute not only to the professional, but social
+qualities of this sole prop and ornament of pugilism.[92] During his
+stay at Brighton this year, Jackson was one of his most constant
+visiters,--the expense of the professor's chaise thither and back
+being always defrayed by his noble patron. He also honoured with his
+notice, at this time, D'Egville, the ballet-master, and Grimaldi; to
+the latter of whom he sent, as I understand, on one of his benefit
+nights, a present of five guineas.
+
+Having been favoured by Mr. Jackson with copies of the few notes and
+letters, which he has preserved out of the many addressed to him by
+Lord Byron, I shall here lay before the reader one or two, which bear
+the date of the present year, and which, though referring to matters
+of no interest in themselves, give, perhaps, a better notion of the
+actual life and habits of the young poet, at this time, than could be
+afforded by the most elaborate and, in other respects, important
+correspondence. They will show, at least, how very little akin to
+romance were the early pursuits and associates of the author of Childe
+Harold, and, combined with what we know of the still less romantic
+youth of Shakspeare, prove how unhurt the vital principle of genius
+can preserve itself even in atmospheres apparently the most ungenial
+and noxious to it.
+
+
+LETTER 26.
+
+TO MR. JACKSON.
+
+"N.A., Notts. September 18. 1808.
+
+
+"Dear Jack,
+
+"I wish you would inform me what has been done by Jekyll, at No. 40.
+Sloane Square, concerning the pony I returned as unsound.
+
+"I have also to request you will call on Louch at Brompton, and
+enquire what the devil he meant by sending such an insolent letter to
+me at Brighton; and at the same time tell him I by no means can comply
+with the charge he has made for things pretended to be damaged.
+
+"Ambrose behaved most scandalously about the pony. You may tell Jekyll
+if he does not refund the money, I shall put the affair into my
+lawyer's hands. Five and twenty guineas is a sound price for a pony,
+and by ----, if it costs me five hundred pounds, I will make an
+example of Mr. Jekyll, and that immediately, unless the cash is
+returned.
+
+"Believe me, dear Jack," &c.
+
+
+LETTER 27.
+
+TO MR. JACKSON.
+
+"N.A., Notts. October 4. 1808.
+
+
+"You will make as good a bargain as possible with this Master Jekyll,
+if he is not a gentleman. If he is a _gentleman_, inform me, for I
+shall take very different steps. If he is not, you must get what you
+can of the money, for I have too much business on hand at present to
+commence an action. Besides, Ambrose is the man who ought to
+refund,--but I have done with him. You can settle with L. out of the
+balance, and dispose of the bidets, &c. as you best can.
+
+"I should be very glad to see you here; but the house is filled with
+workmen, and undergoing a thorough repair. I hope, however, to be more
+fortunate before many months have elapsed.
+
+"If you see Bold Webster, remember me to him, and tell him I have to
+regret Sydney, who has perished, I fear, in my rabbit warren, for we
+have seen nothing of him for the last fortnight.
+
+"Adieu.--Believe me," &c.
+
+
+LETTER 28.
+
+TO MR. JACKSON.
+
+"N.A., Notts. December 12. 1808.
+
+
+"My dear Jack,
+
+"You will get the greyhound from the owner at any price, and as many
+more of the same breed (male or female) as you can collect.
+
+"Tell D'Egville his dress shall be returned--I am obliged to him for
+the pattern. I am sorry you should have so much trouble, but I was not
+aware of the difficulty of procuring the animals in question. I shall
+have finished part of my mansion in a few weeks, and, if you can pay
+me a visit at Christmas, I shall be very glad to see you.
+
+"Believe me," &c.
+
+
+The dress alluded to here was, no doubt, wanted for a private play,
+which he, at this time, got up at Newstead, and of which there are
+some further particulars in the annexed letter to Mr. Becher.
+
+
+LETTER 29.
+
+TO MR. BECHER.
+
+"Newstead Abbey, Notts. Sept. 14. 1808.
+
+
+"My dear Becher,
+
+"I am much obliged to you for your enquiries, and shall profit by them
+accordingly. I am going to get up a play here; the hall will
+constitute a most admirable theatre. I have settled the dram. pers.,
+and can do without ladies, as I have some young friends who will make
+tolerable substitutes for females, and we only want three male
+characters, beside Mr. Hobhouse and myself, for the play we have fixed
+on, which will be the Revenge. Pray direct Nicholson the carpenter to
+come over to me immediately, and inform me what day you will dine and
+pass the night here.
+
+"Believe me," &c.
+
+
+It was in the autumn of this year, as the letters I have just given
+indicate, that he, for the first time, took up his residence at
+Newstead Abbey. Having received the place in a most ruinous condition
+from the hands of its late occupant, Lord Grey de Ruthyn, he proceeded
+immediately to repair and fit up some of the apartments, so as to
+render them--more with a view to his mother's accommodation than his
+own--comfortably habitable. In one of his letters to Mrs. Byron,
+published by Mr. Dallas, he thus explains his views and intentions on
+this subject.
+
+
+LETTER 30.
+
+TO THE HONOURABLE[93] MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Newstead Abbey, Notts. October 7. 1808.
+
+
+"Dear Madam,
+
+"I have no beds for the H----s or any body else at present. The H----s
+sleep at Mansfield. I do not know, that I resemble Jean Jacques
+Rousseau. I have no ambition to be like so illustrious a madman--but
+this I know, that I shall live in my own manner, and as much alone as
+possible. When my rooms are ready I shall be glad to see you: at
+present it would be improper and uncomfortable to both parties. You
+can hardly object to my rendering my mansion habitable,
+notwithstanding my departure for Persia in March (or May at farthest),
+since _you_ will be _tenant_ till my return; and in case of any
+accident (for I have already arranged my will to be drawn up the
+moment I am twenty-one), I have taken care you shall have the house
+and manor for _life_, besides a sufficient income. So you see my
+improvements are not entirely selfish. As I have a friend here, we
+will go to the Infirmary Ball on the 12th; we will drink tea with Mrs.
+Byron at eight o'clock, and expect to see you at the ball. If that
+lady will allow us a couple of rooms to dress in, we shall be highly
+obliged:--if we are at the ball by ten or eleven it will be time
+enough, and we shall return to Newstead about three or four. Adieu.
+
+"Believe me yours very truly,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+The idea, entertained by Mrs. Byron, of a resemblance between her son
+and Rousseau was founded chiefly, we may suppose, on those habits of
+solitariness, in which he had even already shown a disposition to
+follow that self-contemplative philosopher, and which, manifesting
+themselves thus early, gained strength as he advanced in life. In one
+of his Journals, to which I frequently have occasion to refer,[94] he
+thus, in questioning the justice of this comparison between himself
+and Rousseau, gives,--as usual, vividly,--some touches of his own
+disposition and habitudes:--
+
+"My mother, before I was twenty, would have it that I was like
+Rousseau, and Madame de Stael used to say so too in 1813, and the
+Edinburgh Review has something of the sort in its critique on the
+fourth Canto of Childe Harold. I can't see any point of
+resemblance:--he wrote prose, I verse: he was of the people; I of the
+aristocracy:[95] he was a philosopher; I am none: he published his
+first work at forty; I mine at eighteen: his first essay brought him
+universal applause; mine the contrary: he married his housekeeper; I
+could not keep house with my wife: he thought all the world in a plot
+against him; my little world seems to think me in a plot against it,
+if I may judge by their abuse in print and coterie: he liked botany; I
+like flowers, herbs, and trees, but know nothing of their pedigrees:
+he wrote music; I limit my knowledge of it to what I catch by _ear_--I
+never could learn any thing by _study_, not even a _language_--it was
+all by rote, and ear, and memory: he had a _bad_ memory; I _had_, at
+least, an excellent one (ask Hodgson the poet--a good judge, for he
+has an astonishing one): he wrote with hesitation and care; I with
+rapidity, and rarely with pains: _he_ could never ride, nor swim, nor
+'was cunning of fence;' _I_ am an excellent swimmer, a decent, though
+not at all a dashing, rider, (having staved in a rib at eighteen, in
+the course of scampering), and was sufficient of fence, particularly
+of the Highland broadsword,--not a bad boxer, when I could keep my
+temper, which was difficult, but which I strove to do ever since I
+knocked down Mr. Purling, and put his knee-pan out (with the gloves
+on), in Angelo's and Jackson's rooms in 1806, during the
+sparring,--and I was, besides, a very fair cricketer,--one of the
+Harrow eleven, when we played against Eton in 1805. Besides,
+Rousseau's way of life, his country, his manners, his whole character,
+were so very different, that I am at a loss to conceive how such a
+comparison could have arisen, as it has done three several times, and
+all in rather a remarkable manner. I forgot to say that _he_ was also
+short-sighted, and that hitherto my eyes have been the contrary, to
+such a degree that, in the largest theatre of Bologna, I distinguished
+and read some busts and inscriptions, painted near the stage, from a
+box so distant and so _darkly_ lighted, that none of the company
+(composed of young and very bright-eyed people, some of them in the
+same box,) could make out a letter, and thought it was a trick, though
+I had never been in that theatre before.
+
+"Altogether, I think myself justified in thinking the comparison not
+well founded. I don't say this out of pique, for Rousseau was a great
+man; and the thing, if true, were flattering enough;--but I have no
+idea of being pleased with the chimera."
+
+In another letter to his mother, dated some weeks after the preceding
+one, he explains further his plans both with respect to Newstead and
+his projected travels.
+
+
+LETTER 31.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Newstead Abbey, November 2. 1808.
+
+
+"Dear Mother,
+
+"If you please, we will forget the things you mention. I have no
+desire to remember them. When my rooms are finished, I shall be happy
+to see you; as I tell but the truth, you will not suspect me of
+evasion. I am furnishing the house more for you than myself, and I
+shall establish you in it before I sail for India, which I expect to
+do in March, if nothing particularly obstructive occurs. I am now
+fitting up the _green_ drawing-room; the red for a bed-room, and the
+rooms over as sleeping-rooms. They will be soon completed;--at least I
+hope so.
+
+"I wish you would enquire of Major Watson (who is an old Indian) what
+things will be necessary to provide for my voyage. I have already
+procured a friend to write to the Arabic Professor at Cambridge, for
+some information I am anxious to procure. I can easily get letters
+from government to the ambassadors, consuls, &c., and also to the
+governors at Calcutta and Madras. I shall place my property and my
+will in the hands of trustees till my return, and I mean to appoint
+you one. From H---- I have heard nothing--when I do, you shall have
+the particulars.
+
+"After all, you must own my project is not a bad one. If I do not
+travel now, I never shall, and all men should one day or other. I have
+at present no connections to keep me at home; no wife, or unprovided
+sisters, brothers, &c. I shall take care of you, and when I return I
+may possibly become a politician. A few years' knowledge of other
+countries than our own will not incapacitate me for that part. If we
+see no nation but our own, we do not give mankind a fair chance:--it
+is from _experience_, not books, we ought to judge of them. There is
+nothing like inspection, and trusting to our own senses.
+
+"Yours," &c.
+
+
+In the November of this year he lost his favourite dog,
+Boatswain,--the poor animal having been seized with a fit of madness,
+at the commencement of which so little aware was Lord Byron of the
+nature of the malady, that he more than once, with his bare hand,
+wiped away the slaver from the dog's lips during the paroxysms. In a
+letter to his friend, Mr. Hodgson,[96] he thus announces this
+event:--"Boatswain is dead!--he expired in a state of madness on the
+18th, after suffering much, yet retaining all the gentleness of his
+nature to the last, never attempting to do the least injury to any one
+near him. I have now lost every thing except old Murray."
+
+The monument raised by him to this dog,--the most memorable tribute of
+the kind, since the Dog's Grave, of old, at Salamis,--is still a
+conspicuous ornament of the gardens of Newstead. The misanthropic
+verses engraved upon it may be found among his poems, and the
+following is the inscription by which they are introduced:--
+
+                  "Near this spot
+           Are deposited the Remains of one
+          Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
+              Strength without Insolence,
+               Courage without Ferocity,
+     And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
+    This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
+             If inscribed over human ashes,
+         Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
+                   BOATSWAIN, a Dog,
+         Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803,
+      And died at Newstead Abbey, November 18. 1808."
+
+The poet, Pope, when about the same age as the writer of this
+inscription, passed a similar eulogy on his dog,[97] at the expense of
+human nature; adding, that "Histories are more full of examples of the
+fidelity of dogs than of friends." In a still sadder and bitterer
+spirit, Lord Byron writes of his favourite,
+
+     "To mark a friend's remains these stones arise; I never knew
+      but one, and here he lies."[98]
+
+Melancholy, indeed, seems to have been gaining fast upon his mind at
+this period. In another letter to Mr. Hodgson, he says,--"You know
+laughing is the sign of a rational animal--so says Dr. Smollet. I
+think so too, but unluckily my spirits don't always keep pace with my
+opinions."
+
+Old Murray, the servant whom he mentions, in a preceding extract, as
+the only faithful follower now remaining to him, had long been in the
+service of the former lord, and was regarded by the young poet with a
+fondness of affection which it has seldom been the lot of age and
+dependence to inspire. "I have more than once," says a gentleman who
+was at this time a constant visiter at Newstead, "seen Lord Byron at
+the dinner-table fill out a tumbler of Madeira, and hand it over his
+shoulder to Joe Murray, who stood behind his chair, saying, with a
+cordiality that brightened his whole countenance, 'Here, my old
+fellow.'"
+
+The unconcern with which he could sometimes allude to the defect in
+his foot is manifest from another passage in one of these letters to
+Mr. Hodgson. That gentleman having said jestingly that some of the
+verses in the "Hours of Idleness" were calculated to make schoolboys
+rebellious, Lord Byron answers--"If my songs have produced the
+glorious effects you mention, I shall be a complete Tyrtaeus;--though
+I am sorry to say I resemble that interesting harper more in his
+person than in his poesy." Sometimes, too, even an allusion to this
+infirmity by others, when he could perceive that it was not
+offensively intended, was borne by him with the most perfect good
+humour. "I was once present," says the friend I have just mentioned,
+"in a large and mixed company, when a vulgar person asked him
+aloud--'Pray, my Lord, how is that foot of yours?'--'Thank you, sir,'
+answered Lord Byron, with the utmost mildness--'much the same as
+usual.'"
+
+The following extract, relating to a reverend friend of his Lordship,
+is from another of his letters to Mr. Hodgson, this year:--
+
+"A few weeks ago I wrote to ----, to request he would receive the son
+of a citizen of London, well known to me, as a pupil; the family
+having been particularly polite during the short time I was with them
+induced me to this application. Now, mark what follows, as somebody
+sublimely saith. On this day arrives an epistle signed ----,
+containing not the smallest reference to tuition or _in_tuition, but a
+_pe_tition for Robert Gregson, of pugilistic notoriety, now in bondage
+for certain paltry pounds sterling, and liable to take up his
+everlasting abode in Banco Regis. Had the letter been from any of my
+_lay_ acquaintance, or, in short, from any person but the gentleman
+whose signature it bears, I should have marvelled not. If ---- is
+serious, I congratulate pugilism on the acquisition of such a patron,
+and shall be most happy to advance any sum necessary for the
+liberation of the captive Gregson. But I certainly hope to be
+certified from you, or some respectable housekeeper, of the fact,
+before I write to ---- on the subject. When I say the _fact_, I mean
+of the letter being written by ----, not having any doubt as to the
+authenticity of the statement. The letter is now before me, and I keep
+it for your perusal."
+
+His time at Newstead during this autumn was principally occupied in
+enlarging and preparing his Satire for the press; and with the view,
+perhaps, of mellowing his own judgment of its merits, by keeping it
+some time before his eyes in a printed form,[99] he had proofs taken
+off from the manuscript by his former publisher at Newark. It is
+somewhat remarkable, that, excited as he was by the attack of the
+reviewers, and possessing, at all times, such rapid powers of
+composition, he should have allowed so long an interval to elapse
+between the aggression and the revenge. But the importance of his next
+move in literature seems to have been fully appreciated by him. He saw
+that his chances of future eminence now depended upon the effort he
+was about to make, and therefore deliberately collected all his
+energies for the spring. Among the preparatives by which he
+disciplined his talent to the task was a deep study of the writings of
+Pope; and I have no doubt that from this period may be dated the
+enthusiastic admiration which he ever after cherished for this great
+poet,--an admiration which at last extinguished in him, after one or
+two trials, all hope of pre-eminence in the same track, and drove him
+thenceforth to seek renown in fields more open to competition.
+
+The misanthropic mood of mind into which he had fallen at this time,
+from disappointed affections and thwarted hopes, made the office of
+satirist but too congenial and welcome to his spirit. Yet it is
+evident that this bitterness existed far more in his fancy than his
+heart; and that the sort of relief he now found in making war upon the
+world arose much less from the indiscriminate wounds he dealt around,
+than from the new sense of power he became conscious of in dealing
+them, and by which he more than recovered his former station in his
+own esteem. In truth, the versatility and ease with which, as shall
+presently be shown, he could, on the briefest consideration, shift
+from praise to censure, and, sometimes, almost as rapidly, from
+censure to praise, shows how fanciful and transient were the
+impressions under which he, in many instances, pronounced his
+judgments; and though it may in some degree deduct from the weight of
+his eulogy, absolves him also from any great depth of malice in his
+Satire.
+
+His coming of age, in 1809, was celebrated at Newstead by such
+festivities as his narrow means and society could furnish. Besides the
+ritual roasting of an ox, there was a ball, it seems, given on the
+occasion,--of which the only particular I could collect, from the old
+domestic who mentioned it, was, that Mr. Hanson, the agent of her
+lord, was among the dancers. Of Lord Byron's own method of
+commemorating the day, I find the following curious record in a letter
+written from Genoa in 1822:--"Did I ever tell you that the day I came
+of age I dined on eggs and bacon and a bottle of ale?--For once in a
+way they are my favourite dish and drinkable; but as neither of them
+agree with me, I never use them but on great jubilees,--in four or
+five years or so." The pecuniary supplies necessary towards his
+outset, at this epoch, were procured from money-lenders at an
+enormously usurious interest, the payment of which for a long time
+continued to be a burden to him.
+
+It was not till the beginning of this year that he took his
+Satire,--in a state ready, as he thought, for publication,--to London.
+Before, however, he had put the work to press, new food was unluckily
+furnished to his spleen by the neglect with which he conceived himself
+to have been treated by his guardian, Lord Carlisle. The relations
+between this nobleman and his ward had, at no time, been of such a
+nature as to afford opportunities for the cultivation of much
+friendliness on either side; and to the temper and influence of Mrs.
+Byron must mainly be attributed the blame of widening, if not of
+producing, this estrangement between them. The coldness with which
+Lord Carlisle had received the dedication of the young poet's first
+volume was, as we have seen from one of the letters of the latter,
+felt by him most deeply. He, however, allowed himself to be so far
+governed by prudential considerations as not only to stifle this
+displeasure, but even to introduce into his Satire, as originally
+intended for the press, the following compliment to his guardian:--
+
+    "On one alone Apollo deigns to smile,
+     And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle."
+
+The crown, however, thus generously awarded, did not long remain where
+it had been placed. In the interval between the inditing of this
+couplet and the delivery of the manuscript to the press, Lord Byron,
+under the impression that it was customary for a young peer, on first
+taking his seat, to have some friend to introduce him, wrote to remind
+Lord Carlisle that he should be of age at the commencement of the
+session. Instead, however, of the sort of answer which he expected, a
+mere formal, and, as it appeared to him, cold reply, acquainting him
+with the technical mode of proceeding on such occasions, was all that,
+in return to this application, he received. Disposed as he had been,
+by preceding circumstances, to suspect his noble guardian of no very
+friendly inclinations towards him, this backwardness in proposing to
+introduce him to the House (a ceremony, however, as it appears, by no
+means necessary or even usual) was sufficient to rouse in his
+sensitive mind a strong feeling of resentment. The indignation, thus
+excited, found a vent, but too temptingly, at hand;--the laudatory
+couplet I have just cited was instantly expunged, and his Satire went
+forth charged with those vituperative verses against Lord Carlisle, of
+which, gratifying as they must have been to his revenge at the moment,
+he, not long after, with the placability so inherent in his generous
+nature, repented.[100]
+
+During the progress of his poem through the press, he increased its
+length by more than a hundred lines; and made several alterations, one
+or two of which may be mentioned, as illustrative of that prompt
+susceptibility of new impressions and influences which rendered both
+his judgment and feelings so variable. In the Satire, as it originally
+stood, was the following couplet:--
+
+    "Though printers condescend the press to soil
+     With odes by Smythe, and epic songs by Hoyle."
+
+Of the injustice of these lines (unjust, it is but fair to say, to
+both the writers mentioned,) he, on the brink of publication,
+repented; and,--as far, at least, as regarded one of the intended
+victims,--adopted a tone directly opposite in his printed Satire,
+where the name of Professor Smythe is mentioned honourably, as it
+deserved, in conjunction with that of Mr. Hodgson, one of the poet's
+most valued friends:--
+
+    "Oh dark asylum of a Vandal race!
+     At once the boast of learning and disgrace;
+     So sunk in dulness, and so lost in shame,
+     That Smythe and Hodgson scarce redeem thy fame."
+
+In another instance we find him "changing his hand" with equal
+facility and suddenness. The original manuscript of the Satire
+contained this line,--
+
+    "I leave topography to coxcomb Gell;"
+
+but having, while the work was printing, become acquainted with Sir
+William Gell, he, without difficulty, by the change of a single
+epithet, converted satire into eulogy, and the line now descends to
+posterity thus:--
+
+    "I leave topography to _classic_ Gell."[101]
+
+Among the passages added to the poem during its progress through the
+press were those lines denouncing the licentiousness of the Opera.
+"Then let Ausonia," &c. which the young satirist wrote one night,
+after returning, brimful of morality, from the Opera, and sent them
+early next morning to Mr. Dallas for insertion. The just and animated
+tribute to Mr. Crabbe was also among the after-thoughts with which his
+poem was adorned; nor can we doubt that both this, and the equally
+merited eulogy on Mr. Rogers, were the disinterested and deliberate
+result of the young poet's judgment, as he had never at that period
+seen either of these distinguished persons, and the opinion he then
+expressed of their genius remained unchanged through life. With the
+author of the Pleasures of Memory he afterwards became intimate, but
+with him, whom he had so well designated as "Nature's sternest
+painter, yet the best," he was never lucky enough to form any
+acquaintance;--though, as my venerated friend and neighbour, Mr.
+Crabbe himself, tells me, they were once, without being aware of it,
+in the same inn together for a day or two, and must have frequently
+met, as they went in and out of the house, during the time.
+
+Almost every second day, while the Satire was printing, Mr. Dallas,
+who had undertaken to superintend it through the press, received fresh
+matter, for the enrichment of its pages, from the author, whose mind,
+once excited on any subject, knew no end to the outpourings of its
+wealth. In one of his short notes to Mr. Dallas, he says, "Print soon,
+or I shall overflow with rhyme;" and it was, in the same manner, in
+all his subsequent publications,--as long, at least, as he remained
+within reach of the printer,--that he continued thus to feed the
+press, to the very last moment, with new and "thick-coming fancies,"
+which the re-perusal of what he had already written suggested to him.
+It would almost seem, indeed, from the extreme facility and rapidity
+with which he produced some of his brightest passages during the
+progress of his works through the press, that there was in the very
+act of printing an excitement to his fancy, and that the rush of his
+thoughts towards this outlet gave increased life and freshness to
+their flow.
+
+Among the passing events from which he now caught illustrations for
+his poem was the melancholy death of Lord Falkland,--a gallant, but
+dissipated naval officer, with whom the habits of his town life had
+brought him acquainted, and who, about the beginning of March, was
+killed in a duel by Mr. Powell. That this event affected Lord Byron
+very deeply, the few touching sentences devoted to it in his Satire
+prove. "On Sunday night (he says) I beheld Lord Falkland presiding at
+his own table in all the honest pride of hospitality; on Wednesday
+morning at three o'clock I saw stretched before me all that remained
+of courage, feeling, and a host of passions." But it was not by words
+only that he gave proof of sympathy on this occasion. The family of
+the unfortunate nobleman were left behind in circumstances which
+needed something more than the mere expression of compassion to
+alleviate them; and Lord Byron, notwithstanding the pressure of his
+own difficulties at the time, found means, seasonably and delicately,
+to assist the widow and children of his friend. In the following
+letter to Mrs. Byron, he mentions this among other matters of
+interest,--and in a tone of unostentatious sensibility highly
+honourable to him.
+
+
+LETTER 32.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"8. St. James's Street, March 6. 1809.
+
+
+"Dear Mother,
+
+"My last letter was written under great depression of spirits from
+poor Falkland's death, who has left without a shilling four children
+and his wife. I have been endeavouring to assist them, which, God
+knows, I cannot do as I could wish, from my own embarrassments and
+the many claims upon me from other quarters.
+
+"What you say is all very true: come what may, _Newstead_ and I
+_stand_ or fall together. I have now lived on the spot, I have fixed
+my heart upon it, and no pressure, present or future, shall induce me
+to barter the last vestige of our inheritance. I have that pride
+within me which will enable me to support difficulties. I can endure
+privations; but could I obtain in exchange for Newstead Abbey the
+first fortune in the country I would reject the proposition. Set your
+mind at ease on that score; Mr. H---- talks like a man of business on
+the subject,--I feel like a man of honour, and I will not sell
+Newstead.
+
+"I shall get my seat on the return of the affidavits from Carhais, in
+Cornwall, and will do something in the House soon: I must dash, or it
+is all over. My Satire must be kept secret for a month; after that you
+may say what you please on the subject. Lord C. has used me
+infamously, and refused to state any particulars of my family to the
+Chancellor. I have _lashed_ him in my rhymes, and perhaps his Lordship
+may regret not being more conciliatory. They tell me it will have a
+sale; I hope so, for the bookseller has behaved well, as far as
+publishing well goes.
+
+"Believe me, &c.
+
+"P.S.--You shall have a mortgage on one of the farms."
+
+
+The affidavits which he here mentions, as expected from Cornwall, were
+those required in proof of the marriage of Admiral Byron with Miss
+Trevanion, the solemnisation of which having taken place, as it
+appears, in a private chapel at Carhais, no regular certificate of the
+ceremony could be produced. The delay in procuring other evidence,
+coupled with the refusal of Lord Carlisle to afford any explanations
+respecting his family, interposed those difficulties which he alludes
+to in the way of his taking his seat. At length, all the necessary
+proofs having been obtained, he, on the 13th of March, presented
+himself in the House of Lords, in a state more lone and unfriended,
+perhaps, than any youth of his high station had ever before been
+reduced to on such an occasion,--not having a single individual of his
+own class either to take him by the hand as friend or acknowledge him
+as acquaintance. To chance alone was he even indebted for being
+accompanied as far as the bar of the House by a very distant relative,
+who had been, little more than a year before, an utter stranger to
+him. This relative was Mr. Dallas; and the account which he has given
+of the whole scene is too striking in all its details to be related in
+any other words than his own:--
+
+"The Satire was published about the middle of March, previous to which
+he took his seat in the House of Lords, on the 13th of the same month.
+On that day, passing down St. James's Street, but with no intention of
+calling, I saw his chariot at his door, and went in. His countenance,
+paler than usual, showed that his mind was agitated, and that he was
+thinking of the nobleman to whom he had once looked for a hand and
+countenance in his introduction to the House. He said to me--'I am
+glad you happened to come in; I am going to take my seat, perhaps you
+will go with me.' I expressed my readiness to attend him; while, at
+the same time, I concealed the shock I felt on thinking that this
+young man, who, by birth, fortune, and talent, stood high in life,
+should have lived so unconnected and neglected by persons of his own
+rank, that there was not a single member of the senate to which he
+belonged, to whom he could or would apply to introduce him in a manner
+becoming his birth. I saw that he felt the situation, and I fully
+partook his indignation.
+
+"After some talk about the Satire, the last sheets of which were in
+the press, I accompanied Lord Byron to the House. He was received in
+one of the ante-chambers by some of the officers in attendance, with
+whom he settled respecting the fees he had to pay. One of them went to
+apprise the Lord Chancellor of his being there, and soon returned for
+him. There were very few persons in the House. Lord Eldon was going
+through some ordinary business. When Lord Byron entered, I thought he
+looked still paler than before; and he certainly wore a countenance in
+which mortification was mingled with, but subdued by, indignation. He
+passed the woolsack without looking round, and advanced to the table
+where the proper officer was attending to administer the oaths. When
+he had gone through them, the Chancellor quitted his seat, and went
+towards him with a smile, putting out his hand warmly to welcome him;
+and, though I did not catch his words, I saw that he paid him some
+compliment. This was all thrown away upon Lord Byron, who made a stiff
+bow, and put the tips of his fingers into the Chancellor's hand. The
+Chancellor did not press a welcome so received, but resumed his seat;
+while Lord Byron carelessly seated himself for a few minutes on one of
+the empty benches to the left of the throne, usually occupied by the
+lords in opposition. When, on his joining me, I expressed what I had
+felt, he said--'If I had shaken hands heartily, he would have set me
+down for one of his party--but I will have nothing to do with any of
+them, on either side; I have taken my seat, and now I will go abroad.'
+We returned to St. James's Street, but he did not recover his
+spirits."
+
+To this account of a ceremonial so trying to the proud spirit engaged
+in it, and so little likely to abate the bitter feeling of misanthropy
+now growing upon him, I am enabled to add, from his own report in one
+of his note-books, the particulars of the short conversation which he
+held with the Lord Chancellor on the occasion:--
+
+"When I came of age, some delays, on account of some birth and
+marriage certificates from Cornwall, occasioned me not to take my seat
+for several weeks. When these were over, and I had taken the oaths,
+the Chancellor apologised to me for the delay, observing 'that these
+forms were a part of his _duty_.' I begged him to make no apology, and
+added (as he certainly had shown no violent hurry), 'Your Lordship was
+exactly like Tom Thumb' (which was then being acted)--'you did your
+_duty_, and you did _no more_.'"
+
+In a few days after, the Satire made its appearance; and one of the
+first copies was sent, with the following letter, to his friend Mr.
+Harness.
+
+
+LETTER 33.
+
+TO MR. HARNESS.
+
+"8. St. James's Street, March 18. 1809.
+
+
+"There was no necessity for your excuses: if you have time and
+inclination to write, 'for what we receive, the Lord make us
+thankful,'--if I do not hear from you I console myself with the idea
+that you are much more agreeably employed.
+
+"I send down to you by this post a certain Satire lately published,
+and in return for the three and sixpence expenditure upon it, only beg
+that if you should guess the author, you will keep his name secret; at
+least for the present. London is full of the Duke's business. The
+Commons have been at it these last three nights, and are not yet come
+to a decision. I do not know if the affair will be brought before our
+House, unless in the shape of an impeachment. If it makes its
+appearance in a debatable form, I believe I shall be tempted to say
+something on the subject.--I am glad to hear you like Cambridge:
+firstly, because, to know that you are happy is pleasant to one who
+wishes you all possible sub-lunary enjoyment; and, secondly, I admire
+the morality of the sentiment. _Alma Mater_ was to me _injusta
+noverca_; and the old beldam only gave me my M.A. degree because she
+could not avoid it.--[102]You know what a farce a noble Cantab. must
+perform.
+
+"I am going abroad, if possible, in the spring, and before I depart I
+am collecting the pictures of my most intimate schoolfellows; I have
+already a few, and shall want yours, or my cabinet will be incomplete.
+I have employed one of the first miniature painters of the day to take
+them, of course, at my own expense, as I never allow my acquaintance
+to incur the least expenditure to gratify a whim of mine. To mention
+this may seem indelicate; but when I tell you a friend of ours first
+refused to sit, under the idea that he was to disburse on the
+occasion, you will see that it is necessary to state these
+preliminaries to prevent the recurrence of any similar mistake. I
+shall see you in time, and will carry you to the _limner_. It will be
+a tax on your patience for a week, but pray excuse it, as it is
+possible the resemblance may be the sole trace I shall be able to
+preserve of our past friendship and acquaintance. Just now it seems
+foolish enough, but in a few years, when some of us are dead, and
+others are separated by inevitable circumstances, it will be a kind of
+satisfaction to retain in these images of the living the idea of our
+former selves, and to contemplate, in the resemblances of the dead,
+all that remains of judgment, feeling, and a host of passions. But
+all this will be dull enough for you, and so good night, and to end my
+chapter, or rather my homily, believe me, my dear H.,
+
+yours most affectionately."
+
+
+In this romantic design of collecting together the portraits of his
+school friends, we see the natural working of an ardent and
+disappointed heart, which, as the future began to darken upon it,
+clung with fondness to the recollections of the past; and, in despair
+of finding new and true friends, saw no happiness but in preserving
+all it could of the old. But even here, his sensibility had to
+encounter one of those freezing checks, to which feelings, so much
+above the ordinary temperature of the world, are but too constantly
+exposed;--it being from one of the very friends thus fondly valued by
+him, that he experienced, on leaving England, that mark of neglect of
+which he so indignantly complains in a note on the second Canto of
+Childe Harold,--contrasting with this conduct the fidelity and
+devotedness he had just found in his Turkish servant, Dervish. Mr.
+Dallas, who witnessed the immediate effect of this slight upon him,
+thus describes his emotion:--
+
+"I found him bursting with indignation. 'Will you believe it?' said
+he, 'I have just met ----, and asked him to come and sit an hour with
+me: he excused himself; and what do you think was his excuse? He was
+engaged with his mother and some ladies to go shopping! And he knows I
+set out to-morrow, to be absent for years, perhaps never to
+return!--Friendship! I do not believe I shall leave behind me,
+yourself and family excepted, and perhaps my mother, a single being
+who will care what becomes of me.'"
+
+From his expressions in a letter to Mrs. Byron, already cited, that he
+must "do something in the House soon," as well as from a more definite
+intimation of the same intention to Mr. Harness, it would appear that
+he had, at this time, serious thoughts of at once entering on the high
+political path which his station as an hereditary legislator opened to
+him. But, whatever may have been the first movements of his ambition
+in this direction, they were soon relinquished. Had he been connected
+with any distinguished political families, his love of eminence,
+seconded by such example and sympathy, would have impelled him, no
+doubt, to seek renown in the fields of party warfare where it might
+have been his fate to afford a signal instance of that transmuting
+process by which, as Pope says, the corruption of a poet sometimes
+leads to the generation of a statesman. Luckily, however, for the
+world (though whether luckily for himself may be questioned), the
+brighter empire of poesy was destined to claim him all its own. The
+loneliness, indeed, of his position in society at this period, left
+destitute, as he was, of all those sanctions and sympathies, by which
+youth at its first start is usually surrounded, was, of itself, enough
+to discourage him from embarking in a pursuit, where it is chiefly on
+such extrinsic advantages that any chance of success must depend. So
+far from taking an active part in the proceedings of his noble
+brethren, he appears to have regarded even the ceremony of his
+attendance among them as irksome and mortifying; and in a few days
+after his admission to his seat, he withdrew himself in disgust to the
+seclusion of his own Abbey, there to brood over the bitterness of
+premature experience, or meditate, in the scenes and adventures of
+other lands, a freer outlet for his impatient spirit than it could
+command at home.
+
+It was not long, however, before he was summoned back to town by the
+success of his Satire,--the quick sale of which already rendered the
+preparation of a new edition necessary. His zealous agent, Mr. Dallas,
+had taken care to transmit to him, in his retirement, all the
+favourable opinions of the work he could collect; and it is not
+unamusing, as showing the sort of steps by which Fame at first mounts,
+to find the approbation of such authorities as Pratt and the magazine
+writers put forward among the first rewards and encouragements of a
+Byron.
+
+"You are already (he says) pretty generally known to be the author. So
+Cawthorn tells me, and a proof occurred to myself at Hatchard's, the
+Queen's bookseller. On enquiring for the Satire, he told me that he
+had sold a great many, and had none left, and was going to send for
+more, which I afterwards found he did. I asked who was the author? He
+said it was believed to be Lord Byron's. Did _he_ believe it? Yes he
+did. On asking the ground of his belief, he told me that a lady of
+distinction had, without hesitation, asked for it as Lord Byron's
+Satire. He likewise informed me that he had enquired of Mr. Gifford,
+who frequents his shop, if it was yours. Mr. Gifford denied any
+knowledge of the author, but spoke very highly of it, and said a copy
+had been sent to him. Hatchard assured me that all who came to his
+reading-room admired it. Cawthorn tells me it is universally well
+spoken of, not only among his own customers, but generally at all the
+booksellers. I heard it highly praised at my own publisher's, where I
+have lately called several times. At Phillips's it was read aloud by
+Pratt to a circle of literary guests, who were unanimous in their
+applause:--The _Anti-jacobin_, as well as the _Gentleman's Magazine_,
+has already blown the trump of fame for you. We shall see it in the
+other Reviews next month, and probably in some severely handled,
+according to the connection of the proprietors and editors with those
+whom it lashes."
+
+On his arrival in London, towards the end of April, he found the first
+edition of his poem nearly exhausted; and set immediately about
+preparing another, to which he determined to prefix his name. The
+additions he now made to the work were considerable,--near a hundred
+new lines being introduced at the very opening[103],--and it was not
+till about the middle of the ensuing month that the new edition was
+ready to go to press. He had, during his absence from town, fixed
+definitely with his friend, Mr. Hobhouse, that they should leave
+England together on the following June, and it was his wish to see the
+last proofs of the volume corrected before his departure.
+
+Among the new features of this edition was a Post-script to the
+Satire, in prose, which Mr. Dallas, much to the credit of his
+discretion and taste, most earnestly entreated the poet to suppress.
+It is to be regretted that the adviser did not succeed in his efforts,
+as there runs a tone of bravado through this ill-judged effusion,
+which it is, at all times, painful to see a brave man assume. For
+instance:--"It may be said," he observes, "that I quit England because
+I have censured these 'persons of honour and wit about town;' but I am
+coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my return.
+Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving England are
+very different from fears, literary or personal; those who do not may
+be one day convinced. Since the publication of this thing, my name has
+not been concealed; I have been mostly in London, ready to answer for
+my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry cartels; but,
+alas, 'the age of chivalry is over,' or, in the vulgar tongue, there
+is no spirit now-a-days."
+
+But, whatever may have been the faults or indiscretions of this
+Satire, there are few who would now sit in judgment upon it so
+severely as did the author himself, on reading it over nine years
+after, when he had quitted England, never to return. The copy which he
+then perused is now in possession of Mr. Murray, and the remarks which
+he has scribbled over its pages are well worth transcribing. On the
+first leaf we find--
+
+"The binding of this volume is considerably too valuable for its
+contents.
+
+"Nothing but the consideration of its being the property of another
+prevents me from consigning this miserable record of misplaced anger
+and indiscriminate acrimony to the flames.
+
+B."
+
+Opposite the passage,
+
+                           "to be misled
+    By Jeffrey's heart, or Lamb's Boeotian head,"
+
+is written, "This was not just. Neither the heart nor the head of
+these gentlemen are at all what they are here represented." Along the
+whole of the severe verses against Mr. Wordsworth he has scrawled
+"Unjust,"--and the same verdict is affixed to those against Mr.
+Coleridge. On his unmeasured attack upon Mr. Bowles, the comment
+is,--"Too savage all this on Bowles;" and down the margin of the page
+containing the lines, "Health to immortal Jeffrey," &c. he
+writes,--"Too ferocious--this is mere insanity;"--adding, on the
+verses that follow ("Can none remember that eventful day?" &c.), "All
+this is bad, because personal."
+
+Sometimes, however, he shows a disposition to stand by his original
+decisions. Thus, on the passage relating to a writer of certain
+obscure Epics (v. 793.), he says,--"All right;" adding, of the same
+person, "I saw some letters of this fellow to an unfortunate poetess,
+whose productions (which the poor woman by no means thought vainly of)
+he attacked so roughly and bitterly, that I could hardly regret
+assailing him;--even were it unjust, which it is not; for, verily, he
+_is_ an ass." On the strong lines, too (v. 953.), upon Clarke (a
+writer in a magazine called the Satirist), he remarks,--"Right
+enough,--this was well deserved and well laid on."
+
+To the whole paragraph, beginning "Illustrious Holland," are affixed
+the words "Bad enough;--and on mistaken grounds besides." The bitter
+verses against Lord Carlisle he pronounces "Wrong also:--the
+provocation was not sufficient to justify such acerbity;"--and of a
+subsequent note respecting the same nobleman, he says, "Much too
+savage, whatever the foundation may be." Of Rosa Matilda (v. 738.) he
+tells us, "She has since married the Morning Post,--an exceeding good
+match." To the verses, "When some brisk youth, the tenant of a stall,"
+&c., he has appended the following interesting note:--"This was meant
+at poor Blackett, who was then patronised by A.I.B.[104];--but _that_
+I did not know, or this would not have been written; at least I think
+not."
+
+Farther on, where Mr. Campbell and other poets are mentioned, the
+following gingle on the names of their respective poems is
+scribbled:--
+
+    "Pretty Miss Jacqueline
+    Had a nose aquiline;
+    And would assert rude
+    Things of Miss Gertrude;
+    While Mr. Marmion
+    Led a great army on,
+    Making Kehama look
+    Like a fierce Mamaluke."
+
+Opposite the paragraph in praise of Mr. Crabbe he has written, "I
+consider Crabbe and Coleridge as the first of these times in point of
+power and genius." On his own line, in a subsequent paragraph, "And
+glory, like the phoenix mid her fires," he says, comically, "The devil
+take that phoenix--how came it there?" and his concluding remark on
+the whole poem is as follows:--
+
+"The greater part of this satire I most sincerely wish had never been
+written; not only on account of the injustice of much of the critical
+and some of the personal part of it, but the tone and temper are such
+as I cannot approve.
+
+BYRON."
+
+"Diodata, Geneva, July 14. 1816."
+
+
+While engaged in preparing his new edition for the press, he was also
+gaily dispensing the hospitalities of Newstead to a party of young
+college friends, whom, with the prospect of so long an absence from
+England, he had assembled round him at the Abbey, for a sort of
+festive farewell. The following letter from one of the party, Charles
+Skinner Matthews, though containing much less of the noble host
+himself than we could have wished, yet, as a picture, taken freshly
+and at the moment, of a scene so pregnant with character, will, I have
+little doubt, be highly acceptable to the reader.
+
+
+LETTER FROM CHARLES SKINNER MATTHEWS, ESQ. TO MISS I.M.
+
+"London, May 22. 1809.
+
+
+"My dear ----,
+
+"I must begin with giving you a few particulars of the singular place
+which I have lately quitted.
+
+"Newstead Abbey is situate 136 miles from London,--four on this side
+Mansfield. It is so fine a piece of antiquity, that I should think
+there must be a description, and, perhaps, a picture of it in Grose.
+The ancestors of its present owner came into possession of it at the
+time of the dissolution of the monasteries,--but the building itself
+is of a much earlier date. Though sadly fallen to decay, it is still
+completely an _abbey_, and most part of it is still standing in the
+same state as when it was first built. There are two tiers of
+cloisters, with a variety of cells and rooms about them, which, though
+not inhabited, nor in an inhabitable state, might easily be made so;
+and many of the original rooms, amongst which is a fine stone hall,
+are still in use. Of the abbey church only one end remains; and the
+old kitchen, with a long range of apartments, is reduced to a heap of
+rubbish. Leading from the abbey to the modern part of the habitation
+is a noble room seventy feet in length, and twenty-three in breadth;
+but every part of the house displays neglect and decay, save those
+which the present Lord has lately fitted up.
+
+"The house and gardens are entirely surrounded by a wall with
+battlements. In front is a large lake, bordered here and there with
+castellated buildings, the chief of which stands on an eminence at the
+further extremity of it. Fancy all this surrounded with bleak and
+barren hills, with scarce a tree to be seen for miles, except a
+solitary clump or two, and you will have some idea of Newstead. For
+the late Lord being at enmity with his son, to whom the estate was
+secured by entail, resolved, out of spite to the same, that the estate
+should descend to him in as miserable a plight as he could possibly
+reduce it to; for which cause, he took no care of the mansion, and
+fell to lopping of every tree he could lay his hands on, so furiously,
+that he reduced immense tracts of woodland country to the desolate
+state I have just described. However, his son died before him, so that
+all his rage was thrown away.
+
+"So much for the place, concerning which I have thrown together these
+few particulars, meaning my account to be, like the place itself,
+without any order or connection. But if the place itself appear rather
+strange to you, the ways of the inhabitants will not appear much less
+so. Ascend, then, with me the hall steps, that I may introduce you to
+my Lord and his visitants. But have a care how you proceed; be mindful
+to go there in broad daylight, and with your eyes about you. For,
+should you make any blunder,--should you go to the right of the hall
+steps, you are laid hold of by a bear; and should you go to the left,
+your case is still worse, for you run full against a wolf!--Nor, when
+you have attained the door, is your danger over; for the hall being
+decayed, and therefore standing in need of repair, a bevy of inmates
+are very probably banging at one end of it with their pistols; so that
+if you enter without giving loud notice of your approach, you have
+only escaped the wolf and the bear to expire by the pistol-shots of
+the merry monks of Newstead.
+
+"Our party consisted of Lord Byron and four others, and was, now and then,
+increased by the presence of a neighbouring parson. As for our way of
+living, the order of the day was generally this:--for breakfast we had no
+set hour, but each suited his own convenience,--every thing remaining on
+the table till the whole party had done; though had one wished to
+breakfast at the early hour of ten, one would have been rather lucky to
+find any of the servants up. Our average hour of rising was one. I, who
+generally got up between eleven and twelve, was always,--even when an
+invalid,--the first of the party, and was esteemed a prodigy of early
+rising. It was frequently past two before the breakfast party broke up.
+Then, for the amusements of the morning, there was reading, fencing,
+single-stick, or shuttle-cock, in the great room; practising with pistols
+in the hall; walking--riding--cricket--sailing on the lake, playing with
+the bear, or teasing the wolf. Between seven and eight we dined; and our
+evening lasted from that time till one, two, or three in the morning. The
+evening diversions may be easily conceived.
+
+"I must not omit the custom of handing round, after dinner, on the
+removal of the cloth, a human skull filled with burgundy. After
+revelling on choice viands, and the finest wines of France, we
+adjourned to tea, where we amused ourselves with reading, or improving
+conversation,--each, according to his fancy,--and, after sandwiches,
+&c. retired to rest. A set of monkish dresses, which had been
+provided, with all the proper apparatus of crosses, beads, tonsures,
+&c. often gave a variety to our appearance, and to our pursuits.
+
+"You may easily imagine how chagrined I was at being ill nearly the
+first half of the time I was there. But I was led into a very
+different reflection from that of Dr. Swift, who left Pope's house
+without ceremony, and afterwards informed him, by letter, that it was
+impossible for two sick friends to live together; for I found my
+shivering and invalid frame so perpetually annoyed by the thoughtless
+and tumultuous health of every one about me, that I heartily wished
+every soul in the house to be as ill as myself.
+
+"The journey back I performed on foot, together with another of the
+guests. We walked about twenty-five miles a day; but were a week on
+the road, from being detained by the rain.
+
+"So here I close my account of an expedition which has somewhat
+extended my knowledge of this country. And where do you think I am
+going next? To Constantinople!--at least, such an excursion has been
+proposed to me. Lord B. and another friend of mine are going thither
+next month, and have asked me to join the party; but it seems to be
+but a wild scheme, and requires twice thinking upon.
+
+"Addio, my dear I., yours very affectionately,
+
+"C.S. MATTHEWS."
+
+
+Having put the finishing hand to his new edition, he, without waiting
+for the fresh honours that were in store for him, took leave of London
+(whither he had returned) on the 11th of June, and, in about a
+fortnight after, sailed for Lisbon.
+
+Great as was the advance which his powers had made, under the
+influence of that resentment from which he now drew his inspiration,
+they were yet, even in his Satire, at an immeasurable distance from
+the point to which they afterwards so triumphantly rose. It is,
+indeed, remarkable that, essentially as his genius seemed connected
+with, and, as it were, springing out of his character, the
+developement of the one should so long have preceded the full maturity
+of the resources of the other. By her very early and rapid expansion
+of his sensibilities, Nature had given him notice of what she destined
+him for, long before he understood the call; and those materials of
+poetry with which his own fervid temperament abounded were but by slow
+degrees, and after much self-meditation, revealed to him. In his
+Satire, though vigorous, there is but little foretaste of the wonders
+that followed it. His spirit was stirred, but he had not yet looked
+down into its depths, nor does even his bitterness taste of the bottom
+of the heart, like those sarcasms which he afterwards flung in the
+face of mankind. Still less had the other countless feelings and
+passions, with which his soul had been long labouring, found an organ
+worthy of them;--the gloom, the grandeur, the tenderness of his
+nature, all were left without a voice, till his mighty genius, at
+last, awakened in its strength.
+
+In stooping, as he did, to write after established models, as well in
+the Satire as in his still earlier poems, he showed how little he had
+yet explored his own original resources, or found out those
+distinctive marks by which he was to be known through all times. But,
+bold and energetic as was his general character, he was, in a
+remarkable degree, diffident in his intellectual powers. The
+consciousness of what he could achieve was but by degrees forced upon
+him, and the discovery of so rich a mine of genius in his soul came
+with no less surprise on himself than on the world. It was from the
+same slowness of self-appreciation that, afterwards, in the full flow
+of his fame, he long doubted, as we shall see, his own aptitude for
+works of wit and humour,--till the happy experiment of "Beppo" at once
+dissipated this distrust, and opened a new region of triumph to his
+versatile and boundless powers.
+
+But, however far short of himself his first writings must be
+considered, there is in his Satire a liveliness of thought, and still
+more a vigour and courage, which, concurring with the justice of his
+cause and the sympathies of the public on his side, could not fail to
+attach instant celebrity to his name. Notwithstanding, too, the
+general boldness and recklessness of his tone, there were occasionally
+mingled with this defiance some allusions to his own fate and
+character, whose affecting earnestness seemed to answer for their
+truth, and which were of a nature strongly to awaken curiosity as well
+as interest. One or two of these passages, as illustrative of the
+state of his mind at this period, I shall here extract. The loose and
+unfenced state in which his youth was left to grow wild upon the world
+is thus touchingly alluded to:--
+
+      "Ev'n I, least thinking of a thoughtless throng,
+      Just skill'd to know the right and choose the wrong,
+      Freed at that age when Reason's shield is lost
+      To fight my course through Passion's countless host,
+      Whom every path of Pleasure's flowery way
+      Has lured in turn, and all have led astray[105]--
+      Ev'n I must raise my voice, ev'n I must feel
+      Such scenes, such men destroy the public weal:
+      Although some kind, censorious friend will say,
+      'What art thou better, meddling fool,[106] than they?'
+      And every brother Rake will smile to see
+      That miracle, a Moralist, in me."
+
+But the passage in which, hastily thrown off as it is, we find the
+strongest traces of that wounded feeling, which bleeds, as it were,
+through all his subsequent writings, is the following:--
+
+    "The time hath been, when no harsh sound would fall
+    From lips that now may seem imbued with gall,
+    Nor fools nor follies tempt me to despise
+    The meanest thing that crawl'd beneath my eyes.
+    But now so callous grown, so changed from youth," &c.
+
+Some of the causes that worked this change in his character have been
+intimated in the course of the preceding pages. That there was no
+tinge of bitterness in his natural disposition, we have abundant
+testimony, besides his own, to prove. Though, as a child, occasionally
+passionate and headstrong, his docility and kindness towards those who
+were themselves kind, is acknowledged by all; and "playful" and
+"affectionate" are invariably the epithets by which those who knew him
+in his childhood convey their impression of his character.
+
+Of all the qualities, indeed, of his nature, affectionateness seems
+to have been the most ardent and most deep. A disposition, on his own
+side, to form strong attachments, and a yearning desire after
+affection in return, were the feeling and the want that formed the
+dream and torment of his existence. We have seen with what passionate
+enthusiasm he threw himself into his boyish friendships. The
+all-absorbing and unsuccessful love that followed was, if I may so
+say, the agony, without being the death, of this unsated desire, which
+lived on through his life, and filled his poetry with the very soul of
+tenderness, lent the colouring of its light to even those unworthy
+ties which vanity or passion led him afterwards to form, and was the
+last aspiration of his fervid spirit in those stanzas written but a
+few months before his death:--
+
+    "'Tis time this heart should be unmoved,
+       Since others it has ceased to move;
+     Yet, though I cannot be beloved,
+              Still let me love!"
+
+It is much, I own, to be questioned, whether, even under the most
+favourable circumstances, a disposition such as I have here described
+could have escaped ultimate disappointment, or found any where a
+resting-place for its imaginings and desires. But, in the case of Lord
+Byron, disappointment met him on the very threshold of life. His
+mother, to whom his affections first, naturally with ardour, turned,
+either repelled them rudely, or capriciously trifled with them. In
+speaking of his early days to a friend at Genoa, a short time before
+his departure for Greece, he traced the first feelings of pain and
+humiliation he had ever known to the coldness with which his mother
+had received his caresses in infancy, and the frequent taunts on his
+personal deformity with which she had wounded him.
+
+The sympathy of a sister's love, of all the influences on the mind of a
+youth the most softening, was also, in his early days, denied to him,--his
+sister Augusta and he having seen but little of each other while young. A
+vent through the calm channel of domestic affections might have brought
+down the high current of his feelings to a level nearer that of the world
+he had to traverse, and thus saved them from the tumultuous rapids and
+falls to which this early elevation, in their after-course, exposed them.
+In the dearth of all home-endearments, his heart had no other resource but
+in those boyish friendships which he formed at school; and when these were
+interrupted by his removal to Cambridge, he was again thrown back,
+isolated, on his own restless desires. Then followed his ill-fated
+attachment to Miss Chaworth, to which, more than to any other cause, he
+himself attributed the desolating change then wrought in his disposition.
+
+"I doubt sometimes (he says, in his 'Detached Thoughts,') whether,
+after all, a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me; yet I
+sometimes long for it. My earliest dreams (as most boys' dreams are)
+were martial; but a little later they were all for _love_ and
+retirement, till the hopeless attachment to M---- C---- began and
+continued (though sedulously concealed) _very_ early in my teens; and
+so upwards for a time. _This_ threw me out again 'alone on a wide,
+wide sea.' In the year 1804 I recollect meeting my sister at General
+Harcourt's, in Portland Place. I was then _one thing_, and _as_ she
+had always till then found me. When we met again in 1805 (she told me
+since) that my temper and disposition were so completely altered, that
+I was hardly to be recognised. I was not then sensible of the change;
+but I can believe it, and account for it."
+
+I have already described his parting with Miss Chaworth previously to
+her marriage. Once again, after that event, he saw her, and for the
+last time,--being invited by Mr. Chaworth to dine at Annesley not long
+before his departure from England. The few years that had elapsed
+since their last meeting had made a considerable change in the
+appearance and manners of the young poet. The fat, unformed schoolboy
+was now a slender and graceful young man. Those emotions and passions
+which at first heighten, and then destroy, beauty, had as yet produced
+only their favourable effects on his features; and, though with but
+little aid from the example of refined society, his manners had
+subsided into that tone of gentleness and self-possession which more
+than any thing marks the well-bred gentleman. Once only was the latter
+of these qualities put to the trial, when the little daughter of his
+fair hostess was brought into the room. At the sight of the child he
+started involuntarily,--it was with the utmost difficulty he could
+conceal his emotion; and to the sensations of that moment we are
+indebted for those touching stanzas, "Well--thou art happy,"
+&c.,[107] which appeared afterwards in a Miscellany published by one
+of his friends, and are now to be found in the general collection of
+his works. Under the influence of the same despondent passion, he
+wrote two other poems at this period, from which, as they exist only
+in the Miscellany I have just alluded to, and that collection has for
+some time been out of print, a few stanzas may, not improperly, be
+extracted here.
+
+    "THE FAREWELL--TO A LADY.[108]
+
+    "When man, expell'd from Eden's bowers,
+      A moment linger'd near the gate,
+    Each scene recall'd the vanish'd hours,
+      And bade him curse his future fate.
+
+    "But wandering on through distant climes,
+      He learnt to bear his load of grief;
+    Just gave a sigh to other times,
+      And found in busier scenes relief.
+
+    "Thus, lady,[109] must it be with me,
+      And I must view thy charms no more!
+    For, whilst I linger near to thee,
+      I sigh for all I knew before," &c. &c.
+
+The other poem is, throughout, full of tenderness; but I shall give
+only what appear to me the most striking stanzas.
+
+
+
+"STANZAS TO ---- ON LEAVING ENGLAND.
+
+    "'Tis done--and shivering in the gale
+    The bark unfurls her snowy sail;
+    And whistling o'er the bending mast,
+    Loud sings on high the fresh'ning blast;
+    And I must from this land be gone,
+    Because I cannot love but one.
+
+    "As some lone bird, without a mate,
+    My weary heart is desolate;
+    I look around, and cannot trace
+    One friendly smile or welcome face,
+    And ev'n in crowds am still alone,
+    Because I cannot love but one.
+
+    "And I will cross the whitening foam,
+    And I will seek a foreign home;
+    Till I forget a false fair face,
+    I ne'er shall find a resting-place;
+    My own dark thoughts I cannot shun,
+    But ever love, and love but one.
+
+    "I go--but wheresoe'er I flee
+    There's not an eye will weep for me;
+    There's not a kind congenial heart,
+    Where I can claim the meanest part;
+    Nor thou, who hast my hopes undone,
+    Wilt sigh, although I love but one.
+
+    "To think of every early scene,
+    Of what we are, and what we've been,
+    Would whelm some softer hearts with woe--
+    But mine, alas! has stood the blow;
+    Yet still beats on as it begun,
+    And never truly loves but one.
+
+    "And who that dear loved one may be
+    Is not for vulgar eyes to see,
+    And why that early love was crost,
+    Thou know'st the best, I feel the most;
+    But few that dwell beneath the sun
+    Have loved so long, and loved but one.
+
+    "I've tried another's fetters, too,
+    With charms, perchance, as fair to view;
+    And I would fain have loved as well,
+    But some unconquerable spell
+    Forbade my bleeding breast to own
+    A kindred care for aught but one.
+
+    "'Twould soothe to take one lingering view,
+    And bless thee in my last adieu;
+    Yet wish I not those eyes to weep
+    For him that wanders o'er the deep;
+    His home, his hope, his youth, are gone,
+    Yet still he loves, and loves but one."[110]
+
+While thus, in all the relations of the heart, his thirst after
+affection was thwarted, in another instinct of his nature, not less
+strong--the desire of eminence and distinction--he was, in an equal
+degree, checked in his aspirings, and mortified. The inadequacy of his
+means to his station was early a source of embarrassment and
+humiliation to him; and those high, patrician notions of birth in
+which he indulged but made the disparity between his fortune and his
+rank the more galling. Ambition, however, soon whispered to him that
+there were other and nobler ways to distinction. The eminence which
+talent builds for itself might, one day, he proudly felt, be his own;
+nor was it too sanguine to hope that, under the favour accorded
+usually to youth, he might with impunity venture on his first steps to
+fame. But here, as in every other object of his heart, disappointment
+and mortification awaited him. Instead of experiencing the ordinary
+forbearance, if not indulgence, with which young aspirants for fame
+are received by their critics, he found himself instantly the victim
+of such unmeasured severity as is not often dealt out even to veteran
+offenders in literature; and, with a heart fresh from the trials of
+disappointed love, saw those resources and consolations which he had
+sought in the exercise of his intellectual strength also invaded.
+
+While thus prematurely broken into the pains of life, a no less
+darkening effect was produced upon him by too early an initiation into
+its pleasures. That charm with which the fancy of youth invests an
+untried world was, in his case, soon dissipated. His passions had, at
+the very onset of their career, forestalled the future; and the blank
+void that followed was by himself considered as one of the causes of
+that melancholy, which now settled so deeply into his character.
+
+"My passions" (he says, in his 'Detached Thoughts') "were developed very
+early--so early that few would believe me if I were to state the period
+and the facts which accompanied it. Perhaps this was one of the reasons
+which caused the anticipated melancholy of my thoughts,--having
+anticipated life. My earlier poems are the thoughts of one at least ten
+years older than the age at which they were written,--I don't mean for
+their solidity, but their experience. The two first Cantos of Childe
+Harold were completed at twenty-two; and they are written as if by a man
+older than I shall probably ever be."
+
+Though the allusions in the first sentence of this extract have
+reference to a much earlier period, they afford an opportunity of
+remarking, that however dissipated may have been the life which he led
+during the two or three years previous to his departure on his
+travels, yet the notion caught up by many, from his own allusions, in
+Childe Harold, to irregularities and orgies of which Newstead had been
+the scene, is, like most other imputations against him, founded on his
+own testimony, greatly exaggerated. He describes, it is well known,
+the home of his poetical representative as a "monastic dome, condemned
+to uses vile," and then adds,--
+
+    "Where Superstition once had made her den,
+    Now Paphian girls were known to sing and smile."
+
+Mr. Dallas, too, giving in to the same strain of exaggeration, says,
+in speaking of the poet's preparations for his departure, "already
+satiated with pleasure, and disgusted with those companions who have
+no other resource, he had resolved on mastering his appetites;--he
+broke up his harams." The truth, however, is, that the narrowness of
+Lord Byron's means would alone have prevented such oriental luxuries.
+The mode of his life at Newstead was simple and unexpensive. His
+companions, though not averse to convivial indulgences, were of
+habits and tastes too intellectual for mere vulgar debauchery; and,
+with respect to the alleged "harams," it appears certain that one or
+two suspected "_subintroductae_" (as the ancient monks of the abbey
+would have styled them), and those, too, among the ordinary menials of
+the establishment, were all that even scandal itself could ever fix
+upon to warrant such an assumption.
+
+That gaming was among his follies at this period he himself tells us
+in the journal I have just cited:--
+
+"I have a notion (he says) that gamblers are as happy as many people,
+being always _excited_. Women, wine, fame, the table,--even ambition,
+_sate_ now and then; but every turn of the card and cast of the dice
+keeps the gamester alive: besides, one can game ten times longer than
+one can do any thing else. I was very fond of it when young, that is
+to say, of hazard, for I hate all _card_ games,--even faro. When macco
+(or whatever they spell it) was introduced, I gave up the whole thing,
+for I loved and missed the _rattle_ and _dash_ of the box and dice,
+and the glorious uncertainty, not only of good luck or bad luck, but
+of _any luck at all_, as one had sometimes to throw _often_ to decide
+at all. I have thrown as many as fourteen mains running, and carried
+off all the cash upon the table occasionally; but I had no coolness,
+or judgment, or calculation. It was the delight of the thing that
+pleased me. Upon the whole, I left off in time, without being much a
+winner or loser. Since one-and-twenty years of age I played but
+little, and then never above a hundred, or two, or three."
+
+To this, and other follies of the same period, he alludes in the
+following note:--
+
+
+TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES.
+
+"Twelve o'clock, Friday night.
+
+
+"My dear Bankes,
+
+"I have just received your note; believe me I regret most sincerely
+that I was not fortunate enough to see it before, as I need not repeat
+to you that your conversation for half an hour would have been much
+more agreeable to me than gambling or drinking, or any other
+fashionable mode of passing an evening abroad or at home.--I really am
+very sorry that I went out previous to the arrival of your despatch:
+in future pray let me hear from you before six, and whatever my
+engagements may be, I will always postpone them.--Believe me, with
+that deference which I have always from my childhood paid to your
+_talents_, and with somewhat a better opinion of your heart than I
+have hitherto entertained,
+
+"Yours ever," &c.
+
+
+Among the causes--if not rather among the results--of that disposition
+to melancholy, which, after all, perhaps, naturally belonged to his
+temperament, must not be forgotten those sceptical views of religion,
+which clouded, as has been shown, his boyish thoughts, and, at the
+time of which I am speaking, gathered still more darkly over his mind.
+In general we find the young too ardently occupied with the
+enjoyments which this life gives or promises to afford either leisure
+or inclination for much enquiry into the mysteries of the next. But
+with him it was unluckily otherwise; and to have, at once, anticipated
+the worst experience both of the voluptuary and the reasoner,--to have
+reached, as he supposed, the boundary of this world's pleasures, and
+see nothing but "clouds and darkness" beyond, was the doom, the
+anomalous doom, which a nature, premature in all its passions and
+powers, inflicted on Lord Byron.
+
+When Pope, at the age of five-and-twenty, complained of being weary of
+the world, he was told by Swift that he "had not yet acted or suffered
+enough in the world to have become weary of it."[111] But far
+different was the youth of Pope and of Byron;--what the former but
+anticipated in thought, the latter had drunk deep of in reality;--at
+an age when the one was but looking forth on the sea of life, the
+other had plunged in, and tried its depths. Swift himself, in whom
+early disappointments and wrongs had opened a vein of bitterness that
+never again closed, affords a far closer parallel to the fate of our
+noble poet,[112] as well in the untimeliness of the trials he had
+been doomed to encounter, as in the traces of their havoc which they
+left in his character.
+
+That the romantic fancy of youth, which courts melancholy as an
+indulgence, and loves to assume a sadness it has not had time to earn,
+may have had some share in, at least, fostering the gloom by which the
+mind of the young poet was overcast, I am not disposed to deny. The
+circumstance, indeed, of his having, at this time, among the ornaments
+of his study, a number of skulls highly polished, and placed on light
+stands round the room, would seem to indicate that he rather courted
+than shunned such gloomy associations.[113] Being a sort of boyish
+mimickry, too, of the use to which the poet Young is said to have
+applied a skull, such a display might well induce some suspicion of
+the sincerity of his gloom, did we not, through the whole course of
+his subsequent life and writings, track visibly the deep vein of
+melancholy which nature had imbedded in his character.
+
+Such was the state of mind and heart,--as, from his own testimony and
+that of others, I have collected it,--in which Lord Byron now set out
+on his indefinite pilgrimage; and never was there a change wrought in
+disposition and character to which Shakspeare's fancy of "sweet bells
+jangled out of tune" more truly applied. The unwillingness of Lord
+Carlisle to countenance him, and his humiliating position in
+consequence, completed the full measure of that mortification towards
+which so many other causes had concurred. Baffled, as he had been, in
+his own ardent pursuit of affection and friendship, his sole revenge
+and consolation lay in doubting that any such feelings really existed.
+The various crosses he had met with, in themselves sufficiently
+irritating and wounding, were rendered still more so by the high,
+impatient temper with which he encountered them. What others would
+have bowed to, as misfortunes, his proud spirit rose against, as
+wrongs; and the vehemence of this re-action produced, at once, a
+revolution throughout his whole character,[114] in which, as in
+revolutions of the political world, all that was bad and irregular in
+his nature burst forth with all that was most energetic and grand. The
+very virtues and excellencies of his disposition ministered to the
+violence of this change. The same ardour that had burned through his
+friendships and loves now fed the fierce explosions of his
+indignation and scorn. His natural vivacity and humour but lent a
+fresher flow to his bitterness,[115] till he, at last, revelled in it
+as an indulgence; and that hatred of hypocrisy, which had hitherto
+only shown itself in a too shadowy colouring of his own youthful
+frailties, now hurried him, from his horror of all false pretensions
+to virtue, into the still more dangerous boast and ostentation of
+vice.
+
+The following letter to his mother, written a few days before he
+sailed, gives some particulars respecting the persons who composed his
+suit. Robert Rushton, whom he mentions so feelingly in the postscript,
+was the boy introduced, as his page, in the first Canto of Childe
+Harold.
+
+
+LETTER 34.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Falmouth, June 22. 1809.
+
+
+"Dear Mother,
+
+"I am about to sail in a few days; probably before this reaches you.
+Fletcher begged so hard, that I have continued him in my service. If
+he does not behave well abroad, I will send him back in a _transport_.
+I have a German servant, (who has been with Mr. Wilbraham in Persia
+before, and was strongly recommended to me by Dr. Butler, of Harrow,)
+Robert and William; they constitute my whole suite. I have letters in
+plenty:--you shall hear from me at the different ports I touch upon;
+but you must not be alarmed if my letters miscarry. The Continent is
+in a fine state--an insurrection has broken out at Paris, and the
+Austrians are beating Buonaparte--the Tyrolese have risen.
+
+"There is a picture of me in oil, to be sent down to Newstead soon.--I
+wish the Miss P----s had something better to do than carry my
+miniatures to Nottingham to copy. Now they have done it, you may ask
+them to copy the others, which are greater favourites than my own. As
+to money matters, I am ruined--at least till Rochdale is sold; and if
+that does not turn out well, I shall enter into the Austrian or
+Russian service--perhaps the Turkish, if I like their manners. The
+world is all before me, and I leave England without regret, and
+without a wish to revisit any thing it contains, except _yourself_,
+and your present residence.
+
+"P.S--Pray tell Mr. Rushton his son is well and doing well; so is
+Murray, indeed better than I ever saw him; he will be back in about a
+month. I ought to add the leaving Murray to my few regrets, as his age
+perhaps will prevent my seeing him again. Robert I take with me; I
+like him, because, like myself, he seems a friendless animal."
+
+
+To those who have in their remembrance his poetical description of the
+state of mind in which he now took leave of England, the gaiety and
+levity of the letters I am about to give will appear, it is not
+improbable, strange and startling. But, in a temperament like that of
+Lord Byron, such bursts of vivacity on the surface are by no means
+incompatible with a wounded spirit underneath;[116] and the light,
+laughing tone that pervades these letters but makes the feeling of
+solitariness that breaks out in them the more striking and affecting.
+
+
+LETTER 35.
+
+TO MR. HENRY DRURY.
+
+"Falmouth, June 25. 1809.
+
+
+My dear Drury,
+
+"We sail to-morrow in the Lisbon packet, having been detained till now
+by the lack of wind, and other necessaries. These being at last
+procured, by this time to-morrow evening we shall be embarked on the
+_v_ide _v_orld of _v_aters, _v_or all the _v_orld like Robinson
+Crusoe. The Malta vessel not sailing for some weeks, we have
+determined to go by way of Lisbon, and, as my servants term it, to see
+'that there Portingale'--thence to Cadiz and Gibraltar, and so on our
+old route to Malta and Constantinople, if so be that Captain Kidd, our
+gallant commander, understands plain sailing and Mercator, and takes
+us on our voyage all according to the chart.
+
+"Will you tell Dr. Butler[117] that I have taken the treasure of a
+servant, Friese, the native of Prussia Proper, into my service from
+his recommendation. He has been all among the Worshippers of Fire in
+Persia, and has seen Persepolis and all that.
+
+"H---- has made woundy preparations for a book on his return; 100
+pens, two gallons of japan ink, and several volumes of best blank, is
+no bad provision for a discerning public. I have laid down my pen, but
+have promised to contribute a chapter on the state of morals, &c. &c.
+
+    "The cock is crowing,
+    I must be going,
+    And can no more."
+
+GHOST OF GAFFER THUMB.
+
+"Adieu.--Believe me," &c. &c.
+
+
+LETTER 36.
+
+TO MR. HODGSON.
+
+"Falmouth, June 25. 1809.
+
+
+"My dear Hodgson,
+
+"Before this reaches you, Hobhouse, two officers' wives, three
+children, two waiting-maids, ditto subalterns for the troops, three
+Portuguese esquires and domestics, in all nineteen souls, will have
+sailed in the Lisbon packet, with the noble Captain Kidd, a gallant
+commander as ever smuggled an anker of right Nantz.
+
+"We are going to Lisbon first, because the Malta packet has sailed,
+d'ye see?--from Lisbon to Gibraltar, Malta, Constantinople, and 'all
+that,' as Orator Henley said, when he put the Church, and 'all that,'
+in danger.
+
+"This town of Falmouth, as you will partly conjecture, is no great
+ways from the sea. It is defended on the sea-side by tway castles, St.
+Maws and Pendennis, extremely well calculated for annoying every body
+except an enemy. St. Maws is garrisoned by an able-bodied person of
+fourscore, a widower. He has the whole command and sole management of
+six most unmanageable pieces of ordnance, admirably adapted for the
+destruction of Pendennis, a like tower of strength on the opposite
+side of the Channel. We have seen St. Maws, but Pendennis they will
+not let us behold, save at a distance, because Hobhouse and I are
+suspected of having already taken St. Maws by a coup de main.
+
+"The town contains many Quakers and salt fish--the oysters have a
+taste of copper, owing to the soil of a mining country--the women
+(blessed be the Corporation therefor!) are flogged at the cart's tail
+when they pick and steal, as happened to one of the fair sex yesterday
+noon. She was pertinacious in her behaviour, and damned the mayor.
+
+"I don't know when I can write again, because it depends on that
+experienced navigator, Captain Kidd, and the 'stormy winds that
+(don't) blow' at this season. I leave England without regret--I shall
+return to it without pleasure. I am like Adam, the first convict
+sentenced to transportation, but I have no Eve, and have eaten no
+apple but what was sour as a crab;--and thus ends my first, chapter.
+Adieu.
+
+"Yours," &c.
+
+
+In this letter the following lively verses were enclosed:--
+
+"Falmouth Roads, June 30. 1809.
+
+    "Huzza! Hodgson, we are going,
+      Our embargo's off at last;
+    Favourable breezes blowing
+      Bend the canvass o'er the mast.
+    From aloft the signal's streaming,
+      Hark! the farewell gun is fired,
+    Women screeching, tars blaspheming,
+      Tell us that our time's expired.
+          Here 's a rascal,
+          Come to task all,
+      Prying from the Custom-house;
+          Trunks unpacking,
+          Cases cracking,
+      Not a corner for a mouse
+    'Scapes unsearch'd amid the racket,
+    Ere we sail on board the Packet.
+
+    "Now our boatmen quit their mooring.
+      And all hands must ply the oar;
+    Baggage from the quay is lowering,
+      We're impatient--push from shore.
+    'Have a care! that case holds liquor--
+      Stop the boat--I'm sick--oh Lord!'
+    'Sick, ma'am, damme, you'll be sicker
+      Ere you've been an hour on board.'
+          Thus are screaming
+          Men and women,
+      Gemmen, ladies, servants, Jacks;
+          Here entangling,
+          All are wrangling,
+      Stuck together close as wax.--
+    Such the general noise and racket,
+    Ere we reach the Lisbon Packet.
+
+    "Now we've reach'd her, lo! the captain,
+      Gallant Kidd, commands the crew;
+    Passengers their berths are clapt in,
+      Some to grumble, some to spew,
+    'Hey day! call you that a cabin?
+      Why 'tis hardly three feet square;
+    Not enough to stow Queen Mab in--
+      Who the deuce can harbour there?'
+          'Who, sir? plenty--
+          Nobles twenty
+      Did at once my vessel fill'--
+          'Did they? Jesus,
+          How you squeeze us!
+      Would to God they did so still:
+    Then I'd scape the heat and racket,
+    Of the good ship, Lisbon Packet.'
+
+    "Fletcher! Murray! Bob! where are you?
+      Stretch'd along the deck like logs--
+    Bear a hand, you jolly tar, you!
+      Here's a rope's end for the dogs.
+    H---- muttering fearful curses,
+      As the hatchway down he rolls;
+    Now his breakfast, now his verses,
+      Vomits forth--and damns our souls.
+          'Here's a stanza
+          On Braganza--
+      Help!'--'A couplet?'--'No, a cup
+          Of warm water.'--
+          'What's the matter?'
+      'Zounds! my liver's coming up;
+    I shall not survive the racket
+    Of this brutal Lisbon Packet.'
+
+    "Now at length we're off for Turkey,
+      Lord knows when we shall come back!
+    Breezes foul and tempests murky
+      May unship us in a crack.
+    But, since life at most a jest is,
+      As philosophers allow,
+    Still to laugh by far the best is,
+      Then laugh on--as I do now.
+          Laugh at all things,
+          Great and small things,
+      Sick or well, at sea or shore;
+          While we're quaffing,
+          Let's have laughing--
+      Who the devil cares for more?--
+    Some good wine! and who would lack it,
+    Ev'n on board the Lisbon Packet?
+
+"BYRON."
+
+On the second of July the packet sailed from Falmouth, and, after a
+favourable passage of four days and a half, the voyagers reached
+Lisbon, and took up their abode in that city.[118]
+
+The following letters, from Lord Byron to his friend Mr. Hodgson,
+though written in his most light and schoolboy strain, will give some
+idea of the first impressions that his residence in Lisbon made upon
+him. Such letters, too, contrasted with the noble stanzas on Portugal
+in "Childe Harold," will show how various were the moods of his
+versatile mind, and what different aspects it could take when in
+repose or on the wing.
+
+
+LETTER 37.
+
+TO MR. HODGSON.
+
+"Lisbon, July 16. 1809.
+
+
+"Thus far have we pursued our route, and seen all sorts of marvellous
+sights, palaces, convents, &c.;--which, being to be heard in my
+friend Hobhouse's forthcoming Book of Travels, I shall not anticipate
+by smuggling any account whatsoever to you in a private and
+clandestine manner. I must just observe, that the village of Cintra in
+Estremadura is the most beautiful, perhaps, in the world.
+
+"I am very happy here, because I loves oranges, and talk bad Latin to
+the monks, who understand it, as it is like their own,--and I goes
+into society (with my pocket-pistols), and I swims in the Tagus all
+across at once, and I rides on an ass or a mule, and swears
+Portuguese, and have got a diarrhoea and bites from the musquitoes.
+But what of that? Comfort must not be expected by folks that go a
+pleasuring.
+
+"When the Portuguese are pertinacious, I say, 'Carracho!'--the great
+oath of the grandees, that very well supplies the place of
+'Damme,'--and, when dissatisfied with my neighbour, I pronounce him
+'Ambra di merdo.' With these two phrases, and a third, 'Avra bouro,'
+which signifieth 'Get an ass,' I am universally understood to be a
+person of degree and a master of languages. How merrily we lives that
+travellers be!--if we had food and raiment. But in sober sadness, any
+thing is better than England, and I am infinitely amused with my
+pilgrimage as far as it has gone.
+
+"To-morrow we start to ride post near 400 miles as far as Gibraltar,
+where we embark for Melita and Byzantium. A letter to Malta will find
+me, or to be forwarded, if I am absent. Pray embrace the Drury and
+Dwyer, and all the Ephesians you encounter. I am writing with Butler's
+donative pencil, which makes my bad hand worse. Excuse illegibility.
+
+"Hodgson! send me the news, and the deaths and defeats and capital
+crimes and the misfortunes of one's friends; and let us hear of
+literary matters, and the controversies and the criticisms. All this
+will be pleasant--'Suave mari magno,' &c. Talking of that, I have been
+sea-sick, and sick of the sea.
+
+"Adieu. Yours faithfully," &c.
+
+
+LETTER 38.
+
+TO MR. HODGSON.
+
+"Gibraltar, August 6. 1809.
+
+
+"I have just arrived at this place after a journey through Portugal,
+and a part of Spain, of nearly 500 miles. We left Lisbon and travelled
+on horseback[119] to Seville and Cadiz, and thence in the Hyperion
+frigate to Gibraltar. The horses are excellent--we rode seventy miles
+a day. Eggs and wine, and hard beds, are all the accommodation we
+found, and, in such torrid weather, quite enough. My health is better
+than in England.
+
+"Seville is a fine town, and the Sierra Morena, part of which we
+crossed, a very sufficient mountain; but damn description, it is
+always disgusting. Cadiz, sweet Cadiz!--it is the first spot in the
+creation. The beauty of its streets and mansions is only excelled by
+the loveliness of its inhabitants. For, with all national prejudice, I
+must confess the women of Cadiz are as far superior to the English
+women in beauty as the Spaniards are inferior to the English in every
+quality that dignifies the name of man. Just as I began to know the
+principal persons of the city, I was obliged to sail.
+
+"You will not expect a long letter after my riding so far 'on hollow
+pampered jades of Asia.' Talking of Asia puts me in mind of Africa,
+which is within five miles of my present residence. I am going over
+before I go on to Constantinople.
+
+"Cadiz is a complete Cythera. Many of the grandees who have left
+Madrid during the troubles reside there, and I do believe it is the
+prettiest and cleanest town in Europe. London is filthy in the
+comparison. The Spanish women are all alike, their education the same.
+The wife of a duke is, in information, as the wife of a peasant,--the
+wife of a peasant, in manner, equal to a duchess. Certainly they are
+fascinating; but their minds have only one idea, and the business of
+their lives is intrigue.
+
+"I have seen Sir John Carr at Seville and Cadiz, and, like Swift's
+barber, have been down on my knees to beg he would not put me into
+black and white. Pray remember me to the Drurys and the Davies, and
+all of that stamp who are yet extant.[120] Send me a letter and news
+to Malta. My next epistle shall be from Mount Caucasus or Mount Sion.
+I shall return to Spain before I see England, for I am enamoured of
+the country.
+
+Adieu, and believe me," &c.
+
+
+In a letter to Mrs. Byron, dated a few days later, from Gibraltar, he
+recapitulates the same account of his progress, only dwelling rather
+more diffusely on some of the details. Thus, of Cintra and Mafra:--"To
+make amends for this,[121] the village of Cintra, about fifteen miles
+from the capital, is, perhaps in every respect, the most delightful in
+Europe; it contains beauties of every description, natural and
+artificial. Palaces and gardens rising in the midst of rocks,
+cataracts, and precipices; convents on stupendous heights--a distant
+view of the sea and the Tagus; and, besides (though that is a
+secondary consideration), is remarkable as the scene of Sir H.D.'s
+Convention.[122] It unites in itself all the wildness of the western
+highlands, with the verdure of the south of France. Near this place,
+about ten miles to the right, is the palace of Mafra, the boast of
+Portugal, as it might be of any other country, in point of
+magnificence without elegance. There is a convent annexed; the monks,
+who possess large revenues, are courteous enough, and understand
+Latin, so that we had a long conversation: they have a large library,
+and asked me if the _English_ had _any books_ in their country?"
+
+An adventure which he met with at Seville, characteristic both of the
+country and of himself, is thus described in the same letter to Mrs.
+Byron:--
+
+"We lodged in the house of two Spanish unmarried ladies, who possess
+_six_ houses in Seville, and gave me a curious specimen of Spanish
+manners. They are women of character, and the eldest a fine woman, the
+youngest pretty, but not so good a figure as Donna Josepha. The
+freedom of manner, which is general here, astonished me not a little;
+and in the course of further observation, I find that reserve is not
+the characteristic of the Spanish belles, who are, in general, very
+handsome, with large black eyes, and very fine forms. The eldest
+honoured your _unworthy_ son with very particular attention, embracing
+him with great tenderness at parting (I was there but three days),
+after cutting off a lock of his hair, and presenting him with one of
+her own, about three feet in length, which I send, and beg you will
+retain till my return. Her last words were, 'Adios, tu hermoso! me
+gusto mucho.'--'Adieu, you pretty fellow! you please me much.' She
+offered me a share of her apartment, which my _virtue_ induced me to
+decline; she laughed, and said I had some English "amante" (lover),
+and added that she was going to be married to an officer in the
+Spanish army."
+
+Among the beauties of Cadiz, his imagination, dazzled by the
+attractions of the many, was on the point, it would appear from the
+following, of being fixed by _one_:--
+
+"Cadiz, sweet Cadiz, is the most delightful town I ever beheld, very
+different from our English cities in every respect except cleanliness
+(and it is as clean as London), but still beautiful and full of the
+finest women in Spain, the Cadiz belles being the Lancashire witches
+of their land. Just as I was introduced and began to like the
+grandees, I was forced to leave it for this cursed place; but before I
+return to England I will visit it again.
+
+"The night before I left it, I sat in the box at the opera, with
+admiral ----'s family, an aged wife and a fine daughter, Sennorita
+----. The girl is very pretty, in the Spanish style; in my opinion, by
+no means inferior to the English in charms, and certainly superior in
+fascination. Long, black hair, dark languishing eyes, clear olive
+complexions, and forms more graceful in motion than can be conceived
+by an Englishman used to the drowsy listless air of his countrywomen,
+added to the most becoming dress, and, at the same time, the most
+decent in the world, render a Spanish beauty irresistible.
+
+"Miss ---- and her little brother understood a little French, and,
+after regretting my ignorance of the Spanish, she proposed to become
+my preceptress in that language. I could only reply by a low bow, and
+express my regret that I quitted Cadiz too soon to permit me to make
+the progress which would doubtless attend my studies under so charming
+a directress. I was standing at the back of the box, which resembles
+our Opera boxes, (the theatre is large and finely decorated, the music
+admirable,) in the manner which Englishmen generally adopt, for fear
+of incommoding the ladies in front, when this fair Spaniard
+dispossessed an old woman (an aunt or a duenna) of her chair, and
+commanded me to be seated next herself, at a tolerable distance from
+her mamma. At the close of the performance I withdrew, and was
+lounging with a party of men in the passage, when, _en passant_, the
+lady turned round and called me, and I had the honour of attending her
+to the admiral's mansion. I have an invitation on my return to Cadiz,
+which I shall accept if I repass through the country on my return from
+Asia."
+
+To these adventures, or rather glimpses of adventures, which he met
+with in his hasty passage through Spain, he adverted, I recollect,
+briefly, in the early part of his "Memoranda;" and it was the younger,
+I think, of his fair hostesses at Seville, whom he there described
+himself as making earnest love to, with the help of a dictionary.
+"For some time," he said, "I went on prosperously both as a linguist
+and a lover,[123] till at length, the lady took a fancy to a ring
+which I wore, and set her heart on my giving it to her, as a pledge of
+my sincerity. This, however, could not be;--anything but the ring, I
+declared, was at her service, and much more than its value,--but the
+ring itself I had made a vow never to give away." The young Spaniard
+grew angry as the contention went on, and it was not long before the
+lover became angry also; till, at length, the affair ended by their
+separating unsuccessful on both sides. "Soon after this," said he, "I
+sailed for Malta, and there parted with both my heart and ring."
+
+In the letter from Gibraltar, just cited, he adds--"I am going over to
+Africa to-morrow; it is only six miles from this fortress. My next
+stage is Cagliari in Sardinia, where I shall be presented to his
+majesty. I have a most superb uniform as a court-dress, indispensable
+in travelling." His plan of visiting Africa was, however,
+relinquished. After a short stay at Gibraltar, during which he dined
+one day with Lady Westmoreland, and another with General Castanos, he,
+on the 19th of August, took his departure for Malta, in the packet,
+having first sent Joe Murray and young Rushton back to England,--the
+latter being unable, from ill health, to accompany him any further.
+"Pray," he says to his mother, "show the lad every kindness, as he is
+my great favourite."[124]
+
+He also wrote a letter to the father of the boy, which gives so
+favourable an impression of his thoughtfulness and kindliness that I
+have much pleasure in being enabled to introduce it here.
+
+
+LETTER 39.
+
+TO MR. RUSHTON.
+
+"Gibraltar, August 15. 1809.
+
+
+"Mr. Rushton,
+
+"I have sent Robert home with Mr. Murray, because the country which I
+am about to travel through is in a state which renders it unsafe,
+particularly for one so young. I allow you to deduct five-and-twenty
+pounds a year for his education for three years, provided I do not
+return before that time, and I desire he may be considered as in my
+service. Let every care be taken of him, and let him be sent to
+school. In case of my death I have provided enough in my will to
+render him independent. He has behaved extremely well, and has
+travelled a great deal for the time of his absence. Deduct the expense
+of his education from your rent.
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+It was the fate of Lord Byron, throughout life, to meet, wherever he
+went, with persons who, by some tinge of the extraordinary in their
+own fates or characters, were prepared to enter, at once, into full
+sympathy with his; and to this attraction, by which he drew towards
+him all strange and eccentric spirits, he owed some of the most
+agreeable connections of his life, as well as some of the most
+troublesome. Of the former description was an intimacy which he now
+cultivated during his short sojourn at Malta. The lady with whom he
+formed this acquaintance was the same addressed by him under the name
+of "Florence" in Childe Harold; and in a letter to his mother from
+Malta, he thus describes her in prose:--"This letter is committed to
+the charge of a very extraordinary woman, whom you have doubtless
+heard of, Mrs. S---- S----, of whose escape the Marquis de Salvo
+published a narrative a few years ago. She has since been shipwrecked,
+and her life has been from its commencement so fertile in remarkable
+incidents that in a romance they would appear improbable. She was born
+at Constantinople, where her father, Baron H----, was Austrian
+ambassador; married unhappily, yet has never been impeached in point
+of character; excited the vengeance of Buonaparte by a part in some
+conspiracy; several times risked her life; and is not yet twenty-five.
+She is here on her way to England, to join her husband, being obliged
+to leave Trieste, where she was paying a visit to her mother, by the
+approach of the French, and embarks soon in a ship of war. Since my
+arrival here. I have had scarcely any other companion. I have found
+her very pretty, very accomplished, and extremely eccentric.
+Buonaparte is even now so incensed against her, that her life would be
+in some danger if she were taken prisoner a second time."
+
+The tone in which he addresses this fair heroine in Childe Harold is
+(consistently with the above dispassionate account of her) that of the
+purest admiration and interest, unwarmed by any more ardent
+sentiment:--
+
+      "Sweet Florence! could another ever share
+      This wayward, loveless heart, it would be thine:
+      But, check'd by every tie, I may not dare
+      To cast a worthless offering at thy shrine,
+    Nor ask so dear a breast to feel one pang for mine.
+
+      "Thus Harold deem'd as on that lady's eye
+      He look'd, and met its beam without a thought,
+      Save admiration, glancing harmless by," &c. &c.
+
+In one so imaginative as Lord Byron, who, while he infused so much of
+his life into his poetry, mingled also not a little of poetry with his
+life, it is difficult, in unravelling the texture of his feelings, to
+distinguish at all times between the fanciful and the real. His
+description here, for instance, of the unmoved and "loveless heart,"
+with which he contemplated even the charms of this attractive person,
+is wholly at variance, not only with the anecdote from his "Memoranda"
+which I have recalled, but with the statements in many of his
+subsequent letters, and, above all, with one of the most graceful of
+his lesser poems, purporting to be addressed to this same lady during
+a thunder-storm, on his road to Zitza.[125]
+
+Notwithstanding, however, these counter evidences, I am much disposed
+to believe that the representation of the state of heart in the
+foregoing extract from Childe Harold may be regarded as the true one;
+and that the notion of his being in love was but a dream that sprung
+up afterwards, when the image of the fair Florence had become
+idealised in his fancy, and every remembrance of their pleasant hours
+among "Calypso's isles" came invested by his imagination with the warm
+aspect of love. It will be recollected that to the chilled and sated
+feelings which early indulgence, and almost as early disenchantment,
+had left behind, he attributes in these verses the calm and
+passionless regard, with which even attractions like those of Florence
+were viewed by him. That such was actually his distaste, at this
+period, to all real objects of love or passion (however his fancy
+could call up creatures of its own to worship) there is every reason
+to believe; and the same morbid indifference to those pleasures he had
+once so ardently pursued still continued to be professed by him on his
+return to England. No anchoret, indeed, could claim for himself much
+more apathy towards all such allurements than he did at that period.
+But to be _thus_ saved from temptation was a dear-bought safety, and,
+at the age of three-and-twenty, satiety and disgust are but melancholy
+substitutes for virtue.
+
+The brig of war, in which they sailed, having been ordered to convoy a
+fleet of small merchant-men to Patras and Prevesa, they remained, for
+two or three days, at anchor off the former place. From thence,
+proceeding to their ultimate destination, and catching a sunset view
+of Missolonghi in their way, they landed, on the 29th of September, at
+Prevesa.
+
+The route which Lord Byron now took through Albania, as well as those
+subsequent journeys through other parts of Turkey, which he performed
+in company with his friend Mr. Hobhouse, may be traced, by such as are
+desirous of details on the subject, in the account which the latter
+gentleman has given of his travels; an account which, interesting from
+its own excellence in every merit that should adorn such a work,
+becomes still more so from the feeling that Lord Byron is, as it were,
+present through its pages, and that we there follow his first
+youthful footsteps into the land with whose name he has intertwined
+his own for ever. As I am enabled, however, by the letters of the
+noble poet to his mother, as well as by others, still more curious,
+which are now, for the first time, published, to give his own rapid
+and lively sketches of his wanderings, I shall content myself, after
+this general reference to the volume of Mr. Hobhouse, with such
+occasional extracts from its pages as may throw light upon the letters
+of his friend.
+
+
+LETTER 40.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Prevesa, November 12. 1809.
+
+
+"My dear Mother,
+
+"I have now been some time in Turkey: this place is on the coast, but
+I have traversed the interior of the province of Albania on a visit to
+the Pacha. I left Malta in the Spider, a brig of war, on the 21st of
+September, and arrived in eight days at Prevesa. I thence have been
+about 150 miles, as far as Tepaleen, his Highness's country palace,
+where I stayed three days. The name of the Pacha is _Ali_, and he is
+considered a man of the first abilities: he governs the whole of
+Albania (the ancient Illyricum), Epirus, and part of Macedonia. His
+son, Vely Pacha, to whom he has given me letters, governs the Morea,
+and has great influence in Egypt; in short, he is one of the most
+powerful men in the Ottoman empire. When I reached Yanina, the
+capital, after a journey of three days over the mountains, through a
+country of the most picturesque beauty, I found that Ali Pacha was
+with his array in Illyricum, besieging Ibrahim Pacha in the castle of
+Berat. He had heard that an Englishman of rank was in his dominions,
+and had left orders in Yanina with the commandant to provide a house,
+and supply me with every kind of necessary _gratis_; and, though I
+have been allowed to make presents to the slaves, &c., I have not been
+permitted to pay for a single article of household consumption.
+
+"I rode out on the vizier's horses, and saw the palaces of himself and
+grandsons: they are splendid, but too much ornamented with silk and
+gold. I then went over the mountains through Zitza, a village with a
+Greek monastery (where I slept on my return), in the most beautiful
+situation (always excepting Cintra, in Portugal) I ever beheld. In
+nine days I reached Tepaleen. Our journey was much prolonged by the
+torrents that had fallen from the mountains and intersected the roads.
+I shall never forget the singular scene[126] on entering Tepaleen at
+five in the afternoon, as the sun was going down. It brought to my
+mind (with some change of _dress_, however) Scott's description of
+Branksome Castle in his _Lay_, and the feudal system. The Albanians,
+in their dresses, (the most magnificent in the world, consisting of a
+long _white kilt_, gold-worked cloak, crimson velvet gold-laced jacket
+and waistcoat, silver mounted pistols and daggers,) the Tartars with
+their high caps, the Turks in their vast pelisses and turbans, the
+soldiers and black slaves with the horses, the former in groups in an
+immense large open gallery in front of the palace, the latter placed
+in a kind of cloister below it, two hundred steeds ready caparisoned
+to move in a moment, couriers entering or passing out with
+despatches, the kettle-drums beating, boys calling the hour from the
+minaret of the mosque, altogether, with the singular appearance of the
+building itself, formed a new and delightful spectacle to a stranger.
+I was conducted to a very handsome apartment, and my health enquired
+after by the vizier's secretary, 'a-la-mode Turque!'
+
+"The next day I was introduced to Ali Pacha. I was dressed in a full
+suit of staff uniform, with a very magnificent sabre, &c. The vizier
+received me in a large room paved with marble; a fountain was playing
+in the centre; the apartment was surrounded by scarlet ottomans. He
+received me standing, a wonderful compliment from a Mussulman, and
+made me sit down on his right hand. I have a Greek interpreter for
+general use, but a physician of Ali's, named Femlario, who understands
+Latin, acted for me on this occasion. His first question was, why, at
+so early an age, I left my country?--(the Turks have no idea of
+travelling for amusement.) He then said, the English minister, Captain
+Leake, had told him I was of a great family, and desired his respects
+to my mother; which I now, in the name of Ali Pacha, present to you.
+He said he was certain I was a man of birth, because I had small ears,
+curling hair, and little white hands,[127] and expressed himself
+pleased with my appearance and garb. He told me to consider him as a
+father whilst I was in Turkey, and said he looked on me as his son.
+Indeed, he treated me like a child, sending me almonds and sugared
+sherbet, fruit and sweetmeats, twenty times a day. He begged me to
+visit him often, and at night, when he was at leisure. I then, after
+coffee and pipes, retired for the first time. I saw him thrice
+afterwards. It is singular, that the Turks, who have no hereditary
+dignities, and few great families, except the Sultans, pay so much
+respect to birth; for I found my pedigree more regarded than my
+title.[128]
+
+"To-day I saw the remains of the town of Actium, near which Antony
+lost the world, in a small bay, where two frigates could hardly
+manoeuvre: a broken wall is the sole remnant. On another part of the
+gulf stand the ruins of Nicopolis, built by Augustus in honour of his
+victory. Last night I was at a Greek marriage; but this and a thousand
+things more I have neither time nor space to describe.
+
+"I am going to-morrow, with a guard of fifty men, to Patras in the
+Morea, and thence to Athens, where I shall winter. Two days ago I was
+nearly lost in a Turkish ship of war, owing to the ignorance of the
+captain and crew, though the storm was not violent. Fletcher yelled
+after his wife, the Greeks called on all the saints, the Mussulmans on
+Alla; the captain burst into tears and ran below deck, telling us to
+call on God; the sails were split, the main-yard shivered, the wind
+blowing fresh, the night setting in, and all our chance was to make
+Corfu, which is in possession of the French, or (as Fletcher
+pathetically termed it) 'a watery grave.' I did what I could to
+console Fletcher, but finding him incorrigible, wrapped myself up in
+my Albanian capote (an immense cloak), and lay down on deck to wait
+the worst.[129] I have learnt to philosophise in my travels, and if I
+had not, complaint was useless. Luckily the wind abated and only drove
+us on the coast of Suli, on the main land, where we landed, and
+proceeded, by the help of the natives, to Prevesa again; but I shall
+not trust Turkish sailors in future, though the Pacha had ordered one
+of his own galliots to take me to Patras. I am therefore going as far
+as Missolonghi by land, and there have only to cross a small gulf to
+get to Patras.
+
+"Fletcher's next epistle will be full of marvels: we were one night
+lost for nine hours in the mountains in a thunder-storm,[130] and
+since nearly wrecked. In both cases Fletcher was sorely bewildered,
+from apprehensions of famine and banditti in the first, and drowning
+in the second instance. His eyes were a little hurt by the lightning,
+or crying (I don't know which), but are now recovered. When you write,
+address to me at Mr. Strane's, English consul, Patras, Morea.
+
+"I could tell you I know not how many incidents that I think would
+amuse you, but they crowd on my mind as much as they would swell my
+paper, and I can neither arrange them in the one, nor put them down on
+the other except in the greatest confusion. I like the Albanians much;
+they are not all Turks; some tribes are Christians. But their religion
+makes little difference in their manner or conduct. They are esteemed
+the best troops in the Turkish service. I lived on my route, two days
+at once, and three days again in a barrack at Salora, and never found
+soldiers so tolerable, though I have been in the garrisons of
+Gibraltar and Malta, and seen Spanish, French, Sicilian, and British
+troops in abundance. I have had nothing stolen, and was always welcome
+to their provision and milk. Not a week ago an Albanian chief, (every
+village has its chief, who is called Primate,) after helping us out of
+the Turkish galley in her distress, feeding us, and lodging my suite,
+consisting of Fletcher, a Greek, two Athenians, a Greek priest, and my
+companion, Mr. Hobhouse, refused any compensation but a written paper
+stating that I was well received; and when I pressed him to accept a
+few sequins, 'No,' he replied; 'I wish you to love me, not to pay me.'
+These are his words.
+
+"It is astonishing how far money goes in this country. While I was in
+the capital I had nothing to pay by the vizier's order; but since,
+though I have generally had sixteen horses, and generally six or
+seven men, the expense has not been _half_ as much as staying only
+three weeks in Malta, though Sir A. Ball, the governor, gave me a
+house for nothing, and I had only _one servant_. By the by, I expect
+H---- to remit regularly; for I am not about to stay in this province
+for ever. Let him write to me at Mr. Strane's, English consul, Patras.
+The fact is, the fertility of the plains is wonderful, and specie is
+scarce, which makes this remarkable cheapness. I am going to Athens to
+study modern Greek, which differs much from the ancient, though
+radically similar. I have no desire to return to England, nor shall
+_I_, unless compelled by absolute want, and H----'s neglect; but I
+shall not enter into Asia for a year or two, as I have much to see in
+Greece, and I may perhaps cross into Africa, at least the Egyptian
+part. Fletcher, like all Englishmen, is very much dissatisfied, though
+a little reconciled to the Turks by a present of eighty piastres from
+the vizier, which, if you consider every thing, and the value of
+specie here, is nearly worth ten guineas English. He has suffered
+nothing but from cold, heat, and vermin, which those who lie in
+cottages and cross mountains in a cold country must undergo, and of
+which I have equally partaken with himself; but he is not valiant, and
+is afraid of robbers and tempests. I have no one to be remembered to
+in England, and wish to hear nothing from it, but that you are well,
+and a letter or two on business from H----, whom you may tell to
+write. I will write when I can, and beg you to believe me,
+
+Your affectionate son,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+About the middle of November, the young traveller took his departure
+from Prevesa (the place where the foregoing letter was written), and
+proceeded, attended by his guard of fifty Albanians,[131] through
+Acarnania and AEtolia, towards the Morea.
+
+      "And therefore did he take a trusty band
+      To traverse Acarnania's forest wide,
+      In war well season'd, and with labours tann'd,
+      Till he did greet white Achelous' tide,
+    And from his further bank AEtolia's wolds espied."
+
+    CHILDE HAROLD, Canto II.
+
+His description of the night-scene at Utraikey (a small place situated
+in one of the bays of the Gulf of Arta) is, no doubt, vividly in the
+recollection of every reader of these pages; nor will it diminish their
+enjoyment of the wild beauties of that picture to be made acquainted
+with the real circumstances on which it was founded, in the following
+animated details of the same scene by his fellow-traveller:--
+
+"In the evening the gates were secured, and preparations were made for
+feeding our Albanians. A goat was killed and roasted whole, and four
+fires were kindled in the yard, round which the soldiers seated
+themselves in parties. After eating and drinking, the greater part of
+them assembled round the largest of the fires, and whilst ourselves
+and the elders of the party were seated on the ground, danced round
+the blaze to their own songs, in the manner before described, but
+with an astonishing energy. All their songs were relations of some
+robbing exploits. One of them, which detained them more than an hour,
+began thus:--'When we set out from Parga there were sixty of
+us:'--then came the burden of the verse,
+
+    "'Robbers all at Parga!
+      Robbers all at Parga!
+
+"'{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}
+{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}!
+{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}
+{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}!'
+
+And as they roared out this stave they whirled round the fire, dropped
+and rebounded from their knees, and again whirled round as the chorus
+was again repeated. The rippling of the waves upon the pebbly margin
+where we were seated filled up the pauses of the song with a milder
+and not more monotonous music. The night was very dark, but by the
+flashes of the fires we caught a glimpse of the woods, the rocks, and
+the lake, which, together with the wild appearance of the dancers,
+presented us with a scene that would have made a fine picture in the
+hands of such an artist as the author of the Mysteries of Udolpho."
+
+Having traversed Acarnania, the travellers passed to the AEtolian side
+of the Achelous, and on the 21st of November reached Missolonghi. And
+here, it is impossible not to pause, and send a mournful thought
+forward to the visit which, fifteen years after, he paid to this same
+spot, when, in the full meridian both of his age and fame, he came to
+lay down his life as the champion of that land, through which he now
+wandered a stripling and a stranger. Could some spirit have here
+revealed to him the events of that interval,--have shown him, on the
+one side, the triumphs that awaited him, the power his varied genius
+would acquire over all hearts, alike to elevate or depress, to darken
+or illuminate them,--and then place, on the other side, all the
+penalties of this gift, the waste and wear of the heart through the
+imagination, the havoc of that perpetual fire within, which, while it
+dazzles others, consumes the possessor,--the invidiousness of such an
+elevation in the eyes of mankind, and the revenge they take on him who
+compels them to look up to it,--_would_ he, it may be asked, have
+welcomed glory on such conditions? would he not rather have felt that
+the purchase was too costly, and that such warfare with an ungrateful
+world, while living, would be ill recompensed even by the immortality
+it might award him afterwards?
+
+At Missolonghi he dismissed his whole band of Albanians, with the
+exception of one, named Dervish, whom he took into his service, and
+who, with Basilius, the attendant allotted him by Ali Pacha, continued
+with him during the remainder of his stay in the East. After a
+residence of near a fortnight at Patras, he next directed his course
+to Vostizza,--on approaching which town the snowy peak of Parnassus,
+towering on the other side of the Gulf, first broke on his eyes; and
+in two days after, among the sacred hollows of Delphi, the stanzas,
+with which that vision had inspired him, were written.[132]
+
+It was at this time, that, in riding along the sides of Parnassus, he
+saw an unusually large flight of eagles in the air,--a phenomenon
+which seems to have affected his imagination with a sort of poetical
+superstition, as he, more than once, recurs to the circumstance in his
+journals. Thus, "Going to the fountain of Delphi (Castri) in 1809, I
+saw a flight of twelve eagles (H. says they were vultures--at least in
+conversation), and I seised the omen. On the day before I composed the
+lines to Parnassus (in Childe Harold), and, on beholding the birds,
+had a hope that Apollo had accepted my homage. I have at least had the
+name and fame of a poet during the poetical part of life (from twenty
+to thirty);--whether it will _last_ is another matter."
+
+He has also, in reference to this journey from Patras, related a
+little anecdote of his own sportsmanship, which, by all _but_
+sportsmen, will be thought creditable to his humanity. "The last bird
+I ever fired at was an eaglet, on the shore of the Gulf of Lepanto,
+near Vostizza. It was only wounded, and I tried to save it,--the eye
+was so bright. But it pined, and died in a few days; and I never did
+since, and never will, attempt the death of another bird."
+
+To a traveller in Greece, there are few things more remarkable than
+the diminutive extent of those countries, which have filled such a
+wide space in fame. "A man might very easily," says Mr. Hobhouse, "at
+a moderate pace ride from Livadia to Thebes and back again between
+breakfast and dinner; and the tour of all Boeotia might certainly be
+made in two days without baggage." Having visited, within a very short
+space of time, the fountains of Memory and Oblivion at Livadia, and
+the haunts of the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes, the travellers at length
+turned towards Athens, the city of their dreams, and, after crossing
+Mount Cithaeron, arrived in sight of the ruins of Phyle, on the evening
+of Christmas-day, 1809.
+
+Though the poet has left, in his own verses, an ever-during testimony
+of the enthusiasm with which he now contemplated the scenes around
+him, it is not difficult to conceive that, to superficial observers,
+Lord Byron at Athens might have appeared an untouched spectator of
+much that throws ordinary travellers into, at least, verbal raptures.
+For pretenders of every sort, whether in taste or morals, he
+entertained, at all times, the most profound contempt; and if,
+frequently, his real feelings of admiration disguised themselves under
+an affected tone of indifference and mockery, it was out of pure
+hostility to the cant of those, who, he well knew, praised without any
+feeling at all. It must be owned, too, that while he thus justly
+despised the raptures of the common herd of travellers, there were
+some pursuits, even of the intelligent and tasteful, in which he took
+but very little interest. With the antiquarian and connoisseur his
+sympathies were few and feeble:--"I am not a collector," he says, in
+one of his notes on Childe Harold, "nor an admirer of collections."
+For antiquities, indeed, unassociated with high names and deeds, he
+had no value whatever; and of works of art he was content to admire
+the general effect, without professing, or aiming at, any knowledge of
+the details. It was to nature, in her lonely scenes of grandeur and
+beauty, or as at Athens, shining, unchanged, among the ruins of glory
+and of art, that the true fervid homage of his whole soul was paid. In
+the few notices of his travels, appended to Childe Harold, we find the
+sites and scenery of the different places he visited far more fondly
+dwelt upon than their classic or historical associations. To the
+valley of Zitza he reverts, both in prose and verse, with a much
+warmer recollection than to Delphi or the Troad; and the plain of
+Athens itself is chiefly praised by him as "a more glorious prospect
+than even Cintra or Istambol." Where, indeed, could Nature assert such
+claims to his worship as in scenes like these, where he beheld her
+blooming, in indestructible beauty, amid the wreck of all that man
+deems most worthy of duration? "Human institutions," says Harris,
+"perish, but Nature is permanent:"--or, as Lord Byron has amplified
+this thought[133] in one of his most splendid passages:--
+
+      "Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild;
+      Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields,
+      Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,
+      And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields;
+      There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,
+      The free-born wanderer of thy mountain-air;
+      Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,
+      Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare;
+    Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair."
+
+    CHILDE HAROLD, Canto II.
+
+At Athens, on this his first visit, he made a stay of between two and
+three months, not a day of which he let pass without employing some of
+its hours in visiting the grand monuments of ancient genius around
+him, and calling up the spirit of other times among their ruins. He
+made frequently, too, excursions to different parts of Attica; and it
+was in one of his visits to Cape Colonna, at this time, that he was
+near being seized by a party of Mainotes, who were lying hid in the
+caves under the cliff of Minerva Sunias. These pirates, it appears,
+were only deterred from attacking him (as a Greek, who was then their
+prisoner, informed him afterwards) by a supposition that the two
+Albanians, whom they saw attending him, were but part of a complete
+guard he had at hand.
+
+In addition to all the magic of its names and scenes, the city of
+Minerva possessed another sort of attraction for the poet, to which,
+wherever he went, his heart, or rather imagination, was but too
+sensible. His pretty song, "Maid of Athens, ere we part," is said to
+have been addressed to the eldest daughter of the Greek lady at whose
+house he lodged; and that the fair Athenian, when he composed these
+verses, may have been the tenant, for the time being, of his fancy, is
+highly possible. Theodora Macri, his hostess, was the widow of the
+late English vice-consul, and derived a livelihood from letting,
+chiefly to English travellers, the apartments which Lord Byron and his
+friend now occupied, and of which the latter gentleman gives us the
+following description;--"Our lodgings consisted of a sitting-room and
+two bed-rooms, opening into a court-yard where there were five or six
+lemon-trees, from which, during our residence in the place, was
+plucked the fruit that seasoned the pilaf, and other national dishes
+served up at our frugal table."
+
+The fame of an illustrious poet is not confined to his own person and
+writings, but imparts a share of its splendour to whatever has been,
+even remotely, connected with him; and not only ennobles the objects
+of his friendships, his loves, and even his likings, but on every spot
+where he has sojourned through life, leaves traces of its light that
+do not easily pass away. Little did the Maid of Athens, while
+listening innocently to the compliments of the young Englishman,
+foresee that a day would come when he should make her name and home so
+celebrated that travellers, on their return from Greece, would find
+few things more interesting to their hearers than such details of
+herself and her family as the following:--
+
+"Our servant, who had gone before to procure accommodation, met us at
+the gate and conducted us to Theodora Macri, the Consulina's, where we
+at present live. This lady is the widow of the consul, and has three
+lovely daughters; the eldest celebrated for her beauty, and said to be
+the subject of those stanzas by Lord Byron,--
+
+  "'Maid of Athens, ere we part,
+    Give, oh, give me back my heart!' &c.
+
+"At Orchomenus, where stood the Temple of the Graces, I was tempted to
+exclaim, 'Whither have the Graces fled?'--Little did I expect to find
+them here. Yet here comes one of them with golden cups and coffee, and
+another with a book. The book is a register of names, some of which
+are far sounded by the voice of fame. Among them is Lord Byron's,
+connected with some lines which I shall send you:--
+
+    "'Fair Albion, smiling, sees her son depart,
+    To trace the birth and nursery of art;
+    Noble his object, glorious is his aim,
+    He comes to Athens, and he--writes his name.'
+
+"The counterpoise by Lord Byron:--
+
+    "'This modest bard, like many a bard unknown,
+    Rhymes on our names, but wisely hides his own;
+    But yet whoe'er he be, to say no worse,
+    His name would bring more credit than his verse.'
+
+"The mention of the three Athenian Graces will, I can foresee, rouse
+your curiosity, and fire your imagination; and I may despair of your
+farther attention till I attempt to give you some description of them.
+Their apartment is immediately opposite to ours, and if you could see
+them, as we do now, through the gently waving aromatic plants before
+our window, you would leave your heart in Athens.
+
+"Theresa, the Maid of Athens, Catinco, and Mariana, are of middle
+stature. On the crown of the head of each is a red Albanian skull-cap,
+with a blue tassel spread out and fastened down like a star. Near the
+edge or bottom of the skull-cap is a handkerchief of various colours
+bound round their temples. The youngest wears her hair loose, falling
+on her shoulders,--the hair behind descending down the back nearly to
+the waist, and, as usual, mixed with silk. The two eldest generally
+have their hair bound, and fastened under the handkerchief. Their
+upper robe is a pelisse edged with fur, hanging loose down to the
+ankles; below is a handkerchief of muslin covering the bosom, and
+terminating at the waist, which is short; under that, a gown of
+striped silk or muslin, with a gore round the swell of the loins,
+falling in front in graceful negligence;--white stockings and yellow
+slippers complete their attire. The two eldest have black, or dark
+hair and eyes; their visage oval, and complexion somewhat pale, with
+teeth of dazzling whiteness. Their cheeks are rounded, and noses
+straight, rather inclined to aquiline. The youngest, Mariana, is very
+fair, her face not so finely rounded, but has a gayer expression than
+her sisters', whose countenances, except when the conversation has
+something of mirth in it, may be said to be rather pensive. Their
+persons are elegant, and their manners pleasing and lady-like, such as
+would be fascinating in any country. They possess very considerable
+powers of conversation, and their minds seem to be more instructed
+than those of the Greek women in general. With such attractions it
+would, indeed, be remarkable, if they did not meet with great
+attentions from the travellers who occasionally are resident in
+Athens. They sit in the eastern style, a little reclined, with their
+limbs gathered under them on the divan, and without shoes. Their
+employments are the needle, tambouring, and reading.
+
+"I have said that I saw these Grecian beauties through the waving
+aromatic plants before their window. This, perhaps, has raised your
+imagination somewhat too high, in regard to their condition. You may
+have supposed their dwelling to have every attribute of eastern
+luxury. The golden cups, too, may have thrown a little witchery over
+your excited fancy. Confess, do you not imagine that the doors
+
+      "'Self-open'd into halls, where, who can tell
+      What elegance and grandeur wide expand,
+      The pride of Turkey and of Persia's land;
+      Soft quilts on quilts, on carpets carpets spread,
+      And couches stretch'd around in seemly band,
+      And endless pillows rise to prop the head,
+    So that each spacious room was one full swelling bed?'
+
+"You will shortly perceive the propriety of my delaying, till now, to
+inform you that the aromatic plants which I have mentioned are neither
+more nor less than a few geraniums and Grecian balms, and that the
+room in which the ladies sit is quite unfurnished, the walls neither
+painted nor decorated by 'cunning hand.' Then, what would have become
+of the Graces had I told you sooner that a single room is all they
+have, save a little closet and a kitchen? You see how careful I have
+been to make the first impression good; not that they do not merit
+every praise, but that it is in man's august and elevated nature to
+think a little slightingly of merit, and even of beauty, if not
+supported by some worldly show. Now, I shall communicate to you a
+secret, but in the lowest whisper.
+
+"These ladies, since the death of the consul, their father, depend on
+strangers living in their spare room and closet,--which we now occupy.
+But, though so poor, their virtue shines as conspicuously as their
+beauty.
+
+"Not all the wealth of the East, or the complimentary lays even of the
+first of England's poets, could render them so truly worthy of love
+and admiration."[134]
+
+Ten weeks had flown rapidly away, when the unexpected offer of a
+passage in an English sloop of war to Smyrna induced the travellers to
+make immediate preparations for departure, and, on the 5th of March,
+they reluctantly took leave of Athens. "Passing," says Mr. Hobhouse,
+"through the gate leading to the Piraeus, we struck into the
+olive-wood on the road going to Salamis, galloping at a quick pace, in
+order to rid ourselves, by hurry, of the pain of parting." He adds,
+"We could not refrain from looking back, as we passed rapidly to the
+shore, and we continued to direct our eyes towards the spot, where we
+had caught the last glimpse of the Theseum and the ruins of the
+Parthenon through the vistas in the woods, for many minutes after the
+city and the Acropolis had been totally hidden from our view."
+
+At Smyrna Lord Byron took up his residence in the house of the
+consul-general, and remained there, with the exception of two or three
+days employed in a visit to the ruins of Ephesus, till the 11th of
+April. It was during this time, as appears from a memorandum of his
+own, that the two first Cantos of Childe Harold, which he had begun
+five months before at Ioannina, were completed. The memorandum alluded
+to, which I find prefixed to his original manuscript of the poem, is
+as follows:--
+
+    "Byron, Ioannina in Albania.
+    Begun October 31st, 1809;
+    Concluded Canto 2d, Smyrna,
+         March 28th. 1810.
+
+    "BYRON."
+
+From Smyrna the only letter, at all interesting, which I am enabled to
+present to the reader, is the following:--
+
+
+LETTER 41.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Smyrna, March 19. 1810.
+
+
+"Dear Mother,
+
+"I cannot write you a long letter; but as I know you will not be sorry
+to receive any intelligence of my movements, pray accept what I can
+give. I have traversed the greatest part of Greece, besides Epirus,
+&c. &c., resided ten weeks at Athens, and am now on the Asiatic side
+on my way to Constantinople. I have just returned from viewing the
+ruins of Ephesus, a day's journey from Smyrna. I presume you have
+received a long letter I wrote from Albania, with an account of my
+reception by the Pacha of the province.
+
+"When I arrive at Constantinople, I shall determine whether to proceed
+into Persia or return, which latter I do not wish, if I can avoid it.
+But I have no intelligence from Mr. H----, and but one letter from
+yourself. I shall stand in need of remittances whether I proceed or
+return. I have written to him repeatedly, that he may not plead
+ignorance of my situation for neglect. I can give you no account of
+any thing, for I have not time or opportunity, the frigate sailing
+immediately. Indeed the further I go the more my laziness increases,
+and my aversion to letter-writing becomes more confirmed. I have
+written to no one but to yourself and Mr. H----, and these are
+communications of business and duty rather than of inclination.
+
+"F---- is very much disgusted with his fatigues, though he has
+undergone nothing that I have not shared. He is a poor creature;
+indeed English servants are detestable travellers. I have, besides
+him, two Albanian soldiers and a Greek interpreter; all excellent in
+their way. Greece, particularly in the vicinity of Athens, is
+delightful,--cloudless skies and lovely landscapes. But I must reserve
+all account of my adventures till we meet. I keep no journal, but my
+friend H. writes incessantly. Pray take care of Murray and Robert, and
+tell the boy it is the most fortunate thing for him that he did not
+accompany me to Turkey. Consider this as merely a notice of my safety,
+and believe me,
+
+yours, &c. &c.
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+On the 11th of April he left Smyrna in the Salsette frigate, which had
+been ordered to Constantinople, for the purpose of conveying the
+ambassador, Mr. Adair, to England, and, after an exploratory visit to
+the ruins of Troas, arrived, at the beginning of the following month,
+in the Dardanelles.--While the frigate was at anchor in these straits,
+the following letters to his friends Mr. Drury and Mr. Hodgson were
+written.
+
+
+LETTER 42.
+
+TO MR. HENRY DRURY.
+
+"Salsette frigate, May 3. 1810.
+
+
+"My dear Drury,
+
+"When I left England, nearly a year ago, you requested me to write to
+you--I will do so. I have crossed Portugal, traversed the south of
+Spain, visited Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and thence passed into Turkey,
+where I am still wandering. I first landed in Albania, the ancient
+Epirus, where we penetrated as far as Mount Tomarit--excellently
+treated by the chief AH Pacha,--and, after journeying through Illyria,
+Chaonia, &c., crossed the Gulf of Actium, with a guard of fifty
+Albanians, and passed the Achelous in our route through Acarnania and
+AEtolia. We stopped a short time in the Morea, crossed the Gulf of
+Lepanto, and landed at the foot of Parnassus;--saw all that Delphi
+retains, and so on to Thebes and Athens, at which last we remained ten
+weeks.
+
+"His Majesty's ship, Pylades, brought us to Smyrna; but not before we
+had topographised Attica, including, of course, Marathon and the
+Sunian promontory. From Smyrna to the Troad (which we visited when at
+anchor, for a fortnight, off the tomb of Antilochus) was our next
+stage; and now we are in the Dardanelles, waiting for a wind to
+proceed to Constantinople.
+
+"This morning I _swam_ from _Sestos_ to _Abydos_. The immediate
+distance is not above a mile, but the current renders it
+hazardous;--so much so that I doubt whether Leander's conjugal
+affection must not have been a little chilled in his passage to
+Paradise. I attempted it a week ago, and failed,--owing to the north
+wind, and the wonderful rapidity of the tide,--though I have been from
+my childhood a strong swimmer. But, this morning being calmer, I
+succeeded, and crossed the 'broad Hellespont' in an hour and ten
+minutes.
+
+"Well, my dear sir, I have left my home, and seen part of Africa and
+Asia, and a tolerable portion of Europe. I have been with generals and
+admirals, princes and pashas, governors and ungovernables,--but I have
+not time or paper to expatiate. I wish to let you know that I live
+with a friendly remembrance of you, and a hope to meet you again; and
+if I do this as shortly as possible, attribute it to anything but
+forgetfulness.
+
+"Greece, ancient and modern, you know too well to require description.
+Albania, indeed, I have seen more of than any Englishman (except a Mr.
+Leake), for it is a country rarely visited, from the savage character
+of the natives, though abounding in more natural beauties than the
+classical regions of Greece,--which, however, are still eminently
+beautiful, particularly Delphi and Cape Colonna in Attica. Yet these
+are nothing to parts of Illyria and Epirus, where places without a
+name, and rivers not laid down in maps, may, one day, when more known,
+be justly esteemed superior subjects, for the pencil and the pen, to
+the dry ditch of the Ilissus and the bogs of Boeotia.
+
+"The Troad is a fine field for conjecture and snipe-shooting, and a
+good sportsman and an ingenious scholar may exercise their feet and
+faculties to great advantage upon the spot;--or, if they prefer
+riding, lose their way (as I did) in a cursed quagmire of the
+Scamander, who wriggles about as if the Dardan virgins still offered
+their wonted tribute. The only vestige of Troy, or her destroyers, are
+the barrows supposed to contain the carcasses of Achilles, Antilochus,
+Ajax, &c.;--but Mount Ida is still in high feather, though the
+shepherds are now-a-days not much like Ganymede. But why should I say
+more of these things? are they not written in the _Boke_ of _Gell_?
+and has not H. got a journal? I keep none, as I have renounced
+scribbling.
+
+"I see not much difference between ourselves and the Turks, save that
+we have ----, and they have none--that they have long dresses, and we
+short, and that we talk much, and they little. They are sensible
+people. Ali Pacha told me he was sure I was a man of rank, because I
+had _small ears_ and _hands_, and _curling hair_. By the by, I speak
+the Romaic, or modern Greek, tolerably. It does not differ from the
+ancient dialects so much as you would conceive: but the pronunciation
+is diametrically opposite. Of verse, except in rhyme, they have no
+idea.
+
+"I like the Greeks, who are plausible rascals,--with all the Turkish
+vices, without their courage. However, some are brave, and all are
+beautiful, very much resembling the busts of Alcibiades:--the women
+not quite so handsome. I can swear in Turkish; but, except one
+horrible oath, and 'pimp,' and 'bread,' and 'water,' I have got no
+great vocabulary in that language. They are extremely polite to
+strangers of any rank, properly protected; and as I have two servants
+and two soldiers, we get on with great eclat. We have been
+occasionally in danger of thieves, and once of shipwreck,--but always
+escaped.
+
+"Of Spain I sent some account to our Hodgson, but have subsequently
+written to no one, save notes to relations and lawyers, to keep them
+out of my premises. I mean to give up all connection, on my return,
+with many of my best friends--as I supposed them--and to snarl all my
+life. But I hope to have one good-humoured laugh with you, and to
+embrace Dwyer, and pledge Hodgson, before I commence cynicism.
+
+"Tell Dr. Butler I am now writing with the gold pen he gave me before
+I left England, which is the reason my scrawl is more unintelligible
+than usual. I have been at Athens and seen plenty of these reeds for
+scribbling, some of which he refused to bestow upon me, because
+topographic Gell had brought them from Attica. But I will not
+describe,--no--you must be satisfied with simple detail till my
+return, and then we will unfold the flood-gates of colloquy. I am in a
+thirty-six gun frigate, going up to fetch Bob Adair from
+Constantinople, who will have the honour to carry this letter.
+
+"And so H.'s _boke_ is out,[135] with some sentimental sing-song of my
+own to fill up,--and how does it take, eh? and where the devil is the
+second edition of my Satire, with additions? and my name on the title
+page? and more lines tagged to the end, with a new exordium and what
+not, hot from my anvil before I cleared the Channel? The Mediterranean
+and the Atlantic roll between me and criticism; and the thunders of
+the Hyperborean Review are deafened by the roar of the Hellespont.
+
+"Remember me to Claridge, if not translated to college, and present to
+Hodgson assurances of my high consideration. Now, you will ask, what shall
+I do next? and I answer, I do not know. I may return in a few months, but
+I have intents and projects after visiting Constantinople.--Hobhouse,
+however, will probably be back in September.
+
+"On the 2d of July we have left Albion one year--'oblitus meorum
+obliviscendus et illis.' I was sick of my own country, and not much
+prepossessed in favour of any other; but I 'drag on' 'my chain'
+without 'lengthening it at each remove.' I am like the Jolly Miller,
+caring for nobody, and not cared for. All countries are much the same
+in my eyes. I smoke, and stare at mountains, and twirl my mustachios
+very independently. I miss no comforts, and the musquitoes that rack
+the morbid frame of H. have, luckily for me, little effect on mine,
+because I live more temperately.
+
+"I omitted Ephesus in my catalogue, which I visited during my sojourn
+at Smyrna; but the Temple has almost perished, and St. Paul need not
+trouble himself to epistolise the present brood of Ephesians, who have
+converted a large church built entirely of marble into a mosque, and I
+don't know that the edifice looks the worse for it.
+
+"My paper is full, and my ink ebbing--good afternoon! If you address
+to me at Malta, the letter will be forwarded wherever I may be. H.
+greets you; he pines for his poetry,--at least, some tidings of it. I
+almost forgot to tell you that I am dying for love of three Greek
+girls at Athens, sisters. I lived in the same house. Teresa, Mariana,
+and Katinka,[136] are the names of these divinities,--all of them
+under fifteen.
+
+Your {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL
+LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER STIGMA~} {~GREEK
+SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
+OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER STIGMA~},
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+LETTER 43.
+
+TO MR. HODGSON.
+
+"Salsette frigate, in the Dardanelles, off Abydos, May 5. 1810.
+
+
+"I am on my way to Constantinople, after a tour through Greece,
+Epirus, &c., and part of Asia Minor, some particulars of which I have
+just communicated to our friend and host, H. Drury. With these, then,
+I shall not trouble you; but as you will perhaps be pleased to hear
+that I am well, &c., I take the opportunity of our ambassador's return
+to forward the few lines I have time to despatch. We have undergone
+some inconveniences, and incurred partial perils, but no events worthy
+of communication, unless you will deem it one that two days ago I swam
+from Sestos to Abydos. This, with a few alarms from robbers, and some
+danger of shipwreck in a Turkish galliot six months ago, a visit to a
+Pacha, a passion for a married woman at Malta, a challenge to an
+officer, an attachment to three Greek girls at Athens, with a great
+deal of buffoonery and fine prospects, form all that has distinguished
+my progress since my departure from Spain.
+
+"H. rhymes and journalises; I stare and do nothing--unless smoking can
+be deemed an active amusement. The Turks take too much care of their
+women to permit them to be scrutinised; but I have lived a good deal
+with the Greeks, whose modern dialect I can converse in enough for my
+purposes. With the Turks I have also some male acquaintances--female
+society is out of the question. I have been very well treated by the
+Pachas and Governors, and have no complaint to make of any kind.
+Hobhouse will one day inform you of all our adventures,--were I to
+attempt the recital, neither _my_ paper nor _your_ patience would hold
+out during the operation.
+
+"Nobody, save yourself, has written to me since I left England; but
+indeed I did not request it. I except my relations, who write quite as
+often as I wish. Of Hobhouse's volume I know nothing, except that it
+is out; and of my second edition I do not even know _that_, and
+certainly do not, at this distance, interest myself in the matter. I
+hope you and Bland roll down the stream of sale with rapidity.
+
+"Of my return I cannot positively speak, but think it probable
+Hobhouse will precede me in that respect. We have been very nearly one
+year abroad. I should wish to gaze away another, at least, in these
+ever-green climates; but I fear business, law business, the worst of
+employments, will recall me previous to that period, if not very
+quickly. If so, you shall have due notice.
+
+"I hope you will find me an altered personage,--do not mean in body,
+but in manner, for I begin to find out that nothing but virtue will do
+in this d----d world. I am tolerably sick of vice, which I have tried
+in its agreeable varieties, and mean, on my return, to cut all my
+dissolute acquaintance, leave off wine and carnal company, and betake
+myself to politics and decorum. I am very serious and cynical, and a
+good deal disposed to moralise; but fortunately for you the coming
+homily is cut off by default of pen and defection of paper.
+
+"Good morrow! If you write, address to me at Malta, whence your
+letters will be forwarded. You need not remember me to any body, but
+believe me yours with all faith,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+From Constantinople, where he arrived on the 14th of May, he addressed
+four or five letters to Mrs. Byron, in almost every one of which his
+achievement in swimming across the Hellespont is commemorated. The
+exceeding pride, indeed, which he took in this classic feat (the
+particulars of which he has himself abundantly detailed) may be cited
+among the instances of that boyishness of character, which he carried
+with him so remarkably into his maturer years, and which, while it
+puzzled distant observers of his conduct, was not among the least
+amusing or attaching of his peculiarities to those who knew him
+intimately. So late as eleven years from this period, when some
+sceptical traveller ventured to question, after all, the
+practicability of Leander's exploit, Lord Byron, with that jealousy on
+the subject of his own personal prowess which he retained from
+boyhood, entered again, with fresh zeal, into the discussion, and
+brought forward two or three other instances of his own feats in
+swimming,[137] to corroborate the statement originally made by him.
+
+In one of these letters to his mother from Constantinople, dated May
+24th, after referring, as usual, to his notable exploit, "in humble
+imitation of Leander, of amorous memory, though," he adds, "I had no
+Hero to receive me on the other side of the Hellespont," he continues
+thus:--
+
+"When our ambassador takes his leave I shall accompany him to see the
+sultan, and afterwards probably return to Greece. I have heard nothing
+of Mr. Hanson but one remittance, without any letter from that legal
+gentleman. If you have occasion for any pecuniary supply, pray use my
+funds as far as they _go_ without reserve; and, lest this should not
+be enough, in my next to Mr. Hanson I will direct him to advance any
+sum you may want, leaving it to your discretion how much, in the
+present state of my affairs, you may think proper to require. I have
+already seen the most interesting parts of Turkey in Europe and Asia
+Minor, but shall not proceed further till I hear from England: in the
+mean time I shall expect occasional supplies, according to
+circumstances; and shall pass my summer amongst my friends, the Greeks
+of the Morea."
+
+He then adds, with his usual kind solicitude about his favourite
+servants:--
+
+"Pray take care of my boy Robert, and the old man Murray. It is
+fortunate they returned; neither the youth of the one, nor the age of
+the other, would have suited the changes of climate, and fatigue of
+travelling."
+
+
+LETTER 44.
+
+TO MR. HENRY DRURY.
+
+"Constantinople, June 17. 1810.
+
+"Though I wrote to you so recently, I break in upon you again to
+congratulate you on a child being born, as a letter from Hodgson
+apprizes me of that event, in which I rejoice.
+
+"I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to the Black
+Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled with as
+great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You remember
+the beginning of the nurse's dole in the Medea, of which I beg you to
+take the following translation, done on the summit:--
+
+    "Oh how I wish that an embargo
+    Had kept in port the good ship Argo!
+    Who, still unlaunch'd from Grecian docks,
+    Had never passed the Azure rocks;
+    But now I fear her trip will be a
+    Damn'd business for my Miss Medea, &c. &c.,
+
+as it very nearly was to me;--for, had not this sublime passage been
+in my head, I should never have dreamed of ascending the said rocks,
+and bruising my carcass in honour of the ancients.
+
+"I have now sat on the Cyaneans, swam from Sestos to Abydos (as I
+trumpeted in my last), and, after passing through the Morea again,
+shall set sail for Santo Maura, and toss myself from the Leucadian
+promontory;--surviving which operation, I shall probably join you in
+England. H., who will deliver this, is bound straight for these parts;
+and, as he is bursting with his travels, I shall not anticipate his
+narratives, but merely beg you not to believe one word he says, but
+reserve your ear for me, if you have any desire to be acquainted with
+the truth.
+
+"I am bound for Athens once more, and thence to the Morea; but my stay
+depends so much on my caprice, that I can say nothing of its probable
+duration. I have been out a year already, and may stay another; but I
+am quicksilver, and say nothing positively. We are all very much
+occupied doing nothing, at present. We have seen every thing but the
+mosques, which we are to view with a firman on Tuesday next. But of
+these and other sundries let H. relate with this proviso, that _I_ am
+to be referred to for authenticity; and I beg leave to contradict all
+those things whereon he lays particular stress. But, if he soars at
+any time into wit, I give you leave to applaud, because that is
+necessarily stolen from his fellow-pilgrim. Tell Davies that H. has
+made excellent use of his best jokes in many of his Majesty's ships of
+war; but add, also, that I always took care to restore them to the
+right owner; in consequence of which he (Davies) is no less famous by
+water than by land, and reigns unrivalled in the cabin as in the
+'Cocoa Tree.'
+
+"And Hodgson has been publishing more poesy--I wish he would send me
+his 'Sir Edgar,' and 'Bland's Anthology,' to Malta, where they will be
+forwarded. In my last, which I hope you received, I gave an outline of
+the ground we have covered. If you have not been overtaken by this
+despatch, H.'s tongue is at your service. Remember me to Dwyer, who
+owes me eleven guineas. Tell him to put them in my banker's hands at
+Gibraltar or Constantinople. I believe he paid them once, but that
+goes for nothing, as it was an annuity.
+
+"I wish you would write. I have heard from Hodgson frequently. Malta
+is my post-office. I mean to be with you by next Montem. You remember
+the last,--I hope for such another; but after having swam across the
+'broad Hellespont,' I disdain Datchett.[138] Good afternoon!
+
+I am yours, very sincerely,
+
+"BYRON."
+
+
+About ten days after the date of this letter, we find another
+addressed to Mrs. Byron, which--with much that is merely a repetition
+of what he had detailed in former communications--contains also a good
+deal worthy of being extracted.
+
+
+LETTER 45.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+
+"Dear Mother,
+
+"Mr. Hobhouse, who will forward or deliver this and is on his return
+to England, can inform you of our different movements, but I am very
+uncertain as to my own return. He will probably be down in Notts, some
+time or other; but Fletcher, whom I send back as an incumbrance
+(English servants are sad travellers), will supply his place in the
+interim, and describe our travels, which have been tolerably
+extensive.
+
+"I remember Mahmout Pacha, the grandson of Ali Pacha, at Yanina, (a
+little fellow of ten years of age, with large black eyes, which our
+ladies would purchase at any price, and those regular features which
+distinguish the Turks,) asked me how I came to travel so young,
+without anybody to take care of me. This question was put by the
+little man with all the gravity of threescore. I cannot now write
+copiously; I have only time to tell you that I have passed many a
+fatiguing, but never a tedious moment; and all that I am afraid of is
+that I shall contract a gipsylike wandering disposition, which will
+make home tiresome to me: this, I am told, is very common with men in
+the habit of peregrination, and, indeed, I feel it so. On the third of
+May I swam from _Sestos_ to _Abydos_. You know the story of Leander,
+but I had no _Hero_ to receive me at landing.
+
+"I have been in all the principal mosques by the virtue of a firman:
+this is a favour rarely permitted to infidels, but the ambassador's
+departure obtained it for us. I have been up the Bosphorus into the
+Black Sea, round the walls of the city, and, indeed, I know more of it
+by sight than I do of London. I hope to amuse you some winter's
+evening with the details, but at present you must excuse me;--I am not
+able to write long letters in June. I return to spend my summer in
+Greece.
+
+"F. is a poor creature, and requires comforts that I can dispense
+with. He is very sick of his travels, but you must not believe his
+account of the country. He sighs for ale, and idleness, and a wife,
+and the devil knows what besides. I have not been disappointed or
+disgusted. I have lived with the highest and the lowest. I have been
+for days in a Pacha's palace, and have passed many a night in a
+cowhouse, and I find the people inoffensive and kind. I have also
+passed some time with the principal Greeks in the Morea and Livadia,
+and, though inferior to the Turks, they are better than the Spaniards,
+who, in their turn, excel the Portuguese. Of Constantinople you will
+find many descriptions in different travels; but Lady Wortley errs
+strangely when she says, 'St. Paul's would cut a strange figure by St.
+Sophia's.' I have been in both, surveyed them inside and out
+attentively. St. Sophia's is undoubtedly the most interesting from its
+immense antiquity, and the circumstance of all the Greek emperors,
+from Justinian, having been crowned there, and several murdered at the
+altar, besides the Turkish sultans who attend it regularly. But it is
+inferior in beauty and size to some of the mosques, particularly
+'Soleyman,' &c., and not to be mentioned in the same page with St.
+Paul's (I speak like a _Cockney_). However, I prefer the Gothic
+cathedral of Seville to St. Paul's, St. Sophia's, and any religious
+building I have ever seen.
+
+"The walls of the Seraglio are like the walls of Newstead gardens,
+only higher, and much in the same order; but the ride by the walls of
+the city, on the land side, is beautiful. Imagine four miles of
+immense triple battlements, covered with ivy, surmounted with 218
+towers, and, on the other side of the road, Turkish burying-grounds
+(the loveliest spots on earth), full of enormous cypresses. I have
+seen the ruins of Athens, of Ephesus, and Delphi. I have traversed
+great part of Turkey, and many other parts of Europe, and some of
+Asia; but I never beheld a work of nature or art which yielded an
+impression like the prospect on each side from the Seven Towers to the
+end of the Golden Horn.
+
+"Now for England. I am glad to hear of the progress of 'English
+Bards,' &c.;--of course, you observed I have made great additions to
+the new edition. Have you received my picture from Sanders, Vigo Lane,
+London? It was finished and paid for long before I left England: pray,
+send for it. You seem to be a mighty reader of magazines: where do you
+pick up all this intelligence, quotations, &c. &c.? Though I was happy
+to obtain my seat without the assistance of Lord Carlisle, I had no
+measures to keep with a man who declined interfering as my relation on
+that occasion, and I have done with him, though I regret distressing
+Mrs. Leigh, poor thing!--I hope she is happy.
+
+"It is my opinion that Mr. B---- ought to marry Miss R----. Our first
+duty is not to do evil; but, alas! that is impossible: our next is to
+repair it, if in our power. The girl is his equal: if she were his
+inferior, a sum of money and provision for the child would be some,
+though a poor, compensation: as it is, he should marry her. I will
+have no gay deceivers on my estate, and I shall not allow my tenants a
+privilege I do not permit myself--_that_ of debauching each other's
+daughters. God knows, I have been guilty of many excesses; but, as I
+have laid down a resolution to reform, and lately kept it, I expect
+this Lothario to follow the example, and begin by restoring this girl
+to society, or, by the beard of my father! he shall hear of it. Pray
+take some notice of Robert, who will miss his master: poor boy, he was
+very unwilling to return. I trust you are well and happy. It will be a
+pleasure to hear from you.
+
+Believe me yours very sincerely,
+
+"BYRON.
+
+"P.S.--How is Joe Murray?
+
+"P.S.--I open my letter again to tell you that Fletcher having
+petitioned to accompany me into the Morea, I have taken him with me,
+contrary to the intention expressed in my letter."
+
+
+The reader has not, I trust, passed carelessly over the latter part of
+this letter. There is a healthfulness in the moral feeling so
+unaffectedly expressed in it, which seems to answer for a heart sound
+at the core, however passion might have scorched it. Some years after,
+when he had become more confirmed in that artificial tone of banter,
+in which it was, unluckily, his habit to speak of his own good
+feelings, as well as those of others, however capable he might still
+have been of the same amiable sentiments, I question much whether the
+perverse fear of being thought desirous to pass for moral would not
+have prevented him from thus naturally and honestly avowing them.
+
+The following extract from a communication addressed to a
+distinguished monthly work, by a traveller who, at this period,
+happened to meet with Lord Byron at Constantinople, bears sufficiently
+the features of authenticity to be presented, without hesitation, to
+my readers.
+
+"We were interrupted in our debate by the entrance of a stranger,
+whom, on the first glance, I guessed to be an Englishman, but lately
+arrived at Constantinople. He wore a scarlet coat, richly embroidered
+with gold, in the style of an English aide-de-camp's dress uniform,
+with two heavy epaulettes. His countenance announced him to be about
+the age of two-and-twenty. His features were remarkably delicate, and
+would have given him a feminine appearance, but for the manly
+expression of his fine blue eyes. On entering the inner shop, he took
+off his feathered cocked-hat, and showed a head of curly auburn hair,
+which improved in no small degree the uncommon beauty of his face. The
+impression which his whole appearance made upon my mind was such, that
+it has ever since remained deeply engraven on it; and although fifteen
+years have since gone by, the lapse of time has not in the slightest
+degree impaired the freshness of the recollection. He was attended by
+a Janissary attached to the English embassy, and by a person who
+professionally acted as a Cicerone to strangers. These circumstances,
+together with a very visible lameness in one of his legs, convinced me
+at once he was Lord Byron. I had already heard of his Lordship, and of
+his late arrival in the Salsette frigate, which had come up from the
+Smyrna station, to fetch away Mr. Adair, our ambassador to the Porte.
+Lord Byron had been previously travelling in Epirus and Asia Minor,
+with his friend Mr. Hobhouse, and had become a great amateur of
+smoking: he was conducted to this shop for the purpose of purchasing a
+few pipes. The indifferent Italian, in which language he spoke to his
+Cicerone, and the latter's still more imperfect Turkish, made it
+difficult for the shopkeeper to understand their wishes, and as this
+seemed to vex the stranger, I addressed him in English, offering to
+interpret for him. When his Lordship thus discovered me to be an
+Englishman, he shook me cordially by the hand, and assured me, with
+some warmth in his manner, that he always felt great pleasure when he
+met with a countryman abroad. His purchase and my bargain being
+completed, we walked out together, and rambled about the streets, in
+several of which I had the pleasure of directing his attention to some
+of the most remarkable curiosities in Constantinople. The peculiar
+circumstances under which our acquaintance took place, established
+between us, in one day, a certain degree of intimacy, which two or
+three years' frequenting each other's company in England would most
+likely not have accomplished. I frequently addressed him by his name,
+but he did not think of enquiring how I came to learn it, nor of
+asking mine. His Lordship had not yet laid the foundation of that
+literary renown which he afterwards acquired; on the contrary, he was
+only known as the author of his Hours of Idleness; and the severity
+with which the Edinburgh Reviewers had criticised that production was
+still fresh in every English reader's recollection. I could not,
+therefore, be supposed to seek his acquaintance from any of those
+motives of vanity which have actuated so many others since: but it was
+natural that, after our accidental rencontre, and all that passed
+between us on that occasion, I should, on meeting him in the course of
+the same week at dinner at the English ambassador's, have requested
+one of the secretaries, who was intimately acquainted with him, to
+introduce me to him in regular form. His Lordship testified his
+perfect recollection of me, but in the coldest manner, and immediately
+after turned his back on me. This unceremonious proceeding, forming a
+striking contrast with previous occurrences, had something so strange
+in it, that I was at a loss how to account for it, and felt at the
+same time much disposed to entertain a less favourable opinion of his
+Lordship than his apparent frankness had inspired me with at our first
+meeting. It was not, therefore, without surprise, that, some days
+after, I saw him in the streets, coming up to me with a smile of good
+nature in his countenance. He accosted me in a familiar manner, and,
+offering me his hand, said,--'I am an enemy to English etiquette,
+especially out of England; and I always make my own acquaintance
+without waiting for the formality of an introduction. If you have
+nothing to do, and are disposed for another ramble, I shall be glad of
+your company.' There was that irresistible attraction in his manner,
+of which those who have had the good fortune to be admitted into his
+intimacy can alone have felt the power in his moments of good humour;
+and I readily accepted his proposal. We visited again more of the most
+remarkable curiosities of the capital, a description of which would
+here be but a repetition of what a hundred travellers have already
+detailed with the utmost minuteness and accuracy; but his Lordship
+expressed much disappointment at their want of interest. He praised
+the picturesque beauties of the town itself, and its surrounding
+scenery; and seemed of opinion that nothing else was worth looking at.
+He spoke of the Turks in a manner which might have given reason to
+suppose that he had made a long residence among them, and closed his
+observations with these words:--'The Greeks will, sooner or later,
+rise against them; but if they do not make haste, I hope Buonaparte
+will come, and drive the useless rascals away.'"[139]
+
+During his stay at Constantinople, the English minister, Mr. Adair,
+being indisposed the greater part of the time, had but few
+opportunities of seeing him. He, however, pressed him, with much
+hospitality, to accept a lodging at the English palace, which Lord
+Byron, preferring the freedom of his homely inn, declined. At the
+audience granted to the ambassador, on his taking leave, by the
+Sultan, the noble poet attended in the train of Mr. Adair,--having
+shown an anxiety as to the place he was to hold in the procession, not
+a little characteristic of his jealous pride of rank. In vain had the
+minister assured him that no particular station could be allotted to
+him;--that the Turks, in their arrangements for the ceremonial,
+considered only the persons connected with the embassy, and neither
+attended to, nor acknowledged, the precedence which our forms assign
+to nobility. Seeing the young peer still unconvinced by these
+representations, Mr. Adair was, at length, obliged to refer him to an
+authority, considered infallible on such points of etiquette, the old
+Austrian Internuncio;--on consulting whom, and finding his opinions
+agree fully with those of the English minister, Lord Byron declared
+himself perfectly satisfied.
+
+On the 14th of July his fellow-traveller and himself took their
+departure from Constantinople on board the Salsette frigate,--Mr.
+Hobhouse with the intention of accompanying the ambassador to England,
+and Lord Byron with the resolution of visiting his beloved Greece
+again. To Mr. Adair he appeared, at this time, (and I find that Mr.
+Bruce, who met him afterwards at Athens, conceived the same impression
+of him,) to be labouring under great dejection of spirits. One
+circumstance related to me, as having occurred in the course of the
+passage, is not a little striking. Perceiving, as he walked the deck,
+a small yataghan, or Turkish dagger, on one of the benches, he took
+it up, unsheathed it, and, having stood for a few moments
+contemplating the blade, was heard to say, in an under voice, "I
+should like to know how a person feels after committing a murder!" In
+this startling speech we may detect, I think, the germ of his future
+Giaours and Laras. This intense _wish_ to explore the dark workings of
+the passions was what, with the aid of imagination, at length
+generated the _power_; and that faculty which entitled him afterwards
+to be so truly styled "the searcher of dark bosoms," may be traced to,
+perhaps, its earliest stirrings in the sort of feeling that produced
+these words.
+
+On their approaching the island of Zea, he expressed a wish to be put
+on shore. Accordingly, having taken leave of his companions, he was
+landed upon this small island, with two Albanians, a Tartar, and one
+English servant; and in one of his manuscripts he has himself
+described the proud, solitary feeling with which he stood to see the
+ship sail swiftly away--leaving him there, in a land of strangers
+alone.
+
+A few days after, he addressed the following letters to Mrs. Byron
+from Athens.
+
+
+LETTER 46.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Athens, July 25. 1810.
+
+
+"Dear Mother,
+
+"I have arrived here in four days from Constantinople, which is
+considered as singularly quick, particularly for the season of the
+year. You northern gentry can have no conception of a Greek summer;
+which, however, is a perfect frost compared with Malta and Gibraltar,
+where I reposed myself in the shade last year, after a gentle gallop
+of four hundred miles, without intermission, through Portugal and
+Spain. You see, by my date, that I am at Athens again, a place which I
+think I prefer, upon the whole, to any I have seen.
+
+"My next movement is to-morrow into the Morea, where I shall probably
+remain a month or two, and then return to winter here, if I do not
+change my plans, which, however, are very variable, as you may
+suppose; but none of them verge to England.
+
+"The Marquis of Sligo, my old fellow-collegian, is here, and wishes to
+accompany me into the Morea. We shall go together for that purpose.
+Lord S. will afterwards pursue his way to the capital; and Lord B.,
+having seen all the wonders in that quarter, will let you know what he
+does next, of which at present he is not quite certain. Malta is my
+perpetual post-office, from which my letters are forwarded to all
+parts of the habitable globe:--by the by, I have now been in Asia,
+Africa, and the east of Europe, and, indeed, made the most of my time,
+without hurrying over the most interesting scenes of the ancient
+world. F----, after having been toasted, and roasted, and baked, and
+grilled, and eaten by all sorts of creeping things, begins to
+philosophise, is grown a refined as well as a resigned character, and
+promises at his return to become an ornament to his own parish, and a
+very prominent person in the future family pedigree of the F----s, who
+I take to be Goths by their accomplishments, Greeks by their
+acuteness, and ancient Saxons by their appetite. He (F----) begs
+leave to send half-a-dozen sighs to Sally his spouse, and wonders
+(though I do not) that his ill written and worse spelt letters have
+never come to hand; as for that matter, there is no great loss in
+either of our letters, saving and except that I wish you to know we
+are well, and warm enough at this present writing, God knows. You must
+not expect long letters at present, for they are written with the
+sweat of my brow, I assure you. It is rather singular that Mr. H----
+has not written a syllable since my departure. Your letters I have
+mostly received as well as others; from which I conjecture that the
+man of law is either angry or busy.
+
+"I trust you like Newstead, and agree with your neighbours; but you
+know _you_ are a _vixen_--is not that a dutiful appellation? Pray,
+take care of my books and several boxes of papers in the hands of
+Joseph; and pray leave me a few bottles of champagne to drink, for I
+am very thirsty;--but I do not insist on the last article, without you
+like it. I suppose you have your house full of silly women, prating
+scandalous things. Have you ever received my picture in oil from
+Sanders, London? It has been paid for these sixteen months: why do you
+not get it? My suite, consisting of two Turks, two Greeks, a Lutheran,
+and the nondescript, Fletcher, are making so much noise, that I am
+glad to sign myself
+
+"Yours, &c. &c.
+
+BYRON."
+
+
+A day or two after the date of this, he left Athens in company with
+the Marquis of Sligo. Having travelled together as far as Corinth,
+they from thence branched off in different directions,--Lord Sligo to
+pay a visit to the capital of the Morea, and Lord Byron to proceed to
+Patras, where he had some business, as will be seen by the following
+letter, with the English consul, Mr. Strane:--
+
+
+LETTER 47.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Patras, July 30. 1810.
+
+
+"Dear Madam,
+
+"In four days from Constantinople, with a favourable wind, I arrived
+in the frigate at the island of Ceos, from whence I took a boat to
+Athens, where I met my friend the Marquis of Sligo, who expressed a
+wish to proceed with me as far as Corinth. At Corinth we separated, he
+for Tripolitza, I for Patras, where I had some business with the
+consul, Mr. Strane, in whose house I now write. He has rendered me
+every service in his power since I quitted Malta on my way to
+Constantinople, whence I have written to you twice or thrice. In a few
+days I visit the Pacha at Tripolitza, make the tour of the Morea, and
+return again to Athens, which at present is my head-quarters. The heat
+is at present intense. In England, if it reaches 98 deg., you are all on
+fire: the other day, in travelling between Athens and Megara, the
+thermometer was at 125 deg.!!! Yet I feel no inconvenience; of course I am
+much bronzed, but I live temperately, and never enjoyed better
+health.
+
+"Before I left Constantinople, I saw the Sultan (with Mr. Adair), and
+the interior of the mosques, things which rarely happen to travellers.
+Mr. Hobhouse is gone to England: I am in no hurry to return, but have
+no particular communications for your country, except my surprise at
+Mr. H----'s silence, and my desire that he will remit regularly. I
+suppose some arrangement has been made with regard to Wymondham and
+Rochdale. Malta is my post-office, or to Mr. Strane, consul-general,
+Patras, Morea. You complain of my silence--I have written twenty or
+thirty times within the last year: never less than twice a month, and
+often more. If my letters do not arrive, you must not conclude that we
+are eaten, or that there is a war, or a pestilence, or famine: neither
+must you credit silly reports, which I dare say you have in Notts., as
+usual. I am very well, and neither more nor less happy than I usually
+am; except that I am very glad to be once more alone, for I was sick
+of my companion,--not that he was a bad one, but because my nature
+leads me to solitude, and that every day adds to this disposition. If
+I chose, here are many men who would wish to join me--one wants me to
+go to Egypt, another to Asia, of which I have seen enough. The greater
+part of Greece is already my own, so that I shall only go over my old
+ground, and look upon my old seas and mountains, the only
+acquaintances I ever found improve upon me.
+
+"I have a tolerable suite, a Tartar, two Albanians, an interpreter,
+besides Fletcher; but in this country these are easily maintained.
+Adair received me wonderfully well, and indeed I have no complaints
+against any one. Hospitality here is necessary, for inns are not. I
+have lived in the houses of Greeks, Turks, Italians, and
+English--to-day in a palace, to-morrow in a cowhouse; this day with a
+Pacha, the next with a shepherd. I shall continue to write briefly,
+but frequently, and am glad to hear from you; but you fill your
+letters with things from the papers, as if English papers were not
+found all over the world. I have at this moment a dozen before me.
+Pray take care of my books, and believe me, my dear mother,
+
+yours," &c.
+
+
+The greater part of the two following months he appears to have
+occupied in making a tour of the Morea;[140] and the very
+distinguished reception he met with from Veley Pacha, the son of Ali,
+is mentioned with much pride, in more than one of his letters.
+
+On his return from this tour to Patras, he was seized with a fit of
+illness, the particulars of which are mentioned in the following
+letter to Mr. Hodgson; and they are, in many respects, so similar to
+those of the last fatal malady, with which, fourteen years afterwards,
+he was attacked, in nearly the same spot, that, livelily as the
+account is written, it is difficult to read it without melancholy:--
+
+
+LETTER 48.
+
+TO MR. HODGSON.
+
+"Patras, Morea, October 3. 1810.
+
+
+"As I have just escaped from a physician and a fever, which confined
+me five days to bed, you won't expect much 'allegrezza' in the ensuing
+letter. In this place there is an indigenous distemper, which, when
+the wind blows from the Gulf of Corinth (as it does five months out of
+six), attacks great and small, and makes woful work with visiters.
+Here be also two physicians, one of whom trusts to his genius (never
+having studied)--the other to a campaign of eighteen months against
+the sick of Otranto, which he made in his youth with great effect.
+
+"When I was seized with my disorder, I protested against both these
+assassins;--but what can a helpless, feverish, toast-and-watered poor
+wretch do? In spite of my teeth and tongue, the English consul, my
+Tartar, Albanians, dragoman, forced a physician upon me, and in three
+days vomited and glystered me to the last gasp. In this state I made
+my epitaph--take it:--
+
+    "Youth, Nature, and relenting Jove,
+    To keep my lamp _in_ strongly strove;
+    But Romanelli was so stout,
+    He beat all three--and _blew_ it _out_.
+
+But Nature and Jove, being piqued at my doubts, did, in fact, at last,
+beat Romanelli, and here I am, well but weakly, at your service.
+
+"Since I left Constantinople, I have made a tour of the Morea, and
+visited Veley Pacha, who paid me great honours, and gave me a pretty
+stallion. H. is doubtless in England before even the date of this
+letter:--he bears a despatch from me to your bardship. He writes to me
+from Malta, and requests my journal, if I keep one. I have none, or he
+should have it; but I have replied in a consolatory and exhortatory
+epistle, praying him to abate three and sixpence in the price of his
+next boke seeing that half-a-guinea is a price not to be given for any
+thing save an opera ticket.
+
+"As for England, it is long since I have heard from it. Every one at
+all connected with my concerns is asleep, and you are my only
+correspondent, agents excepted. I have really no friends in the world;
+though all my old school companions are gone forth into that world,
+and walk about there in monstrous disguises, in the garb of guardsmen,
+lawyers, parsons, fine gentlemen, and such other masquerade dresses.
+So, I here shake hands and cut with all these busy people, none of
+whom write to me. Indeed I ask it not;--and here I am, a poor
+traveller and heathenish philosopher, who hath perambulated the
+greatest part of the Levant, and seen a great quantity of very
+improvable land and sea, and, after all, am no better than when I set
+out--Lord help me!
+
+"I have been out fifteen months this very day, and I believe my
+concerns will draw me to England soon; but of this I will apprise you
+regularly from Malta. On all points Hobhouse will inform you, if you
+are curious as to our adventures. I have seen some old English papers
+up to the 15th of May. I see the 'Lady of the Lake' advertised. Of
+course it is in his old ballad style, and pretty. After all, Scott is
+the best of them. The end of all scribblement is to amuse, and he
+certainly succeeds there. I long to read his new romance.
+
+"And how does 'Sir Edgar?' and your friend Bland? I suppose you are
+involved in some literary squabble. The only way is to despise all
+brothers of the quill. I suppose you won't allow me to be an author,
+but I contemn you all, you dogs!--I do.
+
+"You don't know D----s, do you? He had a farce ready for the stage
+before I left England, and asked me for a prologue, which I promised,
+but sailed in such a hurry, I never penned a couplet. I am afraid to
+ask after his drama, for fear it should be damned--Lord forgive me for
+using such a word! but the pit, Sir, you know the pit--they will do
+those things in spite of merit. I remember this farce from a curious
+circumstance. When Drury Lane was burnt to the ground, by which
+accident Sheridan and his son lost the few remaining shillings they
+were worth, what doth my friend D---- do? Why, before the fire was
+out, he writes a note to Tom Sheridan, the manager of this combustible
+concern, to enquire whether this farce was not converted into fuel,
+with about two thousand other unactable manuscripts, which of course
+were in great peril, if not actually consumed. Now was not this
+characteristic?--the ruling passions of Pope are nothing to it. Whilst
+the poor distracted manager was bewailing the loss of a building only
+worth 300,000 _l._, together with some twenty thousand pounds of rags
+and tinsel in the tiring rooms, Bluebeard's elephants, and all
+that--in comes a note from a scorching author, requiring at his hands
+two acts and odd scenes of a farce!!
+
+"Dear H., remind Drury that I am his well-wisher, and let Scrope
+Davies be well affected towards me. I look forward to meeting you at
+Newstead, and renewing our old champagne evenings with all the glee of
+anticipation. I have written by every opportunity, and expect
+responses as regular as those of the liturgy, and somewhat longer. As
+it is impossible for a man in his senses to hope for happy days, let
+us at least look forward to merry ones, which come nearest to the
+other in appearance, if not in reality; and in such expectations,
+
+I remain," &c.
+
+
+He was a good deal weakened and thinned by his illness at Patras, and,
+on his return to Athens, standing one day before a looking-glass, he
+said to Lord Sligo--"How pale I look!--I should like, I think, to die
+of a consumption."--"Why of a consumption?" asked his friend. "Because
+then (he answered) the women would all say, 'See that poor Byron--how
+interesting he looks in dying!'" In this anecdote,--which, slight as
+it is, the relater remembered, as a proof of the poet's consciousness
+of his own beauty,--may be traced also the habitual reference of his
+imagination to that sex, which, however he affected to despise it,
+influenced, more or less, the flow and colour of all his thoughts.
+
+He spoke often of his mother to Lord Sligo, and with a feeling that
+seemed little short of aversion. "Some time or other," he said, "I
+will tell you _why_ I feel thus towards her."--A few days after, when
+they were bathing together in the Gulf of Lepanto, he referred to this
+promise, and, pointing to his naked leg and foot, exclaimed--"Look
+there!--it is to her false delicacy at my birth I owe that deformity;
+and yet, as long as I can remember, she has never ceased to taunt and
+reproach me with it. Even a few days before we parted, for the last
+time, on my leaving England, she, in one of her fits of passion,
+uttered an imprecation upon me, praying that I might prove as ill
+formed in mind as I am in body!" His look and manner, in relating this
+frightful circumstance, can be conceived only by those who have ever
+seen him in a similar state of excitement.
+
+The little value he had for those relics of ancient art, in pursuit of
+which he saw all his classic fellow-travellers so ardent, was, like
+every thing he ever thought or felt, unreservedly avowed by him. Lord
+Sligo having it in contemplation to expend some money in digging for
+antiquities, Lord Byron, in offering to act as his agent, and to see
+the money, at least, honestly applied, said--"You may safely trust
+_me_--I am no dilettante. Your connoisseurs are all thieves; but I
+care too little for these things ever to steal them."
+
+The system of thinning himself, which he had begun before he left
+England, was continued still more rigidly abroad. While at Athens, he
+took the hot bath for this purpose, three times a week,--his usual
+drink being vinegar and water, and his food seldom more than a little
+rice.
+
+Among the persons, besides Lord Sligo, whom he saw most of at this
+time, were Lady Hester Stanhope and Mr. Bruce. One of the first
+objects, indeed, that met the eyes of these two distinguished
+travellers, on their approaching the coast of Attica, was Lord Byron,
+disporting in his favourite element under the rocks of Cape Colonna.
+They were afterwards made acquainted with each other by Lord Sligo;
+and it was in the course, I believe, of their first interview, at his
+table, that Lady Hester, with that lively eloquence for which she is
+so remarkable, took the poet briskly to task for the depreciating
+opinion, which, as she understood, he entertained of all female
+intellect. Being but little inclined, were he even able, to sustain
+such a heresy, against one who was in her own person such an
+irresistible refutation of it, Lord Byron had no other refuge from the
+fair orator's arguments than in assent and silence; and this well-bred
+deference being, in a sensible woman's eyes, equivalent to concession,
+they became, from thenceforward, most cordial friends. In recalling
+some recollections of this period in his "Memoranda," after relating
+the circumstance of his being caught bathing by an English party at
+Sunium, he added, "This was the beginning of the most delightful
+acquaintance which I formed in Greece." He then went on to assure Mr.
+Bruce, if ever those pages should meet his eyes, that the days they
+had passed together at Athens were remembered by him with pleasure.
+
+During this period of his stay in Greece, we find him forming one of
+those extraordinary friendships,--if attachment to persons so inferior
+to himself can be called by that name,--of which I have already
+mentioned two or three instances in his younger days, and in which the
+pride of being a protector, and the pleasure of exciting gratitude,
+seem to have constituted to his mind the chief, pervading charm. The
+person, whom he now adopted in this manner, and from similar feelings
+to those which had inspired his early attachments to the cottage-boy
+near Newstead, and the young chorister at Cambridge, was a Greek
+youth, named Nicolo Giraud, the son, I believe, of a widow lady, in
+whose house the artist Lusieri lodged. In this young man he appears to
+have taken the most lively, and even brotherly, interest;--so much so,
+as not only to have presented to him, on their parting, at Malta, a
+considerable sum of money, but to have subsequently designed for him,
+as the reader will learn, a still more munificent, as well as
+permanent, provision.
+
+Though he occasionally made excursions through Attica and the Morea,
+his head-quarters were fixed at Athens, where he had taken lodgings in
+a Franciscan convent, and, in the intervals of his tours, employed
+himself in collecting materials for those notices on the state of
+modern Greece which he has appended to the second Canto of Childe
+Harold. In this retreat, also, as if in utter defiance of the "genius
+loci," he wrote his "Hints from Horace,"--a Satire which, impregnated
+as it is with London life from beginning to end, bears the date,
+"Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 12. 1811."
+
+From the few remaining letters addressed to his mother, I shall
+content myself with selecting the two following:--
+
+
+LETTER 49.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Athens, January 14, 1811.
+
+
+"My dear Madam,
+
+"I seize an occasion to write as usual, shortly, but frequently, as
+the arrival of letters, where there exists no regular communication,
+is, of course, very precarious. I have lately made several small tours
+of some hundred or two miles about the Morea, Attica, &c., as I have
+finished my grand giro by the Troad, Constantinople, &c., and am
+returned down again to Athens. I believe I have mentioned to you more
+than once that I swam (in imitation of Leander, though without his
+lady) across the Hellespont, from Sestos to Abydos. Of this, and all
+other particulars, F., whom I have sent home with papers, &c., will
+apprise you. I cannot find that he is any loss; being tolerably master
+of the Italian and modern Greek languages, which last I am also
+studying with a master, I can order and discourse more than enough for
+a reasonable man. Besides, the perpetual lamentations after beef and
+beer, the stupid, bigoted contempt for every thing foreign, and
+insurmountable incapacity of acquiring even a few words of any
+language, rendered him, like all other English servants, an
+incumbrance. I do assure you, the plague of speaking for him, the
+comforts he required (more than myself by far), the pilaws (a Turkish
+dish of rice and meat) which he could not eat, the wines which he
+could not drink, the beds where he could not sleep, and the long list
+of calamities, such as stumbling horses, want of _tea!!!_ &c., which
+assailed him, would have made a lasting source of laughter to a
+spectator, and inconvenience to a master. After all, the man is honest
+enough, and, in Christendom, capable enough; but in Turkey, Lord
+forgive me! my Albanian soldiers, my Tartars and Janissary, worked for
+him and us too, as my friend Hobhouse can testify.
+
+"It is probable I may steer homewards in spring; but to enable me to
+do that, I must have remittances. My own funds would have lasted me
+very well; but I was obliged to assist a friend, who, I know, will pay
+me; but, in the mean time, I am out of pocket. At present, I do not
+care to venture a winter's voyage, even if I were otherwise tired of
+travelling; but I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at
+mankind instead of reading about them, and the bitter effects of
+staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an islander, that I
+think there should be a law amongst us, to set our young men abroad,
+for a term, among the few allies our wars have left us.
+
+"Here I see and have conversed with French, Italians, Germans, Danes,
+Greeks, Turks, Americans, &c. &c. &c.; and without losing sight of my
+own, I can judge of the countries and manners of others. Where I see
+the superiority of England (which, by the by, we are a good deal
+mistaken about in many things,) I am pleased, and where I find her
+inferior, I am at least enlightened. Now, I might have stayed, smoked
+in your towns, or fogged in your country, a century, without being
+sure of this, and without acquiring any thing more useful or amusing
+at home. I keep no journal, nor have I any intention of scribbling my
+travels. I have done with authorship; and if, in my last production, I
+have convinced the critics or the world I was something more than they
+took me for, I am satisfied; nor will I hazard _that reputation_ by a
+future effort. It is true I have some others in manuscript, but I
+leave them for those who come after me; and, if deemed worth
+publishing, they may serve to prolong my memory when I myself shall
+cease to remember. I have a famous Bavarian artist taking some views
+of Athens, &c. &c. for me. This will be better than scribbling, a
+disease I hope myself cured of. I hope, on my return, to lead a quiet,
+recluse life, but God knows and does best for us all; at least, so
+they say, and I have nothing to object, as, on the whole, I have no
+reason to complain of my lot. I am convinced, however, that men do
+more harm to themselves than ever the devil could do to them. I trust
+this will find you well, and as happy as we can be; you will, at
+least, be pleased to hear I am so, and yours ever."
+
+
+LETTER 50.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Athens, February 28. 1811.
+
+
+"Dear Madam,
+
+"As I have received a firman for Egypt, &c., I shall proceed to that
+quarter in the spring, and I beg you will state to Mr. H. that it is
+necessary to further remittances. On the subject of Newstead, I answer
+as before, _No._ If it is necessary to sell, sell Rochdale. Fletcher
+will have arrived by this time with my letters to that purport. I will
+tell you fairly, I have, in the first place, no opinion of funded
+property; if, by any particular circumstances, I shall be led to adopt
+such a determination, I will, at all events, pass my life abroad, as
+my only tie to England is Newstead, and, that once gone, neither
+interest nor inclination lead me northward. Competence in your country
+is ample wealth in the East, such is the difference in the value of
+money and the abundance of the necessaries of life; and I feel myself
+so much a citizen of the world, that the spot where I can enjoy a
+delicious climate, and every luxury, at a less expense than a common
+college life in England, will always be a country to me; and such are
+in fact the shores of the Archipelago. This then is the
+alternative--if I preserve Newstead, I return; if I sell it, I stay
+away. I have had no letters since yours of June, but I have written
+several times, and shall continue, as usual, on the same plan.
+
+Believe me, yours ever,
+
+BYRON.
+
+"P.S.--I shall most likely see you in the course of the summer, but,
+of course, at such a distance, I cannot specify any particular
+month." The voyage to Egypt, which he appears from this letter to
+have contemplated, was, probably for want of the expected remittances,
+relinquished; and, on the 3d of June, he set sail from Malta, in the
+Volage frigate, for England, having, during his short stay at Malta,
+suffered a severe attack of the tertian fever. The feelings with which
+he returned home may be collected from the following melancholy
+letters.
+
+
+LETTER 51.
+
+TO MR. HODGSON.
+
+"Volage frigate, at sea, June 29. 1811.
+
+
+"In a week, with a fair wind, we shall be at Portsmouth, and on the 2d
+of July, I shall have completed (to a day) two years of peregrination,
+from which I am returning with as little emotion as I set out. I
+think, upon the whole, I was more grieved at leaving Greece than
+England, which I am impatient to see, simply because I am tired of a
+long voyage.
+
+"Indeed, my prospects are not very pleasant. Embarrassed in my private
+affairs, indifferent to public, solitary without the wish to be
+social, with a body a little enfeebled by a succession of fevers, but
+a spirit, I trust, yet unbroken, I am returning _home_ without a hope,
+and almost without a desire. The first thing I shall have to encounter
+will be a lawyer, the next a creditor, then colliers, farmers,
+surveyors, and all the agreeable attachments to estates out of repair,
+and contested coal-pits. In short, I am sick and sorry, and when I
+have a little repaired my irreparable affairs, away I shall march,
+either to campaign in Spain, or back again to the East, where I can
+at least have cloudless skies and a cessation from impertinence.
+
+"I trust to meet, or see you, in town, or at Newstead, whenever you
+can make it convenient--I suppose you are in love and in poetry as
+usual. That husband, H. Drury, has never written to me, albeit I have
+sent him more than one letter;--but I dare say the poor man has a
+family, and of course all his cares are confined to his circle.
+
+    'For children fresh expenses get,
+    And Dicky now for school is fit.'
+
+WARTON.
+
+If you see him, tell him I have a letter for him from Tucker, a
+regimental chirurgeon and friend of his, who prescribed for me, ----
+and is a very worthy man, but too fond of hard words. I should be too
+late for a speech-day, or I should probably go down to Harrow. I
+regretted very much in Greece having omitted to carry the Anthology
+with me--I mean Bland and Merivale's.--What has Sir Edgar done? And
+the Imitations and Translations--where are they? I suppose you don't
+mean to let the public off so easily, but charge them home with a
+quarto. For me, I am 'sick of fops, and poesy, and prate,' and shall
+leave the 'whole Castilian state' to Bufo, or any body else. But you
+are a sentimental and sensibilitous person, and will rhyme to the end
+of the chapter. Howbeit, I have written some 4000 lines, of one kind
+or another, on my travels.
+
+"I need not repeat that I shall be happy to see you. I shall be in
+town about the 8th, at Dorant's Hotel, in Albemarle Street, and
+proceed in a few days to Notts., and thence to Rochdale on business.
+
+"I am, here and there, yours," &c.
+
+
+LETTER 52.
+
+TO MRS. BYRON.
+
+"Volage frigate, at sea, June 25. 1811.
+
+
+"Dear Mother,
+
+"This letter, which will be forwarded on our arrival at Portsmouth,
+probably about the 4th of July, is begun about twenty-three days after
+our departure from Malta. I have just been two years (to a day, on the
+2d of July) absent from England, and I return to it with much the same
+feelings which prevailed on my departure, viz. indifference; but
+within that apathy I certainly do not comprise yourself, as I will
+prove by every means in my power. You will be good enough to get my
+apartments ready at Newstead; but don't disturb yourself, on any
+account, particularly mine, nor consider me in any other light than as
+a visiter. I must only inform you that for a long time I have been
+restricted to an entire vegetable diet, neither fish nor flesh coming
+within my regimen; so I expect a powerful stock of potatoes, greens,
+and biscuit: I drink no wine. I have two servants, middle-aged men,
+and both Greeks. It is my intention to proceed first to town, to see
+Mr. H----, and thence to Newstead, on my way to Rochdale. I have only
+to beg you will not forget my diet, which it is very necessary for me
+to observe. I am well in health, as I have generally been, with the
+exception of two agues, both of which I quickly got over.
+
+"My plans will so much depend on circumstances, that I shall not
+venture to lay down an opinion on the subject. My prospects are not
+very promising, but I suppose we shall wrestle through life like our
+neighbours; indeed, by H.'s last advices, I have some apprehension of
+finding Newstead dismantled by Messrs. Brothers, &c., and he seems
+determined to force me into selling it, but he will be baffled. I
+don't suppose I shall be much pestered with visiters; but if I am, you
+must receive them, for I am determined to have nobody breaking in upon
+my retirement: you know that I never was fond of society, and I am
+less so than before. I have brought you a shawl, and a quantity of
+attar of roses, but these I must smuggle, if possible. I trust to find
+my library in tolerable order.
+
+"Fletcher is no doubt arrived. I shall separate the mill from Mr.
+B----'s farm, for his son is too gay a deceiver to inherit both, and
+place Fletcher in it, who has served me faithfully, and whose wife is
+a good woman; besides, it is necessary to sober young Mr. B----, or he
+will people the parish with bastards. In a word, if he had seduced a
+dairy-maid, he might have found something like an apology; but the
+girl is his equal, and in high life or low life reparation is made in
+such circumstances. But I shall not interfere further than (like
+Buonaparte) by dismembering Mr. B.'s _kingdom_, and erecting part of
+it into a principality for field-marshal Fletcher! I hope you govern
+my little _empire_ and its sad load of national debt with a wary hand.
+To drop my metaphor, I beg leave to subscribe myself yours, &c.
+
+"P.S.--This letter was written to be sent from Portsmouth, but, on
+arriving there, the squadron was ordered to the Nore, from whence I
+shall forward it. This I have not done before, supposing you might be
+alarmed by the interval mentioned in the letter being longer than
+expected between our arrival in port and my appearance at Newstead."
+
+
+LETTER 53.
+
+TO MR. HENRY DRURY.
+
+"Volage frigate, off Ushant, July 17. 1811.
+
+
+"My dear Drury,
+
+"After two years' absence (on the 2d) and some odd days, I am
+approaching your country. The day of our arrival you will see by the
+outside date of my letter. At present, we are becalmed comfortably,
+close to Brest Harbour;--I have never been so near it since I left
+Duck Puddle. We left Malta thirty-four days ago, and have had a
+tedious passage of it. You will either see or hear from or of me, soon
+after the receipt of this, as I pass through town to repair my
+irreparable affairs; and thence I want to go to Notts. and raise
+rents, and to Lanes. and sell collieries, and back to London and pay
+debts,--for it seems I shall neither have coals nor comfort till I go
+down to Rochdale in person.
+
+"I have brought home some marbles for Hobhouse;--for myself, four
+ancient Athenian skulls,[141] dug out of sarcophagi--a phial of Attic
+hemlock[142]--four live tortoises--a greyhound (died on the
+passage)--two live Greek servants, one an Athenian, t'other a Yaniote,
+who can speak nothing but Romaic and Italian--and _myself_, as Moses
+in the Vicar of Wakefield says, slily, and I may say it too, for I
+have as little cause to boast of my expedition as he had of his to the
+fair.
+
+"I wrote to you from the Cyanean Rocks to tell you I had swam from
+Sestos to Abydos--have you received my letter? Hodgson I suppose is
+four deep by this time. What would he have given to have seen, like
+me, the _real Parnassus_, where I robbed the Bishop of Chrissae of a
+book of geography!--but this I only call plagiarism, as it was done
+within an hour's ride of Delphi."
+
+
+END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Published in two volumes, 4to.]
+
+[Footnote 2: It is almost unnecessary to apprise the reader that the
+paragraph at the bottom of p. 222. vol. iv. was written _before_ the
+appearance of this extraordinary paper.]
+
+[Footnote 3: From p. 4. to 11. vol. v. inclusive.]
+
+[Footnote 4: In p. 232. vol. iv. however, the reader will find it
+alluded to, and in terms such as conduct so disinterested deserves.]
+
+[Footnote 5: June 12, 1828.]
+
+[Footnote 6: "In the park of Horseley," says Thoroton, "there was a
+castle, some of the ruins whereof are yet visible, called Horestan
+Castle, which was the chief mansion of his (Ralph de Burun's)
+successors."]
+
+[Footnote 7: The priory of Newstead had been founded and dedicated to
+God and the Virgin, by Henry II.; and its monks, who were canons
+regular of the order of St. Augustine, appear to have been peculiarly
+the objects of royal favour, no less in spiritual than in temporal
+concerns. During the lifetime of the fifth Lord Byron, there was found
+in the lake at Newstead,--where it is supposed to have been thrown for
+concealment by the monks,--a large brass eagle, in the body of which,
+on its being sent to be cleaned, was discovered a secret aperture,
+concealing within it a number of old legal papers connected with the
+rights and privileges of the foundation. At the sale of the old lord's
+effects in 1776-7, this eagle, together with three candelabra, found
+at the same time, was purchased by a watch-maker of Nottingham (by
+whom the concealed manuscripts were discovered), and having from his
+hands passed into those of Sir Richard Kaye, a prebendary of
+Southwell, forms at present a very remarkable ornament of the
+cathedral of that place. A curious document, said to have been among
+those found in the eagle, is now in the possession of Colonel Wildman,
+containing a grant of full pardon from Henry V. of every possible
+crime (and there is a tolerably long catalogue enumerated) which the
+monks might have committed previous to the 8th of December
+preceding:--"_Murdris_, per ipsos _post decimum nonum diem Novembris_,
+ultimo praeteritum perpetratis, si quae fuerint, _exceptis_."]
+
+[Footnote 8: The Earl of Shrewsbury.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Afterwards Admiral.]
+
+[Footnote 10: The following particulars respecting the amount of Mrs.
+Byron's fortune before marriage, and its rapid disappearance
+afterwards, are, I have every reason to think, from the authentic
+source to which I am indebted for them, strictly correct:--
+
+"At the time of the marriage, Miss Gordon was possessed of about 3000
+_l._ in money, two shares of the Aberdeen Banking Company, the estates
+of Gight and Monkshill, and the superiority of two salmon fishings on
+Dee. Soon after the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Byron Gordon in Scotland,
+it appeared that Mr. Byron had involved himself very deeply in debt,
+and his creditors commenced legal proceedings for the recovery of
+their money. The cash in hand was soon paid away,--the bank shares
+were disposed of at 600 _l._ (now worth 5000 _l._)--timber on the estate
+was cut down and sold to the amount of 1500_l._--the farm of Monkshill
+and superiority of the fishings, affording a freehold qualification,
+were disposed of at 480_l._; and, in addition to these sales, within a
+year after the marriage, 8000_l._ was borrowed upon a mortgage on the
+estate, granted by Mrs. Byron Gordon to the person who lent the money.
+
+"In March, 1786, a contract of marriage in the Scotch form was drawn
+up and signed by the parties. In the course of the summer of that
+year, Mr. and Mrs. Byron left Gight, and never returned to it; the
+estate being, in the following year, sold to Lord Haddo for the sum of
+17,850_l._, the whole of which was applied to the payment of Mr.
+Byron's debts, with the exception of 1122_l._, which remained as a
+burden on the estate, (the interest to be applied to paying a jointure
+of 55_l._ 11_s._ 1_d._ to Mrs. Byron's grandmother, the principal
+reverting, at her death, to Mrs. Byron,) and 3000_l._ vested in
+trustees for Mrs. Byron's separate use, which was lent to Mr.
+Carsewell of Ratharllet, in Fifeshire."
+
+"A strange occurrence," says another of my informants, "took place
+previous to the sale of the lands. All the doves left the house of
+Gight and came to Lord Haddo's, and so did a number of herons, which
+had built their nests for many years in a wood on the banks of a large
+loch, called the Hagberry Pot. When this was told to Lord Haddo, he
+pertinently replied, 'Let the birds come, and do them no harm, for the
+land will soon follow;' which it actually did."]
+
+[Footnote 11: It appears that she several times changed her residence
+during her stay at Aberdeen, as there are two other houses pointed
+out, where she lodged for some time; one situated in Virginia Street,
+and the other, the house of a Mr. Leslie, I think, in Broad Street.]
+
+[Footnote 12: By her advances of money to Mr. Byron (says an authority
+I have already cited) on the two occasions when he visited Aberdeen,
+as well as by the expenses incurred in furnishing the floor occupied
+by her, after his death, in Broad Street, she got in debt to the
+amount of 300 _l._, by paying the interest on which her income was
+reduced to 135 _l._ On this, however, she contrived to live without
+increasing her debt; and on the death of her grandmother, when she
+received the 122 _l._ set apart for that lady's annuity, discharged the
+whole.]
+
+[Footnote 13: In Long Acre. The present master of this school is Mr.
+David Grant, the ingenious editor of a collection of "Battles and War
+Pieces," and of a work of much utility, entitled "Class Book of Modern
+Poetry."]
+
+[Footnote 14: The old porter, too, at the College, "minds weel" the
+little boy, with the red jacket and nankeen trowsers, whom he has so
+often turned out of the College court-yard.]
+
+[Footnote 15: "He was," says one of my informants, "a good hand at
+marbles, and could drive one farther than most boys. He also excelled
+at 'Bases,' a game which requires considerable swiftness of foot."]
+
+[Footnote 16: On examining the quarterly lists kept at the
+grammar-school of Aberdeen, in which the names of the boys are set
+down according to the station each holds in his class, it appears that
+in April of the year 1794, the name of Byron, then in the second
+class, stands twenty-third in a list of thirty-eight boys. In the
+April of 1798, however, he had risen to be fifth in the fourth class,
+consisting of twenty-seven boys, and had got ahead of several of his
+contemporaries, who had previously always stood before him.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Notwithstanding the lively recollections expressed in
+this poem, it is pretty certain, from the testimony of his nurse, that
+he never was at the mountain itself, which stood some miles distant
+from his residence, more than twice.]
+
+[Footnote 18: The Island.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Dante, we know, was but nine years old when, at a
+May-day festival, he saw and fell in love with Beatrice; and Alfieri,
+who was himself a precocious lover, considers such early sensibility
+to be an unerring sign of a soul formed for the fine arts:--"Effetti,"
+he says, in describing the feelings of his own first love, "che poche
+persone intendono, e pochissime provano: ma a quei soli pochissimi e
+concesso l' uscir dalla folla volgare in tutte le umane arti." Canova
+used to say, that he perfectly well remembered having been in love
+when but five years old.]
+
+[Footnote 20: To this Lord Byron used to add, on the authority of old
+servants of the family, that on the day of their patron's death, these
+crickets all left the house simultaneously, and in such numbers, that
+it was impossible to cross the hall without treading on them.]
+
+[Footnote 21: The correct reading of this legend is, I understand, as
+follows:--
+
+    "Brig o' Balgounie, _wight_ (strong) is thy wa';
+    Wi' a wife's ae son on a mare's ae foal,
+    Down shall thou fa'."
+]
+
+[Footnote 22: In a letter addressed lately by Mr. Sheldrake to the
+editor of a Medical Journal, it is stated that the person of the same
+name who attended Lord Byron at Dulwich owed the honour of being
+called in to a mistake, and effected nothing towards the remedy of the
+limb. The writer of the letter adds that he was himself consulted by
+Lord Byron four or five years afterwards, and though unable to
+undertake the cure of the defect, from the unwillingness of his noble
+patient to submit to restraint or confinement, was successful in
+constructing a sort of shoe for the foot, which in some degree
+alleviated the inconvenience under which he laboured.]
+
+[Footnote 23: "Quoique," says Alfieri, speaking of his school-days,
+"je fusse le plus petit de tons les _grands_ qui se trouvaient au
+second appartement ou j'etais descendu, e'etait precisement mon
+inferiorite de taille, d'age, et de force, qui me donnait plus de
+courage, et m'engageait a me distinguer."]
+
+[Footnote 24: The following is Lord Byron's version of this touching
+narrative; and it will be felt, I think, by every reader, that this is
+one of the instances in which poetry must be content to yield the palm
+to prose. There is a pathos in the last sentences of the seaman's
+recital, which the artifices of metre and rhyme were sure to disturb,
+and which, indeed, no verses, however beautiful, could half so
+naturally and powerfully express:--
+
+    "There were two fathers in this ghastly crew,
+      And with them their two sons, of whom the one
+    Was more robust and hardy to the view,
+      But he died early; and when he was gone,
+    His nearest messmate told his sire, who threw
+      One glance on him, and said, 'Heaven's will be done,
+    I can do nothing,' and he saw him thrown
+    Into the deep without a tear or groan.
+
+    "The other father had a weaklier child,
+      Of a soft cheek, and aspect delicate;
+    But the boy bore up long, and with a mild
+      And patient spirit held aloof his fate;
+    Little be said, and now and then he smiled,
+      As if to win a part from off the weight
+    He saw increasing on his father's heart,
+    With the deep, deadly thought, that they must part.
+
+    "And o'er him bent his sire, and never raised
+      His eyes from off his face, but wiped the foam
+    From his pale lips, and ever on him gazed,
+      And when the wish'd-for shower at length was come,
+    And the boy's eyes, which the dull film half glazed,
+      Brighten'd, and for a moment seem'd to roam,
+    He squeezed from out a rag some drops of rain
+    Into his dying child's mouth--but in vain.
+
+    "The boy expired--the father held the clay,
+      And look'd upon it long, and when at last
+    Death left no doubt, and the dead burden lay
+      Stiff on his heart, and pulse and hope were past,
+    He watch'd it wistfully, until away
+     'Twas borne by the rude wave wherein 'twas cast:
+    Then he himself sunk down all dumb and shivering,
+    And gave no sign of life, save his limbs quivering."
+
+DON JUAN, CANTO II.
+
+In the collection of "Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea," to which Lord
+Byron so skilfully had recourse for the technical knowledge and facts
+out of which he has composed his own powerful description, the reader
+will find the account of the loss of the Juno here referred to.]
+
+[Footnote 25: This elegy is in his first (unpublished) volume.]
+
+[Footnote 26: See page 25.]
+
+[Footnote 27: For the display of his declamatory powers, on the
+speech-days, he selected always the most vehement passages,--such as
+the speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, and Lear's address to the
+storm. On one of these public occasions, when it was arranged that he
+should take the part of Drances, and young Peel that of Turnus, Lord
+Byron suddenly changed his mind, and preferred the speech of
+Latinus,--fearing, it was supposed, some ridicule from the
+inappropriate taunt of Turnus, "Ventosa in lingua, _pedibusque
+fugacibus istis_."]
+
+[Footnote 28: His letters to Mr. Sinclair, in return, are unluckily
+lost,--one of them, as this gentleman tells me, having been highly
+characteristic of the jealous sensitiveness of his noble schoolfellow,
+being written under the impression of some ideal slight, and
+beginning, angrily, "Sir."]
+
+[Footnote 29: On a leaf of one of his note-books, dated 1808, I find the
+following passage from Marmontel, which no doubt struck him as applicable
+to the enthusiasm of his own youthful friendships:--"L'amitie, qui dans le
+monde est a peine un sentiment, est une passion dans les
+cloitres."--_Contes Moraux_.]
+
+[Footnote 30: Mr. D'Israeli, in his ingenious work "On the Literary
+Character," has given it as his opinion, that a disinclination to
+athletic sports and exercises will be, in general, found among the
+peculiarities which mark a youthful genius. In support of this notion
+he quotes Beattie, who thus describes his ideal minstrel:--
+
+    "Concourse, and noise, and toil, he ever fled,
+      Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray
+    Of squabbling imps, but to the forest sped."
+
+His highest authority, however, is Milton, who says of himself,
+
+    "When I was yet a child, no childish play
+    To me was pleasing."
+
+Such general rules, however, are as little applicable to the
+dispositions of men of genius as to their powers. If, in the instances
+which Mr. D'Israeli adduces an indisposition to bodily exertion was
+manifested, as many others may be cited in which the directly opposite
+propensity was remarkable. In war, the most turbulent of exercises,
+AEschylus, Dante, Camoens, and a long list of other poets,
+distinguished themselves; and, though it may be granted that Horace
+was a bad rider, and Virgil no tennis-player, yet, on the other hand,
+Dante was, we know, a falconer as well as swordsman; Tasso, expert
+both as swordsman and dancer; Alfieri, a great rider; Klopstock, a
+skaiter; Cowper, famous, in his youth, at cricket and foot-ball; and
+Lord Byron, pre-eminent in all sorts of exercises.]
+
+[Footnote 31: "At eight or nine years of age the boy goes to school.
+From that moment he becomes a stranger in his father's house. The
+course of parental kindness is interrupted. The smiles of his mother,
+those tender admonitions, and the solicitous care of both his parents,
+are no longer before his eyes--year after year he feels himself more
+detached from them, till at last he is so effectually weaned from the
+connection, as to find himself happier anywhere than in their
+company."--_Cowper, Letters._]
+
+[Footnote 32: Even previously to any of these school friendships, he
+had formed the same sort of romantic attachment to a boy of his own
+age, the son of one of his tenants at Newstead; and there are two or
+three of his most juvenile poems, in which he dwells no less upon the
+inequality than the warmth of this friendship. Thus:--
+
+    "Let Folly smile, to view the names
+      Of thee and me in friendship twined;
+    Yet Virtue will have greater claims
+      To love, than rank with Vice combined.
+
+    "And though unequal is thy fate,
+      Since title deck'd my higher birth,
+    Yet envy not this gaudy state,
+      Thine is the pride of modest worth.
+
+    "Our souls at least congenial meet,
+      Nor can thy lot my rank disgrace;
+    Our intercourse is not less sweet
+      Since worth of rank supplies the place.
+
+"November, 1802."]
+
+[Footnote 33: There are, in other letters of the same writer, some
+curious proofs of the passionate and jealous sensibility of Byron.
+From one of them, for instance, we collect that he had taken offence
+at his young friend's addressing him "my dear Byron," instead of "my
+dearest;" and from another, that his jealousy had been awakened by
+some expressions of regret which his correspondent had expressed at
+the departure of Lord John Russell for Spain:--
+
+"You tell me," says the young letter-writer, "that you never knew me
+in such an agitation as I was when I wrote my last letter; and do you
+not think I had reason to be so? I received a letter from you on
+Saturday, telling me you were going abroad for six years in March, and
+on Sunday John Russell set off for Spain. Was not that sufficient to
+make me rather melancholy? But how can you possibly imagine that I was
+more agitated on John Russell's account, who is gone for a few months,
+and from whom I shall hear constantly, than at your going for six
+years to travel over most part of the world, when I shall hardly ever
+hear from you, and perhaps may never see you again?
+
+"It has very much hurt me your telling me that you might be excused if
+you felt rather jealous at my expressing more sorrow for the departure
+of the friend who was with me, than of that one who was absent. It is
+quite impossible you can think I am more sorry for John's absence than
+I shall be for yours;--I shall therefore finish the subject."]
+
+[Footnote 34: To this tomb he thus refers in the "Childish
+Recollections," as printed in his first unpublished volume:--
+
+    "Oft when, oppress'd with sad, foreboding gloom,
+    I sat reclined upon our favourite tomb."
+]
+
+[Footnote 35: I find this circumstance, of his having occasionally
+slept at the Hut, though asserted by one of the old servants, much
+doubted by others.]
+
+[Footnote 36: It may possibly have been the recollection of these
+pictures that suggested to him the following lines in the Siege of
+Corinth:--
+
+    "Like the figures on arras that gloomily glare,
+    Stirr'd by the breath of the wintry air,
+    So seen by the dying lamp's fitful light,
+    Lifeless, but life-like and awful to sight;
+    As they seem, through the dimness, about to come down
+    From the shadowy wall where their images frown."
+]
+
+[Footnote 37: Among the unpublished verses of his in my possession, I
+find the following fragment, written not long after this period:--
+
+    "Hills of Annesley, bleak and barren,
+      Where my thoughtless childhood stray'd,
+    How the northern tempests, warring,
+      Howl above thy tufted shade!
+
+    "Now no more, the hours beguiling,
+      Former favourite haunts I see;
+    Now no more my Mary smiling,
+      Makes ye seem a heaven to me."
+]
+
+[Footnote 38: The lady's husband, for some time, took her family
+name.]
+
+[Footnote 39: These stanzas, I have since found, are not Lord Byron's,
+but the production of Lady Tuite, and are contained in a volume
+published by her Ladyship in the year 1795.--(_Second edition._)]
+
+[Footnote 40: Gibbon, in speaking of public schools, says--"The mimic
+scene of a rebellion has displayed, in their true colours, the
+ministers and patriots of the rising generation." Such prognostics,
+however, are not always to be relied on;--the mild, peaceful Addison
+was, when at school, the successful leader of a _barring-out_.]
+
+[Footnote 41: This anecdote, which I have given on the testimony of
+one of Lord Byron's schoolfellows, Doctor Butler himself assures me
+has but very little foundation in fact.--(_Second Edition_.)]
+
+[Footnote 42: "It is deplorable to consider the loss which children
+make of their time at most schools, employing, or rather casting away,
+six or seven years in the learning of words only, and that very
+imperfectly."--_Cowley, Essays_.
+
+"Would not a Chinese, who took notice of our way of breeding, be apt
+to imagine that all our young gentlemen were designed to be teachers
+and professors of the dead languages of foreign countries, and not to
+be men of business in their own?"--_Locke on Education_.]
+
+[Footnote 43: "A finished scholar may emerge from the head of
+Westminster or Eton in total ignorance of the business and
+conversation of English gentlemen in the latter end of the eighteenth
+century."--_Gibbon_.]
+
+[Footnote 44: "Byron, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, Alumnus Scholae;
+Lyonensis primus in anno Domini 1801, Ellison Duce."
+
+"Monitors, 1801.--Ellison, Royston, Hunxman, Rashleigh, Rokeby,
+Leigh."]
+
+[Footnote 45: "Drury's Pupils, 1804.--Byron, Drury, Sinclair, Hoare,
+Bolder, Annesley, Calvert, Strong, Acland, Gordon, Drummond."]
+
+[Footnote 46: During one of the Harrow vacations, he passed some time
+in the house of the Abbe de Roufigny, in Took's-court, for the purpose
+of studying the French language; but he was, according to the Abbe's
+account, very little given to study, and spent most of his time in
+boxing, fencing, &c. to the no small disturbance of the reverend
+teacher and his establishment.]
+
+[Footnote 47: Between superior and inferior, "whose fortunes (as he
+expresses it) comprehend the one and the other."]
+
+[Footnote 48: A gentleman who has since honourably distinguished
+himself by his philanthropic plans and suggestions for that most
+important object, the amelioration of the condition of the poor.]
+
+[Footnote 49: In a suit undertaken for the recovery of the Rochdale
+property.]
+
+[Footnote 50: This precious pencilling is still, of course,
+preserved.]
+
+[Footnote 51: The verses "To a beautiful Quaker," in his first volume,
+were written at Harrowgate.]
+
+[Footnote 52: A horse of Lord Byron's:--the other horse that he had
+with him at this time was called Sultan.]
+
+[Footnote 53: The favourite dog, on which Lord Byron afterwards wrote
+the well-known epitaph.]
+
+[Footnote 54: Lord Byron and Dr. Pigot continued to be correspondents
+for some time, but, after their parting this autumn, they never met
+again.]
+
+[Footnote 55: Of this edition, which was in quarto, and consisted but
+of a few sheets, there are but two, or, at the utmost, three copies in
+existence.]
+
+[Footnote 56: His valet, Frank.]
+
+[Footnote 57: Of this "Mary," who is not to be confounded either with
+the heiress of Annesley, or "Mary" of Aberdeen, all I can record is,
+that she was of an humble, if not equivocal, station in life,--that
+she had long, light golden hair, of which he used to show a lock, as
+well as her picture, among his friends; and that the verses in his
+"Hours of Idleness," entitled "To Mary, on receiving her Picture,"
+were addressed to her.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Here the imperfect sheet ends.]
+
+[Footnote 59: Though always fond of music, he had very little skill in
+the performance of it. "It is very odd," he said, one day, to this
+lady,--"I sing much better to your playing than to any one
+else's."--"That is," she answered, "because I play to your
+singing."--In which few words, by the way, the whole secret of a
+skilful accompanier lies.]
+
+[Footnote 60: Cricketing, too, was one of his most favourite sports;
+and it was wonderful, considering his lameness, with what speed he
+could run. "Lord Byron (says Miss ----, in a letter, to her brother,
+from Southwell) is just gone past the window with his bat on his
+shoulder to cricket, which he is as fond of as ever."]
+
+[Footnote 61: In one of Miss ----'s letters, the following notice of
+these canine feuds occurs:--"Boatswain has had another battle with
+Tippoo at the House of Correction, and came off conqueror. Lord B.
+brought Bo'sen to our window this morning, when Gilpin, who is almost
+always here, got into an amazing fury with him."]
+
+[Footnote 62: "It was the custom of Burns," says Mr. Lockhart, in his
+Life of that poet, "to read at table."]
+
+[Footnote 63: "I took to reading by myself," says Pope, "for which I
+had a very great eagerness and enthusiasm;... I followed every where,
+as my fancy led me, and was like a boy gathering flowers in the fields
+and woods, just as they fell in his way. These five or six years I
+still look upon as the happiest part of my life." It appears, too,
+that he was himself aware of the advantages which this free course of
+study brought with it:--"Mr. Pope," says Spence, "thought himself the
+better, in some respects, for not having had a regular education. He
+(as he observed in particular) read originally for the sense, whereas
+we are taught, for so many years, to read only for words."]
+
+[Footnote 64: Before Chatterton was twelve years old, he wrote a
+catalogue, in the same manner as Lord Byron, of the books he had
+already read, to the number of seventy. Of these the chief subjects
+were history and divinity.]
+
+[Footnote 65: The perfect purity with which the Greeks wrote their own
+language, was, with justice, perhaps, attributed by themselves to
+their entire abstinence from the study of any other. "If they became
+learned," says Ferguson, "it was only by studying what they themselves
+had produced."]
+
+[Footnote 66: The only circumstance I know, that bears even remotely
+on the subject of this poem, is the following. About a year or two
+before the date affixed to it, he wrote to his mother, from Harrow (as
+I have been told by a person to whom Mrs. Byron herself communicated
+the circumstance), to say, that he had lately had a good deal of
+uneasiness on account of a young woman, whom he knew to have been a
+favourite of his late friend, Curzon, and who, finding herself, after
+his death, in a state of progress towards maternity, had declared Lord
+Byron was the father of her child. This, he positively assured his
+mother, was not the case; but, believing, as he did firmly, that the
+child belonged to Curzon, it was his wish that it should be brought up
+with all possible care, and he, therefore, entreated that his mother
+would have the kindness to take charge of it. Though such a request
+might well (as my informant expresses it) have discomposed a temper
+more mild than Mrs. Byron's, she notwithstanding answered her son in
+the kindest terms, saying that she would willingly receive the child
+as soon as it was born, and bring it up in whatever manner he desired.
+Happily, however, the infant died almost immediately, and was thus
+spared the being a tax on the good nature of any body.]
+
+[Footnote 67: In this practice of dating his juvenile poems he
+followed the example of Milton, who (says Johnson), "by affixing the
+dates to his first compositions, a boast of which the learned Politian
+had given him an example, seems to commend the earliness of his own
+compositions to the notice of posterity."
+
+The following trifle, written also by him in 1807, has never, as far
+as I know, appeared in print:--
+
+     "EPITAPH ON JOHN ADAMS, OF SOUTHWELL, A CARRIER,
+
+     "WHO DIED OF DRUNKENNESS.
+
+    "John Adams lies here, of the parish of Southwell,
+    A _Carrier_, who _carried_ his can to his mouth well;
+    He _carried_ so much, and he _carried_ so fast,
+    He could _carry_ no more--so was _carried_ at last;
+    For, the liquor he drank being too much for one,
+    He could not _carry_ off,--so he 's now _carri-on_.
+
+    "B----, Sept. 1807."
+]
+
+[Footnote 68: Annesley is, of course, not forgotten among the
+number:--
+
+    "And shall I here forget the scene,
+       Still nearest to my breast?
+     Rocks rise and rivers roll between
+       The rural spot which passion blest;
+     Yet, Mary, all thy beauties seem
+     Fresh as in Love's bewitching dream," &c. &c.
+]
+
+[Footnote 69: It appears from a passage in one of Miss ----'s letters
+to her brother, that Lord Byron sent, through this gentleman, a copy
+of his poems to Mr. Mackenzie, the author of the Man of Feeling:--"I
+am glad you mentioned Mr. Mackenzie's having got a copy of Lord B.'s
+poems, and what he thought of them--Lord B. was so _much_ pleased!"
+
+In another letter, the fair writer says,--"Lord Byron desired me to
+tell you that the reason you did not hear from him was because his
+publication was not so forward as he had flattered himself it would
+have been. I told him, 'he was no more to be depended on than a
+woman,' which instantly brought the softness of that sex into his
+countenance, for he blushed exceedingly."]
+
+[Footnote 70: He was, indeed, a thorough boy, at this period, in every
+respect:--"Next Monday" (says Miss ----) "is our great fair. Lord
+Byron talks of it with as much pleasure as little Henry, and declares
+he will ride in the round-about,--but I think he will change his
+mind."]
+
+[Footnote 71: He here alludes to an odd fancy or trick of his
+own;--whenever he was at a loss for something to say, he used always
+to gabble over "1 2 3 4 5 6 7."]
+
+[Footnote 72: Notwithstanding the abuse which, evidently more in sport
+than seriousness, he lavishes, in the course of these letters, upon
+Southwell, he was, in after days, taught to feel that the hours which
+he had passed in this place were far more happy than any he had known
+afterwards. In a letter written not long since to his servant,
+Fletcher, by a lady who had been intimate with him, in his young days,
+at Southwell, there are the following words:--"Your poor, good master
+always called me 'Old Piety,' when I preached to him. When he paid me
+his last visit, he said, 'Well, good friend, I shall never be so happy
+again as I was in old Southwell.'" His real opinion of the advantages
+of this town, as a place of residence, will be seen in a subsequent
+letter, where he most strenuously recommends it, in that point of
+view, to Mr. Dallas.]
+
+[Footnote 73: It may be as well to mention here the sequel of this
+enthusiastic attachment. In the year 1811 young Edleston died of a
+consumption, and the following letter, addressed by Lord Byron to the
+mother of his fair Southwell correspondent, will show with what
+melancholy faithfulness, among the many his heart had then to mourn
+for, he still dwelt on the memory of his young college friend:--
+
+"Cambridge, Oct. 28. 1811.
+
+"Dear Madam,
+
+"I am about to write to you on a silly subject, and yet I cannot well
+do otherwise. You may remember a _cornelian_, which some years ago I
+consigned to Miss ----, indeed _gave_ to her, and now I am going to
+make the most selfish and rude of requests. The person who gave it to
+me, when I was very young, is _dead_, and though a long time has
+elapsed since we met, as it was the only memorial I possessed of that
+person (in whom I was very much interested), it has acquired a value
+by this event I could have wished it never to have borne in my eyes.
+If, therefore, Miss ---- should have preserved it, I must, under these
+circumstances, beg her to excuse my requesting it to be transmitted to
+me at No. 8. St. James's Street, London, and I will replace it by
+something she may remember me by equally well. As she was always so
+kind as to feel interested in the fate of him that formed the subject
+of our conversation, you may tell her that the giver of that cornelian
+died in May last of a consumption, at the age of twenty-one, making
+the sixth, within four months, of friends and relatives that I have
+lost between May and the end of August.
+
+"Believe me, dear Madam, yours very sincerely,
+
+"BYRON.
+
+"P.S. I go to London to-morrow."
+
+
+The cornelian heart was, of course, returned, and Lord Byron, at the
+same time, reminded that he had left it with Miss ----]
+
+[Footnote 74: In the Collection of his Poems printed for private
+circulation, he had inserted some severe verses on Dr. Butler, which
+he omitted in the subsequent publication,--at the same time explaining
+why he did so, in a note little less severe than the verses.]
+
+[Footnote 75: This first attempt of Lord Byron at reviewing (for it
+will be seen that he, once or twice afterwards, tried his hand at this
+least poetical of employments) is remarkable only as showing how
+plausibly he could assume the established tone and phraseology of
+these minor judgment-seats of criticism. For instance:--"The volumes
+before us are by the author of Lyrical Ballads, a collection which has
+not undeservedly met with a considerable share of public applause. The
+characteristics of Mr. Wordsworth's muse are simple and flowing,
+though occasionally inharmonious, verse,--strong and sometimes
+irresistible appeals to the feelings, with unexceptionable sentiments.
+Though the present work may not equal his former efforts, many of the
+poems possess a native elegance," &c. &c. &c. If Mr. Wordsworth ever
+chanced to cast his eye over this article, how little could he have
+suspected that under that dull prosaic mask lurked one who, in five
+short years from thence, would rival even _him_ in poetry.]
+
+[Footnote 76: This plan (which he never put in practice) had been
+talked of by him before he left Southwell, and is thus noticed in a
+letter of his fair correspondent to her brother:--"How can you ask if
+Lord B. is going to visit the Highlands in the summer? Why, don't
+_you_ know that he never knows his own mind for ten minutes together?
+I tell _him_ he is as fickle as the winds, and as uncertain as the
+waves."]
+
+[Footnote 77: We observe here, as in other parts of his early letters,
+that sort of display and boast of rakishness which is but too common a
+folly at this period of life, when the young aspirant to manhood
+persuades himself that to be profligate is to be manly. Unluckily,
+this boyish desire of being thought worse than he really was, remained
+with Lord Byron, as did some other feelings and foibles of his
+boyhood, long after the period when, with others, they are past and
+forgotten; and his mind, indeed, was but beginning to outgrow them,
+when he was snatched away.]
+
+[Footnote 78: The poem afterwards enlarged and published under the
+title of "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." It appears from this
+that the ground-work of that satire had been laid some time before the
+appearance of the article in the Edinburgh Review.]
+
+[Footnote 79: Sept. 1807. This Review, in pronouncing upon the young
+author's future career, showed itself somewhat more "prophet-like"
+than the great oracle of the North. In noticing the Elegy on Newstead
+Abbey, the writer says, "We could not but hail, with something of
+prophetic rapture, the hope conveyed in the closing stanza:--
+
+    "Haply thy sun, emerging, yet may shine,
+      Thee to irradiate with meridian ray," &c. &c.
+]
+
+[Footnote 80: The first number of a monthly publication called "The
+Satirist," in which there appeared afterwards some low and personal
+attacks upon him.]
+
+[Footnote 81: "Look out for a people entirely destitute of religion:
+if you find them at all, be assured that they are but few degrees
+removed from brutes."--HUME.
+
+The reader will find this avowal of Hume turned eloquently to the
+advantage of religion in a Collection of Sermons, entitled, "The
+Connexion of Christianity with Human Happiness," written by one of
+Lord Byron's earliest and most valued friends, the Rev. William
+Harness.]
+
+[Footnote 82: The only thing remarkable about Walsh's preface is, that
+Dr. Johnson praises it as "very judicious," but is, at the same time,
+silent respecting the poems to which it is prefixed.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Characters in the novel called _Percival_.]
+
+[Footnote 84: This appeal to the imagination of his correspondent was
+not altogether without effect.--"I considered," says Mr. Dallas,
+"these letters, _though evidently grounded on some occurrences in the
+still earlier part of his life_, rather as _jeux d'esprit_ than as a
+true portrait."]
+
+[Footnote 85: He appears to have had in his memory Voltaire's lively
+account of Zadig's learning: "Il savait de la metaphysique ce qu'on en
+a su dans tous les ages,--c'est a dire, fort peu de chose," &c.]
+
+[Footnote 86: The doctrine of Hume, who resolves all virtue into
+sentiment.--See his "Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals."]
+
+[Footnote 87: See his Letter to Anthony Collins, 1703-4, where he
+speaks of "those sharp heads, which were for damning his book, because
+of its discouraging the staple commodity of the place, which in his
+time was called _hogs' shearing_."]
+
+[Footnote 88: Hard, "Discourses on Poetical Imitation."]
+
+[Footnote 89: Prologue to the University of Oxford.]
+
+[Footnote 90: "'Tis a quality very observable in human nature, that
+any opposition which does not entirely discourage and intimidate us,
+has rather a contrary effect, and inspires us with a more than
+ordinary grandeur and magnanimity. In collecting our force to overcome
+the opposition, we invigorate the soul, and give it an elevation with
+which otherwise it would never have been acquainted."--Hume, _Treatise
+of Human Nature._]
+
+[Footnote 91: "The colour of our whole life is generally such as the
+three or four first years in which we are our own masters make
+it."--Cowper.]
+
+[Footnote 92: "I refer to my old friend and corporeal pastor and master,
+John Jackson, Esq., Professor of Pugilism, who I trust still retains the
+strength and symmetry of his model of a form, together with his good humour
+and athletic, as well as mental, accomplishments."--_Note on Don Juan,
+Canto II_.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Thus addressed always by Lord Byron, but without any
+right to the distinction.]
+
+[Footnote 94: The Journal entitled by himself "Detached Thoughts."]
+
+[Footnote 95: Few philosophers, however, have been so indulgent to the
+pride of birth as Rousseau.--"S'il est un orgueil pardonnable (he
+says) apres celui qui se tire du merite personnel, c'est celui qui se
+tire de la naissance."--_Confess._]
+
+[Footnote 96: This gentleman, who took orders in the year 1814, is the
+author of a spirited translation of Juvenal, and of other works of
+distinguished merit. He was long in correspondence with Lord Byron,
+and to him I am indebted for some interesting letters of his noble
+friend, which will be given in the course of the following pages.]
+
+[Footnote 97: He had also, at one time, as appears from an anecdote
+preserved by Spence, some thoughts of burying this dog in his garden,
+and placing a monument over him, with the inscription, "Oh, rare
+Bounce!"
+
+In speaking of the members of Rousseau's domestic establishment, Hume
+says, "She (Therese) governs him as absolutely as a nurse does a
+child. In her absence, his dog has acquired that ascendant. His
+affection for that creature is beyond all expression or
+conception."--_Private Correspondence._ See an instance which he gives
+of this dog's influence over the philosopher, p. 143.
+
+In Burns's elegy on the death of his favourite Mailie, we find the
+friendship even of a sheep set on a level with that of man:--
+
+    "Wi' kindly bleat, when she did spy him,
+                      She ran wi' speed:
+    A friend mair faithful ne'er came nigh him,
+                      Than Mailie dead."
+
+In speaking of the favourite dogs of great poets, we must not forget
+Cowper's little spaniel "Beau;" nor will posterity fail to add to the
+list the name of Sir Walter Scott's "Maida."]
+
+[Footnote 98: In the epitaph, as first printed in his friend's
+Miscellany, this line runs thus:--
+
+    "I knew but one unchanged--and here he lies."
+]
+
+[Footnote 99: We are told that Wieland used to have his works printed
+thus for the purpose of correction, and said that he found great
+advantage in it. The practice is, it appears, not unusual in Germany.]
+
+[Footnote 100: See his lines on Major Howard, the son of Lord
+Carlisle, who was killed at Waterloo:--
+
+    "Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine;
+    Yet one I would select from that proud throng,
+    Partly because they blend me with his line,
+    And _partly that I did his sire some wrong_."
+
+CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO III.]
+
+[Footnote 101: In the fifth edition of the Satire (suppressed by him
+in 1812) he again changed his mind respecting this gentleman, and
+altered the line to
+
+    "I leave topography to _rapid_ Gell;"
+
+explaining his reasons for the change in the following
+note:--"'Rapid,' indeed;--he topographised and typographised King
+Priam's dominions in three days. I called him 'classic' before I saw
+the Troad, but since have learned better than to tack to his name what
+don't belong to it."
+
+He is not, however, the only satirist who has been thus capricious and
+changeable in his judgments. The variations of this nature in Pope's
+Dunciad are well known; and the Abbe Cotin, it is said, owed the
+"painful pre-eminence" of his station in Boileau's Satires to the
+unlucky convenience of his name as a rhyme. Of the generous change
+from censure to praise, the poet Dante had already set an example;
+having, in his "Convito," lauded some of those persons whom, in his
+Commedia, he had most severely lashed.]
+
+[Footnote 102: In another letter to Mr. Harness, dated February, 1809,
+he says, "I do not know how you and Alma Mater agree. I was but an
+untoward child myself, and I believe the good lady and her brat were
+equally rejoiced when I was weaned; and if I obtained her benediction
+at parting, it was, at best, equivocal."]
+
+[Footnote 103: The poem, in the first edition, began at the line,
+
+    "Time was ere yet, in these degenerate days."
+]
+
+[Footnote 104: Lady Byron, then Miss Milbank.]
+
+[Footnote 105: In the MS. remarks on his Satire, to which I have
+already referred, he says, on this passage--"Yea, and a pretty dance
+they have led me."]
+
+[Footnote 106: "Fool then, and but little wiser now."--_MS. ibid_.]
+
+[Footnote 107: Dated, in his original copy, Nov. 2. 1808.]
+
+[Footnote 108: Entitled, in his original manuscript, "To Mrs. ----, on
+being asked my reason for quitting England in the spring." The date
+subjoined is Dec. 2. 1808.]
+
+[Footnote 109: In his first copy, "Thus, Mary."]
+
+[Footnote 110: Thus corrected by himself in a copy of the Miscellany
+now in my possession;--the two last lines being, originally, as
+follows:--
+
+    "Though wheresoe'er my bark may run,
+    I love but thee, I love but one."
+]
+
+[Footnote 111: I give the words as Johnson has reported them;--in
+Swift's own letter they are, if I recollect right, rather different.]
+
+[Footnote 112: There is, at least, one striking point of similarity
+between their characters in the disposition which Johnson has thus
+attributed to Swift:--"The suspicions of Swift's irreligion," he says,
+"proceeded, in a great measure, from his dread of hypocrisy; _instead
+of wishing to seem better, he delighted in seeming worse than he
+was_."]
+
+[Footnote 113: Another use to which he appropriated one of the skulls
+found in digging at Newstead was the having it mounted in silver, and
+converted into a drinking-cup. This whim has been commemorated in some
+well-known verses of his own; and the cup itself, which, apart from
+any revolting ideas it may excite, forms by no means an inelegant
+object to the eye, is, with many other interesting relics of Lord
+Byron, in the possession of the present proprietor of Newstead Abbey,
+Colonel Wildman.]
+
+[Footnote 114: Rousseau appears to have been conscious of a similar
+sort of change in his own nature:--"They have laboured without
+intermission," he says, in a letter to Madame de Boufflers, "to give
+to my heart, and, perhaps, at the same time to my genius, a spring and
+stimulus of action, which they have not inherited from nature. I was
+born weak,--ill treatment has made me strong."--Hume's _Private
+Correspondence_.]
+
+[Footnote 115: "It was bitterness that they mistook for
+frolic."--Johnson's account of himself at the university, in Boswell.]
+
+[Footnote 116: The poet Cowper, it is well known, produced that
+masterpiece of humour, John Gilpin, during one of his fits of morbid
+dejection; and he himself says, "Strange as it may seem, the most
+ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood,
+and but for that saddest mood, perhaps, had never been written at
+all."]
+
+[Footnote 117: The reconciliation which took place between him and Dr.
+Butler, before his departure, is one of those instances of placability
+and pliableness with which his life abounded. We have seen, too, from
+the manner in which he mentions the circumstance in one of his
+note-books, that the reconcilement was of that generously
+retrospective kind, in which not only the feeling of hostility is
+renounced in future, but a strong regret expressed that it had been
+ever entertained.
+
+Not content with this private atonement to Dr. Butler, it was his
+intention, had he published another edition of the Hours of Idleness,
+to substitute for the offensive verses against that gentleman, a frank
+avowal of the wrong he had been guilty of in giving vent to them. This
+fact, so creditable to the candour of his nature, I learn from a loose
+sheet in his handwriting, containing the following corrections. In
+place of the passage beginning "Or if my Muse a pedant's portrait
+drew," he meant to insert--
+
+    "If once my Muse a harsher portrait drew,
+    Warm with her wrongs, and deem'd the likeness true,
+    By cooler judgment taught, her fault she owns,--
+    With noble minds a fault, confess'd, atones."
+
+And to the passage immediately succeeding his warm praise of Dr.
+Drury--"Pomposus fills his magisterial chair," it was his intention to
+give the following turn:--
+
+    "Another fills his magisterial chair;
+    Reluctant Ida owns a stranger's care;
+    Oh may like honours crown his future name,--
+    If such his virtues, such shall be his fame."
+]
+
+[Footnote 118: Lord Byron used sometimes to mention a strange story,
+which the commander of the packet, Captain Kidd, related to him on the
+passage. This officer stated that, being asleep one night in his
+berth, he was awakened by the pressure of something heavy on his
+limbs, and, there being a faint light in the room, could see, as he
+thought, distinctly, the figure of his brother, who was at that time
+in the naval service in the East Indies, dressed in his uniform, and
+stretched across the bed. Concluding it to be an illusion of the
+senses, he shut his eyes and made an effort to sleep. But still the
+same pressure continued, and still, as often as he ventured to take
+another look, he saw the figure lying across him in the same position.
+To add to the wonder, on putting his hand forth to touch this form, he
+found the uniform, in which it appeared to be dressed, dripping wet.
+On the entrance of one of his brother officers, to whom he called out
+in alarm, the apparition vanished; but in a few months after he
+received the startling intelligence that on that night his brother had
+been drowned in the Indian seas. Of the supernatural character of this
+appearance, Captain Kidd himself did not appear to have the slightest
+doubt.]
+
+[Footnote 119: The baggage and part of the servants were sent by sea
+to Gibraltar.]
+
+[Footnote 120: "This sort of passage," says Mr. Hodgson, in a note on
+his copy of this letter, "constantly occurs in his correspondence. Nor
+was his interest confined to mere remembrances and enquiries after
+health. Were it possible to state _all_ he has done for numerous
+friends, he would appear amiable indeed. For myself, I am bound to
+acknowledge, in the fullest and warmest manner, his most generous and
+well-timed aid; and, were my poor friend Bland alive, he would as
+gladly bear the like testimony;--though I have most reason, of all
+men, to do so."]
+
+[Footnote 121: The filthiness of Lisbon and its inhabitants.]
+
+[Footnote 122: Colonel Napier, in a note in his able History of the
+Peninsular War, notices the mistake into which Lord Byron and others
+were led on this subject;--the signature of the Convention, as well as
+all the other proceedings connected with it, having taken place at a
+distance of thirty miles from Cintra.]
+
+[Footnote 123: We find an allusion to this incident in Don Juan:--
+
+    "'Tis pleasing to be school'd in a strange tongue
+      By female lips and eyes--that is, I mean,
+    When both the teacher and the taught are young,
+      As was the case, at least, where I have been," &c. &c.
+]
+
+[Footnote 124: The postscript to this letter is as follows:--
+
+P.S. "So Lord G. is married to a rustic! Well done! If I wed, I will
+bring you home a sultana, with half a dozen cities for a dowry, and
+reconcile you to an Ottoman daughter-in-law with a bushel of pearls,
+not larger than ostrich eggs, or smaller than walnuts."]
+
+[Footnote 125: The following stanzas from this little poem have a
+music in them, which, independently of all meaning, is enchanting:--
+
+    "And since I now remember thee
+      In darkness and in dread,
+    As in those hours of revelry,
+      Which mirth and music sped;
+
+    "Do thou, amidst the fair white walls,
+      If Cadiz yet be free,
+    At times, from out her latticed halls,
+      Look o'er the dark blue sea;
+
+    "Then think upon Calypso's isles,
+      Endear'd by days gone by;
+    To others give a thousand smiles,
+      To me a single sigh," &c. &c.
+]
+
+[Footnote 126: The following is Mr. Hobhouse's loss embellished
+description of this scene;--"The court at Tepellene, which was
+enclosed on two sides by the palace, and on the other two sides by a
+high wall, presented us, at our first entrance, with a sight something
+like what we might have, perhaps, beheld some hundred years ago in the
+castle-yard of a great feudal lord. Soldiers, with their arms piled
+against the wall near them, were assembled in different parts of the
+square: some of them pacing slowly backwards and forwards, and others
+sitting on the ground in groups. Several horses, completely
+caparisoned, were leading about, whilst others were neighing under the
+hands of the grooms. In the part farthest from the dwelling,
+preparations were making for the feast of the night; and several kids
+and sheep were being dressed by cooks who were themselves half armed.
+Every thing wore a most martial look, though not exactly in the style
+of the head-quarters of a Christian general; for many of the soldiers
+were in the most common dress, without shoes, and having more wildness
+in their air and manner than the Albanians we had before seen."
+
+On comparing this description, which is itself sufficiently striking,
+with those which Lord Byron has given of the same scene, both in the
+letter to his mother, and in the second Canto of Childe Harold, we
+gain some insight into the process by which imagination elevates,
+without falsifying, reality, and facts become brightened and refined
+into poetry. Ascending from the representation drawn faithfully on the
+spot by the traveller, to the more fanciful arrangement of the same
+materials in the letter of the poet, we at length, by one step more,
+arrive at that consummate, idealised picture, the result of both
+memory and invention combined, which in the following splendid stanzas
+is presented to us:--
+
+      Amidst no common pomp the despot sate,
+      While busy preparations shook the court,
+      Slaves, eunuchs, soldiers, guests, and santons wait;
+      Within, a palace, and without, a fort:
+    Here men of every clime appear to make resort.
+
+      "Richly caparison'd, a ready row
+      Of armed horse, and many a warlike store,
+      Circled the wide-extending court below;
+      Above, strange groups adorn'd the corridore;
+      And oft-times through the area's echoing door
+      Some high-capp'd Tartar spurr'd his steed away:
+      The Turk, the Greek, the Albanian, and the Moor,
+      Here mingled in their many-hued array,
+    While the deep war-drum's sound announced the close of day.
+
+      "The wild Albanian, kirtled to his knee,
+      With shawl-girt head and ornamented gun,
+      And gold-embroider'd garments, fair to see;
+      The crimson-scarfed men of Macedon;
+      The Delhi, with his cap of terror on,
+      And crooked glaive; the lively, supple Greek;
+      And swarthy Nubia's mutilated son;
+      The bearded Turk that rarely deigns to speak,
+    Master of all around--too potent to be meek,
+
+    "Are mix'd, conspicuous: some recline in groups,
+    Scanning the motley scene that varies round;
+    There some grave Moslem to devotion stoops,
+    And some that smoke, and some that play, are found;
+    Here the Albanian proudly treads the ground;
+    Half whispering there the Greek is heard to prate;
+    Hark! from the mosque the nightly solemn sound,
+    The Muezzin's call doth shake the minaret,
+    There is no god but God!--to prayer--lo! God is great!'"
+
+    CHILDE HAROLD, Canto II.
+]
+
+[Footnote 127: In the shape of the hands, as a mark of high birth,
+Lord Byron himself had as implicit faith as the Pacha: see his note on
+the line, "Though on more _thorough-bred_ or fairer fingers," in Don
+Juan.]
+
+[Footnote 128: A few sentences are here and elsewhere omitted, as
+having no reference to Lord Byron himself, but merely containing some
+particulars relating to Ali and his grandsons, which may be found in
+various books of travels.
+
+Ali had not forgotten his noble guest when Dr. Holland, a few years
+after, visited Albania:--"I mentioned to him, generally (says this
+intelligent traveller), Lord Byron's poetical description of Albania,
+the interest it had excited in England, and Mr. Hobhouse's intended
+publication of his travels in the same country. He seemed pleased with
+these circumstances, and stated his recollections of Lord Byron."]
+
+[Footnote 129: I have heard the poet's fellow-traveller describe this
+remarkable instance of his coolness and courage even still more
+strikingly than it is here stated by himself. Finding that, from his
+lameness, he was unable to be of any service in the exertions which
+their very serious danger called for, after a laugh or two at the
+panic of his valet, he not only wrapped himself up and lay down, in
+the manner here mentioned, but, when their difficulties were
+surmounted, was found fast asleep.]
+
+[Footnote 130: In the route from Ioannina to Zitza, Mr. Hobhouse and
+the secretary of Ali, accompanied by one of the servants, had rode on
+before the rest of the party, and arrived at the village just as the
+evening set in. After describing the sort of hovel in which they were
+to take up their quarters for the night, Mr. Hobhouse thus
+continues:--"Vasilly was despatched into the village to procure eggs
+and fowls, that would be ready, as we thought, by the arrival of the
+second party. But an hour passed away and no one appeared. It was
+seven o'clock, and the storm had increased to a fury I had never
+before, and, indeed, have never since, seen equalled. The roof of our
+hovel shook under the clattering torrents and gusts of wind. The
+thunder roared, as it seemed, without any intermission; for the echoes
+of one peal had not ceased to roll in the mountains, before another
+tremendous crash burst over our heads; whilst the plains and the
+distant hills (visible through the cracks of the cabin) appeared in a
+perpetual blaze. The tempest was altogether terrific, and worthy of
+the Grecian Jove; and the peasants, no less religious than their
+ancestors, confessed their alarm. The women wept, and the men, calling
+on the name of God, crossed themselves at every repeated peal.
+
+"We were very uneasy that the party did not arrive; but the secretary
+assured me that the guides knew every part of the country, as did also
+his own servant, who was with them, and that they had certainly taken
+shelter in a village at an hour's distance. Not being satisfied with
+the conjecture, I ordered fires to be lighted on the hill above the
+village, and some muskets to be discharged: this was at eleven
+o'clock, and the storm had not abated. I lay down in my great coat;
+but all sleeping was out of the question, as any pauses in the tempest
+were filled up by the barking of the dogs, and the shouting of the
+shepherds in the neighbouring mountains.
+
+"A little after midnight, a man, panting and pale, and drenched with
+rain, rushed into the room, and, between crying and roaring, with a
+profusion of action, communicated something to the secretary, of which
+I understood only--that they had all fallen down. I learnt, however,
+that no accident had happened, except the falling of the luggage
+horses, and losing their way, and that they were now waiting for fresh
+horses and guides. Ten were immediately sent to them, together with
+several men with pine-torches; but it was not till two o'clock in the
+morning that we heard they were approaching, and my friend, with the
+priest and the servants, did not enter our hut before three.
+
+"I now learnt from him that they had lost their way from the
+commencement of the storm, when not above three miles from the
+village; and that, after wandering up and down in total ignorance of
+their position, they had, at last, stopped near some Turkish
+tombstones and a torrent, which they saw by the flashes of lightning.
+They had been thus exposed for nine hours; and the guides, so far from
+assisting them, only augmented the confusion, by running away, after
+being threatened with death by George the dragoman, who, in an agony
+of rage and fear, and without giving any warning, fired off both his
+pistols, and drew from the English servant an involuntary scream of
+horror, for he fancied they were beset by robbers.
+
+"I had not, as you have seen, witnessed the distressing part of this
+adventure myself; but from the lively picture drawn of it by my
+friend, and from the exaggerated descriptions of George, I fancied
+myself a good judge of the whole situation, and should consider this
+to have been one of the most considerable of the few adventures that
+befell either of us during our tour in Turkey. It was long before we
+ceased to talk of the thunder-storm in the plain of Zitza."]
+
+[Footnote 131: Mr. Hobhouse. I think, makes the number of this guard
+but thirty-seven, and Lord Byron, in a subsequent letter, rates them
+at forty.]
+
+[Footnote 132:
+
+    "Oh, thou Parnassus! whom I now survey,
+     Not in the frenzy of a dreamer's eye,
+     Not in the fabled landscape of a lay,
+     But soaring snow-clad through thy native sky,
+     In the wild pomp of mountain majesty!"
+
+    CHILDE HAROLD, Canto I.
+]
+
+[Footnote 133: The passage of Harris, indeed, contains the pith of the
+whole stanza:--"Notwithstanding the various fortune of Athens, as a
+city, Attica is still famous for olives, and Mount Hymettus for honey.
+Human institutions perish, but Nature is permanent."--_Philolog.
+Inquiries_.--I recollect having once pointed out this coincidence to
+Lord Byron, but he assured me that he had never even seen this work of
+Harris.]
+
+[Footnote 134: Travels in Italy, Greece, &c., by H. W. Williams, Esq.]
+
+[Footnote 135: The Miscellany, to which I have more than once
+referred.]
+
+[Footnote 136: He has adopted this name in his description of the
+Seraglio in Don Juan, Canto VI. It was, if I recollect right, in
+making love to one of these girls that he had recourse to an act of
+courtship often practised in that country,--namely, giving himself a
+wound across the breast with his dagger. The young Athenian, by his
+own account, looked on very coolly during the operation, considering
+it a fit tribute to her beauty, but in no degree moved to gratitude.]
+
+[Footnote 137: Among others, he mentions his passage of the Tagus in
+1809, which is thus described by Mr. Hobhouse:--"My companion had
+before made a more perilous, but less celebrated, passage; for I
+recollect that, when we were in Portugal, he swam from old Lisbon to
+Belem Castle, and having to contend with a tide and counter current,
+the wind blowing freshly, was but little less than two hours in
+crossing the river." In swimming from Sestos to Abydos, he was one
+hour and ten minutes in the water.
+
+In the year 1808, he had been nearly drowned, while swimming at
+Brighton with Mr. L. Stanhope. His friend Mr. Hobhouse, and other
+bystanders, sent in some boatmen, with ropes tied round them, who at
+last succeeded in dragging Lord Byron and Mr. Stanhope from the surf
+and thus saved their lives.]
+
+[Footnote 138: Alluding to his having swum across the Thames with Mr.
+H. Drury, after the Montem, to see how many times they could perform
+the passage backwards and forwards without touching land. In this
+trial (which took place at night, after supper, when both were heated
+with drinking,) Lord Byron was the conqueror.]
+
+[Footnote 139: New Monthly Magazine.]
+
+[Footnote 140: In a note upon the Advertisement prefixed to his Siege
+of Corinth, he says,--"I visited all three (Tripolitza, Napoli, and
+Argos,) in 1810-11, and in the course of journeying through the
+country, from my first arrival in 1809, crossed the Isthmus eight
+times in my way from Attica to the Morea, over the mountains, or in
+the other direction, when passing from the Gulf of Athens to that of
+Lepanto."]
+
+[Footnote 141: Given afterwards to Sir Walter Scott.]
+
+[Footnote 142: At present in the possession of Mr. Murray.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.), by
+Thomas  Moore
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