"and fashion was far my superior. She had "been sacrificed, almost before she was a 66 woman, to one whose mind and body were "equally contemptible in the scale of crea"tion; and on whom she bestowed a nu"merous family, to which the law gave him "the right to be called father. Strange as "it may seem, she gained (as all women do) an influence over me so strong, that I had 66 66 great difficulty in breaking with her, even "when I knew she had been inconstant to 66 me; and once was on the point of going "abroad with her, and narrowly escaped "this folly. I was at this time a mere Bond"street lounger-a great man at lobbies, "coffee and gambling-houses: my after66 noons were passed in visits, luncheons, "lounging and boxing-not to mention 66 drinking! If I had known you in early life, you would not have been alive now. 66 "I remember Scrope Davies, H—, and 66 66 66 myself, clubbing 197., all we had in our pockets, and losing it at a hell in St. "James's-street, at chicken-hazard, which may be called fowl; and afterwards get"ting drunk together till H. and S. D. " quarrelled. Scrope afterwards wrote to "me for my pistols to shoot himself; but "I declined lending them, on the plea that "they would be forfeited as a deodand. "I knew my answer would have more "effect than four sides of prosing. 66 66 66 "Don't suppose, however, that I took any pleasure in all these excesses, or that parson A. K. or W- were associates to The miserable consequences of my taste. "such a life are detailed at length in my "Memoirs. My own master at an age when "I most required a guide, and left to the "dominion of my passions when they were "the strongest, with a fortune anticipated "before I came into possession of it, and a "constitution impaired by early excesses, I 66 66 commenced my travels in 1809, with a joyless indifference to a world that was all "before me *. "Well might you say, speaking feelingly," said I: * "I wish they knew the life of a young noble ; They're young, but know not youth; it is anticipated; Handsome but wasted, rich without a sou; Their vigour in a thousand arms is dissipated, Their cash comes from, their wealth goes to a Jew." Don Juan, Canto XI. Stanzas 74 and 75. "There is no sterner moralist than pleasure *.". I asked him about Venice: "Venice!" said he, "I detest every re"collection of the place, the people, and my 66 pursuits. I there mixed again in society, "trod again the old round of eonversaziones, "balls, and concerts, was every night at the 66 opera, a constant frequenter of the Ridotto "during the Carnival, and, in short, entered "into all the dissipation of that luxurious place. Every thing in a Venetian life,— "its gondolas, its effeminating indolence, its "Siroccos, tend to enervate the mind and 66 body. My rides were a resource and a *He used to say there were three great men ruined in one year, Brummell, himself, and Napoleon! "stimulus; but the deep sands of Lido "broke my horses down, and I got tired of "that monotonous sea-shore ;---to be sure, I "passed the Villaggiatura on the Brenta *. * To give the reader an idea of the stories circulated and believed about Lord Byron, I will state one as a specimen of the rest, which I heard the other day: "Lord Byron, who is an execrably bad horseman, was riding one evening in the Brenta, spouting 'Metastasio.' A Venetian, passing in a close carriage at the time, laughed at his bad Italian ; upon which his Lordship horsewhipped him, and threw a card in at the window. The nobleman took no notice of the insult."-ANSWER: Lord Byron was an excellent horseman, never read a line of 'Metastasio,' and pronounced Italian like |