APPENDIX.

ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON.

THE detached anecdotes of Lord Byron are numerous, and many of them much to his credit: those that are so, I am desirous to preserve, and should have interwoven them in the body of the work, could I have found a fitting place for doing so, or been able to have made them part and parcel of a systematic narrative.

I.

"A young lady of considerable talents, but who had never been able to succeed in turning them to any profitable account, was reduced to great hardships through the misfortunes of her family. The only per. sons from whom she could have hoped for relief were abroad; and urged on, more by the sufferings of those she held dear, than by her own, summoned up resolution to wait on Lord Byron at his apartments in the Albany, and solicit his subscription to a volume of poems: she had no previous knowledge of him, except from his works; but from the boldness and feeling expressed in them, she concluded that he must be a man of a kind heart and amiable disposition. She entered the apartment with diffidence, but soon found courage to state her request, which she did with simplicity and delicacy. He listened with attention; and when she had done speaking, he, as if to divert her thoughts from a subject which could not but be painful to her, began to converse with her in words so fascinating, and tones so gentle, that she hardly perceived he had been writing, until he put a slip of paper into her hand, saying it was his subscription, and that he most heartily wished her success. But,' added he, we are both young, and the world is very censorions; and so if I were to take any active part in procuring subscribers to your poems, I fear it would do you harm, rather than good.' The young lady, overpowered by the prudence and delicacy of his conduct, took her leave; and upon opening the paper in the street, which in her agitation she had not previously looked at, she found it was a draft upon his banker for fifty pounds."--Galignani's edition.

II.

"While in the island of Cephalonia, at Metaxata, an embankment, near which several persons had been engaged digging, fell in, and buried

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some of them alive. He was at dinner when he heard of the accident; starting up from the table, he fled to the spot, accompanied by his physi cian. The labourers employed in extricating their companions soon became alarmed for themselves, and refused to go on, saying, they believed they had dug out all the bodies which had been covered by the rubbish. Byron endeavoured to force them to continue their exertions, but finding menaces in vain, he seized a spade, and began to dig most zealously; when the peasantry joined him, and they succeeded in saving two more persons from certain death."-Galignani's edition.

III.

"A schoolfellow of Byron's had a very small Shetland pony, which his father had bought for him: they went one day to the banks of the Don to bathe, but having only the pony, they were obliged to follow the good old practice, called in Scotland, 'ride and tie;' when they came to the bridge over the dark romantic stream, Byron bethought him of the prophecy which he has quoted in Don Juan.

Brig o' Balgounie, black 's your wa'

Wi' a wife's ae son and a mare's ae foal
Doun ye shall fa'!'

He immediately stopped his companion, who was riding, and asked him if he remembered the prophecy, saying, that as they were both only sons, and as the pony might be a mare's ae foal,' he would ride over first, because he had only a mother to lament him, should the prophecy be fulfilled by the falling of the bridge; whereas the other had both a father and a mother."-Galignant's edition.

IV.

"When Lord Byron was a member of the Managing (query, mis-managing) Committee of Drury-lane Theatre, Bartley was speaking with him on the decay of the drama, and took occasion to urge his Lordship to write a tragedy for the stage: 'I cannot,' was the reply, 'I do n't know how to make the people go on and off in the scenes, and know not where to find a fit character.' Take your own,' said Bartley, meaning, in the Much honesty of his heart, one of his Laras or Childe Harolds. obliged to you,' was the reply-and exit in a huff Byron thought he spoke literally of his own real character."

V.

Lord Byron was very jealous of his title. "A friend told me, that an Italian apothecary having sent him one day a packet of medicines addressed to 'Mons. Byron,' this mock-heroic mistake aroused his indignation, and he sent the physic back, to learn better manners." -Leigh Hunt.

VI.

"He affected to doubt whether Shakspeare was so great a genius as he has been taken for. There was a greater committal of himself at the bottom of this notion than he supposed; and perhaps circumstar.ces had really disenabled him from having the proper idea of Shakspeare, thongh it could not have fallen so short of the truth as he pretended. Spenser he could not read, at least he said so. I lent him a volume of the 'Faery Queene,' and he said he would try to like it. Next day he brought it to my study-window and said, 'Here, Hunt, here is your Spenser; I can

not see any thing in him.' When he found Sandys's Ovid among my books, he said, 'God! what an unpleasant recollection I have of this book! I met with it on my wedding-day; I read it while I was waiting to go to church.'"-Leigh Hunt.

VII.

"Have you seen my three helmets ? he inquired one day, with an air between hesitation and hurry. Upon being answered in the negative, he said he would show them me, and began to enter a room for that purpose; but stopped short, and put it off to another time. These three helmets he had got up in honour of his going to war, and as harbingers to achievement. They were the proper classical shape, gilt, and had his motto' Crede Byron.'"-Leigh Hunt.

VIII.

"His superstition was remarkable. I do not mean in the ordinary sense, because he was superstitious, but because it was petty and old womanish. He believed in the ill-luck of Fridays; and was seriously disconcerted if any thing was to be done on that frightful day of the week. Had he been a Roman, he would have started at crows, when he made a jest of augurs. He used to tell a story of somebody's meeting him, while in Italy, in St. James's-street."-Leigh Hunt.

IX.

One night in the opera, while he was in Italy, a gentleman appeared in one of the lower boxes, so like Lord Byron, that he attracted a great deal of attention. I saw him myself, and was not convinced it was not him until I went close to the box to speak to him. I afterward ascertained that the stranger belonged to the Stock Exchange.-J. G.

X.

On another occasion, during the queen's trial, it was reported that he had arrived from abroad, and was seen entering the House of Lords. A friend of mine mentioned the circumstance to him afterward. "No!" said he, "that would have been too much, considering the state of matters between me and my own wife."-J. G.

XI.

Lord Byron said, that Hunt had no right perception of the sublimity of Alpine scenery; that is, no moral associations in connexion with such scenery; and that he called a mountain a great impostor. I shall quote from his visit to Italy what Mr. Hunt says himself: it is daintily conceived and expressed.

"The Alps.-It was the first time I had seen mountains. They had a fine, sulky look, up aloft in the sky-cold, lofty, and distant. I used to think that mountains would impress me but little; that by the same process of imagination reversed, by which a brook can be fancied a mighty river, with forests instead of verdure on its banks, a mountain could be made a mole-hill, over which we step. But one look convinced me to the contrary. I found I could elevate better than I could pull down, and I was glad of it."-Leigh Hunt.

XII.

In one of Lord Byron's conversations with Doctor Kennedy, he said, in speaking of the liberality of the late pope, "I like his Holiness very

much, particularly since an order, which I understand he has lately given, that no more miracles shall be performed." In speaking of Mr. Henry Drummond and Lord Calthorpe, he inquired whether the Doctor knew them. "No!" was the answer; "except by report, which points them out as eminent for their piety."—"I know them very well," said his Lordship. "They were not always so; but they are excellent men. Lord Calthorpe was the first who called me an Atheist, when we were at school at Harrow, for which I gave him as good a drubbing as ever he got in his life."-Dr. Kennedy.

XIII

"Speaking of witches," said Lord Byron to Doctor Kennedy, "what think you of the witch of Endor? I have always thought this the finest and most finished witch-scene that ever was written or conceived; and you will be of my opinion, if you consider all the circumstances and the actors in the case, together with the gravity, simplicity, and dignity of the language. It beats all the ghost-scenes I ever read. The finest conception on a similar subject is that of Goethe's devil, Mephistophiles; and though of course you will give the priority to the former, as being inspired, yet the latter, if you know it, will appear to you-at least it does to me-one of the finest and most sublime specimens of human conception."-Dr. Kennedy.

XIV.

One evening Lord Byron was with a friend at a masquerade in the Argyle-rooms, a few nights after Skeffington's tragedy of The Myste rious Bride had been damned. His friend was dressed as a nun, who had endured depredation from the French in Portugal." What is she?" said Skeffington, who came up to his Lordship, pointing to the nun. The reply was, "The Mysterious Bride."-J. G.

XV.

"One of Lord Byron's household had several times involved himself and his master in perplexity and trouble by his unrestrained attachment to women. In Greece this had been very annoying, and induced Lord Byron to think of a means of curing it. A young Suliote of the guard was accordingly dressed up like a woman, and instructed to place himself in the way of the amorous swain. The bait took, and after some communication, but rather by signs than by words, for the pair did not understand each other's language, the sham lady was carefully conducted by the gallant to one of Lord Byron's apartments. Here the couple were surprised by an enraged Suliote, a husband provided for the occasion, accompanied by half a dozen of his comrades, whose presence and threats terrified the poor lackey almost out of his senses. The noise of course brought Lord Byron to the spot to laugh at the tricked serving-man, and rescue him from the effects of his terror."— Galignani's edition.

XVI.

"A few days after the earthquake, which took place on the 21st of February, as we were all sitting at table in the evening, we were suddenly alarmed by a noise and a shaking of the house, somewhat similar to that which we had experienced when the earthquake occurred. Of course all started from their places, and there was the same confusion as on the former evening, at which Byron, who was present, laughed

immoderately: we were reassured by this, and soon learned that the whole was a method he had adopted to sport with our fears."-Galignani's edition.

XVII.

"The regiment, or rather brigade, we formed, can be described only as Byron himself describes it. There was a Greek tailor, who had been in the British service in the Ionian islands, where he had married an Italian woman. This lady, knowing something of the military service, petitioned Lord Byron to appoint her husband master-tailor of the brigade. The suggestion was useful, and this part of her petition was immediately granted. At the same time, however, she solicited that she might be permitted to raise a corps of women to be placed under her orders to accompany the regiment. She stipulated for free quarters and rations for them, but rejected all claim for pay. They were to be free of all encumbrances, and were to wash, sew, cook, and otherwise provide for the men. The proposition pleased Lord Byron, and stating the matter to me, he said he hoped I should have no objection. I had been accustomed to see women accompany the English army, and I knew that though sometimes an encumbrance, they were on the whole more beneficial than otherwise. In Greece there were many circumstances which would make their services extremely valuable, and I gave my consent to the measure. The tailor's wife did accordingly recruit a considerable number of unencumbered women, of almost all nations, but principally Greeks, Italians, Maltese, and negresses. 'I was afraid,' said Lord Byron, when I mentioned this matter to you, you would be crusty and oppose it-it is the very thing. Let me see; my corps outdoes Falstaff's. There are English, Germans, French, Maltese, Ragusians, Italians, Neapolitans, Transylvanians, Russians, Suliotes, Moreotes, and western Greeks in front, and to bring up the rear, the tailor's wife and her troop. Glorious Apollo! No general ever before had such an army.'"-Galignani's edition.

XVIII.

"Lord Byron had a black groom with him in Greece, an American by birth, to whom he was very partial. He always insisted on this man's calling him massa, whenever he spoke to him. On one occasion, the groom met with two women of his own complexion, who had been slaves to the Turks and liberated, but had been left almost to starve when the Greeks had risen on their tyrant. Being of the same colour was a bond of sympathy between them and the groom, and he applied to me to give both these women quarters in the seraglio. I granted the application, and mentioned it to Lord Byron, who laughed at the gallantry of his groom, and ordered that he should be brought before him at ten o'clock the next day, to answer for his presumption in making such an application. At ten o'clock accordingly he attended his master, with great trembling and fear, but stuttered so when he attempted to speak, that he could not make himself understood. Lord Byron, endeavouring almost in vain to preserve his gravity, reproved him severely for his pre'sumption. Blacky stuttered a thousand excuses, and was ready to do any thing to appease his massa's anger. His great yellow eyes wide open, he trembling from head to foot, his wandering and stuttering excuses, his visible dread, all tended to provoke laughter, and Lord Byron fearing his own dignity would be hove overboard, told him to hold his tongue and listen to his sentence. I was commanded to enter it on his