LETTER CCCCLXX TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, Jan. 2, 1830, ral baked meats' which have coldly set forth the breakfast table of all Great Britain for so many years. Now, what think you? Let me know; and recollect that, if we take to such an enterprise, we must do so in good earnest. Here is a hint,-do you make it a plan. We will modify it into as lite- "Your entering into my project for the Memoir rary and classical a concern as you please, only let is pleasant to me. But I doubt (contrary to my us put out our powers upon it, and it will most dear Made MacF**, whom I always loved, and likely succeed. But you must live in London, and always shall-not only because I really did feel atI also, to bring it to bear, and we must keep it a tached to her personally, but because she and about a dozen others of that sex were all who stuck by me secret. "As for the living in London, I would make that in the grand conflict of 1815)-but I doubt, I say, not difficult to you, (if you would allow me,) until whether the Memoir could appear in my lifetime;we could see whether one means or other (the suc-and, indeed, I had rather it did not, for a man cess of the plan, for instance) would not make it always looks dead after his Life has appeared, and I quite easy for you, as well as for your family; and, should certes not survive the appearance of mine. in any case, we should have some fun, composing, The first part I cannot consent to alter, even alcorrecting, supposing, inspecting, and supping to- though Made de Staël's opinion of Benjamin Congether over our lucubrations. If you think this stant, and my remarks upon Lady Caroline's beauty, worth a thought, let me know, and I will begin to (which is surely great, and I suppose that I have lay in a small literary capital of composition for said so-at least, I ought,) should go down to our the occasion. Yours ever, affectionately, grandchildren in unsophisticated nakedness. B. "As to Madame de Staël, I am by no means "P. S. If you thought of a middle plan between bound to be her beadsman-she was always more a Spectator and a newspaper, why not?-only not civil to me in person than during my absence. Our on a Sunday. Not that Sunday is not an excellent dear defunct friend, Matthew Lewis, who was too day, but is engaged already. We will call it the great a bore ever to lie, assured me, upon his tireTenda Rossa,' the name Tassoni gave an answer some word of honor, that, at Florence, the said of his in a controversy, in allusion to the delicate Madame de Staël was open-mouthed against me; hint of Timour the Lame, to his enemies, by a and, when asked, in Switzerland, why she had Tenda' of that color, before he gave battle. Or changed her opinion, replied, with laudable sincer we will call it Gli,' or 'I Carbonari,' if it so please ity, that I had named her in a sonnet with Voltaire, you or any other name full of pastime and prodi-Rousseau, &c., &c., and that she could not help it, gality,' which you may prefer. through decency. Now, I have not forgotten this, I conclude poetically, with but I have been generous, as mine acquaintance, Let me have an answer. the bellman, A merry Christmas to you!'" ADDRESS TO THE NEAPOLITAN GOVERNMENT. [Translation from the original Italian.] the late Captain Whitby of the navy, used to say to his seamen (when married to the gunner's daughter')-two dozen, and let you off easy.' The two dozen' were with the cat-'-nine-tails; the 'let you off easy' was rather his own opinion than that of the patient. My acquaintance with these terms and practices arises from my having been much conversant with ships of war and naval heroes in the years of my voyages in the Mediterranean. Whitby was in the gallant action off Lissa in 1811. He was brave, but a disciplinarian. When he left his frigate, he left a "An Englishman, a friend to liberty, having un- parrot, which was taught by the crew the following derstood that the Neapolitans permit even foreign-sounds- (It must be remarked that Captain Whiters to contribute to the good cause, is desirous that by was the image of Fawcett the actor in voice, face, they should do him the honor of accepting a thou-and figure, and that he squinted.) sand louis, which he takes the liberty of offering. Having already, not long since, been an ocular "Whitby! Whitby! funny eye! funny eye! two witness of the despotism of the barbarians in the dozen, and let you off easy. Oh you States occupied by them in Italy, he sees, with the "Now, if Madame de B. has a parrot, it had betenthusiasm natural to a cultivated man, the gene- ter be taught a French parody of the same sounds. rous determination of the Neapolitans to assert "With regard to our purposed journal, I will call their well-worn independence. As a member of the it what you please, but it should be a newspaper, to English House of Peers, he would be a traitor to make it pay. We can call it 'The Harp,' if you the principles which placed the reigning family of like or any thing. * "The parrot loquitur. * England on the throne, if he were not grateful for "I feel exactly as you do about our art,' but it the noble lesson so lately given both to people and comes over me in a kind of rage every now and to kings. The offer which he desires to make is then, like and then, if I small in itself, as must always be that presented don't write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that from an individual to a nation; but he trusts that regular, uninterrupted love of writing, which you it will not be the last they will receive from his describe in your friend, I do not understand it. I countrymen. His distance from the frontier, and feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but the feeling of his personal incapacity to contribute never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think comefficaciously to the service of the nation, prevents position a great pain. him from proposing himself as worthy of the low- "I wish you to think seriously of the journal est commission, for which experience and talent scheme-for I am as serious as one can be, in this might be requisite. But if, as a mere volunteer, world, about any thing. As to matters here, they his presence were not a burden to whomsoever he are high and mighty-but not for paper. It is might serve under he would repair to whatever much about the state of things between Cain and place the Neapolitan government might point out, Abel. There is, in fact, no law or government at there to obey the orders and participate in the dan-all; and it is wonderful how well things go on withgers of his commanding officer, without any other out them. Excepting a few occasional murders, motive than that of sharing the destiny of a brave (every body killing whomsoever he pleases, and nation, defending itself against the self-called Holy being killed, in turn, by a friend, or relative, of the Alliance, which but combines the vice of hypocrisy defunct,) there is as quiet a society and as merry with despotism a Carnival as can be met with in a tour through 1 Europe. There is nothing like habit in these don't measure me by YOUR OWN old or new tailors' things. "I shall remain here till May or June, and, unless honor comes unlooked for,' we may perhaps meet, in France or England, within the year. "Yours, &c. "Of course, I cannot explain to you existing circumstances, as they open all letters. "Will you set me right about your cursed Champs Elysées?'-are they 'es' or 'ées' for the adjective? I know nothing of French, being all Italian. Though I can read and understand French, I never attempt to speak it; for I hate it. From the second part of the Memoirs cut what you please." ence. LETTER CCCCLXXI. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, January 4, 1821. yards. Nothing so easy as intricate confusion of plot, and rant. Mrs. Centlivre, in comedy, has ten times the bustle of Congreve; but are they to be compared? and yet she drove Congreve from the theatre." LETTER CCCCLXXII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, January 19, 1821. "Yours of the 29th ultimo hath arrived. I mus. really and seriously request that you will beg of Messrs. Harris or Elliston to let the Doge alone: it is not an acting play; it will not serve their purpose; it will destroy yours, (the sale); and it will distress me. It is not courteous, it is hardly even gentlemanly, to persist in this appropriation of a man's writings to their mountebanks. "I have already sent you by last post a short "I just see, by the papers of Galignani, that protest to the public, (against this proceeding); in there is a new tragedy of great expectation by Barry case that they persist, which I trust that they will Cornwall. Of what I have read of his works I not, you must then publish it in the newspapers. I liked the Dramatic Sketches, but thought his shall not let them off with that only, if they go on; Sicilian story and Marcian Colonna, in rhyme, quite but make a longer appeal on that subject, and state spoiled, by I know not what affectation of Words- what I think the injustice of their mode of behavior. worth, and Moore, and myself,-all mixed up into It is hard that I should have all the buffoons in a kind of chaos. I think him very likely to produce Britain to deal with-pirates who will publish, and a good tragedy, if he keep to a natural style, and players who will act-when there are thousands of not play tricks to form harlequinades for an audi-worthy men who can neither get bookseller nor was a schoolfellow of mine, I take more than com- If you mean to use the two documents, do; As he (Barry Cornwall is not his true name) manager for love nor money. "You never answered me a word about Galignani. mon interest in his success, and shall be glad to hear of it speedily. If I had been aware that he burn them. I do not choose to leave them in any was in that line, I should have spoken of him in one's possession; suppose some one found them the preface to Marino Faliero. He will do a world's without the letters, what would they think? why, wonder if he produce a great tragedy. I am, how-that I had been doing the opposite of what I have ever, persuaded, that this is not to be done by done, to wit, referred the whole thing to you-an following the old dramatists,-who are full of act of civility, at least, which required saying, 'I gross faults, pardoned only for the beauty of their lan- have received your letter.' I thought that you guage,but by writing naturally and regularly, and might have some hold upon those publications by producing regular tragedies, like the Greeks; but this means; to me it can be no interest one way or not in imitation,-merely the outline of their con-. duct, adapted to our own times and circumstances, and of course no chorus. "You will laugh, and say, 'Why don't you do so?' I have, you see, tried a sketch in Marino Faliero; but many people think my talent. essentially undramatic,' and I am not at all clear that they are not right. If Marino Faliero don't fall in the perusal I shall, perhaps, try again, (but not for the stage); and as I think that love is not the principal passion for tragedy, (and yet most of ours turn upon it,) you will not find me a popular writer. Unless it is love, furious, criminal, and hapless, it ought not to make a tragic subject. When it is melting and mandlin, it does, but it ought not to do; it is then for the gallery and second-price boxes. the other. not, must really put up with it: if the first two and the "The third canto of Don Juan is dull,' but you two following are tolerable, what do you expect? particularly as I neither dispute with you on it as a matter of criticism or as a matter of business. "Besides, what am I to understand? you, and Douglas Kinnaird, and others, write to me, that the first two published cantos are among the best that I ever wrote, and are reckoned so; Augusta writes that they are thought execrable' (bitter word that for an author-eh, Murray?) as a composition even, and that she had heard so much against them that she would never read them, and never has. Be that as it may, I can't alter; that is not my forte. If you publish the three new ones without ostentation, they may perhaps succeed. "If you want to have a notion of what I am trying, take up a translation of any of the Greek Pray publish the Dante and the Pulci, (the tragedians. If I said the original, it would be an Prophecy of Dante, I mean.) I look upon the Pulci impudent presumption of mine; but the transla- as my grand performance. The remainder of the tions are so inferior to the originals that I think I'Hints, where be they? Now, bring them all out may risk it. Then judge of the simplicity of about the same time, otherwise the variety' you plot,' &c., and do not judge me by your old mad wot of will be less obvious. dramatists, which is like drinking usquebaugh and "I am in bad humor:-some obstructions in business with those plaguy trustees, who object to then proving a fountain. Yet, after all, I suppose that you do not mean that spirits is a nobler element an advantageous loan which I was to furnish to a than a clear spring bubbling in the sun? and this I nobleman on mortgage because his property is in take to be the difference between the Greeks and Ireland, have shown me how a man is treated in those turbid mountebanks-always excepting Ben his absence. Oh, if I do come back, I will make Johnson, who was a scholar and a classic. Or, take those who little dream of it spin, or they or I up a translation of Alfieri, and try the interest, &c., down." go of these my new attempts in the old line, by him in English; and then tell me fairly your opinion. But • See Don Juan, canto xi., stanza lix. shall "Through life's road, &c., &c.* "Have you heard that the Braziers' Company have, or mean to present an address at Brandenburgh. house, in armor,' and with all possible variety and splendor of brazen apparel ? "The Braziers, it seems, are preparing to pass An address, and present it themselves all in brass- There's an ode for you, is it not?-worthy A man of vast merit, though few people know it; voyage. "Now I do reiterate and desire, that every thing may be done to prevent it from coming out on any theatre, for which it never was designed, and on which (in the present state of the stage of London) it could never succeed. I have sent you my appeal by last post, which you must publish in case of "Mesti, and Fusina are the trajects, or common need; and I require you even in your own name (if ferries,' to Venice; but it was from Fusina that you my honor is dear to you) to declare that such and I embarked, though the wicked necessity of representation would be contrary to my wish and to rhyming' has made me press Mestri into the my judgment. If you do not wish to drive me mad altogether, you will hit upon some way to prevent So, you have had a book dedicated to you? I this. "Yours, &c. am glad of it, and shall be very happy to see the "P. S. I cannot conceive how Harris or Elliston volume. should be so insane as to think of acting Marino "I am in a peck of troubles about a tragedy of Faliero; they might as well act the Prometheus of mine, which is fit only for the (*****) closet, Eschylus. I speak of course humbly, and with and which it seems that the managers, assuming a the greatest sense of the distance of time and merit right over published poetry, are determined to between the two performances; but merely to show the absurdity of the attempt. "The Italian paper speaks of a 'party against it:' to be sure there would be a party. Can you imagine, that after having never flattered man, nor beast, nor opinion, nor politics, there would not be a party against a man, who is also a popular writer -at least a successful? Why, all parties would be a party against." LETTER CCCCLXXIV. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, January 20, 1821. "If Harris or Elliston persist, after the remonstrance which I desired you and Mr. Kinnaird to make on my behalf, and which I hope will be sufficient-but if, I say, they do persist, then I pray you to present in person the enclosed letter to the Lord Chamberlain : I have said in person, because otherwise I shall have neither answer nor knowledge that it has reached its address, owing to the insolence of office.' enact, whether I will or no, with their own alterations by Mr. Dibdin, I presume. I have written to Murray, to the Lord Chamberlain, and to others, to interfere and preserve me from such an exhibition. I want neither the impertinence of their hisses nor the insolence of their applause. I write only for the reader, and care for nothing but the silent approbation of those who close one's book with good humor and quiet contentment. "Now if you would also write to our friend Perry, to beg of him to mediate with Harris and Elliston to forbear this intent, you will greatly oblige me. The play is quite unfit for the stage, as a single glance will show them, and, I hope, has shown them; and, if it were ever so fit, I will never have any thing to do willingly with the theatres. "Yours ever, in haste, &c." LETTER CCCCLXXVI. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, January 27, 1871. "I wish you would speak to Lord Holland, and "I differ from you about the Dante, which I think to all my friends and yours, to interest themselves should be published with the tragedy. But do as in preventing this cursed attempt at representation. you please: you must be the best judge of your "God help me! at this distance, am treated own craft. I agree with you about the title. The like a corpse or a fool by the few people that I play may be good or bad, but I flatter myself that thought I could rely upon; and I was a fool to it is original as a picture of that kind of passion, think any better of them than of the rest of man-which to my mind is so natural, that I am convinced that I should have done precisely what the Doge did on those provocations. kind. "Pray write. "Yours, &c. "P. S. I have nothing more at heart (that is, in "I am glad of Foscolo's approbation. literature) than to prevent this drama from going "Excuse haste. I believe I mentioned to you upon the stage: in short, rather than permit it, it that I forget what it was, but no matter. must be suppressed altogether, and only forty copies "Thanks for your compliments of the year. I struck off privately for presents to my friends. What cursed fools those speculating buffoons must be not to see that it is unfit for their fair-or their booth!" LETTER CCCCLXXV. TO MR. MOORE. "Ravenna, January 22, 1821. "Pray get well. I do not like your complaint. So, let me have a line to say you are up and doing again. To-day I am thirty-three years of age. hope that it will be pleasanter than the last. I speak with reference to England only, as far as regards myself, where I had every kind of disappointment-lost an important lawsuit-and the trustees of Lady Byron refusing to allow of an advantageous loan to be made from my property to Lord Blessington, &c., &c., by way of closing the four seasons. These, and a hundred other such things, made a year of bitter business for me in England. Luckily, things were a little pleasanter for me here, else I should have taken the liberty of Hannibal's ring. • Given in his Journal, page 1004. 'And Thou who kindlest and who quenchest suns ;' that is to say, if the verse runs equally well, and Mr. Gifford thinks expression improved. Pray have the bounty to attend to this. You are grown quite a minister of state. Mind if some of these days you are not thrown out. ** will not be always a Tory, though Johnson says the first Whig was the devil. LETTER CCCCLXXVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, Feb. 16, 1821. "In the month of March will arrive from Barcelona Signor Curioni, engaged for the opera. He is an acquaintance of mine, and a gentlemanly young man, high in his profession. I must request your personal kindness and patronage in his favor. Pray introduce him to such of the theatrical people, editors of papers, and others, as may be useful to him in his profession, publicly and privately. "The fifth is so far from being the last of Don Juan, that it is hardly the beginning. I meant to take him the tour of Europe, with a proper mixture of siege, battle end adventure, and to make him finish as Anacnarsis Cloots, in the French Revolution. To how many cantos this may extend, I know not nor whether (even if I live) I shall com plete it; but this was my notion. I meant to have made him a cavalier servente in Italy, and a cause for a divorce in England, and a sentimental Werther-faced man' in Germany, so as to show the different ridicules of the society in each of those countries and to have displayed him gradually gâté and blasé as he grew older, as is natural. But I had not quite fixed whether to make him end in hell, or in an unhappy marriage, not knowing which would be the severest; the Spanish tradition says hell; but it is probably only an allegory of the other state. You are now in possession of my notions on the subject. write for popularity? "You say the Doge will not be popular: did I ever I defy you to show a work of mine (except a tale or two) of a popular style or complexion. It appears to me that there is room "You have learned one secret from Mr. Galig- for a different style of the drama; neither a sernani's (somewhat tardily acknowledged) corre-vile following of the old drama, which is a grossly spondence: this is, that an English author may dis-erroneous one, nor yet too French, like those who pose of his exclusive copyright in France, a fact succeeded the old writers. It appears to me that of some consequence (in time of peace) in the case good English, and a severer approach to the rules, of a popular writer. Now I will tell you what you might combine something not dishonorable to our shall do, and take no advantage of you, though you literature. I have also attempted to make a play were scurvy enough never to acknowledge my letter without love, and there are neither rings, nor misfor three months. Offer Galignani the refusal of takes, nor starts, nor outrageous ranting villains, the copyright in France; if he refuses, appoint any nor melodrame in it. All this will prevent its popbookseller in France you please, and I will sign any ularity, but does not persuade me that it is therefore assignment you please, and it shall never cost you a sou on my account. "Recollect that I will have nothing to do with it, except as far as it may secure the copyright to yourself. I will have no bargain but with the English booksellers, and I desire no interest out of that country. faulty. Whatever faults it has will arise from deficiency in the conduct, rather than in the conception, which is simple and severe. "So you epigrammatize upon my epigram? I will pay you for that, mind if I don't, some day. I never let any one off in the long run, (who first begins.) Remember ***, and see if I don't do you as good "Now, that's fair and open, and a little hand- a turn. You unnatural publisher! what! quiz your somer than your dodging silence, to see what own authors? you are a paper cannibal! would come of it. You are an excellent fellow, mio "In the letter on Bowles, (which I sent by Tuescaro Moray, but there is still a little leaven of day's post,) after the words attempts had been Fleet street about you now and then-a crum of made' (alluding to the republication of English the old loaf. You have no right to act suspiciously Bards,') add the words, in Ireland; for I believe with me, for I have given you no reason. I shall that English pirates did not begin their attempts always be frank with you; as, for instance, when- till after I had left England the second time. Pray ever you talk with the votaries of Apollo arith- attend to this. Let me know what you and your metically, in guineas, not pounds-to poets, as well synod think on Bowles. as physicians, and bidders at auctions. "I shall say no more at present, save that I am "Yours, &c. "I did not think the second seal so bad; surely it is far better than the Saracen's head with which you have sealed your last letter; the larger in profile, was surely much better than that. "P. S. If you venture, as you say, to Ravenna this year, I will exercise the rites of hospitality "So Foscolo says he will get you a seal cut better while you live, and bury you handsomely, (though in Italy? he means a throat-that is the only thing not in holy ground,) if you get shot or slashed in they do dexterously. The Arts-all but Canova's, a creagh or splore,' which are frequent here of late and Morghen's, and Ovid's (I don't mean poetry)among the native parties. But perhaps your visit are as low as need be: look at the seal which I gave may be anticipated; I may probably come to to William Bankes, and own it. How came George your country; in which case write to her ladyship Bankes to quote English Bards' in the House of the duplicate of the epistle the king of France Commons? All the world keep flinging that poem wrote to Prince John." in my face. "Belzoni is a grand traveller, and his English is very prettily broken. "As for news, the barbarians are marching on Naples, and if they lose a single battle, all Italy "With regard to the difference of the current, 1 will be up. It will be like the Spanish row, if they perceived none; it is favorable to the swimmer on have any bottom. neither side, but may be stemmed by plunging into "Letters opened?'-to be sure they are, and the sea, a considerable way above the opposite that's the reason why I always put in my opinion of point of the coast which the swimmer wishes to the German Austrian scoundrels. There is not make, but still bearing up against it; it is strong, an Italian who loathes them more than I do; and but if you calculate well, you may reach land. whatever I could do to scour Italy and the earth of My own experience and that of others bids me protheir infamous oppression would be done con amore.nounce the passage of Leander perfectly practicable. "Yours, &c." LETTER CCCCLXXIX. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, Feb. 21, 1821. Any young man, in good and tolerable skill in swimming, might succeed in it from either side. I was three hours in swimming across the Tagus which is much more hazardous, being two hours longer than the Hellespont. Of what may be done in swimming, I will mention one more instance. In 1818, the Chevalier Mengaldo, (a gentleman et Bassano,) a good swimmer, wished to swim with my friend Mr. Alexander Scott and myself. As he seemed particularly anxious on the subject, we indulged him. We all three started from the island "In the forty-fourth page, volume first, of of the Lido and swam to Venice. At the entrance Turner's Travels, (which you lately sent me,) it is of the Grand Canal, Scott and I were a good way stated that Lord Byron, when he expresssd such ahead, and we saw no more of our foreign friend, confidence of its practicability, seems to have for- which, however, was of no consequence, as there gotten that Leander swam both ways, with and was a gondola to hold his clothes and pick him up. against the tide; whereas he (Lord Byron) only Scott swam on till past the Rialto, where he got performed the easiest part of the task by swim-out, less from fatigue than from chill, having been ming with it from Europe to Asia.' I certainly four hours in the water, without rest or stay, excould not have forgotten, what is known to every schoolboy, that Leander crossed in the night, and cept what is to be obtained by floating on one's back-this being the condition of our performance. returned towards the morning. My object was, to I continued my course on to Santa Chiara, comascertain that the Hellespont could be crossed at all prising the whole of the Grand Canal, (besides the by swimming, and in this Mr. Ekenhead and myself distance from the Lido,) and got out where the both succeeded, the one in an hour and ten minutes, Laguna once more opens to Fusina. I had been in and the other in an hour and five minutes. The the water, by my watch, without help or rest, and tide was not in our favor; on the contrary, the never touching ground or boat, four hours and great difficulty was to bear up against the current, twenty minutes. To this match, and during the which, so far from helping us into the Asiatic side, greater part of its performance, Mr. Hoppner, the set us down right toward the Archipelago. Neither consul-general, was witness, and it is well known Mr. Eken, myself, nor, I will venture to add, to many others. Mr. Turner can easily verify the any person n board the frigate, from Captain fact, if he thinks it worth while, by referring to Mr. Bathurst downwards, had any notion of a difference Hoppner. The distance we could not accurately of the current on the Asiatic side, of which Mr. ascertain; it was of course considerable. Turner speaks. I never heard of it till this mo"I crossed the Hellespont in one hour and ten ment, or I would have taken the other course. minutes only. I am now ten years older in time and Lieutenant Ekenhead's sole motive, and mine also twenty in constitution, than I was when I passed for setting out from the European side was, that the Dardanelles, and yet two years ago I was capable the little cape above Sestos was a more prominent of swimming four hours and twenty minutes; and I starting-place, and the frigate, which lay below, am sure that I could have continued two hours close under the Asiatic castle, formed a better point longer, though I had on a pair of trowsers, an acof view for us to swim towards; and, in fact, we coutrement, which by no means assists the perlanded immediately below it. "Mr. Turner says, Whatever is thrown into in the water. formance. My two companions were also four hours Mengaldo might be about thirty the stream on this part of the European bank, must | arrive at the Asiatic shore.' This is so far from years of age; Scott about six-and-twenty. being the case, that it must arrive in the Archi- periods of life, not only upon the SPOT, but else "With this experience in swimming, at different pelago, if left to the current, although a strong where, of various persons, what is there to make me wind in the Asiatic direction might have such an doubt that Leander's exploit was perfectly practieffect occasionally. cable? If three individuals did more than the "Mr. Turner attempted the passage from the passage of the Hellespont, why should he have Asiatic side, and failed: After ve-and-twenty less? But Mr. Turner failed, and naturally seek minutes, in which he did not advance a hundred ing a plausible reason for his failure, lays the yards, he gave it up from complete exhaustion.' blame on the Asiatic side of the strait. He tried This is very possible, and might have occurred to to swim directly across, instead of going higher up him just as readily on the European side. He should have set out a couple of miles higher, and to take the vantage; he might as well have tried to fly over Mount Athos. could then have come out below the European castle. I particularly stated, and Mr. Hobhouse love, and with his limbs in full vigor, might have "That a young Greek of the heroic times, in has done so also, that we were obliged to make the real passage of one mile extend to between three and four, owing to the force of the stream. I can assure Mr. Turner, that his success would have given me great pleasure, as it would have added one more instance to the proofs of the probability. It is not quite fair in him to infer, that because he failed, Leander could not succeed. There are still four instances on record: a Neapolitan, a young Jew, Mr. Ekenhead, and myself; the last done in the presence of hundreds of English witnesses. • Ben Don Juan, canto ii., sta sa cv., &c. succeeded in such an attempt is neither wonderful another question, because he might have had a nor doubtful. Whether he attempted it or not is small boat to save him the trouble. "I am yours very truly, "BYRON. "P. S. Mr. Turner says that the swimming from I doubt whether Leander found it so, as it was the Europe to Asia was the easiest part of the task. return; however, he had several hours between the intervals. The argument of Mr. Turner that higher up, or lower down the strait widens so considerably that he could save little labor by his |