"hour than in ten years. She had the "habit of drawing people's characters 66 after she had seen them once or twice. "She wrote pages on pages about my "character, but it was as unlike as pos"sible. 66 Lady Byron had good ideas, but "could never express them; wrote poe 66 try too, but it was only good by accident. "Her letters were always enigmatical, "often unintelligible. She was governed 66 66 She by what she called fixed rules and principles, squared mathematically.* would have made an excellent wrangler "I think that Dante's more abstruse ecstatics "Meant to personify the mathematics." Don Juan, Canto III. Stanza 11. "at Cambridge. It must be confess"ed, however, that she gave no proof of her boasted consistency. First, she "refused me, then she accepted me, then "she separated herself from me:-so "much for consistency. I need not tell 66 you of the obloquy and opprobrium "that were cast upon my name when 66 66 our separation was made public. I once made a list from the Journals "of the day, of the different worthies, "ancient and modern, to whom I was 66 66 All my compared. I remember a few: Nero, Apicius, Epicurus, Caligula, Helioga"balus, Henry the Eighth, and lastly "the former friends, even my cousin George Byron, who had "been brought up with me, and whom I "loved as a brother, took my wife's part. "He followed the stream when it was strongest against me, and can never expect any thing from me: he shall never touch a sixpence of mine. I was looked upon as the worst of husbands, "the most abandoned and wicked of men, "and my wife as a suffering angel-an "incarnation of all the virtues and per"fections of the sex. I was abused in "the public prints, made the common "talk of private companies, hissed as I 66 66 went to the House of Lords, insulted "in the streets, afraid to go to the theatre, whence the unfortunate Mrs. Mar"dyn had been driven with insult. The "Examiner was the only paper that "dared say a word in my defence, and 66 66 66 Lady Jersey the only person in the fashionable world that did not look upon me as a monster. "I once addressed some lines to her “that made her my friend ever after. The subject of them was suggested by મંદ her being excluded from a certain ca"binet of the beauties of the day. I "have the lines somewhere, and will "shew them to you. "In addition to all these mortifications my affairs were irretrievably involved, " and almost so as to make me what they "wished. I was compelled to part with Newstead, which I never could have “ventured to sell in my mother's lifetime. As it is, I shall never forgive 66 66 66 66 myself for having done so; though I am told that the estate would not now bring half as much as I got for it. "This does not at all reconcile me to "having parted with the old abbey.* I "did not make up my mind to this step, but from the last necessity. I <6 had my wife's portion to repay, and was determined to add 10,000l. more "of a guinea. of my own to it; which I did. I always "hated being in debt, and do not owe The moment I had put affairs in train, and in little more "than eighteen months after my marri66 age, I left England, an involuntary 66 my exile, intending it should be for ever†.” * The regard which he entertained for it is proved by the passage in Don Juan, Canto XIII. Stanza 55, beginning thus: To Norman Abbey whirl'd the noble pair," &c. + His feelings may be conceived by the two following passages: "I can't |