1

descended from the Princess Jane Stuart, daughter of James II. of Scotland, who married the Earl of Huntley; from the elder branch, the Countess of Sutherland is descended. John Byron, his lordship's father, died soon after his son was born. William, the heir apparent, who had gone into the army, was killed in the island of Corsica, a considerable time before the death of his grandfather on which event his cousin became the heir presumptive to the title; which, some time after, by the death of the old lord, his granduncle, devolved upon him, while he was yet very young.

6

Lord Byron's poem of The Adieu to Newstead Abbey,' giving a history of the fate of the Byrons, we here insert.

"Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle;

Thou, the hall of my fathers, art gone to decay.
In thy once smiling garden, the hemlock and thistle
Have choaked up the rose, which late bloomed in the
way.

Of the mail-covered barons, who proudly to battle
Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain,
The escutcheon and shield, which with every blast rattle,
Are the only sad vestiges now that remain.

No more doth old Robert, with harp-stringing numbers,
Raise a flame in the breast, for the war laurelled wreath;
Near Askelon's towers, John of Horitston* slumbers-
Unnerved is the hand of his minstrel, by death.

Paul and Hubert too sleep in the valley of Cressy,
For the safety of Edward and England they fell;
My fathers! the tears of your country redress you;
How you fought! how you died! still her annals can tell.
On Marston,† with Rupert‡ 'gainst traitors contending,
Four brothers enriched with their blood the bleak field;
For the rights of a monarch, their country defending,
Till death their attachment to royalty sealed."

If the general voice of humour may be depended upon, Lord Byron began very early to discover traits of a marked and original character. Some of his early years were spent in Scotland; but he received the chief part of his education at Harrow, from which distinguished school he removed to the University of Cambridge. He early began to court the deathless Muse; for soon after quitting school, he published his "Hours of

*Horitston Castle, Derbyshire, an ancient seat of the Byron family.

†The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles the first were defeated.

Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He afterwards commanded the fleet, in the reign of Charles II.

Idleness," which being treated with a very disproportionate degree of severity by the Edinburgh Review, the youthful poet retorted in a satire of great spirit, called 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,' which is believed to have had the extraordinary effect of increasing the mutual esteem of the belligerent parties. The Reviewers have certainly attended to the subsequent productions of his Lordship with great respect; and he, on his part, has done all in his power to recall his satires-preventing a fifth edition from being published, even after it was printed.

His Lordship's succeeding intimacy with Mr. Moore, whom he had alluded to rather contemptuously in the mention of his affair with Mr. Jeffrey, may very honorably account for this solicitude in part; and the general accordance of his line of literary and political feeling with that of the celebrated Journal in question, will readily answer for the rest. In truth, in the end, his Lordship himself became a conspicuous member of the brilliant coterie at Holland House, which he had been provoked to deride.

On his coming of age in 1809, Lord Byron, after taking his seat in the House of

Peers, went abroad, and spent some time in the south and east of Europe, particularly in Greece and its islands. In the year 1811, he returned to England, and in the spring of 1812, published his celebrated Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,'-a poem which at once established his fame, and ensured the attention of the public to every subsequent production by the same hand. In the course of 1813, Lord Byron published three other poems, The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos,' and The Corsair ;' and since that time, Lara,' The Siege of Corinth,' 'Parisina,' &c.

On the 2d of January, 1815, Lord Byron led to the altar the accomplished Miss Anne Isabella Milbanke, only child of Sir Ralph Milbanke, (since Noel,) by whom he had one daughter. This union, so suitable in rank, fortune, and the superior mental endowments of the respective parties, was unfortunately severed by the acknowledged indiscretion of his lordship.

Although we cannot credit the infamous aspersions which have been thrown upon his lordship's character, as connected with the first day of his union; we are well aware of

the sad truth contained in a beautiful distich of that poet of nature, Burns, that profligacy Hardens a' within,

And petrifies the feeling :'

and so we fear his lordship has been enabled experimentally to prove. Lord Byron made a most powerful attempt to excuse, or at least to palliate his offence, in some of the sweetest verses addressed to his injured lady, that have ever appeared from his prolific pen; but alas! the effort was unavailing; and her ladyship or her friends were not disposed to accept exquisite poetry as an excuse for conjugal infidelity. The deed of separation was signed by both parties; and his lordship, again torn by all the contending emotions of disappointed affection and continued calumny, once more determined to leave his native land.

During his residence in Italy, Lord Byron produced several pieces of the highest order. They are however too well known to. the public, to call for any further notice.

We have lately seen a very gratifying account of the recent manners of Lord Byron.

€2