cuous and elegant object, placed on an ascent of Murray, who accompanied me round the premises. several steps, crowned with a lambent flame, and The dark haughty impetuous spirit and mad deeds pannelled with white marble tables, of which, of this nobleman, the poet's uncle, I feel little doubt, that containing the celebrated epitaph is the most by making a vivid and indelible impression on his remarkable, I do not recollect the slightest trace of youthful fancy, furnished some of the principal culture or improvement. The late Lord, a stern materials for the formation of his Lordship's faand desperate character, who is never mentioned vourite, and perpetually recurring, poetical hero. by the neighboring peasants without a significant His manners and acts are the theme of many a shake of the head, might have returned and re- winter evening in that neighborhood. In a quarrel, cognised every thing about him, except perchance which arose out of a dispute between their gamean additional crop of weeds. There still gloomily keepers, he killed his neighbor, Chaworth, the slept that old pond, into which he is said to have lord of the adjoining manor. With that unhappy hurled his lady in one of his fits of fury, whence deed, however, died all family feud; and if we are she was rescued by the gardener, a courageous to believe our noble bard, the dearest purpose of blade, who was the Lord's master, and chastised his heart would have been compassed, could he have him for his barbarity. There still, at the end of united the two races by a union with 'the sole the garden, in a grove of oak, two towering satyrs, remnant of that ancient house,' the present most be with his goat and club, and Mrs. Satyr with her amiable Mrs. Musters-the Mary of his poetry. (1) chubby cloven-footed brat, placed on pedestals at To those who have any knowledge of the two fathe intersections of the narrow and gloomy path- milies, nothing is more perspicuous in his lays ways, struck for a moment, with their grim visages, than the deep interest with which he has again and silent shaggy forms, the fear into your bosom turned to this his boyish, his first most endearing which is felt by the neighboring peasantry at attachment. The 'Dream' is literally their mutual "th' auld laird's devils." history. The Antique Oratorie,' the spot where stood his steed caparisoned', and the hill "-crowned with a peculiar diadem Of trees in circular array, so fixed, Not by the sport of nature, but of man, In the lake before the abbey, the artificial rock, which he filled at a vast expense, still reared its lofty head; but the frigate, which fulfilled old mother Shipton's prophecy, by sailing over dry land from a distant part to this place, had long vanished, and the only relics of his naval whim were the rock, his ship boys, and the venerable old are pictures too well known to those who have seen them to be mistaken for a moment. (1) Since dead.-E. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. (2) In submitting to the public eye the following collection, I have not only to combat the difficulties that writers of verse generally encounter, but may incur the charge of presumption for obtruding myse.f on the world, when, without doubt, I might be, at my age, more usefully employed. These productions are the fruits of the lighter hours of a young man who has lately completed his nineteenth year. As they bear the internal evidence of a boyish mind, this is, perhaps, unnecessary information. Some few were written during the disadvantages of illness and depression of spirits under the former influence," CHildish RecolleECTIONS," in particular, were composed. This consideration, though it cannot excite the voice of praise, may at least arrest the arm of censure. A consider able portion of these poems has been privately printed, at the request and for the perusal of my friends. I am sensible that the partial and frequently injudicious admiration of a social circle is not the criterion by which poetical genius is to be estimated; yet," to do greatly," we must "dare greatly;" and I have hazarded my reputation and feelings in (1) Isabel, daughter of William, fourth Lord Byron (greatgreat-uncle of the Poet), became, in 1743, the wife of Henry, fourth Earl of Carlisle, and was the mother of the fifth Earl, to whom this dedication was addressed. This lady was a poetess in publishing this volume. "I have passed the Rubicon," and must stand or fall by the "cast of the die." In the latter event, I shall submit without a murmur; for, though not without solicitude for the fate of these effusions, my expectations are by no means sanguine. It is probable that I may have dared much, and done little; for, in the words of Cowper, "it is one thing to write what may please our friends, who, because they are such, are apt to be a little biassed in our favour, and another to write what may please every body; because they who have no connection with or even knowledge of the author will be sure to find fault if they can." To the truth of this, however, I do not wholly subscribe: on the contrary, I feel convinced that these trifles will not be treated with injustice. Their merit, if they possess any,will be liberally allowed: their numerous faults, on the other hand, cannot expect that favour which has been denied to others, of maturer years, decided character, and far greater ability. I have not aimed at exclusive originality, still less have I studied any particular model for imitation : some translations are given, of which many are paraphrastic. In the original pieces, there may appear a casual coincidence with authors whose works I have been accustomed to read: but I have not been her way. The Fairy's Answer to Mrs. Greville's Prayer of Indifference, in Pearch's Collection, is usually ascribed to her. — E. (2) This Preface was omitted in the second edition.-E. guilty of intentional plagiarism. To produce any thing entirely new, in an age so fertile in rhyme, would be an Herculean task, as every subject has already been treated to its utmost extent. Poetry, however, is not my primary vocation; to divert the dull moments of indisposition, or the monotony of a vacant hour, urged me" to this sin;" little can be expected from so unpromising a muse. My wreath, scanty as it must be, is all I shall derive from these productions; and I shall never attempt to replace its fading leaves, or pluck a single additional sprig from groves where I am, at best, an intruder. Though accustomed in my younger days to rove, a careless mountaineer, on the Highlands of Scotland, I have not, of late years, had the benefit of such pure air, or so elevated a residence, as might enable me to enter the lists with genuine bards, who have enjoyed both these advantages. But they derive considerable fame, and a few not less profit, from their productions; while I shall expiate my rashness as an interloper, certainly without the latter, and in all probability with a very slight share of the former. I leave to others "virům volitare per ora." I look to the few who will hear with patience; "dulce est desipere in loco." To the former worthies I resign, without repining, the hope of immortality, and content myself with the not very magnificent prospect of ranking amongst "the mob of gentlemen who write"-my readers must determine whether I dare say "with ease," or the honour of a posthumous page in The Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, a work to which the peerage is under infinite obligations, inasmuch as many names of considerable length, sound, and antiquity, are thereby rescued from the obscurity which unluckily overshadows several voluminous productions of their illustrious bearers. With slight hopes, and some fears, I publish this first and last attempt. To the dictates of young ambition may be ascribed many actions more criminal and equally absurd. To a few of my own age the contents may afford amusement: I trust they will, at least, be found harmless. It is highly improbable, from my situation and pursuits hereafter, that I should ever obtrude myself a second time on the public; nor even, in the very doubtful event of present indulgence, shall I be tempted to (1) The Earl of Carlisle, whose works have long received the meed of public applause, to which, by their intrinsic worth, they were well entitled. (2) The passage referred to by Lord Byron occurs in Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. iv. p. 486. (Croker's edition, 1831.) Dr. Johnson's letter to Mrs. Chapone, criticising, on the whole favour ably, the Earl's tragedy of The Father's Revenge, is inserted in the same work, vol. v. p. 136.-E. (3) The author claims the indulgence of the reader more for this piece than, perhaps, any other in the collection; but as it was written at an earlier period than the rest (being composed at the age of fourteen), and his first essay, he preferred submitting it to 66 commit a future trespass of the same nature. The opinion of Dr. Johnson on the poems of a noble relation of mine, (1)" That when a man of rank appeared in the character of an author, he deserved to have his merit handsomely allowed," (2) can have little weight with verbal and still less with periodical censors; but, were it otherwise, I should be loth to avail myself of the privilege, and would rather incur the bitterest censure of anonymous criticism, than triumph in honours granted solely to a title. HOURS OF IDLENESS. ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY, COUSIN TO THE AUTHOR, AND VERY DEAR TO HIM.(3) And scatter flowers on the dust I love. That clay, where once such animation beam'd; Or Heaven reverse the dread decrees of fate, the indulgence of his friends in its present state, to making either addition or alteration. (4)" My first dash into poetry was as early as 1800. It was the ebullition of a passion for my first cousin, Margaret Parker (daughter and grand-daughter of the two Admirals Parker), one of the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the verse; but it would be difficult for me to forget her-her dark eyes-her long eye-lashes-her completely Greek cast of face and figure! I was then about twelve-she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year or two afterwards, in consequence of a fall, which injured her spine, and induced consumption. Her sister, Augusta (by some thought still more beautiful), died of the TO E―. (1) LET Folly smile, to view the names Of thee and me in friendship twined; Since title deck'd my higher birth! Thine is the pride of modest worth. Our souls at least congenial meet, Nor can thy lot my rank disgrace; Our intercourse is not less sweet, Since worth of rank supplies the place. November, 1802. TO D――.(2) IN thee I fondly hoped to clasp A friend, whom death alone could sever; Till envy, with malignant grasp, Detach'd thee from my breast for ever. True, she has forced thee from my breast, Yet, in my heart thou keep'st thy seat; There, there thine image still must rest, Until that heart shall cease to beat. And, when the grave restores her dead, same malady; and it was, indeed, in attending ber, that Margaret met with the accident which occasioned her death. My sister told me, that when she went to see her, shortly before her death, upon accidentally mentioning my name, Margaret coloured, throughout the paleness of mortality, to the eyes, to the great astonishment of my sister, who knew nothing of our attachment, nor could conceive why my name should affect her at such a time. I knew nothing of her illness-being at Harrow and in the country -till she was gone. Some years after, I made an attempt at an elegy-a very dull one. I do not recollect scarcely any thing equal to the transparent beauty of my cousin, or to the sweetness of her temper, during the short period of our intimacy. She looked as if she had been made out of a rainbow-all beauty and peace.”—Byron's Diary, 1821. In this practice of dating his juvenile poems, Byron followed the example of Milton, who (says Johnson), “by affixing the dates to his first compositions, a boast of which the learned Politian had given him an example, seems to commend the earliness of his own compositions to the notice of posterity. "-Moore. (1) This little poem, and some others in the collection, refer to a boy of Lord Byron's own age, son of one of his tenants at Newstead, for whom he had formed a romantic attachment, of earlier date than any of his school friendships.-E. (2) The idea of printing a collection of his Poems first occurred to Lord Byron in the parlour of that cottage which, during his visit to Southwell, had become his adopted home. Miss Pigot, who was not before aware of his turn for versifying, had been reading aloud the Poems of Burns, when young Byron said, "that he, too, was a poet sometimes, and would write down for her some verses of his own which he remembered." He then, with a pencil, wrote these lines," To D--", of which a fac-simile is annexed. — E. (3) The priory of Newstead, or de Novo Loco, in Sherwood, was founded about the year 1170, by Henry II., and dedicated to | On thy dear breast I'll lay my head Without thee, where would be my heaven? February, 1803. ON LEAVING NEWSTEAD ABBEY. (3) "Why dost thou build the hall, son of the winged days? Thou lookest from thy tower to-day: yet a few years, and the blast of the desert comes, it howls in thy empty court." OSSIAN. 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 choked up the rose which late bloom'd in the way. Of the mail-cover'd barons, who proudly to battle Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain, (4) 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-laurell'd wreath; God and the Virgin. It was in the reign of Henry VIII., on the dissolution of the monasteries, that, by a royal grant, it was added, with the lands adjoining, to the other possessions of the Byron family. The favourite upon whom they were conferred was the grand-nephew of the gallant soldier who fought by the side of Richmond at Bosworth, and is distinguished from the other knights of the same christian name, in the family, by the title of "Sir John Byron the Little, with the great beard." A portrait of this personage was one of the few family pictures with which the walls of the Abbey, while in the possession of the poet, were decorated.-E. (4) There being no record of any of Lord Byron's ancestors having been engaged in the Holy Wars, Mr. Moore suggests, that the poet may have had no other authority for this notion than the tradition which he found connected with certain strange groups of heads, which are represented on the old panel-work in some of the chambers at Newstead. In one of the groups, consisting of three heads, strongly carved and projecting from the panel, the centre figure evidently represents a Saracen or Moor, with a European female on one side of him, and a christian soldier on the other. In a second group, the female occupies the centre, while on either side is the head of a Saracen, with the eyes fixed earnestly upon her. Of the exact meaning of these figures there is nothing known; but the tradition is, that they refer to a love adventure of the age of the crusades.-E. "It is not probable that the figures referred to any transactions in Palestine in which the Byrons were engaged, if they were put up by the Byrons at all. They were probably placed in their present situation while the building was in possession of the churchmen. One of the groups, consisting of a female and two Saracens with eyes earnestly fixed upon her, may have been the old favourite ecclesiastical story of Susanna and the Elders. The other, which represents a Saracen, with a European female between him and a christian soldier, is perhaps an ecclesiastical allegory, descr p Near Askalon's towers, John of Horistan(1) slumbers ; On Marston, (3) with Rupert, (4) 'gainst traitors Four brothers enrich'd with their blood the bleak For the rights of a monarch their country defending, From the seat of his ancestors, bids you adieu ! own! 1803. tive of the Saracen and the christian warrior contending for the liberation of the church. These sort of allegorical stories were common among monastic ornaments, and the famous legend of St. George and the Dragon is one of them."- Byron's Life by Galt. (1)In the park of Horseley," says Thoroton, "there was a castle, some of the ruins of which are yet visible, called Horistan Castle, which was the chief mansion of Ralph de Burun's successors." (2) Two of the family of Byron are enumerated as serving with distinction in the siege of Calais, under Edward III., and as among the knights who fell on the glorious field of Cressy.-E. (5) The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles I. were defeated. A FRAGMENT. WHEN, to their airy hall, my fathers' voice 663 EPITAPH ON A FRIEND. (7) 1803. · Αστὴρ πρὶν μὲν ἔλαμπες ἑνὶ ζωοῖσιν έωος.” LAERTIES. his brothers, bred up in arms, and valiant men in their own persons, were all passionately the king's." We find also, in the reply of Colonel Hutchinson, when governor of Nottingham, to his cousin-german Sir Richard Byron, a noble tribute to the chivalrous fidelity of the race. Sir Richard, having sent to prevail on his relative to surrender the castle, received for answer, that "except he found his own heart prone to such treachery, he might consider there was, if nothing else, so much of a Byron's blood in him, that he should very much scorn to betray or quit a trust he had undertaken." On the monument of Richard, the second Lord Byron, who lies buried in the chancel of Hucknal-Tokard church, there is the following inscription :—“ Beneath, in a vault, is interred the body (4) Son of the Elector Palatine, and nephew to Charles I. He of Richard Lord Byron, who, with the rest of his family, being afterwards commanded the fleet in the reign of Charles II. seven brothers, faithfully served King Charles the First in the (5) Sir Nicholas Byron served with distinction in the Low civil wars, who suffered much for their loyalty, and lost all their Countries; and, in the Great Rebellion, he was one of the first to present fortunes: yet it pleased God so to bless the humble entake up arms in the royal cause. After the battle of Edgehill, he deavours of the said Richard Lord Byron, that he re-purchased was made colonel-general of Cheshire and Shropshire, and gover-part of their ancient inheritance, which he left to his posterity, nor of Chester. "He was," says Clarendon," a person of great with a laudable memory for his great piety and charity."- E. affability and dexterity, as well as martial knowledge, which (6) of the sincerity of this youthful aspiration, the poet has left gave great life to the designs of the well-affected; and, with the repeated proofs. By his will, drawn up in 1811, he directed that encouragement of some gentlemen of North Wales, he raised "no inscription, save his name and age, should be written on his such a power of horse and foot, as made frequent skirmishes tomb ;" and, in 1819, he wrote thus to Mr. Murray:-"Some of the with the enemy, sometimes with notable advantage, never with epitaphs at the Certosa cemetery, at Ferrara, pleased me more signal loss." than the more splendid monuments at Bologna; for instance'Martini Luigi Implora pace.' Can any thing be more full of pathos? I hope whoever may survive me will see those two words, and no more, put over me." In 1643, Sir John Byron was created Baron Byron of Rochdale in the county of Lancaster; and seldom has a title been bestowed for such high and honourable services as those by which he deserved the gratitude of his royal master. Through almost every page of the History of the Civil Wars, we trace his name in connection with the varying fortunes of the king, and find him | E. faithful, persevering, and disinterested to the last. "Sir John Byron," says Mrs. Hutchinson, "afterwards Lord Byron, and all (7) This poem appears to have been, in its original state, inetnded to commemorate the death of the same lowly born youth, |