might even have added Tuscany, were doomed to be no asylum for him." &c. I observed himself and all his servants in deep mourning. He did not wait for me to enquire the cause. "I have just heard," said he, " of Lady "Noel's death. I am distressed for poor 66 Lady Byron! She must be in great af"fliction, for she adored her mother! The "world will think I am pleased at this 66 66 event, but they are much mistaken. I never wished for an accession of fortune; "I have enough without the Wentworth 66 property. I have written a letter of "condolence to Lady Byron,-you may suppose in the kindest terms,—beginning, My dear Lady Byron, 66 66 66 "If we are not reconciled, it is not my fault!'" "I shall be delighted," I said, "to see you restored to her and to your country; which, notwithstanding all you say and write against it, I am sure you like. Do you remember a sentiment in the Two Foscari ?' "He who loves not his country, can love nothing."" 66 "I am becoming more weaned from it every day," said he after a pause, "and "have had enough to wean me from it!-"No! Lady Byron will not make it up "with me now, lest the world should say "that her mother only was to blame! Lady Noel certainly identifies herself 66 66 66 very strongly in the quarrel, even by the account of her last injunctions; for she M "directs in her will that my portrait, shut 66 up in a case by her orders, shall not be opened till her grand-daughter be of 66 age, and then not given to her if Lady Byron should be alive. "I might have claimed all the fortune "for my life, if I had chosen to have done 66 so; but have agreed to leave the divi"sion of it to Lord Dacre and Sir Francis "Burdett. The whole management of "the affair is confided to them; and I shall not interfere, or make any sugges 66 66 66 tion or objection, if they award Lady Byron the whole." I asked him how he became entitled? The late Lord Wentworth," said he, bequeathed a life interest in his Lan "cashire estates to Lady Byron's mother, " and afterwards to her daughter: that is way I claim." "the Some time after, when the equal partition had been settled, he said: "I have offered Lady Byron the family "mansion in addition to the award, but "she has declined it: this is not kind." The conversation turned after dinner on the lyrical poetry of the day, and a question arose as to which was the most perfect ode that had been produced. Shelley contended for Coleridge's on Switzerland, beginning, "Ye clouds," &c.; others named some of Moore's Irish Melodies, and Campbell's Hohenlinden; and, had Lord Byron not been present, his own Invocation to Manfred, or Ode to Napoleon, or on Prometheus, might have been cited. 66 Like Gray," said he, “Campbell smells "too much of the oil: he is never satis"fied with what he does; his finest things "have been spoiled by over-polish-the 66 66 sharpness of the outline is worn off. Like paintings, poems may be too highly finished. The great art is effect, no "matter how produced. 66 "I will shew you an an ode you have 66 never seen, that I consider little inferior "to the best which the present prolific 66 age has brought forth." With this he left the table, almost before the cloth was removed, and returned with a magazine, from which he read the following lines on mping page |