amounting to about 2,000l., and she was also entitled to the pension reserved to her by the terms of Lamb's retirement from the India House.

No figure in literature is better known to us than Lamb. His writings, prose and verse, are full of personal revelations. We possess a body of his correspondence, also of the most confidential kind, and his friends have left descriptions of him from almost every point of view. He numbered among his earliest friends Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, and among his later Proctor, Talfourd, Hood, Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, Crabb Robinson, while many of his most characteristic letters were written to men who have attained general fame mainly through Lamb's friendship. Notable among these are Thomas Manning and Bernard Barton. No man was ever more loved by a wide and varied class of friends. His lifelong devotion to his sister, for whose sake he abjured all thoughts of marriage; the unique attachment between the pair; Lamb's unfailing loyalty to his friends, who often levied heavy taxes on his purse and leisure; his very eccentricities and petulances, including his one serious frailty—a too careless indulgence in strong drinks — excited a profound pity in those who knew the unceasing domestic difficulties which he surmounted so bravely for eight-and-thirty years. It is likely that the necessity of protecting and succouring his sister acted as a strong power over his will, and helped to preserve his sanity during the hardship of the years that followed. But one result of the taint of insanity inherited from his mother was that a very small amount of alcohol was enough at any time to throw his mind off its balance. He was afflicted moreover, all his life with a bad stutter, and the eagerness to forget the impediment, which put him at a disadvantage in all conversations, probably further encouraged the habit. The infirmity, which has been in turn denied and exaggerated by friends and enemies, never interfered with the regular performance of his official duties, or with his domestic responsibilities.

The extant portraits of Lamb are the following: 1. By Robert Hancock of Bristol, 1798, drawn for Joseph Cottle; in the National Portrait Gallery. 2. By Wm. Hazlitt, 1805, in a fancy dress; in the National Portrait Gallery. 3. By G. F. Joseph, A.R.A., 1819; water-colour drawing made to illustrate a copy of

'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers;' in the British Museum. 4. Etching on copper by Brook Pulham, a friend of Lamb's in the India House, 1825. 5. By Henry Meyer, 1826; in the India Office: of two small replicas one is in the National Portrait Gallery and the other belongs to Sir Charles Dilke, bart., M.P. 6. By T. Wageman, 1824 or 1825; engraved in Talfourd's 'Letters of Charles Lamb,' 1837; in America. 7. Charles Lamb and his sister together, by F. S. Cary, 1834; in the National Portrait Gallery. 8. By Maclise, sketch in 'Fraser's Magazine,' 1835 (cf. LUCAS's Life, ii. App. i.).

Lamb's writings published in book form are: 1. 'Poems on Various Subjects, by S. T. Coleridge, late of Jesus College, Cambridge,' 1796, contains four sonnets by Lamb signed 'C. L.,' referred to by Coleridge in his preface as by 'Mr. Charles Lamb of the India House.' 2. 'Poems by S. T. Coleridge, 2nd edit., to which are now added Poems by Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd,' 1797. 3. 'Blank Verse by Charles Lloyd and Charles Lamb,' 1798. 4. 'A Tale of Rosamund Gray and Old Blind Margaret, by Charles Lamb,' 1798. 5. 'John Woodvil, a Tragedy, by Charles Lamb,' &c., 1802. 6. 'Mrs. Leicester's School,' &c., 1807, by Charles and Mary Lamb, Charles contributing three of the stories, "The Witch Aunt,' 'First going to Church,' and the 'Sea Voyage.' 7. 'Tales from Shakespeare, &c., by Charles Lamb,' 1807. The bulk of the tales were written by Mary Lamb, Charles contributing the tragedies. 8. 'The Adventures of Ulysses, by Charles Lamb,' 1808. 9. 'Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, with Notes by Charles Lamb,' 1808. 10. 'Poetry for Children, entirely original, by the author of "Mrs. Leicester's School," anonymous, by Charles and Mary Lamb. The respective shares of the two writers were not indicated. A few of Lamb's verses were reprinted by him in his 'Collected Works' in 1818. 11. 'Prince Dorus,' a poetical version of an ancient tale, 1811. 12. 'The Works of Charles Lamb,' in 2 vols. London, 1818. 13. 'Elia Essays which have appeared under that signature in the "London Magazine," 1823. 14. 'Album Verses, with a few others,' by Charles Lamb, 1830. 15. 'Satan in Search of a Wife,' 1831. 16. 'The Last Essays of Elia,' 1833. In this list are not included Lamb's occasional contributions to

periodical literature, such as albums and keepsakes, prologues, and epilogues to plays, and the like. Lamb's children's books (for Godwin) also include 'The King and Queen of Hearts' (slight anonymous verses to illustrations by Mulready), 1805 (edited in facsimile by E. V. Lucas, 1902). It is improbable that Lamb was responsible for another anonymous volume in verse issued by Godwin about 1811, 'Beauty and the Beast,' which was reprinted, with preface by Shepherd, 1886, and by Andrew Lang, 1887.

THE LIFE OF LORD BYRON

SIR LESLIE STEPHEN

[From the Dictionary of National Biography.]

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON, sixth lord (1788-1824), poet, descended from John, first Lord Byron, who was succeeded by his brother Richard (1605-1679). Richard's son, William (d. 1695), became third lord, and wrote some bad verses. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Viscount Chaworth, he was father of William, fourth lord (1669–1736), gentleman of the bedchamber to Prince George of Denmark. The fourth lord was father, by his wife, Frances, daughter of Lord Berkeley of Stratton, of William, fifth lord, John, afterwards Admiral Byron, and Isabella, wife of the fourth and mother of the fifth earl of Carlisle. The fifth lord (1722-1798) quarrelled with his cousin Mr. Chaworth (great grandson of Viscount Chaworth) at a club dinner of Nottinghamshire gentlemen, 26 Jan. 1765, and killed him after a confused scuffle in a room to which they had retired by themselves after dinner. Byron was convicted of manslaughter before the House of Lords, 16 April 1765 (State Trials, xix. 1175), and, though exempted from punishment by his privilege as a peer, became a marked man. He lived in seclusion at Newstead Abbey, ill-treated his wife, was known as the 'wicked lord,' encumbered his estates, and made a sale of his property at Rochdale, the disputed legality of which led to a prolonged lawsuit. His children and his only grandson (son of his son by the daughter of his brother, the admiral) died

before him. Admiral Byron had two sons, John and George Anson (ancestor of the present peer), and three daughters, one of whom became wife of her cousin, son of the fifth lord; another of Admiral Parker; the third of Colonel Leigh, by whom she was mother of another Colonel Leigh, who married his cousin, Augusta, daughter of John Byron, the admiral's eldest son. This John Byron (born 1756) was educated at Westminster, entered the guards, was known as 'mad Jack,' and was a handsome profligate. He seduced the Marchioness of Carmarthen, who became Baroness Conyers on the death of her father, fourth earl of Holderness. He married her (June 1779) after her divorce, and had by her in 1782 a daughter, Augusta, married to Colonel Leigh in 1807. Lady Conyers's death in France, 26 Jan. 1784, deprived her husband of an income of 4,000l. a year. He soon afterwards met at Bath a Miss Catherine Gordon of Gicht, with a fortune of 23,000l., doubled by rumour. The pair were married at St. Michael's Church, Bath, 13 May 1785 (parish register). John Byron took his second wife to France, squandered most of her property, and returned to England, where their only child, George Gordon, was born in Holles Street, London, 22 Jan. 1788. John Hunter saw the boy when he was born, and prescribed for the infant's feet (Mrs. Byron's letters in Add. MS. 31037). A malformation was caused, as Byron afterwards said, by his mother's 'false delicacy.' Trelawny (Records, ii. 132) says that the tendo Achillis of each foot was so contracted that he could only walk on the balls of the toes, the right foot being most distorted and bent inwards. Injudicious treatment increased the mischief, and through life the poet could only hobble a few paces on foot, though he could at times succeed in concealing his infirmity.

John Byron's creditors became pressing. The daughter, Augusta, was sent to her grandmother, the Dowager Countess ⚫ Holderness. Mrs. Byron retired to Aberdeen, and lived upon 150l. a year, the interest of 3,000l. in the hands of trustees, the sole remnant of her fortune. She took lodgings in Queen Street, Aberdeen, and was followed by her husband, who occupied separate lodgings and sometimes petted the child, who professed in later years to remember him perfectly (MEDWIN, p. 58). With money got from his wife or his sister, Mrs. Leigh, he escaped to France

in January 1791, and died at Valenciennes, 2 Aug. 1791, possibly by his own hand (JEAFFRESON, i. 48; HARNESS, p. 33; Letter No. 460 in MOORE's Life of Byron implicitly denies suicide). Mrs. Byron's income, reduced to 135l. by debts for furniture and by helping her husband, was raised to 190l. on the death of her grandmother, and she lived within her means. Capricious and passionate by nature, she treated her child with alternate excesses of violence and tenderness. Scott (MOORE, ch. xxiv.) says that in 1784 she was seized with an hysterical fit during Mrs. Siddons's performance in Southern's 'Fatal Marriage,' and carried out screaming, 'Oh, my Biron, my Biron' (the name of a character in the play). She was short and fat, and would chase her mocking child round the room in impotent fury. To the frank remark of a schoolfellow, 'Your mother is a fool,' he replied, 'I know it.' Another phrase is said to have been the germ of the 'Deformed Transformed.' His mother reviling him as a 'lame beast,' he replied, 'I was born so, mother.' The child was passionately fond of his nurse, May Gray, to whom at the final parting he gave a watch and his miniature afterwards in the possession of Dr. Ewing of Aberdeen and by whose teaching he acquired a familiarity with the Bible, preserved through life by a very retentive memory. At first he went to school to one 'Bodsy Bowers,' and afterwards to a clergyman named Ross. The son of his shoemaker, Paterson, taught him some Latin, and he was at the grammar school from 1794 to 1798 (BAIN, Life of Arnott, in the papers of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society, gives his places in the school). He was regarded as warm-hearted, pugnacious, and idle. Visits to his mother's relations and an excursion to Ballater for change of air in 1796 varied his schooldays. In a note to the 'Island' (1813) he dates his love of mountainous scenery from this period; and in a note to 'Don Juan' (canto x. stanza 18) he recalls the delicious horror with which he leaned over the bridge of Balgounie, destined in an old rhyme to fall with 'a wife's ae son and a mare's ae foal.' An infantile passion for a cousin, Mary Duff, in his eighth year was so intense that he was nearly thrown into convulsions by hearing, when he was sixteen, of her marriage to Mr. Robert Cockburn (a well-known wine merchant, brother of Lord Cockburn). She died 10 March 1858 (Notes and