The seaman and traveler

a ruinous condition, and made the name of Byron a rather questionable heritage for his descendants. His brother, John Byron, became a famous seaman and traveler, who wrote an entertaining autobiography, from which his illustrious grandson, the poet, gained material for some of his poetry.

"Mad Jack"

The eldest son of this traveler and seaman, also named John Byron, the father of the poet, was born in 1751, and became a captain in the Guards. He was a dissipated, worthless fellow, known as "Mad Jack," though his character seems to have been somewhat redeemed by a certain careless generosity and good nature. He eloped with the wife of the Marquis of Carmarthen, and married her after she had secured a divorce from her former husband. Of Byron's birth this marriage was born Augusta, afterwards Mrs. Leigh, the poet's half-sister. This first wife died in 1784, and in the next year the fortune hunter entrapped a Scotch lady, Miss Catherine Gordon, of Gight, who was of an old family and possessed considerable estates. On January 22, 1788, the boy known as George Gordon Byron was born in Holles Street, London. Soon after this event, having squandered all of his wife's fortune, "Jack" Byron deserted his family, fled to France, and there died in 1791.

Character of

Byron's mother

The boy George came into the world heavily handicapped. His father's race was a violent one; his mother's, foolish. Had Byron's mother been other than she was, the tenor of her son's life might have been more equable. But "Mrs. Byron," as the boy often called her, was a vain, impulsive woman, hysterical and passionate, and utterly capricious in her treatment of her son. She alternately abused and petted him; would berate him as a "lame brat" one instant, and caress him the next. So, although she was always ready to sacrifice herself for him,

and doubtless really loved him in her own way, their relations were in general most unfortunate. She was no mother for such a boy as Byron, headstrong, passionate, moody, as he was. "Your mother's a fool," once remarked a fellow-schoolboy. "I know it," was the startling and significant reply.

Byron's

This was not all: Byron was lame. This lameness has been the subject of endless controversy; but it is now finally stated, and probably with truth, that he " was lameness afflicted with an infantile paralysis which affected the muscles of the right leg and foot." From this resulted a slight limp, never corrected, in spite of severe treatment. About this deformity, which was scarcely noticeable, Byron up to the very end of his life was abnormally sensitive. "What a pretty boy Byron is!" remarked a friend of his nurse; "what a pity he is lame!" Thereupon the boy, with flashing eyes, struck at her with his baby whip, exclaiming, "Dinna speak of it!" This abnormal sensitiveness undoubtedly colored his views of society and embittered his disposition. Byron's life now falls into five clearly defined periods, his early school life up to and through his Harrow days; his Five epochs of university career; his two years' stay in southern Byron's life Europe; his London residence, marriage, and subsequent unpopularity; and his life abroad until his death, in 1824, at the age of thirty-six.

School days at Aberdeen

In 1790 Mrs. Byron took her son to Aberdeen and put him to school under various tutors. He showed himself a poor student, but read with avidity all the history and romance he could find. From 1794 to 1798 he attended the grammar school, during which period he was sent, in order to recuperate after an attack of scarlet fever, to Ballater. Here he wandered through the mountains and added to his passionate love of the sea, gained at Aberdeen, the love of mountain scenery that glorifies so much of his

verse. In 1794, through the death of a cousin, he became the next heir to the title, and in 1798 the death of "the wicked lord" made him, at the age of ten, the sixth Lord Byron.

ham

After this event Mrs. Byron left at once for Newstead Abbey, the ancestral estate in Nottinghamshire. The desolation of At Notting- the family home forced the two into residence at Nottingham. Here young Byron was placed under the treatment of a quack named Lavender, who inflicted upon the boy unnecessary and fruitless torture, which he is said to have borne with remarkable fortitude. When his tutor referred to his suffering he replied, "Never mind, Mr. Rogers; you shall not see any sign of it in me." Within a year he was taken to London for treatment and put to school at Dulwich. Here he was contented, and did well, according to the testimony of Dr. Glennie, the head master, who speaks of Byron's wide reading in history and poetry, and of his good humor while among his comrades.

At Dulwich

Life at Harrow

In spite of all this, however, Mrs. Byron was not satisfied, and at her request her son was removed by his guardian, Lord Carlisle, to the great public school at Harrow. Here he remained until 1804, leading pretty much the ordinary schoolboy life-with a difference; for sometimes he went off by himself and dreamed. At this time the head master of Harrow was Dr. Drury, a famous teacher, who seems to have understood his eccentric yet gifted pupil, and for whom Byron always entertained an affectionate regard. "He was," Byron says, "the best, the kindest (and yet strict, too) friend I ever had; and I look on him still as a father, whose warnings I have remembered but too well, though too late, when I have erred, and whose counsel I have but followed when I have done well or wisely." Though he grew to love Harrow as the time approached for him to leave it, Byron at first hated the discipline of the school, and was