of
the Duchess of Kendal, that George I. flew into her window in the shape
of a raven (see _Orford's Reminiscences, Lord Orford's Works_, 1798, iv.
283), and many other instances, bring this superstition nearer home. The
most singular was the whim of a Worcester lady, who, believing her
daughter to exist in the shape of a singing bird, literally furnished
her pew in the cathedral with cages full of the kind; and as she was
rich, and a benefactress in beautifying the church, no objection was
made to her harmless folly. For this anecdote, see _Orford's Letters_.

["But here (at Gloucester) is a _modernity_, which beats all antiquities
for curiosity. Just by the high altar is a small pew hung with green
damask, with curtains of the same; a small corner-cupboard, painted,
carved, and gilt, for books, in one corner, and two troughs of a
bird-cage, with seeds and water. If any mayoress on earth was small
enough to inclose herself in this tabernacle, or abstemious enough to
feed on rape and canary, I should have sworn that it was the shrine of
the queen of the aldermen. It belongs to a Mrs. Cotton, who, having lost
a favourite daughter, is convinced her soul is transmigrated into a
robin redbreast, for which reason she passes her life in making an
aviary of the cathedral of Gloucester."--Letter to Richard Bentley,
September, 1753 (_Lord Orford's Works_, 1798, v. 279).]

[192] {210} [According to J. B. Le Chevalier (_Voyage de La Propontide,
etc._, an. viii. (1800), p. 17), the Turkish name for a small bay which
formed the ancient port of Sestos, is _Ak-Bachi-Liman_ (Port de la Tete
blanche).]

[hj]
_And in its stead that mourning flower_
_Hath flourished--flourisheth this hour,_
_Alone and coldly pure and pale_
_As the young cheek that saddens to the tale_.
_And withers not, though branch and leaf_
_Are stamped with an eternal grief_.--[MS.]

An earlier version of the final text reads--

_As weeping Childhood's cheek at Sorrow's tale!_

[193] ["_The Bride_, such as it is is my first _entire_ composition of
any length (except the Satire, and be damned to it), for _The Giaour_ is
but a string of passages, and _Childe Harold_ is, and I rather think
always will be, unconcluded" (Letter to Murray, November 29, 1813). It
(the _Bride_) "was published on Thursday the second of December; but how
it is liked or disliked, I know not. Whether it succeeds or not is no
fault of the public, against wh