son he spoke to. The worst
thing that I know about Lord Byron is the very unfavorable
impression which he made on men who certainly were not inclined to
judge him harshly, and who were not personally ill-used by him.
Sharp and Rogers both speak of him as an unpleasant, affected,
splenetic person. I have heard hundreds and thousands of persons
who never knew him rant about him, but I never heard a single
expression of fondness for him fall from the lips of any one who
knew him well. Yet even now there are those who cannot talk a
quarter of an hour about Charles Fox without tears--after
twenty-five years. . . .

"In the evening Lord John Russell came, and old Talleyrand. I had
seen Talleyrand before. I now had the pleasure of listening to his
conversation. He is certainly the greatest curiosity I ever fell in
with. His head is sunk down between two high shoulders. One of his
feet is hideously distorted. His face is pale as that of a corpse,
and wrinkled to a frightful degree. His eyes have an odd, glassy
stare. His hair, thickly powdered and pomatumed, hangs down his
shoulders on each side as straight as a pound of tallow candles.
His conversation, however, soon makes you forget his ugliness and
infirmities."

One more glimpse of Lady Holland:--

"Her ladyship is all courtesy and kindness to me; but her demeanor
to some others, particularly to poor Allen, is such as quite pains
me to witness. He is really treated like a negro slave. 'Mr. Allen,
go into my drawing-room and bring my reticule.' 'Mr. Allen, go and
see what can be the matter that they do not bring up dinner.' 'Mr.
Allen, there is not turtle-soup enough for you. You must take
gravy-soup or none.' Yet I scarcely pity the man. He has an
independent income, and if he can stoop to be ordered about like a
footman I cannot so much blame her for the contempt with which she
treats him."

Here are one or two touches of nature:--

"Get Blackwood's new number. There is a description of me in it: 'A
little, splay-footed, ugly dumpling of a fellow, with a mouth from
ear to ear.' Conceive how such a charge must affect a man so
enamoured of his own beauty as I am."

"After the debate I walked about the streets with Bulwer till near
three o'clock. I spoke to him about his novels with perfect