mily; and it is not probable that the figures referred to
any transactions in Palestine, in which the Byrons were engaged, if
they were put up by the Byrons at all. They were probably placed in
their present situation while the building was in possession of the
Churchmen.

One of the groups, consisting of a female and two Saracens, with eyes
earnestly fixed upon her, may have been the old favourite
ecclesiastical story of Susannah and the elders; the other, which
represents a Saracen with a European female between him and a
Christian soldier, is, perhaps, an ecclesiastical allegory,
descriptive of the Saracen and the Christian warrior contending for
the liberation of the Church. These sort of allegorical stories were
common among monastic ornaments, and the famous legend of St George
and the Dragon is one of them.

Into the domestic circumstances of Captain and Mrs Byron it would be
impertinent to institute any particular investigation. They were
exactly such as might be expected from the sins and follies of the
most profligate libertine of the age.

The fortune of Mrs Byron, consisting of various property, and
amounting to about 23,500 pounds, was all wasted in the space of two
years; at the end of which the unfortunate lady found herself in
possession of only 150 pounds per annum.

Their means being thus exhausted she accompanied her husband in the
summer of 1786 to France, whence she returned to England at the close
of the year 1787, and on the 22nd of January, 1788, gave birth, in
Holles Street, London, to her first and only child, the poet. The
name of Gordon was added to that of his family in compliance with a
condition imposed by will on whomever should become the husband of
the heiress of Gight. The late Duke of Gordon and Colonel Duff, of
Fetteresso, were godfathers to the child.

In the year 1790 Mrs Byron took up her residence in Aberdeen, where
she was soon after joined by Captain Byron, with whom she lived in
lodgings in Queen Street; but their reunion was comfortless, and a
separation soon took place. Still their rupture was not final, for
they occasionally visited and drank tea with each other. The Captain
also paid some attention to the boy, and had him, on one occasion, to
stay with him for a night, when he proved so troublesome that he was
sent home next day.

Byron himself has said that he passed his boyhood at Marlodge, near
Aberdeen; but the statement is not correct; he visited, with