ent should be in Zante; but the English opposed the proposition
in the most decided manner. It was then suggested that it should be
conveyed to Athens, and deposited in the temple of Theseus, or in the
Parthenon--Ulysses Odysseus, the Governor of Athens, having sent an
express to Missolonghi, to solicit the remains for that city; but,
before it arrived, they were already in Zante, and a vessel engaged
to carry them to London, in the expectation that they would be
deposited in Westminster Abbey or St Paul's.

On the 25th of May, the Florida left Zante with the body, which
Colonel Stanhope accompanied; and on the 29th of June it reached the
Downs. After the ship was cleared from quarantine, Mr Hobhouse, with
his Lordship's solicitor, received it from Colonel Stanhope, and, by
their directions it was removed to the house of Sir E. Knatchbull, in
Westminster, where it lay in state several days.

The dignitaries of the Abbey and of St Paul's having, as it was said,
refused permission to deposit the remains in either of these great
national receptacles of the illustrious dead, it was determined that
they should be laid in the ancestral vault of the Byrons. The
funeral, instead of being public, was in consequence private, and
attended by only a few select friends to Hucknell, a small village
about two miles from Newstead Abbey, in the church of which the vault
is situated; there the coffin was deposited, in conformity to a wish
early expressed by the poet, that his dust might be mingled with his
mother's. Yet, unmeet and plain as the solemnity was in its
circumstances, a remarkable incident gave it interest and
distinction: as it passed along the streets of London, a sailor was
observed walking uncovered near the hearse, and on being asked what
he was doing there, replied that he had served Lord Byron in the
Levant, and had come to pay his last respects to his remains; a
simple but emphatic testimony to the sincerity of that regard which
his Lordship often inspired, and which with more steadiness might
always have commanded.

The coffin bears the following inscription:

LORD BYRON, OF ROCHDALE,
BORN IN LONDON, JANUARY 22, 1788;
DIED AT MISSOLONGHI,
IN WESTERN GREECE,
APRIL 19, 1824.

Beside the coffin the urn is placed, the inscription on which is,

Within this urn are deposited the heart, brains, etc. of the deceased
Lord Byron.

CHAPTER XLIX

The Character of Lord Byron

My endeavour, in the