and often unfounded stories. They took care
to point out the house where he lived, and to give such hints of his
movements as might afford them an opportunity of seeing him. Many of the
English visiters, under pretext of seeing his house, in which there were
no paintings of any consequence, nor, besides himself, any thing worthy
of notice, contrived to obtain admittance through the cupidity of his
servants, and with the most barefaced impudence forced their way even
into his bedroom, in the hopes of seeing him. Hence arose, in a great
measure, his bitterness towards them, which he has expressed in a note
to one of his poems, on the occasion of some unfounded remark made upon
him by an anonymous traveller in Italy; and it certainly appears well
calculated to foster that cynicism which prevails in his latter works
more particularly, and which, as well as the misanthropical expressions
that occur in those which first raised his reputation, I do not believe
to have been his natural feeling. Of this I am certain, that I never
witnessed greater kindness than in Lord Byron.

"The inmates of his family were all extremely attached to him, and would
have endured any thing on his account. He was indeed culpably lenient to
them; for even when instances occurred of their neglecting their duty,
or taking an undue advantage of his good-nature, he rather bantered than
spoke seriously to them upon it, and could not bring himself to
discharge them, even when he had threatened to do so. An instance
occurred within my knowledge of his unwillingness to act harshly towards
a tradesman whom he had materially assisted, not only by lending him
money, but by forwarding his interest in every way that he could.
Notwithstanding repeated acts of kindness on Lord Byron's part, this man
robbed and cheated him in the most barefaced manner; and when at length
Lord Byron was induced to sue him at law for the recovery of his money,
the only punishment he inflicted upon him, when sentence against him was
passed, was to put him in prison for one week, and then to let him out
again, although his debtor had subjected him to a considerable
additional expense, by dragging him into all the different courts of
appeal, and that he never at last recovered one halfpenny of the money
owed to him. Upon this subject he writes to me from Ravenna, 'If * * is
in (prison), let him out; if out, put him in for a week, merely for a
lesson, and give him a good lecture.'

"He