es at Secheron, on his arrival at Geneva, Lord Byron had
found Mr. and Mrs. Shelley, and a female relative of the latter, who had
about a fortnight before taken up their residence at this hotel. It was
the first time that Lord Byron and Mr. Shelley ever met; though, long
before, when the latter was quite a youth,--being the younger of the two
by four or five years,--he had sent to the noble poet a copy of his
Queen Mab, accompanied by a letter, in which, after detailing at full
length all the accusations he had heard brought against his character,
he added, that, should these charges not have been true, it would make
him happy to be honoured with his acquaintance. The book alone, it
appears, reached its destination,--the letter having miscarried,--and
Lord Byron was known to have expressed warm admiration of the opening
lines of the poem.

There was, therefore, on their present meeting at Geneva, no want of
disposition towards acquaintance on either side, and an intimacy almost
immediately sprung up between them. Among the tastes common to both,
that for boating was not the least strong; and in this beautiful region
they had more than ordinary temptations to indulge in it. Every evening,
during their residence under the same roof at Secheron, they embarked,
accompanied by the ladies and Polidori, on the Lake; and to the feelings
and fancies inspired by these excursions, which were not unfrequently
prolonged into the hours of moonlight, we are indebted for some of those
enchanting stanzas[116] in which the poet has given way to his
passionate love of Nature so fervidly.

"There breathes a living fragrance from the shore
Of flowers yet fresh with childhood; on the ear
Drips the light drop of the suspended oar.
* * * * *
At intervals, some bird from out the brakes
Starts into voice a moment, then is still.
There seems a floating whisper on the hill,
But that is fancy,--for the starlight dews
All silently their tears of love instil,
Weeping themselves away."

A person who was of these parties has thus described to me one of their
evenings:--"When the _bise_ or north-east wind blows, the waters of the
Lake are driven towards the town, and with the stream of the Rhone,
which sets strongly in the same direction, combine to make a very rapid
current towards the harbour. Carelessly, one evening, we had yielded to
its course, till we found ourselves almos