or fellow I he is now quite well, and immersed in politics and
literature. He has given me a number of the most interesting
details on the former subject; but we will not speak of them in a
letter. Fletcher is here, and--as if, like a shadow, he waxed and
waned with the substance of his master--has also revived his good
looks, and from amidst the unseasonable grey hairs, a fresh harvest
of flaxen locks has put forth.

"We talked a great deal of poetry and such matters last night; and,
as usual, differed--and I think more than ever. He affects to
patronise a system of criticism fit only for the production of
mediocrity; and, although all his finer poems and passages have
been produced in defiance of this system, yet I recognise the
pernicious effects of it in the Doge of Venice; and it will cramp
and limit his future efforts, however great they may be, unless he
gets rid of it. I have read only parts of it, or rather he himself
read them to me, and gave me the plan of the whole.

"Ravenna, August 15. 1821.

"We ride out in the evening through the pine forests which divide
the city from the sea. Our way of life is this, and I have
accommodated myself to it without much difficulty:--Lord Byron gets
up at two--breakfasts--we talk, read, &c. until six--then we ride
at eight, and after dinner sit talking until four or five in the
morning. I get up at twelve, and am now devoting the interval
between my rising and his to you.

"Lord Byron is greatly improved in every respect--in genius, in
temper, in moral views, in health and happiness. His connection
with La Guiccioli has been an inestimable benefit to him. He lives
in considerable splendour, but within his income, which is now
about four thousand a year, one thousand of which he devotes to
purposes of charity. He has had mischievous passions, but these he
seems to have subdued; and he is becoming, what he should be, a
virtuous man. The interest which he took in the politics of Italy,
and the actions he performed in consequence of it, are subjects not
fit to be written, but are such as will delight and surprise you.

"He is not yet decided to go to Switzerland, a place, indeed,
little fitted for him: the gossip and the cabals of those
Anglicised coteries would torment him as they did before, and