travelling in Italy, I made two authors my constant study for versification,-Milton and Crowe.

Most people are ever on the watch to find fault with their children, and are afraid of praising them for fear of spoiling them. Now, I am sure that nothing has a better effect on children than praise. I had a proof of this in Moore's daughter: he used always to be saying to her, "What a good little girl!" and she continued to grow more and more good, till she became too good for this world and died.

Did ever poet, dramatist, or novel-writer, devise a more effective incident than the falling of the rug in Molly Seagrim's bedroom? Can any thing be more happily ludicrous, when we consider how the actors in that scene are connected with each other? It probably suggested to Sheridan the falling of the screen in The School for Scandal.t.

See Fielding's Tom Jones, b. v. ch. 5.-ED.

† No doubt it did; as the Jones and Blifil of the same novel. suggested to him Charles and Joseph Surface.-ED.

Neither Moore nor myself had ever seen Byron when it was settled that he should dine at my house to meet Moore; nor was he known by sight to Campbell, who, happening to call upon me that morning, consented to join the party. I thought it best that I alone should be in the drawing-room when Byron entered it; and Moore and Campbell accordingly withdrew. Soon after his arrival, they returned; and I introduced them to him severally, naming them as Adam named the beasts. When we sat down to dinner, I asked Byron if he would take soup? "No; he never took soup."- Would he take some fish? "No; he never took fish."-Presently I asked if he would eat some mutton? "No; he never ate mutton."-I then asked if he would take a glass of wine? "No; he never tasted wine."

-It was now necessary to enquire what he did eat and drink; and the answer was, "Nothing but hard biscuits and soda-water." Unfortunately, neither hard biscuits nor soda-water were at hand; and he dined upon potatoes bruised down on his plate and drenched with vinegar.-My guests stayed till very late, discussing the merits of Walter Scott and Joanna Baillie. Some days after, meeting Hobhouse, I said

to him, "How long will Lord Byron persevere in his present diet?" He replied, "Just as long as you continue to notice it."-I did not then know, what I now know to be a fact, that Byron, after leaving my house, had gone to a Club in St. James's Street and eaten a hearty meat-supper.

Byron sent me Childe Harold in the printed sheets before it was published; and I read it to my sister. "This," I said, "in spite of all its beauty, will never please the public: they will dislike the querulous repining tone that pervades it, and the dissolute character of the hero." But I quickly found that I was mistaken. The genius which the poem exhibited, the youth, the rank of the author, his romantic wanderings in Greece,these combined to make the world stark mad about Childe Harold and Byron. I knew two old maids in Buckinghamshire who used to cry over the passage about Harold's "laughing dames" that "long had fed his youthful appetite,"* &c.

After Byron had become the rage, I was frequently amused at the manœuvres of certain noble ladies to get acquainted with him by means of me:

* Canto i. st. 11.-ED.

From a Sketch by Count D'Orsay, taken ins. May 1829.

to hi, "How long will Lord Byron persevere in his Present dict?" He replied, "Just as long as you Corvinue to notice it."-I did not then know, what I now know to be a fact, that Byron, after leaving my h, had gone to a Club in St. James's Street a.daten a hearty meat-supper.

Byron sent me Childe Harold in the printed sheets before it was published; and I read it to my sister. "This," I said, "in spite of all its beauty, will never please the public: they will dislike the querulous repining tone that pervades it, and the dissolute character of the hero." But I

ickly found that I was mistaken. The genius why the pom exhibited, the youth, the rank of the author, his romantic wanderings in Greece,--these combined to make the world stark mad about Childe Harold and Byron. I knew two old maids in Buckinghamshire who used to cry over the passago about Harold's "laughing dames" that "long had fel his youthful appetite,"* &c.

After Byron had become--the rage, I was frequently amused at the nanouvies of certain noble ladies to get acquainted with him by means of me:

* Canto i. st. 11.-ED.