'malady," and hoped to make the best arrangements for his comfort, if ' he could be induced to visit them. With these intentions, my mother wrote on the 17th to Lord Byron, inviting him to Kirkby Mallory. She had always treated him with an affectionate consideration and indulgence, which extended to every little peculiarity of his feelings. 'Never did an irritating word escape her lips in her whole intercourse 'with him. The accounts given me after I left Lord Byron by the per⚫ sons in constant intercourse with him, added to those doubts which had 'before transiently occurred to my mind, as to the reality of the alleged disease, and the reports of his medical attendant, were far from esta'blishing the existence of anything like lunacy. Under this uncertainty, 'I deemed it right to communicate to my parents, that if I were to con'sider Lord Byron's past conduct as that of a person of sound mind, ' nothing could induce me to return to him. It therefore appeared ex'pedient, both to them and myself, to consult the ablest advisers. For that object, and also to obtain still further information respecting the appearances which seemed to indicate mental derangement, my mother ⚫ determined to go to London. She was empowered by me to take legal ' opinions on a written statement of mine, though I had then reasons for reserving a part of the case from the knowledge even of my father and 'mother. Being convinced by the result of these inquiries, and by the tenor of Lord Byron's proceedings, that the notion of insanity was an illusion, I no longer hesitated to authorise such measures as were necessary, in order to secure me from being ever again placed in his 'power. Conformably with this resolution, my father wrote to him on 'the 2d of February, to propose an amicable separation. Lord Byron ' at first rejected this proposal; but when it was distinctly notified to him, that if he persisted in his refusal, recourse must be had to legal measures, he agreed to sign a deed of separation. Upon applying to 'Dr. Lushington, who was intimately acquainted with all the circumstances, to state in writing what he recollected upon this subject, I re'ceived from him the following letter, by which it will be manifest that 'my mother cannot have been actuated by any hostile or ungenerous 'motives towards Lord Byron. "My dear Lady Byron, "I can rely upon the accuracy of my memory for the following state'ment. I was originally consulted by Lady Noel on your behalf, whilst you were in the country; the circumstances detailed by her were such as justified a separation, but they were not of that aggravated description as to render such a measure indispensable. On Lady Noel's representation, I deemed a reconciliation with Lord Byron practicable, and ⚫ felt most sincerely a wish to aid in effecting it. There was not on Lady Noel's part any exaggeration of the facts; nor, so far as I could perceive, any determination to prevent a return to Lord Byron: certainly ⚫ none was expressed when I spoke of a reconciliation. When you came to town in about a fortnight, or perhaps more, after my first interview 'with Lady Noel, I was, for the first time, informed by you of facts 'utterly unknown, as I have no doubt, to Sir Ralph and Lady Noel. 'On receiving this additional information, my opinion was entirely changed: I considered a reconciliation impossible. I declared my opinion, and added, that if such an idea should be entertained, I could ' not, either professionally or otherwise, take any part towards effecting it. Believe me, very faithfully yours, ""Great George-street, Jan. 31, 1830." "STEPH. LUSHINGTON. 'I have only to observe, that if the statements on which my legal ad'visers (the late Sir Samuel Romilly and Dr. Lushington) formed their opinions, were false, the responsibility and the odium should rest with Ime only. I trust that the facts which I have here briefly recapitulated 'will absolve my father and mother from all accusations with regard to the part they took in the separation between Lord Byron and myself. They neither originated, instigated, nor advised, that separation; and they cannot be condemned for having afforded to their daughter the assistance and protection which she claimed. There is no other near ' relative to vindicate their memory from insult. I am therefore com'pelled to break the silence which I had hoped always to observe, and 'to solicit from the readers of Lord Byron's life an impartial considera⚫tion of the testimony extorted from me. 'A. I. NOEL BYRON.' 'Hanger Hill, Feb. 19, 1830.' LETTER OF MR. TURNER, Referred to in vol. iii., p. 154. EIGHT months after the publication of my "Tour in the Levant," there appeared in the London Magazine, and subsequently in most of the newspapers, a letter from the late Lord Byron to Mr. Murray. 'I naturally felt anxious at the time to meet a charge of error brought against me in so direct a manner: but I thought, and friends whom I 'consulted at the time thought with me, that I had better wait for a 'more favourable opportunity than that afforded by the newspapers of vindicating my opinion, which even so distinguished an authority as the letter of Lord Byron left unshaken, and which, I will venture to add, remains unshaken still. I must ever deplore that I resisted my first impulse to reply immediately. The hand of Death has snatched Lord Byron from his kingdom of literature and poetry, and I can only guard myself from the ⚫ illiberal imputation of attacking the mighty dead, whose living talent ⚫ I should have trembled to encounter, by scrupulously confining myself 'to such facts and illustrations as are strictly necessary to save me from the charges of error, misrepresentation, and presumptuousness, of which every writer must wish to prove himself undeserving. Lord Byron began by stating, "The tide was not in our favour," and ' added, “neither I nor any person on board the frigate had any notion of a difference of the current on the Asiatic side; I never heard of it 'till this moment." His lordship had probably forgotten that Strabo distinctly describes the difference in the following words. στο Διὸ καὶ ἐυπετέστερον ἐκ τῆς Σηστοῦ διαιρουσι παραλλαξάμενοι μικρὸν · ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς Ηροῦς πύργον, κἀκεῖθεν ἀφιέντες τὰ πλοία συμπράττοντος • τοῦ ῥοῦ πρὸς τὴν περαίωσιν. Τοῖς δ ̓ ἐξ Αβύδου περαιουμένοις παραλλακτέον · ἐστὶν εἰς τἀναντία, ὀκτώ που σταδίους ἐπὶ πύργον τινὰ κατ' ἀντικρὺ τῆς Σηστού, · ἔπειτα διάιρειν πλάγιον, καὶ μὴ τελέως ἔχουσιν ἐναντίον τὸν ῥοῦν.”—— Ideoque 'facilius a Sesto trajiciunt paululum deflexâ navigatione ad Herus turrim, atque inde navigia dimittentes adjuvante etiam fluxu trajectum. Qui ab Abydo trajiciunt, in contrarium flectunt partem ad octo stadia ad turrim quandam e regione Sesti: hinc oblique trajiciunt, non 'prorsus contrario fluxu*." Here it is clearly asserted, that the current assists the crossing from Sestos, and the words " αφιέντες τὰ πλοῖα;"“ navigia dimittentes," letting the vessels go of themselves," prove how considerable the 'assistance of the current was; while the words "λysov,”—“ oblique," and "reλews," prorsus," show distinctly that those who crossed from Abydos were obliged to do so in an oblique direction, or they would have the current entirely against them. ་་ From this ancient authority, which, I own, appears to me unanswerable, let us turn to the moderns. Baron de Tott, who, having been for some time resident on the spot, employed as an engineer in the con⚫struction of batteries, must be supposed well cognisant of the subject, ' has expressed himself as follows: “La surabondance des eaux que la Mer Noire reçoit, et qu'elle ne 'peut évaporer, versée dans la Méditerranée par le Bosphore de Thrace et La Propontide, forme aux Dardanelles des courans si violens, que 'souvent les batimens, toutes voiles dehors, ont peine à les vaincre. Les pilotes doivent encore observer, lorsque le vent suffit, de diriger leur route de manière à présenter le moins de résistance possible à 'l'effort des eaux. On sent que cette étude a pour base la direction des courans, qui, renvoyés d'une pointe à l'autre, forment des obstacles 'à la navigation, et feroient courir les plus grands risques si l'on 'negligeoit ces connoissances hydrographiques."-Mémoires de Torr, 3me Partie. To the above citations, I will add the opinion of Tournefort, who, in his description of the strait, expresses with ridicule his disbelief of the 'truth of Leander's exploit; and to show that the latest travellers agree 'with the earlier, I will conclude my quotation with a statement of *Strabo, Book XIII. Oxford Edition,' 'Mr. Madden, who is just returned from the spot. "It was from the European side Lord Byron swam with the current, which runs about four miles an hour. But I believe he would have found it totally impracticable to have crossed from Abydos to Europe."-MADDEN'S Travels, Vol. I. There are two other observations in Lord Byron's letter on which I 'feel it necessary to remark. "Mr. Turner says, 'whatever is thrown into the stream on this part of the European bank must arrive at the Asiatic shore. This is so far 'from being the case, that it must arrive in the Archipelago, if left to 'the current, although a strong wind from the Asiatic side might have such an effect occasionally." 'Here Lord Byron is right, and I have no hesitation in confessing 'that I was wrong. But I was wrong only in the letter of my remark, not in the spirit of it. Anything thrown into the stream on the European bank would be swept into the Archipelago, because, after 'arriving so near the Asiatic shore as to be almost, if not quite, within ' a man's depth, it would be again floated off from the coast by the cur' rent that is dashed from the Asiatic promontory. But this would not 'affect a swimmer, who, being so near the land, would of course, if he 'could not actually walk to it, reach it by a slight effort. 'Lord Byron adds, in his P.S., "The strait is, however, not extra'ordinarily wide, even where it broadens above and below the forts." From this statement I must venture to express my dissent, with diffidence indeed, but with diffidence diminished by the ease with which the fact may be established. The strait is widened so considerably above the forts by the Bay of Maytos, and the bay opposite to it on the 'Asiatic coast, that the distance to be passed by a swimmer in crossing higher up would be, in my poor judgment, too great for any one to 'accomplish from Asia to Europe, having such a current to stem. I conclude by expressing it as my humble opinion that no one is 'bound to believe in the possibility of Leander's exploit, till the passage ' has been performed by a swimmer, at least from Asia to Europe. The sceptic is even entitled to exact, as the condition of his belief, that the 'strait be crossed, as Leander crossed it, both ways within at most fourteen hours. 'W. TURNER.' This is evidently a mistake of the writer or printer. His lordship must 'here have meant a strong wind from the European side, as no wind from the "Asiatic side could have the effect of driving an object to the Asiatic shore.' I think it right to remark that it is Mr. Turner himself who has here origi nated the inaccuracy of which he accuses others; the words used by Lord Byron being, not, as Mr. Turner says, 'from the Asiatic side,' but in the Asiatic direc tion.-T. M. MR. MILLINGEN'S ACCOUNT OF THE CONSULTATION, Referred to in vol. iii., p. 560. As the account given by Mr. Millingen of this consultation differs totally from that of Dr. Bruno, it is fit that the reader should have it in Mr. Millingen's own words : In the morning (18th) a consultation was proposed, to which Dr. Lucca Vega and Dr. Freiber, my assistants, were invited. Dr. Bruno and Lucca proposed having recourse to antispasmodics and other ' remedies employed in the last stage of typhus. Freiber and I main'tained that they could only hasten the fatal termination, that nothing 'could be more empirical than flying from one extreme to the other; that if, as we all thought, the complaint was owing to the metastasis of rheumatic inflammation, the existing symptoms only depended on ⚫ the rapid and extensive progress it had made in an organ previously so ⚫ weakened and irritable. Antiphlogistic means could never prove hurtful in this case; they would become useless only if disorganization were already operated; but then, since all hopes were gone, what means would not prove superfluous? We recommended the applica'tion of numerous leeches to the temples, behind the ears, and along 'the course of the jugular vein; a large blister between the shoulders, ' and sinapisms to the feet, as affording, though feeble, yet the last hopes ' of success. Dr. B., being the patient's physician, had the casting vote, and prepared the antispasmodic potion which Dr. Lucca and he had agreed upon; it was a strong infusion of valerian and ether, &c. After ' its administration, the convulsive movement, the delirium increased; but, notwithstanding my representations, a second dose was given half an hour after. After articulating confusedly a few broken phrases, the patient sunk shortly after into a comatose sleep, which the next day terminated in death. He expired on the 19th of April, at six 'o'clock in the afternoon." THE WILL OF LORD BYRON. Extracted from the Registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. THIS is the last will and testament of me, George Gordon, Lord Byron, Baron Byron, of Rochdale, in the county of Lancaster, as follows :I give and devise all that my manor or lordship of Rochdale, in the said county of Lancaster, with all its rights, royalties, members, and appurtenances, and all my lands, tenements, hereditaments, and premises situate, lying, and being within the parish, manor, or lordship of Rochdale aforesaid, and all other my estates, lands, hereditaments, and premises whatsoever and wheresoever, unto my friends John Cam Hobhouse, late of Trinity College, Cambridge, Esquire, and John Hanson, of Chancery-lane, London, Esquire, to the use and behoof of them, their heirs and assigns, upon trust that they the said John Cam Hobhouse |