SOME STORIES ABOUT LORD BYRON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1913, 12 February 1885, Page 2

SOME STORIES ABOUT LORD BYRON.

" I found Madame Guiccioli in great ' distress at having received an order from the police not to quit Rome (she was a Roman subject) ajl family and[ slje herself being conspirators, Sno wished to return to iler father. Count Gaii}ba,'at Ravenna, then in tlie' Rope's dominions, As I had not seen that most interesting town, I offered to take her there in my carriage. But how were we to get out of the city as wo should be examined qt the Portfi de|Popolo| Thj§ was agoompjifhed by my starting at night, shg talking qut of t!\e gate by day, and my taking her up a mile out of town Count Gamba's house at Ravonna wax near the Pinetum a primoeval pine forest which, alas! lam told is now dying faat from the soil having been drained by the new railway works. The Gambas might well have been called the Osbaldistones of Italy: they were all sportsmen according to their knowledge, which consisted qf , ■•bunting pqjntfi? wljQ stqo r d ■ tcqo.4cqcks and through tlje vineyards. They had just begun to hear of copper paps vice flintfi and when I gave Vincensa my douhle barrelled Purdy his pleasure surpassed any demonstration I over saw, Thoy lived in feudal style as far as an abundant table supplied them and their guests, and were as good a, type of worthy though self educated gentlemen as it was possible to find. The house was large with a long gallery of bedrooms, the doors of which, from the groat heat of tho weathor, were negeapily opei] iljj flight, ai)4 tho {pates tyqqld ifonVerse from' their Ijeap qno'to another With Italian sutfs fitfoi}, There was a a. permanent priest whop) thoy called Don Juan,- Don being the usual titlo of a domestio Levite, no one but Madame Guiccioli seeing the absurdity. In reference to Byron's famous poom of that name, she told me that ho wrote all .the last cantos on playbills (some of which I saw myself), or qn py qf paper at hand, ai]4 with repeated glasses of gin punch by |)js side, IJe t|ip qsed tg rush out of his room to vead to her what he had written, making many alterations, and laughing immoderately.. She was vory fond and proud of him, but described him as having a very capricious temper, and lyith nothing of tlje passion which peij'vatjes tys whigh was iq the iiabit of ridiculing—in'lact, with a cold temperament. With all his abuse of England ho insisted on keeping up old customn in small things, sqclj as havjng hot croqs bqns on Qoqd Friday an 4 roast goqse on Michaolnias Day! This last fanoy led to a groteaquo result, Aftor buying a goose and fearing it might be too lean, he fed it every day for a month previously, so that the poet and the bird became so mutually attached that when September 29th arrived he could not kill it, but bought another, and had the pet goose swung in a cage under his carriage when 1)9 travelled, so that after four; years he was" moving about with four geepe. It was surprising to gee the num. ber of letters written to him by women offering themselves to him on any terms. Madamo Guiccioli had a large box full of these epistles, which he never answered,