Lord Byron and the Goose.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2084, 14 November 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Lord Byron and the Goose.

Lo&d Malmem'UHy, in his memoir?, gives the following amusing story of the author of " Don Juan," as told to him by the Countess Guiccioli :— " He (Byron) wrote all the last cantos (of Don Juan) on play-billH, or on any odd pieco of paper on hand, and with repeated glastcs of gin-punch at his side. Ha then used to rush out of his room and read to her (the Counter) wh&t he had written, making many alterations And laughing immoderately. Hhe wan scry prond and fond of him, but do scribed him as having a very capricious temper, and with nothing of the passion which prevftden hie poetry, and which he was in the habit of ridiculing — in faot, with a cold temperament. With All his abuse of England he insisted on keeping up old customs in small I hinge, rueh ai hiving hot oro*s bum on Good Fridny end roa?t gooee on Michatlmaß ]>iy. T><i*last fancy led to agrotof<| 10 result. After buying a kcohc, and fern ing it rnijjht b>i too lean, he fed it every day for a month previously, to that the poet and the bird became no mutually attached that, whrn Soptera htr '2')h anivc 1 , he could not kill it, but bought another, and bad the pet goose swung in a cai'e under \m carnaga when hi travelled, »o tbat afar four years be wm moving about with (cur Reene."