an's good gifts of
conversation.

"Now, from personal experience, I can vouch that my attorney is by no
means the tenderest of men, or particularly accessible to any kind of
impression out of the statute or record; and yet Sheridan, in half an
hour, had found the way to soften and seduce him in such a manner, that
I almost think he would have thrown his client (an honest man, with all
the laws, and some justice, on his side) out of the window, had he come
in at the moment.

"Such was Sheridan! he could soften an attorney! There has been nothing
like it since the days of Orpheus.

"One day I saw him take up his own 'Monody on Garrick.' He lighted upon
the Dedication to the Dowager Lady * *. On seeing it, he flew into a
rage, and exclaimed, 'that it must be a forgery, that he had never
dedicated any thing of his to such a d----d canting,' &c. &c. &c--and so
went on for half an hour abusing his own dedication, or at least the
object of it. If all writers were equally sincere, it would be
ludicrous.

"He told me that, on the night of the grand success of his School for
Scandal, he was knocked down and put into the watch-house for making a
row in the street, and being found intoxicated by the watchmen.

"When dying, he was requested to undergo 'an operation.' He replied,
that he had already submitted to two, which were enough for one man's
lifetime. Being asked what they were, he answered, 'having his hair cut,
and sitting for his picture.'

"I have met George Colman occasionally, and thought him extremely
pleasant and convivial. Sheridan's humour, or rather wit, was always
saturnine, and sometimes savage; he never laughed, (at least that _I_
saw, and I watched him,) but Colman did. If I had to _choose_, and could
not have both at a time, I should say, 'Let me begin the evening with
Sheridan, and finish it with Colman.' Sheridan for dinner, Colman for
supper; Sheridan for claret or port, but Colman for every thing, from
the madeira and champagne at dinner, the claret with a _layer_ of _port_
between the glasses, up to the punch of the night, and down to the grog,
or gin and water, of daybreak;--all these I have threaded with both the
same. Sheridan was a grenadier company of life-guards, but Colman a
whole regiment--of _light infantry_, to be sure, but still a regiment."

It was at this time that Lord Byron became acquainted (and, I regret to
have to add, partly through my means) with Mr. Leigh Hunt, the editor of
a