are set
down according to the station each holds in his class, it appears that
in April of the year 1794, the name of Byron, then in the second
class, stands twenty-third in a list of thirty-eight boys. In the
April of 1798, however, he had risen to be fifth in the fourth class,
consisting of twenty-seven boys, and had got ahead of several of his
contemporaries, who had previously always stood before him.]

[Footnote 17: Notwithstanding the lively recollections expressed in
this poem, it is pretty certain, from the testimony of his nurse, that
he never was at the mountain itself, which stood some miles distant
from his residence, more than twice.]

[Footnote 18: The Island.]

[Footnote 19: Dante, we know, was but nine years old when, at a
May-day festival, he saw and fell in love with Beatrice; and Alfieri,
who was himself a precocious lover, considers such early sensibility
to be an unerring sign of a soul formed for the fine arts:--"Effetti,"
he says, in describing the feelings of his own first love, "che poche
persone intendono, e pochissime provano: ma a quei soli pochissimi e
concesso l' uscir dalla folla volgare in tutte le umane arti." Canova
used to say, that he perfectly well remembered having been in love
when but five years old.]

[Footnote 20: To this Lord Byron used to add, on the authority of old
servants of the family, that on the day of their patron's death, these
crickets all left the house simultaneously, and in such numbers, that
it was impossible to cross the hall without treading on them.]

[Footnote 21: The correct reading of this legend is, I understand, as
follows:--

"Brig o' Balgounie, _wight_ (strong) is thy wa';
Wi' a wife's ae son on a mare's ae foal,
Down shall thou fa'."
]

[Footnote 22: In a letter addressed lately by Mr. Sheldrake to the
editor of a Medical Journal, it is stated that the person of the same
name who attended Lord Byron at Dulwich owed the honour of being
called in to a mistake, and effected nothing towards the remedy of the
limb. The writer of the letter adds that he was himself consulted by
Lord Byron four or five years afterwards, and though unable to
undertake the cure of the defect, from the unwillingness of his noble
patient to submit to restraint or confinement, was successful in
constructing a sort of shoe for the foot, which in some degree
alleviated the inconvenience under which he laboured.]

[Footnote 23: "Quoique," says Alfieri, speakin