late work, entitled "Galt's Life of Byron,"--a work wholly unworthy of
the respectable name it bears,--I may be allowed to adduce here a
testimony on this subject, which has been omitted in its proper
place,[4] but which will be more than sufficient to set the idle
calumny at rest. The circumstance here alluded to may be most clearly,
perhaps, communicated to my readers through the medium of the
following extract from a letter, which Mr. Barry (the friend and
banker of Lord Byron) did me the favour of addressing to me soon after
his Lordship's death[5]:--"When Lord Byron went to Greece, he gave me
orders to advance money to Madame G----; but that lady would never
consent to receive any. His Lordship had also told me that he meant to
leave his will in my hands, and that there would be a bequest in it of
10,000_l._ to Madame G----. He mentioned this circumstance also to
Lord Blessington. When the melancholy news of his death reached me, I
took for granted that this will would be found among the sealed papers
he had left with me; but there was no such instrument. I immediately
then wrote to Madame G----, enquiring if she knew any thing concerning
it, and mentioning, at the same time, what his Lordship had said as to
the legacy. To this the lady replied, that he had frequently spoken to
her on the same subject, but that she had always cut the conversation
short, as it was a topic she by no means liked to hear him speak upon.
In addition, she expressed a wish that no such will as I had mentioned
would be found; as her circumstances were already sufficiently
independent, and the world might put a wrong construction on her
attachment, should it appear that her fortunes were, in any degree,
bettered by it."

NOTICES

OF THE

LIFE OF LORD BYRON.

It has been said of Lord Byron, "that he was prouder of being a
descendant of those Byrons of Normandy, who accompanied William the
Conqueror into England, than of having been the author of Childe
Harold and Manfred." This remark is not altogether unfounded in truth.
In the character of the noble poet, the pride of ancestry was
undoubtedly one of the most decided features; and, as far as antiquity
alone gives lustre to descent, he had every reason to boast of the
claims of his race. In Doomsday-book, the name of Ralph de Burun ranks
high among the tenants of land in Nottinghamshire; and in the
succeeding reigns, under the title of Lords of Horestan Castle,[6] we
find his