on, who had great success
in fashionable society in London, when he resided there. He is peculiarly
compassionate to the poor; I remarked that he rarely, in our rides, passed
a mendicant without giving him charity, which was invariably bestowed with
gentleness and kindness; this was still more observable if the person was
deformed, as if he sympathized with the object.

Byron is very fond of gossiping, and of hearing what is going on in the
London fashionable world; his friends keep him _au courant_, and any
little scandal amuses him very much. I observed this to him one day, and
added, that I thought his mind had been too great to descend to such
trifles! he laughed and said with mock gravity, "Don't you know that the
trunk of an elephant that can lift the most ponderous weights, disdains
not to take up the most minute? This is the case with my _great_ mind,
(laughing anew,) and you must allow the simile is worthy the subject.
Jesting apart, I do like a little scandal--I believe all English people do.
An Italian lady, Madame Benzoni, talking to me on the prevalence of this
taste among my compatriots, observed, that when she first knew the English,
she thought them the most spiteful and ill-natured people in the world,
from hearing them constantly repeating evil of each other; but having seen
various amiable traits in their characters, she had arrived at the
conclusion, that they were not naturally _mechant_; but that living in a
country like England, where severity of morals punishes so heavily any
dereliction from propriety, each individual, to prove personal correctness,
was compelled to attack the _sins_ of his or her acquaintance, as it
furnished an opportunity of expressing their abhorrence by words, instead
of proving it by actions, which might cause some self-denial to themselves.
This," said Byron, "was an ingenious, as well as charitable supposition;
and we must all allow that it is infinitely more easy to decry and expose
the sins of others, than to correct our own; and many find the first so
agreeable an occupation, that it precludes the second--this, at least, is
my case."

"The Italians do not understand the English," said Byron; "indeed, how can
they? for they (the Italians) are frank, simple, and open in their natures,
following the bent of their inclinations, which they do not believe to be
wicked; while the English, to conceal the indulgence of theirs, daily
practise hypocrisy, falsehood, and uncharita