A FAVOURITE SEAT OF LORD BYRON'S. 153 and all its recorded glories, of which it is not my present business to speak; we sought out and found, beneath the shade of a wide-spreading myrtle-tree, the favourite seat of the noble bard. There was not any thing remarkable in its construction; an English garden-chair, made of unpolished timber, and sufficient to accommodate four persons, will give a very good idea of it. From this seat the view was very contracted; the ruins of the old castle of Abydos were seen through a long gloomy avenue of chestnut-trees, and the island of Tenedos closed the perspective. I have reason to suppose, and from the testimony of the Greek priests believe, Lord Byron never wrote one article upon this spot; he used to pore over his maps and papers stretched at full length, and ramble through the adjoining wood with his hands crossed on his bosom, apparently in deep meditations, composing perhaps the lines he committed to paper in his cottage at Tenedos. "The Turks who garrison the modern castle of Abydos, are, like most of their brethren on the opposite shore, a villainous set of murderers. Lord Byron, one day, rambled too near the lines, and a shot was fired at him from the fort; he turned about and slowly walked away; "I joined him," said our spiritual guide," at the time, and knowing the vindictive spirit of the commanding janissary, urged him to hasten to the boat, to which he paid no attention; when, as I expected, 154 DOUBLE-BARRELLED PASSPORT. 6 a soldier armed with a drawn sabre presented himself, and demanded who his Lordship was? An English traveller' was the reply. Shew me your firman (that is passport), said the soldier, in a resolute tone. 'Here it is,' his Lordship said, and drawing from his belt a double-barrelled pistol, levelled it at the fellow's head, and told him, if he obstructed his path he would blow his brains out the man had pistols, nevertheless he walked off with trepidation, and we reached our boat in safety, which I never thought we should see more." We could not help smiling at this account, and thought Lord Byron's double-barrelled passport much better than a piece of parchment, in a land of robbers. "Nothing very particular attracting our attention, we bid farewell to the seat of the wandering poet, and landed once more on Tenedos. The worthy priest had not many anecdotes to relate of his Lordship worthy of record beyond what I have related; Lord Byron rewarded him with a handsome present, and gave him forty zeelemes to be distributed amongst the poorest and greatest sufferers from a hurricane which had recently destroyed the grapes in almost every open vineyard; at the same time his Lordship said he neither liked the people or the island, and would never visit it again, "which I am sorry for," said the old priest," as he was a friend to all upon it; but he disliked us, and I don't know from what cause." A STRIKING PROOF OF HUMANITY. 155 And as I cannot explain the cause, I shall suffer it to remain amongst those eccentricities which his Lordship alone can explain. "It is a striking proof of his humanity, that although he despised the people, he could not help pitying and relieving their sufferings; this is genuine benevolence, devoid of all ostentation, pomp, and pride. In an obscure Grecian island, which he never intended to revisit, he left marks of his bounty and goodness of heart, which he never could expect would be made known in England: real charity finds its sweetest reward in being concealed from public view; from this it appears, that his Lordship did good by stealth, and blushed to find it fame.' When merit claimed the sufferer's breast, He showed his bounty then ; And those who could not prove that claim, He succoured still as men.' "We loaded our boat with Tenedos grapes, the finest in Greece, for which we paid twenty paras, or ten pence English, and after a glass of meagre wine with our friendly instructor, we bade adieu to the Island of Tenedos, and all its interesting scenery. I would have brought away the rustic seat of the polished bard, but I deemed it a sort of sacrilege to remove the pillars which had supported a temple of genius, and as British vessels, bound to the Black-Sea, often touch at Tenedos for a supply of wine, the old priest (who now knows its value) will add a little to his scanty income by shewing it." "CANDIA. "At Champetray, in the Island of Candia, Lord Byron stopt in his Speronera; a poor Jew was incarcerated for having sold opium, which a Jew is forbidden to deal in by the Turkish law. His punishment was to have been three years' confinement in a dungeon, and three public bastinados on the soles of his feet. Lord Byron solicited the municipal authorities, and he solicited the right way, for in Turkey, every thing, even justice is sold. By the payment of thirty zechines, or about fifteen English guineas, he rescued the poor wretch, and sent him away from the island. "Lord Byron, during his stay in Candia, lived at a place called Macri, in the house of a Greek named Demetrius, a man of considerable property; his second daughter was much attached to his Lordship, and, in fact, they went to the adjoining island of Gozo frequently together, and remained there for weeks. In Greece such proofs of familiarity are not proofs of guilt; there every thing reminds one of the pastoral age, when integrity walked hand in hand with virtue; but I will give no opinion on his Lordship's conduct, nor have I a right to do so. Then, with some rural nymph supremely blest, CHEDAR ANTONINUS. Each faithful shepherd told his tender pain, 157 Falconer's Shipwreck. Chedar Antoninus, "I am relating only facts. his travelling companion, was wedded to a British Officer, Lieutenant C-1; Lord Byron gave her away at Antiparos, and he also gave with her £600 English. All parties appeared to be contented, and at Famagusta, the capital of Cyprus, I saw Cl and his wife, with whom Lord Byron remained during a short stay in that town.' At the Island of Antiparos, Lord Byron, before his exploration of the too-much-extolled grotto, met with a countryman, a pupil of Wyatt, and a traveller in quest of knowledge, namely, a Mr. Fr of Liverpool. His Lordship, though generally averse to any communication with his own countrymen, yet accepted Mr. F's company, and together they visited the grotto of Antiparos. In his rambles from isle to isle, Lord Byron was accompanied by a singular character, whom he had met with at Yanina, in the service of Ali Pacha. His real name was Fullinton; he had been in the British navy as a midshipman, but was dismissed the service and imprisoned two years in the Marshalsea, for striking his superior officer. He then sailed for the East-Indies, where |