produce lasting recollections of interest and affection, than that in
which Mrs Byron, with her only child, was placed in Aberdeen.
Whatever might have been the violence of her temper, or the
improprieties of her after-life, the fond and mournful caresses with
which she used to hang over her lame and helpless orphan, must have
greatly contributed to the formation of that morbid sensibility which
became the chief characteristic of his life. At the same time, if it
did contribute to fill his days with anguish and anxieties, it also
undoubtedly assisted the development of his powers; and I am
therefore disposed to conclude, that although, with respect to the
character of the man, the time he spent in Aberdeen can only be
contemplated with pity, mingled with sorrow, still it must have been
richly fraught with incidents of inconceivable value to the genius of
the poet.



CHAPTER III



Arrival at Newstead--Find it in Ruins--The old Lord and his Beetles--
The Earl of Carlisle becomes the Guardian of Byron--The Poet's acute
Sense of his own deformed Foot--His Mother consults a Fortune-teller

Mrs Byron, on her arrival at Newstead Abbey with her son, found it
almost in a state of ruin. After the equivocal affair of the duel,
the old lord lived in absolute seclusion, detested by his tenantry,
at war with his neighbours, and deserted by all his family. He not
only suffered the abbey to fall into decay, but, as far as lay in his