sister of this woman had been his first nurse, and after he had left
Scotland he wrote to her, in a spirit which betokened a gentle and
sincere heart, informing her with much joy of a circumstance highly
important to himself. It was to tell her that at last he had got his
foot so far restored as to be able to put on a common boot, an event
which he was sure would give her great pleasure; to himself it is
difficult to imagine any incident which could have been more
gratifying.

I dwell with satisfaction on these descriptions of his early
dispositions; for, although there are not wanting instances of
similar warm-heartedness in his later years, still he never formed
any attachments so pure and amiable after he went to Harrow. The
change of life came over him, and when the vegetable period of
boyhood was past, the animal passions mastered all the softer
affections of his character.

In the summer of 1801 he accompanied his mother to Cheltenham, and
while he resided there the views of the Malvern hills recalled to his
memory his enjoyments amid the wilder scenery of Aberdeenshire. The
recollections were reimpressed on his heart and interwoven with his
strengthened feelings. But a boy gazing with emotion on the hills at
sunset, because they remind him of the mountains where he passed his
childhood, is no proof that he is already in heart and imagination a
poet. To suppose so is to mistake the materials for the building.

The delight of Byron in contemplating the Malvern hills, was not
because they resembled the scenery of Lochynagar, but because they
awoke trains of thought and fancy, associated with recollections of
that scenery. The poesy of the feeling lay not in the beauty of the