Only four copies of _Fugitive Pieces_ are known to-day, and one of
these is incomplete. The copy from which the present facsimile is made
was originally given by Byron to Becher and preserved by him in spite
of his objections to the poem "To Mary." From Becher's family it
passed into the possession of Mr. Faulkner, of Louth, solicitor for
the Becher family. In 1885 it was in the possession of H.W. Ball,
antiquary and bookseller of Barton-on-Humber, who sold it to H. Buxton
Forman. Forman used it for his facsimile, but incorporated certain
manuscript corrections of the original, so that his facsimile is not
exact. The original is now owned by Mr. Thomas J. Wise, who has kindly
permitted its use for the present facsimile.

Of the other three copies, the incomplete one, lacking pages 17-20
("To Mary") and all after page 58, is in the possession of the family
of the late Mr. H.C. Roe, of Nottingham. This was originally sent by
Byron to Pigot, then studying medicine in Edinburgh. Byron later asked
Pigot to destroy the copy and Pigot seems to have complied so far
as to tear out the offending verses "To Mary." For many years it was
thought that only the Pigot and Becher copies had escaped destruction
at Byron's hands. But another complete copy came to light in 1907
and is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. This contains
numerous manuscript corrections and alterations, and seems to have
been used as a proof copy for _Poems on Various Occasions_ (not, as
has sometimes been stated, for _Hours of Idleness_). A fourth copy,
also complete, was offered at public sale in 1912, and is now in the
hands of the executors of the late Mr. J.A. Spoor, of Chicago.

The present facsimile is an exact photographic reproduction of the
text with all typographical and other errors as in the original,
except that certain manuscript corrections which appear in the