stanzas. I desire you to name a price; if you don't, _I_ will; so I
advise you in time.

"Yours, &c.

"There will be a good many notes."

* * * * *

Among those minor misrepresentations of which it was Lord Byron's fate
to be the victim, advantage was, at this time, taken of his professed
distaste to the English, to accuse him of acts of inhospitality, and
even rudeness, towards some of his fellow-countrymen. How far different
was his treatment of all who ever visited him, many grateful
testimonies might be collected to prove; but I shall here content
myself with selecting a few extracts from an account given me by Mr.
Henry Joy of a visit which, in company with another English gentleman,
he paid to the noble poet this summer, at his villa on the banks of the
Brenta. After mentioning the various civilities they had experienced
from Lord Byron; and, among others, his having requested them to name
their own day for dining with him,--"We availed ourselves," says Mr.
Joy, "of this considerate courtesy by naming the day fixed for our
return to Padua, when our route would lead us to his door; and we were
welcomed with all the cordiality which was to be expected from so
friendly a bidding. Such traits of kindness in such a man deserve to be
recorded on account of the numerous slanders thrown upon him by some of
the tribes of tourists, who resented, as a personal affront, his
resolution to avoid their impertinent inroads upon his retirement. So
far from any appearance of indiscriminate aversion to his countrymen,
his enquiries about his friends in England (_quorum pars magna fuisti_)