recommendation of his aunt. In July, 1799, he was taken to London, in
order to consult Dr. Baillie. From July, 1799, till the end of 1802, he
was attended by Baillie in consultation with Dr. Laurie of 2,
Bartholomew's Close. Special appliances were made for the boy, under
their superintendence, by a scientific bootmaker named Sheldrake, in the
Strand. In 'The Lancet' for 1827-8 (vol. ii. p. 779) Mr. T. Sheldrake
describes "Lord Byron's case," giving an illustration of the foot. His
account does not tally, in some respects, with that taken from
contemporary letters, and his sketch represents the left not the right
leg. But the nature and extent of Byron's lameness have been the subject
of a curious variety of opinion. Lady Blessington, Moore, Gait, the
Contessa Albrizzi, never knew which foot was deformed. Jackson, the
boxer, thought it was the 'left' foot. Trelawney says that it proceeded
from a contraction of the back sinews, and that the 'right' foot was
most distorted. The lasts from which his shoes were made by Swift, the
Southwell bootmaker, are preserved in the Nottingham Museum, and in both
the foot is perfect in shape. The last pair of shoes modelled on them
were made May 7, 1807. Mrs. Leigh Hunt says that the 'left' foot was
shrunken, but was not a club-foot. Stendhal says the 'right' foot.
Thorwaldsen indicates the 'left' foot. Dr. James Millingen, who
inspected the feet after the poet's death, says that there was a
malformation of the 'left' foot and leg, and that he was born
club-footed. Two surgical boots are in the possession of Mr. Murray,
made for Byron as a child; both are for the 'right' foot, ankle, and
leg, and, assuming that they were made to fit the foot, they are too
long and thin for a club-foot. Both at Dulwich and at Harrow, Byron was
frequently seen by Laurie, whom Mrs. Byron paid, as she once complained
in a letter to Laurie, "at the rate of L150 a year." It is difficult to
see what more could have been done for the boy, and the explanation of
the failure to effect a cure is probably to be found in the following