colour, sometimes with almost tedious minuteness and iteration, the
gradual growth of a strangely composite character is presented,
surrounded by the influences which controlled or moulded its
development, and traced through all the varieties of its rapidly
changing moods. Written, as Byron wrote, with habitual exaggeration, and
on the impulse of the moment, his letters correct one another, and, from
this point of view, every letter contained in the volume adds something
to the truth and completeness of the portrait.

Round the central figure of Byron are grouped his relations and friends,
and two of the most interesting features in the volume are the strength
of his family affections, and the width, if not the depth, of his
capacity for friendship. His father died when the child was only three
years old. But a bundle of his letters, written from Valenciennes to his
sister, Mrs. Leigh, in 1790-91, still exists, to attest, with startling
plainness of speech, the strength of the tendencies which John Byron
transmitted to his son. The following extract contains the father's only
allusion to the boy:--

"Valenciennes, Feb. 16, 1791.

Have you never received any letters from me by way of Bologne? I have
sent two. For God's sake send me some, as I have a great deal to pay.
With regard to Mrs. Byron, I am glad she writes to you. She is very
amiable at a distance; but I defy you and all the Apostles to live
with her two months, for, if any body could live with her, it was me.
'Mais jeu de Mains, jeu de Vilains'. For my son, I am happy to hear he
is well; but for his walking, 'tis impossible, as he is club-footed."

Between his mother and himself, in spite of frequent and violent