Meanwhile, during the intervals of his attendance at college, Byron had made other friends.  His vacations were divided between London and Southwell, a small town on the road from Mansfield and Newark, once a refuge of Charles I., and still adorned by an old Norman Minster.  Here Mrs. Byron for several summer seasons took up her abode, and was frequently joined by her son.  He was introduced to John Pigot, a medical student of Edinburgh, and his sister Elizabeth, both endowed with talents above the average, and keenly interested in literary pursuits, to whom a number of his letters are addressed; also to the Rev. J.T.  Becher, author of a treatise on the state of the poor, to whom he was indebted for encouragement and counsel.  The poet often rails at the place, which he found dull in comparison with Cambridge and London; writing from the latter, in 1807:  “O Southwell, how I rejoice to have left thee! and how I curse the heavy hours I dragged along for so many months among the Mohawks who inhabit your kraals!” and adding, that his sole satisfaction during his residence there was having pared off some pounds of flush.  Notwithstanding, in the small but select society of this inland watering-place he passed on the whole a pleasant time—­listening to the music of the simple ballads in which he delighted, taking part in the performances of the local theatre, making excursions, and writing verses.  This otherwise quiet time was disturbed by exhibitions of violence on the part of Mrs. Byron, which suggest the idea of insanity.  After one more outrageous than usual, both mother and son are said to have gone to the neighbouring apothecary, each to request him not to supply the other with poison.  On a later occasion, when he had been meeting her bursts of rage with stubborn mockery, she flung a poker at his head, and narrowly missed her aim.  Upon this he took flight to London, and his Hydra or Alecto, as ho calls her, followed:  on their meeting a truce was patched, and they withdrew in opposite directions, she back to Southwell, he to refresh himself on the Sussex coast, till in the August of the same year (1806) he again rejoined her.  Shortly afterwards we have from Pigot a description of a trip to Harrogate, when his lordship’s favourite Newfoundland, Boatswain, whose relation to his master recalls that of Bounce to Pope, or Maida to Scott, sat on the box.

In November Byron printed for private circulation the first issue of his juvenile poems.  Mr. Becher having called his attention to one which he thought objectionable, the impression was destroyed; and the author set to work upon another, which, at once weeded and amplified, saw the light in January, 1807.  He sent copies, under the title of Juvenilia, to several of his friends, and among others to Henry Mackenzie (the Man of Feeling), and to Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee.  Encouraged by their favourable notices, he determined in appeal to a wider audience, and in March, 1807, the Hours of Idleness,