“One day I saw him take up his own ‘Monody on Garrick.’  He lighted upon the Dedication to the Dowager Lady * *.  On seeing it, he flew into a rage, and exclaimed, ’that it must be a forgery, that he had never dedicated any thing of his to such a d——­d canting,’ &c. &c. &c—­and so went on for half an hour abusing his own dedication, or at least the object of it.  If all writers were equally sincere, it would be ludicrous.

“He told me that, on the night of the grand success of his School for Scandal, he was knocked down and put into the watch-house for making a row in the street, and being found intoxicated by the watchmen.

“When dying, he was requested to undergo ‘an operation.’  He replied, that he had already submitted to two, which were enough for one man’s lifetime.  Being asked what they were, he answered, ’having his hair cut, and sitting for his picture.’

“I have met George Colman occasionally, and thought him extremely pleasant and convivial.  Sheridan’s humour, or rather wit, was always saturnine, and sometimes savage; he never laughed, (at least that I saw, and I watched him,) but Colman did.  If I had to choose, and could not have both at a time, I should say, ’Let me begin the evening with Sheridan, and finish it with Colman.’  Sheridan for dinner, Colman for supper; Sheridan for claret or port, but Colman for every thing, from the madeira and champagne at dinner, the claret with a layer of port between the glasses, up to the punch of the night, and down to the grog, or gin and water, of daybreak;—­all these I have threaded with both the same.  Sheridan was a grenadier company of life-guards, but Colman a whole regiment—­of light infantry, to be sure, but still a regiment.”

It was at this time that Lord Byron became acquainted (and, I regret to have to add, partly through my means) with Mr. Leigh Hunt, the editor of a well-known weekly journal, the Examiner.  This gentleman I had myself formed an acquaintance with in the year 1811, and, in common with a large portion of the public, entertained a sincere admiration of his talents and courage as a journalist.  The interest I took in him personally had been recently much increased by the manly spirit, which he had displayed throughout a prosecution instituted against himself and his brother, for a libel that had appeared in their paper on the Prince Regent, and in consequence of which they were both sentenced to imprisonment for two years.  It will be recollected that there existed among the Whig party, at this period, a strong feeling of indignation at the late defection from themselves and their principles of the illustrious personage who had been so long looked up to as the friend and patron of both.  Being myself, at the time, warmly—­perhaps intemperately—­under the influence of this feeling, I regarded the fate of Mr. Hunt with more than common interest, and, immediately on my arrival in town, paid him a visit in his prison.