“Near this spot
Are deposited the Remains of one
Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices. 
This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over human ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a Dog,
Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803,
And died at Newstead Abbey, November 18. 1808.”

The poet, Pope, when about the same age as the writer of this inscription, passed a similar eulogy on his dog,[97] at the expense of human nature; adding, that “Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.”  In a still sadder and bitterer spirit, Lord Byron writes of his favourite,

“To mark a friend’s remains these stones arise; I never knew
but one, and here he lies."[98]

Melancholy, indeed, seems to have been gaining fast upon his mind at this period.  In another letter to Mr. Hodgson, he says,—­“You know laughing is the sign of a rational animal—­so says Dr. Smollet.  I think so too, but unluckily my spirits don’t always keep pace with my opinions.”

Old Murray, the servant whom he mentions, in a preceding extract, as the only faithful follower now remaining to him, had long been in the service of the former lord, and was regarded by the young poet with a fondness of affection which it has seldom been the lot of age and dependence to inspire.  “I have more than once,” says a gentleman who was at this time a constant visiter at Newstead, “seen Lord Byron at the dinner-table fill out a tumbler of Madeira, and hand it over his shoulder to Joe Murray, who stood behind his chair, saying, with a cordiality that brightened his whole countenance, ’Here, my old fellow.’”

The unconcern with which he could sometimes allude to the defect in his foot is manifest from another passage in one of these letters to Mr. Hodgson.  That gentleman having said jestingly that some of the verses in the “Hours of Idleness” were calculated to make schoolboys rebellious, Lord Byron answers—­“If my songs have produced the glorious effects you mention, I shall be a complete Tyrtaeus;—­though I am sorry to say I resemble that interesting harper more in his person than in his poesy.”  Sometimes, too, even an allusion to this infirmity by others, when he could perceive that it was not offensively intended, was borne by him with the most perfect good humour.  “I was once present,” says the friend I have just mentioned, “in a large and mixed company, when a vulgar person asked him aloud—­’Pray, my Lord, how is that foot of yours?’—­’Thank you, sir,’ answered Lord Byron, with the utmost mildness—­’much the same as usual.’”

The following extract, relating to a reverend friend of his Lordship, is from another of his letters to Mr. Hodgson, this year:—­