“The walls of the Seraglio are like the walls of Newstead gardens, only higher, and much in the same order; but the ride by the walls of the city, on the land side, is beautiful.  Imagine four miles of immense triple battlements, covered with ivy, surmounted with 218 towers, and, on the other side of the road, Turkish burying-grounds (the loveliest spots on earth), full of enormous cypresses.  I have seen the ruins of Athens, of Ephesus, and Delphi.  I have traversed great part of Turkey, and many other parts of Europe, and some of Asia; but I never beheld a work of nature or art which yielded an impression like the prospect on each side from the Seven Towers to the end of the Golden Horn.

“Now for England.  I am glad to hear of the progress of ’English Bards,’ &c.;—­of course, you observed I have made great additions to the new edition.  Have you received my picture from Sanders, Vigo Lane, London?  It was finished and paid for long before I left England:  pray, send for it.  You seem to be a mighty reader of magazines:  where do you pick up all this intelligence, quotations, &c. &c.?  Though I was happy to obtain my seat without the assistance of Lord Carlisle, I had no measures to keep with a man who declined interfering as my relation on that occasion, and I have done with him, though I regret distressing Mrs. Leigh, poor thing!—­I hope she is happy.

“It is my opinion that Mr. B——­ ought to marry Miss R——.  Our first duty is not to do evil; but, alas! that is impossible:  our next is to repair it, if in our power.  The girl is his equal:  if she were his inferior, a sum of money and provision for the child would be some, though a poor, compensation:  as it is, he should marry her.  I will have no gay deceivers on my estate, and I shall not allow my tenants a privilege I do not permit myself—­that of debauching each other’s daughters.  God knows, I have been guilty of many excesses; but, as I have laid down a resolution to reform, and lately kept it, I expect this Lothario to follow the example, and begin by restoring this girl to society, or, by the beard of my father! he shall hear of it.  Pray take some notice of Robert, who will miss his master:  poor boy, he was very unwilling to return.  I trust you are well and happy.  It will be a pleasure to hear from you.

Believe me yours very sincerely,

“BYRON.

“P.S.—­How is Joe Murray?

“P.S.—­I open my letter again to tell you that Fletcher having petitioned to accompany me into the Morea, I have taken him with me, contrary to the intention expressed in my letter.”

The reader has not, I trust, passed carelessly over the latter part of this letter.  There is a healthfulness in the moral feeling so unaffectedly expressed in it, which seems to answer for a heart sound at the core, however passion might have scorched it.  Some years after, when he had become more confirmed in that artificial tone of banter, in which it was, unluckily, his habit to speak of his own good feelings, as well as those of others, however capable he might still have been of the same amiable sentiments, I question much whether the perverse fear of being thought desirous to pass for moral would not have prevented him from thus naturally and honestly avowing them.