a repetition, it is supposed, of her original insult to the boy, he appeared before his nurse in a violent rage.  “Well, my little hero,” she asked, “what’s the matter with you now?” Upon which the child answered, that “this old woman had put him in a most terrible passion—­that he could not bear the sight of her,” &c. &c.—­and then broke out into the following doggerel, which he repeated over and over, as if delighted with the vent he had found for his rage:—­

    In Nottingham county there lives at Swan Green,
    As curst an old lady as ever was seen;
    And when she does die, which I hope will be soon,
    She firmly believes she will go to the moon.

It is possible that these rhymes may have been caught up at second-hand; and he himself, as will presently be seen, dated his “first dash into poetry,” as he calls it, a year later:—­but the anecdote altogether, as containing some early dawnings of character, appeared to me worth preserving.

The small income of Mrs. Byron received at this time the addition—­most seasonable, no doubt, though on what grounds accorded, I know not—­of a pension on the Civil List, of 300_l._ a year.  The following is a copy of the King’s warrant for the grant:—­(Signed)

     “GEORGE R.

“WHEREAS we are graciously pleased to grant unto Catharine Gordon Byron, widow, an annuity of 300_l._, to commence from 5th July, 1799, and to continue during pleasure:  our will and pleasure is, that, by virtue of our general letters of Privy Seal, bearing date 5th November, 1760, you do issue and pay out of our treasure, or revenue in the receipt of the Exchequer, applicable to the uses of our civil government, unto the said Catharine Gordon Byron, widow, or her assignees, the said annuity, to commence from 5th July, 1799, and to be paid quarterly, or otherwise, as the same shall become due, and to continue during our pleasure; and for so doing this shall be your warrant.  Given at our Court of St. James’s, 2d October, 1799, 39th year of our reign.

“By His Majesty’s command,

(Signed) “W.  PITT.

“S.  DOUGLAS.

“EDW^D.  ROBERTS, Dep.  Cler^us.  Pellium.”

Finding but little benefit from the Nottingham practitioner, Mrs. Byron, in the summer of the year 1799, thought it right to remove her boy to London, where, at the suggestion of Lord Carlisle, he was put under the care of Dr. Baillie.  It being an object, too, to place him at some quiet school, where the means adopted for the cure of his infirmity might be more easily attended to, the establishment of the late Dr. Glennie, at Dulwich, was chosen for that purpose; and as it was thought advisable that he should have a separate apartment to sleep in, Dr. Glennie had a bed put up for him in his own study.  Mrs. Byron, who had remained a short time behind him at Newstead, on her arrival in town took a house upon Sloane Terrace; and, under the direction of Dr. Baillie, one of the