“Mr. Hanson, Lord Byron’s solicitor, consigned him to my care at the age of 13-1/2, with remarks, that his education had been neglected; that he was ill prepared for a public school, but that he thought there was a cleverness about him.  After his departure I took my young disciple into my study, and endeavoured to bring him forward by enquiries as to his former amusements, employments, and associates, but with little or no effect;—­and I soon found that a wild mountain colt had been submitted to my management.  But there was mind in his eye.  In the first place, it was necessary to attach him to an elder boy, in order to familiarise him with the objects before him, and with some parts of the system in which he was to move.  But the information he received from his conductor gave him no pleasure, when he heard of the advances of some in the school, much younger than himself, and conceived by his own deficiency that he should be degraded, and humbled, by being placed below them.  This I discovered, and having committed him to the care of one of the masters, as his tutor, I assured him he should not be placed till, by diligence, he might rank with those of his own age.  He was pleased with this assurance, and felt himself on easier terms with his associates;—­for a degree of shyness hung about him for some time.  His manner and temper soon convinced me, that he might be led by a silken string to a point, rather than by a cable;—­on that principle I acted.  After some continuance at Harrow, and when the powers of his mind had begun to expand, the late Lord Carlisle, his relation, desired to see me in town;—­I waited on his Lordship.  His object was to inform me of Lord Byron’s expectations of property when he came of age, which he represented as contracted, and to enquire respecting his abilities.  On the former circumstance I made no remark; as to the latter, I replied, ‘He has talents, my Lord, which will add lustre to his rank.’  ‘Indeed!!!’ said his Lordship, with a degree of surprise, that, according to my reeling, did not express in it all the satisfaction I expected.

“The circumstance to which you allude, as to his declamatory powers, was as follows.  The upper part of the school composed declamations, which, after a revisal by the tutors, were submitted to the master:  to him the authors repeated them, that they might be improved in manner and action, before their public delivery.  I certainly was much pleased with Lord Byron’s attitude, gesture, and delivery, as well as with his composition.  All who spoke on that day adhered, as usual, to the letter of their composition, as, in the earlier part of his delivery, did Lord Byron.  But to my surprise he suddenly diverged from the written composition, with a boldness and rapidity sufficient to alarm me, lest he should fail in memory as to the conclusion.  There was no failure:—­he came round to the close of his composition without discovering any impediment and irregularity on the whole.  I questioned him, why he had altered his declamation?  He declared he had made no alteration, and did not know, in speaking, that he had deviated from it one letter.  I believed him; and from a knowledge of his temperament am convinced, that, fully impressed with the sense and substance of the subject, he was hurried on to expressions and colourings more striking than what his pen had expressed.”