credited as true by Lady Shelley in her Memorials, shows how early an estrangement had begun between the poet and his father.  We look, moreover, vainly for that mother’s influence which might have been so beneficial to the boy in whom “love and life were twins, born at one birth.”  From Dr. Lind Shelley not only received encouragement to pursue his chemical studies; but he also acquired the habit of corresponding with persons unknown to him, whose opinions he might be anxious to discover or dispute.  This habit, as we shall see in the sequel, determined Shelley’s fate on two important occasions of his life.  In return for the help extended to him at Eton, Shelley conferred undying fame on Dr. Lind; the characters of Zonaras in “Prince Athanase,” and of the hermit in “Laon and Cythna,” are portraits painted by the poet of his boyhood’s friend.

The months which elapsed between Eton and Oxford were an important period in Shelley’s life.  At this time a boyish liking for his cousin, Harriet Grove, ripened into real attachment; and though there was perhaps no formal engagement between them, the parents on both sides looked with approval on their love.  What it concerns us to know about this early passion, is given in a letter from a brother of Miss Grove.  “Bysshe was at that time (just after leaving Eton) more attached to my sister Harriet than I can express, and I recollect well the moonlight walks we four had at Strode and also at St. Irving’s; that, I think, was the name of the place, then the Duke of Norfolk’s, at Horsham.”  For some time after the date mentioned in this letter, Shelley and Miss Grove kept up an active correspondence; but the views he expressed on speculative subjects soon began to alarm her.  She consulted her mother and her father, and the engagement was broken off.  The final separation does not seem to have taken place until the date of Shelley’s expulsion from Oxford; and not the least cruel of the pangs he had to suffer at that period, was the loss of one to whom he had given his whole heart unreservedly.  The memory of Miss Grove long continued to haunt his imagination, nor is there much doubt that his first unhappy marriage was contracted while the wound remained unhealed.  The name of Harriet Westbrook and something in her face reminded him of Harriet Grove; it is even still uncertain to which Harriet the dedication of Queen Mab is addressed. (See Medwin, volume 1 page 68.)

In his childhood Shelley scribbled verses with fluency by no means unusual in the case of forward boys; and we have seen that at Sion House he greedily devoured the sentimental novels of the day.  His favourite poets at the time of which I am now writing, were Monk Lewis and Southey; his favourite books in prose were romances by Mrs. Radcliffe and Godwin.  He now began to yearn for fame and publicity.  Miss Shelley speaks of a play written by her brother and her sister Elizabeth, which was sent to Matthews the comedian, and courteously returned as unfit for acting.