Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I | Page 4

the answer which
Colonel Hutchinson, when governor of Nottingham, returned, on one
occasion, to his cousin-german, Sir Richard Biron, a noble tribute to the
valour and fidelity of the family. Sir Richard having sent to prevail on
his relative to surrender the castle, received for answer, that "except he
found his own heart prone to such treachery, he might consider there
was, if nothing else, so much of a Biron's blood in him, that he should
very much scorn to betray or quit a trust he had undertaken."
Such are a few of the gallant and distinguished personages, through
whom the name and honours of this noble house have been transmitted.
By the maternal side also Lord Byron had to pride himself on a line of
ancestry as illustrious as any that Scotland can boast,--his mother, who
was one of the Gordons of Gight, having been a descendant of that Sir
William Gordon who was the third son of the Earl of Huntley, by the
daughter of James I.
After the eventful period of the Civil Wars, when so many individuals
of the house of Byron distinguished themselves,--there having been no
less than seven brothers of that family on the field at Edgehill,--the
celebrity of the name appears to have died away for near a century. It
was about the year 1750, that the shipwreck and sufferings of Mr.
Byron[9] (the grandfather of the illustrious subject of these pages)
awakened, in no small degree, the attention and sympathy of the public.
Not long after, a less innocent sort of notoriety attached itself to two
other members of the family,--one, the grand-uncle of the poet, and the
other, his father. The former in the year 1765, stood his trial before the
House of Peers for killing, in a duel, or rather scuffle, his relation and
neighbour Mr. Chaworth; and the latter, having carried off to the
Continent the wife of Lord Carmarthen, on the noble marquis obtaining
a divorce from the lady, married her. Of this short union one daughter

only was the issue, the Honourable Augusta Byron, now the wife of
Colonel Leigh.
In reviewing thus cursorily the ancestors, both near and remote, of Lord
Byron, it cannot fail to be remarked how strikingly he combined in his
own nature some of the best and, perhaps, worst qualities that lie
scattered through the various characters of his predecessors,--the
generosity, the love of enterprise, the high-mindedness of some of the
better spirits of his race, with the irregular passions, the eccentricity,
and daring recklessness of the world's opinion, that so much
characterised others.
The first wife of the father of the poet having died in 1784, he, in the
following year, married Miss Catherine Gordon, only child and heiress
of George Gordon, Esq. of Gight. In addition to the estate of Gight,
which had, however, in former times, been much more extensive, this
lady possessed, in ready money, bank shares, &c. no inconsiderable
property; and it was known to be solely with a view of relieving
himself from his debts, that Mr. Byron paid his addresses to her. A
circumstance related, as having taken place before the marriage of this
lady, not only shows the extreme quickness and vehemence of her
feelings, but, if it be true that she had never at the time seen Captain
Byron, is not a little striking. Being at the Edinburgh theatre one night
when the character of Isabella was performed by Mrs. Siddons, so
affected was she by the powers of this great actress, that, towards the
conclusion of the play, she fell into violent fits, and was carried out of
the theatre, screaming loudly, "Oh, my Biron, my Biron!"
On the occasion of her marriage there appeared a ballad by some
Scotch rhymer, which has been lately reprinted in a collection of the
"Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland;" and as it bears
testimony both to the reputation of the lady for wealth, and that of her
husband for rakery and extravagance, it may be worth extracting:--
MISS GORDON OF GIGHT.
O whare are ye gaen, bonny Miss Gordon? O whare are ye gaen, sae
bonny an' braw? Ye've married, ye've married wi' Johnny Byron, To

squander the lands o' Gight awa'.
This youth is a rake, frae England he's come; The Scots dinna ken his
extraction ava; He keeps up his misses, his landlord he duns, That's fast
drawen' the lands o' Gight awa'. O whare are ye gaen, &c.
The shooten' o' guns, an' rattlin' o' drums, The bugle in woods, the pipes
i' the ha', The beagles a howlin', the hounds a growlin'; These
soundings will soon gar Gight gang awa'. O whare are ye gaen, &c.
Soon after the marriage, which took place, I believe, at Bath, Mr. Byron