Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I | Page 6

setting his censurer and her wrath at defiance.
But, notwithstanding this, and other such unruly outbreaks,--in which
he was but too much encouraged by the example of his mother, who
frequently, it is said, proceeded to the same extremities with her caps,
gowns, &c.,--there was in his disposition, as appears from the
concurrent testimony of nurses, tutors, and all who were employed
about him, a mixture of affectionate sweetness and playfulness, by
which it was impossible not to be attached; and which rendered him
then, as in his riper years, easily manageable by those who loved and
understood him sufficiently to be at once gentle and firm enough for
the task. The female attendant of whom we have spoken, as well as her
sister, Mary Gray, who succeeded her, gained an influence over his
mind against which he very rarely rebelled; while his mother, whose
capricious excesses, both of anger and of fondness, left her little hold
on either his respect or affection, was indebted solely to his sense of
filial duty for any small portion of authority she was ever able to
acquire over him.
By an accident which, it is said, occurred at the time of his birth, one of
his feet was twisted out of its natural position, and this defect (chiefly
from the contrivances employed to remedy it) was a source of much
pain and inconvenience to him during his early years. The expedients
used at this period to restore the limb to shape, were adopted by the
advice, and under the direction, of the celebrated John Hunter, with
whom Dr. Livingstone of Aberdeen corresponded on the subject; and
his nurse, to whom fell the task of putting on these machines or
bandages, at bedtime, would often, as she herself told my informant,
sing him to sleep, or tell him stories and legends, in which, like most
other children, he took great delight. She also taught him, while yet an

infant, to repeat a great number of the Psalms; and the first and
twenty-third Psalms were among the earliest that he committed to
memory. It is a remarkable fact, indeed, that through the care of this
respectable woman, who was herself of a very religious disposition, he
attained a far earlier and more intimate acquaintance with the Sacred
Writings than falls to the lot of most young people. In a letter which he
wrote to Mr. Murray, from Italy, in 1821 after requesting of that
gentleman to send him, by the first opportunity, a Bible, he
adds--"Don't forget this, for I am a great reader and admirer of those
books, and had read them through and through before I was eight years
old,--that is to say, the Old Testament, for the New struck me as a task,
but the other as a pleasure. I speak as a boy, from the recollected
impression of that period at Aberdeen, in 1796."
The malformation of his foot was, even at this childish age, a subject
on which he showed peculiar sensitiveness. I have been told by a
gentleman of Glasgow, that the person who nursed his wife, and who
still lives in his family, used often to join the nurse of Byron when they
were out with their respective charges, and one day said to her, as they
walked together, "What a pretty boy Byron is! what a pity he has such a
leg!" On hearing this allusion to his infirmity, the child's eyes flashed
with anger, and striking at her with a little whip which he held in his
hand, he exclaimed impatiently, "Dinna speak of it!" Sometimes,
however, as in after life, he could talk indifferently and even jestingly
of this lameness; and there being another little boy in the
neighbourhood, who had a similar defect in one of his feet, Byron
would say, laughingly, "Come and see the twa laddies with the twa club
feet going up the Broad Street."
Among many instances of his quickness and energy at this age, his
nurse mentioned a little incident that one night occurred, on her taking
him to the theatre to see the "Taming of the Shrew." He had attended to
the performance, for some time, with silent interest; but, in the scene
between Catherine and Petruchio, where the following dialogue takes
place,--
Cath. I know it is the moon. Pet. Nay, then, you lie,--it is the blessed

sun,--
little Geordie (as they called the child), starting from his seat, cried out
boldly, "But I say it is the moon, sir."
The short visit of Captain Byron to Aberdeen has already been
mentioned, and he again passed two or three months in that city, before
his last departure for France. On both occasions, his chief object was to
extract still more money, if possible, from the unfortunate woman
whom he