"if I had not considered it as a school, I "should have been happy at Harrow. There " is one spot I should like to see again: I was particularly delighted with the view from "the Church-yard, and used to sit for hours. on the stile leading into the fields ;--even "then I formed a wish to be buried there. "Of all my schoolfellows I know no one for “whom I have retained so much friendship "as for Lord Clare. I have been constantly 66 corresponding with him ever since I knew " he was in Italy; and look forward to seeing "him, and talking over with him our old "Harrow stories, with infinite delight. There "is no pleasure in life equal to that of meet "Davies come to see me? Some one told 66 me that he was at Florence, but it is "impossible. "There are two things that strike me at "this moment, which I did at Harrow: I 66 fought Lord Calthorpe for writing 'D-d "Atheist!" under my name; and prevented "the school-room from being burnt during a "rebellion, by pointing out to the boys the "names of their fathers and grandfathers on "the walls. " Had I married Miss C―, perhaps the "whole tenor of my life would have been dif"ferent. She jilted me, however; but her * Perhaps in his lyrical pieces, even those 'To Thyrza,' he never surpassed those exquisitely feeling Stanzas, beginning "O had my fate been join'd to thine," &c. one. She was at length separated from "Mr M, and proposed an interview with 66 me, but by the advice of my sister I de"clined it. I remember meeting her after my return from Greece, but pride had con quered my love; and yet it was not with perfect indifference I saw her. † "For a man to become a poet (witness Pe"trarch and Dante) he must be in love, or "miserable. I was both when I wrote The "Hours of Idleness:' some of those poems, 6 "the one To end in madness; both in misery." The Dream. +"Yet I was calm. I knew the time My heart would swell but at thy look; We met, and not a nerve was shook!" "in spite of what the reviewers say, are as "good as any I ever produced. "For some years after the event that had 66 so much influence on my fate, I tried to "drown the remembrance of it and her in "the most depraving dissipation; but the "poison was in the cup. "There had been found by the gardener, "in digging, a skull that had probably be"longed to some jolly friar or monk of the 66 Abbey about the time it was dismonas"teried." "And monks might deem their time was come agen, If ancient tales say true, nor wrong the holy men." Childe Harold, Canto I. Stanza 7. "I heard at the Countess S- -'s the other evening," said I, interrupting him," that you drink out of a skull now." He took no notice of my observation, but continued: "Observing it to be of giant size, and "in a perfect state of preservation, a strange "fancy seized me of having it set and "mounted as a drinking-cup. I accord 66 ingly sent it to town, and it returned "with a very high polish, and of a mottled "colour like tortoiseshell; (Colonel Wild"man now has it.) I remember scribbling 66 some lines about it; but that was not "all: I afterwards established at the Abbey 66 a new order. The members consisted of 66 66 twelve, and I elected myself grand master, or Abbot of the Skull, a grand heraldic "title. A set of black gowns, mine distin 66 guished from the rest, was ordered, and |