friendship, he could not resist the temptation of showing one up, either in conversation or by letter, though in half an hour after he would put himself to personal inconvenience to render a kindness to the person so shown up.
I remarked, that in talking of literary productions, he seemed much more susceptible to their defects, than alive to their beauties. As a proof, he never failed to remember some quotation that told against the unhappy author, which he recited with an emphasis, or a mock-heroic air, that made it very ludicrous. The pathetic he always burlesqued in reciting; but this I am sure proceeded from an affectation of not sympathizing with the general taste.
April. - Lord Byron dined with us to-day. During dinner he was as usual gay, spoke in terms of the warmest commendation of Sir Walter Scott, not only as an author, but as a man, and dwelt with apparent delight on his novels, declaring that he had read and reread them over and over again, and always with increased pleasure. He said that he quite equalled, nay, in his own opinion, surpassed Cervantes. In talking of Sir Walter's private character, goodness of heart, &c. Lord Byron became more animated than I had ever seen him; his color changed from its general pallid tint to a more lively hue, and his eyes be-
