SOMETHING NEW ABOUT LORD BYRON.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 659, 17 May 1870, Page 3

SOMETHING NEW ABOUT LORD BYRON.

The Byron affair has produced some trange stories, but none so curious s that recently committed to the Madras Mail by " GUdipus," who, with ■egard to bis true story, states that lis father had it from one of Lord Jyron's most intimate friends. Eroin 0 many soiirces wo have heard that in his wedding day Byron told his rife she had married " a devil," that he words arc accepted as true. But ! ffidipus" avers they were physically iccurate. He writes:—" Lord Byron iras, in a sense, a devil. Incredible as ;he thing may seem to the thoughtless, he handsomest man in England had a ! small tail, a pair of rudimentary horns, ,nd short, squab feet divided forward rom the instep into two parts instead if being furnished with toes. Before lie had been born his mother had been fonco greatly terrified by seeing, when in a very delicate state of health, the celebrated picture of" Satan Spurned " in the gallery at La Haye, and the result had been the fashioning of the child to some extent after the monstrous form of which the sight had caused her alarm, and of which the continuous recollection could not be effaced by any means known to her physicians. At the time of her confinement it was at first suggested that the monstrosity should not be suffered to live, but the child's body, as a whole, was so perfectly shaped, aud his face, so wondrously beautiful, that the suggestion was forthwith put aside and England was not deprived of what was to become in due time one of its chief est ornaments. Poor Lady Byron never recovered wholly from the- shock caused by her discovery of what her husband really was, and partly through excess of imagination, partly in consequence of bad advice from persons who shall be nameless, she felt it to be her duty to insist upon her husband subjecting himself to certain painful operations. But this Lord Byron obstinately refused to do. He urged, and with considerable force, that tho way in which he wore his abundant curls effectually hid from view the.rudimentary horns ; and that as he never appeared in public without his boots and trousers, none would ever suspect the existence of his other defects, with the exception of his valet in whom he placed implicit confidence. Lord Byron was firm, and unhappily Lady Byron would not give way ; and so it came to pass, after a year or more of tears, entreaties, and remonstrances, that the unfortunate woman made up her mind to quit her home for ever. This, I am absolutely certain, is the true story of Lord Byron's separation from his wife." What will this noisome controversy next produce? The " true story " of " CEdipus " looks like the result, upon a coarse mind, of unlimited brandy-pawnee.

A steam velocipede, intended to run on ordinary roads, has been built by Mr Thompson, engineer, Glasgow. The inventor is Mr Alexander Burns, draper, Carluke, who was in early life a miner.