BYRON'S BODY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THEE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Mr. John Murray, in his letter quoting what is no doubt a " full and accurate " account of the landing of Byron's body in England, ends with the phrase : "It is always desirable to verify one's references." Admitted. But that was exactly what " Tarn " did. I had originally told the story and " Tarn " inquired of me later to make sure. The story, as told in the Spectator, was told to me by my great-aunt, Miss Mary Anne Sykes, who was the authority in question. (1) She was the niece by marriage of Admiral Byron. (2) She was as a girl stopping at her uncle's house when the body arrived in England. (3) She remembered her uncle going up to London to see the body. (4) She remembered asking him what the body looked like. (5) She remembered his reply that it was black and looked like an alligator.
All these statements I have on several occasions heard from my aunt. Further, I have to-day received a letter from a niece of Miss Sykes, now eighty years of age, who endorses my statement that our relative, her aunt and my great-aunt, always made the statement in the terms just given.
Probably the explanation is that Admiral Byron did not receive the body of his nephew as stated, but only went up to London to see it at the undertaker's. That hypothesis recon- ciles two statements, both, of course, made in good faith. As to the colour of the body, there is a more real conflict of evidence. Possibly the change occurred after the body was
exposed to the air.—I am, Sir, &c., GREAT-NEPHEW.
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