A LINK WITH BYRON.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
hope the following recollection of Lord Byron when he was for the last time in Greece in the year 1824 will be of interest to your readers, as it is a somewhat vivid picture of the sensitiveness of the poet and Philhellene, given by my grandfather, who saw Lord Byron at Missolonghi. I first heard the story as a child from my late father, who had heard it from his father, a member of the Philike Hetairia (a secret society founded for the liberation of Greece), and one who took a prominent part in the great rising of 1821.
My grandfather sailed from Code on one of his own ships, carrying ammunition and cannon to assist the garrison at Missolonghi. There he asked to see Lord Byron, and was accordingly conducted to the residence of the poet, which was very near the marshes. He saw Byron sitting on a chair outside the house in the sun, and on his knees was spread a red silk handkerchief, upon which his bands were lying. My grandfather said that Byron had beautifully shaped white hands, and that he liked to show them off to the Greeks, who justly admired them, as my grandfather did himself. All the time Lord Byron talked to my grandfather his hands remained prominently displayed upon the red silk handker- chief, and he kept looking at them with evident admiration of the effect of their whiteness shown up by a red background.
Previous page
