The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-08-08
A Chapter in the History of the Byron
Family.
From the Boston Globe.

Among the victims of theia own temerity
during the recent eruptions of Mount We
suvins was descendant OF Lord Byron by
II so-called Morganistic Nenitian MARRIAGE =.
| The fact is worthy of notice only because
| it is in accord with the singular fatality
that has beset the Byron race for more than
Il century, and it revives memories of the
distinguished daughter of the great poet.
Few persons probably have ever read the
commencing and concluding stanzas of the
third ctnto OF "ChiIde Harold" without a
deep interest in the Ada he touchinelv
apostrophizes. The story of her life init
mately enough known in those repertoires
of unwritten biographies of the English
aristocracy-the Pail Mall clubs-though
AS full of weird romance as of sad reality,
has not often been told abroad. The lady
has been many years dead. Another wife
has long since taken her place Friends,
neighbors, acquaintance, social equals.
and even strangers, have been familiar
with the history Of Augusta Ada Byron
for more than two decades We reveal no
secrets and break no promise bv briefly
narrating it here. 1t will be remembered
that the first and only born of that unhap-
ply marriage of Lord Byron to Miss Mill
banke was Just five weeks old when the
mother and wife, for reasons never salts
factorily explained returned to her fathers
house. Here the infant grew into girlhood
under the care of her mother, and here.
after Lady Byron's accession to her prop
ery, We're the foundations of Augusta
Ada's education laid. Inheritinm uncom-
mon genius, though. as we shall presently
explain, wholly different from her fathers,
she was brought up with the most tender
care and educated by the most thorou oh
training. Her personal beauty developed
with her mind. She is described by a per
son who frequently saw her, when at the
age Of twenty years she was living with
her mother at Clifton Springs. as OF the
most queenly presence and graceful car
riage, her complexion fresh, her features
of perfect contour. her eyes large and
brilliant, her head set upon her shoulders
like her fathers, her hair chestnut, abund-
ant and wavy, and her person slightly
e?nbonpoim but perfect in proportions 70
these charms there were added a voice of
great sweetness, and vivacity in CONVEX
saton that held in thrall all who approach
ed her. Whether owing to her education.
for She read no poetry and never saw a
work of Lord Byron till past her puberty,
or to Inheritance from her mother, her I'M
derstanding of the exact sciences was ex-
celled by no woman of her time except
Mrs Sommeville, and, indeed, by few of
the other sex. In proof OF her extraorGli-
nary attainments in this respect, it is Meh-
toned by the late Charles Babbage, III his
Passage from the Life of Philosopher, -
that she informed him she had translated
for her amusement "Menabrea's Memoir
of the Analytical Engine" from tie Bib
liothique Universelle." He proposed that
she should add notes of her dwn. Tb 4
she did, extending them to three times the
original memoir. Babbage says that t6 all
persons capable OF understanding the rea-
soning, it furnishes ga demonstration that
the operations of analysis arercapable of
being executed by machinery. rThis trans
lation, with the notes, may be found in
volume 81 OF the TRANSACTIONS of the
Royal Society,"" Ada Byron was married
to the Earl of Lovelace in March, 1885.
The marriage was not an unhappy one.
Her husband, respectable in talents and
domestic in habits, Lord Lieutenant of hi
county and high in social position, sulta
BILE in age, and possessed Of large estates,
regarded his wife with mingled feelings of
affection and admiration. Unwilling that
she should be known publicly as an au
thoress, he nevertheless more than once
gave permission that certain of her arti-
cles on various branches of science, about