Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1872-11-23
The Byron.C .Chaworth Duel.

From the st. Louis Sunday Republican,
We have always believed that By
ron's love for Mary Chaworth had
much more of sentimental romance
than solid reality in 1t. There is
nothing strange in the fact that q
morbidly sensitive boy of strong
passions and vivid imagination
the child of dissolute father and
half mad mother brought up
or rather coming up like weed
in the scmi.conclusion of an an
cient Scottish town, and the worse
than secluson of his ancestral scat
should be deeply impressed by the
physical and mental charms of a
lovely and refined young girl who
humored his Eancics and was proud
Of his devotion. Riding over day
after day from tie gloomy pre-
cincts of Newsstand Abbey to the
bright roof.trce of Anncslcy Hall ;
enjoying there unbroken peace and
pleasure, with nothing to disturb
his stormy tcmper-nothing to
balk his ungovcrpable will, it
would have been strange indeed if
be had not elevated the presiding
genius of this fair temple into Il
goddess and poured out upon her
alter those soft and sweet emotions,
which, if not as deep as others Of
later birth, arc cxquisitelv pure
and precious, and never come but
once in mans or woman's lifetime.
Mary Chaworth was to Byron the
embodiment of home--and let us
remember, as some apology for his
many frailties, that the ill.starred
poet never had q homo; neither
with the mother who alternately
caresscd and abused him, nor with
the cold bloodod wife whom Mrs.
Stowe has succeeded in damning
TO everlasting reproach. Perhaps
if he had married his first love he
would have been a much better
man, but in all probability much
less distinguished poet. A thor.
oughly happy and contontcd
man never could have written
Childc Harold such poetry, as We
find in those immortal lines can
only be evoked from the depths oi
misanthropy and miscry-just as
the grape must be crushed before
it will yield its richest juice. Sc
it was fortunate fer the world, il
unfortunate tor Byron, that thc
maid of Anneslcy never became The
mistress of Newstead but left in
his heart broken and deserted
shrine. twined with faded flowers
and useless tears. Lost forever to
him
She rose, whcreer he turned his eye
The morning star Of memory.
Had he gained her there is goot
reason to suppose that ho wonlC
soon wearied of and then neglected
her, and o delicious romance beer
merged into the dullest common
place. As it is, We bave the mel
ancholly satisfaction Of thinkin.
that if Mary Chaworth had beel
Byron's wife, She might have re
deemed him and the cheerful sat
isfaction of knowing that what wa
his loss has been our gain.
Though there is not the smalles
evidence to prove that Byron
love, whether real or ideal, was re
ciprocatcd (; yet he seems to indi
rectly intimate that the idol nigh
have been won but for the infuenc
of an hereditary fcld between III
families-tbat the orange flower
could not grow because blood re
roses usurped the soil. This feu
originated with, and reached il
. deadly consummatiOn in William
the fifth Lord Byron, who succeode
his father in the possession of It'll
and estates August s, 1886. ii
} was known among his tenants an
neighbors as the "wicked Lord
{ and from all accounts well deserve
, the uncomplimentary designation
An irritable, unreasonable, and crI
ely vindictive temper involve
in numerous quarrels, and fnall
eliminated in the event we ar
about 10 describe. Instead of a
tempting to tell the story in on
own language. we prefer to repre-
duce the quaint narrative publishe
at the ime which not only faith
fully details all the circumstances
bnt gives Us & curious glimpse G
the manners and customs Of th