AND ITS ALBUM. 107 It was with a saddened heart and a sober mind that I turned away from the tomb of Byron. It is something to have trodden upon his dust: after the many else tedious hours that his wanderings had beguiled, to have traced him to his last home. As I walked from the church, many thoughts of regret that such talents should have so grovelled in the dust passed through my mind, and I shuddered at the recollection of how great a responsibility their possessor incurred. Let him who is ambitious of literary fame pause awhile and reflect here; the vaticinations of a prophet could not speak to him a louder warning. THE ALBUM Commences with the following inscription from the pen of Dr. Bowring, by whom the book was sent to Hucknall, for the purpose to which it is applied. TO THE IMMORTAL AND ILLUSTRIOUS FAME OF LORD BYRON, THE FIRST POET OF THE AGE IN WHICH HE LIVED, THESE TRIBUTES, WEAK AND UNWORTHY OF HIM, BUT IN THEMSELVES SINCERE, ARE INSCRIBED WITH THE DEEPEST REVERENCE. JULY, 1825. Ar this period no monument-not even so simple a slab as records the death of the humblest villager in the neighbourhoodhad been erected to mark the spot in which all that is mortal of the greatest man of our day reposes-and he has been buried more than twelve months. JULY, 1825. So should it be-let o'er this grave A still, resistless influence, Unseen, but felt, binds up the sense; |