Chapter XXXV: Letter 87: To Master John Cowell

"8. St. James's Street, February 12. 1812.

"My dear John,

"You have probably long ago forgotten the writer of these lines,
who would, perhaps, be unable to recognise _yourself_, from the
difference which must naturally have taken place in your stature
and appearance since he saw you last. I have been rambling through
Portugal, Spain, Greece, &c. &c. for some years, and have found so
many changes on my return, that it would be very unfair not to
expect that you should have had your share of alteration and
improvement with the rest. I write to request a favour of you: a
little boy of eleven years, the son of Mr. * *, my particular
friend, is about to become an Etonian, and I should esteem any act
of protection or kindness to him as an obligation to myself; let me
beg of you then to take some little notice of him at first, till he
is able to shift for himself.

"I was happy to hear a very favourable account of you from a
schoolfellow a few weeks ago, and should be glad to learn that your
family are as well as I wish them to be. I presume you are in the
upper school;--as an _Etonian_, you will look down upon a _Harrow_
man; but I never, even in my boyish days, disputed your
superiority, which I once experienced in a cricket match, where I
had the honour of making one of eleven, who were beaten to their
hearts' content by your college in _one innings_.

"Believe me to be, with great truth," &c. &c.

* * * * *

On the 27th of February, a day or two before the appearance of Childe Harold, he made the first trial of his eloquence in the House of Lords; and it was on this occasion he had the good fortune to become acquainted with Lord Holland,--an acquaintance no less honourable than gratifying to both, as having originated in feelings the most generous, perhaps, of our nature, a ready forgiveness of injuries, on the one side, and a frank and unqualified atonement for them, on the other. The subject of debate was the Nottingham Frame-breaking Bill, and, Lord Byron having mentioned to Mr. Rogers his intention to take a part in the discussion, a communication was, by the intervention of that gentleman, opened between the noble poet and Lord Holland, who, with his usual courtesy, professed himself ready to afford all the information and advice in his power. The following letters, however, will best explain their first advances towards acquaintance.