Byron had involved himself very deeply in debt,
and his creditors commenced legal proceedings for the recovery of
their money. The cash in hand was soon paid away,--the bank shares
were disposed of at 600 _l._ (now worth 5000 _l._)--timber on the estate
was cut down and sold to the amount of 1500_l._--the farm of Monkshill
and superiority of the fishings, affording a freehold qualification,
were disposed of at 480_l._; and, in addition to these sales, within a
year after the marriage, 8000_l._ was borrowed upon a mortgage on the
estate, granted by Mrs. Byron Gordon to the person who lent the money.
"In March, 1786, a contract of marriage in the Scotch form was drawn
up and signed by the parties. In the course of the summer of that
year, Mr. and Mrs. Byron left Gight, and never returned to it; the
estate being, in the following year, sold to Lord Haddo for the sum of
17,850_l._, the whole of which was applied to the payment of Mr.
Byron's debts, with the exception of 1122_l._, which remained as a
burden on the estate, (the interest to be applied to paying a jointure
of 55_l._ 11_s._ 1_d._ to Mrs. Byron's grandmother, the principal
reverting, at her death, to Mrs. Byron,) and 3000_l._ vested in
trustees for Mrs. Byron's separate use, which was lent to Mr.
Carsewell of Ratharllet, in Fifeshire."
"A strange occurrence," says another of my informants, "took place
previous to the sale of the lands. All the doves left the house of
Gight and came to Lord Haddo's, and so did a number of herons, which
had built their nests for many years in a wood on the banks of a large
loch, called the Hagberry Pot.
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