]
[Footnote 20: To this Lord Byron used to add, on the authority of old
servants of the family, that on the day of their patron's death, these
crickets all left the house simultaneously, and in such numbers, that
it was impossible to cross the hall without treading on them.]
[Footnote 21: The correct reading of this legend is, I understand, as
follows:--
"Brig o' Balgounie, _wight_ (strong) is thy wa';
Wi' a wife's ae son on a mare's ae foal,
Down shall thou fa'."
]
[Footnote 22: In a letter addressed lately by Mr. Sheldrake to the
editor of a Medical Journal, it is stated that the person of the same
name who attended Lord Byron at Dulwich owed the honour of being
called in to a mistake, and effected nothing towards the remedy of the
limb. The writer of the letter adds that he was himself consulted by
Lord Byron four or five years afterwards, and though unable to
undertake the cure of the defect, from the unwillingness of his noble
patient to submit to restraint or confinement, was successful in
constructing a sort of shoe for the foot, which in some degree
alleviated the inconvenience under which he laboured.]
[Footnote 23: "Quoique," says Alfieri, speaking of his school-days,
"je fusse le plus petit de tons les _grands_ qui se trouvaient au
second appartement ou j'etais descendu, e'etait precisement mon
inferiorite de taille, d'age, et de force, qui me donnait plus de
courage, et m'engageait a me distinguer.
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