as Lucifer," looked down upon the Byron family, and regarded the Duke of
Gordon as an inferior member of her clan. In later life, at any rate,
her temper was ungovernable; her language, when excited, unrestrained;
her love of gossip insatiable. Capricious in her moods, she flew from
one extreme to the other, passing, for the slightest cause, from
passionate affection to equally passionate resentment. How far these
defects were produced, as they certainly were aggravated, by her
husband's ill treatment and her hard struggle with poverty, it is
impossible to say. She had many good qualities. She bore her ruin, as
her letters show, with good sense, dignity, and composure. She lived on
a miserable pittance without running into debt; she pinched herself in
order to give her son a liberal supply of money; she was warm-hearted
and generous to those in distress. She adored her scamp of a husband,
and, in her own way, was a devoted mother. In politics she affected
democratic opinions, took in the 'Morning Chronicle', and paid for it,
as is shown by a bill sent in after her death, at the rate of L4 17s.
6d. for the half-year--no small deduction from her narrow income. She
was fond of books, subscribed to the Southwell Book Club, copied
passages which struck her in the course of her reading, collected all
the criticisms on her son's poetry, made shrewd remarks upon them
herself (Moore's 'Journal and Correspondence', vol. v. p. 295), and
corresponded with her friends on literary subjects.

In 1785 Miss Catherine Gordon was at Bath, where, it may be mentioned,
her father had, some years before, committed suicide. There she met, and
there, on May 13, 1785, in the parish church of St. Michael, as the
register shows, she married Captain John Byron.

Captain John Byron (1755-91), born at Plymouth, was the eldest son of
Admiral the Hon. John Byron (1723-86)--known in the Royal Navy as "Hardy