1814. Up to 1812 it was the property of George Manners, who sold it in
that year to W. Jerdan. It reviewed 'Childe Harold' in October, 1812
(pp. 344-358); and again in December of the same year (pp. 542-550). In
the first of the two notices, the 'Satirist' quotes the "judgment of our
predecessors," that unless Byron "improved wonderfully, he could never
be a poet," and continues thus:

"It is with unaffected satisfaction we find that he has improved
wonderfully, and that he is a poet. Indeed, when we consider the
comparatively short interval which has elapsed, and contrast the
character of his recent with that of his early work, we confess
ourselves astonished at the intellectual progress which Lord Byron has
made, and are happy to hold him up as another example of the
extraordinary effects of study and cultivation, 'even' on minds
apparently of the most unpromising description."

The reviewer severely condemns the morbid bitterness of the poet's
thought and feeling, but yet affirms that the poems

"abound with beautiful imagery, clothed in a diction free, forcible,
and various. 'Childe Harold', although avowedly a fragment, contains
many fragments which would do honour to any poet, of any period, in
any country."]





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