ELLISTON 11 



me look forward, with pleasurable anticipation, to the 

 time of having him for my box companion. He was 

 always in good spirits, and had something fresh to com- 

 municate from the literary world. He had, somehow or 

 other, become pre|)ossessed that I had a talent that way, 

 and was continually urging me to give the world a proof 

 of it, and himself at the same time, by writing a play ; 

 and all that I could say in derision or ridicule never 

 disabused his mind of so fallacious an opinion. 



One fine summer's morning, I recollect he had a parcel 

 in his hand, which he would not allow the porter to 

 dispose of with his other luggage. After we had left the 

 " Peacock " at Islington, he opened it, when it proved to 

 be a copy, in quarto, of the first and second cantos of 

 " Don Juan," which had been sent him by the publisher 

 the day before, by desire of the noble author, who was 

 then, I believe, in Italy. He read it aloud in a clear, 

 natural voice, in a vivacious and emphatic strain, quite 

 in accordance with the s^^irit of the subject, and suf- 

 ficiently audible for the passengers on the roof to hear 

 and eniov. 



Among them was a man habited as a sailor, and a 

 regular tar he was (a rara avis in that latitude), who 

 evinced his delight by rubbing his hands and laughing 

 aloud at some of the incidents, so graphically depicted in 

 that rare, but not very chaste, production ; this caused 

 my friend to stop and look round, and then to pursue his 

 task with additional zest. When he had finished, and all 

 had thanked him for the great treat he had given us, he 

 told me he was in treaty for Drury Lane Theatre, and 

 had written to Lord Byron to prepare him a tragedy, 



