"
[Footnote: Letter of the late Charles Skinner Mathews, Esq.]
Even the repairs thus made were but of transient benefit, for the roof
being left in its dilapidated state, the rain soon penetrated into the
apartments which Lord Byron had restored and decorated, and in a few
years rendered them almost as desolate as the rest of the Abbey.
Still he felt a pride in the ruinous old edifice; its very dreary and
dismantled state, addressed itself to his poetical imagination, and to
that love of the melancholy and the grand which is evinced in all his
writings. "Come what may," said he in one of his letters, "Newstead and
I stand or fall together. I have now lived on the spot. I have fixed my
heart upon it, and no pressure, present or future, shall induce me to
barter the last vestige of our inheritance. I have that pride within me
which will enable me to support difficulties: could I obtain in
exchange for Newstead Abbey, the first fortune in the country, I would
reject the proposition."
His residence at the Abbey, however, was fitful and uncertain. He
passed occasional portions of time there, sometimes studiously and
alone, oftener idly and recklessly, and occasionally with young and gay
companions, in riot and revelry, and the indulgence of all kinds of mad
caprice.
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