Byron made a number of statements about prose as a medium of expression, and almost always in its relation to poetry. On 17 November 1813, he confided to his journal: 'I began a comedy and burnt it because the scene ran into reality; - a novel, for the same reason. In rhyme, I can keep more away from facts; but the thought always runs through, through . . . yes, yes, through' (BLJ , iii, 209); six days later he added: 'I have burnt my Roman - as I did the first scenes and sketch of my comedy . . . I ran into realities more than ever; and some would have been recognized and others guessed at' (BLJ , iii, 217). In Beppo on the other hand, he announces: 'I've half a mind to tumble down to prose, / But verse is more in fashion - so here goes!'; and in Don Juan: 'if ever I should condescend to prose, / I'll write poetical commandments' (Beppo, 52, and Don Juan , i, 204). Fashion? Inferiority? An unsatisfactory means of achieving and sustaining creative objectivity? As diverse as these reflections are, one thing they seem to tell us is that, unlike Wordsworth, Byron does perceive an 'essential difference' between poetry and prose, though not necessarily - and here he might agree with Wordsworth - between 'the language of prose and metrical composition'; a difference in kind, in creative discipline. I should like to take these as signposts and to begin with a few remarks about his prose in general before focusing a little more specifically on 'To the Editor of the British Review' (1819) and Some Observations upon an Article in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1820) (hereinafter referred to as 'To the Editor' and Some Observations respectively). The effort as a whole will attempt to suggest some answers to the questions: What is Byron's Prose, what characterizes it, what sort of subjects does it cover, how well does it work as a creative medium?