Summary
In the summer of 1816 I visited Switzerland for the first time, and remained there until early in the following October. I passed those happy days with Lord Byron, chiefly at the villa Diodati, on the Savoy side of the lake of Greneva, but, occasionally, in short journeys to some of the spots usually visited by strangers. One was to Chamouni, another to the Grindelwald. Of the latter Lord Byron recorded short notices in a journal which he sent to his sister, and which Mr. Moore published in his Life. It was on our visit to Chamouni that a circumstance occurred which has been so entirely distorted, and represented directly contrary to the fact, that I feel bound to mention it. At an inn on the road the travellers' book was put before us, and Lord Byron, having written his name, pointed out to me the name of Mr. Shelley, with the words atheist and philanthropist written in Greek opposite to it; and observing “Do you not think I shall do Shelley a service by scratching this out?” he defaced the words with great care. This was the fact—the fiction afterwards printed and published was, that Lord Byron wrote the word “atheist” after his own name in that book; and Mr. Southey, although he does not repeat that absurd story, nevertheless endeavours to make Lord Byron answerable for Mr. Shelley's inscription.
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- ItalyRemarks Made in Several Visits, from the Year 1816 to 1854, pp. 1 - 8Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1859
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