When time passed on and no voice was raised, I spoke."
It is hardly necessary to recapitulate, at any great length, facts
already so familiar to the reading public; it may be sufficient simply
to say that after the appearance in 1868 of the Countess Guiccioli's
"Recollections of Lord Byron," Mrs. Stowe felt herself called upon to
defend the memory of her friend from what she esteemed to be
falsehoods and slanders. To accomplish this object, she prepared for
the "Atlantic Monthly" of September, 1869, an article, "The True Story
of Lady Byron's Life." Speaking of her first impressions of Lady
Byron, Mrs. Stowe says:--
"I formed her acquaintance in the year 1853, during my first visit to
England. I met her at a lunch party in the house of one of her
friends. When I was introduced to her, I felt in a moment the words of
her husband:--
"'There was awe in the homage that she drew;
Her spirit seemed as seated on a throne.'"
It was in the fall of 1856, on the occasion of Mrs. Stowe's second
visit to England, as she and her sister were on their way to Eversley
to visit the Rev. C. Kingsley, that they stopped by invitation to
lunch with Lady Byron at her summer residence at Ham Common, near
Richmond. At that time Lady Byron informed Mrs. Stowe that it was her
earnest desire to receive a visit from her on her return, as there was
a subject of great importance concerning which she desired her advice.
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