Heard some curious extracts from a
life of Morosini, [2] the blundering Venetian, who blew up the Acropolis
at Athens with a bomb, and be damned to him! Waxed sleepy--just come
home--must go to bed, and am engaged to meet Sheridan to-morrow at
Rogers's.
Queer ceremony that same of marriage--saw many abroad, Greek and
Catholic--one, at _home_, many years ago. There be some strange phrases
in the prologue (the exhortation), which made me turn away, not to laugh
in the face of the surpliceman. Made one blunder, when I joined the
hands of the happy--rammed their left hands, by mistake, into one
another. Corrected it--bustled back to the altar-rail, and said "Amen."
Portsmouth responded as if he had got the whole by heart; and, if any
thing, was rather before the priest. It is now midnight and----.
[Footnote 1: Lord Portsmouth (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 9, 'note' 2
[Footnote 3 of Letter 3]), who had long known the Hansons, from whose
house he married his first wife, married, March 7, 1814, Mary Anne,
eldest daughter of John Hanson. A commission of lunacy was taken out by
the brother and next heir, the Hon. Newton Fellowes; but Lord Chancellor
Eldon decided that Lord Portsmouth was capable of entering into the
marriage contract and managing his own affairs. The commission was,
however, ultimately granted. Byron swore an affidavit on the first
occasion.
"Denman mentioned Lord Byron's affidavit about Lord Portsmouth as a
proof of the influence of Hanson over him; Lord B.
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