Aside from that exercised by the work and heritage of Pope, the most definite influence upon Byron’s satiric verse came from the satires of William Gifford (1756–1826), which had appeared some years before Byron began to write. Gifford, who early became the young lord’s model and counsellor, and who later revised and corrected his poetry, continued to the end to be one of the few literary friends to whom Byron referred consistently with deference.[29] Gifford’s reputation was established by the publication of two short satires, the _Baviad_ (1794) and the _Mæviad_ (1795), printed together in 1797. The _Baviad_ is an imitation of the first satire of Persius, in the form of a dialogue between the poet and his friend; the _Mæviad_ paraphrases Horace’s tenth satire of the first book. Both are devoted primarily to deserved, but often unnecessarily harsh, criticism of some contemporary fads in literature, particularly of the “effusions” of the so-called Della Cruscan School.[30] Gifford was a Tory in a period when the unexpected excesses of the French revolutionists were causing all Tories, and even the more conservative Whigs, to take a stand against innovation, eccentricity, and individualism in any form. Since the Della Cruscans were nearly all liberals,[31] it was natural that Gifford should be enthusiastic in his project of ridiculing the “metromania” for which they were responsible. Thus his satires are protests against license, defending the conventional canons of taste and reasserting the desirability of law and order in literature. Undoubtedly Gifford performed a certain service to the cause of letters by condemning, in a common-sense fashion, the silly sentimentality of the Della Cruscans.[32] Unfortunately it was almost impossible for him to compose satire without being scurrilous. Although he may have possessed the virtue of sincerity with which Courthope credits him, he invariably picked for his victims men who were too feeble to reply effectually. Still the satires, appearing so opportunely, made Gifford both famous and feared. The _Baviad_ and the _Mæviad_ were placed, without pronounced dissent, beside the _Dunciad_. Mathias said of the author, in all seriousness: “He is the most correct poetical writer I have read since the days of Pope.” Even Byron, so immeasurably Gifford’s superior in most respects, was dominated so far as to term him “the last of the wholesome satirists”[33] and to refer to him as a “Bard in virtue strong.”[34] The plain truth is that Gifford is not always correct, seldom wholesome, and never great. Something of his style at the worst may be obtained from a single line, “Yet not content, like horse-leeches they come,”