It was a matter-of-fact proposal, worthy of the canny Scotswoman who made it--a proof that, even when she threw the tongs at her son, she still had his interests at heart; but nothing came of it. Very likely Byron, at this date knew no heiresses; and even his mother was not matter-of-fact enough to expect him to advertise for one, even for the purpose of avoiding the necessity of selling Newstead. There was still the resource of borrowing a little more, and of making the loans go as far as possible by retaining the money for personal expenses, instead of applying it to the payment of debt; and something of that sort seems to have been done. Scrope Davies lent Byron £4800; and yet Mrs. Byron had occasion to write: "There is some Trades People at Nottingham that will be completely ruined if he does not pay them, which I would not have happen for a whole world." Moreover, though Byron himself talked vaguely to Hanson of the possibility of his marriage with "a golden Dolly," he was at an age at which a young man does not readily marry any woman with whom he is not in love. Whether he was or was not, at that time, in love with Mrs. Chaworth,[5] he certainly was not in love with any one else; and he was enjoying himself and "having his fling," after the manner of gilded youth. His "domestic female companion," to use Gibbon's charming phrase, was a professional daughter of joy who travelled about with him in male attire. He even brought her to Newstead, when he took possession of the Abbey on the expiration of Lord Grey de Ruthen's tenancy. That may have been one reason--though it need not necessarily have been the only one--for his refusal to let his mother join him there. It would certainly have been a valid reason for postponing matrimony. Around those Newstead revels a good deal of fantastic legend circles; and the facts concerning them are hardly to be disentangled from the myths. "Childe Harold" starts with them:-- _Ah! me! in sooth he was a shameless wight, Sore given to revel and ungodly glee; Few earthly things found favour in his sight Save concubines and carnal companie, And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree._ "Childe Harold," however, in spite of the fact that it was first called "Childe Buron," is a poem, not a deposition. The picture, with its "Paphian girls" and the rest of it-- _Where superstition once had made her den, Now Paphian girls were wont to sing and smile, And monks might deem their time was come agen, If ancient tales say true, nor wrong these holy men_, is not necessarily faithful because the note of contrast which it sounds is of the essence of the poem. But, on the other hand, the excuses and explanations by means of which Moore and Cordy Jeaffreson attempt to palliate and minimise the supposed assertions of the poem are somewhat less than convincing.