_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ was reviewed, or rather advertised, by Dallas, in the _Literary Panorama_ for March, 1812. To the reviewer's dismay, the article, which appeared before the poem was out, was shown to Byron, who was paying a short visit to his old friends at Harrow. Dallas quaked, but "as it proved no bad advertisement," he escaped censure. "The blunder passed unobserved, eclipsed by the dazzling brilliancy of the object which had caused it" (_Recollections_, p. 221). Of the greater reviews, the _Quarterly_ (No. xiii., March, 1812) was published on May 12, and the _Edinburgh_ (No. 38, June, 1812) was published on August 5, 1812. NOTES ON THE MSS. OF _CHILDE HAROLD_. I. The original MS. of the First and Second Cantos of _Childe Harold_, consisting of ninety-one folios bound up with a single bluish-grey cover, is in the possession of Mr. Murray.[1] A transcript from this MS., in the handwriting of R. C. Dallas, with Byron's autograph corrections, is preserved in the British Museum (Egerton MSS., No. 2027). The first edition (4to) was printed from the transcript as emended by the author. The "Addition to the Preface" was first published in the Fourth Edition. The following notes in Byron's handwriting are on the outside of the cover of the original MS.:-- "Byron--Joannina in Albania Begun Oct. 31^st.^ 1809. Concluded, Canto 2^d, Smyrna, March 28^th^, 1810. BYRON. The marginal remarks pencilled occasionally were made by two friends who saw the thing in MS. sometime previous to publication. 1812." On the verso of the single bluish-grey cover, the lines, "Dear Object of Defeated Care," have been inscribed. They are entitled, "Written beneath the picture of J. U. D." They are dated, "Byron, Athens, 1811." The following notes and memoranda have been bound up with the MS.:-- "Henry Drury, Harrow. Given me by Lord Byron. Being his original autograph MS. of the _first_ canto of _Childe Harold_, commenced at Joannina in Albania, proceeded with at Athens, and completed at Smyrna." "How strange that he did not seem to know that the volume contains Cantos I., II., and so written by L^d.^ B.!" [_Note by J. Murray._] "Sir,--I desire that you will settle any account for _Childe Harold_ with Mr. R. C. Dallas, to whom I have presented the copyright. Y^r.^ obed^t.^ Serv^t.,^ BYRON. To Mr. John Murray, Bookseller, 32, Fleet Street, London, Mar. 17, 1812." * * * * * "Received, April 1st, 1812, of Mr. John Murray, the sum of one hundred pounds 15/8, being my entire half-share of the profits of the 1st Edition of _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ 4to. R. C. DALLAS.