The Grand Tour, 1809-1811 & Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

The Grand Tour: Portugal, Spain, Malta, Albania, Athens, Turkey & Greece

The Grand Tour 1809-1811 & Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Byron began his Grand Tour in 1809, which was a customary part of education for young noblemen. At first he was accompanied by his friend John Cam Hobhouse, and his entourage of servants.

The tour began in Portugal, and his stay in Sintra was particularly enjoyable. In Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he referred to Sintra as “glorious Eden”. From Lisbon, he continued his travels to Seville, Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz, Gibraltar, Sardinia, Malta, Albania, and Greece. In Greece, he wrote “Maid of Athens, ere we part” and dedicated it to Teresa Makri.

Byron and Hobhouse’s tour continued to Smyrna and then to Constantinople. On May 3, 1810, Byron swam the Hellespont. In July 1811 he returned to England from Malta on the HMS Volage.

The first two cantos of the Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage were published in 1812. Byron was then a celebrity.

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt. 1st ed. London: Printed for John Murray, 1841.

Byron Society Collection.

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt, 1812

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt. 1st (3rd state) ed. London: Printed for John Murray…By Thomas Davison, 1812.

Byron Society Collection.

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt, 1812, Cover

“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage was written during Byron’s time abroad after his success with the satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. He came back with another written satire that his friend Robert Charles Dallas was excited to read. Dallas came to breakfast … trying to conceal his disappointment in the satire, expressed surprise that Byron had written nothing else during his journey. ‘Upon which he told me that he had occasionally written short poems, besides a great many stanzas in Spencer's [sic] measure, relative to the countries he had visited ‘They are not worth troubling you with, but you shall have them all with you if you like’.’

With this Byron handed him the manuscript of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage…”.

Leslie A. Marchand, Byron: A Biography (1975)

Staffordshire Figures of Lord Byron and the Maid of Athens. Byron Society Collection.

Maid of Athens, ere we part,

Give, oh, give me back my heart!

Or, since that has left my breast,

Keep it now, and take the rest!

Hear my vow before I go,

Ζωή μου, σᾶς ἀγαπῶ

-Stanza I

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, A Romaunt: And Other Poems. 7th ed. London: Printed by Thomas Davison…for John Murray, 1814. Byron Society Collection.

Blue Ceramic Byron Portrait. Byron Society Collection.

Lord Byron Miniature Portrait. Byron Society Collection.

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. 2 vols.

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. 2 vols. Paris: A. and W, Galignani, 1826.

Byron Society Collection.

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt

Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt. 1st ed. London: Printed for John Murray…By Thomas Davison, 1812.

Rare Book Collection.

Signed note by Lord Byron tipped in.

Bisque Statue of Lord Byron by Bertel Thorvaldsen. Byron Society Collection.

Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land! Where is that standard which Pelagio bore, When Cava's traitor-sire first called the band That dyed thy mountain-streams with Gothic gore? Where are those bloody banners which of yore Waved o'er thy sons, victorious to the gale, And drove at last the spoilers to their shore? Red gleamed the cross, and waned the crescent pale, While Afric's echoes thrilled with Moorish matrons' wail.

Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt, Canto the First, XXXV.