'GENTLEMAN' JACKSON, the boxing champion: the training he put me through helped me to grow slimmer. Under his watchful eye, I would swim down the Thames for a distance of three miles.

HOBHOUSE became my closest friend and oft' times my conscience, in spite of his disapproval of many of my actions. His loyalty to me during the bad times gave me the inner strength I dearly needed to survive.

ELIZABETH PIGOT charmed me out of my shyness. She encouraged me to write and copied out my verses for a publisher. The Pigot house soon became home to me. I was in dire need of one.

ALI PASHA was the absolute ruler of Albania and Western Greece. He thought nothing of roasting an enemy on a gridiron or flinging fifteen women into a lake for annoying his daughter- in-law.

LADY MELBOURNE was the best, kindest and ablest female I had ever known. I confided in her my most intimate secrets. Though she was old enough to be my mother, she excited me in a way few young women were able to.

LADY CAROLINE LAMB: I became acquainted with Caro in late March and by April we were lovers, by May we were quarreling and London Society was gossiping about the openness of our affair.

SHELLEY: a monumental friend! Shy, beautiful, consumptive. He was the best, kindest and most benevolent of men, but he had been hounded out of his own country for questioning dogma.

I saw this girl, withdrawn into herself and her own thoughts, who seemed not to be interested in me nor very much in anyone. I found out who she was - Miss ANNABELLA MILBANKE. I admired her for her amiability and her cleverness.

AUGUSTA: What a fool I was to marry, and you, my dear sister, not so very wise. We might have lived so single and so happy as old maids and bachelors, just formed to pass our lives together.

CLAIRE CLAIRMONT: I wasn't really interested in this girl, but I couldn't shake her. She cared nothing about ruining her reputation by visiting me and kept finding excuses for more visits.

ALLEGRA was a pretty child, very intelligent, a great favourite with everyone, with a devil of a spirit - just like her papa! Her eyebrows drawing into a little frown when she didn't have her own way ...

MARIANNA was in her appearance altogether like an antelope, with large, black Oriental eyes. Married women of that class could have an amoroso, provided she limited herself to one and obtained the consent of the prior claimant.

MARGARITA, though she might not look it, was a tigress. She was 22 years old, could neither read nor write, but what a magnificent animal! She remained untamed, although devoted to me in her own wild way.

TITA, my gondolier - his prodigious black beard gave him a cutthroat appearance and a reputation for ferocity. But he was kindly and gentle with little Allegra, and followed me around with blind devotion, just like Bosun used to do.

The Countess TERESA GUICCIOLI was barely 18. She was as fair as sunrise and as warm as noon. I fell in love and was tired of promiscuity. She was looking for a cavaliere servente - doesn't that sound better than 'lover'?

Of all my school fellows, there was none for whom I retained a greater friendship than LORD CLARE. We were so close as boys at Harrow, that I never forgot him. 'Clare' ... even now that name causes a beating of my heart.

PRINCE MAVROCORDATO was the most capable of the Greek chieftains. Once it was known I was sympathetic to the Greek cause, I was besieged with requests to lend my name and money. He seemed to think of me as his private treasury.