On this day in 1824 Byron's body arrived in London, returned home for burial from Missolonghi, Greece, where the poet had died ten weeks earlier. Though his last days were confused and feverish -- the exact cause of death is not known -- Byron was clear on several points: "Let not my body be hacked, or be sent to England.... Lay me in the first corner without pomp or nonsense." Neither hacking, nor shipping, nor pomp and nonsense proved escapable. The reassembled body, minus lungs gifted to the citizens of Missolonghi, and identifiable after pickled transport only by its club foot, was refused burial in Westminster and St ... FULL STORY »
