8. Lord Byron Was Britain’s Greatest Romantic Era Poet – and Greatest Romantic Era Perv
The 6th Baron Byron (1788 – 1824) was one of Britain’s greatest poets, famous for his brilliant use of the English language. He was also famous, or infamous, for his flamboyance, deviant practices, the notoriety of his romantic liaisons with members of both sexes, and allegations of incest. Byron’s most controversial relationship was with his own sister, Augusta Leigh. Byron had seen little of her during childhood, but made up for it in spades by forming an extremely close relationship with her in adulthood. It resulted in him fathering a child upon his sister in 1814.
Ever sentimental, Byron liked to keep mementos of his lovers. Back then, the norm for mementos was a lock of hair from one’s object of affection, perhaps tied with a ribbon. But being Byron, Britain’s most flamboyant poet, eccentric aristocrat, and all around pervert, a simple lock of hair would not do. Instead, Byron liked to snip clumps of pubic hair from his lovers’ crotches, and kept them, catalogued and labeled, in envelopes at his publishing house.
