George Lord Byron part II

As a boy, Byron fell in love with a young woman who was a little older than him - Mary Chaworth. However he overheard her remarking “Do you think that I could care for that lame boy?” He also had many emotional attachments to other boys… which may have had a sexual component. He went later to Cambridge and also formed close friendships with young men of his own class. He did sleep with women, but he did not like women very much and found more pleasure in male companionship. He developed liberal political views and sought friends who shared them. He enjoyed sports such as boxing and horse riding which he pursued eagerly. At college he was happy but annoyed his mother by gambling and spending too much money. In 1809, he went on a Grand Tour, which was the custom for rich young men and which was supposed to educate them in the ways of foreign countries. The ongoing Napoleonic wars restricted where he could travel.. He started out from Portugal and planned to go to the Eastern Ottoman Empire.