Credit: Dangerous Minds / Public Domain

Everyone knows that the romantic poet and icon of literature, Lord Byron, he of Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, well and truly earned the descriptor “Mad, bad and dangerous to know”. What most people don’t know is that it was an epithet bestowed upon him by someone who, at least at some point, loved him.

Or at least had very strong romantic feelings for the man born George Gordon Byron in January 1788… It was Lady Caroline Lamb who described him as such, and, granted, it was in 1812 after their scandalous affair came to an end, who among us can say we’ve all been entirely fair when describing our exes, but Lord Byron seemed to absolutely earn every negative description he ever got in his life, and boy howdy did he get a fair few of them.

This was mainly due to his brooding personality and fits of temper. Not for nothing was the term “Byronic Hero” coined to describe tall, dark and handsome men who are as bad-tempered and difficult as they are irresistible. Quite simply, this was a man who could not be controlled for love nor money, and especially with the latter, a lot of people tried. However, Byron just had to do things his way and would rarely accept when someone in a position of authority over him would tell him no.

For proof of this, look no further than Bryon’s days at Trinity College, Cambridge – upon his acceptance into that hallowed hall of education, Byron excitedly asked the faculty about how he would accommodate his beloved Newfoundland dog, Boatswain, along with him on campus, and this was when Byron got the devastating news that dogs were not allowed on campus under any circumstances, which set Byron off on one of his rages, and he demanded to look at the rules laid out by the college.

There, he found that they had very specific rules about keeping dogs on campus. They said nothing about other animals.

What animal did Lord Byron bring to college?

Thus, when the time came for Byron to pack up his kit and leave for further education, he did so with three carriages taking him to Trinity College – one for him, one for his luggage, and one for his new companion, a tame bear he would keep with him on campus, and in true Air Bud fashion, the rules were very clear about dogs, yet said nothing about keeping bears on site, and that was exactly what Byron did. Somewhat shockingly, said bear actually was tame, and the two walking together across Cambridge became a common sight during Bryon’s college days.

Now, this sounds like an apocryphal story, one told by or about Lord Byron to add to his mystique. However, there are many reports from the man himself about his ursine companion. One letter he sent after arriving at Cambridge sees him saying, “I have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a tame bear. When I brought him here, they asked me what I meant to do with him, and my reply was, ‘He should sit for a fellowship.'”

However, there are other reports about him as well. Byron’s friend Thomas Moore recounted a time when he and Byron snuck the bear onto a carriage to Cambridge from London by dressing him in a hat and jacket. The bear immediately went to sleep, and its snores were so human that a fellow passenger tried pulling his jacket to wake him up. Giving the poor passenger the fright of his life as he did so.

Details about what happened to the bear after Byron left college are thin on the ground. However, the great poet was such a lover of animals that we can assume that he got a good life once the time to part had come.