ABSTRACT
In 1824, Thomas Medwin (1788–1869), author and P. B. Shelley’s second cousin, wrote Conversations, based on his brief friendship with Byron at Pisa, which began on 21 November 1821. Born and raised at Horsham, two miles from Shelley’s family home at Field Place, the cousins were childhood friends. Like Shelley, Medwin had early literary aspirations, and the two collaborated on a Gothic tale (now lost) in 1809–10. Medwin first studied law, but gave that up to join the 24th Light Dragoons, in the purchased positions of Cornet (1812) and then lieutenant (1813), serving in India between 1813 and 1818, when he returned to England (Lovell, pp. 24, 55).
