Lord Byron is a statue depicting Greece in the form of a woman crowning Byron. The statue is by the French sculptors Henri-Michel Chapu and Alexandre Falguière. Since 2008, the anniversary of Byron's death, 19 April, has been honoured in Greece as "Byron Day". Upon his death, the barony passed to Byron's cousin George Anson Byron, a career naval officer. Byron described his first intense feelings at age eight for his distant cousin, Mary Duff: My mother used always to rally me about this childish amour, and at last, many years after, when I was sixteen, she told me one day, 'O
Lord Byron taking Ada with her. That same year (21 April), Byron signed the Deed of Separation. Rumours of marital violence, adultery with actresses, incest with Augusta Leigh, and sodomy were circulated, assisted by a jealous Lady Caroline. In a letter, Augusta quoted him as saying: "Even to have such a thing said is utter destruction and ruin to a man from which he can never recover." That same year Lady Caroline published her popular novel "Glenarvon", wherein Lord Byron was portrayed as the seedy character Lord Ruthven. Byron wrote a letter to John Hanson from Newstead Abbey, dated 17 January 1809,