"In our country," said Lord Strutwell to Rawdon, putting forward arguments familiar to modern champions of homosexuality, "it gains ground apace, and in all probability will become in a short time a more fashionable vice than simple fornication." [89] These observations on eighteenth century homosexuality in London are chiefly based on the volumes of _Select Trials_ at the Old Bailey, published in 1734.
[90] Numa Praetorius (_Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd.

iv, p.
885), who has studied Byron from this point of view, considers that, though his biography has not yet been fully written on the sexual side, he was probably of bisexual temperament; Raffalovich (_Uranisme et Unisexualite_, p.

309) is of the same opinion.
[91] A youthful attraction of this kind in a poet is well illustrated by Dolben, who died at the age of nineteen.

In addition to a passion for Greek poetry he cherished a romantic friendship of extraordinary ardor, revealed in his poems, for a slightly older schoolfellow, who was never even aware of the idolatry he aroused.

Dolben's life has been written, and his poems edited, by his friend the eminent poet, Robert Bridges (_The Poems of D.M.Dolben_, edited with a Memoir by R.Bridges, 1911).
[92] A well-informed narrative of the Oscar Wilde trial is given by Raffalovich in his _Uranisme et Unisexualite_, pp.