AN IRISH RASCAL [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—Appareritly,
in the introduction to " An Irish Rascal : Carit: Dudley BradStreet," it' is suggested, and the tuggestion it endorsed by yotir reviewer (Spectator, Febniaiy 9th) that Ihickeray must have had Bradgtieet in mind when lie wrote Harry Lyndon. Has not it been established that Barry Lyndon was based on the career, not of this; but another rascal of Irish ex-traction,- namely Andrew 'Robinson Stoney, afterivards Bowes 7 This' audabions creature' when stationed in New- cattie-upon-I'Yne with his 'regiment Married, first,- a' local heiress,' acquiring with her 'about £30,000. The unforfunite lady soon died. Then, Stoney, after fighting a duel "(said to have been a sham one) with the Editor, or Controller, of the Morning Post‘—a duel arising out'of comments published therein concerning the recently 'widowed Countess of Strathmore— inveigled the latter into marriage with him.
.This lady—Mary • Eleanor Bowes, Countess of $trathmore (1749-1800)--was daughter and sole heiress of George Bowes, of Streatlam Castle and Gibside Hall, co. Durham,. the head of an old Durham family, already knightly in the. fourteenth century. , Early in its history it inter-married with the first mobility of the North. Moreover, Border .annals witness that . in many successive generations it was distinguished by great administrative and military talent.
With the rich, and beautiful, and clever, but not very prudent, heiress of this family, then, did an unscrupulous adventurer effect a marriage. Stoney assumed his wife's family surname. Through her influence and wealth he became. High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1780, and later was M.P, for N.ewcastle. Shortly after his marriage he took the house at Hammersmith just vacated by the Margravine of Anspach. Other details need not be given, save that Stoney Bowes spent the last twenty-two years of his life in prison or under surveillance, But that Barry Lyndon is based on this marriage receives conarmation in a statement by Thackeray!s
eldest' daughter, Mrs. Ritchie, in the introduction • to. the BiograPiiiell edition of Barg Lyndon
13 Treherne-Boad,. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, -
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