Libris 
 K. OGDEN !

 
 
 ANDREW ROBINSON BOWES ESQ?
 
 THE 
 
 L I V E S 
 
 OF 
 
 ANDREW ROBINSON BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 AND THE 
 
 COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE, 
 
 WRITTEN FROM 
 
 TfflRTY'THREE YEARS PROFESSIONAL ATTENDANCE, 
 
 FROM " 
 
 LETTERS, 
 
 AND OTHER 
 WELL AUTHENTICATED DOCUMENTS. 
 
 BY JESSE FOOT, ESQ. SURGEON. 
 
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 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction r - * 
 
 Account of Andrew Robinson Bowes - 2 
 
 His Marriage with Miss Hannah Newton - 5 
 
 Account of the Countess of Strathraore - 9 
 
 The Death of the Earl of Strathmore at Lisbon 15 
 
 The Countess's Conduct on that Event ibid. 
 The Friends of the late Earl of Strathmore discard her, she 
 
 having formed an intimacy with Mr. Gray 16 
 
 The public Prints agitate her conduct - - 1JT 
 
 Letter sent to her by Bowes - 23 
 
 Forged Letter by Bowes . 24 
 
 Desci iption of the Countess ? 27 
 
 Letters in the Morning Post - 29 
 Bowes's Art to gain her from Gray - .34 
 
 His Letter to the Editor of the Morning Post - - 36 
 
 Narrative of a Rencontre - - 37 
 
 Situation of the Countess just before her Marriage with Bowes 45 
 
 Their Marriage - - - ... 47 
 
 Letter from Bowes to. her Mother - - ibid. 
 
 Their conduct after the Marriage - - 40 
 
 Bowes, a Candidate for Newcastle - 51 
 
 He revives a QuarreJ with the Editor of the Morning Post 53 - 
 
 Bowes and the Countess go into the North - 59 
 
 His Letters to a Friend - - . - ibid 

 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 Bowes, Member for Newcastle o - 80 
 
 He sells every Article he can, with or without Authority ibid. 
 
 He returns to Paul's Walden - - 83 
 
 His Conduct there - ibid. 
 
 He takes a ready furnished House in Grosvenor Square 87 
 He Quarrels with the Guardians of the Earl of Strathmore's 
 
 Children, and tries to seduce them from their Guardians ibid. 
 
 Narrative of his attempt to take them both away - ibid' 
 
 He carries one of them to Paris - 95 
 
 His Letters to a Friend from Paris - - ibid. 
 
 His return from Paris - - - - JOS 
 
 The Court of Chancery interferes - - - 10Q 
 
 Bowes's Hypocritical Conduct - - - ill 
 
 Verses written by the Countess - - - 112 
 The Countess Elopes from Bowes and Swears the Peace 
 
 against him - - - 114 
 
 Narrative of this Event ~- ibid. 
 
 Bowes's Conduct upou this Occasion - 116 
 
 Appeal to Doctors Commons - - - 120 
 Bowes watches the Countess, bribes the Constable Lucas, 
 
 and carries her away by violence into the North 122 
 
 His Letters on the Road 124 
 
 Narrative of Bowes's seizing the Countess - 125 
 
 The Countess is rescued from Bowes and returns to London 13O 
 
 Bowes is brought to London in Custody 132 
 
 He writes Letters on his way - 135 
 
 He and his Confederates are fined and imprisoned . - 140 
 Bowes is thrown into the Kings Bench Prison.* His Conduct 
 
 there 14: 
 
 The cause of Litigation between him and the Countess explained 142 
 
 The Trial for Property goes against Bowes 14( 
 Bowes desponds, his Excommunication and Divorce. The 
 
 Triumph of the Countess. Her Epitaph on Bowes, 
 
 which she sent to him - 
 Bowes's treatment of Peacock - - -14;
 
 CONTENTS. v 
 
 His imposition on his Friend he corresponded with - 114 
 
 Bowes's Life in the King's Bench Prison - 150 
 
 He seduces the Daughter of a Prisoner - - ibid. 
 
 Anecdotes of Bowes - 153 
 
 Bowes revives his claims on the Countess's Property with 
 
 some Success - - - - 156 
 
 Death of the Countess - - 15/ 
 Bowes not able to get Possession of the Property. The cause 
 
 revived by the resistence of the present Earl of Strathmore ibid. 
 
 Bowes leaves the Prison and dwells within the rules 159 
 
 Anecdotes of his Practice of seduction - ibid. 
 
 Bowes has an Accession to his Property l6l 
 
 State of his Affairs - ibid. 
 
 His Attorney leaves him - - 126 
 Anecdotes of Bowes's various Transactions with a Succession 
 
 of Attorneys - 163 
 
 Bowes's Deceptions 164 
 
 His Annuity Sickness - - 165 
 
 His Will - - ibid. 
 
 An account of his last Law-suit - - - 1/2 
 
 Bo Wes would not sell his Estates - - 177 
 
 His Amusements at home - - ibid. 
 
 His Passion for Seduction exposes him - 173 
 
 He begins to decay ... 180 
 
 He makes his last Will - 181 
 
 He is persuaded to make a Codicil to his Will - ibid. 
 
 His Death and Burial - 1 84 
 
 His Character - ibid.
 
 THE 
 
 LIVES, &c. 
 
 AT is natural to conceive that curiosity will be 
 the greatest inducement for those who are solicitous 
 to peruse the Lives of ANDREW ROBINSON BOWES, 
 and the COUNTESS of STRATH MORE. They will ex- 
 pect to acquire a more extensive knowledge of 
 transactions which have transiently passed in review 
 before them, during a space of thirty- three years; 
 they will naturally look for more information, more 
 collected and digested than they have hitherto ob- 
 tained ; they will hope to be assisted in recalling 
 to their recollection what has been but faintly re- 
 gistered, and to be furnished with new incidents 
 and exact circumstances by which their floating and 
 unsettled opinions may at length be more satisfacto- 
 rily fixed ; especially, since the scene is now for ever 
 closed upon both of them ; since they and their con- 
 tentions can no longer be heard, nor their separate 
 artifices be henceforth debated before any earthly 
 tribunal. 
 
 If this were the whole of my intention by publish- 
 ing their LIVES, it might be a justification which could 
 be maintained by reason ; but more use may be made 
 of them, than curiosity merely, by the lesson which 
 they will exhibit to all future generations. It will be 
 seen that all adventitious appendages and decorative 
 ornaments of fortune have not corrected their nature,
 
 2 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 enlarged their felicity, fortified their virtue, nor 
 shielded their lives from the miseries consequent to 
 vicious habits, unbounded passions, and lawless per- 
 petrations. That neither scholastic discipline, the 
 great mass of morality contained in the English li- 
 brary, the doctrine from the pulpit, nor the exhorta- 
 tion and example of honourable and anxious friends, 
 could make the smallest impression upon their nature, 
 or stem that career which was by eacli of them so 
 libidinously pursued ; a career almost unknown till 
 now, in a country raised to the highest state of civi- 
 lization, and where every advantage was at their 
 command; where they, situated on the summit of 
 fortune, could have beheld the fates not without com- 
 miseration of those whose vices were incurred by the 
 positive force of narrow necessity. Neither of them 
 received one single check from any compunctious 
 visitings of nature ; neither of them had disciplined 
 their minds by the strict observance of -any rule of 
 right ; both of them appeared as if they had been 
 taken from a land not yet in a state of civilization, 
 and dropped by accident where they have been 
 found. Rather than that such extraordinary charac- 
 ters should be lost to society, I shall endeavour 
 to rescue them from the gulph of oblivion, and to 
 hold them up to the indignation and scorn of af- 
 frighted and insulted virtue. 
 
 Of A. R. BOWES I am about to speak first. By his 
 Majesty's pleasure he assumed the name of BOWES 
 instead of his native name, and as his original name 
 is not seen in his signature, I have no right to dis- 
 turb it; for if I did, I must expose his place of na-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE. 3 
 
 tivity, his family, and relatives, who I know are 
 in possession of wealth, respectability, and honour- 
 able connexion. Two of his sisters I have seen, one 
 of them for three months daily, and to whom I shall 
 hereafter have occasion to refer particularly ; and the 
 other during the time her brother was upon his death 
 bed. So that it must be apparent that I could give 
 a very proper account of his genealogy, if I chose ; 
 but I am resolved to decline it, purely because I 
 would not wish to stain their fair fame, by the in- 
 sertion of their names in this disgraceful relation of 
 one so closely allied by blood, but so estranged by 
 nature. Their escutcheon, so far as I can prevent it, 
 shall not be blotted by him. Nor shall I bring names 
 into this relation which I can by any means keep 
 out, as I know it was always not only possible, but 
 desirable in Bowes to introduce himself to others 
 upon false pretences. What he wanted of them, was 
 never that he first spoke to them about. The first 
 introduction was merely to get a hearing from them, 
 and by that to have the power, by the most artful 
 and insidious means, to bend them and make them 
 instrumental to his purposes. 
 
 I observe that Doctor Johnson, in his excellent 
 Life of Savage, has given the freest scope to his senti- 
 ments on the conduct of the Countess of Maccles- 
 fieid. His indignation seems to be raised to the 
 highest degree, at the atrocity of her crimes, and 
 therefore I shall not be wanting for a parallel, if 
 I should, humbly as I must, tread in his steps, when 
 similar aggravations present themselves, in the con- 
 
 A 2
 
 4 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 duct of this Countess who is involved in this suhject 
 I am now upon. The two Countesses will admit of 
 a very close comparison. The family of the Countess 
 of Strathmore is already well known, and there- 
 fore if I say nothing more of her genealogy, yet no- 
 thing will be by my silence lost of information. 
 
 In the concealment of genealogy, I have also 
 a precedent for suppressing Bowes's, in the Life of 
 Psalmanazar, written by himself. As that Life per- 
 haps has not been before every one who reads this, 
 I will give some little explanation upon it. 
 
 Psalmanazar came to England and excited the 
 general attention of men of fortune and letters, by 
 the interesting relation he gave of himself. He said 
 that he was a native of Formosa, and to prove it, he 
 spoke and wrote the language of the Island, and gave 
 a description of every thing relative to it. By cer- 
 tain occurrences, doubts were raised of his veracity ; 
 his having once travelled out of the path of hon- 
 our, put him to his shifts, and the frauds and im- 
 positions which afterwards marked his life, were at 
 length by himself voluntarily confessed. It is to him 
 that the public are indebted, for that learned arti- 
 cle on the Jews, and the Hebrew language, now to 
 be seen in Chambers 's Dictionary. 
 
 Pisalmanazar lived long enough to be struck with 
 remorse; and to make atonement for all his forge- 
 ries and impositions, he begged pardon of all man- 
 kind ; and what makes me think that he was sincere 
 in his repentance is, that a consciousness of disgrace-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 
 
 ful actions had not forsaken him; FOR HE NEVER 
 
 WOULD TELL THE REAL PLACE OF HIS BIRTH, NOR 
 DISCLOSE HIS PARENTAGE, THAT HE MIGHT NOT 
 LEAVE A STIGMA ON HIS COUNTRY AND HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Iii the year 176*3 ANDREW ROBINSON BOWES was 
 a lieutenant in the 30th regiment. In that year the 
 regiment was disbanded, and ever since he has re- 
 ceived the allowance of half pay. Supposing him to 
 have been then but twenty years of age, he would 
 have been now sixty seven ; but his sister says, he 
 was born in 1745, so that he could have been but 
 eighteen when he was put upon half pay. Be that as 
 it may. Being quartered at Newcastle, he had the 
 address to marry Miss Newton, an heiress, with, 
 some say, 30,000, whilst he was yet but an ensign. 
 
 He was brought into the army by a relation, whom 
 I knew when he bore the rank of General. He re- 
 sided in Berners Street, in 1777, was a most amiable 
 man, andl saw him at Bowes's levee, on the day of his 
 marriage with the Countess of Strathmore. Bowes 
 wanted to quit the army on his marriage with Miss 
 Newton, but his friend and relation then told him 
 the war would soon be over, and that half pay wa 
 a thing easily received, Bowes took his advice. 
 
 The person of Bowes was rather in his favor, and 
 his address was, probably, when young, captivating. 
 His speech was soft, his height more than five feet 
 ten, his eyes were bright and small, he had a per- 
 fect command over them, his eye brows were low, 
 large and sandy, his hair light, and his complexion 
 
 A 3
 
 6 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 muddy, his smile was agreeable, his wit ready, but 
 he was always the first to laugh at what he said, 
 which forced others to laugh also. His conversation 
 was shallow, his education was bare, and his utter- 
 ance was in a low tone and lisping. There was some- 
 thing uncommon in the connexion of his nose with 
 bis upper lip ; he never could talk without the nose 
 which was long and curved downwards, being also 
 moved ridiculously with the upper lip. This I have 
 frequently laughed heartily at, when I observed the 
 ridiculous effect; it was seen much more when he 
 was in serious discourse, than in light conversation. 
 It was when he meant to be emphatic that it was 
 most discovered : in the light conversation he avoided 
 it, by not employing his upper lip beyond a certain 
 extent ; and in that case, he necessarily was forced 
 to lisp. 
 
 Bowes, after the year 1763, resided at Cold-Pig 
 Hill, the seat of Miss Newton's ancestors. This 
 connexion brought him acquainted with families in 
 the vicinity. He naturally would frequent assem- 
 blies and public meetings ; and if what every body 
 says must be true, he in a violent fit of rage, tumbled 
 his wife down a whole flight of stairs, at one of those 
 meetings. She bore the character of being a very 
 good woman, which in all probability increased her 
 sensibility, upon feeling her melancholy lot from the 
 choice she had made. She soon took her departure 
 to another and better world. 
 
 Besides the vague report of Bowes's treatment 
 of his wife, as I have heard it, I have before
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 7 
 
 me two letters from residents of Newcastle. One 
 of them says, that Bowes married Miss Newton, 
 only child of William Newton, Esq. who was 
 concerned in the coal trade, and with whom he 
 srot a large fortune: and treated her in a most cruel 
 
 O O * 
 
 manner, so much so, that the impression left on 
 people's minds on this subject is, that he shortened 
 her days. The other comes to me in a letter from a 
 mother now at Bath, to her daughter in London : 
 it is as follows 
 
 " What I can say about Bowes, I have left to 
 the side of the sheet, that you may tear off, and 
 give to Mr, Foot. Mr. Bowes, then Mr, S. came to 
 Newcastle, with a marching regiment. He was 
 ensign. I have seen him with his gorget on. He 
 married Miss Newton, of Burnop Field, a lady I 
 was acquainted with, and visited. She was not at 
 all handsome ; short, and very dark ; but she had 
 twenty thousand pounds, which, forty years ago, was 
 reckoned a great fortune. Lady Bewick, and the late 
 Mrs. Shafto, of Benwell, were believed to have for- 
 warded the match. He made a very bad husband, 
 and she was a most wretched wife, and brought no 
 children alive into the world ; which he much desired 
 for his own 'sake. He made the bell of St. Nicholas 
 toll for one that was dead born ; but failed in proving 
 it to be born with life. If he could have proved it, 
 I understand the law gives a life-estate in the wife's 
 property. He many times advertised the wood on the 
 estates of Cold-Pig Hill, &c. to be sold, but the next 
 week newspaper always produced a forbiddance from 
 our "Mend Mr. Smith, Edward Jackson's father, and
 
 8 THE LIVES OF A. E. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 another person whose name I have forgot, who laid 
 claim to the estate as next heirs. He behaved like a 
 brute and a savage to his wife, and in a short time 
 broke her heart. He knew secret ways of provoking 
 her before company; and then if she looked dis- 
 pleased, or said any thing tart, he appealed to the 
 company HE TOOK PAINS to PLEASE HER, BUT 
 COULD NOT. 
 
 " This passed for WORSE THAN NOTHING, to those 
 who knew him. I do not know how it might be with 
 those who were not acquainted with this accom- 
 plished villain. With his conduct after his marriage 
 with Lady Strathmore, Mr. Foot will be well ac- 
 quainted. I will write to Mrs, D. who knows many 
 things of him, which I do not, and will be correct in 
 the dates, &Q. I will also write to Mrs. W. who, I 
 am confident, knows many things also. But do not 
 depend on me; write yourself to Mrs. D. She was 
 at Bath, with Mrs. M. when Mr. Bowes thought 
 proper to lampoon her, for coming into some public 
 place in a hat. The lines were very severe. 
 
 " I will put another strange anecdote of Bowes 
 in the inside : Bowes, upon some occasion, locked 
 his wife in a closet, that would barely contain her, 
 for three days, in her chemise, (some say without it, ) 
 arid ted her with an egg a day. I have done a vio- 
 lence to my feelings, and wish what I have said may 
 be of any use. Mrs. D. can tell a great deal more 
 than me. Write without delay, Her name was 
 Hannah Newton."
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 
 
 The character of Bowes being established by his 
 treatment of this lady, not without just cause, it 
 might be presumed, that it made the ladies shy of 
 such a connexion. Therefore, nothing is reported 
 of his having had the chance of another marriage 
 for fortune, and no other sort of' marriage ever 
 entered into his conception ; he remained a widower, 
 until the event took place between him and the 
 Countess. 
 
 The interval of time between his first and second 
 marriage, was filled up by the usual rotine of men of 
 pleasure ; by gaming, cock-fighting, horse-racing, 
 watering-places, and the petty-clubs in St. James's.. 
 Colonel S. well known at that time upon the turf, 
 and at the gaming-table, was one of his chief com" 
 panions. In all these amusements however art- 
 ful he might and could play his part, nothing, is 
 heard to his disparagement, nor should I who knew 
 him well, suspect it; for he was by nature a coward, 
 and he felt the importance of not giving society an 
 opportunity of finding it out. He possessed all the 
 insinuation jof that cast which will be found among 
 men so happily pourtrayed in the character of IAGO, 
 
 (V t COUNTESS of STRATHMORE I am now proT 
 
 ceeding to give a short, but concise NARRATIVE. 
 
 % 
 
 The records of BIOGRAPHY are not confined to 
 the virtuous alone, but embrace the general acts of 
 human history, as they have passed in review, and 
 as they are given for entertainment, improvement, 
 and example to posterity. Good and bad cha-
 
 10 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 racters are alike read in their turns; and instruction 
 of the highest value is to be found in all of them. 
 Their varieties adapt them to the genius, talent, and 
 disposition of all who seek to he amused and in- 
 formed by this profitable study. 
 
 The most exalted talents of this last century have 
 been bestowed upon BIOGRAPHY, and the genius of 
 the late Doctor JOHNSON has been richly displayed 
 upon this theme. He never was at a loss for expres- 
 sion, and after having searched and discovered truth, 
 he was never found to hesitate in imparting it. 
 Hence it is seen, that in the Life of SAVAGE to which 
 I have already alluded, no one can read the mourn- 
 ful fate of SAVAGE without contemplating the con- 
 duct of the Countess of MACCLESFIELD. Her 
 CONFESSIONS will remain as long as his Works, and 
 will he read even if the English should hereafter be- 
 come a dead language ; and posterity will admire 
 with astonishment, the statement which this moral 
 author has so boldly given of the Countess, IN HER 
 
 LIFE TIME. 
 
 Of the CONFESSIONS of the Countess of STRATH- 
 MORE, I shall briefly observe, that I feel no dispo- 
 sition to awaken curiosity by laying them before 
 the public, because they were evidently extorted 
 from her, under the tyranny of BOWES. Not but 
 that they contain among many falsehoods some truths, 
 yet these are scattered and entangled with false- 
 hoods, and when found and separated, like a few 
 grains among much chaff, are not worth the search. 
 The vest of the work, if it were true, is of that vile
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRA.THMORE. 11 
 
 and abominable nature, which will not admit of 
 public inspection. 
 
 The Countess of Strathmore was a learned lady, 
 and the house in Grosvenor Square might, for all I 
 know, during the nine months of her widowhood, 
 be fairly denominated a TEMPLE of FOLLY. The 
 French have a celebrated Comedy upon learned la- 
 dies, called the Bureau cT Esprit, of which the Lady 
 FOLLYCOURT is the patroness ; and I am very much 
 mistaken if many Lady FOLLYCOURTS do not start 
 up from the Institution in Albemarle Street. To see 
 the vanity of preternatural excitements misapplied 
 to hear girls talk of being oxygenated and galvani- 
 zed, must serve other thoughts besides science. 
 
 The mind of the Countess, by being bred up so 
 much to flattery, by being always seen like a devotee 
 at the shrine of admiration, was never left at liberty 
 to be attentive to her most favoured delights, but 
 was always solicited to embrace new objects, as if 
 that mind was designed to comprehend the know- 
 ledge of all languages, and all the products of every 
 country, in the four quarters of the globe. By set- 
 ting her up as the patroness of the Arts, by her hav- 
 ing designing people about her under these preten- 
 tions, and by her having had a husband who took 
 no delight in them, she became a prey to that which 
 well directed, might have saved her, and done honor 
 to her and her family. Her talent was not in fault 
 so much as the application of it. Her judgment was 
 weak, her prudence almost none, and her prejudice 
 unbounded. But there was intellect, of that sor$
 
 12 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 which required to be under the contruol of some 
 other. 
 
 To suppose that she, with a disposition to give an 
 audience with all her vast fortune, to every syco- 
 phant without either controul or enquiry, could es- 
 cape from the snare she fell into, is to suppose that 
 flattery never yet undermined the heart, and that the 
 most designing strangers, the citizens of the world, 
 as they say of themselves, are the choicest body of 
 men to be called in, to regulate the felicity of do- 
 mestic life, and even to mead the law, the custom 
 and morality of every establishment. 
 
 Now with all these learned pedante who depended 
 upon her, being opposed by any plain remonstrances 
 preferred before her, by any plain man of plain 
 meaning, what chance was there of her eventually 
 turning out otherwise, than as she will be seen, a 
 prey to the intrigue of the most savage, contempt- 
 able and low mind, that ever usurped over such 
 a possession. 
 
 But we are given to understand that learned ladies 
 <>xact a different scale for reasoning upon their actions, 
 dian those of common life. The degree of excellence 
 in either, is dependent upon the notions of those 
 who sit in judgment upon their separate merits. 
 The Countess of Strathmore had learning, knew 
 a great many languages, and the study which was 
 the most valuable to her as a lady of fortune, 
 and to society, independent of the more immediate 
 ;>.:ul domestic accomplishments, was her great know-i
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 13 
 
 ledge of botany. The Countess was the most intel- 
 ligent female botanist of the age, and amongst all 
 her eccentricities of character which are to be seen 
 in her CONFESSIONS, and which tend to degrade her, 
 yet as she has there said nothing in her own praise, 
 being compelled hy Bowes to destroy her own fame, 
 and to commit suicide upon her own character, I 
 may be allowed to state, that at this time, she was 
 rinding creditable amusements during the day, by 
 building extensive hot-houses and conservatories at 
 Upper Chelsea. She had purchased a fine old man- 
 sion with extent of ground, well walled in, and 
 there she had brought exotics from the CAPE, and 
 
 O 
 
 was in a way of raising continually an increase 
 to her collection, when, by her fatal marriage, the 
 cruel spoiler came, and threw them like loathsome 
 weeds away. 
 
 I could from what I have collected also state, 
 in commiseration to the Countess's infirmities, that 
 the late Earl of Strathmore was not exactly calcu- 
 lated to make even a good learned woman a pleasing 
 husband. His Lordship's pursuits were always inno- 
 cent and without the smallest guile, but they were not 
 those of science or any other splendid quality. A 
 sincere friend, a hearty Scotchman, and a good bottle 
 companion, were parts of his character. He would 
 rather suffer himself than sour the Countess by impo- 
 sing any restraints upon her; hence were seen all the 
 learned domestics which haunted his house even in 
 his life- time. 
 
 Before Bowes obtained the Countess, he first of
 
 14 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 all stormed the street door, and anti-chamber. There 
 were with her, characters for the promotion of this, 
 which she never engaged for such an undertaking. 
 If the seed of discretion had been sown in her mind 
 under a proper cultivation, tjie Countess might have 
 been instead of infamy, a pattern of virtue. Lord 
 BACON has said upon a young man who displayed in 
 his character all the social virtues, that this young 
 man must have had a good mother : then perhaps as 
 the Countess had a good father, a good mother, and 
 a good husband, she was spoiled by over indulgence, 
 ruined by over kindness, and corrupted by over 
 caresses. 
 
 At the time that the late Earl of Strathmore 
 went to Lisbon for the recovery of his health, I hap- 
 pened to be honoured with the strictest intimacy of a 
 gentleman who owed all the patronage he enjoyed, to 
 his Lordship's interest and friendship with the late 
 Thomas Pitt, the first Lord Camelford, then his MA-. 
 JESTY'S COFFERER. 
 
 There was scarcely a day passed without my seeing 
 this gentleman, and without my hearing at that time 
 something or other of the history of the family and of 
 the transactions in Grosvenor Square. 
 
 This gentleman resided in PALACE YARD, and al- 
 though during his Lordship's residence in Town, and 
 when he was in a state of good health, there was 
 scarcely a week passed without paying his respects in 
 Grosvenor Square, yet in his absence, he never was 
 seen to shew any respect to the Countess.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMOfcE. 15 
 
 The intelligence he received from a servant of the 
 family yet remaining there, and yet faithful to the me- 
 mory of his late master who died at LISBON, added 
 to what he learned from Mr. and Mrs. O. and Lady 
 A. S. gave him ample reason for withdrawing his at- 
 tendance which was unwelcome to the feelings of 
 friendship, and embittering to the memory of his dear 
 and departed friend : for if there ever were a true 
 friend upon earth, this gentleman was so to his patron 
 the late Earl of Strathmore. He had a portrait 
 of him constantly before his eyes, and the pride of 
 heart was to he talking of his virtues. 
 
 The present Earl was then with his hrother at a 
 private school at NEASDEN, and I dare say has not for- 
 gotten the pleasure and gratification it gave him, 
 when he saw this old friend of his father galloping OIL 
 his GREY HORSE to the school door. Once if not 
 twice I accompanied him, and I mean this merely to 
 establish what I say. 
 
 From this gentleman I learned every circumstance 
 about the state of the family; and such intelligence 
 at such a point of time must be considered as valuable; 
 as in my opinion, the conduct of the Countess of 
 Strathmore which I am to enquire into, is limited to 
 the small space of no more than nine months, from 
 the time of the death of her Lord, in April, to her 
 marriage with Bowes, in January. 
 
 This is the critical season for taking a view of the 
 conduct of the Countess, and of the circumstances to 
 which her conduct exposed her, as during these nine
 
 16 THE LIVES OP A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 months from the death of the Earl of Strathmore, 
 she was a free woman, unshackled and uncontrouled, 
 and must be considered as responsible for all her deeds, 
 and which whether what she committed during this 
 interval be in the CONFESSIONS or not, she being 
 compelled to make them; yet whatsoever in them 
 refer to this period of her life and are true, must be- 
 long to the character of the Countess. 
 
 From the authority I have given, I am able to say 
 that none of the relations and friends of the late Earl 
 were acceptable in Grosvenor Square, during these 
 nine months. That her Lord wrote her a letter from 
 LISBON when all hopes of recovery were past, compo- 
 sed of admonition and forgiveness, and that the letter 
 and account of his death were received with a cold 
 and unfeeling indifference. That it was soon under- 
 stood, that she had received the addresses of Mr. 
 G , a gentleman from India, who had served un- 
 der Lord Clive in no very high capacity, but had 
 made a fortune, and purchased land in Scotland ; and 
 every hour it was expected that the Countess was to 
 be married to Mr. G , that his visits were constant, 
 and their airings open ; and that solemn promises had 
 been made in the most solemn places, as a ratification 
 of their intended union. 
 
 Besides, his Lordship having died so unexpectedly, 
 and in the prime of life, the aifairs of income were left 
 perplexing, and some of his own estates in Scotland 
 were obliged to be sold; and it was from serious reflec- 
 tion, that the late Lord's friends saw that a second
 
 AND THE COtJNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 17 
 
 marriage even -with any body was against their, anil 
 the children's, interest. 
 
 Therefore,, when the Countess was addressed by 
 Mr. Gray, they kept aloof; and when she was 
 abused and vilified* attacked and defended, in the 
 Morning- Print, during the months of November 
 arid December, previous to her marriage with 
 BOWES in January, they, thinking that the abuse 
 was useful to prevent the union of Gray with the 
 Countess, suffered it to go on without the least op- 
 position, rather pleased at the treatment she met, 
 and for thus saying, I have the authority to tell, 
 that the friend in Palace Yard and myself saw one 
 of these attacks in manuscript before it was ever 
 sent to the printer. 
 
 It was a letter condemning the Countess on her 
 conduct towards her late Lord, and comparing her 
 with the QUEEN in HAMLET, for being about to 
 marry a second so soon after the death of her first 
 husband; and this letter was written and published 
 under the signature of HAMLET. 
 
 Nt)w as there never has been an instance, I will 
 take upon myself to say, neither before that time 
 nor since, of such illiberal abuse against any per- 
 son, and of any quality, and persevered in for such 
 a length of time, how happened it, unless the 
 friends of the late Earl had looked coldly on, that 
 such an enormous outrage against decency could 
 have been thus continued? Had they interfered, 
 BOWES never might have been ultimately married
 
 18 THE LIVES OF A. #. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 to the Countess ; for all these contrivances, I am 
 now about to enumerate, sprung- from his active* 
 mischievous, and too successful brain. At this 
 stage of the statement, he was ANGUIS IN HERBA, 
 felt without being seen. When the late Lord's 
 friends thought they were defeating the marriage 
 with Gray, by suffering this abuse to proceed 
 against the Countess in the Morning Print, they 
 actually laid the foundation of dispossessing GRAY, 
 and promoting BOWES. 
 
 Bowes's name at this time had scarcely been 
 heard of; I declare I had not then ever heard his 
 original name once mentioned by my friend of 
 Palace Yard. I had heard of no other name^ as a 
 lover, but Gray. 
 
 But all this whilej the noise in the paper, and 
 the mischief, was Bowes's. He had, as Sir Charles 
 Hanbury said of Mr. Hussey, who married a Coun- 
 tess also, an acquired knowledge of his way, knew 
 how to push his trade, and with what length to come 
 in at the heat he was contending for with the Coun- 
 tess against Mr. Gray. 
 
 Bowes was, in the first place* ten years younger 
 than Gray ; in the second, more cunning; in the third, 
 bred up more regularly to the trade ; in the fourth, 
 had the superior aid, the air, and the necessary 
 art of a man of the St. James's Coffee House. 
 There was no antiquated, dissipated, impudent, 
 and profligate nabob a match for him.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 19 
 
 J really do conclude, without meaning the smal 
 lest reflection upon the friends of the late Earl of 
 Stratlnnore ; that their fearful apprehensions of the 
 Countess's marrying Mr. Gray was the cause of 
 her failing, or rather plunging, into the arms of 
 Bowes, and I shall be able to prove this. 
 
 I shall now proceed to shew with what consum- 
 mate art Bowes conducted this address, which 
 must be ever considered by his following, overtak- 
 ing; and passing Gray, who had the start of him 
 for the prize at least four months, a consummate 
 and successful masterpiece of art. 
 
 I will commence with what I believe may be 
 thought a deep scheme. Bowes knowing how 
 much the Countess hated all the friends of her late 
 Lordj in order to stimulate her to a second lover, if 
 ever she should determine to withdraw herself from 
 Gray, and which was his object, got a letter of 
 more than eight pages written, and sent it down to 
 Durham, that it might be delivered with the Dur- 
 ham post mark upon it. I have seen this letter, 
 with the Durham post mark upon it. This letter 
 was directed to the Countess, in Grosvenor Square; 
 and was to be supposed to be a copy of another 
 letter sent to Bowes, telling how an insulted* 
 abused, and deceived lady, to whom Bowes was 
 paying his addresses, and pledged, had sent to her 
 Ladyship this letter from mortification. 
 
 This letter was to inform the Countess how Bowes 
 had sacrificed her to the Countess; abused her 
 
 B 2
 
 20 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 in the most severe terms, as one disappointed, af- 
 flicted, and forsaken; and denounced her ven- 
 geance upon him, and upon her, for faithless vows, 
 mercenary seductions, and fatal delusions. 
 
 But the strongest, deepest, and perhaps most 
 perfect plot that ever was designed was, that in 
 this letter, towards the latter end Of it, the name 
 of Gray was introduced, and there one could easily 
 see all the spirit of the letter was intended. 
 
 * | \ 
 
 It was purely this : that the lady who wrote 
 this letter had at length found some consolation, 
 that her ladyship must be eventually married to 
 Mr. Gray, and that she then should once more be 
 happy; as by such an event her object would be 
 obtained, and her ladyship would be restored to 
 all her former family and friends, as Mr. Gray had 
 
 obtained several interviews with Mr. L n, Mr. 
 
 and Mrs. O -d* arid Lady A. S- n, and all the 
 rest of her late Lord's friends and relatives, as he 
 had been to Paul's Walden, to her ladyship's mo- 
 ther, and as every thing was now most perfectly 
 adjusted, their mutual happiness was no longer 
 likely to be opposed to each other. 
 
 This was the very movement which eventually 
 defeated Mr. Gray. It gave the first imagination 
 of her intention to dispossess him of her favours. 
 That of his supposed connection with the late Lord 
 Strathmore's family, the artful letter pressing that 
 thought upon the Countess's prejudiced mind, made 
 her finally determine against Gray; and taking 
 into the account his age, his want of spirit, and his
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 21 
 
 languor, he soon became forbidden ; she ceased to 
 entertain him farther, and finally discarded him. 
 
 Besides the masked batteries which Bowes had 
 erected, by the Strathmore family rejoicing at 
 Gray's downfal, and by this cheating artifice prac- 
 tised upon the Countess through this copy of a letter, 
 Bowes, never at rest till certain of success, was 
 making his way into the house free and easy, not 
 like Gray, but better. Every step he trod was an 
 advanced piece of ground, which could not be 
 contended against by any future rival. Comedy, 
 which is not only the history, but the soul of life, 
 shews the way to almost every necessary article 
 which love may stand in need of: and there would 
 have been a very moral reflection, if, in Grosvenor 
 Square, a Countess, and one of the richest and 
 wisest, could have been intruded upon by a lover, 
 without his paving, by the favors of a lover, his way 
 to the lady's room of audience. 
 
 The family now in the Square consisted of the 
 Countess, Mrs. Parish, the governess of the cbil 
 dren, Miss Eliza Planta, sister to the governess, 
 and confidant of th$ Countess, secretly in. the in- 
 terest of Bowes, the Rev. Mr. Stephens, just now 
 about to be married to Miss Eliza Planta, also in 
 the interest of Bowes ; the chief visitors of the fa- 
 mily were Mr. Magra, a botanist, and friend of Dr. 
 Solander, and Mr. Matra, a consul at Barbary. 
 These, besides accidental visitors, were the DRA~ 
 MATIS PERSONA at the Temple of Folly, in Gros^ 
 venor Square. 
 
 B3
 
 22 THE LIVES OF A- R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 Bowes had procured the good wishes of Miss 
 Eliza Planta, and of the Reverend Chaplain, and 
 of all the other domestics which might be necessary 
 to his final success. Another stratagem he brought 
 to his aid. Knowing that the Countess entertained 
 romantic and visionary notions of things, he had a 
 conjuror tutored to his wishes, and got Miss P. 
 to make a party, with the Countess and some 
 
 t ; t ' 1 .-.-:! 
 
 others, to have their fortunes told. 
 
 Bowes having thus far advanced in uninterrupted 
 success, made up a match between the Chaplain 
 and Miss Planta but a few days before his own 
 with the Countess ; and here I can avail myself of 
 a corroborating proof, that no man can make ad- 
 vances so certain and successful as he who solicits 
 his good fortune, by conferring good fortune upon 
 others, and by assuming, in all ways, the acts of 
 a generous gallant. 
 
 This Narrative having been carried on nearly to 
 Christmas, and which was within three weeks of 
 Bowes's marriage, the Countess had paid a visit to 
 her mother, at PAUL'S WALDEN, where she remained 
 a few days ; and whilst she was there, Bowes sent 
 her the following letter :--- 
 
 " Woman's a riddle. I never felt the proverb 
 more than upon the honour of receiving your lady- 
 ship's letter. Eliza has, indeed, been playing 
 within the curtain ; had I been worthy to have had 
 confidence in this business, I certainly should have 
 advised a double plot. Your journey would have
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 23 
 
 prevented any enquiry after the intention of your 
 fair friend, and I then should have had the happi- 
 ness of making my consort not only the convovsa 
 tion of the day, but the envy of the world. You 
 draw a flattering picture of Mr. Stephens, was lie 
 any thing but Eliza's husband, I should not be 
 pleased with his trait; but she deserves to be 
 happy ; and I hope he is every thing that she can 
 wish. I always thought that Eliza had a good 
 heart; but she has now convinced us that she has 
 a great mind, above being trammelled by the opi-: 
 nion of guardians, relations, or pretended friends. 
 A free choice is happiness ; and bliss is the off" 
 spring of the mind. Those only possess joy who 
 think they have it; and it signifies little whether 
 we are happy by the forms our connections would 
 prescribe to us or not. I believe it will riot be de- 
 nied, that many are miserable, under the opinion 
 of the world, of their being very much the contrary. , 
 You tell me, that your good mother (Heaven 
 bless her) is well employed for an old lady ; but 
 by the soul of ANGELICA* you vow, (and I know 
 she was dear to you,) that her pursuits do not at 
 this time engage your attention. Now by the living- 
 sick JACINTHA^, by every thing I have to hope, I 
 swear, that I am highly interested in your present 
 thoughts ; and were I PROTEUS, I would instantly 
 transform myself, to be happy that I was stroked 
 and caressed, like them, by you ; and, discovering 
 the secret of your mind, I might experience what I 
 hope Eliza will never be a stranger to^ or be placed 
 
 * A cat, t Another cat. 
 
 B 4
 
 24 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 beyond the reach of further hope. I am all impa- 
 tience to see your Ladyship; I really cannot wait 
 till .Saturday; I must have five minutes chat with 
 you before that time. You will think me whimsical; 
 but upon Thursday next, at one o'clock, I shall be 
 in the garden at PAUL'S WALDEN. There is a 
 leaden statue, or there was formerly, and near that 
 spot (for it lives in my remembrance) I shall wajt ; 
 and can I presume that you will condescend to 
 know the place? Eliza shall be our excuse for this 
 innocent frolic ; and the civilities shall never be 
 erased from the remembrance of your faithful, 
 kc/' 
 
 It is to be seen, that by this letter Eliza and 
 Bowes were upon the best of terms ; that she was 
 the confidential friend of the Countess ; that their 
 main object was to shake the mind of the Countess, 
 and to bring her to the resolution of discarding Mr. 
 Gray. And as if enough had not been already 
 done to secure this object, another letter from the 
 supposed injured lady was brought by the post 
 man, with the post mark of DURHAM upon it, to 
 (irosvenor Square, and ready for the inspection of 
 the Countess on her return from her visit to PAUL'S 
 ^VALI>EX. This letter was not like the former, a 
 COPY of a letter to BOWES, but came in the shape 
 of one directly from the pretended lady to the 
 Countess. This letter was not written by Bowes, 
 but in all probability was framed by him. 
 
 " Pardon the liberty I took, of sending your 
 Ladyship the copy of the letter I wrote to Captain
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 2 
 
 8- . The sacrifice I have made to this abomi- 
 nable man the disobedience T have incurred from 
 the most indulgent parents and the sport of my 
 friends, to whom I have imparted my confidential 
 prospects, drive me to despair. Besides, I love 
 him ; and without him, though I am apprised of 
 his faithless nature, yet I am determined, at the 
 risk of my fortune, my character, my future com- 
 fort of life, and all that is dear to love and passion, 
 to throw myself into his arms. And must you, 
 who possess all the wealth of the North, think that 
 you have the right of thus defrauding an honest 
 heart, too fatally wounded and devoted, because, 
 not from your personal charms or intrinsic worth as 
 one of our unhappy sex, you thus lay claim to my 
 prize, but merely because you possess more acres, 
 and that you. are a Countess. I will not, I cannot 
 sit silently down in submission to this usurpation ; 
 I will haunt you night and day 'till I have procured 
 a restoration of that peace of mind, so long torn, 
 distracted, and broken down with wrongs, and 
 entirely through you, by this foul and dear se- 
 ducer. 
 
 Why don't you abide by your first love as I do? 
 \Vhy should Mr. G ray be abandoned by you for 
 the sake of a man who stands before you a perjured 
 lover ? Why am I to be the sacrifice, to your al- 
 mighty influence, and thus plunged into despair 
 and oblivion, for no end but to gratify th,e wanton- 
 ness of your caprice ? And that you, Madam, you 
 may have the pride and exultation of despoiling and 
 erecting upon my despair your felicity!
 
 26 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 For the sake of whatever is dear to our sex for 
 the feelings which unhappy woman owes to one 
 another, pray indulge me with your kind attention. 
 One moment's pause in the prosecution of your 
 present cruel resolution may save me from destruc- 
 tion, and make your character immortal. Cultir 
 vate Mr. Gray's affections, because your late Lord's 
 friends and relations will accept of him as your 
 
 husband, but not of Captain S . It is impossible 
 
 that Mr. Gray should keep these secrets from you. 
 Mr. Gray has had the address, (which my simple 
 and easy fool never could obtain) of first establish- 
 ing his pretensions to you, upon the confidence and 
 zeal of your late Lord's relations and friends, Mr. 
 
 L- , Mr. and Mrs. O , and Lady A. S . 
 
 It is with their warm approbation that he has wisely 
 made his way to your heart. Plunge not, there- 
 fore, an artless, hopeless, desponding, and for- 
 saken maiden as I am into destruction and utter 
 ruin, but restore some ray of comfort to the un- 
 fortunate 
 
 S." 
 
 Having prosecuted this intrigue, (some would 
 say conspiracy,) and brought the circumstances 
 almost to a conclusion, by which the Countess 
 was decoyed into the power of Bowes ; and ap- 
 proaching to that period of the lives of those re- 
 markable personages, when, in vindication of the 
 Countess, Bowes had a RENCONTRE with the Edi- 
 tor of the Morning Print, the contents of which, in 
 constant columns, displayed attacks upon her con- 
 duct and her virtue, I shall avail myself of the op-,
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 27 
 
 portunity, before I go into a minute detail of this 
 event, of closing with a description of the person 
 and appearance of the Countess at this present mo- 
 ment of time, and before the iron rod of her tyrant 
 had despoiled her of her charms, broken down her 
 spirit, wasted her body, and eclipsed her faculties. 
 
 If I were to attempt hereafter to <"o what I am 
 about to do now, like a picture of youth, the 
 semblance would be false, when compared with 
 the original, after the changes which have been 
 wrought by time, by cruelty, by sorrow, and 
 despair. 
 
 Of the person of the Countess, when 1 first 
 saw her, I shall, as far as I recollect, give a de- 
 scription. It was the morning after the duel, that 
 -she entered Bowes's apartment, at the St. James's 
 Coffee House. The Countess at this time was 
 scarcely thirty years of age: she possessed a very 
 pleasing ENBONPOINT; her breast was uncom- 
 monly fine ; her stature was rather under the mid- 
 dle class; her hair brown; her eyes light, small, 
 and she was near sighted her face was round ; 
 her neck and shoulders graceful ; her lower jaw 
 rather under-hanging, and which, whenever she 
 was agitated, was moved very uncommonly, as if 
 convulsively, from side to side; her fingers were 
 small, and her lumds were exceedingly delicate. 
 She appeared in very fine health; her complexion 
 was particularly clear ; her dress displayed her 
 person, it was elegant and loose ; she glowed with 
 all the warmth of a gay widow, about to be mar-
 
 28 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 ried ; and she prompted all around to be certain that 
 she was conscious of having obtained, with all this 
 difficulty, that which, without this eclat, she 
 never might have been thus blessed : she seemed 
 poor silly soul ! as if she blessed the duel, and 
 blessed every body about it, for the sake of the 
 precious prize the contest brought her. She bles- 
 sed even the sword that was used by Bowes in 
 the duel, took it home with her, and slept with it 
 constantly at the head of her bed all the while 
 she was in Grosver^or Square. 
 
 Having now nearly finished my narrative of the 
 Countess of Strathmore, who is just about to sur- 
 render her liberty, and consequently her responsi- 
 bility to all purposes, rjoble and ignoble, I shall 
 close it with a copy of the promised letter, under 
 the signature of HAMLET, which my friend of Pa- 
 lace Yard and myself first saw in manuscript, and 
 which is here extracted from the Print, and is as 
 follows. 
 
 To this worthy friend of Palace Yard I must first 
 be permitted to bid my sincerest farewel, as a man 
 capable of strong friendship, and whose regard for 
 the family of the Earl of Strathmore did not cease 
 with life, for he was, by his will, buried at PAUL'S 
 WALDEN, in the chancel, and left ,.100. to the 
 clergyman of the parish. 
 
 I will also give the answer of MONITUS to this 
 letter of HAMLET, or otherwise it might be sus- 
 pected (hat I have inserted the letter of HAMLET to
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORfii 29 
 
 feed the vanity of a young man, nofa become older, 
 when the fact is, that I only introduced it to assert 
 my knowledge of the case ; whereas this letter of 
 HAMLET; with the answer of MO-NITUS, will shew 
 that the whole of the dispute was maintained radi- 
 cally from the family quarrel. 
 
 Morning Post, Friday + Jan. 3, 1777. 
 Mr. Editor, 
 
 The polite circulation of your paper, and the 
 candor you display in admitting whatever may be 
 said on both sides, when either politics, fashions^ 
 or characters, are the game in pursuit, make me not 
 doubt but you will give insertion to this. I read 
 lately a letter in your paper, which on account of 
 the subject with which it is connected, has attracted 
 my attention, and has induced me for once to step 
 forward to inform MONITUS, and his noble client 
 THE COUNTESS OF GROSVENOR SQUARE, that their 
 menaces of fatal blows, or louring dangers, will not 
 intimidate me from joining in the general cry, and 
 entering my protest upoil all occasions against a 
 character, whose leading features are a proper 
 object for the scorn and derision of the public. 
 
 No one wants to know whether the paragraph 
 in the Morning Post originated from BLOOMSDURY 
 SQUARE, or a TOMB AT EPHESUS. It would have 
 
 been well for the house of S e, had the noble 
 
 dame procured only the slight satirical ill will of 
 any of the family, that would have just kept a few
 
 30 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 gossips awake at a tea-table, and have slept at the 
 
 first SANS PRENDRE. 
 
 MONITUS artfully parries, but does not vindicate; 
 he is too flimsy to alter the opinion they have 
 formed of his NOBLE MISTRESS, who knew her 
 when HYMEN first graced her with a noble lord, a 
 handsome, virtuous youth, who brought her honour, 
 and sought her happiness ; who knew her, when 
 her fondness for him was fulsome to excess ; who 
 knew her, when sickness laid his heavy hand upon 
 him, and can bear witness to her cold indifference 
 to the letters that passed between them, where all 
 was ceremony, and where there was not enough 
 of prudence in her to supply the want of love. Who 
 has not seen her since in the Mall gracing the 
 hymenial throng? Had she not better been em- 
 ployed in her closet, MONITUS perusing the letters 
 she received from her fond and doting noble lord ? 
 or in visiting her eldest son, whom she has forsaken ? 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 On Tuesday, January 7th, 1777* there is ari 
 answer to HAMLET, at a very considerable length 
 from MONITUS, in the same paper. 
 
 THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE DEFENDED. 
 
 HAMLET, the gracious HAMLET, has at last met 
 with the Ephesian Ghost, and defended by his 
 minister of grace, he steps forward to inform
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 31 
 
 Sf ONITUS and his mistress, that it was armed with 
 the completest steel. 
 
 And always so completely armed are truly vir- 
 tuous characters, that even the strongest oppression 
 will not be able to withstand those convincing 
 proofs of a generous hearted woman ; who from a 
 benevolent disposition of mind, has raised and 
 supported a whole family of ungrateful wretches ! 
 indulged their vanity, increased their estate, and 
 made them respectable ; who in return for such 
 favors now meanly and basely expose every little 
 misconduct of her's in a public print ; and in the 
 language of SCORPIO SCURRILITAS, inhumanly 
 threatens to harrow up her soul ! But lest I should 
 be thought to enter too freely upon a cause that so 
 justly requires to be vindicated, I beg leave, through 
 your candor, Mr. Editor, which I have experienced 
 upon former occasions, to inform HAMLET, that I 
 have no noble client nor the least interest in de- 
 fending a character so grossly imposed upon ; but 
 rather let him look back and consider MONITUS a 
 youth much injured by their notice. 
 
 Deeply concerned for the conduct of the noble 
 Countess, in those few trivial faults which are laid 
 to her charge, and which did increase certainly the 
 satirical ill-will of a few ; yet I am more concerned 
 when I observe a long chain of falsehoods propa- 
 gated daily, with no other intent than to cause a 
 general conflagration, and forcibly to wrest her 
 from the good opinion of those that were neither 
 acquainted with her benevolent, nor misguided
 
 32 THE LIVES OF A. Ri BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 transactions ; but who are now led to give credit 
 to gossip-hatched aspersions of those draining 
 wasps, who long extracted the substance of this 
 flower, which they had found to be pure, as well 
 as it was rich ! 
 
 HAMLET with a becoming grace, offers a protest 
 against a character whose leading features are a 
 proper object of scorn and derision, but at the sain* 
 time declares he does not want to know from 
 whence originated those fulsome falsities, but will 
 join in the cry of the principal leader ; yet after- 
 wards asserts, he will not alter the opinion he has 
 formed against the noble COUNTESS, since HYMEN 
 first graced her with a noble Lord. 
 
 Such being the disposition of HAMLET, he must 
 be a prejudiced being, and therefore should submit 
 to a proper explanation of those elucidations, 
 equally mysterious as without foundation. " MON- 
 ITUS will not parry," but he will vindicate, and 
 shake oft' that flimsy art, which HAMLET has accu- 
 sed him of, and lead him forth from the mistaken 
 crowd ! First, then let us behold a woman born to 
 the greatest possession of wealth, that can enrich 
 a single subject in all the British dominions : 
 educated in the paths of virtue and innocence, she 
 glides through the first stages of youth, untutored 
 in those arts and deceptions so familiar to courts. 
 
 She was the darling and hope of a fond parent, 
 and prudently made choice of a partner for life, 
 from whose mutual embraces sprung the present
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 33 
 
 pledges of their dearest loves. With an unalterable 
 conduct of goodness and affection, she tried every 
 means to gain respect, not only from her lord, but 
 from every one that beheld her. Happy must that 
 man have been, when blest with a woman whose 
 purity of mind led her to those acts of true benevo- 
 lence and charity, which thousands of the poor can 
 testify. When sickness laid his heavy hand upon 
 her lord, she then beheld him dearer to her than 
 at the first moment after their union ! Where are 
 they that bring proof cither of her cold indifference, 
 or that all was ceremony instead of affection ! or 
 that can bring- witness of a want of prudence in her 
 to supply the want of love ! When to all that were 
 around her, the agonizing and heart-felt sorrow was 
 obvious, when she found her dearest lord was 
 departing and at length no more. 
 
 Under such affliction, let us suppose the noble 
 Countess left a widow, rich and respectable, among 
 all ranks of people, open to receive the caresses, 
 and all the honors due to a person of the highest 
 rank of nobility, formed to enjoy such pleasures as 
 would divert the melancholy gloom from her mind. 
 She no sooner goes to the PLAY or walks in the 
 PARK than there are a thousand eyes upon her, and 
 every step to attract her attention ! all striving to 
 great favor, and every tongue employed how to 
 become her favorite. For what? Because she 
 abounds in wealth ; and how charming and profit- 
 able would it be were it possible to prey upon her 
 weakness, or delude her into those snares her sex 
 are most subject to ! Had the so much disappointed
 
 34 THE LIVES OF A. K. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 flight of BLOOMSBURY JILTS, continued in the good 
 graces of her their kind benefactress, it would have 
 been well for them ; but let them be assured, that 
 all their vollies of slander, and of every method 
 that iniquity can prompt them to do, will never 
 reinstate them in her beneficence or esteem, which 
 retrieved them from that poverty, only known to 
 their kind keeper. 
 
 MONITUS. 
 
 ' 
 
 f .*'%' i i '& t\S'- *\ 
 
 The continued provocations which appeared, 
 particularly in one morning paper, and which was 
 then read by the town more than any other, seemed 
 at the approach of the time of the duel more aggra- 
 vating, both in the attacks and defences of the 
 Countess's conduct. She appeared to have been 
 watched every where, and to have been brought out 
 of her house in Grosvenor Square, on purpose that 
 the public might know and see more about her, 
 than could have been obtained within it, without 
 pointing to somebody there. She was dragged like 
 a victim at a bull feast. There were also previous 
 to the night of the duel, or rather rencontre, some 
 sharp sparrings in the paper, as if the spirit of the 
 Editor scorned to suppress an attack upon himself, 
 when he from motives of candor inserted the 
 attacks upon others. This was all highly proper. 
 There was most certainly a storm expected, the 
 horizon was dark and threatening, but the quarter 
 was unknown from whence the element would open, 
 and the tornado descend. 
 
 At the time when the scene of the rencontre was
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE, 35 
 
 drawing near, Bowes then resided at the St. James's 
 Coffee house. He had come to town at this season 
 of the year purely to carry his plan with the 
 Countess into effect. His associations were all of 
 that sort, which idle and uneducated men of 
 pleasure pick up at the gaming houses, clubs, horse 
 races, watering places, &c. In such a society, all 
 are much upon a level in point of morals. They 
 carry on a traffic amongst each other, exchange 
 their horses, their dogs, and their mistresses, for 
 the capricious accommodation of one another ; and 
 they keep a sharp look out for the opportunity of 
 obtaining money, and improving their fortunes, 
 from heir or heiress, by play or marriage, no mat- 
 ter which. 
 
 Bowes's connection in Durham, by his marriage 
 with Miss Newton, afforded him a plea of intro- 
 duction to the Countess's house. He had no occa- 
 sion to say who he was, if he could once get in, 
 and obtain an audience, in Grosvenor Square. By 
 this time he had succeeded in the familiar enjoy- 
 ment of his entre had overcome all the obstacles, 
 and was upon the same footing with Mr. Gray, or 
 a stronger; but he was more restless and active 
 than Gray, and never suffered one single engine in 
 his employ to stand still as long as he remained 
 unmarried to the Countess. He had made all the 
 male literati his friends, and had secured the 
 smiles of the female. The Countess's companion, 
 Eliza, was propitious to him, and had tasted of 
 his kindness. He made his attack upon the Coun-
 
 36 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 tess by every stratagem that all men and women 
 rould devise. 
 
 Such was the situation of Bowes and the Coun- 
 tess on the evening of the RENCONTRE of which, 
 after I have given the letter which Bowes addressed 
 to the Editor of the Morning print, and after having 
 pointed out to the observation of the reader, that, 
 as he has seen in a former letter, that Bowes had, 
 as I said, retained Eliza in his service, so he has in 
 this letter applied, as his tool, one of the Countess's 
 male literati, Mr. MATRA, for his service also, 
 and that in a situation which is judged to be of a. 
 serious and confidential nature. 
 
 LETTER FROM A. R. S. TO THE REV. MR. B. 
 
 St. James s Street, IZth Jan. 1777. 
 
 As you seem determined, from what motives is 
 best known to yourself, not to allow my FRIEND, 
 MR. MATRA, ,to settle the disagreeable transaction 
 that now subsists between us, I desire to know 
 where you are to be found this evening at eight 
 o'clock, as I intend to give you every kind of pro- 
 vocation till I can bring you to a proper sense of 
 your conduct. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 A. ROBINSON S.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 37 
 
 P. S. As you appear to be timorously inclined, 
 1 give you my honor I shall go alone, and shall not 
 bring any implements of war with me. I am en- 
 gaged to dine with a gentleman at the Cocoa Tree, 
 but shall not have it in my power to get away be- 
 fore the hour I have fixed. 
 
 The above letter was sent on the Sunday, and 
 on the subsequent day the RENCONTRE took place, 
 of which I am now about to give a statement. 
 
 A NARRATIVE OF THE RENCONTRE. 
 
 It was on Monday evening, on the 13th of Ja- 
 nuary, 1777, that I was called upon by a gentle- 
 man whom I personally knew, in great haste, to 
 come to the Adelphi Tavern. The reason, I sup- 
 pose, why I was pitched upon, was my vicinity 
 to the spot, as my residence then was in Salisbury 
 Street, which is the nearest street to the Adelphi. 
 I was brought into a room, where I saw the Edi- 
 tor, Mr. B , w r hom I only knew personally, Mr. 
 
 Bowes, whom I had never seen before, another 
 .stranger, and Doctor Scott, who resided in John 
 Street, Adelphi ; besides a servant, I think these 
 were all the persons I first saw there. Bowes was 
 sitting on a chair with his collar unbuttoned, 
 throwing himself back, arid was assisted by smel- 
 ling bottles, and wine and water. He looked very 
 pale, and I thought ready to faint. He attracted 
 my attention most ; and after speaking to his op-* 
 ponent, and enquiring from himself the nature of 
 
 c 3
 
 38 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 his wound, he recommended me to look to Bowes, 
 as his own was not of this serious importance. 
 This gallant conduct sent me to Bowes ; and upon 
 examination I saw the wound 'on his right breast, 
 from whence the blood was then trickling : upon a 
 closer inspection, I saw two wounds on the sub- 
 stance of the right breast, about four inches dis- 
 tance from each other, in an oblique line with each 
 other. As I was given to understand that swords 
 had been used as well as pistols, and as I saw the 
 swords, one of which had been bent, I never have 
 had any other opinion, but that these two wounds 
 on the breast were made by the point of the sword 
 passing in at the one and coining out at the other. 
 There was another wound, but not so important. 
 His opponent was also wounded; and by the 
 wound being externally on the right thigh, it ex- 
 cited considerable pain, from the anatomical nature 
 of the part ; and though not dangerous, required 
 rest anci care to prevent inflammation. 
 
 After having temporarily applied something to 
 the wounds of both, I went away with Bowes in 
 his vis-avis, and called on Sir Caesar Hawkins, in 
 Pall Mall, in our way to the St. James's Coffee 
 House, who promised to be there by the time I 
 could prepare the necessary articles for more effec-^ 
 tually dressing the wounds. Sir Caesar came to 
 his time; and after examining the wounds with his 
 probe, they were dressed. Sir Caesar saw Bowes 
 again the next day, and attended him on with me 
 till the wounds were healed. ,Sir Caesar also saw 
 Mr, B the next day, with me, and I remember
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE. 39 
 
 particularly seeing- Mr. Garrick there, as Mr. B 's 
 residence then was also in the AdeLphi. I did not 
 forget to say, that the looking-glass in the room 
 was broken all to pieces, which I understood was 
 done by the ball of a pistol. 
 
 This is what I have to say about this rencontre, 
 and the wounds that were received by both the 
 
 duellists. But the friends of the late Lord S , 
 
 r 
 
 and those of Mr. Gray, would not permit the re- 
 port of the rencontre, as it was given in one of the 
 papers, to pass without a criticism upon it in ano- 
 ther paper, in which too much was attempted to 
 be done away, or, perhaps, their criticism might 
 have been at the time more successful. They not 
 only denied there having been a real duel, but also 
 denied the wounds. And I have heard a discarded 
 servant of Bowes's SWEAR TWICE, in the Court of 
 Common Pleas, once before Lord Loughborough 
 twenty-three years ago, and since, in 1807, before 
 Sir James Mansfield, that there were no wounds; 
 that the shirt Bowes had on, and his clothes, had 
 neither holes or blood. I have heard this repeated 
 at both these trials $ and when the evidence of this 
 servant was given to this very purpose in the year 
 1807, the Editor, Mr. B , was there, and feel- 
 ing, as he did, the insult that was offered, called 
 upon the Court to examine him, and confront him 
 with this protected witness. But he did not obtain 
 a hearing, nor was I examined. I think this a 
 curious anecdote of the law ; but 1 am happy that it 
 raises in me no other emotion, but contemplating it 
 as a curious anecdote of the law. 
 
 c4
 
 40 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ES@. 
 
 Had those who doubted the fact of there having 
 been a serious rencontre, detached the doubt of a 
 serious rencontre from the actual wounds, as the 
 one could not be proved, but the other could, they 
 would have acted more politic ; whereas, by deny- 
 ing both, they could be contradicted by proof; for 
 if one was false and the other was true, they having 
 confounded them together made them more readily 
 credited to be both true. All that I know of the 
 matter is, that the wounds, as I have stated them, 
 were described from ocular demonstration. 
 
 I will now copy what appeared in the paper called 
 the GAZETTEER, in consequence of the report of its 
 not having been a serious rencontre, and of there 
 having been no wounds. As it will be seen by the 
 date, this came out after Bowes was married. 
 
 GAZETTEER, Friday, January 24, 1777. 
 
 A Morning Paper having misrepresented the 
 circumstances of a late duel which happened at the 
 Adelphi Tavern, from the mischievous intention of 
 an anonymous correspondent, has this day, in jus- 
 tice to the gentlemen concerned, ingenuously con- 
 fessed the error into which it was led, and pub- 
 lished the following 
 
 ATTESTATION, 
 
 We whose names are subscribed, were called 
 within a few minutes after the rencontre that hap-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 41 
 
 pened at the Adelphi Tavern, on Monday the 13th 
 
 instant, and found A. Robinson S , Esq. and 
 
 the Rev. Mr. B , both wounded, the former in 
 
 his right breast, through which the sword of his 
 antagonist had obliquely passed, which bled very 
 considerably, besides another small wound di- 
 rectly above; there was also a slight wound in the 
 right arm. 
 
 The latter was wounded on the external part of 
 the right thigh, which, on account of its situation, 
 was soon much inflamed. He had also a slight 
 wound on the abdomen ; and we have every reason 
 to believe that the rencontre must have determined 
 fatally, had not the interposition of the gentleman 
 who broke into the room put an end to it. 
 
 JOHN SCOTT, M. I). 
 JESSE FOOT. 
 
 January 22, 1777. 
 
 To the above account, as signed by Dr. Scott 
 and Mr. Foot, Sir Caesar Hawkins, who saw Mr. 
 
 S in consultation with Mr. Foot about two 
 
 hours after the rencontre, and likewise visited Mr. 
 B , with Mr. Foot, the morning following sub- 
 scribes his attestation. 
 
 C. HAWKINS. 
 
 Pail Mall, January 22, 1777, 
 
 COPY. 
 
 The following is what I know of the late affair 
 of honour between Mr. B and Capt. S .. Being
 
 42 THE LIVES Of A. K. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 in a room above stairs, at the Adelphi Tavern, on 
 Monday evening;, the 13th instant, about six 
 o'clock, as I was reading the newspaper, I heard 
 a noise like the report of a pistol, and presently" 
 after another; I did not at that instant apprehend 
 it was the discharge of a pistol, but the violent 
 shutting too of a door, till some minutes after, 
 when I heard a noise as of two persons fencing ; 
 this being so very violent, alarmed me, as I thought 
 it impossible to be play, therefore immediately ran 
 down stairs, when I found . my fears were well 
 founded ; for after some time, with the assistance 
 of the waiters, the door was burst open, when, 
 upon rushing in, I seized upon Capt. S 's sword 
 arm, and immediately threw myself before him, for 
 fear he should receive any further hurt from his an- 
 tagonist, -whom I presently saw was Mr. B , 
 
 whose behaviour at that instant convinced me, that 
 no further danger w r as to be apprehended from him. 
 Soon afterwards, therefore, (though with no small 
 
 difficulty) I prevailed upon Capt. S to yield me 
 
 tip his sword : and as he at that time seemed to be 
 very weak, I apprehended he was hurt, and upon 
 my examining him I found he w as much wounded ; 
 I think there were three wounds in his right breast, 
 and one upon his sword arm. Mr. Foot, the sur- 
 geon, seemed to think one of the former may be 
 dangerous. 
 
 It was matter of great surprize to me, that one or 
 other of the combatants were not absolutely killed 
 on the spot, as I found them, on my entering, in 
 the dark, the candles having been knocked down,
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 43 
 
 as I suppose, in the engagement. Capt. S-r 
 fainted twice, but whether it \vas from loss of 
 blood, (which was considerable,) or from the vio- 
 lent agitation of his spirits, I am not able to judge. 
 I can not but observe that Capt. 8 was very par- 
 ticular in acquitting Mr. B of any uiigeiitlemau- 
 
 like behaviour during the whole affair, and repeat- 
 edly advised him to make his escape in his carriage, 
 for fear of any fatal consequence attending him. 
 
 (Signed) J. HULL. 
 
 Salt Office, Wednesday, 3 o'clock. 
 
 The only remark I shall make as to the fact of 
 the wounds is, that here are four witnesses, Dr. 
 Scott, Sir Caesar Hawkins, Mr. Hull, and myself. 
 Four such witnesses would serve to attest the con- 
 veyance of the largest property that ever was 
 sold ; would bring condemnation on a criminal, 
 or acquit an innocent ; would be equal to the in- 
 tention of ratifying the most solemn acts of pro- 
 perty, of life, and of death. 
 
 The purpose of the trial, when the witness I 
 allude to was called to prove that Bowes was not 
 wounded, was to recover estates made over to 
 Bowes by the Countess in May, 1777, a few months 
 after their marriage, in order that he might raise 
 motiey upon them ; and when the Countess escaped 
 from Bowes in the year 1785, 'and swore the peace 
 against him, these estates were claimed from Bowes, 
 founded upon the proof, that they were obtained 
 from her not with her fair consent, but by ill usage 
 compulsion.
 
 44 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 In trying this question, the lavvvers began with 
 the duel; and though there were evidences enough 
 to establish Bowes's tortures and cruelties towards 
 the Countess, yet they were not content with these, 
 but opened their cause with this duel, which was 
 a circumstance before the marriage. As this wit- 
 ness could have been contradicted, and the cases 
 of tortures and cruelties could not, perhaps could 
 not for want of proof, it was the more necessary 
 that this witness should have been contradicted, as 
 it would have tended to invalidate, or at least to 
 weaken the force of the rest of the witnesses ; for 
 all the witnesses were much of the same class with 
 this one. I am apt to think also, that up to the 
 month of May, of the same year they were mar- 
 ried, BOWES HAD NOT TREATED HER WITH SO 
 
 MUCH BRUTALITY as he did afterwards. Bowes 
 then had two pressing concerns upon him, to con- 
 ceal the state of the Countess's health, and to 
 satisfy Mr. Gray by giving him hush money. 
 
 For the purpose of stopping Mr. Gray's action, 
 which he had given notice of, and to pay debts 
 contracted before marriage, he wanted to raise a 
 sum of money upon annuities. The Countess was 
 at the Royal Exchange UPON VIEW for many days, 
 arid, IN MY OPINION, consented without restraint 
 in this transaction, if she ever did in any. one, after 
 her fatal marriage. Bowes saw the necessity of 
 getting over this business as early as he could, on 
 account of her HEALTH. There was some grace in 
 this; Bowes was not now entirely lost to all sense 
 of honour. When he married the Countess, he
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 45 
 
 took her as she was, and nothing then ^tood in his 
 way, but after marriage, he wished to keep her 
 secrets, not for her's, but his own sake, and for his 
 own reputation. What Bowes wanted was, that 
 every thing should pass for his own, and that is the 
 reason why he made the Countess say worse things 
 in the CONFESSIONS, and which did not trench upon 
 his interest. The money was raised, and Mr. 
 Gray received ,12,000 of it. 
 
 Having said as much as I think necessary about 
 the DUEL, and having followed the consequences of 
 it beyond the time that the marriage took place, on 
 purpose to give a more full explanation, I shall now 
 return to Bowes and the Countess, and state what 
 they were doing about the time of the duel. 
 
 The Countess having been worked upon by the 
 continued attacks in the Morning Paper upon her, 
 
 was heard to declare to Miss P , that the man 
 
 who would call upon the Editor of that Paper, and 
 revenge her cause upon him, should have both her 
 hand and her heart. The object was found to be 
 from this expression fast approaching to a success- 
 ful conclusion ; and Bowes had triumphed over his 
 rival. 
 
 Mr. Gray called on Bowes the morning after the 
 duel, shook him heartily by the hand, thanked him, 
 and expressed himself full of gratitude to him ; it is 
 plain from this, that he was not in the smallest de- 
 gree aware that Bowes would be ever married to the 
 Countess.
 
 46 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ 
 
 Here then let us pause to contemplate the life of 
 the Countess within these last NINE MONTHS, and 
 let us reflect upon the state in which she was, and is 
 now to be seen. She whose wealth and education 
 and connections commanded all the attention, and 
 all the abilities which instruction can obtain through 
 money; let us reflect that she is a mother, and that 
 she brought forth five children by her late Lord, 
 and to what an end her state is come at last. Then 
 let us turn our attention to an opposite picture, to 
 one the reverse, and of the same sex, to one who 
 possesses native sweetness, innocence, modesty, 
 mildness and affection, to one whose mind has not 
 been vitiated, and who adorns and maintains her 
 rank in nature as the highest for admiration of any 
 thing created. The Italian Marquis who was the 
 Countess's CHAPERON for twelve months, the Go- 
 vernesses from the Museum, the social friends Mr. 
 Matra, and Mr. Magra introduced by Doctor So- 
 lander, the Domestic Chaplain, the vast income, 
 the castles and houses, have all but served to dis- 
 figure the native perfection of a woman, and to give 
 her the appearance of a fallen angel. 
 
 The Countess's possessions then were, her house 
 and garden at Chelsea, with conservatories and hot- 
 houses, upon the largest scale, her house in Grosve- 
 nor Square, her seats at Paul's Walden/Gibside, 
 Streatham Castle, and Barnard Castle, besides lauds 
 in Middlesex. 
 
 r 
 
 On the morning after the duel, Bowes's apart- 
 ments were filled with visitors ; and the expectation
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 47 
 
 lie had promised as the result of the duel, kept him 
 in a constant state of agitation until the day of the 
 marriage. He knew the fickleness of her nature, 
 and hurried on the day as fast as possible, that day 
 which gave her no other choice in life but repent- 
 ance, a privilege which she was certain to stand in 
 need of. 
 
 On the 17th of January, four days after the duel, 
 Bowes and the Countess were married at St. 
 James's Church, by the Rev. Mr. Gardiner, to 
 whom he gave ,'50, and in a few days afterwards 
 he took possession of the house* and all the MOVE- 
 ABLES in Grosveuor Square. 
 
 Here, then, are joined in holy w r edlock, two such 
 as for the honour of human nature are seldom to be 
 found. The one had broken the heart of a former 
 wife, the other had not lengthened the days of a 
 former husband; in a battle-royal of a main of 
 cocks, the tvvo surviving ones contend for existence, 
 and thus are these two pitted as by positive destina- 
 tion. 
 
 Soon after the marriage, Bowes addressed a 
 GOOD letter to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Bowes, then 
 residing at Paul's Walden, of which the following 
 are the contents : 
 
 MADAM, 
 
 It is not more my duty, than it is iny inclination 
 to reinove as far as it comes within my power, the
 
 48 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 uneasiness which the unexpected intelligence to 
 you of my marriage with Lady Strathmore must 
 have occasioned. Had it been possible for me to 
 have flattered myself with your approbation, my 
 happiness upon the occasion would have been com- 
 plete; but as I could not convey to you the state 
 of mind and honour and integrity of my intention, 
 which were my chief advocates with Lady Strath- 
 more, I was under the necessity of violating a cere- 
 mony, which my inclinations strongly dictated to 
 me to comply with, and celebrated a marriage with- 
 out your concurrence. Deeply impressed with the 
 sense of the impropriety that may appear to you for 
 my conduct, I wish to atone for that breach of duty, 
 arid to ask your pardon under the promise of dedi- 
 cating the remainder of my life to the honour and 
 interest of your daughter and her family. My 
 grateful heart will make me her faithful companion, 
 and with unremitting attention I will consult her 
 peace of mind, and the advantage of the children. 
 
 My situation and family connections give me the 
 pleasing prospect of domestic happiness, and I hope 
 the introduction of my friend to the honour of an 
 intimacy in your family will be approved and at- 
 tended with those advantages which are found from 
 receiving good company. 
 
 I shall study to deserve the honour and unlimited 
 confidence which has been placed in me, and by an 
 exact obedience to your inclinations, I shall be 
 happy to regulate my conduct, so as to merit your
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 49 
 
 approbation; and under the idea that I may here- 
 after be admitted to your friendship, I beg permis- 
 sion with respect to subscribe, 
 
 Your affectionate humble Servant, 
 
 ANDREW ROBINSON BOWES. 
 
 MRS. BOWES did not long* survive the shock of 
 this marriage and her daughter's conduct. She was 
 a truly good and charitable woman; indeed her 
 charity was indiscreet, as Paul's Walden lies out 
 of the common road, the beggars which flocked 
 there infested the parish ; she gave food, clothing, 
 and lodging to all who came. 
 
 The morning after Bowes's marriage, he had 
 quite a levee; not being well enough to be moved* 
 or not now caring much about it, he was seen 
 dressed in a new suit of regimentals ; his vanity re- 
 minding him, that fourteen years ago, he was the 
 youngest Lieutenant upon half pay of a disbanded 
 regiment. Two General Officers in their full regi- 
 mental dresses paid him and the Countess the nup- 
 tial visit; these were his near relations; General 
 Robinson of Marlborough street, and General Arm- 
 strong of Berners street. General Lambton called 
 in his regimental dress also ; he was the relation 
 of the Countess. In point of family and origin, 
 the couple were much upon a par, I never could see 
 much difference between them. 
 
 The cards were in heaps that were left by visitors 
 in coaches, on horseback, and on foot ; all was bus*
 
 50 THE LIVES OP A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 tie; and there would have been something light 
 and airy, something of felicity in this knight-errand 
 frolick of Fortune, something which on a superficial 
 rnind would strike the attention, as a prosperous 
 and dexterous piece of romance ; but the founda- 
 tion was not sound; the cause was not good; the 
 prospect was not bright ; the back ground was sorn- 
 brous ; the light had no warmth, it was like the 
 luminous appearance emitted from rotten wood in 
 a dark night ; the perfume was not sweet-scented ; 
 no bride-maids graced the nuptials ; Hymen's torch 
 burnt not clear, and the Countess from henceforth 
 may truly be pronounced to be DEAD ALIVE. 
 
 KON T REDOLET SED OLET, QVJE REDOLERE SOLET. 
 
 After the married couple removed to Grosvenor 
 Square, Bowes opened the scene, and gave a few 
 grand dinners to those who w r ould attend them; 
 and after the house had undergone the change na- 
 turally to be expected from folly to tyranny, the 
 females which had been first dishonoured, were next 
 discarded, and all his other instruments the male 
 literati having served his turn, and done his business 
 completely, were sent adrift also. He invited the: 
 faculty to a dinner, amongst whom was the Coun- 
 tess's Surgeon, Mr. John Hunter, he had seen the 
 wounds on their second dressing. 
 
 Here, then, every thing relative to the marriage 
 was about to close, and when he had presented the 
 Countess to the underwriters, and raised the money, 
 Grosvenor Square soon became deserted.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE. 51 
 
 Within a month of his marriage, Sir Walter 1 
 Blacket, a Member for Newcastle, died ; Bowes 
 offered himself as a candidate, assigning ill health 
 for not personally canvassing the voters. He stood 
 the contest against Sir John Trevelyan, and he pe- 
 titioned the House of Commons, but finally lost his 
 election* 
 
 DOCTOR SCOTT, who was present just after the 
 duel, resided in the Adelphi, where he had a sort 
 of Dispensary ; and his wife was a very nice and 
 well-disposed woman. The Doctor (Scott) pro- 
 mised from a certain smartness and plausibility, to 
 become a useful new instrument to Bowes; the 
 Doctor had the honour of being appointed HIS Phy- 
 sician; he obtained all his confidence; and he was 
 well informed of the Countess's state of health. 
 
 Bowes took a house at Hammersmith, to which 
 she retired; It was a house the Margravine of An- 
 spach had left, quite secluded from the busy pry- 
 ing eye of curiosity, and where Bowes might hear 
 the cuckoo in the merry month of May, the time 
 they went there, without its being unwelcome to the 
 married ear. 
 
 By his taking this house, it was very clear that 
 the house in the Square, or that at Chelsea, or that at 
 Paul's Walden, would not suit their purpose so 
 well ; and here they remained some considerable 
 time, and HIS Physician also. 
 
 At the expiration of three months, they quitted 
 
 D2
 
 52 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 this snug retreat at Hammersmith, and made a 
 journey to their possessions in the North. Bowes 
 not forgetting even there, to take also HIS Phy- 
 sician. 
 
 On the Countess's arrival at GIBSIDE, her ancient 
 domain, an accoucheur was sent for, and directed 
 to be in waiting, as the Countess expected every 
 hour to call out for his assistance ; but whether he 
 was pleased to be too slow, or the Countess was 
 pleased to be too much in haste, or whether Bowes 
 was pleased to govern the will of both, the child was 
 born alive and well before the arrival of the accou- 
 cheur, and the Countess was in a very fine sleep. 
 The tardy accoucheur took his fee and his depar- 
 ture. 
 
 The twelve thousand pounds paid to Mr. Gray, 
 was raised in May, when the Countess possessed 
 Bowes of the property which was said to be ob- 
 tained by compulsion. The deed was witnessed 
 by Doctor Scott, not the Doctor Scott lately spoken 
 of, but by the Rev. Doctor Scott, the writer of the 
 letters signed ANTE SEJANUS, during the time of the 
 Earl of Sandwich being at the head of the Ad- 
 miralty. 
 
 If any part of this extraordinary character ex- 
 cited more than common curiosity, it would be, I 
 imagine, by speculating how Bowes would conduct 
 himself after coming into so vast a fortune. In the 
 intrigue he carried on to obtain the Countess, by 
 ousting Mr. Gray, he evidently evinced a superio-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 53 
 
 rity over him, and at a time when any other man 
 would have given up all prospect of hope of suc- 
 cess from the priority of advantage in the posses- 
 sion of Mr. Gray. Both of them tried to obtain 
 the Countess by guilty means ; and one may be 
 punished by another, who is as guilty as himself, 
 and who has also combined in the profanation of all 
 sacred duties. 
 
 And though the mode Bowes took to obtain the 
 Countess was that of an impostor, yet if he had 
 conducted himself like a man, and treated her well 
 afterwards, he might have been pardoned and ac- 
 quitted; if he had acted like LEON in the comedy 
 of RULE A WIFE AND HAVE A WIFE, after his mar*- 
 riage, like LEON, he might have been applauded. 
 
 Before I see what Bowes is about in- the North, 
 I will first of all settle his account of his conduct 
 during the summer in town, independent of his 
 election concern, and of his Hammersmith MYS- 
 TERY. 
 
 Bowes and the Editor of the Morning Print, had 
 a revived quarrel of a very serious nature, and 
 which threatened extreme consequences, the ac- 
 count of which I shall here give with as much accu- 
 racy and impartiality as I possibly can. 
 
 Bowes having publicly read the following 
 letter (subscribed with the initials of his name) to 
 the members of the Cocoa Tree ; the gentleman to 
 whom it was addressed, not having the honour of 
 
 D3
 
 54 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 being a member of that Society, found it impossible 
 to do himself justice, but by the publication of his 
 answer to it, which Bowes, it seems, did not read, 
 and stating at the same time the grounds of this 
 new correspondence. 
 
 About six weeks ago, Mr. B was informed 
 
 that Bowes had publicly declared at one of the 
 
 clubs, " that he (Mr. B ) was very short-sighted 
 
 in their late affair, or he might have perceived the 
 views he had in calling him to an account." Natu- 
 rally hurt at the bare idea of such a reflection com- 
 ing from Mr. Bowes, Mr. B-- wrote a very civil 
 note to him, only requesting to know whether the 
 information he had received, was true? but to which 
 he received no answer. A few days afterwards, a 
 second note of a similar nature was sent ; but no 
 answer: a third succeeded it of a more spirited na- 
 ture, in which an explanation was insisted upon, or 
 his silence would be deemed a confession of his 
 guilt. To this he thought proper to deliver the fol- 
 lowing laconic answer to the chairman who carried 
 it " Tell the gentleman I wear a sword !" Morti- 
 fied not a little on the receipt of this message, Mr. 
 
 B waited upon him in Grosvenor Square the 
 
 next morning, attended by a gentleman, but was 
 told he was not at home : the porter was asked 
 what was the most probable time to meet with his 
 
 master? He replied about twelve. Mr. B then 
 
 gave him a card, and said, " Tell your master the 
 gentleman whose name is on the card, will call 
 upon him to-morrow precisely at twelve." Mr. 
 B was in Grosvenor Square the next day at the
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 55 
 
 hour appointed, but was informed that Mr. Bowes 
 was neither at home, nor had he left any message. 
 
 Mr. B irritated at this treatment, desired him to 
 
 tell his master, *' that though he had SQ studiously 
 avoided him, he was determined[ to see him at all 
 events." He therefore repeated his visits the next 
 day, but with no more success than before. It hap- 
 pened immediately upon this, that the fracas behind 
 the scenes at the Haymarket broke out. Mr. B * 
 thinking this might afford him an opportunity to 
 bring Bowes to a proper explanation, made himself 
 master of the facts, and sent them to a newspaper, 
 with a determination of avowing himself the author 
 of the article, whenever called upon. This pro-- 
 duced the following letter : 
 
 COPY. 
 
 Monday Morning. 
 SIR, 
 
 I have known bad men, I have heard of many, 
 and have been a dissipated man myself, but of all 
 the diabolical wretches that since the beginning of 
 the world, God thought expedient to introduce upon 
 earth, as a detested example of vile prodigality, you 
 are the first. A man who exists without a possibi- 
 lity of having one flattering thought, even to be ex- 
 tracted from the pinnacle of ideal fiction, except 
 that of being conscious of never nearly having an 
 equal, not so much as excluding those who have 
 suffered from the just laws of their country. 
 
 P 4
 
 56 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 Providence, when we last met, thought you too 
 proper a subject for public justice, to allow you to 
 fall for the satisfaction of an individual, has there- 
 fore, I presume, detained you as an example and 
 partner in clerical reprobation ; else what devil 
 could have instructed you to have made a second 
 attack upon me, when you know I wish to relin- 
 quish every part of the world that can produce so 
 infernal and black a book, AS YOUR COUNTENANCE. 
 
 I am, &c, 
 
 R. B ? 
 <* ' .' 
 
 P. S. I have advised you before to let me 
 alone, I give you the same now. I did riot 
 think proper to answer your letter, nor to be 
 at home when you called, because I did not 
 wish to get into a second quarrel with you ; 
 however, lest you should think me afraid of 
 you, which is a character I dislike as much 
 as that of being too forward, I shall be at 
 home till six o'clock this evening, and- after 
 that period shall be at the theatre. The ac- 
 count you have given about my being drunk 
 the other night at the theatre is in part true, 
 though most of it is false, and therefore calls 
 my resentment : the other paragraph is to- 
 tally so, but of no consequence. Take care 
 you don't extend matters too far ; your pre- 
 rogative is now upon the stretch, shamefully 
 so indeed. 
 
 Since I wrote the above, I have determined 
 
 to be at home till seven o'clock. 
 To the Rev. Mr. B , Adelphi.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 57 
 
 To which was immediately sent back the under- 
 written answer: 
 
 COPY. 
 
 Monday noon. 
 SIR, 
 
 I HAVE just received a letter signed R. B. which, 
 from its bedlamite strains, I conceive to be the ge- 
 nuine effusions of your extraordinary head and 
 heart. The man, however, who dares to hold the 
 language to me, which I have been able to collect 
 from the only intelligible part of it, is a liar and a 
 scoundrel. What you mean by expecting me at 
 your house this evening, after the very singular line 
 of conduct you have lately pursued, I neither know 
 nor care ; but I am now advised not to be impru- 
 dent enough to enter under the roof of an assassin. 
 I shall therefore take the opportunity of expressing 
 my sentiments of you in the face of the world. 
 
 Why do you upbraid me for those disagreeable 
 reflections, which your conscience has called up 
 upon the perusal of the papers of this day? You 
 
 had better, Mr. S , endeavour, by honest and 
 
 honourable means, to stirle those self-reproaches, 
 than calumniate the man with so much virulence to 
 whom, through accident, in all probability, you 
 owe every thing you now possess. 
 
 If the Morning Post has published any thing 
 against you that is untrue, I will call the printer to
 
 -N3 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 an account for it, and make him do you ample 
 justice; further than this your late behaviour con*- 
 \ inces me you have no right to expect at my hands. 
 Your going to the theatre this evening may possibly 
 be in order to raise a fresh disturbance at that 
 house. I shall be there likewise, though with no 
 such intention. 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 H. B. 
 To R/ Bowes, Grosvenor Square. 
 
 Some days elapsed before any further notice was 
 taken of this matter by Bowes, till some other ar- 
 ticles were announced in the papers for publication, 
 when Bowes deputed the Rev. Mr. Maxwell, of 
 the kingdom of Ireland, to wait upon his antago- 
 nist, to endeavour to smother, or rather fence with 
 him, in which, however, he did not succeed. He 
 was told, it was expected that BOWES would give 
 him an assurance that he did not cast any reflee-i 
 tion upon him, and that he would make him a pro- 
 per apology. Through the subsequent mediation 
 of MR. WILKINSON, then Bowes's solicitor, an ac- 
 commodation was at length effected, under the 
 arbitrament of two gentlemen on each side, who 
 decided, THAT BOWES SHOULD MAKE A PROPER 
 
 APOLOGY FOR HIS EXTRAORDINARY CONDUCT. 
 
 Bowes looked out for a CHAPLAIN to his family, 
 and appears to have been nicely scrupulous in the 
 selection. Many candidates offered. He has told 
 us from his extreme critical situation in point of 
 public approbation, that he could not be too mi-.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 59 
 
 nute in his enquiries about those who are to be ad- 
 mitted to his house and confidence. 
 
 On his going to the north, in the autumn, when 
 the Countess accompanied him to lie in there ; then 
 it was that he began to shew himself, as to the ap- 
 plication of the immense property which had, by 
 his marriage, fallen to him. GIBSIDE is remark- 
 able for rich and extensive plantations of valuable 
 woods; and whether Bowes had the power, by 
 law r of cutting down timber or not, here, within 
 ten months of his marriage, is a letter from this 
 plundering adventurer, which, besides the timber, 
 includes the subject of more annuities. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 From Andrew Robinson Bowes, Esq. to 
 -, Esq. 
 
 GIBSIDE, November 7, 1778. 
 Yesterday I received your letter, and am ex- 
 tremely sorry to hear of your indisposition. I shall 
 be very glad to see the TIMBER MERCHANT, and. 
 shall have no difference with him about the time of 
 payment, nor I dare say about the prices ; but as 
 for paying him the ex pence of his journey, it is 
 such a proposal never was heard in this country, 
 or, I believe, any other. It is just as much as to 
 say, I will run the chance of making a great bar- 
 gain, without suffering the least risk. If you will
 
 60 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 be so obliging as to have my wood put into any of 
 the papers, I am sure of fifty bidders, without any 
 expence. It has never been offered to sale ; and 
 I will venture to say, SUCH WOOD is NOT IN ENG- 
 LAND, at least in any one place, his Majesty's 
 Docks excepted. The Dock Company in this 
 country has made me a great offer, in order TO 
 SELL AGAIN; but I have been told the people in 
 London can afford to give more, how true remains 
 to be proved. 
 
 I am obliged to you for the trouble you have 
 had about the insurance, and beg you will send 
 me a list of a few of the best brokers in London. 
 I will see myself and them damned before I agree 
 to the price you mention. D , when I was last 
 in town, got me 3000. much under that charge. 
 I am ever yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. If you see the wood matter in a diffe- 
 rent light, I leave it to you. 
 
 In four days after Bowes had signed the con- 
 demnation of the fine woods at GIBSIDE, he opened 
 another vein of peculation, or rather enlarged upon 
 what he had first began. This letter is dated 
 from COAL PIG HILL, the ancient property of the 
 NEW TONS, his first wife. 
 
 The ebullitions of his vanity are here to be seen 
 rising very fast.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE, (Jl 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 COAL PIG HILL, November 11, 1778. 
 Though I am this moment going out a hunting, 
 I must write one line to answer your obliging letter 
 of the 4th instant. I am much obliged by the in- 
 formation you give me relative to the new CREA- 
 TION *. I was before too apprehensive the power 
 was in the option of the ministers, and that the 
 difficulty therefore would be great in my PRESENT 
 situation. However, my dear friend, time should 
 be always taken by the forelock, and hope, on that 
 account, a trifle ' (of five hundred pounds for in- 
 stance) will not allow you to stop your proceedings. 
 I came here last Sunday, with my wife and sister, 
 
 and General B , upon a hunting party; the 
 
 W us are to be here to-day. My real reason 
 
 was ( to avoid the sore throat, which was very 
 troublesome at GIBSIDE, though, thank God, not 
 mortal. Markam, (my chaplain,) his wife, and 
 Major P , KEEPS house. We RETURN on Sun- 
 day. The last policies that were done for me, 
 
 WAS by D , at six per cent, for two years, the 
 
 hand of justice and suicide excepted. I will send 
 to you when I return, in order to have the names 
 examined. The other policies you mention in your 
 last letter ONLY shall be sent to you the moment I 
 return to GIBSIDE, with your promise, that they 
 
 * By creation, he means a title.
 
 02 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 shall be returned immediately, as I believe you 
 will find names on them that ought not to be there. 
 
 The hint you gave me about Mr. W would be 
 
 very pleasing to me, you may .be assured, but I 
 must know nothing yet. 
 I am, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 In much hurry, yours, &c. 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. If ten thousand can be accomplished 
 upon the above terms, I will give my note 
 payable in two months when finished. 
 
 If I should ever get into parliament, 1 shall 
 have plenty of things to ask, without wait- 
 ing for tiie matter in question. 
 
 Such are the after-thoughts of a man who con- 
 cludes his letter in a HURRY. The venerable steward 
 of .the family, who I remember to have once seen 
 in his scarlet and gold waistcoat, was made, by 
 Bowes, to remit to this same correspondent all the 
 money he could muster, to the amount of some 
 thousands, as his banker in town did not choose to 
 contribute, at his own risk, to Bowes's vanity. 
 This banker will be abused by him.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 63 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 From the same to the same* 
 
 GIBSIDE, December 15th, 1778. 
 1 was last night favoured with yours of the 9th 
 instant, and this morning wrote to Mr. Gibson, to 
 
 answer that part of it relative to Mr. G . I am 
 
 sorry you have had so much trouble about the in- 
 surance; I will not give sixpence more than six 
 guineas, and think even that shamefully- exorbitant, 
 as for one year the price I paid before was only 
 three pounds ten. Pray is 's BANK still exist- 
 ing? I cannot get a letter from them; though be- 
 tween the 4th of September and 27th of November, 
 Gibson has remitted them 3950. and they may 
 expect to receive 1000. more in the course of 
 this month. 
 
 I am yours sincerely, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. 1 have given up all idea of going this 
 winter to London, as I can live here for half 
 the expence ; besides, I never can be happy 
 TILL i GET OUT OF DEBT, and have money, 
 if possible, to the good. 
 
 The purpose of this last paragraph was to get the 
 confidence and the credit of this correspondent 
 more readily at his command, as will be seen in 
 his two next letters after his return to London, in
 
 t>4 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ 
 
 the month of May, 1789, when THE HOUSE, THE HOT 
 
 HOUSE, AND CONSERVATORIES AT CHELSEA, WILL ALL 
 GO. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 From the same to the same; 
 
 NEWMARKET, April 29, 1779. 
 
 I beg you will assist Mr. G in preventing the 
 
 annuitants from taking any disagreeable step till 
 my arrival in town, on Monday ; and yon may 
 add, that they shall call to be paid the ensuing 
 week, and never have occasion to complain in 
 future. 
 
 I am yours sincerely, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 WALKER is out of danger from his fall yester* 
 day, which was at first thought mortal* 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 From the same to the same* 
 
 GROSVENOR SQUARE, May 10, 1779, 
 I called on you this morning, according to my 
 general mode, to ask a favour. In short, my 
 banker has been so uncommonly pressing, that it 
 is impossible for me ever to ask him another favour, 
 or to lose more time than I can help in liquidating;
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 65 
 
 every account between us, which I shall do very 
 expeditiously after my arrival in the north. I have 
 lately paid into his bank upwards of 2000. and 
 shall soon totally get free of him, for reasons I shall 
 mention more freely to you when we meet. 
 
 All the favour I have to ask of you is, that you 
 will procure me time, for a few weeks more, for 
 the payment of my note, in your favour ; and if 1 
 was obliged (which will not be the case) to sell 
 the chair I sit on, by God, it should be done. I 
 HAVE SOLD CHELSEA HOUSE, but have not got the 
 money; which, however, when I do, must go to 
 
 , the banker. 
 
 I am sincerely yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES 
 
 In the month of June, with all his shiftings for 
 money, he purchased a race horse, and went upon 
 the turf: the name of the horse was ICELANDER, 
 which he pretended to his friend only to buy to 
 sell again. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 GIBSIDE, June 28, 1779. 
 
 Nothing but absolute necessity could have in- 
 duced me to be again troublesome, when I am 
 already so much indebted to you for your assis- 
 tance and kind readiness to oblige me in all money 
 
 E
 
 66 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 transactions. Nothing could give me greater plea- 
 sure than to have an opportunity of shewing my 
 just sense of the obligation I am under. The 
 favour I have to request is, that as both my bills 
 will be soon due, you will keep one of them in 
 your hands a short time longer, and contrive to 
 pay the other by the enclosed bill, which is ac- 
 cepted by the Duke of A . Till I receive my 
 
 rents, I find it will be impossible for me to be 
 easier in my pecuniary transactions. In perform- 
 ing this you will do me a singular service, and 
 give me a most acceptable proof of your friend- 
 ship. 
 
 I am sincerely yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. MY MARE walked over, consequently 
 you win your bet from the General. OR- 
 PHEUS was backed to him ten to one against 
 the field ; but ICELANDER run him, the last 
 heat, within half a neck ; the finest race I 
 ever saw. 
 
 In the following month he wrote to this old 
 friend the following letter :
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 67 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 GROSVENOR SQUARE, July 6, 1779. 
 As I well know by my own experience, (a fact 
 which few would credit,) that it is impossible to 
 pronounce who is at present in a state of affluence, 
 I shall not acknowledge that I think you have 
 acted in an unfriendly manner ; but I cannot avoid 
 observing, that I did not expect a refusal of my 
 request, even though from any body else I had no 
 right to expect it would be granted. There is not 
 the most distant prospect of your suffering finally 
 from me ; a period not very remote must finally 
 reimburse you. At this moment, I declare, I am 
 worth, were all effects sold, above ,50,000, which 
 no casualties can influence. I confess I have often 
 promised, and intended, to discharge your de- 
 mands, but have been obliged to disappoint you, 
 from unexpected events ; for instance, not being 
 able to sell my wood, receive my rent, &c. &c. 
 My banker can but too fully tell you of my un- 
 comfortable situation. It is impossible, were my 
 life at stake, to raise the sum as soon as it will 
 be due, and that I would compound with resign- 
 ing to the old gentleman in the Red Sea, you and 
 all, and 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 A. R. BOWES.
 
 <J8 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 i 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 GIBSIDE, February 11, 1780. 
 I received your letter in due time, and deter- 
 mined to answer it every day, but my time has 
 been lately so fully engrossed by our patriotic 
 meetings, and their APPENDAGES, that it had de- 
 prived me of the pleasure of writing to you sooner; 
 besides, to confess the truth, your silence rather 
 created some jealousies in my mind; this circum- 
 stance, however, I now doubt not, was solely oc- 
 casioned by a point of delicacy. 
 
 I am now, thank God, so far advanced in my 
 affairs, as to have quite discharged my debt to my 
 bankers, whose behaviour HAVE been so very un- 
 gentlemanlike and displeasing to me, that I mean 
 to break off all connection with them the moment 
 I can bite, which I expect will be very soon ; and 
 till then it would be folly to shew my teeth. 
 
 The people who have mortgages upon my estates 
 continue harassing me incessantly ; but even these 
 great difficulties I have nearly got over, by mere 
 frugality. To convince you how sincere I am in 
 my desire to acquit myself of some part of my 
 obligations to you, I shall make an offer, which I 
 take it may not prove inconvenient to you to ac- 
 cept.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 69 
 
 There is an estate of about 400 per annum, 
 near BARNARD CASTLE, entirely in my own dis- 
 posal, and has no incumbrance upon it, excepting 
 ,2000 I owe to Mr. Peel, of Symond's Inn, the 
 interest of which has been duly paid. If this pur- 
 chase suits you, I shall be glad, as it is the only 
 method I can think of at PRESENT to accommodate 
 you ; and I dare say we shall not differ about the 
 price. 
 
 I am, 
 
 Your sincere and obliged friend, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 . 
 
 P. S. Between ourselves, I assure you, that 
 you may bet any sum you please that I am 
 MEMBER for NEWCASTLE, without the least 
 opposition; this, well managed, something 
 may be done. You may back ICELANDER 
 at the next meeting, provided you make it 
 play or pay. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 GIBSIDE, February 29, 1780. 
 An affidavit of the value of the estate, I find 
 upon enquiry, was made the other day, in order to 
 procure more time for the payment of the 2000 
 upon it. Chancery has allowed me six months 
 longer. It only amounts, at present, to 330 per 
 
 E3
 
 70 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 annum ; but am told it in ay be let for near one 
 hundred more. It is a freehold estate, and was 
 
 bought after the death of the late Mr. B , at 
 
 thirty-five years purchase, but then let at only 
 300 ; so that I should take considerable less. I 
 own it is a great hardship upon you to insure Lady 
 S 's life, particularly as you are not paid regu- 
 larly; but, considering all things, I think you 
 should not throw away your money in that way : a 
 better life cannot be; and, at any rate, you can 
 be nothing out of pocket. I am glad to find the 
 opinions of people in London against my election ; 
 it will give you an opportunity of making some 
 good bets ; and so positive am I, that I have no 
 objection to your standing a third part to nothing, 
 and you may make me liable to pay the whole in 
 case I should not succeed. But you must bet 
 upon a proviso, that L S lives. 
 
 F , of Benwell, and a set of fox hunters, are 
 
 now here with their hounds, so that I must defer 
 several particulars that I had to mention to you 
 till another opportunity, as I have not one moment 
 
 to myself. F desires his compliments, as I am 
 
 writing to you on the dinner table. 
 
 I am yours sincerely, 
 
 A. R. BOWES.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 71 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 GIBSIDE, August, 1780. 
 
 You may be assured that the purchase you have 
 made will, in every essential, turn out cheap. 
 The canvass is begun at Newcastle three candi- 
 dates, all upon different interests ; for God's sake 
 use your influence with as many people of the 
 WHOLE in the Wall as you possibly can find out, 
 and pray use ANY MEANS to procure them for me. 
 Excuse the hurry of a canvass. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 Five o'clock, Wednesday Morning-, 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 GIBSIDE, August 11, 1781. 
 I am very uneasy at not having heard from you 
 since your last obliging letter, wherein you say 
 that you have engaged a new person to insure 
 
 Lady S 's life, at three guineas, and wherein 
 
 you mention that a Mr. W has already done 
 
 Lady S 's life to a great amount. As to Mr. 
 
 W , he never had any orders from me to that 
 
 effect, for those last two years, consequently, I 
 presume, it must have been for some of the annui- 
 
 E 4
 
 72 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQi 
 
 tants. I shall take it as a favour if you will direct 
 the persons you employ in this business to write to 
 me occasionally, to mention what progress they 
 make, as well as to send me a list of the names 
 they may have procured ; for though Lady Strath- 
 more is in PERFECT HEALTH, yet as she is with 
 child, I am determined to insure her life deeply, 
 if I can do it for three guineas ; and I trust that 
 you will use your utmost to have this matter pro- 
 perly accomplished for me with all possible ex- 
 pedition. We are all well, and set off for the 
 Moors the 15th instant, therefore direct your letters 
 in future to me at STREATLAM CASTLE, near BAR- 
 NARD CASTLE. I apprehend you will not keep 
 your word relative to visiting me this summer; 
 
 Mrs. , 1 presume, will not allow it. 
 
 I am, in a hurry, sincerely yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. Pray find out the particulars relative to 
 Mr. W 's insuring. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 STREATLAM CASTLE, August 30, 1781. 
 I am very uneasy that you have riot written to 
 me lately about the insurances upon Lady Stratli- 
 more's life. Pray do not now neglect me, or you 
 will oblige me to take a London journey, which at 
 this time would be very troublesome to me. Lady
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 73 
 
 S is in PERFECT HEALTH; but I have many 
 
 reasons for desiring you to lose no time. 
 
 I am yours sincerely, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 STREATLAM CASTLE, September 2, 1781. 
 I am thankful for your last letter, but am much 
 disappointed that you have not been able to get 
 the business accomplished. I have received a 
 
 letter from Messrs. R - and K ; they have 
 
 only done six hundred pounds, and seem anxious 
 for the old policies, which t cannot send them, as 
 I have left them either at GIBSIDE or in town ; but 
 I think you may easily get a copy of the names 
 
 that were upon them from Mr. G . The sue 
 
 cess of policies of this kind chiefly depends upon 
 the interest the broker has with underwriters. 
 
 Lady Strathmore is in perfect health; but as I 
 ha^ve reason to think she is with child, nay, I am 
 certain of it, I w ish to insure her life, for you re- 
 member HOW ALARMED I WAS UPON A FORMER OC- 
 CASION * ; though, indeed, I ought not to have 
 much reason for it, as she always recovered vastly 
 
 * If this gentleman is to remember that Bowes was alarmed upon 
 a former occasion, that occasion must have been in the vicinity of 
 London then, as I am confident the gentleman did not accompany, 
 precede, or follow, the family to GIBSIDE. I. F.
 
 74 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 well. However, I request you will immediately 
 exert yourself for me, and get the ,18,000 filled 
 with good names. I presume there is no occasion 
 to say any thing about her being with child. I 
 shall be happy to see you when you please ; but I 
 fear your engagements, at home and elsewhere, 
 will prevent you. 
 
 I am ever yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 
 
 PAUL'S WALDEN, May 30, 1782. 
 I am extremely sorry that, in consequence of 
 my bankers conduct, you found it necessary to 
 send your servant to PAUL'S: WALDEN. That 
 trouble might have been spared you, if rny banker 
 had shown you a letter, which I naturally con- 
 cluded you would see, and which I wrote to him 
 lust Tuesday, mentioning, that as my efforts hither- 
 to had failed, I should set off to-morrow for the 
 North, and eefeurn with all the speed I could, and 
 bring the money for which you were my security. 
 T hope you are sensible that no man can be more 
 anxious than I am to prevent any inconvenience 
 that you may be apprehensive of feeling.;, for what- 
 ever injuries, whatever gross ingratitude, I may 
 have PRIVATELY met with from an individual, to 
 whom I had unwarily and unworthily pledged my 
 honour and fortune, I shall never exclaim against
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 75 
 
 those injuries ; I shall not return them \vith a mur- 
 mur till my engagements are fulfilled, and till I 
 find a favourable opportunity to make one just and 
 most expressive requital. 
 
 I am surprised at rny banker's insolence in writ- 
 ing to you in such a strain, after he knew how 
 essential, in this affair, your interest was to my 
 satisfaction. No specious excuse can sufficiently 
 varnish his conduct, nothing less than the expiring 
 WEAKNESS of his bank could STRONGLY apologize 
 for his behaviour. I hope you will communicate 
 to him this letter of, 
 
 Your most faithful friend, 
 
 A. II. BOWES. 
 
 
 P. S. I have given Deard a letter, with some 
 money in it, for one of my annuitants, which 
 I beg you will direct him to deliver this 
 night. As YOUR FRIEND, J. W. brought 
 me hi one of the most imposing charges for 
 business pretended to be done at the late 
 election, I positively refused to pay him: 
 the consequence of which is, I have been 
 served with the enclosed; you will, there- 
 fore, desire Mr. H to put in an appear- 
 ance directly, as I have materials that I 
 think will make him appear one of the 
 greatest scoundrels existing, and do myself 
 credit as well as save my money.
 
 V't> THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 From William Birch, Esq. to - , Esq. 
 
 DEAN STREET, November 15, 1782. 
 SIR, 
 
 Having called repeatedly, without the pleasure 
 of seeing you, I am constrained to write to you on 
 the subject of your unanswered draft on Mr. 
 Bowes. I expected to have heard from you, in 
 consequence of our last meeting, and your inten- 
 tion of seeing Mr. Bowes, and settling something 
 satisfactory with him concerning this business. 
 Since I saw you I have met with Mr. Bowes, who 
 promised me to see you, and to put it in a train for 
 payment to my entire satisfaction. I have heard 
 nothing of him since, and have been unsuccessful 
 in my attempt to see him. I must entreat the 
 favour of hearing from, or seeing you, without fur- 
 ther delay, as I cannot account to myself the letting 
 the matter rest as it is. The bill of sale being a 
 mere shadow of security, without an assignment 
 of it. I am very desirous of concurring in any rea- 
 sonable plan of payment and security ; but must 
 insist on the one or the other without further loss 
 of time. 
 
 I am, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient and humble servant, 
 WILLIAM BIRCH.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 77 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 i 
 From A. R. Bowes, Esq. to , Esq. 
 
 STREATLAM CASTLE, December 15, 1782. 
 I am favoured with a letter from you, directed 
 to PAUL'S WALDEN, and another dated the 29th 
 of November, which, owing to its having travelled 
 to GIBSIDE, and from thence here, was some time 
 longer in reaching me than it otherwise would have 
 been. 
 
 I am extremely sorry to find you so very urgent 
 about the money due to Mr. Birch, which I flat- 
 tered myself would not have been the case, from 
 Mr. Birch's politeness when we last met in Lon- 
 don. From the instances of friendship I have 
 hitherto experienced from you, and, above all, 
 from your knowledge of the difficulties attending 
 my present situation, and the consciousness how 
 rigorously I have, in my dealings with jmi, at- 
 tended to all honourable affairs, at least as far as I 
 have had it in my power. I w r as farther confirmed 
 in this hope, from your being sensible that I sent 
 you up 500 at a time when I was obliged to use 
 EVERY method of procuring it. I am, therefore, 
 greatly grieved and hurt to find you have allowed 
 this matter to go such lengths ; and sorry I am to 
 add, that my distress for money, and impossibility 
 of raising it, were never so great as at this juncture, 
 having exhausted every resource, and drained my 
 finances to the utmost, to procure between four
 
 78 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 and five thousand pounds to send to Mr. G y, 
 
 as the only method to prevent an absolute fore- 
 closure of BENWELL estate for half its value. 
 
 I therefore must earnestly request that you will 
 contrive to pay Mr. Birch; and if you entertain 
 any apprehensions on your own account, I now 
 have it in my power to give you ample landed secu- 
 rity. I am the more pressing in this request, as I 
 know you are so fortunate as always to have 
 money at command. Could I have raised the sum 
 requisite to discharge Mr. Birch, I should have 
 been in London before this time ; but have waited, 
 and am still waiting, merely on that account. 
 I am. 
 
 Your sincere friend, &c. 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. I find no post goes out from hence to- 
 day; but as I shall go to GIBSIDE to- 
 morrow, I shall put this letter in the 
 DURHAM post in my way thence. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 GIBSIDE, April 15, 1783. 
 
 A want of money, not a want of health, has 
 detained me here so long; but I propose setting 
 off for town next Tuesday, and on my arrival shall 
 directly wait upon you, to beg your pardon in per-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 79 
 
 son, and to convince you that I have not so bad a 
 heart as you have reason to suppose. I can make 
 no apology for my ungenerous neglect, but my na- 
 tural and habitual indolence, which frequently 
 renders me dilatory and weak in executing those 
 offices of politeness and friendship to which, how- 
 ever, I flatter myself my heart is never insensible : 
 an indolence that I fear will more and more stretch 
 its leaden sceptre over me. My excuse, I own, 
 is a very awkward and unsatisfactory one ; but yet 
 it will prove that I deem you my friend *. We are 
 apt to confess our great failings only to friends ; 
 and friends alone are not only apt to forgive those 
 failings, but to accept them as substitutes for the 
 performance of duties. I have ten times more per- 
 sonal and landed property than would pay all my 
 debts; but then money is as yet not to be bor- 
 rowed, though I am ready to give you, or any body 
 else, more than ample real security. You will see 
 by the enclosed letter what I have to pay the 1 st 
 of June. God knows where it is to come from; 
 but if it is not paid, my whole BEN WELL estate will 
 be absolutely foreclosed for a sum less than half its 
 value, without a power of redemption. 
 
 I am yours sincerely and truly, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 * Here is the first trait of his SHAMMIN& sickness, -which prac- 
 tice never forsook him. 
 
 J.F.
 
 80 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 The native character, 
 Bowes have been as well ascertained by these let- 
 ters as it was possible to be expected, from one 
 whose very nature formed him to deceive, and to act 
 with duplicity, even towards his best and his most 
 confidential friends. He threw into these miserable 
 compositions, friendship, adulation, abuse, inde- 
 pendence, distress, success, despair, prosperity, 
 and adversity, to suit his own immediate designs. 
 
 From the year 1778 to 1783 he was scarcely ever 
 resident in London. By his last letter it is seen, 
 that although he was the member for Newcastle, 
 he did not come to town till April. The fact was, 
 that, as he has told us, he meant to make some- 
 thing of his parliamentary seat; that he aimed at an 
 Irish peerage, and finding the administration re- 
 coiled at it, he grew sulky and abusive. 
 
 After having given a few parliamentary dinners 
 to some of the members and his acquaintances, for 
 I will not call them friends, he gave up his house 
 in GROSVENOR SQUARE, and took up his residence 
 at HOTELS. I remember making a third, with him 
 
 and the Duke of , at the Star and Garter, Pall 
 
 Mall, in this year, 1783. As to what he did in 
 parliament, there can be no trace, his vote being 
 always silent. He had been fortunate in having 
 served the OFFICE of SHERIFF just in time to be 
 chosen, in 1780, a MEMBER for NEWCASTLE; and 
 it is beyond all question, that he meditated stand- 
 ing for the county at a future time, and had got 
 some strong interest on his side. He had also
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 81 
 
 made the purchase of BENWELL estate from the 
 family of SHAFTO; but this could not have dis- 
 tressed him much, as he mortgaged it deeply; and 
 this he contrived to keep to the day of his death, 
 though from jthat time to this he raised money upon 
 the plea of losing it, 
 
 I am endeavouring to give a SUMMARY of his 
 transactions from the year 1778 to 1783, and to 
 bring it into one point of view ; as, during all this 
 time, most of his scene of life lay in the country. 
 
 He parted with every thing he could in town, 
 sold CHELSEA HOUSE, and took the family plate 
 into his own possession. He raised 30,000 upon 
 annuities. He insured the life of the Countess 
 only for a year or two at most, by which he squan- 
 dered away vast sums; whereas had he insured 
 upon a permanent system, his policy would have 
 had a value in proportion to its date, and the mo- 
 ney, in some way or other, would have been forth- 
 coming to him again; but he dropped his insu- 
 rances. He directly went down to GIBSIDE, and 
 CUT DOWN THE TIMBER ; the neighbours would not 
 buy it ; the felled timber lay upon his hands. He 
 got the nomination of SHERIFF; he opened early 
 his canvass for NEWCASTLE; he entertained the 
 heads of that town at GIBSIDE ; he kept an open 
 house ; his dinners were good, and his table enriched 
 by massive plate ; but there was always a smack 
 of mean splendour about him, as he did not pur- 
 chase one single new carriage, and his coach horses, 
 originally of high value, were never seen in good 
 
 F
 
 82 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 condition. He took a chaplain into his house, andi 
 had always somebody about him whom he made a 
 BUT of, 
 
 The expences he incurred by his SHRIEVALTY, 
 by his ELECTION, and HORSE-RACING, by his IN- 
 SURANCES, and the purchase of BENWELL, kept 
 him in a constant distress for money ; and at the 
 very time when he wrote this adulatory letter to 
 his friend, that he never should be happy till he 
 was out of debt and had some to the good, he 
 went upon the turf and into an election. This was 
 literally the letter of a hypocrite. He promised 
 his friend that he would not shew his teeth to his 
 banker till he could bite; and yet he is seen to 
 continue him on, and vilify him still, He got as 
 much from his banker as he could, and when he 
 could get no more, he abused the banker and ca-; 
 joled the friend. He sold the friend his estate 
 CHEAP ; but by his friend being obliged to pay Mr. 
 Birch, the bargain was all on his side, where it 
 rested. 
 
 He was tremblingly alive for the fate of the 
 Countess, arid watched all her movements like an 
 ARGUS. She was delivered of a son, and his anxn 
 ety for a time suspended. When he remained at 
 GIBSIDE, he avoided his LONDON creditors ; but 
 the time was now approaching, that the creditors' 
 bills at the election would naturally drive him from 
 GIBSIDE to LONDON or PAUL'S WALDEN. Indeed 
 I have often wondered that he was seen at NEW-T 
 CASTLE two months after his election. He came
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 83 
 
 up in April, as his letter tells us, 1783, and there 
 commences his delinquency with his CHIEF agent 
 in the election. 
 
 He brought in his company, from the North, 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. H , a worthy and respectable 
 
 couple. I have reasoned with myself, how it 
 should have happened that two such characters 
 should have been found to be inmates in his house, 
 and so far from their home ; and I explained it by 
 supposing, that it was their compassion for the 
 fallen Countess which induced them to forego their 
 own comfort for hers. These two, with the young 
 child, and a nurse of Bowes's, not the Countess's, 
 formed the society of Bowes and the Countess at 
 PAUL'S WALDEN, into which I was twice this year 
 professionally called. Till he could find out a 
 house in town, he made LONDON his visits, and 
 PAUL'S WALDEN his home. The chaplain, Mr. 
 
 M , was gone; arid another, Mr. P S- <-, 
 
 had left him, after remaining with him about six 
 months. He gave me, as a cause, a strong con- 
 firmation of the real character of Bowes. 
 
 One cold stormy night Bowes watched a servant 
 maid to her bed, who had resisted all his tempta- 
 tions ; she was the wife of one of his men servants, 
 but Bowes did not, or would not, know this. He 
 saw no light in the man's room. By the help of 
 a ladder he saw them together in the maid's cham- 
 ber. As soon as the light was put out, he thun- 
 dered at the door, and turned them out of the 
 house. They took shelter in the lodge. He find-
 
 84 THE LIVES OF A. K. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 ing, the. next morning', that they had been re- 
 ceived by the porter there, turned him away too. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. S was ill, when Bowes visited 
 
 him at his bed side, and told him all this. And 
 
 did you do so, said Mr. S , YOU who would 
 
 have ruined her yourself, as you have almost all 
 who come in your way? You shall not turn me 
 out, I will be gone directly. Bowes would not 
 let him have his things till he brought a constable. 
 
 I met Bowes in COCKSPUR STREET, towards the 
 autumn, when he went into a JEWELLER'S, and pur- 
 chased some TRINKETS for females, to the amount 
 of forty guineas. He pressed me to come down to 
 PAUL'S WALDEN, as he saitl, to inoculate his child. 
 Pie had got a new MAN COOK, of Mr. Birch's recom- 
 mendation; and he was feasting away, giving en- 
 tertainments to the neighbours, much beyond the 
 necessary stile. Amongst others, there was a 
 most beautiful young 'woman, one of his farmers' 
 daughters, at dinner, and for whom these TRIN- 
 KETS were intended. Her mother and sister came 
 after dinner, and they all drank tea with the Coun- 
 tess. 
 
 When the company was gone, Bowes asked me 
 to walk out with him ; he took me to the farm 
 house, and peeped into the window, where they 
 were all sitting, and preparing for bed. Every 
 thing, in their innocent custom, was undoing. 
 The dog barked, and I returned and left him there, 
 where he was for a long while. He told me, there 
 was no danger from the dog, as he had made the
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 85 
 
 farmer tye him up, because, as he said, he had been 
 caught killing some of his own sheep, and that he 
 went thus to the window almost every night. In a 
 week after my return to London he sent for me in 
 haste, as he had met with an accident. The far- 
 mer, finding that his dog barked thus every night, 
 suspected thieves, and determined to let him loose; 
 and the dog revenged himself upon Bowes in one 
 of these excursions, fastened upon his leg, and bit 
 it severely. 
 
 The Countess, whom I had not seen for some 
 time before these visits, appeared wonderfully 
 ALTERED and DEJECTED* She was pale and nervous, 
 and her under jaw constantly moved from side to 
 side. If she said any thing, she looked at him 
 first. If she was asked to drink a glass of wine, 
 she took his intelligence before she answered. She 
 sat but a short time at dinner, and then was out of 
 my sight. I did get one morning's walk with her 
 and Mr. Harrison into the once beautiful pleasure 
 garden, where, in spite of the ruinous state of it, 
 much was left for admiration ; because the taste 
 which gave it a creation was not as yet totally ob- 
 literated. The Countess pointed out to us the 
 concern she had formerly taken in the shrubs, the 
 flower beds, the lawns, the alcoves, and the walks 
 of this most delectable recess. She even pointed 
 out the assistance her own hand had lent to indi- 
 vidual articles. In observing her during her con- 
 versation, the agitation of her mind was apparent 
 by its action on her mouth. She would look for 
 some time, hesitate, and then her under jaw would 
 
 F 3
 
 88 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 act in that convulsive manner, which absolutely 
 explained her state of melancholy remembrance 
 beyond all other proofs abstracted knowledge coidd 
 confirm, or technical teachers could demonstrate. 
 
 One morning* whilst I was there, a gentleman was 
 seen riding down the lawn, of whom Bowes told 
 
 me the following story. Oh ! says he, it is R 
 
 B . I never expected he would come here 
 
 again after what passed a fortnight ago. He is a 
 SPUNGER, says Bowes, and comes for my DINNERS 
 and my CLARET. I gave the hint to the rest of the 
 company, and we made him DEAD DRUNK. I put 
 him into an arm chair, had his boots taken off, filled 
 them full of water, put a table cloth round him 
 tucked in at the collar, as barbers do when they 
 shave. I put him on a night cap, placed a table 
 before him with a looking glass, floured his face 
 all over with a kitchen drudger, left candles burn- 
 ing, and we all went to bed. He awoke about 
 five in the morning, before the lights were out ; he 
 appeared at a loss to know how this could have 
 happened. His consternation being over, he be- 
 gan to dress to go home. He saw his boots ready 
 to his hand ; he flounced his leg into the first, but 
 emptied the water out of the second. In this state 
 he put them on, let himself out, went to the stable, 
 saddled his horse, and went home: and, I dare 
 say, he would not have the smallest objection to be 
 served the very same to-night again. Bowes could 
 scarcely finish his story before the stranger rode 
 up to us : Bowes asked him to dinner, which he 
 of course accepted ; but he was very shy that day.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMOKE. 87 
 
 This spunger, as Bowes called him, was an in 
 surance broker in London, and a farmer near Paul's 
 Walden. Nobody scarcely ever saw the inside of 
 his house. 
 
 Bowes, after leaving the former house, took an- 
 other in Grosvenor Square, ready furnished, of Mr. 
 Windham. And I am now about to give an impor- 
 tant part of his life^ that marks him to be of that 
 savage, violent^ unfeeling, and lawless nature which 
 may be searched for in the history of man, without 
 any one being able to find its parallel. It is not one 
 crime, but the continued series of crimes, which 
 compose his character. 
 
 Indifferent now about his ambitious concerns* 
 certain that he should never be returned again for 
 Newcastle, he took to study the art of tormenting 
 the trustees and guardians of Lord Strathmore's 
 children, and of getting the two eldest daughters 
 into his possession. In executing this, he made 
 the Countess his instrument ; and if his character^ 
 as well as her's, had not been known, every body 
 can tell how strong a ground it is, that the mother 
 shall see her children, and the children their mo- 
 ther. All of a sudden he appeared to be so tender, 
 so alarmed about the decay of the Countess's 
 health, and the inward pinings, pangs, and suffer- 
 ings of her peace of mind, that he actually suc- 
 ceeded in getting one of the daughters into his pos- 
 session, and the other had a very narrow escape. 
 
 I will expose this unnatural subject, by a letter
 
 88 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 from the unfortunate Countess, whom I do not 
 otherwise implicate in the transaction, than as one 
 under the dominion of Bowes ; but still recollecting: 
 that she never cared about her children, till he or 
 she were now moved to it. But be that as it may, I 
 feel with human nature in common, that the im- 
 pulse of a mother to see her children, and of the 
 children to see the mother, is so strong, that no- 
 thing but the most abandoned characters can afford 
 the law a point, pretence, or justification, to make 
 any obstruction to its way. 
 
 Before I begin this enquiry, I have but a few 
 observations to make, and there is no question 
 about the facts which I am about to bring. I will 
 introduce them with a letter written by the Coun- 
 tess, at the same time I know it was dictated by 
 Bowes, as every part of this transaction is; and 
 perhaps a more deep plot, as referable to domestic 
 life, a more gross imposition on the agents of the 
 law, both counsel and attornies, and a more cruel 
 attack against the morals of youth dependant upon 
 parental authority, were never attempted. The 
 wonder is, how this character escaped those whose 
 duty it was to impugn it. 
 
 The guardians of the two young ladies, MARIA 
 JANE and ANNA MARIA, permitted the Countess 
 to see her daughters, but enjoined them to return 
 at night. The Countess had sent a note the day 
 before to Mrs. Carlisle and Este, in Queen Square, 
 on the 21st of May, acquainting them, she 
 shonld send for Lady Anna Maria the next morn-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 89 
 
 ing to spend the day with her, that she may have 
 her company before she went on her jonrney to BATH, 
 as she proposed to do. Accordingly she sent for 
 her on the morning of the 22d of May, 1784, by 
 Mr. and Mrs. Reynett, the clergyman and his 
 wife who resided in the house of Bowes ; and in- 
 stead of Lady Anna Maria returning on the even- 
 ing of that day, the letter I am just about to give, 
 written by the Countess, was brought by Mr. and 
 Mrs. Reynett, and delivered to Mrs. Carlisle. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Reynett also gave Mrs. Carlisle to 
 understand, that Bowes, the Countess, and Lady 
 Anna Maria, were gone from Grosvenor Square, 
 in a Hackney Coach, they knew not where. Mrs. 
 Carlisle, alarmed at this intelligence, called seve- 
 ral times, both that night and the following day. 
 She received the same answer each time, and 
 could get no tidings of Lady Anna Maria, from 
 Mr. and Mrs. Reynett, nor from the servants left in 
 the house, nor did she again return to the school, 
 at least for some time, I believe in February, 1785. 
 
 Here follows the letter from Lady Mary Eleanor 
 Bowes Strathmore to Mrs. Este and Carlisle, 
 Queen Square. 
 
 GROSVENOR SQUARE, May 22, 1784. 
 LADIES, 
 
 I take this method to acquaint you, that in com- 
 pliance with Lady Anna Maria's affectionate and 
 dutiful request of spending the ensuing holidays 
 with me, I have gratified our mutual wishes, by
 
 90 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 taking her into my possession, as the only means 
 to make myself some recompence for what 1 have 
 endured for several years from Mr. L n's con- 
 stantly refusing me the company of my children 
 in such a manner as humanity and propriety seem 
 to demand. 
 
 I should not have taken this step before the ap- 
 pointed day of breaking up, had I not concluded, 
 that if I waited till then I should be prevented, as 
 I have hitherto frequently been, by your adhering 
 to Mr. L n's orders; which, however, I doubt 
 not, were highly repugnant to your own wishes, 
 and very disconsonant ********** to those 
 sentiments of duty towards a parent, which I am 
 convinced you would otherwise have been anxious 
 to instil into the minds of your PUPILS*, and my 
 daughters. 
 I am, 
 
 Ladies, 
 
 Your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 M. E. BOWES STRATHRfORE. 
 
 So much for the letter written by Bowes for the 
 Countess ; the very idiom, and the stile altogether, 
 prove the dictation beyond all question. 
 
 It ought to be observed, that both the ladies 
 were under the protection of the guardians, by an 
 order of the Court of Chancery. But this was but 
 
 * PnpiJs is Bowes's, not a lady's expression. 
 
 J. F.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 91 
 
 halt' of the deep laid plot. Lady Maria Jane, the 
 eldest, having left school, resided with her aunt, 
 Lady A S , of Harley Street; and the Coun- 
 tess sent Lady A S also a written request, 
 
 that Lady Maria Jane should pay her a visit pre- 
 vious to her intended journey to BATH. Lady 
 Maria Jane accordingly went on the 22d of May 
 also, accompanied, at the request of Lady Maria, 
 
 by Mrs. O , the sister of Lady A S 's late 
 
 husband, when they were shewn into a drawing 
 room, and received by Mrs. Reynett, and in a few 
 minutes the Countess came in; and Lady Maria 
 
 having told Mrs. O , as they went up Grosvenor 
 
 Square, that she saw her sister, Lady Anna Maria, 
 at a window up stairs, Mrs. O asked the Coun- 
 tess if Lady Anna Maria was there, when the 
 Countess acknowledged that she was. 
 
 In about a quarter of an hour the Countess de- 
 sired Lady Maria Jane to walk into the next room 
 with her, that she may shew her a letter which 
 she had received from her son, Lord Strathmore : 
 the Countess went out accordingly, followed by 
 
 Lady Maria Jane; Mrs. O was left behind, 
 
 with Mrs. Reynett and a gentleman, in the room. 
 
 Mrs. O thinking she had waited long enough, 
 
 and growing rather uneasy at her not returning, 
 rung the bell, and desired the servant to tell Lady 
 Maria Jane that she was going, and desired her to 
 come to her. The servant returned, and said that 
 
 she was coining presently. Mrs. O waited a 
 
 short time, and then rung again, and sent the same 
 message by the servant, but received no answer to
 
 02 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 her request. Mrs. O then solicited Mrs. Rey- 
 
 net to tell Lady Maria that she waited for her. 
 Mrs. Reynett accordingly went out, and returned 
 
 and said to Mrs. O , that she dared riot go into 
 
 the room ; upon which Mrs. O requested her 
 
 to shew her the room, and she would go in herself. 
 Mrs. Reynett then shewed Mrs. O to the Coun- 
 tess's dressing room, which opened upon the back 
 
 stairs. Mrs. O endeavoured to open the door, 
 
 but found it fastened. She then returned into the 
 drawing room, very much agitated ; and soon after, 
 a servant entered, and brought her a letter from the 
 Countess, which she received, and of which the 
 following were the contents : 
 
 GROSVENOR SQUARE, May 22, 1784. 
 MADAM, 
 
 As you have accompanied Lady Maria upon the 
 present, as well as a former occasion, on both of 
 which I strenuously requested to see my daughter 
 BY HERSELF, I conclude that you have some writ- 
 ten order for that purpose from a majority of her 
 guardians: if thus authorized, I should not chuse 
 to interfere, in regard to her returning with you to- 
 day; but if you cannot produce any such sanction, 
 you will, I hope, excuse my detaining her till, by 
 representing my case, and laying my grievances 
 before my Lord Chancellor, I shall be honoured 
 with his Lordship's commands. 
 
 However inhuman may be the BEHAVIOUR I have 
 experienced from those who never paid the slight-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 93 
 
 est attention to my feelings as a mother, and whose 
 professed regard for my children ought to have 
 taught them a very different lesson; yet I hope 
 you will be so obliging as believe, that nothing can 
 be further from my wishes than to treat you with 
 the most distant degree of impoliteness, especially 
 in my own house ; but that goodness of heart which 
 I have the pleasure to know yon possess, will, I 
 doubt not, fully excuse the liberty I now take, 
 and lead you to sympathize in the sufferings of a 
 parent, whose children have, for many years, been 
 entirely secluded from her sight, an affliction 
 which, though you have never been so unfortunate 
 as to experience, yet you may easily conceive the 
 severity of; and from your own sensations upon in- 
 ferior occasions, will form a just idea how impos- 
 sible it must be even to exist under such cruel and 
 unnatural controul. 
 I am, 
 
 Madam, 
 
 Your most obedient and humble servant, 
 M. E. BOWES STRATHMORE. 
 
 Mrs. O - having read the letter, immediately 
 called for her own servant, and directed him to 
 carry it to his master, wherever he was, and to t< 11 
 him that she wished him to come to her im- 
 mediately. Mrs. O then told Mrs. Reynett 
 
 that she would stay till Lady Maria was delivered 
 to her; that Lady Maria was entrusted to her by 
 
 Lady A S , who had the charge of her from 
 
 the guardians; and that she knew that the Coun- 
 tess and Mr. Bowes dared not to detain Ladv
 
 94 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ 
 
 Maria from her. And Mrs. O then requested 
 Mrs. Reynett to bring Lady Maria to her. She 
 told her, that she did not see any thing of them, 
 and did not know where they were gone. Mrs. 
 
 O then desired to speak to her own coachman, 
 
 meaning to ask him if he had seen any carriage go 
 from the door; but the servant returned for an- 
 swer, that he could not find the coachman. Mrs. 
 
 O then returned to the door of the Countess's 
 
 dressing room, which she found was open; but 
 upon her endeavouring to go in, it was shut against 
 
 her by some person on the inside ; and Mrs. O 
 
 HEARING LADY MARIA SCREAM, she immediately 
 cried out to her, as loud as she was able, MARIA, 
 
 I WILL NOT QUIT THE HOUSE TILL YOU COME TO ME. 
 
 From that moment Mrs. O determined not to 
 
 lose sight of that door; and accordingly desired 
 Mrs. Reynett to procure her a chair, and she 
 would sit down by that door on the back stairs. 
 She did so, and sat herself down on the steps of 
 
 stairs. Mrs. O soon after walked to the great 
 
 stairs, and Lady Maria came to her, led by a gen- 
 tleman, without whose interference she would have 
 
 been a VICTIM. Lady Maria and Mrs. O 
 
 poured their thanks on him, and hastened imme- 
 diately down the stairs, and out of the house ; con- 
 gratulating herself that she was out of a detestable 
 house, into which she would never enter again ; and 
 finding that her chariot was gone, they w r ent im-> 
 mediately to the house of a lady in Lower Grosve- 
 
 nor Street. Lady Maria informed Mrs. O , that 
 
 during the time she was so detained from Mrs.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 95 
 
 O , Bowes and the Countess, in the most ear- 
 nest manner possible, endeavoured to persuade 
 her to withdraw herself from the care of her guar- 
 dians, and to reside with them. Lady Maria Jane 
 was then sixteen years of age, 
 
 Application was made to the Chancellor by the 
 guardians on the 26th, praying to have the person 
 of Lady Anna Maria delivered over to them. But 
 it was too late ; as Bowes, who had every thing 
 ready for his journey, on the same day he got the 
 two ladies into his power, absolutely set out that 
 evening, NOT TO BATH, BUT TO PARIS, and carried 
 Lady Anna Maria away with him. The next letter 
 will prove where he was. 
 
 The stile of this adventurer, to the same friend 
 he wrote the series of former letters, will be very 
 different. He then wrote to him to assist and get 
 money ; he .(hen pleaded poverty, and abused 
 bankers ; but he now aims to intrigue. If he de^- 
 ceived all other men, why should onel)e left as an 
 exception? I ought to say that Mr. Scott is the 
 eminent pleader in the Court of Chancery, of that 
 name; and that Doctor Scott is the physician who 
 was called in at Bowes's duel. 
 
 The following letter was received the 7th of June, 
 1 784 ; at what time it was put into the post at Pa- 
 ris I cannot say.
 
 96 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 From A. R. Bowes, Esq. to his former Correspon- 
 dent. 
 
 I have only time to say, as the post is going out, 
 that I have received your letter ; but not one word 
 from Mr. Scott, which disappoints me very much. 
 Pray send me my letters directed to myself, and I 
 am in great distress for my red book. The paper 
 Reynett mentions SHALL be destroyed; therefore 
 tell him to stick to that he said to Mr. Scott. Tell 
 Doctor and Mrs. Scott that I will meet them in any 
 part of France. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 A. R. BOWES 
 
 P. S. Mr. Hunter might be a powerful witness 
 in Lady Strathmore's favour. I wonder 
 you will not send me the letters that are in 
 Grosvenor Square. Give Reynett my di- 
 rections ; tell him to send them to me on 
 their arrival in London. 
 Wednesday Morning. 
 
 Postmark, Paris, 1st June, 1784.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 07 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 PARIS, June 13, 1784, 
 
 I have this instant received your very satisfac- 
 tory letter, for which the ladies and myself join 
 in sincerely thanking you. If I had wanted to pe- 
 tition the Chancellor on the late conduct of the 
 guardians, I am perfectly well satisfied that the 
 same diabolical and unfair artifices would have 
 been successfully practised upon Lady Anna Ma- 
 ria that have deprived Lady Strathmore for ever, I 
 believe, of the company of her eldest daughter. 
 Besides, his lordship has been applied to upon two 
 former occasions, without giving redress ; though 
 no circumstances could be stronger than those 
 brought against Mr. L -. The other guardian I 
 consider merely as a tool, and Mr. O the com- 
 mander in chief. I am now extremely sorry that I 
 did not turn Mrs. O-~ out of the house, and de- 
 tain Lady Maria. However, I will make J 
 
 O pay for his insolence the first moment I meet 
 
 him, let my friends think what they may of the 
 PRUDENCE of such a step. I am sure your kind- 
 ness upon examination will do Lady Strathmore 
 essential service; but Reynett is a blundering poor 
 fellow, that would do all in his power to serve us, 
 but has no head. However, there is one good thing, 
 which is, that he has been always kept in the dark 
 in every essential that concerned Lady Strathmore's 
 children, and his wife equally so. It will be, 
 
 G
 
 98 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 therefore, prudent, lest they should be examined, 
 for you to be as little communicative to them as 
 possible ; for if they say any thing, they will likely 
 say too much. All the service they can do us 
 will be merely to prove Lady Strathmore's state of 
 health and mind, which they can perfectly well do, 
 by just giving the account, UNADORNED, of what 
 passed from day to day since Mr. Hunter's late 
 attendance. Mr. Hunter would be a very useful 
 assistant in this business, if a Scotchman would 
 speak the truth against the wishes of those of his 
 own kingdom. He told rne two days ago, before 
 I left town, that Lady Strathmore's disorder was 
 entirely occasioned by the agitation of mind she 
 underwent from the cruel absence of her children, 
 and seemed to wish me to enter into the subject, 
 which, no doubt, I waved, from the determination 
 I, had taken, and from the thorough knowledge I 
 have that our views are often destroyed by being 
 too communicative, and confiding too much in 
 those who have no interest in being our friends ; 
 or if they have, can only feel it with an inferior de- 
 gree, and consequently with less precaution. Iain 
 happy in being confident that Mr. Scott's abilities, 
 zeal, and knowledge of Lady Strathmore's oppres- 
 sions, will go hand in hand to counteract those in- 
 sidious plans which have been formed for her de- 
 struction. Mr. Lee, too, I am sure, will be a sin- 
 cere and able advocate. As the post is just going 
 out, I can only add, that I have not, in my ab- 
 sence from England, a possibility of paying Han- 
 dell's money, as really I have but a few hundred 
 pounds in Child's hands, and that in bills not due
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 99 
 
 for two months to come. However, I should hope 
 that Mr. Goostrey would obtain for me so small a 
 sum upon so ample a security ; arid as the demand 
 is pressing, I am Mailing to pay every premium that 
 comes under his approbation, in case money is 
 not to be obtained upon fair terms. Pray when do 
 you go to the North? Ridley Hall is a charming 
 spot. 
 
 I am truly yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. Pray get Mr. Scott to write to Lady 
 Strathmore. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 ' 
 PARIS, July 26, 1784. 
 
 The number of letters Lady Strathmore and my- 
 self have written. to Mr. Scott, without the satis- 
 faction of even the smallest reply, renders us both 
 extremely unhappy ; and the more so, as I am con- 
 vinced that no good reason, if any is proposed to 
 be offered, can be alleclged for the cruel sus pence 
 we have been kept in for two months past. Indeed 
 your few favours contained so little relative to the 
 great object of Lady Strathmore's happiness, that 
 they gave us not many degrees more comfort than 
 Mr. Scott's unaccountable and unexpected silence. 
 Whatever may be the event or the determination of 
 the Chancellor, respecting Lady Strathmore's 
 
 G 2
 
 100 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 children, I am resolved to return to England im- 
 mediately after it; though I am equally resolved 
 to permit Lady S and her daughter to do ex- 
 actly as their own wishes may happen to dictate. 
 They wish, I believe, to remain in their present 
 asylum. I beg you will have a full account of the 
 trial published in ALL the PAPERS the very day it 
 is over. Whatever may be decided in obedience 
 to the laws of England, I am certain that every 
 feeling and IMPARTIAL mind w r ill acquit Lady S , 
 arid will, all circumstances considered, do me that 
 justice which I think my conduct towards Lady 
 S and her children deserves. Pray have con- 
 stant paragraphs inserted relative to Mr. L 's 
 
 conduct. I will be answerable for them ALL ; and 
 
 Mr. P will take care of them, if you say they 
 
 were intended for to serve me. 
 
 I am truly and sincerely yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 PARIS, August 9, 1784. 
 
 As the post is just going out, I have only a 
 single moment to thank you for your obliging letter 
 of the 3d instant, and to assure you, that I shall 
 meet the rigour of the law, however far it may be 
 extended, with great satisfaction, if the impartial 
 part of the world do not disapprove of the step I 
 have taken, and that you should meet with no in-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 101 
 
 convenience on my account. Lady Strathmore 
 and myself have written eleven different letters to 
 Mr. Scott since we left England, and all of them 
 put in the post by me. We have never received a 
 letter from him but one while at Calais. 
 
 The guardians, through Lord Caermarthen, have 
 made an application to the court of France to have 
 the young lady given up. I took care to have 
 timely information ; and shall, I hope, prevent 
 their success. It was cruel that my friends in 
 England were not more upon their guard. They 
 represent the child as taken off under thirteen years 
 of age, for the purpose of getting her married to 
 some improper person, UNKNOWN TO THEM. I 
 hope you will set off for this place the moment your 
 trial is at an end. I can add no more than that 
 
 I am ever yours, 
 
 A. R'. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. Pray direct for me in my own proper 
 name, unless you think your letters will be 
 stopped. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 From the same to the same, 
 
 PARIS, August 30, 1784. 
 
 The same date this letter bears will, I hope, 
 convey to you one written to inform you that I 
 shall set off from hence to Calais to-morrow, in 
 
 o3
 
 102 THE LIVES OF A. Rl BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 order to meet you there ; and this is merely writ- 
 ten to you as a duplicate, because I am suspicious 
 that a number of my letters to different people 
 have been interrupted ; but in particular those I 
 have sent to Mr. Goostrey and Mr. Scott: four- 
 teen to the latter, and three to the former, without 
 receiving a single reply. 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES, 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 PARIS, August 30, 1784. 
 
 i" * ' 
 "~~ "j 
 
 I am favoured with both your letters, containing, 
 in part, what happened in the Court of Chancery. 
 I lament most exceedingly that I have been the 
 involuntary cause of the troubles you have lately 
 experienced, and are still likely to sustain, as far 
 as I can judge by your own representation. How* 
 ever I cannot conceive how you are thought cul- 
 pable, except it was from your being the entire 
 author of preventing Lady Strathmore from gra- 
 tifying her feelings, when I think, in regard to her 
 eldest daughter, an exertion of them might have 
 been expected, and I will venture to add, ought 
 not to have been left short. As to our immediate 
 return, no man ever took greater pains than I have 
 clone to convince Lady S~ and her daughter of 
 the propriety of that step. But it is not in my
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 103 
 
 power to succeed, without extracting from their 
 minds every dread of what may follow, by the 
 death of my wife, and equally her daughter, their 
 affections are so much interwoven. At all events, 
 however, you must not suffer for me. Every ex- 
 periment was tried to soften the conduct of Mr. 
 L n. You have neglected me much, by not 
 keeping your promise of visiting me. I shall set 
 out from hence to Calais early to-morrow morning. 
 By your meeting us, you will have an opportunity 
 of stating matters in their true colours to both the 
 ladies. As to myself, I am ready to attend the 
 wishes of the Chancellor, and to confess I assisted 
 
 Lady S in the execution of this affair. Our 
 
 greatest astonishment is at Mr. Scott's total silence 
 since we left Calais, though we have written no 
 less than fourteen letters to him since our arrival 
 here. Pray forward the inclosed to him, and 
 write to him yourself, to desire that he will send 
 a letter to Lady Strathmore, under cover to you 
 
 at Calais, for Lady S . It may then, perhaps, 
 
 arrive safe. Bring my writing box. Tell Reynett 
 to forward letters to me. I beg he may not know 
 a word about our intended meeting at Calais. I 
 know him well. 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 

 
 104 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 the same to the same. 
 
 PARIS, August 31, 1784, 
 
 As 1 flatter myself my letter of yesterday's date 
 will bring you to Calais nearly as soon as this 
 arrives there, I therefore take the liberty of re- 
 questing that you will immediately extend your 
 journey to Lisle, where you will find me at the 
 Hotel de Bourbon, sur la Grand Place. On many 
 accounts it is better we should meet there ; and I 
 should have conveyed that wish to you in my last 
 letter, but in case they should have been inter-^ 
 rupted, I thought this precaution expedient. 
 J am very truly yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. 8. I wish you to tell Dessin you are going 
 to Paris, and every person you meet at Car 
 lais, the reason is obvious. 
 
 LETTER XXV, 
 
 From the same, at Paris, to the same, at Calais, 
 PARIS, September 4, 1784. 
 
 Lest the letter I wrote to you, two days ago, to 
 Calais should not get safe to your hands, I think 
 it proper to repeat, that I shall be much disap-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 105 
 
 pointed if I should not find you there. I did not 
 set off according to my promise in my last letters, 
 because I found, upon calculating the time, it was 
 impossible for my first letter to reach you so soon 
 as I had imagined. 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 P. S. I shall be at the Hotel de Bourbon, at 
 Lisle, a la Grande Place. 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 PARIS, September 12, 1784. 
 
 I have been confined to my bed with a painful 
 and violent rheumatic fever ever since the evening 
 preceding the day which I had destined to set off 
 to meet you ; however, though far from being in a 
 proper situation to undertake a journey, I am de- 
 termined to quit this place to-morrow, and shall 
 be with you as expeditiously as my disorder will ad- 
 mit. I do assure you I have felt extreme distress 
 at the apprehension that you may have been wait- 
 ing, as 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES,
 
 106 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 ' 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 LISLE, September 16, 1784. 
 I have for some time suspected that Dame For- 
 tune had forgotten her old connection, and left me 
 upon the barren shore to shift for myself; but that 
 suspicion is no longer one, it is realized by the 
 mortification I have met in not finding you here. 
 However, as you are sufficiently acquainted with 
 my unhappy feelings upon trifling occasions, I sub- 
 mit to you what must be my sensations when a 
 suspension of that intelligence still subsists, which, 
 by the action of the mind on the body, has almost 
 torn me from this earth. 
 
 ; it' > \ I t A - I '>'..> t\ , t .( . . fif, FT L. 
 
 The inclosed letter has been here several days ; 
 and was found by myself at the bottom of a drawer 
 in the bar, along with yours of the 13th, neither 
 of which would the sagacity of the people here 
 have allowed me, had it not been for my own re- 
 searches, after being repeatedly told there was no 
 letter for me, and that they did not recollect any 
 gentleman of your name being here. I shall 
 shortly say that my delay was occasioned by what 
 the physicians termed the gout in the head, and to 
 such a degree, that my leaving Paris so soon was 
 deemed madness. I am, notwithstanding, won- 
 derfully better; and if Mr. Scott's letter had come 
 to my hands, and contained any thing that would 
 induce Lady S and her daughter to go quietly
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 107 
 
 to England, it would, I am convinced, be of more 
 real benefit to me than all tbe gout cordials the 
 whole faculty ever prescribed. If it is not full and 
 decisive, I may as well put a dagger in their breasts 
 as use that compulsion which upon some occasions 
 J should think proper and prudent. Your atten- 
 dance at Calais, in case Mr. Scott should be in 
 the least doubtful relative to Lady Strathmore's 
 hopes, will be absolutely necessary; as soon as 
 this letter is in the post I shall set off for that place, 
 and shall get there on Thursday evening. To press 
 you to return to me then after the trouble you have 
 already had, is more than I can venture to do, 
 however strong my wishes are. Direct to me at 
 Dessins. But if Mr. Scott has REALLY written to 
 me before, his letter may be again intercepted, and 
 it may therefore be imprudent to direct to me; 
 in that case direct it, under cover, to Mr. Alexan- 
 der Pope, at Dessins, at Calais, if you should not 
 happen to be the messenger yourself. 
 
 Would it be possible now for me to borrow 
 l 7,000 upon my Benwell estate immediately? It 
 is ^1300 per annum, and I will give a premium of 
 ,500. I must get clear of all little demands. 
 Adieu! 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 A. R. BOWES.
 
 108 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 From the same to the same. 
 
 CALAIS, September 19, 1784. 
 
 I shall wait here till I see or hear from you, 
 with that impatience which naturally arises from 
 my situation, and the perpetual agonies of distress 
 that attends Lady Strathmore and her daughter, 
 from the dread of being parted from each other. 
 My letter to you from Lisle, of the 16th instant, 
 I hope you have received before this time. I have 
 just taken a letter out of Dessin's office, which I 
 wrote to you from Lisle, in order to take the 
 chance of its catching you here; but your friend 
 Strode tells me that Newmarket could not do with' 
 out you. 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 At length Bowes was brought back, with the 
 Countess* and Lady Anna Maria, by his friend. 
 
 Bowes had so worked upon the Countess as to 
 make her affect not to see his friend for two days 
 after his arrival; and when he saw her she was 
 obliged to pretend to faint, although it was the 
 wish of her heart to come over to England. Bowes 
 made the Countess write his friend a letter, com- 
 plaining of his barbarity in obliging her to come
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 109 
 
 over. His friend was almost disposed to return 
 the second time without her and Lady Anna Ma- 
 ria, and take all consequences with the Lord Chan- 
 cellor. 
 
 Fearful that I might be thought to have already 
 trespassed too much upon the patience of the 
 reader, in the narrative of this violent measure of 
 Bowes's, I shall give my reason \vliy I was thus 
 particular in exposing those letters from him to 
 the extent which they are seen : it was to mark 
 his character in a more convincing and striking 
 manner than by any other means it could possibly 
 be disclosed. 
 
 He dwells on the necessity there was for the 
 daughter's being with the Countess, to preserve her 
 very existence. He avow r s her bad state of health, 
 and attributes it to the cruel treatment of the guar- 
 dians. He is all submission to the will of the 
 Countess. He writes in every letter to his friend, 
 about the silence of Mr. Scott, on purposes of the 
 first importance to his designs. For he would have 
 used anv letter from that gentleman, as a means of 
 
 v o 
 
 vindicating himself both in PARIS and in LONDON. 
 Had he but got a letter, the English ambassador 
 would have been influenced by it, and the court of 
 France would have considered the case as a com- 
 mon question of law. A letter was thus called for 
 also, to answer the purpose of deceiving the very 
 friend with whom he corresponded ; for as he has 
 avowed in one of his letters, how he deceived Iley- 
 nett, so would he deal with every body else. He
 
 1 10 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 aimed to inspire his friend with confidence, by 
 shewing how much he possessed the confidence of 
 Mr. Scott ; and this sort of dealing was the practice 
 of his life. 
 
 I do believe that both Mr. Scott and Mr, Lee 
 were persuaded that the Countess was the mover 
 of this transaction, from affection; that her ill 
 health was owing to her being deprived of the 
 comfort of her children ; and that Bowes was act- 
 ing the part of a benevolent husband, by thus wait- 
 ing upon her wishes ; for when the cause was ar- 
 gued, both these high and humane characters 
 pleaded with their eyes brimful of tears. 
 
 It must not be dissembled that, from what will 
 appear hereafter in his life, I am convinced that 
 the reason he assigned, which was sickness, for 
 not meeting his friend on the first appointment at 
 LISLE, by which his friend was obliged to return 
 without him, and thereby subject himself to the 
 censure of the Court of Chancery, was all a FICTION. 
 His letters either are sincere or hypocritical ; if 
 they be sincere, and if the tenor of his heart be in 
 unison with them, if the Countess saw them, and 
 could vouch for the truth of their statement, Bowes 
 then might have passed, in this transaction, only 
 as a violent and abrupt man, but not as a wicked 
 one. But if the whole be falsehood and dissi- 
 mulation, a pretence of virtue for the success of 
 vice, if he wanted to get the two ladies into his 
 possession, he then has proved himself to be a 
 most consummate hypocrite. In that view, these
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE. Ill 
 
 letters may be read as a masterpiece of villainy ; 
 not as we see such of this description in CLARISSA, 
 hut as realized and connected with a history, 
 which will not fail hereafter to excite the strongest 
 movements of sympathy. 
 
 The real intention will soon be unfolded. Shortly 
 will be seen the art which Bowes has employed, 
 and tli use to which he has applied those strong 
 and social ties which unite and bind the happiness 
 of our existence, the mutual affections of parent 
 and child towards each other: and shortly we 
 shall see that the hypocrite, under the shield of 
 the highest qualities of virtue, commits his foul 
 deeds, and vainly thinks himself safe from the eye 
 and vengeance of the world. If example be in- 
 tended to effect any thing for the better guarding 
 of innocence against the arts of a villain, this Life 
 of Bow r es may afford some instruction ; as who can 
 say, after this, that fictitious characters, as they 
 are drawn by the novelist, can be ever over- 
 strained. 
 
 All the delight of the fond heart of a woman of 
 fashion, possessing an immense fortune, high edu- 
 cation, and strong propensities for figuring in the 
 BEAU MONDE, and for displaying the resistless or- 
 namental appendages of exalted rank, was by 
 Bowes suppressed. The rich, the gay, and fa- 
 shionable equipage, the well-disciplined and flirt- 
 ing fan, the proud and nodding plumage, the bril- 
 liant and superb diamonds, the conspicuous opera 
 box, the love-exciting dance,, the soft and extatic
 
 ] 12 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWKS, ESQ. 
 
 endearments of the Italian song, which was better 
 tasted by the Countess than most ladies, from her 
 perfect knowledge of the language and of music, 
 were all compressed, and totally obliterated. Her 
 person, accustomed only to distress and confine- 
 ment, found no alleviation of the bitterest sorrow. 
 Mind and body jointly submitted to receive the 
 pressure which Bowes, like a MANGLE, daily rolled 
 upon them, and both were grievously collapsed. 
 
 At the time when the Countess surrendered her 
 liberty to Bowes, she had, among other high en- 
 dowments, brought her mind to a taste for poetical 
 composition. She had composed and printed a 
 dramatic performance, of five acts, called the 
 SIEGE OF JERUSALEM; and in the voluptuous trance 
 which was raised in her mind by the DUEL, she 
 sported the following VERSES 
 
 ON THE NUPTIALS. 
 
 Unmov'd, MARIA saw the splendid SUITE 
 
 Of rival captives sighing at her feet, 
 
 'Till in her cause, his sword young S a y drew, 
 
 And to revenge, the gallant wooer flew ! 
 
 Bravest among the brave ! and first to prove, 
 
 By death! or conquest! WHO best knew to love ! 
 
 But pale, and faint, the wounded lover lies, 
 
 While more than pity tills MARIA'S eyes ! 
 
 In her soft breast! where passion long had strove, 
 
 Resistless sorrow fix'd the reign of LOVE! 
 
 " Dear youth," she cries, " we meet no more to part ! 
 
 " Then take thy honour's due, my BLEEDING heart!" 
 
 M.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 113 
 
 How changed is the present condition of the 
 heart, to be forced to quit the person here de- 
 scribed from abhorrence, from fear, from want of 
 even clothes, and from hunger! How mistaken 
 mortals form delusive plans of bliss, how they 
 claim futurity for their own, and how,' notwith- 
 standing these prospective dreams beguile the 
 truth, they are not masters of a single moment, nor 
 can they anticipate what may be to-morrow ! At 
 the time the Countess escaped, she had not a shil- 
 ling at her command ; no other dress but what she 
 had on; her JEWELS even were forgotten; so in- 
 estimable is the value, and so coveting is the mag- 
 nitude of LIBERTY, that whenever it be seriously 
 contemplated, it absorbs all other subordinate con* 
 siderations. 
 
 I am at the same time free to confess, that there 
 were those who thought the restraint upon the 
 Countess, by her not being permitted to see her 
 children, a hardship ; but I am also aware, that 
 they were not well informed of the real state 
 of the family. It was the knowledge of charac- 
 ter which made the guardians so strict, and the 
 Court of Chancery so peremptory : and if the case 
 be left to character, a very short period will shew, 
 that a discernment of the difference between a good 
 and a bad one, is one of the most certain guides 
 for wisdom to steer by. 
 
 It is now about the beginning of November, 1784, 
 that I am upon the proceedings in the Court of 
 
 H
 
 Ill THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 Chancery on this subject, and on the 7th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1785, WITHIN THREE LITTLE MONTHS, THE 
 
 COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE EXHIBITED ARTICLES 
 OF THE PEACE IN THE COURT OF KlNG's BENCH, 
 AGAINST HER HUSBAND, ANDREW ROBINSON 
 BOWES, FOR ILL TREATMENT OF HER PERSON. The 
 Countess desired to have one of the tipstaffs for her 
 protection to her residence, which was granted. 
 
 Letter from A. R. Bowes to his friend, upon this 
 occasion. 
 
 Though perhaps I have lost your friendship, yet 
 I am clear your good offices will still continue to 
 assist me in the hour of distress. Mr. Harborne 
 promised me two or three days notice in case 
 Lady Strathmore should determine upon the step 
 she"has taken. Let me know directly if I am to be 
 arrested to-night, that I may see Mr. Lee and 
 Mr. Scott immediately upon the business. 
 
 I am yours, &c. 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 4 o'clock. 
 
 By this letter to his friend, he is still harping 
 upon Mr. Scott. 
 
 A day or two before the Countess appeared in 
 the Court of King's Bench, Bowes dined at Cap- 
 tain Armstrong's, in Percy Street, which gave the 
 Countess the opportunity to elope, by the assis-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 115 
 
 tance of Mrs. Morgan, who had lived with the 
 family nearly twelve months, and who was a strong 
 advocate in her favour. 
 
 The measure had been for some time meditated 
 on ; but the difficulty was, to find the opportunity. 
 The male servants were dispatched for some pre- 
 tended purpose or other; he who was appointed 
 to watch her was sent to the stationer's for some 
 book of amusement for the Countess to read, and 
 fill up her time, in the absence of Bowes. Some 
 doors were locked, that it might not be too soon 
 found out that she was gone ; and thus they stole 
 out of the house, and got undiscovered into Oxford 
 Street, where they were for a long while obliged 
 to wait, there not being any coach upon the 
 stand. 
 
 However* they at length got safe into one, and 
 just as they came opposite to Berner's Street, Mrs. 
 Morgan saw Bowes in a Hackney Coach also, 
 driving very fast, with his head out, and without 
 his hat. Providentially he saw them not ; but the 
 escape was so narrow, that the Countess, in her 
 low state of health, from the representation upon 
 her mind of the misery which threatened her, if she 
 should be retaken, fell into hysterics, and was with 
 difficulty persuaded that she was safe, and out of 
 his power. 
 
 Bowes had been fetched as soon after their es- 
 cape as possible. His carriage was brou'ght ; but 
 when the servant announced to him what had hap- 
 
 H2
 
 116 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 pened, he ran into Oxford Street, without saying 
 one word, left his hat and carriage behind him, 
 took a Hackney Coach, and drove home. 
 
 The Countess was conducted, by Mrs. Morgan, 
 to Mr. Shuter's the barrister, in Cursitor Street ; 
 and an apartment was taken for her in Dyer's 
 Buildings, where she remained, and where Bowes 
 at length discovered her, but not till she was under 
 the protection of the Court. His bail, I think, was 
 the Duke of Norfolk, and that respectable lawyer, 
 John Lee. 
 
 Bowes soon resolved upon taking lodgings in the 
 same street, to be there now and then, and to keep 
 watch upon her. He took every step he possibly 
 could, without infringing the law, to get the Coun- 
 tess again into his possession. 
 
 All the foul-weather birds were hovering about his 
 distressed house in Grosvenor Square ; there used 
 to come, one after the other, such a draggled tail set 
 as are seen, in wet weather, canvassing about at 
 elections. A more pitiable object I never beheld 
 than Bowes. His mind was every moment upon 
 some new device ; and although he had more than 
 a dozen engines at work, I am confident not one of 
 them knew what the other was about. One of the 
 maids of the house was with child by him ; and she 
 was sent away, where he hoped they could not find 
 her, as this might have been a charge against him 
 in the Commons. This was a prize of immense 
 value, if they could but make their capture, and
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 117 
 
 carry her into Doctor's Commons. They had 
 found her out, and he must now remove her. He 
 dressed up one of those engines in his employ in 
 the very dress that his friend wore, with whom he 
 had so long corresponded, who took upon him to 
 remove her, and in which he succeeded. The 
 reason why he dressed the man so as to personate 
 his friend, was to induce the Countess's law friends 
 to swear to a wrong person, not caring at all about 
 the use he made of his own friend. 
 
 He laid all his plans now over the bottle. He 
 sat up all the night, drinking very hard, and eat- 
 ing high seasoned things, particularly peppered 
 biscuits. The law, both in the Commons and 
 King's Bench, was appealed to. George, the 
 Countess's favourite footman, had carried away, 
 in his own trunk, the Countess's DEED OF TRUST, 
 which he had preserved at the very bottom of it ; 
 and notwithstanding Bowes had searched it, yet it 
 escaped him. 
 
 Bowes was not aware that this antenuptial DEED 
 was in existence ; this DEED which gave the deci- 
 sive turn to every thing against him. The Countess, 
 for once, very faithful to herself, deceived him. 
 In Massinger's comedy of " a new Way to pay old 
 Debts," Wellborn gets his writings from Sir Giles 
 Overreach much after the same felicitous and pro- 
 vidential manner. Massinger formed his own plot, 
 and consequently, as a punishment for the iniqui- 
 tous character of Sir Giles, gave it the moral issue, 
 not of accident but of justice. There is a providence 
 
 H3
 
 118 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 in the fall of a sparrow, and this good man and 
 excellent dramatic poet thought so. 
 
 I have a letter from this same GEORGE now be- 
 fore me, in which he acknowledges the receipt of 
 ten pounds, to appear for Bowes in the Court of 
 Chancery on the 1st of February, but concealed 
 himself, and kept away. He modestly writes for 
 more money. 
 
 Every fool could now overreach him. Within 
 six months of the elopement, though the cause 
 was not definitive, nor the case completely and 
 finally settled, yet within that space of time every 
 intelligent person could discover, from the issue of 
 that trial in the Court of King's Bench, that Bowes 
 no longer would enjoy one single sixpence from the 
 Bowes's property. Castles and rents all melted 
 away like the baseless vision of a dream. 
 
 Even the house in Grosvenor Square was sur- 
 rendered with his last hope. It was a ready fur- 
 nished house ; and Mr. Froggat, Mr. Windham's 
 attorney, gave him permission to leave a service of 
 plate in the house, for which reason he easily gave 
 up the key. This plate, in a chest, was put into 
 a room at the top of the house, and Mi'. Froggat 
 took charge of it. This secured the rent, when- 
 ever 'he was called upon to pay it; and this was 
 equally a security to Bowes that his plate had a 
 safe lodgement. 
 
 So sudden was her departure, that the Countess
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 119 
 
 left even all her jewels behind, which Bowes's 
 friend took away with him, and which Bowes 
 thought were safe FOR HIM in his hands. These 
 he lodged at Child's house, and they were, by that 
 means saved to the family. Their value w r as not 
 less than ,10,000, and which Bowes never for- 
 gave. 
 
 The Countess, after her elopement, until she 
 had obtained, through Mr. Shuter her council, 
 and Mr. Seton of the Adelphi her attorney, this 
 decisive success to her future hope, by the trial 
 in the Court of King's Bench, was left in a very 
 disconsolate state ; there were none to help her in 
 this time of need, save the two gentlemen I have 
 just named : I believe General Lainbton did call 
 on her, and made her a present : she was reduced 
 very low indeed : but so soon as this cause suc- 
 ceeded, friends poured in; and new council and 
 new attornies rushed forward upon the opening of 
 this door of Paradise. She was removed to Hart 
 Street, from thence to Bloomsbury Square, had 
 a coach at her command, and a man of the name 
 of LUCAS, a. constable of high respectability, to 
 attend and protect her every \vhere. In short, she 
 was caressed, and had all the freedom which the 
 money they fed her with would permit: whilst 
 those who had first taken np her cause were un- 
 gratefully neglected. 
 
 Bowes, in this moment of distress, had naturally 
 an EYE to a prison : and his taste for a good dinner, 
 under all his afflictions, led him to the City Coffee 
 
 H4
 
 120 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 House, on Ludgate Hill, which is within the rules, 
 After a little coquetry with Mr. Froggat, in trying 
 to get the plate out of the house without paying the 
 rent, he at length found the money, and Mr. Frog- 
 gat gave up the plate to Bowes. It was at the ad- 
 justment of this that I dined at the Coffee House 
 with them. 
 
 Bowes, who certainly possessed an unsatisfied 
 and restless mind, and who chose just as well to 
 be reduced to a situation for the exercise of the 
 natural bent of his genius for intrigue, had a most 
 fertile harvest open before him. The Doctors' 
 Commons was quite at his service for the reception 
 of the record of all his illegitimate children for 
 these last nine years, and the crop was not unpro- 
 ductive : it was vastly more, perhaps, than the gra- 
 nary of any other man has been found to produce. 
 
 Besides these transactions, which were some of 
 them visitings to the mind, not unaccompanied 
 with ideas of unwelcome pleasure, there were 
 others of a more grievous and bitter kind, and 
 in which the most depraved mind could find no 
 repast nor content. The proofs which were ex- 
 hibited against him in the Commons, of the cases, 
 which consisted in beating, scratching, biting, 
 pinching, whipping, kicking, imprisoning, insult- 
 ing, provoking, tormenting, mortifying, degrading, 
 tyrannizing, cajoling, deceiving, lying, starving, 
 forcing, compelling, and a new torment, wringing 
 of the heart, were all necessary to engage his at-, 
 tention, to employ his native disposition, and to
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 1^1 
 
 call upon its utmost exertion, in order to set them 
 aside. 
 
 What a singular circumstance it is, that a man 
 should have actually taken so much pains to be at 
 variance with his own, and which is every man's 
 own, real felicity, and even with the tranquillity of 
 others ! What a miserable sort of energy ! What 
 a state of human depravity, without any common 
 and fair defined motive for such an inducement ! 
 
 Every epithet above given will find a classifica- 
 tion in the catalogue produced and printed, which 
 issued on the part of the Countess from the Com- 
 mons ; but which, if I detailed them, would be offen- 
 sive in their particulars to the tender and delicate eye 
 of chastity, as in the Commons the proofs must be 
 made out so plain, that the most minute circum- 
 stances must appear : the law probes and lays open 
 offences, but the biographer must be permitted 
 to give them a sort of varnish must so describe 
 bad actions and loose manners as to make them 
 look a little better, and render them, without losing 
 but as small a portion of their essence as possible, 
 acceptable to the public eye. 
 
 To these allegations, Bowes had not much to 
 oppose. He, by way of a set off, put the Coun- 
 tess's CONFESSIONS into the hands of his proctor, 
 to make the most of them. But what could they 
 do? The CONFESSIONS contained transactions 
 only before their marriage; treasures which Bowes 
 had provided and preserved IN TERROREM; which
 
 122 THE LIVES OF A, R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 he laid behind his pillow by night, and read them 
 by scraps, for his purposes, by day, which he had 
 gotten by heart, and which formed a part of his 
 travelling equipage to Paris, and every where else; 
 which he hugged to his bosom, and over which he 
 brooded with a rancorous rapture. 
 
 But still Bowes had a full employment. His 
 business was to bribe all the servant maids he 
 could, whom he had despoiled, to silence the 
 cries of their distressed children, and to keep hun- 
 ger and ruin out of the way of any honest justifi- 
 cation and strong temptation. But in spite of all 
 this, there were enough who found their way to 
 Doctors' Commons to answer the Countess's pur- 
 pose. 
 
 When the Countess left Dyer's Buildings, Bowes 
 gave up his apartments there; but not before he 
 left there also his representative with the maid 
 servant. The Countess went from thence into 
 Hart Street, and soon after into Bloomsbury 
 Square. Bowes took his stand in lodgings in 
 Gloucester Street ; and here he meditated upon the 
 last effort he was ever permitted to make upon the 
 person of the Countess. 
 
 Having, both drunk and sober, framed in his 
 own mind the plan which he meant to carry into 
 effect, he began to put it into practice. The first 
 step towards it was TO UNDERMINE LUCAS, the 
 constable appointed to protect the Countess, and 
 who resided in the house with her, and was always
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 123 
 
 in attendance on her. He found out where his 
 wife and family lived : he gratified all their imme- 
 diate wants : he made himself out an injured man : 
 he produced his credentials, the CONFESSIONS : and 
 he, by time and close attention, soon got the wife 
 and her visitors on his side. " Sure he is a charm- 
 ing man, and 'twas a shame he should be so used; 
 he is as mild and as meek as a lamb, and as good 
 and generous as a prince. One of my children 
 was ill he saw it every day nursed it and gave 
 it the medicines himself." By his constancy in 
 persevering, with all the warmth of sincerity, he 
 succeeded in gaining LUCAS over to his purpose. 
 
 BOWES having settled every thing with LUCAS, 
 went into the North ; and in October he had even 
 appointed the day, the iOth of the next month, for 
 coming to town. I am apt to think that he had 
 another intention by writing the letter which fol- 
 lows to me, besides taking the house, and which 
 he was certain I should not do; it was, that in 
 case his plan had miscarried, he might have been 
 able to say, that he had so long ago determined to 
 be in London on that day, to prove also that he 
 was away, and to put me off my guard.
 
 124 THE LIVES OF A. K. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 From A. R. Bowes, Esq. to Jesse Foot, Esq. 
 
 $TREATLAM' CASTLE, NEAR BARNARD 
 
 CASTLE, October 13, 1786. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 As I have experienced your friendship upon 
 different occasions, I am not at all afraid of still 
 pressing upon it, because your understanding gives 
 me more than an idea of its extent. However, as I 
 I am over a bottle, and have already drank at least 
 one, I shall, without any other apology, request 
 that, in the course of your morning walks, you will 
 find me a little snug house in the neighbourhood of 
 St. James's, UNFURNISHED, and fit for the recep- 
 tion of myself and half a dozen servants IN ALL ; 
 with a coach house, and stables for four horses at 
 least. I intended to have been in town before this 
 time; but am now so situated, that I fear I shall 
 not have the pleasure of seeing you before the 10th 
 of next month. 
 
 I am, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Your very sincere friend and obedient servant, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 Bowes did not certainly come to reside in town 
 before the 10th; but he soon followed the above 
 letter, and came up to Paul's Walden, where he 
 settled his definitive plan. And I recollect per-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 125 
 
 fectly having a note from him of invitation to come 
 down there, which if I had happened to have 
 obeyed, I most certainly should have returned to 
 town with him on the 10th of November, and been 
 driven off with him and the Countess into the 
 North ; and the world would never have been per- 
 suaded that I was not in the plot. 
 
 Here follows a narrative of this violent measure, 
 faithfully given. 
 
 FROM THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, DEC. 1786. 
 
 NARRATIVE OF THE LATE ATTEMPT ON THE 
 LIBERTY OF LADY STRATHMORE. 
 
 Some weeks previous to the day of carrying the 
 conspiracy formed against her into execution, se- 
 veral suspicious persons were seen lurking about 
 her Ladyship's house in Bloomsbury Square ; and 
 the same persons were observed frequently to fol- 
 low her carriage, sometimes in hackney coaches, 
 / and sometimes on foot. 
 
 Her Ladyship was not wholly unapprized of their 
 attendance, nor unapprehensive of their designs; 
 but, to counteract their measures, she took in her 
 weekly pay one Lucas, a constable, to keep a con- 
 stant eye upon her carriage, whenever she went 
 out, and never to be out of call.
 
 1-26 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 This man, on Friday, the 10th of November, 
 enquired of the coachman, as his custom was, if 
 his lady went out that day? And was answered 
 in the affirmative; and received orders to attend 
 between one and two in the afternoon. About that 
 time her Ladyship had business at Mr. Foster's, in 
 Oxford Street ; and, for company, took Mr. Far- 
 rer, brother to her solicitor, and her maid, Mrs. 
 Morgan, in the coach with her, In their way they 
 met with no interruption ; but they had scarce been 
 five minutes in the house of Mr. Foster before 
 some of those persons came into the shop, who 
 had been marked as above, and were well known 
 to her Ladyship. 
 
 Being much alarmed at their appearance, she 
 withdrew to an inner room, and locked the door, 
 requesting Mr. Foster, at the same time, to go 
 privately and procure assistance, to be in readiness 
 for her protection, in case any violence should be 
 offered to her person. 
 
 Mr. Foster had scarce left the house, when the 
 constable, whose business it was to watch the 
 motions of his lady, went up and tapped at her 
 room door, and by telling her his name, obtained 
 immediate admittance. Interrogating him as to 
 his business, she was ready to sink when she was 
 told, that her Ladyship was his prisoner; that a 
 warrant had just been put into his hands; that he 
 must do his duty ; but that it was rather fortunate 
 for her ladyship, as he would take her before Lord
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 127 
 
 Mansfield, at Caenwood, who, no doubt, would 
 frustrate all the wicked purposes of her enemies, 
 and take her under his own immediate protection. 
 With this artful tale, in the then state of her mind, 
 she was easily prevailed on to step again into her 
 coach, as Mr. Farrer was permitted to accompany 
 her. The moment she was seated, her servants 
 were all discharged, by a pretended order from her 
 Ladyship, a confederate coachman mounted the 
 box, and a new set of attendants, all armed, sur- 
 rounded the coach. In this manner they pro- 
 ceeded, without noise or interruption, till they 
 reached Highgate Hill, at the bottom of which 
 stood Mr. Bowes, who, addressing himself to Mr. 
 Farrer, very civilly requested to change places 
 with him, and then seated himself at the right hand 
 of his Lady, who was no longer in dmibt as to his 
 design. The coachman was now ordered to pro- 
 ceed, and to quicken his pace. 
 
 Mr. Farrer, being now at liberty, made all pos- 
 sible haste to London, and application was made 
 immediately to the Court of King's Bench, in order 
 to effect a rescue. On Monday, the 13th, two of 
 Lord Mansfield's tipstaffs set off for that purpose 
 to the North. In the mean time, Mr. Bowes con- 
 tinued his journey. 
 
 At Barnet fresh horses were ready to put to, and 
 a post chaise and four, with some accomplices, 
 were in waiting to attend. Though the windows 
 of the coach were broken, and the lady in the 
 coach appeared in great distress, yet not the least
 
 128 THE L1VHS OF A. R. BOWES, ESU< 
 
 effort was made to interrupt their progress; and it 
 was not till the next day at noon, when a servant 
 of Mr. Bowes's arrived at the Angel Inn, in Don- 
 caster, 195 miles from London, and ordered horses 
 to be ready to put to his master's coach, that we 
 have any account of their further proceedings, In 
 half an hour the coach stopped in the street ; and 
 while the horses were changing, Mr. Woodcock, 
 the master of the inn, handed some cakes to Mr. 
 Bowes, which Mr. Bowes presented to the lady ; 
 . but whether she accepted them or not he could not 
 positively assert. The moment the horses were in 
 .harness, they pursued their course northward ; and 
 the next notice we have of them was at Branby- 
 Moor, where the lady was shewn into a room, at- 
 tended by a chambermaid, and guarded by Mr. 
 Bowes, who hastened her return, and seemed all 
 impatience till she was again seated in the coach. 
 At Ferry Bridge she had leave to go into the gar-- 
 den ; but Mr. Bowes waited at the door. 
 
 What further passed till they arrived at Streat- 
 lam Castle, in the principality of Durham, re- 
 mained a secret till her Ladyship's arrival, on 
 Tuesday, the 2lst of November, in the evening, at 
 the house of Messrs. Fairer and Lacy, on Bread 
 Street Hill. The detail she then gave of her suf- 
 ferings, during the eleven days of absence, was 
 truly pitiable. At the time of taking her away, the 
 confederates were alarmed; that, as they drove 
 along, Mr. Bowes endeavoured to persuade her to 
 sign a paper, to stop proceedings in the ecclesias- 
 tical court, and to consent to live under the name
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMOfcE. * 129 
 
 and character of his wife, both which she positively 
 refused to do; that he then beat her on the face and 
 body with his clinched fists, that when she endea- 
 voured to cry out, he thrust a handkerchief into her 
 month ; that, on the most trifling contradiction, 
 while on the road, he beat her with the chain and 
 seals of his watch on the naked breast ; and that 
 when provoked by her firmness, he presented a 
 loaded pistol to her head, and threatened her life 
 if she did not instantly sign the paper, but this she 
 was determined never to do. 
 
 Being arrived at Streatlam Castle, he then en- 
 deavoured to persuade her to take upon her the 
 government of the family, and to act in every re- 
 spect as his wife, which she still most solemnly re- 
 fused to do. On which, in a glow of passion, he 
 pulled out a pistol, bid her say her prayers, and, 
 with a trembling hand, presented it at her head. 
 This too failing of effect, he violently beat her, then 
 left her, and she saw no more of him for a whole 
 day ; when coming up to her room rather more 
 calm than usual, he asked her, if she was not yet 
 reconciled to a dutiful domestic life? and being 
 answered with some asperity, he flew into a more 
 violent passion than she had ever yet seen him, 
 pulled out the pistol, bid her say her last prayers, 
 she did say her prayers, and then bid him fire! 
 
 By this time the whole country began to be 
 alarmed for her, and he for his own safety. He, 
 therefore, in order to cover his escape, and to keep 
 her still in his power, ordered two of his domestics 
 
 I
 
 130 THE LIVES OP A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 to be dressed so as to personate himself and her 
 Ladyship, and to shew themselves occasionally be- 
 fore the windows, to appease the populace, and to 
 deceive his pursuers. This stratagem had its full 
 effect ; the people were quiet while they thought 
 her Ladyship was safe ; and the sheriff's officers, 
 who were sent to execute the attachment, actually 
 served it on the wrong persons ; while, in the mean 
 time, Bowes took her out by a back way, dragged 
 her between ten and eleven o'clock, in the dark, to 
 a little cottage in the neighbourhood, where they 
 spent the remainder of the night, and where he be- 
 haved to her in a manner shocking to the delicacy 
 of civil life, by reiterating his threatenings, and, 
 finding threats in vain, throwing her on the bed and 
 flogging her with rods. On leaving the cottage in 
 the morning, he had her set on horseback behind 
 him, without a pillion, and took her over dismal 
 heaths and trackless wilds covered with snow, till 
 
 they came to Darlington, to the house of Mr. B , 
 
 the attorney, where she was shut up in a dark room, 
 and where she was threatened (a red hot poker be- 
 ing held to her breast) with a mad doctor and strait 
 waistcoat ; but all in vain. The hour of deliverance 
 drew near. Here they had been tracked, and here 
 it was no longer safe for Bowes to continue ; he 
 therefore set out with her before day, in the same 
 manner that he brought her, taking her over hedges 
 and plowed fields, till, being seen by the husband- 
 men at work, he was so closely hemmed in, that an 
 old countryman taking hold of his horse's bridle, 
 and Bowes presenting his pistol to frighten him, 
 he was knocked down by a constable that was in
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 131 
 
 pursuit of him, and felled to the ground with a large 
 hedge stake. Seeing him in that situation, her 
 Ladyship put herself under the protection of the 
 peace officer, and being on horseback) in a kind of 
 womanish exultation, bid him farewell, and mend 
 his litCj and so left him weltering in his blood; 
 while she, with the whole country in her favour, 
 made the best of her way to London, attended only 
 by her deliverers, where she arrived safe, as has 
 already been related. 
 
 On Wednesday the 22d, she appeared in the 
 Court of King's Bench, but the Court being up, no 
 proceedings could that day be had on her case. 
 
 On Thursday the 23d, she was again presented 
 in Court; and as soon as the Judges were seated, 
 Mr. Law, her counsel, moved, " That she might 
 exhibit articles of the peace against her husband, 
 A. R. Bowes. 
 
 The articles were then read, precisely in sub- 
 stance as already recited ; and, being sworn to and 
 signed, an attachment was immediately granted 
 against Bowes. 
 
 On Friday the 24th, Mr. Chambre, counsel for 
 Bowes, moved the Court in behalf of his client, 
 to have the writ for producing him enlarged till the 
 third day of next term, he giving ample security for 
 his appearance. This motion was grounded on an af- 
 fidavit of Bowes, stating, that after the service of the 
 Habeas Corpus, he had, in compliance proceeded 
 
 f 2
 
 132 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 to bring Lady Strathmore to town, but was unable 
 to ford the River Dee with safety to her Ladyship 
 and himself. In consequence of which, he was 
 returning by a nearer way, when he was met by the 
 party who were sent to execute the attachment, by 
 whom he was treated as has been already related. 
 
 The Judges Ashurst and Buller informed the 
 counsel, that his application came too late; that, 
 had it come sooner, it could not have been com- 
 plied with, as such a procedure would entirely 
 destroy the purpose of an attachment; and as an 
 additional reason, they alledged the late affidavits 
 received by the Court. 
 
 Mr. Law, her Ladyship's counsel, then moved, 
 " That the affidavit of Bowes might be filed, 
 that, if any thing was advanced in it which should 
 be disproved hereafter, an indictment might lie 
 against him for perjury ; the affidavit of Bowes being 
 in express contradiction to the affidavit of Lady 
 Strathmore." Mr. Law also obtained a rule to shew 
 cause against Peacock, Lucas, and Prevost, 
 Bowes's assistants, as also against Mr. Bourne, his 
 
 steward, and Mr. B , his attorney; but the 
 
 rule, for reasons that are obvious, was not made 
 absolute. 
 
 On Monday the 27th, Bowes was produced in 
 Court, to answer the articles exhibited against 
 him by Lady Strathmore as above recited. 
 
 Bowes was dressed in a drab-coloured great
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 133 
 
 coat, a red silk handkerchief about his head ; he 
 was supported by two men, yet nearly bent double 
 with weakness, in consequence of his wounds ; he 
 frequently appeared on the point of fainting, and 
 his appearance, on the whole, was the most squalid 
 and emaciated that can possibly be imagined. 
 
 Mr. Mingay, counsel for Lady Strathmore, de- 
 sired articles might be read, which being complied 
 with, he observed, that no farther progress could be 
 made at present, as whatever reply was wade, must 
 be in the form of affidavits, 
 
 The manner of apprehending him, as told by his 
 friends, differs widely from that told by Lady 
 Strathmore. They say nothing of the cottage ; 
 but that, a few hours before the Habeas Corpus 
 was served, apprehending an attachment, he took 
 the Countess of Strathmore with him in a post 
 chaise, and directed his route northward. Being 
 pursued by different parties, he was compelled to 
 alter his course almost perpetually, and, forsaking 
 the coach road, to take his journey through the 
 mountains, subject to all the inconveniences stated 
 by her Ladyship. Leaving the post chaise, he took 
 the Countess with him on a single horse, and in- 
 stead of a pillion, was forced to substitute a blanket. 
 At one period his pursuers were within a mile of 
 him ; being- apprized of it, he changed his course, 
 and travelled back seventeen miles of the way he 
 had already passed, and proceeded towards Dar- 
 lington. A few miles from that town he was met by 
 two farmers, one of them declared his suspicions, 
 
 i 3
 
 134 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ, 
 
 but having no warrant, Bowes drew a pistol, and, 
 with violent menaces, threatened them if they in- 
 terrupted him ; a crowd coming up, the pistol 
 was wrested from him and broken ; he was pulled 
 from his horse, and in his fall received two violent 
 wounds on the back part of his head with the bar- 
 rel, which, with the fall, deprived him of all power 
 pf further resistance. Bowes w r as then taken to 
 
 the house of Mr. B attorney, at Darlington, 
 
 where, notwithstanding his wounds, he knocked 
 down the farmer that stopped him, and had him 
 kicked out of the house. A posse of people, how- 
 ever, soon surrounded the house, and an express 
 was sent to M'Manus, and other Bow-street people, 
 then at Carlisle, who broke in upon him, executed 
 the writ, and notwithstanding every stratagem to 
 delay time, conducted him to London, and produ- 
 ced him, as has just been recited. 
 
 I am now about to present a letter from Bowes, 
 after his seizing the Countess, before she was rescued 
 from him, and before he was brought up to town 
 jn custody.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 135 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 From A. R. Bowes, Esq. to Jesse Foot, Esq. 
 
 STREATLAM CASTLE, (the post mark 
 date is) November 21, 1786. 
 
 [Bowes's date of it is on the llth of November.] 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I was much mortified at not MEETING YOU AT 
 PAUL'S WALDEN, and the more so, as the post 
 brought ME no reason for that disappointment. I 
 
 had MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU, exclusive of a 
 
 wish to renew those social hours, from which I have 
 hitherto felt so much gratification. I can account 
 for your profession though not for your pen. How- 
 ever this instant I have had a blow, which in the 
 annals of friendship must have struck deep, could 
 I have formed such an opinion of you, as to allow 
 it even for a moment, the most distant foundation* 
 An idea of that kind was impossible, because, by 
 your letters respecting my late request, my know- 
 ledge of your kindness upon all occasions, and that 
 general character which you bear, all join to con- 
 tradict it. Lady Strathmore who is now by me, 
 and who has been snatched from her villainous 
 domestics by a COUP-DE-GRACE, to which I REGRET 
 
 I HAVE BEEN SO LITTLE INSTRUMENTAL, informs 
 
 me, " that I have often been deceived in my friend- 
 ship, and that she would assure me I never was 
 more so than in the present instance ; and, as a 
 
 I 4
 
 136 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 point ill question, she knew that the application I 
 had made to you to take a house in London, pro- 
 duced the following expression : Damn me, if I 
 will take a house for Bowes, lest I should have it 
 to pay for.' ); I am so well convinced, my dear 
 Sir, that this story was fabricated to impose upon 
 Lady Strathmore (for some purpose) that I repeat 
 my wishes, that you would soon procure me a 
 house of <30Q per annum ; and that you will assure 
 yourself, how much 
 
 I am, 
 
 Your sincere friend and humble servant, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 I perfectly recollect having made use of the very 
 expression which the Countess told to Bowes : and 
 the Countess was told of what I said by my friend 
 of Palace-yard, to whom I had imparted it. He 
 had been reconciled to the Countess after she eloped 
 from Bowes, and after the relatives and friends of 
 the late Lord had taken up her cause. As I have 
 explained it, this curious fact affords matter for con- 
 templation. It must be clear that there had been 
 a familiar conversation between them: and w r hat is 
 more curious, is, that this letter Bowes sent to me, 
 is dated on the 1 1th, the day after his seizing the 
 Countess, although the post mark on it was the 
 21st, so that even then, THERE WAS A FAMILIAR 
 
 CONVERSATION BETWEEN THEM. 
 
 We, ignorant of ourselves, beg often our own 
 harm, which the wise powers deny us for our good
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 137 
 
 Shakespeare so says : did not Bowes think at least 
 what might befai him ! ! 
 
 I shall now proceed with a detail of what iarther 
 came within my own PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 On Thursday, November the 23d, just before the 
 sitting of the Court of King's Bench, the Countess 
 of Strathmore was brought into Westminster Hall, 
 and immediately on the arrival of the Judges, Mr. 
 Law, her counsel, moved, that she might be per- 
 mitted to exhibit articles of the peace against Mr. 
 Bowes and several others ; which being granted, 
 he then moved for an attachment against Bowes 
 and several of his accomplices, which was likewise 
 granted. And on the 27th, Bowes was also arrived 
 at BARNET in his way to London, and in custody, 
 from whence he wrote the following 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 From A. R. Bowes, Esq. to Jesse Foot, Esq. 
 BARNET, Tuesday Morning, 5 o'clock. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 I beg to see you immediately, as I am in real 
 necessity for your professional abilities, and I am 
 so distressed in body, that nothing but a mind fully 
 convinced of its own rectitude could support it. 
 Before the cock crows thrice, my enemies shall be 
 convinced that 1 paid more attention to my LATE
 
 138 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 movements, than their present eclat gives them an 
 idea of Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit. 
 I am ever yours, 
 
 A. R. BOWES. 
 
 Before I had scarcely finished the perusal of this 
 letter, Bowes drove to my house, but without get- 
 ting out of the chaise, put up at Atkinson's hotel, 
 in Dean-street. His beard was a week old, his 
 head bound up with a bloody handkerchief, his 
 boots dirty, his shirt and cravat stained with blood, 
 and he looked as pale as ashes. I mulled him some 
 wine ; but his stomach rejected it. He wanted not 
 to go down to Westminster Hall, the men who had 
 him in custody wanted him to go ; he solicited me 
 to go down to prove his sickness. I told him I 
 would, if he could get another to join me. We 
 sent to Dr. Kennedy, late physician to the army, 
 who with me, advised him by all means to go down, 
 and at length he complied, and I accompanied him. 
 He was twice sick in the coach, and as his wound 
 was on his head, I began to think whether his 
 skull might not have been fractured, but he had no 
 other ominous and indicative symptoms of fracture 
 but vomiting merely, 
 
 When he passed through the Hall, he was sa- 
 luted with hisses ; and after a very little time hav- 
 ing , passed, and the legality of the service being 
 established, and his counsel having proposed that 
 he should not be committed in his present state, as 
 there was no accommodation in a prison for a man
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 139 
 
 so ill, the Marshall said, in a loud tone, that he 
 
 COllld ACCOMMODATE THE GENTLEMAN ; the Court 
 
 all laughed out aloud; and poor Bowes was clapped 
 into the coach which was waiting for him, and hur- 
 ried over to the King's Bench, and the Marshall 
 was ready to open the state rooms for the accom- 
 modation of his prisoner. 
 
 The first three weeks, after his admission into this 
 place, were taken up with those adjustments which 
 are found necessary for all who seek for comfort in 
 such abodes of accommodation. His wounds beiii2: 
 
 O 
 
 examined, appeared to be healing; but they were 
 deep and long, and would have been deeper, had 
 not the skull put a limitation to the blows. I found 
 out the cause of his sickness and vomiting. The 
 same disposition for intrigue and deception haunted 
 him here, as it always had, just as if these quali- 
 ties formed a part of his habit, and as if, from the 
 organism of his frame, he could not be otherwise. 
 He got a dose of ipecacuanha at Barnet, and took 
 it just before I came into him at the hotel, PRI- 
 VATELY. This was done in order that his appear- 
 ance might excite commisseration, and to avoid, if 
 possible, being committed to a prison. 
 
 Bowes soon appeared to be reconciled to his 
 condition, hope had not as yet abandoned him to 
 despair. His plate was brought in, and his vanity 
 was still about him ; even at this time, I had not 
 missed it ; that and his deceptions took even now 
 entire possession of him. The Court of King's 
 Bench had not done with him ; he and his accom-
 
 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 plices were tried; and he, as a set ofF, or rather as 
 a pretence for mingling his own case of real de- 
 pravity, with an imaginary one of the Countess's, 
 prosecuted her for perjury. 
 
 On Friday, 27th May, 1787, Andrew Robinson 
 Bowes, Edward Lucas, Francis Peacock, Mark 
 Prevost, John Cummins, otherwise Charles Chap- 
 man, William Pigg, and three other persons, were 
 tried in the Court of King's Bench, before Justice 
 Buller, on an indictment, charging them with an 
 assault committed on Friday the 10th day of No^ 
 , vember last, on the person of the Countess of 
 Stratbmore; after a trial of several hours, they 
 were all found guilty. As soon as the trial was 
 over, Bowes, by the advice of Mr. Erskine, with- 
 drew the indictment he had preferred against the 
 .Countess for perjury. Bowes preferred a second 
 indictment against the Countess, which was heard 
 in July, but which failed also. 
 
 On the 26th of June, 1787, Andrew Robinson 
 Bowes, Edward Lucas, Francis Peacock, Mark 
 Prevost, and Henry Bourn, were, pursuant to or- 
 der, brought up to receive judgment for a conspi- 
 racy, of which they were convicted in April last, 
 against the Countess of Strathmore; the reading 
 of the several affidavits took up almost four hours; 
 after the counsel on both sides had concluded, 
 Judge Ashurst pronounced the sentence of the 
 Court as follows : 
 
 That A. R. Bowes do pay a fine of ,300 to his
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 141 
 
 Majesty; that he be imprisoned in his Majesty's 
 prison of the King's Bench for three years, and at 
 the expiration of the said term, he find security fur 
 fourteen years, himself in 10,000 and two sureties 
 of 5,000 each. 
 
 f 
 
 That Edward Lucas (the constable) do pay a 
 fine of 50, and be imprisoned in his Majesty's 
 gaol of Newgate for the term of three years. 
 
 That Francis Peacock do pay a fine of 100, 
 and be imprisoned in the King's Bench prison for 
 two years. 
 
 That Mark Prevost be imprisoned in the goal of 
 Newgate for one year, no fine. 
 
 That Henry Bourn do pay a fine of 50, and be 
 imprisoned in the gaol of Newgate for six months. 
 
 * 
 
 Lucas, Peacock, and Prevost, were already un- 
 der bail, by order of the Court of King's Bench, 
 themselves in 500, together with two sureties in 
 the sum of 250 each, for keeping the peace to- 
 wards the Countess of Strathmore for fourteen 
 years. 
 
 Bowes, upon another application, had a remis^ 
 sion of the fourteen years to two. 
 
 The conspirators being thus disposed of, Bowes 
 becoming habituated to the situation, and all those 
 incumbrances upon his mind being cleared away, 
 after his usual manner, in their turns, he discarded
 
 142 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ES. 
 
 every one of those conspirators as soon as lie had 
 done with them, and he left them to their fates. The 
 poor French valet, Prevost, fractured his collar- 
 bone in Newgate, and underwent much distress 
 afterwards, without money or character. 
 
 It may be difficult to be believed ; but I do not 
 think that any one of the conspirators knew what 
 they risqued, when they were instrumental in this 
 act of violence, except Lucas ; I do not think that 
 even the ruined Peacock did ; but of him I shall 
 have to speak hereafter. 
 
 Having thus cleared the proceedings of the con- 
 spiracy, than which no revolution can present 
 bolder and deeper traits, I come now to describe 
 the Life of Bowes, for the last twenty-two years> 
 first of all in the state rooms, next in inferior state 
 rooms, then within the walls of the Bench, and 
 about the last twelve years, within the rules in St. 
 George's Fields. 
 
 The two leading occupations of his time con- 
 sisted of his law affairs, and his seductions; in 
 relating the former, I am afraid I shall be bewilder- 
 ed, from want of technical knowledge; and in the 
 latter, I shall contrive to be as much upon my guard, 
 and as frugal asl can of all obscenity. 
 
 Bowes's family in the King's Bench, at first con- 
 sisted of himself, Mr. and Mrs. Peacock and 
 daughter, and Master Bowes, his son, by the 
 Countess. Besides other requisite servants, he
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 143 
 
 had brought up one of the name of MARY, who 
 waited on the Countess during the time Bowes 
 took her into the North ; and when she was taken 
 from him, Bowes secured Mary. She was a good- 
 hearted, hard working woman, and possessed more 
 than a common share of the homely and useful 
 qualities; her he seduced, and sent her away to 
 lye-in, and then abandoned her, and the child also 
 not long afterwards. This was the woman he dress- 
 ed up to personate the Countess. 
 
 For the first twelvemonths of his imprisonment, 
 there was scarcely a day that I was not over there, 
 on account of some professional call or other; there- 
 fore I had an opportunity of seeing all his move- 
 ments during this period; the most restless, and 
 perhaps the most crowded with concerns, and of 
 the most importance to him, of any part of his life. 
 Either he was to come again out of the prison after 
 the expiration of three years, as a great man, or be 
 finally fixed for ever after, as a crushed and misera- 
 ble one. 
 
 The vast consumption of money, which those 
 up-hill law proceedings demanded, he had not cal- 
 culated upon : as I have said, he received his death's 
 blow of hope of ever recovering any of the Bowes's 
 property, in the Court of King's Bench, whilst the 
 Countess was in the hands of Mr. Shuter and Mr. 
 Seton: the attorney who succeeded them, followed 
 up the advantage, of which they originally had been 
 the pioneers. 
 
 Soon after Bowes was married to the Countess,
 
 144 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 he discovered that she had contrived and signed a 
 deed, which was dated just one week befo v e the 
 ceremony took place, whereby she made a settle- 
 ment of the estates which had been willed to her 
 by her father, so as to place the rents and produce 
 of those estates at her own disposal, whether she 
 should be single or married, reserving to herself a 
 power to revoke and annul this deed, 
 
 It is very reasonable and natural to suppose, that 
 any man in the character of a husband would get 
 rid of such a settlement if he could ; and it is ge- 
 nerally believed, indeed it has been sworn that 
 Bowes was not very gentle in the mode which he 
 adopted in accomplishing his purpose. Be that 
 as it may, the Countess of Strathmore, by an in- 
 strument under her hand and seal, bearing date 
 the 1st of May, 1777, rather less than four months 
 after the marriage, revoked the obnoxious settle- 
 ment. 
 
 The Countess at the time of the marriage was 
 considerably in debt, and willing to raise a fund 
 to discharge those debts, and not as has untruly 
 been stated, to apply the money to Bowes's use. 
 The Countess and Bowes joined in a deed, grant- 
 ing annuities to the yearly amount of ,3,000 for the 
 Countess's life. By this measure was raised a sum 
 of j24,000. In order to secure the payment of 
 these annuities, certain parts of the estates in 
 which the Countess had a life interest, were vested 
 in trustess, in trust to receive the rents, and out of 
 the rents to pay the annuities, and to pay the over-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 145 
 
 plus and residue, if any, to Bowes and the Countess. 
 This is the substance of the deed. 
 
 In the year 1785 the Countess instituted a suit 
 in the Court of Chancery against Bowes, charging 
 him with various acts of cruelty and outrage, and 
 Betting forth that the instrument of revocation was 
 extorted from her by violence and compulsion; and 
 praying the Court to restrain Bowes from receiving 
 the rents of her estates. After various litigations 
 the cause came to a hearing, and the Court directed 
 what is technically called an issue, to be tried in a 
 court of law by a jury, to ascertain whether the 
 deed of revocation was obtained in the manner 
 represented by the Countess. 
 
 It was to this trial in the Court of Common Pleas, 
 before Lord Rosslyn, which was immediately to 
 come on, that all Bowes's hopes and fears were 
 directed. The consequence of the verdict was, 
 that the instrument of revocation was deemed a 
 nullity, and upon the final hearing of the suit in 
 Chancery, first before Judge Buller, sitting for the 
 Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and afterward^ before 
 Lord Thurlow himself, the settlement, called the 
 antenuptial deed was established ; and it was re- 
 ferred to a master in Chancery to take an account 
 of rents received by Bowes since the commence- 
 ment of the suit, upon which account a large sum 
 was reported due by the master, and the master 
 appointed a person to be the receiver of the rents 
 and profits of the estates of the Countess. 
 
 K
 
 146 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 Thus I have endeavoured to state the case of the 
 trial at issue before Lord Rosslyn, and it was at this 
 trial that the circumstances of the deed were intro- 
 duced, and that the whole series of acts of cruelty, 
 violence, and compulsion, were proved. 
 
 As soon as the event of this trial found its way 
 to Bowes, for the first time, perhaps, in his whole 
 life, he began to sink into the most complete state 
 of despondency. Every faculty seemed to have 
 deserted him, but his deception. He pretended 
 lameness, and took to his bed, saw scarcely any 
 body, and kept himself in a constant state of in- 
 toxication. I was obliged to remonstrate with him 
 upon his cowardice, and told him that I suspected 
 he meant by drinking, to put a period to himself; 
 but that it was a very base way, and that it would 
 take a long time before he would succeed, if that 
 were his object, by the quantity he now took ; and 
 that there were other ways, if he wanted to give his 
 enemies a triumph, and to gratify them, by his 
 funeral knell, WITH A ROUT FOR THE COUNTESS, 
 
 AND WITH A CAROUSAL FOR HIS LAW OPPONENTS, 
 WITH A BONFIRE FOR THE CONFESSIONS, AND A 
 CARNIVAL AT GlBSIDE. 
 
 Another deadly blow followed also. The sen- 
 tence of separation and divorce now issued from 
 Doctors Commons, and he was stunned with the 
 thunder of excommunication. He was charged 
 with the sums he had unjustly received from these 
 estates, and they were entered on the Marshall's
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 147 
 
 books. Thus mauled, stripped, disgraced, and 
 blasted, the prison bolts flew open; all of a sudden 
 he bad adieu to the outer state rooms, and entered 
 within the walls, in a pickle not unmerited, and in 
 a state which to some, death would have been com- 
 paratively an ELYSIUM. 
 
 The Countess animated by her liberation from 
 the tyrannical power of Bowes, in the effusion of 
 her blissful meditation of freedom, composed and 
 sent the following triumphant composition upon 
 Bowes's privation of power over her, written in the 
 form of an epitaph, of which the following is the 
 
 TRUE COPY, FROM HER OWN HAND. 
 
 An Epitaph wrote and sent by LADY STRATH- 
 MORE to A. R. BOWES in the KING'S BENCH 
 PRISON. 
 
 tiERE RESTS, 
 
 Who never rested before, 
 
 The most ambitious of men : 
 
 For he sought not virtue, wisdom, or 
 
 Science, yet rose by deep hypocrisy, 
 
 By the folly of some, 
 
 And the vice of others, 
 
 To honours which Nature had forbid, 
 
 And riches he wanted taste to enjoy. 
 
 He saw no faults in himself, 
 Nor any worth in others. 
 
 He was the enemy of mankind ; 
 K 2
 
 148 THE LIVES OF A. K, BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 Deceitful to his friends, 
 Ungrateful to his benefactors, 
 Cringing to his superiors, 
 And tyrannical to his dependents. 
 
 If interest obliged him to assist 
 Any fellow creature, he regretted the 
 Effect, and thought every day lost 
 In which he made none wretched. 
 
 His life was a continual series 
 Of injuries to society, 
 Disobedience to his Maker, 
 And he only lamented in despair 
 That he could offend them no longer. 
 
 He rose by mean arts 
 To unmerited honours, 
 Which expire before himself. 
 
 Passenger, examine thy heart, 
 If in aught thou resembles t him ; 
 And if thou dost 
 Read, tremble, and reform ! 
 So shall he, who living 
 Was the pest of society, 
 When dead, be, against his will, 
 Once useful to mankind. 
 
 Every body can tell, that within the walls of the 
 King's Bench Prison the vices would be more 
 circumscribed, but the heart would not be mended. 
 By this time Peacock and Bowes were at drawn 
 daggers. Peacock's instrumentality was over. 
 Richard wanted Buckingham no longer. The un-
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 149 
 
 fortunate and credulous Peacock had been a most 
 respectable coal merchant at Newcastle. He be- 
 came acquainted with Bowes at his election. He 
 was a tall athletic man, proper qualities for elec- 
 tions, easy of persuasion, and vain of Bowes's con- 
 fidence. He projected nothing, but obeyed him in 
 every thing. Besides his punishment by imprison- 
 ment and fine, having joined Bowes in acceptances, 
 he was left in the lurch by Bowes, and retnained in 
 the prison, and within the rules of it, for years 
 afterwards. 
 
 The friend to whom Bowes addressed all his 
 letters, who rescued Lady Maria from his bitter 
 gripe, who preserved the jewels for the family's 
 splendor, who in obedience to the mandate of the 
 Lord Chancellor, made two journies to France at 
 his own cost, to bring back Lady Anna Maria; 
 who waited days at LISLE, on his first journey 
 unsuccessfully, by Bowes pretending to be sick; 
 who drew upon himself the Lord Chancellor's 
 censure on not being able to do what his Lordship's 
 power and authority could not; had from these 
 causes at this time withdrawn himself, and aban- 
 doned Bowes to his merited fate. This friend, 
 who had thus been put to a great expence in his 
 two journies, who had brought back Lady Anna 
 Maria, and restored her to the bosom of her friends, 
 who had served the family, by preserving the jewels, 
 who had obeyed the Chancellor, and would, if pos- 
 sible, have kept Bowes within the pale of honesty, 
 was suspected and censured on all sides : and thus 
 reputation may be likened to the positive and nega- 
 
 K 3
 
 150 THE LIVES OF 4. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 tive powers of electricity ; where the best disposed 
 man may lose his character by too near an approx- 
 imation to a bad one. 
 
 Bowes now, like a tree struck by lightning, had 
 still a few green branches left. He had the best 
 room within the walls of the prison, and as birds 
 do, when they are reconciled to the cage, he began 
 to plume himself up, to peck, and meditate upon 
 the possible smiles the place could afford him. He 
 took an analysis of the inhabitants, and particularly 
 all those he could make useful to his purpose, he 
 tempted by his dinners. I saw one gentleman at 
 Bowes's table, whom I have known ever since, for 
 whom I still entertain the highest regard, and who 
 could have written this life much better than I am 
 able. 
 
 On the 13th July, 1787, Bowes desired me to 
 visit a young girl, the daughter of a prisoner, at the 
 lodgings of her mother in Lant Street. I found her 
 a girl of perfect symmetry, fair, lively, and innocent. 
 She was feeding a pidgeon with split peas out of 
 her mouth. She had a little fever from summer 
 heat and bad air. Her father in the prison had 
 been a man of considerable landed property, he 
 had kept a pack of hounds entirely at his own 
 expence, in opposition to a neighbour, and a rival, 
 who kept a pack at that time also. They -had 
 literally hunted each other down. But this gentle- 
 man, at this time, had not parted with his estate. 
 
 Bowes having seen this girl pass through the
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 151 
 
 prison to her father's apartments, whose charms of 
 attraction, when they caught his eye, served but 
 insidiously to betray her to him, who like a roaring 
 lion, sought night arid day whom he could devour, 
 addressed her going and coming, made her pre- 
 sents, flattered, and obtained her. The father died 
 shortly* afterwards, made a will, and left Bowes his 
 executor, but it is not known whether he ever acted 
 upon it 
 
 This young lady, whom I shall call Miss Polly 
 S , has had five children by him, which proved to 
 be ties of such strong affection as to soften all the 
 hardships and severities she has so long endured ; 
 for she has been literally a prisoner in his house 
 from the year 1787 to the day of his death. He 
 hired a room for her in the same staircase, where 
 she was excluded from the sight of every body, not 
 being seen even at his dinners, nor morning, noon, 
 nor night. She " went in a maid, but out a maid 
 never departed more," not even to revisit the 
 glimpses of the moon. 
 
 Upon the sickness of her children, I happened to 
 see her a few times, but it was impossible to say 
 one word more to her than what belonged to the 
 case, as Bowes was always present, hurried the 
 visit as much as possible, locked the door, and took 
 the key in his pocket. She was blessed with a 
 native chearful disposition, and had found a chan- 
 nel for her affections in her children. She had ever 
 been herself a child of misfortune ; all which parti- 
 
 K4
 
 132 THE LIVES OP A. H. JiOWES, ESQ. 
 
 culars marked, adapted and qualified her for being 
 a true and rare representative OF A FEMALE OF FOR- 
 TITUDE, 
 
 Bowes had an inquisitive turn for knowing every 
 person of any importance within the walls ; but all 
 those he was desirous of insinuating himself into 
 their favour, did not readily accept his solicitations. 
 Some who were there from misfortunes, and not 
 from crimes, did not choose to associate with him. 
 For although the law has made no separate distinc^ 
 tion of apartments between the criminal and the 
 unhappy debtor, yet the mind of the debtor may be 
 above the connection of the criminal, Upon these 
 grounds, there were, I am persuaded, some who 
 knowing his character, were shy of his society. 
 There happened to be two or three considerable 
 people of this description, who soon after his ani- 
 val, found themselves frequently assailed and prir 
 vately lampooned and viljned without being ever 
 able to trace those gross attacks to their origin. 
 
 I have been told the folio wing anecdote of Bowes. 
 The father of Miss Polly S- - - had found a man 
 in the prison, who attributed his confinement in a 
 great measure to a debt that was due from him. 
 Whenever they met, they were seen to wrangle and 
 exchange accusations, Bowes hearing this repeat? 
 
 edly pass, one morning called on Mr. S , and 
 
 proposed to him to feign himself dead, on purpose 
 to. 4ee what the man would say upon it. The bed 
 
 cloaths were taken off, Mr. S was laid put, his 
 
 chin tied up, and the sheet placed over him. Bowes
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 153 
 
 then went in search of the man ; upon finding him, 
 he communicated what had befallen his enemy, 
 Mr. S ; the man did not seem disposed to be- 
 lieve him, when Bowes insisted that he should come 
 and convince himself. Accordingly this violent 
 man, whose debt would now be certainly lost, hast- 
 ened to see, and thinking it too true, poured over 
 the body vollies of abuse, and continued to do so 
 for an aggravating time, till at length Mr. S 
 could submit to the farce no longer, but threw off 
 the sheet, and rose up in the bed, when the affright- 
 ed man made a sudden escape. 
 
 A near relation of Bowes paid him a visit in the 
 King's Bench, just at a time when a very fine and 
 conspicuous lady was liberated from the same place. 
 It was to be so contrived, that she visited Bowes 
 in her own handsome equipage, when this relation 
 was with him. Bowes gave the relation to under- 
 stand, that she was a rich widow, possessing in her 
 own right not less than ,40,000. In a day or two 
 after, Bowes as a favour done to his relation, agreed 
 that he, with a friend of Bowes's, should call upon 
 this lady, and carry with them their introduction 
 from himself to her. They found her in a very ele- 
 gant house in Abington Street, and richly fur- 
 nished. She apologized for the want of servants, 
 as she said, they were almost all in the country, it 
 being summer time, The friend who accompanied 
 Bowes's relation, was perfectly satisfied that neither 
 the house, furniture, equipage, nor servants belonged 
 to this lady, and from compassion hinted to the rela- 
 tion, that it was better for him to desist in this pur-
 
 154 THE LIVES OF A, R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 suit, but that he was not to impart this opinion he 
 gave, to Bowes. The relation very fortunately was 
 wise enough to take advice, and in consequence of 
 this intimation, the pursuit was dropped. Al- 
 though this story might appear mysterious, yet a 
 little thought will shew what was meant by Bowes. 
 His relation was a man of property, and if Bowes 
 could have made up a match between them, he 
 would 4iave had a bond from the lady before mar- 
 riage, and brought it against his relation after mar- 
 riage. 
 
 An amorous gentleman's chamber in the King's 
 Bench, happened to be facing the window of the 
 
 apartments where Miss Polly S resided. 
 
 Bowes thinking that he might pay her too assiduous 
 an attention from one window to the other, for he 
 never could by any other means have ever done 
 more, dressed himself up in a female habit, and 
 flirted with this gentleman at the window. This he 
 repeated for many successive mornings, and had 
 satisfactorily engaged the gentleman's attention. 
 When he had worked up his plot, and brought his 
 deception to the proper pitch, Bowes threw open 
 the window, shook off the female dress, and dis- 
 played his own proper person, laughing, insulting, 
 and jeering by breaths, as he could do in a manner 
 to confound those whom he had caught in his toil. 
 The poor amorous man was so disconcerted, that 
 he was not visible for a long time after. 
 
 Bowes had a practice which he applied whenever 
 he could, if he wanted to make any part of his com-
 
 ANO THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 155 
 
 pany drunk, and as far as I have seen, he was gene- 
 rally successful. I have known very grave people 
 over whom he has so succeeded. He would appear 
 to be very candid, and to tell his guests they should 
 help themselves to the spirits which were upon the 
 table, whilst he officiously poured the water to 
 fill up the glasses out of the tea kettle. All this 
 appeared very fair, but he had instructed his ser- 
 vant to bring in the kettle, with half and half of 
 water and spirits, so that the more his guests were 
 desirous of being sober, the drunker they became. 
 
 Bowes experienced not a little gratification and 
 exhilaration of spirits by an occurrence whicl^ 
 afforded him some agreeable pastime, and exone- 
 rated his mind from dwelling for awhile upon his 
 OWN miseries, by filling it up with the pleasures of 
 ANOTHER'S. 
 
 He was addressed by letter, by the lady of the 
 brother of the attorney, who conducted the cause 
 of the Countess against him ; of the brother whom 
 Bowes had turned out of the carriage at Highgate 
 at the time he violently seized the Countess's per- 
 son. He published a phamplet in the lady's name, 
 insinuating that she had lost the affection of her 
 husband by the intrigue of the Countess. Bowes 
 tpok the lady into his apartments, and suc- 
 coured and encouraged her in her action, till he 
 succeeded and brought the gentleman to a settle- 
 ment with the lady. This flattered him, but pro- 
 cured for him no other advantage.
 
 156 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 As no man is certain when he offers injuries to 
 another, that even-handed justice may not return 
 the poisoned chalice to his own lips, so it happened 
 in a short time after to Bowes ; some bills ot in- 
 dictment, by the prisoners, were found against him 
 at the Croydon Assizes, which gave him a great 
 deal of trouble, and incurred some expence; but 
 by the address of his attorney, he was acquitted, 
 and this threatening ignominy corrected his future 
 demeanour. 
 
 Bowes, at this time, drew part of his subsistence 
 from a share in a coal ship, and shipped his own 
 coals for the London market, and sold them by his 
 own agents. The unfortunate and injured Pea- 
 cock had been induced by the opinion of his lawyer, 
 to consider this, as dealing in coals, and to consi- 
 der Bowes as a coal dealer, and as one liable to the 
 laws of bankruptcy. Accordingly a commission 
 of bankruptcy was taken out against Bowes in 
 1798, and his name appeared in the gazette. His 
 commission was regularly opened at Guildhall ; but 
 on the sitting of the Lord Chancellor, Rosslyn, it 
 was proved before his Lordship that Bowes's deal- 
 ings extended no farther than his selling his own 
 coals out of his own ship, the commission from that 
 cause was set aside to poor Peacock's cost ancl dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 Bowes having very lately mustered up a little 
 more courage, began to meditate upon a renewal 
 of his law proceedings, and in order that he might
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STEATHMORE. 157 
 
 have more justice done to him, than he had in the 
 conduct of his former suit, as he suspected, at 
 least, he had engaged a new attorney, Mr. Palmer 
 of Grays Inn, a gentleman of erudition in literature 
 in general, of acute observation, good address, and 
 high reputation. 
 
 Under this gentleman's auspices, he commenced 
 a suit in the Court of Chancery, about the year 
 1797, claiming the surplus rents of the estates set 
 apart to pay the annuities, to which the Countess 
 put in no answer. Bowes then applied to the 
 House of Lords, whose decision was in his favour. 
 .Elated by this, he recurred again to the Court of 
 Chancery, under the expectation that he was cer- 
 tain of success, to the amount of, at least, ,60,000, 
 that he was so certain, he had now advertised for 
 sale a part of the property. 
 
 Previous to this event, the Countess had departed 
 this life on the 20th of April, 1800. The cause 
 thus standing, revived, there could be no ques- 
 tion raised whether Bowes were entitled or no to 
 all that was settled upon, or limited to him and his 
 wife, during their joint lives. But admitting that 
 Bowes was entitled to the estate so settled and 
 limited, yet by the death of the Countess, Bowes 
 met with the opposition of the Earl of Strathmore 
 and the other executors of the Countess, and there- 
 fore the same claim was revived by Bowes on the 
 12th of February, 1802 against her executors in 
 the Court of Chancery. But eventually all these 
 petitions by Bowes were dismissed, there having
 
 158 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 been made by Lord Rosslyn during his time of 
 being Chancellor a LATENT ORDER. 
 
 THE LATENT ORDER was heard, and reheard, 
 and the result of it was, that there was an issue 
 some time after to try in one of the Courts below 
 the validity of the instrument of revocation, which 
 was made four months after the marriage of Bowes 
 to the Countess, whether this instrument under 
 which Bowes claimed, was not extorted from her 
 by violence, and compulsion : of the event of all 
 this, I shall speak hereafter. 
 
 It is my duty hereto observe, that Mr. Scott, who 
 formerly had been Bowes's counsel, and to whose 
 name Bowes had so often referred in his letters to 
 his friend from Paris, was the now Lord Eldon, the 
 Lord Chancellor, before whom the revived litiga- 
 tion was to be heard, he having succeeded the Lord 
 Rosslyn, and that Lord Eldon, from motives of the 
 nicest delicacy, upon the hearings of the Lord Ross- 
 lyn's LATENT ORDERj called the master of the Rolls, 
 Sir William Grant, to be present with him during 
 the hearing of this cause; 
 
 I have now left the proceedings in this state 
 without pursuing them any further as yet, to the 
 event of the time yet to come. For if I went on 
 with that now, which was not finally concluded till 
 some time after, I should not only be guilty, being- 
 out of season, of an anachronism, but also of con- 
 founding the order of the narrative. Besides, as it 
 so happened, the delay was all on Bowes's side. It
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 159 
 
 served to keep up his spirits and appearance ; it 
 gave him credit with those from whom he w r auted 
 it ; and the assurance he really possessed, or artfully 
 feigned, of eventual success, did not fail to increase 
 his spirits not a little, but his pecuniary resources a 
 great deal. 
 
 Upon the death of the Countess, Bowes moved 
 out of the prison, and took a house in the London 
 Road, in St. George's Fields. Mr. Palmer under- 
 took, by a sort of tontine, to fill up the requisite 
 securities for Bowes's debt to the satisfaction of the 
 Marshal. Then here we see Bowes once more out 
 of prison, but not out of danger. He took all his 
 family with him, Miss S. the children, and all his 
 dogs and cats, of which he had more than a com- 
 mon share, and which he kept very poor. 
 
 The law suits were taking their course. He 
 began to embrace the liberty of reviving those 
 sentiments of seduction, which had been from 
 want of convenience laid by, and become dormant 
 during his closer confinement. He took another 
 house also on the Borough Road in St. George's 
 Fields, to which there was attached a pretty gar- 
 den, and next to a billiard room. This he gave 
 out was to supply his family; at any rate he took 
 care that it should furnish him with his means of 
 supplying a family. Whatever might have been 
 the quantity or quality of inhabitants, whether 
 tenants in common or proper, I am not exactly able 
 to enumerate; but the history of one of his tenants 
 I am perfectly well acquainted with.
 
 160 THE LIVES OF A, R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 A very neat and modest young woman, a semp- 
 stress, visited her sister in the King's Bench, who 
 was associated to a gentleman there, a clergyman. 
 Bowes used to, every now and then, cast a longing 
 and a lingering look towards the interior of these 
 walls, and thus fell in with this fair visitor. He 
 succeeded in his addresses, and placed her in this 
 convenient house in the Borough Road. There 
 she remained during her pregnancy, and she was 
 always associated with the eldest or the other of 
 his own daughters, by Miss S. They took their 
 station there by turns- Bowes, the only time he 
 had ever liberated her, had now given Miss S. per- 
 mission to go to see her mother, and attempted to 
 bring this girl into his house, in her absence, but on 
 her arrival, his own daughters resisted it : they left 
 him, and fled to their mother. Bowes fearful that 
 this transaction would become public, and that the 
 
 case of Miss S 's usage would be a matter of 
 
 advantage to his law opponents, and possibly, that 
 she might have their support in preferring her 
 grievances, gave way, the only time he was ever 
 
 known to do so. Mrs. S with her daughters, 
 
 returned, and the girl was dismissed from this 
 house to go back to the other, where she was 
 brought to bed. 
 
 Bowes had promised to settle upon her two 
 hundred pounds per annum, but now as she was 
 brought to bed of a live child, he offered her fifty 
 pounds more if she would swear the child to a 
 gentleman in the Bench, confined for debt. She 
 did swear the child to that gentleman, and he was
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE. 161 
 
 not liberated till he paid the fine to the parish so 
 imposed ; after this Bowes discarded and aban- 
 doned the unfortunate and corrupted girl. 
 
 Just after the success in the House of Lords, 
 and when the cause was revived in the Court of 
 Chancery by this spirited and friendly solicitor, 
 Bowes had an accession to his property in Ireland, 
 a freehold of the value of three hundred pounds 
 per annum. From this, and from the remnant of 
 plate, of which there was yet a huge mass, and 
 from his half pay, he might have drawn a decent 
 subsistence. His BENWELL estate .was in the 
 hands of receivers, for the mortgagee, therefore he 
 could take nothing from that, though if it were sold 
 it would fetch three times the sum for which it was 
 mortgaged. 
 
 I have stated this to shew the disposition and the 
 art of Bowes. He would make a grand display of 
 all this property, produce the reports of surveyors 
 who had valued it, and profess to come to a speedy 
 resolution to sell, And, I ought to observe, that in 
 the display of this property there was no falsehood. 
 The falsehood consisted in the professed use he 
 made of this display. He pretended to sell, but 
 never intended it. He pleaded most pressingly his 
 immediate wants, his own tattered appearance, and 
 the state of his children, which he so contrived, that 
 they may be seen without shoes or stockings ; and 
 also his want of means of prosecuting his law suit, 
 adding, that if he had money now it could be repaid 
 on the sale of his property. He would eren fix a 
 
 i.
 
 162 THE LIVES OP A. R. feOWES, ESQ. 
 
 time that the sale should take place. In this prac- 
 tice, perhaps, there never was a more perfect adept ; 
 as I do not know an instance in which he did not 
 succeed to a certain degree. This was the game 
 he played for the last ten years of his life, and 
 always more or less coming off a winner. 
 
 At the end of twelve years service, his solicitor, 
 Mr. Palmer, was obliged to give him up, and this 
 cancelled every obligation Bowes owed him; for he 
 was unremittingly, every time I saw him, pouring 
 forth abuse on Mr. P. for thus forsaking him, 
 though he repeatedly sent for him to return to him, 
 but in vain. 
 
 I have stated what Bowes practised to get money 
 from his attorneys ; and now I will shew how he 
 used to get over the fulfilment of his promise to 
 reimburse all those credulous attorneys, who were 
 in advance for him. He invariably practised the 
 trick of being ill, of having lost his faculties, his 
 memory, and his hearing. He would cause the 
 attorneys to understand by messages, that if they 
 came to transact business with him, it may endan- 
 ger his life. 
 
 In one of these situations, he sent for me ; on my 
 arrival he affected not to know me ; I was to speak 
 very softly; the barber was sent for; he was to 
 describe to me the fit he had had ; whilst the 
 barber was describing the fit, he fell into one before 
 us both. This farce being over, he began to mend, 
 and to expose his intention, which was to get me to
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 
 
 inform his attorney of the extreme dangerous state 
 of his health. 
 
 In a very short time after this part of the farce 
 had been played, and just as 1 was preparing to go, 
 a neighbour's cock came into his yard, and was 
 fighting with one of his own. His eldest son was 
 ordered to drive out the cock; in doing this, there 
 was a great uproar among the fowls, and that uproar 
 lasted for some time. The strange cock flew twice 
 against Bowes's window ; and from his affectation 
 of low speaking, we could not hear each other for 
 the noise. When Bowes of a sudden started up as 
 strong as Hercules, threw up the sash, and bawled 
 out to his son just as vociferously as he ever could 
 have done at any time of his life. Without uttering 
 a single syllable by way of comment, I left him to 
 his own reconciliation. 
 
 But this is only one way in which he practised these 
 deceptions; others equally ingenious will sue eed 
 in their turn. The next attorney he had was of a 
 short duration; but long enough to make a journey 
 to take a survey of his estates, and to become res- 
 ponsible for his house rent. 
 
 During the time of the succeeding attorney's at- 
 tendance, (the third) there were such a series of im- 
 positions practised, as perhaps were never kiio .., 
 or heard of: but the detail of them, I shall Jefer for 
 the present, to give room for another instance, which 
 comes in rotation as part of the supplies upon 
 which Bowes was now subsisting; as he embraced 
 
 1.2
 
 J64 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES ESQ. 
 
 every means he possibly could to obtain the pro- 
 perty of others without lessening his own. This 
 was his system. 
 
 I am told that the half pay of an officer is so set- 
 tled, that no deed he can execute for the sale of it, 
 can invalidate his recovering it, whenever on its be- 
 coming due he goes and claims it. Bowes knew 
 this, and therefore he could sell this part of his 
 property, as he thought, without lessening his own. 
 He continued receiving his half pay, notwithstand- 
 ing, just the same after the sale of it, as he did be- 
 fore. But eventually he found himself mistaken. 
 The creditor's courage was rouzed. He brought 
 his action, gained his cause, obtained an execution, 
 and recovered all his money. To raise this sum, 
 Bowes, who had never calculated upon such an 
 event, and who did not dream of what this creditor 
 could have done to him, as finally he could have 
 lixed him in Newgate, was driven to his last shift. 
 But he must now pay this creditor, who had been an 
 overmatch for him. He was obliged to part with the 
 remainder of the family plate, with rings, gold snuflf 
 boxes, watches, and all the rich dresses, made up 
 for him, when he was at PARIS, and which his va- 
 nity had kept till now, enough to stock all the thea- 
 tres, for THE SIR GEORGE AIRIES, THE LOVEMORES, 
 THE LORD FOPPINGTONS, aild THE RANGERS, in the 
 
 most extensive theatrical district throughout this 
 country. 
 
 Though this transaction was not finally con- 
 cluded till Bowes had engaged another attorney.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 165 
 
 (his fourth) yet, as it commenced with his third at- 
 lorney, it was better to state it here as a part of his 
 ways and means. The last act of this kind attorney 
 was to draw up Bowes's WILL, he being pleased to 
 be thought very ill indeed at that time. And I am 
 now to exhibit a specimen of Bowes's natural dis- 
 position for feigning sickness, and which he prac- 
 tised on his sister as a return for her affectionate 
 visit to him, in order to get, if he could, from her 
 husband a larger annuity, on account of the pre- 
 tended precarious state of health. This I shall call 
 
 his ANNUITY SICKNESS. 
 
 One of Bowes's SISTERS came from IRELAND 
 with her daughter, to partake of the advantage of 
 the southern education for this most promising 
 young lady. His sister's object was to have 
 teachers for her in all the desirable branches of 
 modern education here, for a short time, and also to 
 entertain a governess to accompany them from 
 hence to Ireland as one of the family. Bowes's 
 -sister appeared to me to be sincere, virtuous, intel- 
 ligent, and strictly consonant and guided by the 
 best discipline of the best regulated families, among 
 the best class of modern society. I had the plea- 
 sure of seeing her every day for three months, and, 
 as these visits were made painful to me from 
 Bowes's conduct, there could not possibly be any op- 
 portunity for me to arrive at a knowledge of her more 
 accomplished virtues than from what I saw in my 
 daily visits to Bowes. Instead of taking up her resi- 
 dence in a more select situation, she, from wishing to 
 be near her SUFFERING BROTHER, took a lodging 
 
 L3
 
 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, E8Q, 
 
 opposite to him. Bowes never said a word more 
 to me, than that she was his sister. Every quality 
 about her was to be made out from my own ob- 
 servation. 
 
 Atthis time Bowes WAS PLEASED TO BE VERY ILL 
 INDEED. He was dropsical, he had shortness of 
 breath, loss of appetite; he vomited blood, his 
 languor was excessive, his nerves were easily irrir 
 fated; he could attend to no concerns, neither upon 
 law matters, nor in his domestic ceconojiiy. Miss 
 
 S was of so depraved a nature, that she stained 
 
 his fair fame, by being an involuntary resident in 
 his family; the violence of her nature was such that 
 his mind was under her most compleat dominion. 
 A quarrel was excited, upon the entrance of his sis- 
 ter, as a pretext for Miss S~ 's cruelty and au- 
 thority over him. A book was lost of the utmost 
 
 value, (the confessions) Miss S , had stolen it, 
 
 and secreted it. Whatever more may be imagined 
 to amplify this report of Bowel's complaint again s t 
 
 Miss )S , may be put into the catalogue, The 
 
 children were all neglected, and their miserable ap- 
 pearances and deficiencies of education were all at 
 tlu j door of the Jiiz ABEL Miss &>-. His infir- 
 mities, and his miserable domestic situation, ren- 
 dered him incapable of performing any of the most 
 ordinary transactions of life. If any tiling was to 
 be PAID, or BOUGHT, or done of any kind, the RE-^ 
 FERENCE was made over the way to his SISTER, 
 If any proposition was made for his health, either 
 by prescription or direction, his present capacity 
 was not in a state to attend to it; the sister must be
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 167 
 
 instructed upon it. Miss S was too vicious, 
 
 unfeeling, and abandoned for having any share in 
 any part of this his most dangerous state of bodily 
 health. 
 
 Every day I was desired to visit him and report 
 the progress of his disorder to his SISTER. His body 
 was measured to see if the dropsical tendency in- 
 creased or diminished; the sister was to be informed 
 of this, and was to see to the administration of the 
 medicines. I was. always to attend him at the 
 most valuable hour of the day, at one o'clock, and 
 for two days following he vomited up BLOOD. After 
 his going into another room, and after a cough of 
 unaffected violence coming on, then I was called in 
 to examine the BLOOD in the room, REAL BLOOD; 
 and this was also to be reported to the sister, with 
 a particular request to be tender and not to alarm 
 her! 
 
 A man PLEASED to be so ill, in such a state, with- 
 out any other strong inducement, must make a WILL. 
 The third attorney was sent for, and hasty instruc- 
 tions were given him for the will, but not without ap- 
 prehension that the subject may bring on agitation, 
 and prematurely, from such a shock, endanger his 
 life. The property of the countess, which was in 
 litigation, BEING CERTAIN IN THE END, was included 
 in the will, as well as all his other property. The 
 children were all provided for. Miss S 's name 
 was not mentioned. Several legacies were be- 
 queathed, and the rest of the property centered, in 
 fair proportions, with his favoured relations, of
 
 168 THE LIVES 01? A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 which his sister was considered as a material and 
 a chosen one. Even her daughter was mentioned 
 in it with peculiar marks of affection. Such was 
 this will, which Bowes LIVED to execute. 
 
 In the interim there was a negociation going for- 
 ward relative to this FREEHOLD of his in Ireland. 
 He wanted very much to dispose of it in his life 
 time. He now wanted money or otherwise, as he 
 did not wish it to go out of the family considering 
 himself as a dying man, he would directly and most 
 willingly make it over to his sister; but he even 
 now wished that it should be called her own, and 
 therefore, with a certain sum of money paid down, 
 and with about a thousand a year during his SHORT 
 STAY IN THIS WORLD, paid quarterly to him and 
 very well secured in London, he would, without loss 
 of time, surrender the estate in form to his sisters 
 husband for his sister's use. 
 
 As it was a doubt whether the proposition could 
 reach Ireland before the news that carried his 
 death, it was, without delay, dispatched ; and as the 
 answer to it bore naturally an urgency in proportion 
 to the nature of the case, an answer was very soon 
 returned, something. to this effect: "that the hus- 
 band thought it was indecent, and not becoming 
 a relation, to take advantage in any bargain of a 
 DYING man, not even in the shape and under the 
 pretence of affection, and, therefore, he declined it 
 altogether, hoping that his dear brother-in-law 
 raight long live to enjoy that, and all his other 
 estates."
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 169 
 
 Bowes, a short time after, WAS PLEASED to begin 
 to mend very fast, and his sister took leave of his 
 neighbourhood, and lodged afterwards in Fludyer 
 street. I had almost forgotten to explain one inci- 
 dent of this AFFECTING case, which is, that I was 
 deceived in supposing that the blood, which I saw 
 in the bason, and which, by his cough, Bowes was 
 said to bring up from his lungs, was actually so dis- 
 charged: Bowes had not then communicated to me, 
 nor ever since, that he had procured FRESH CALVE'S 
 BLOOD, and, by stealth, had gargled with it, and 
 spat it into the bason. I ought also to remark that 
 this WILL, which I haw then, has never since been 
 heard of. In a subsequent one, and which has been 
 acted upon, HE HAS NOT LEFT ONE SINGLE SHIL- 
 LING TO HIS OWN RELATIONS. 
 
 The disappointment Bowes felt, from the answer 
 of his sister's husband, gave a turn to his temper : 
 after she was gone he appeared saucy and more 
 vulgar in his manner than I had been used to; he 
 gave broad hints that I stopped this design of his, 
 but I had not, otherwise than by assuring his sister 
 that I saw nothing about him which was so bad as 
 he described. I never, in any other manner than 
 through the sister, apprized her husband of the real 
 state of Bowes's health, which never was BETTER 
 THAN NOW. And it was a piece of information be- 
 yond his power of detection, which proved to my 
 perfect satisfaction that he procured CALVE'S BLOOD. 
 Indeed that is an old and stale trick. The same 
 has been before detected amongst beggars, who
 
 170 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ES. 
 
 practise it to excite compassion ; and it is, I believe, 
 to be found in CLARISSA HARLOW. 
 
 This WILL had many intended operations. The 
 children were now all christened in a lump. His 
 sister insisted upon it that they should, finding 
 that hitherto the ceremony had not been performed. 
 Miss S., who never could have gone to a church by 
 any possibility, nor out of her chamber, was here 
 also abused for her infidelity. The clergyman was 
 put into this will. There were more than twenty 
 friends, REAL FRIENDS, put into this will. 
 
 And here I shall remark a few curious facts, 
 Bowes many times shewed me letters fronia daugh- 
 ter of his, married to a gentleman resident in the 
 country, which were well written, were full of af- 
 fection, arid always began and ended with, DEAR 
 FATHER ! There is also a daughter of his in 
 Scotland, boarding with a clergyman, to whom 
 arrears are due upon some years. The clergy- 
 man wrote several letters, but received no answer 
 to them. 
 
 I have often seen Bowes carry about letters in his 
 pocket, especially those he received from his coun- 
 sel. And he has been known to shew them ten times 
 over to the same person, at different times and at long- 
 intervals. He would thus use them, till their own 
 weight would separate the folds into pieces, and 
 till the paper was as dirty as a beggar's parish 
 pass.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STRATHMORE. 171 
 
 The WILL was seat over to his sister's lodgings, 
 and there it remained to be referred to by all per- 
 sons, whose good offices had contributed, for years 
 or minutes, no matter which, to the generous pur- 
 poses of gratifying and consoling long ago, or in his 
 last moments, this DYING AND PENITENT CHRIS- 
 TIAN. 
 
 The lease of the third attorney was now nearly 
 expired. He was but a young man, and conse r 
 quentiy, in the common phrase, soon done up. To 
 him succeeded a fourth attorney, to whose firm was 
 annexed a strong list of partnership. He took a 
 cautious, no doubt, survey of Bowes's property; 
 and if he did not, he might, have gone to see his 
 possessions. But if he chose to dispense with this, 
 Bowes was always warranted, I will say that for 
 him, to assert, that he was a solvent man. This 
 attorney assisted to Bowes's removal from the 
 house in the London Road to one in the Lambeth 
 Road, No. 12. It was hi the month of January, 
 1#04, that 1 first began to attend him during his 
 ANNUITY SICKNESS, and which was brought on by 
 his sister'$ visit to him, from the pure motive, as he 
 said, of distinguishing her, and putting her into 
 possession, of this family estate. 
 
 The beginning of the new attorney was a getting 
 into troubled water, in the year 1805. The suit of 
 the tradesman who purchased the half-pay was 
 finally closed, so that Bowes had without any other 
 concern almost a clear house. I do not now reeol-
 
 172 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 lect that I was ever called to any sickness which it 
 was Bowes's pleasure he should have, for a length 
 of time ; and this shews much better than I could 
 otherwise prove it, that Bowes had been all along 
 well supplied by his fourth attorney. If he, or 
 some one as good, had not been answerable for the 
 rent, how could Bowes have managed a landlord 
 in St. George's Fields, and ever got honestly into 
 another man's house? 
 
 The fourth attorney had an arduous task. THE 
 
 CONSTANT CHANGE OF ATTORNIES DISHEARTENS THE 
 
 BEST OF CAUSES. The rehearing of the LATENT OR- 
 DER left by Lord Chancellor Rosslyn, in the Court of 
 Chancery, was conducted by him, and an issue was 
 directed, by the Court, to be tried in a court of law 
 before a jury, to ascertain whether the DEED of 
 REVOCATION was obtained in the manner repre- 
 sented by the Countess of Strathmore. So that in 
 fact, Bowes had not advanced one inch in his law 
 proceedings, from their first commencement; as 
 the very same cause had been tried in the Court of 
 Common Pleas, before Lord Rosslyn, twenty years 
 ago, which was now to be tried before Sir James 
 Mansfield, in June 1807. 
 
 I being subpoened upon the trial, am able the 
 better to give some report of it. 
 
 When the Court was prepared, Bowes's counsel 
 stated that he wished to have the trial put off, as 
 the Reverend Doctor Scott who resided upon his
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 
 
 living in the North, and who witnessed the deed of 
 revocation, was too ill to obey the subpoena. This 
 being over-ruled, the case of the duel, of the mar- 
 riage, and of the cruelties practised by Bowes on 
 the Countess,, was as ably displayed, and in as elo- 
 quent a speech, so far as eloquence consists in the 
 animation of facts, and in putting them with strength 
 before a jury, as 1 have ever been accustomed to 
 hear, by the leading counsel for the Earl of Strath- 
 more. The first witness called was upon the sub- 
 ject of the DUEL; when the very same witness who 
 formerly swore to the insignificance of the wounds, 
 to there being scarcely any blood on the shirt, or 
 perforation of it, swore the very same now. After 
 him followed a long string of evidences by witnesses 
 of various natures, by the living, who again proved ; 
 and by the evidences of the dead, whose former 
 testimonies were read in court, proved, and ac- 
 cepted: the case being thus made out, on the 
 part of the Earl of Strathmore, Lord Eldon, who 
 had been subprened, and had been some time 
 in Court, spoke as far as he had seen, hand- 
 somely to Bowes's character, and his Lordship 
 withdrew. 
 
 His Lordship whilst his counsel had been in- 
 structed through Bowes only, he had only the 
 opportunity, from the authority of his briefs, of 
 seeing the superficies of his character, but was not 
 furnished with any direction to speak upon a cubic 
 knowledge of his heart; that was the concern of 
 the Counsel against Bowes; and, to say the truth,
 
 174 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 I never was more mentally gratified in all my 
 than I was by observing the intellectual manner in 
 which the sergeant for the Earl of Strathmore, 
 exposed, and demonstrated this cause. 
 
 Bowes's Counsel made a reply, but called no 
 witnesses ; and then Sir James Mansfield addressed 
 the jury, reciting the evidence, in its order, and with 
 that perspicuity which marks the talent of an Eng- 
 lish lawyer, by which he rises to so eminent a situation 
 through personal merit. The jury, without hesita- 
 tion, pronounced the instrument of revocation to be 
 a nullity, and a verdict was found in favour of 
 the Earl of Strathmore. Here Bowes's contentions 
 were finally resisted, if not positively concluded. 
 
 * 
 
 Bowes's antagonist in the duel was in the Court, 
 he had been subpcened: he addressed the Court 
 to be heard in answer to what the first witness had 
 sworn, but ineffectually. Nor was I called to that 
 part of the trial, or any other. Nor did I know if 
 I had wanted to speak to him, nor should I now 
 know the person of the attorney who conducted this 
 cause. But it is fit to be remarked that neither the 
 gentleman who fought the duel, nor myself, could 
 have contradicted any part of the evidence, but 
 merely that of the first witness. 
 
 4 
 
 I should now naturally proceed to make my 
 remark upon the evidence of the first witness, had 
 I not, when I was upon the subject of the duel, 
 given all the explanation which may be deemed to 
 be necessary.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 175 
 
 From the time of this trial to the month of Oc- 
 tober, in the same year, I had not seen or heard 
 from Bowes^. He sent for me then in a desperate 
 hurry, at eleven o'clock at night. Two of his chil- 
 dren had putrid sore throats, and a third was in a 
 disposition for a similar attack. Eventually they all 
 recovered. He was obliged to admit me into the 
 
 C? 
 
 presence of Miss Polly S , but not one moment 
 
 longer than he possibly could. And every time 1 
 called afterwards he took care I should hear none 
 of her complaints, as he brought down the children 
 to me. 
 
 It was midnight before I left his house. But he 
 wanted to keep me longer, and to shew me his wine 
 cellar, which I declined ; the next, and next time I 
 came, he pressed the same desire; again and again 
 he pressed it. I could not account for why he thus 
 pressed me to see the wine cellar of his dirty house; 
 and as I usually called late at night, it struck me 
 that possibly he meant to lock me up in it. To get 
 rid of his teazirig solicitations, I summoned courage 
 to see thfs wine cellar, but I took care to keep 
 behind him, and was upon my guard. I said jo- 
 cularly to him, what in the fable, the crab said to his 
 mother I PR^ SEQUAR. He unlocked the door, 
 and 1 very warily approached^ just near enough to 
 see his cellar full of wine. Oh! oh! said I to him, 
 you have got a new and fifth attorney ; a cellar full 
 of wine; and a house without an execution in it!!! 
 I have, said he, and then began, as it was his cus- 
 tom, to abuse the former attorney. 3 found that 
 Bowes had his doubts whether when he sent for me I
 
 176 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 should come over to him or not; therefore, what 
 with the wine and my visit, there was an assumed 
 flow of merriment and wit in this convivial moment, 
 but what was it, but the retrospection of the mind 
 to the flavour of a mushroom nourished from a 
 rotten dung hill 1 
 
 In the next month, upon the opening of the 
 Courts of Law, Bowes gave some action to his fifth 
 attorney. He made an attempt to obtain a new- 
 trial, but all to no purpose. He, upon this occa- 
 sion, wished me to call on the morning of this ap- 
 plication, on his attorney, and meet him at his 
 chambers. So that I went as much for my own 
 interest as for his, especially as I was to meet him 
 there, and of this he was very well aware. I did 
 his business, but he took care not to do mine, as 
 instead of coming inio the chambers, he walked 
 about the Square, and when he came to Westmin- 
 ster Hall he kept aloof, till I lost him. 
 
 All prospect of the Courts of Law affording 
 Bowes any redress, was now become distant, and 
 hardly discernible. Bowes then, being quite at 
 leisure, for entertaining all the baser passions, im- 
 proved upon them, as his health declined. Besides, 
 he was circumscribed in his visits, and dared not go 
 into the Bench. 
 
 I shall make a distinction at this time betwixt his 
 general views as to his matters of property, and his 
 amusements, and habits of life.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 177 
 
 Bowes was decided that the estate of BENWELL 
 HALL should not be sold during his life tyuie, nor 
 his estate in Ireland. To put off the evil day of 
 parting with BENWELL, was what he always had 
 most at heart. A prejudice of this sort, for the 
 preservation of a family estate, is sometimes so 
 nearly allied to an affection for ancestry, that it ap- 
 proaches, if not assimilates itself, almost to a sense 
 of virtue. But this was no family estate of his, and 
 with him it can only be deemed an act of dishonesty, 
 to keep his creditors out of their money, to make 
 them as much as possible dependant on his will, 
 and to defraud in the end as many of them as he 
 could. When he engaged a fresh attorney, it was 
 not only to carry on his suits, but to supply him 
 with money.; and it was in this manner he was using 
 his fifth attorney. 
 
 As to his amusements, and his habits of life, they 
 became baser as he grew older, and they were the 
 more demonstrable, as he not only drank out his 
 wine, selfishly, but also took to spirituous liquor. 
 He kept no servant, and would buy neither brushes 
 or brooms; the two daughters went down upon 
 their knees and gathered up the dust with their 
 hands; I have seen them describe this very humour- 
 ously, laughing most heartily at this scene of neces- 
 sity. He scarcely ever saw or spoke to Miss S 
 for nearly the last eight years, and allowed her but 
 one meal a day. She did get a little supply from 
 her mother and the farmers, who had been her fa- 
 ther's tenants. She had the strongest of all possi- 
 
 M
 
 178 THE LIVES OF A* R. BOWES ESQ. 
 
 ble causes to remain with him ; the children -were 
 dear to her, and she to her children 
 
 " Dear as the light, that visits these sad eyes, " i j 
 
 Dear as the vital Wood that warms this heart." 
 
 She was not disposed to be fretful, nervous, or 
 melancholy; .she posses.- t-d a constancy and steadi- 
 ness of mind; she went through this ptlg-pfrfi&gd of 
 distress holding an even course; she had lieen 
 rocked in the cradle of adversity, and no ordinary 
 calamity could put her out of her way. 
 
 Bowes amused himself in instructing a copyist 
 to write letters to and from himself. To one cre- 
 ditor it was written that he had shot himself, and 
 that the person who wrote it, saw him weltering in 
 his blood. Another letter he carried about him, as 
 if it came from the Earl of Strathmore, offering him 
 terms of accommodation. 
 
 Bowes 'kept this man; employed in this sort of bu- 
 siness; so that the two instances which I have 
 given, should only be -considered as specimens of 
 many more. 
 
 His passion for seduction had not now fors&ken 
 him; the insolence of his mind would riot submit, tr> 
 the limitation to which his bodily inm'mity re'strairi- 
 ed it. He had no longer a command over another's' 
 affection, au'd the imposing art which gave ; life to 
 his sednetion, no longer availed -him 1 ; ' ' He could
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 179 
 
 dangle, but not possess; the lady he made up to 
 was as knowing as himself; she surveyed him, but 
 not admired him; to his character, she was no 
 stranger, arid paid him off in his own coin. His 
 pockets were empty, and his inarch was feeble; his 
 dress was shabby, and though no taylbr's daugh- 
 ter, she knew that the nap of the best cloth would 
 wear oft'; they wen 1 seen together too much in the 
 public walks for the intrigue of lovers; they would 
 in Term time come to Westminster Hall openly to- 
 gether; all this was hanging out lights of distress 
 by this fisher in troubled waters; lie was literally 
 generated into a slippered pantaloon. They soon 
 quarrelled, and Bowes employed his copyist to go 
 to work with his anonymous letters, and to carry on 
 the contest on the lamp posts, watcl/ bdxes, and 
 any other place where men. adjourn. This lady 
 was served quite right, for when she paraded up 
 and down with him before his house, she knew that 
 she was insulting a victim and a mother, locked up 
 in a chamber up two pair of stairs. 
 
 Bowes's system for maintenance, had been so 
 long supported by deception, that at length by the 
 decay of his active bodily resources, he could riot 
 carry his mental ones into effect; he had all the in- 
 clination, without the ability, as a poisonous plant has 
 in the WINTER, when the c&pi?l#fy attraction can no 
 longer supply the nutrition that is necessary for/ffife 
 elaboration of its active and deleterious! 
 He was sued for petty 'debts, arid Br.vu 
 was about to be foreclosed. Those who were tired of 
 his promises, broke out into violent discoiitent. He 
 
 M 2
 
 180 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 could no longer play them off with his usual suc- 
 cess. He was besides en trammelled by fear, not 
 only present, but prospective; he dreaded the time 
 when the fifth attorney would stop his hand, and 
 that he may be obliged for want of house and fur- 
 niture, to retire once more within the walls. 
 
 Under all this pressure, his suspicions of being 
 cheated, debarred him from receiving two hundred 
 pounds from Ireland whenever he pleased to sign 
 a receipt ; but he would not sign it, and the agent 
 would not, but upon these terms, remit him the mo- 
 ney. 
 
 His appetite began to fail, and his walk was con- 
 fined to a tavern within four doors, where he used 
 to read a newspaper. As to his instruction, or 
 amusement from books, he had not one in his house 
 besides the CONFESSIONS; and 1 do not think that 
 he ever read a single book through, from the first 
 hour that he went into a prison, to the very last. 
 
 In the month of April, 1809, he made a WILL, and 
 he was by his FIFTH attorney, fairly and ingenu- 
 ously, given to understand, that he would not ad- 
 vance him much more money. 
 
 The WILL he made in 1804, to amuse his sister, 
 and those to whom he had given such generous le- 
 gacies, (as I have said) disappeared -on the instant 
 of her departure. He opened a negociation with 
 another attorney; they had several interviews, 
 which proved to be ineffectual.
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 181 
 
 During the last summer, I had been several . 
 times informed that he was sinking, and that he had 
 an inability to swallow, but upon a closer inquiry 
 into this latter complaint from the person he sent, I 
 was convinced that it was nothing but a new artifice 
 branching out of an old system of imposition; yet 
 from what I could collect of truth, though mixed 
 with falsehood, I concluded that his end was ap- 
 proaching, as he then had real symptoms of disso- 
 lution, and of which he was not himself conscious ; 
 his legs swelled, and he had no appetite, and the 
 wine being all drank out, he lived, by choice, upon 
 rum and milk. 
 
 The WILL being signed in April, I don't believe the 
 fifth attorney had any further intercourse with him 
 to the time of his approaching death; and if he 
 could have got any other to act, he would. 
 
 On the 10th of January, 1810, I was desired in 
 great haste to visit Bowes, by his second son, and I 
 could perceive from the natural manner of the 
 youth, that it was no artificial alarm; therefore I 
 
 most willingly obeyed the call. Miss S on my 
 
 arrival opened the door to me, which she had never 
 done before. Bowes expecting me, there was but 
 little time allowed for me to hear what she had to 
 say, before I must go into him, his bed being on the 
 ground floor. She said that he had made a WILL 
 since that he made which I knew of, that he had 
 left something to all the children, but that her name 
 was not in the will
 
 182 THE LIVES OF A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 Upon this, I. was introduced to him, by her,, and 
 we werealpne. It was apparent, that he had but a 
 feu da\s longer to live. 1 should not have known 
 him, if J had seen him as a person of whom I ha/pl 
 not been before apprised. I did not go round about 
 with him, .it was not a season for playing at push- 
 pin, his case admitted of no trifling with time: J 
 confessed to him my opinion of his situation, aiid 
 asked of him to tell me if he hud settled all his 
 
 worldly affairs. Upon which Miss S said, he 
 
 had made a WILL, and had within these two days 
 given it to her to read, adding, that she would 
 not find her name in it, but that it should be. She 
 had sat up with him the last two nights; his eldest 
 daughter used to officiate for him, but now, he 
 would take nothing, nor accept of any office which 
 w a,s not fjojie for him by .Miss S . 
 
 Seeing his dissolution so near, I did not urge him 
 pinch then in behalf ojf Miss S , as if^ he con- 
 sented to give her any thing, I could not draw up 
 the codicil. 1 asked loud enough for him to hear, 
 
 who were his executors to the WILL? Miss S 
 
 answered, the MARSHALL of the King's Bench Pri- 
 son, and Mr. MEREDITH his attorney, of Lincoln's 
 Inn. 
 
 Upon this, as (here was no time to be lost, 1 
 made an excuse to go, promising to return again. 
 1 saw the Marshall of the King's Bench, and told 
 him my errand, and intention of seeing him, to in- 
 duce him to see Bowes, and prevail on him to leave
 
 A>,D THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 183 
 
 something- to Miss S-* . The Marshall; told ine, 
 that he did not know Bowes had nominated him as 
 an executor, and. therefore he did not see how he 
 could, so situated, coin ply with my wishes ; but he 
 hoped that 1 should be able to succeed. I then 
 returned to Bowes, and took my leave of him, re- 
 solving to see Mr. MEREDITH, or his partner, Mr. 
 RQBBINS, of Lincoln's Inn, but when 1 called 
 there, neither of them were in chambers, 
 
 As I was going away, he would be led into the 
 passage to be certain that I was out of the house; 
 and Miss S told me that a few days before, he 
 crawled upon his knees and hands up stairs, to see 
 if he could discover any body harboured there. 
 so powerful even at this time, Mas his passion of 
 suspicion* 
 
 The next morning, I -called in Lincoln's Inn, and 
 saw Mr. RQBBIXS, Mr. MEREDITH being out 
 olf town. I told Mr. ROBBINS all the circumstan- 
 ces of my errand. He appointed to meet me at 
 Bowes's; he took a gentleman with him. On pur 
 coming, we found there a sister of Bo\ves\s, just 
 arrived in London from Ireland, and who had never 
 seen her brother before. Here also came into our 
 company, Mr. SAMPSON PERRY, who had been at- 
 tending Bowes in a friendly and medical capacity, 
 for some time previous to this dangerous state. 
 
 All being now assembled, as if from sympathy, all 
 were devoted to see if Bowes could be prevailed 
 upon to give any thing to Miss S It qugjht not 
 
 M 4
 
 184 THE LIVES OP A. R. BOWES, ESQ. 
 
 to be omitted that Bowes's sister, from the goodness 
 of her heart, had at her own expence, called in the 
 CLERGYMAN of the parish. With these powerful 
 engines; w"iththe particular address of Mr. Sampson 
 Perry, with the intercession of all around him, with 
 the begging of the CHILDREN, advancing to the 
 bedside, one after the other, Bowes at length gave 
 way, opened his mouth, and consented to Miss S 
 having one hundred per annum. This being avowed 
 to Mr. Perry by Bowes, and legally put down by 
 Mr. ROBBINS, witnessed by him, his friend, and 
 myself, we took our leave. I ought to observe, 
 that there was not a shilling in the house, till Mr. 
 ROBBINS left a sum, to whose conduct in particular, 
 I am not now, nor hope ever to be, insensibly forget- 
 ful. It was a ready display of direct humanity 
 upon this necessitous occasion. 
 
 Bowes survived this transaction not more than 
 six days. He died on the 16th of January, 1810, 
 and was buried on the 23rd, in the vault in St. 
 George's church in the Borough. Two mourning 
 coaches attended his funeral. Mr. Meredith, (his' 
 executor,) and Bowes's three sons, went in the first, 
 and the Marshall's relations, Mr. Sampson Perry, 
 and myself, in the second. No other legacies I 
 understand are in his will than those to his children 
 
 by Miss S . His son by the Countess was to 
 
 have been his heir. 
 
 And here closes the mortal scene of Andrew 
 Robinson Bowes; whose -ruin was finally precipi- 
 tated from want of moral principle and personal
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OP STKATHMORE, 185 
 
 courage. If he had happened to have been a man 
 of courage, as well as infamy, he would with his 
 talent have maintained that which infamy alone 
 had put into his possession; and he would have 
 mounted, instead of sunk, as he basely did in the 
 close of his life: but his rnind was treacherous and 
 inconstant even to itself. He was a villain to the 
 back-bone!! 
 
 That he was not a man of courage is to be seen 
 in every action of his life ; as all his achievements 
 were begun and ended without a display of one 
 single trait of personal heroism. His acts were 
 violent, and his contrivances always so planned as 
 to preserve his own person and to immolate every 
 other man's. His resources were all selfish, mean, 
 and contemptible. When he seized the person of 
 the Countess, and carried her into the North, he 
 denied his concern in it, and kept himself in the 
 back-ground ; and, when she was in his possession, 
 he endeavoured to obtain his ends of her by terror, 
 until he found that even she had a mind possessed 
 of courage superior to his own. He submitted to 
 be attacked by a man who knocked him off his 
 horse, and to have his pistol, without any energetic 
 effort, wrenched from his hand. He surrendered 
 it to real courage, on demand, and unarmed, 
 
 In every turn of his affairs, his passion indicated 
 all the sufferings of a coward, without the smallest 
 show of fortitude. Upon the loss of his first cause 
 m the Common Pleas, before Lord Rosslyn, he fell 
 into a state of deplorable despondence : and now
 
 mi: LIVES OF A. u r 159 WES, ESQ. 
 
 grown older, when he lost the second before 
 James Mansfield in the year 1(307, he sunk never to 
 
 rise again. 
 
 . 
 
 Bowes was incapable of making friends, for he 
 
 i lid not wish to know any thing of the quality of 
 friend ship. The friend with whom he formerly 
 corresponded, had long given him over, and de- 
 tached himself from him, after suffering in fame 
 and in fortune. On his. last trial in tlie Court of 
 Common Pleas, Bowes, not being able to attend 
 about it, -and to bustle himself in jt,. seduced from 
 the West of England the .husband of his own 
 daughter. lie travelled for him into the Noitli for 
 evidence, and all at his, own expeii.ce. He was 
 taught to believe that a .ytry l iu ' e legacy at least 
 w as intended ; or if otherwise, that his wife would be 
 Bowes's heiress. The hopes of this gentleman were 
 also disappointed. Bowes considered all females 
 as natural game, and hunted them down as so many 
 FEK.-K NATURE. Under the cloak of friendship he 
 made instruments of mankind as he called for 
 them, and in his arts of seduction he refined above 
 all others. 
 
 All those who served him the most essentially 
 
 , * 
 
 and gratified him the longest, he treated with the 
 most severity. They were left at length to feel 
 disgrace from their own mortifying reflections. 
 The very yearnings of nature were struck dumb 
 with astonishment at him. Open resentment was 
 suppressed by shameful remorse, and the injured
 
 AND THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE. 187 
 
 withheld their vengeance, and slunk away from 
 him, silent, degraded, and astounded. 
 
 He cloathed all his villainies in the dress of 
 virtue; and it is something to be told, that this bad 
 man could not succeed in perpetrating acts of vice* 
 without assuming the appearance of virtue. To 
 sum up his character in a few words, lie was cow- 
 ardly, insidious, hypocritical, tyrannic, mean, vio- 
 lent, selh'sh, deceitful, jealous, revengeful, inhuman, 
 and savage, without a single countervailing quality. 
 
 Let us hope, when he. departed ; that never 
 before nor since, there never was, nor ever will be, 
 taking him for all in all, his parallel. 
 
 The great object of every piece of biography is to 
 produce out of it a wholesome and exemplary 
 MORAL. As ROCKS in the ocean are set down in 
 charts, for instruction to mariners to be cautious 
 and careful to avoid them, so may these well 
 authenticated and dangerous LIVES become useful 
 and important to mankind, by the warning they 
 will continue to give to future generations. 
 
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