, and having, at thirty years
of age, by my own merits and energy, raised myself to one of the highest
social positions that any man in England could occupy, I determined to
enjoy myself as became a man of quality for the remainder of my life.

After we had received the congratulations of our friends in London--for
in those days people were not ashamed of being married, as they seem
to be now--I and Honoria (who was all complacency, and a most handsome,
sprightly, and agreeable companion) set off to visit our estates in the
West of England, where I had never as yet set foot. We left London in
three chariots, each with four horses; and my uncle would have been
pleased could he have seen painted on their panels the Irish crown and
the ancient coat of the Barrys beside the Countess's coronet and the
noble cognisance of the noble family of Lyndon.

Before quitting London, I procured His Majesty's gracious permission to
add the name of my lovely lady to my own; and henceforward assumed
the style and title of BARRY LYNDON, as I have written it in this
autobiography.

CHAPTER XVII. I APPEAR AS AN ORNAMENT OF ENGLISH SOCIETY

All the journey down to Hackton Castle, the largest and most ancient of
our ancestral seats in Devonshire, was performed with the slow and sober
state becoming people of the first quality in the realm. An outrider in
my livery went on before us, and bespoke our lodging from town to town;
and thus we lay in state at Andover, Ilminster, and Exeter; and the
fourth evening arrived in time for supper before the antique baronial
mansion, of which the gate was in an odious Gothic taste that would have
set Mr. Walpole wild with pleasure.

The first days of a marriage are commonly very trying; and I have known
couples, who lived together like turtle-doves for the rest of their
lives, peck each other's eyes out almost during the honeymoon. I did not
escape the common lot; in our journey westward my Lady Lyndon chose to
quarrel with me because I pulled out a pipe of tobacco (the habit of
smoking which I had acquired in Germany when a soldier in Billow's, and
could never give it over), and smoked it in the carriage; and also her
Ladyship chose to take umbrage both at Ilminster and Andover, because
in the evenings when we lay there I chose to invite the landlords of
the 'Bell' and the 'Lion' to crack a bottle with me. Lady Lyndon was
a haughty woman, and I hate pride; and I promise you that in both
instances