ptain Bryon had devalued a substantial portion of his wife's dowry having "squandered the lands of Gight away" (p. 20). Ironically, Bryon's own addiction to gambling, serial affairs, bouts of drinking, and inability to manage his finances appear as if hereditary traits.
Early sexual experiences also seemed to have had sustaining consequences for Bryon. Cheated and abandoned by her husband, Bryon's mother as the young widow nevertheless spent several years dazed in grief. During this time, Marchand's research uncovered that May Gray, one of Bryon's first caretakers, was sexually improper with her charge. Later correspondence records that at his mother's house "a free Scotch girl used to come to bed to him & play tricks with his per
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