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This story is set in England in the days when women were regarded as having a low status, highwaymen and murder were common and people were executed for trivial offences.
The novel is based on two historical events:
The first of these was the last public execution by burning in England which took place in Shrewsbury in 1789. The horror of the scene is graphically enhanced by the description of the tolling bell:
"St Mary's bell boomed, sending throbs of sound overhead that beat against the walls of the house in one street, and came back muffled in recoil."
The second event was where a young lady had to endure the shame of being the prize at a bowling contest. This is described as follows:
"O yes! O yes! O yes! This is to give notice that this 'ere evening, at six o'clock, at Stewponey, there will be a grand champion match at bowls on the green. The prize to be Bladys Rea, commonly called Stewponey Bla. Admittance one shilling. 'Arf-a-crown inner ring, and ticket admits to the 'oly function, by kind permission of the proprietor, in the Chapel of Stourton Castle. At six o'clock per-cise. No 'arf-price. Children and dogs not admitted."
The heroine of the novel, Bladys Rea, of Spanish extraction, has to undergo a mock marriage under duress, performs an act of kindness to a woman sentenced to death and is later falsely accused and tried for murder herself.
A sample chapter of Bladys of the Stewponey is available on this website.
The full text can also be read online or downloaded free of charge. It is in XHTML format, like this page. Please note the file size is 372kb and it may take some time to open-up if you choose to read it online. Downloading for reading later may be the preferred option and this can be typically achieved by calling up an option box. If you have a mouse and it is configured for left click to select, right clicking the link may give you this option. Link to the full text of Bladys of the Stewponey .
Page created 15 November 2002 and last
updated 15 November 2002
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