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The only child and heir of John Denis, 1 st Marquess of Sligo, Westport House estate, Co Mayo and his wife Louisa, daughter and co-heiress of Admiral Richard Howe, British naval hero, victor of the ‘Glorious First of June’ and counsellor to King George III, Howe Peter Browne was reared in a climate of wealth and privilege. Early Years: A Thrill Seeker With an Ambition for More At 21 he inherited five titles in the peerage, a 200,000-acre estate in the West of Ireland and valuable plantations in Jamaica. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, his early years conformed to the popular image of a ‘regency buck’ in the notorious world of the Prince Regent at Holland House, Brighton and Newmarket

“Out of every corner of the woods and glens they came creepingforth upon their hands for their legs could not bear them, theylooked like anatomies of death, they spoke like ghosts, crying outof their graves…in a short space there were none almost left and a mostpopulous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man or beast.” So the English poet, Edmund Spenser, in 1583 described the province of Munster in the south of Ireland. While the dreadful spectacle of famine, death and decay may have appalled his eyes, Spenser, together with his friends, such as the famous explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh, had actively participated in and personally benefited from Munster’s ruin, as the English Crown wrested the province from the