VANITY FAIR
London, May 4 1893
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MEN OF THE DAY. - No. DLXIV.

THE COUNT DELLA CATENA

The name of Strickland - by which he is better known in England - first appears among the hostages given by the lords of Westmorland during the Rebellion of the barons, so that his family would seem to be as old as Magna Charta; yet the first Count, Peter Perdicomanti, of Bologna, was created barely a century and a half back by Grand Master Pinto. His father, Captain Walter Strickland, of the Royal Navy, married the only child of the learned Chevalier Peter Paul Bonnici Mompalao, LL.D., who two and thirty years ago became the mother of this Gerald Bologna; who was eighteen years ago made the sixth Count Della Catena, by the death of his maternal grand-uncle Sir Nicholas Sceberras Bologna, and a little later by decision of Her Majesty's Privy Council.

He is a Noble of Malta who has added a complete English education to a Maltese schooling; has been made a C.M.G.; has ridden in the Grand National, and has married an English lady. He began to learn at Oscott College, at Mondragone College, and at Malta University; after which he came over to Cambridge, and, being a clever fellow,, succeeded in achieving the Presidency of the Cambridge Union and of the University Carlton Club and a Lieutenancy in the University Rifles as well as Honours and a Degree six years ago. Then he went to the Bar, joining the Inner Temple on his way back to Bologna. He is a Major in the Royal Malta Militia, he has ben the President of the Committee of Privileges and a Delegate for Malta at a Colonial Conference; he has visited the Colonies and reported to the Government on Maltese Emigration; he has successively occupied the Offices of Member of the Council of Malta, of Member of the Government, of Assistant Colonial Secretary, and of Chief Secretary to the Government of Malta; and two years ago he compassed the great triumph of his life by marrying and carrying off to Bologna Lady Edeline Sackville, the eldest daughter of the Lord Delawarr. So that he may really be looked upon as quite an accomplished young man.

He is also a very successful fellow, who can ride. He inhabits the Villa Bologna in Malta; but he is quite at home in England, where he is a member of three Clubs.

Leru Junior.