Field Meetings. 229 



William Fergusson, of Manchester. The .scene is in a room in 

 Dilston Castle, on the Devil's Water, near Hexham, and it is 

 graphically as well as dramatically described. During a heated 

 altercation the Countess of Derwentwater, throwing her fan at the 

 Earl's feet, exclaims: — 



" Coward ! yield up to me thy blushing sword ! 

 And soothe thy frenzied brow with that poor fan ! 

 From henceforth be it mine to play the man. 

 While thou shalt aptly play the woman's part." 



The incident is also the subject of a .spirited oil painting by Mr 

 T. B. Garvie, a Northumberland artist. 



Certainly the Viscountess Kenmure was a lady of spirit. In 

 after years she met George I. in company, and it is recorded that 

 she deliberately turned her back on the man who had refused to 

 pardon her husband for tr}ing to take the crown from him ; on 

 which the King remarked that he had certainly given the lady 

 great provocation. She also was a lady of great business capa- 

 city. Not only was the peerage extinguished by the sentence 

 passed upon her husband, but the estates were confiscated to the 

 Crown. They were .sold (being returned in the official records 

 of the time as of the annual value of only £600), and with the 

 help of friends the Countess managed to buy them. Bv prudent 

 management she was able also to redeem the burden upon them 

 during her sons' minority ; but when they obtained control the\- 

 piled up mortgages to such an extent that the estate was agam 

 in the market in 1785. The castle and .some of the farms were 

 saved to the family by the private means of the Lady Frances 

 M'Kenzie, wife of the owner of the period, and were then put 

 under strict entail. The peerage was restored in 1824 bv Act of 

 Parliament in fa\our of the grandson of the attainted Viscount. 

 His successor, Adam, was a naval officer and became Viscount on 

 the unexpected death of se\eral nearer heirs; and on his demise 

 the peerage became dormant in 1847, in the absence of heirs 

 male. The succession to the estate passed to grand-nephews of 

 the last Viscount, through the marriage of his sister's daughter 

 with the Rev. Dr James Maltland of Kells. 



That sister of the last Viscount was the Hon. Mrs Bellamv 

 Gordon, who was born in 1803, and lived until 1886. During 

 her residence at the Castle extensive works of restoration and 



