1811.] 
Newmarket; his chief amusement now 
arose out of a taste for music, which, 
like his old friend and countryman, lord 
Kelly; he had cultivated in early life, 
and did not relinquish but with his exist- 
énce. Both of them may be said 
* to have felt the ruling passion strong in 
death.” The one shone in the instru- 
mental; the other in the vocal depart- 
ment: the Scotch_ earl excelled on the 
fiddle; the Scotch duke displayed great 
taste ina song. Indeed, the latter was 
a munificent patron of musicians, espe- 
cially foreign ones, and in his house were 
to be seen ail the great singers who have 
been attracted to this country in suc- 
cession by ‘the reputation of its wealth 
during the last half century. 
The gallantries of the duke have long 
been a fertile theme of raillery; but, 
this is an object with which we shail not 
sully our pages. The care of his health 
had lately been confided to the manage- 
ment of Pere Elisée, who is said to haye 
attended on LouisXV. during |,is declining 
years. His immense fortune, (no sinall 
portion of which is supposed to have 
been obtained on the race-ground,) af- 
forded at once the means of personal 
gratification in respect to himself, and 
generous interposition so far as con- 
cerned others. In regard to the first, fine 
lands, a good table, admirable wines, 
splendid carriages and liveries, with a 
multitude of servants, dressed in green 
and silver, were not wanting; and we 
have heard as to the second, that he 
bestowed pensions on opera singers, 
gave 1000]. towards an election for 
Westminster, and doubled that sum in a 
very Jaudable manner, when a fund was 
taised to supply the wants of the widows 
and orphans connected with the British 
‘navy. 
It point of person his Grace was of 
the middle size, neat, slim, and at an 
early period of life, graceful and elegant. 
His name for many years was the butt 
at which men of wit shot their arrows, 
and his life the subject of a variety of 
errors. In consequence of a speck in 
one of his eyes, a ridiculous story pre- 
vailed that he wore a glass one; he was 
supposed to apply veal cutlets every 
ight, to preserve bis complexion; and 
also to make use of a milk-butt daily, 
Memoirs of the late Duke of Queensberry. 
37 
which made many of his neighbours very 
cautious lest they should purchase that 
commodity at second-hand, 
As to peculiarities of aharmless nae 
ture, the subject of this memoir evinced 
a great variety. He spent the greater 
part of his latter years at the south-east 
extremity of his parlour bow-window, 
where he sat eight or ten hours daily. 
That be might discern objects more 
distinctly, both male and temale, aud 
at the same time be shaded fro the 
light, a canvas blind was placed obliquely 
at an angle of forty-five degrees. Be 
hind hiny stood a secvant out of livery, 
who acted ‘the part of a nomenclator, 
and pronounced the names of such of 
the passengers as were of any distinc- 
tion. So uniform was his Grace in at- 
tendance during certain fixed hours, 
and of such long continuance of prac- 
tice, that a gentieman set out for India 
in quest of a furtune, and on his return, 
after ten years absence, actually found 
him fixed in the same spot! His favourite 
poney was saddled every forenoon, and 
stationed until the day of his“ death, 
nearly opposite the door, in constant 
readiness, precisely at the same moment 
as formerly. 
The duke of Queensberry, after a short 
illness, resigned all the vanities of this 
life, at his house facing the Green Park, 
on the 25d of December, 1810, in the 
85th or 86th year of lis age. Having 
never been married, he of course neither 
leaves a widow nor children, either to 
bewail or to represent him. His Grace 
seems to have fulfilled none of the great 
duties of society, self-preservation only 
excepted ; and accordingly his name wild 
soon be forgotten by all but his legateesy 
unless in the equivocal Records of Chiffee 
ney the jockey, or in the less perishable 
yolumes of Weatherby’s Racing Calen- 
dar. 
‘The dukedom is extinct; the earldons 
descends,to sir Charles Douglas, of Kile 
head, bart. with.a portion of the estates; 
another poruon now appertains to the 
Buccleugh family, in consequence of 
similar entails; and as for the immense 
personalty, it 1s pretty widely diffused by 
a will, of which this circumstance per- 
haps constitutes one of the chief me- 
Tits. 
SCARCE 
