Xorfc IkcnneM? 231 



acres, producing a rental of 36,000. To these Lord 

 Kennedy, as the eldest son of the Earl of Cassillis, was 

 heir ; but he never came into his inheritance, for he 

 died before his father. 



By his marriage with the rich heiress Miss Allardice, 

 however, Lord Kennedy became possessor of the 

 beautiful estate of Dunottur, near Stonehaven, in Kin- 

 cardineshire, with a rent-roll of something like 10,000 

 a year, and not far short of 100,000 in ready money. 

 Unfortunately, this large property was not strictly 

 settled on Lady Kennedy, and her husband was able 

 to get hold of it and play ducks and drakes with it, as 

 he did also with some 5,000 per annum which came 

 to him through his mother. At every race meeting from 

 North to South Lord Kennedy was a regular attendant, 

 and both in the ring and at the hazard-table he gambled 

 in a style that one can only call insane. 



When the new Subscription Rooms were opened at 

 Doncaster, and superseded the long, narrow, upper 

 apartment at the Salutation, which was the betting 

 mart previously to the year 1826, Lord Kennedy was 

 the mightiest hero over their Board of Green Cloth. 

 The story is still told there how one evening it was as 

 much as the friend at his side could do to stuff the bank- 

 notes into his lordship's pockets, as he won eight mains 

 at hazard in succession ; and when the emulous ardour 

 of the spectators almost foamed into frenzy, a man near 

 the table sold his seat for five guineas ! 



But it is in connection with his mania for making 

 matches and betting frantically upon them that Lord 

 Kennedy is principally celebrated. In 1823 he backed 



