CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY 



William Douglas, fourth Duke of Queensberry — His Birth and Ancestry, 

 traditional and actual — The Drumlanrig branch of the Douglas 

 family— Creation of the Earldom of March. 



William Douglas, fourth and last Duke of Queens- 

 berry, in direct descent, was born at Peebles, 



\i) December 16th, 1725 — a year almost uneventful in 



^ the reign of George i. 



The birth of one born to inherit an earldom and 

 afterwards one of the dukedoms pertaining to his 

 fortunate clan cannot well be passed over without a 

 genealogical sketch, which must perforce be concise, 

 as an ordinary recapitulation of the records of 

 romance and history relating to the founders of the 

 noble house of Douglas would fill many chapters. 

 The relation in a condensed form must sacrifice 

 much of the poetry of legend with which the earl}^ 

 annals of this family are adorned. If, however, the 

 founder of Clan Douglas be all but lost in the mystic 

 shades of Scottish antiquity, that family largely 



