DEATH OF EARL DRUMLANRIG 43 



it is believed, produced the fatal result narrated, 

 though the version I am about to give differs from 

 that usually received. According to this his lordship 

 appears to have ridden on for some little distance 

 before the coach in which his mother, and probably 

 his wife, travelled, and shot himself^ 



On the death of his brother Charles, their graces' 

 second son, born July 17th, 1726, became Earl 

 Drumlanrig and heir to the dukedom of Queensberry. 

 The young man was in delicate health, a fact well 

 known at that period ; very soon after the demise 

 of his elder brother, he went to Lisbon to recruit, 

 where he narrowly escaped the effects of the earth- 

 quake, fatal to so many. The knowledge that an 

 invalid life only stood between Lord March and the 

 Dukedom of Queensberry, with its vast possessions, 

 increased his lordship's vogue at this time. 



It may not be out of place to suggest that her 

 troubles with her own sons gave Duchess Catharine 

 just as much concern as she wished to bestow on the 

 younger branches of the Douglas family, which mar- 

 riage had connected her with ; as it appears certain 

 she did not care, even had opportunity offered, to add 

 the racing foible of her relative, the Earl of March and 

 Ruglen, to either her own or her son's idiosyncrasies. 



^ Traditions of Edinburgh. 



