156 'OLD q' 



as the fourth and last Duke of Queensberry,^ then 

 one of the richest dukedoms in the kingdom. The 

 accession of his lordship to the dignities of his 

 house placed him in a position to mdulge his 

 sportive and other pursuits to their utmost extent. 



Miss Mary Townshend, another of Selwyn's corre- 

 spondents, writes him under date of Guy Fawkes's 

 Day this year (1778), in which she expresses concern 

 regarding what the ' new ' Duke of Queensberry may 

 do with his late cousin's mansion in Burlington 

 Gardens or Street, saying : ' His own is so much 

 pleasanter, as to prospect and disposition of the 

 rooms, that I do not suppose he will live in it him- 

 self, and I feel a little interest that he should not, 

 as there will be " bricks and mortar " without end.' 

 The lady resided, or her family did, near to the late 

 Duke; but why she should fear the 'bricks and 

 mortar,' I cannot say, as, except in the pulling out 

 of the front of his house at Piccadilly some years 

 previously, I cannot find that his grace's (for so 

 the third Earl of March and Ruglen must now be 

 styled) pockets were ever placed at the mercy of 

 builders. 



^ This title is perpetuated through the female line by the 

 Buccleuch family, who do not, however, possess the then * concrete ' 

 possessions of Queensberry. 



