176 ' OLD Q ' 



Nor did the year following repay his grace, viewed 

 from a simple ' stake ' point of view, for the increased 

 number of engagements he incurred amounted to 

 forty-four. Of these only eight ' obtained winning 

 brackets ' ; value about eleven hundred pounds. 

 Queensberry, however, was now in a position to well 

 afford the pastime of racing, without troubling him- 

 self as to the monetary results. But did he ever 

 say Jam satis ? I think not : for he certainly never 

 kept horses to look at. 



It was not until 1786 that his grace was made an 

 English peer, for which purpose he was created Baron 

 Douglas of Amesbury, Wilts. This was the lowest 

 honour that would entitle him to a seat in the Lords 

 by right, independent of selection as one of the six- 

 teen representative peers for Scotland. To one so 

 betitled as his grace, baronage was, perhaps, the 

 least burdensome of the various degrees of nobility 

 the Crown could grant. However, it answered the 

 purpose as well as if its recipient had been created 

 Duke of Newmarket. 



Everything was in order by this time at Queens- 

 berry House, Richmond, as Walpole ^ went over this 

 year, 1786, under the chaperonage of Selwyn, a visit 

 he records in one of his gossiping letters : 



^ Walpole's Memoirs and Lttlers. 



