248 'OLD q' 



this 18-1 9tli century Baal, Qiieensberry. Seventy 

 letters and billets-doux lay unopened on the coverlet 

 of his death-bed, from women of all sorts and condi- 

 tions, from duchesses to members of the deDii-monde, 

 and for all kinds of requests, from the loan of a few 

 hundreds or thousands to assignations. In this re- 

 pulsive worship of gold did all that is best in human 

 kmd — Woman — join. Enough has been recorded to 

 prove that the Duke was a devotee of the sex, though 

 a matrimonial disappointment had grafted cynicism 

 on to dissolute morals. For, whatever polite 

 ' nothings ' he might charm his fair admirers with, 

 his perverted and debauched tastes never had a 

 behef in the purity of their minds. His associations 

 with frail daughters of Eve made him ignorant of the 

 pure love of one woman, or he would never have de- 

 clared ' he did not marry, because he would not place 

 his honour in any woman's keeping.' 



' Let the dead bury their dead ' is an exhortation all 

 have heard, but in these days this and other gospel 

 aphorisms are disregarded, in the spirit of them. 

 I therefore proceed to bury the earthly remains of 

 ' Old Q.' 



Though the bones of many of his species, as bad, 

 good, or worse, rest in the national receptacle, West- 

 minster Abbey, the lasb Duke of Queensberry's were 



