Drumlanrig Castle and the Douglases

1 6 EARLY HISTORY OF DURISDEER.
At the funeral of the Princess Dowager of Wales, 1772,
her Grace, walking as one of the assistants to the chief
mourners, occasioned these verses by Horace Walpole,
Earl of Oxford —
"To many a Kitty Love his ear
Would for a day engage ;
But Prior's Kitty, ever fair,
Obtain'd it for an age."
This picture in the morning-room has an interesting anec-
dote connected with it. When the Duchess was seventy-
five years of age, Lord Thurlow, at that time Attorney-
General (1776), had gained the Douglas law-suit, in which
she took a warm interest, and from a feeling of gratitude
for his services, she agreed, at his request, to sit for this
picture for him. It descended from him to a grand-niece,
Mrs. Brown. At her death it was left by her to her
nieces, the Misses Ellis. It remained with them till the
last of them died in i860, when it was sold. It was
bought by the Duke of Buccleuch from the executors of
the Earl of Chatham. The picture represents the
Duchess as still possessing in her advanced years great
beauty, showing eyes of sparkling brightness, and a most
winning expression. The artist is unknown. There was
a copy of this picture at Drumlanrig, now in his Grace's
business-room, but it is Hyperion to a Satyr when com-
pared with the original. The head is curiously enveloped
in a white kerchief.
In the same room there is another picture of the
Duchess over the fire-place, which must have been
painted when she was many years younger, and is a fine
representation of her lovely face. In this, too, her head
is covered, though not in the same way. In the main
staircase there is a marble bust of the same Duchess.