Douglas book > Angus memoirs

HIS DEATH AND BURIAL, 1761. 471
woman, as may be seen from the famous Douglas Cause, observed that
if the Douglases were to meet the Percys once more in the field, then
would the question be whose kitchen was the largest ? Upon this the
Duke nodded to Mr. Home to state some of the great battles in which
the Douglas family had distinguished themselves. I told him that I hoped
to wait upon him in London. He said he feared not, he could be of no
use there ; he was not sufficiently informed to carry any weight there ; he
could neither read nor write without great difficulty. I told him that
many of the greatest men in the history of both kingdoms could do neither,
to which he assented." 1
A few days before his decease, which took place at Edinburgh on 21st
July 1761, the Duke of Douglas made various dispositions to his Duchess
and his nephew. 2 To the former he left a considerable sum of money, with
jewels and furniture, and appointed guardians for the latter. Besides
other directions to his executors, the Duke desired that his body should be
interred in the bowling-green at Douglas and that when his wife died her
body might be laid beside his. 3 He, however, was actually buried in a vault
under the new church of the parish of Douglas. As the Duke died without
issue, his estates, to which during his life he had largely added by purchases
of lands, passed to his nephew, Archibald Steuart, eldest son of Lady Jane
Douglas, the Duke's sister. 4 Of Mr. Steuart, who, in terms of the Duke's
1 The Life of William, Earl of Shelburne, 3 This wish explains a statement by Pen-
by Lord B. Fitzmaurice, 1S75, vol. i. p. 10. nant (vol. ii. p. 116) that the Duke was buried
He succeeded his father in that title in May under one of the towers of his new castle.
1761, and was afterwards created first Mar- 4 During the years between 1742 and 1760
quis of Lansdowne. the Duke of Douglas made very extensive
2 Dispositions to Duchess of Douglas 8th purchases of land, chiefly in his own neighbour-
and 15th July 1761. Douglas Charter-chest. hood — Serogtounhead, Craignethan with its
During his last illness the Duke swallowed a castle, the original of " Tillietudlem," Castle-
great quantity of " quicksilver " as a remedy, hill, Belstaine, Cormacoup, Hasleside, Kennox,
but without any sensible effect. Harecleuch, Dunsistou, Littlegill, Sornfalla,