Canongate.1 THE EARL OF DRUMLANRIG. 37. -~
to an enormous stature, as his leaden and unornamented
coffin in the family vault at Durisdeer
attests at this day. This monstrous and unfortunate
creature was always confined in a groundfloor
room of the western wing of Queensberry
House; and ?till within these few years the
boards still remained by which the windows of
the dreadful receptacle were darkened to prevent
the idiot from looking out or being seen.?
stripped and spitted him, and he was found devouring
the half-roasted body when the duke
returned with his train from his political triumph,
to find dire horror awaiting him. ?The common.
people, among whom the dreadful tale soon spread,.
in spite of the duke?s endeavours to suppress it,.
said that it was a judgment upon him for his odious,
share in the Union. The story runs that the duke,.
who had previously regarded his dreadful offspring
THE CANNONGATE, LOOKING WEST; SHORING, ON THE IMMEDlATE RIGHT, THE HOUSE IN WHICH GAY RESIDED,
AND ON THE LEFT THE GATE OF MILTON HOUSE. (FYOI~ a Drawing by Shphad, @blis&rd in 1829.)
On the day the Treaty of Union was passed all
Edinburgh crowded to the vicinity of the Parliament
House to await the issue of the final debate,
and the whole household of the duke-the High
Commissioner-went thither en mmse for that purpose,
and perhaps to prevent him from being tom
to pieces by the exasperated people, and among
them went the valet whose duty it was to watch
and attend the Earl of Drumlanrig.
Hearing all unusually still in the vast house, the
latter contrived to break out of his den, and roamed
wildly from room to room, till certain savoury
odours drew him into the great kitchen, where a
little turnspit sat quietly on a stool by the fire.
He seized the boy, took the meat from the fire,
with no eye of affection, immediately ordered the
creature to be smothered. But this is a mistake;
the idiot is known to have died in England, and
to have survived his father many years, though he
did not succeed him upon his death in 1711,
when the titles devolved upon Charles, a younger
brother.?
The latter, who was born in Queensbeny House,
had been created Earl of Solway in 1706, says-
Douglas, ? when very young, his elder brother
being then alive.? He married Catharine IIyde,.
the second daughter of Henry Earl of Clarendon
and Rochester, and they frequently resided in the
old Canongnte mansion. The duchess was alto
gether an extraordinary woman, whose eccentricity.
