Hardcover. Red cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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For conditions, please view photographs. A nice clean copy from the library gathered by the famous Cambridge Don, computer scientist, food and wine connoisseur, Jack Arnold LANG.

William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry, KT (16 December 1724 – 23 December 1810) was a Scottish nobleman and landowner. He was popularly known as Old Q (because that letter was painted on his carriage’s door) and was reputed as a high-stakes gambler. In 1799 he was estimated the eighth-wealthiest man (or small family unit) in Britain, owning £1M (equivalent to £124,100,000 in 2023). He is one of ten known British millionaires that year, the royal family excluded. He developed a strong passion for Miss Frances Pelham at the age of 28, so much so that he deliberately bought a house next door to her and had a bow window built so that he could sit and spy on her as she came and went. In his 60s he proposed to the teenage daughter of his next-door neighbour in Piccadilly on three occasions, but was turned down despite his immense wealth.

Queensberry never married. He had a daughter, Maria “Mie-Mie” Fagnani, by a mistress, Marchesa Fagnani. In 1798, she became the wife of the 3rd Marquess of Hertford; Queensberry left much of his wealth to Maria, and left £10,000 to Lady Anne Hamilton who was a Lady in Waiting to Caroline of Brunswick.He was interred at St James’s Church, Piccadilly on 31 December 1810. On his death, the dukedom and Drumlanrig Castle passed to his second cousin once removed, the third Duke of Buccleuch. The Marquessate of Queensberry passed to his fourth cousin once removed (and also third once removed) Sir Charles Douglas, 5th Bt, whose descendant is the current titleholder. His second cousin twice removed Francis Douglas, 8th Earl of Wemyss became Earl of Wemyss and March. The Earldom of Ruglen became extinct.

He was a racehorse owner and event attendee. His jockeys’ racing silks were deep red with a black cap.He had some society repute as a high-stakes gambler.As “Lord March”, he is briefly portrayed or described in William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel The Virginians as a dissolute gambler.