Charles Douglas, the 3rd duke (1698–1778), who had been created earl of Solway in 1706, was lord justice general from 1763 until his death in October 1778. In 1720 he married Catherine, daughter of Henry Hyde, 4th earl of Clarendon; this lady, a famous beauty, although very eccentric, was the friend of many of the wits and writers of her day, notably of Gay, Swift and Walpole. She died on the 17th of July 1777. Their two sons predeceased the duke, and when he died his British titles, including the dukedom of Dover, became extinct, but the Scottish titles passed to his cousin, William, 3rd earl of March (1724–1810).
This William Douglas, who now became the 4th duke of Queensberry, is best known by his sobriquet of “Old Q.” On the turf he was one of the most prominent figures of his time, and his escapades and extravagances were notorious. From 1766 to 1776 he was vice-admiral of Scotland, and in 1760 he was made a lord of the bedchamber by George III.; but later he was an associate of the prince of Wales, being removed from his office in the royal household in 1789. A generous patron of the stage and of art, he was to the end of his life a “noble sportsman” of the dissolute type, and his degeneracy was the theme both of Wordsworth and of Burns. He died unmarried, but not without children, in London on the 23rd of December 1810. The dukedom of Queensberry and some of his other titles, together with his fine seat Drumlanrig Castle, now passed to Henry Scott, 3rd duke of Buccleuch, in whose family they still remain; but the marquessate of Queensberry descended to Sir Charles Douglas (1777–1837), the representative of another branch of the Douglas family, who became the 5th marquess.
John Sholto Douglas, 8th marquess of Queensberry (1844–1900), son of Archibald William, the 7th marquess (1818–1858), became a well-known patron of sport and particularly of pugilism. He helped to found the Amateur Athletic Club in 1860, and the new rules for prize-fighting, drawn up in 1867, were called after him the “Queensberry Rules.” He married the daughter of Alfred Montgomery, and was succeeded by his son, Percy Sholto, 9th marquess (b. 1868).
QUEENSCLIFF, a town of Grant county, Victoria, Australia, 68 m. by land and 32 by sea S.W. by S. of Melbourne. Pop.
(1901) 2025. It lies on Shortlands Bluff, a small peninsula
connected with the mainland by the Narrows, a contracted
strip of land some 400 yds. broad. Queenscliff is a favourite
watering-place, having a fine pier and excellent and safe sea-bathing.
It is also a pilot station; and the quarantine station
for vessels entering Port Phillip is near the town.
QUEEN’S COUNTY, a county of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, bounded N.W. and N. by King’s County, E. by
Kildare, S. by Carlow and Kilkenny, and W. by Tipperary;
area, 424,723 acres, or about 664 sq. m. The surface is for the
most part level or gently undulating, but in the north-west
rises into the elevations of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, the
highest summit being Arderin, 1733 ft. In the central part
of the county there is a large extent of bog. The south-east
portion is included in the Leinster coalfield. Nearly the whole
of the county is drained either by the Barrow, which has its
source in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, and forms at various
points the boundary with King’s County, Kildare and Carlow,
or by the Nore, which enters the county from Tipperary near
Borris-in-Ossory, and flows east and then south till it reaches
Kilkenny. The lakes are few and small, the largest being
Lough Anaghmore on the north-western boundary. The
Grand Canal enters the county at Portarlington, and runs
southwards to the Barrow in Kildare, a branch passing westwards
12 miles to Mountmellick.
The limestone plain prevails in this county, but the high coalfield, shared with Kilkenny and Carlow, rises from it in the south; while the Slieve Bloom Mountains, a round-backed Old Red Sandstone mass with Silurian inliers, dominate the lowland west of Maryborough. The limestone itself produces a range of hills near Stradbally, on which the fortress of Dunamase stands conspicuously. Esker-gravels provide sandy soils in many places. Clay-ironstone was formerly raised in connexion with the anthracite from the coalfield.
The climate is dry and healthy. Originally a great extent of the surface was occupied with bog, but by draining much of it has been converted into good land. For the most part it is very fertile except in the hilly districts towards the north, and there is some remarkably rich land in the south-east. The acreage under pasture is not quite twice that of tillage. Dairy-farming is extensively practised. Agriculture forms the chief occupation, but the manufacture of woollen and cotton goods is carried on to a small extent. The main line of the Great Southern & Western railway traverses the county from N.E. to S.W. by way of Portarlington and Maryborough; from the latter town branches run N. to Mountmellick and S. to Waterford, and from Ballybrophy a line runs W. to Birr (Parsonstown) and to Limerick.
The population (63,855 in 1891; 57,417 in 1901) decreases in excess of the average of the Irish counties, and emigration is considerable. Of the total about 88% are Roman Catholic, and almost the whole is rural. Maryborough (the county town, pop. 2957), Mountmellick (2407) and Mountrath (1304), with Portarlington (1943, partly in King’s County), are the principal towns. The county is divided into eleven baronies. Ecclesiastically it is in the Protestant dioceses of Dublin, Killaloe and Ossory, and in the Roman Catholic dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, Ossory and Killaloe. Assizes are held at Maryborough, and quarter sessions at Abbeyleix, Borris-in-Ossory, Graigue (a suburb of Carlow), Maryborough, Mountmellick and Stradbally, The county is divided into the Leix and Ossory parliamentary divisions. To the Irish parliament two members were returned for the county and two each for the boroughs of Ballinakill, Maryborough and Portarlington.
The territory now included in Queen’s County covered the districts of Leix, Slewmargy, Irry and part of Glenmaliry, until in 1556 it was made shire ground under the name of Queen’s County, in honour of Queen Mary, the place chosen for the county town being named Maryborough. Three miles south of Stradbally is Dun of Clopook, an ancient dun or fort occupying the whole extent of the hill. Aghaboe, where there are the ruins of the abbey, was formerly the seat of the bishopric of Ossory. There are no remains of the abbey of Timahoe founded by St Mochua in the 6th century, but in the neighbourhood there is a fine round tower, 96 ft. high. Abbeyleix, a small market town south of Maryborough, had a famous Cistercian foundation of the 12th century. The church of Killeshin, in the S.E. of the county, exhibits fine carving of the Norman period. Among the principal old castles are the ruined fortress of the O’Mores occupying the precipitous rock of Dunamase, 3 m. E. of Maryborough, Borris-in-Ossory on the Nore, and Lea Castle on the Barrow, near Portarlington, erected by the Fitzgeralds about 1260, burnt by Edward Bruce in 1315, again rebuilt, and in 1650 laid in ruins by the soldiers of Cromwell.
QUEENSFERRY, a royal and police burgh of Linlithgowshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1850. It is situated on the S. side of the Firth of Forth, 9 m. by road N.W. of Edinburgh and about 1 m. from Dalmeny station on the North British railway, and is sometimes called South Queensferry, to distinguish it from the Queensferry on the opposite shore. Of old it was the ferry giving access to Dunfermline and other places on the north side of the firth, its use in this respect by
Margaret, the queen of Malcolm Canmore, originating its name; just as Port Edgar, 12 m. W., was named after her brother, Edgar Atheling. The Hawes Inn, which figures in Scott’s Antiquary, was the terminus of the run from Edinburgh in the coaching days. Queensferry became a burgh of royalty in 1363, a royal burgh in 1639 and a police burgh in 1882, and belongs to the Stirling district group of parliamentary burghs (with Stirling, Culross, Dunfermline and Inverkeithing). The principal structures include, besides the small parish church of Dalmeny (the best example of pure Norman in Scotland), the Countess of Rosebery Memorial Hall (erected in 1893 by the earl of Rosebery), a library and reading-room, and a public
