THE HAMILTON COUNTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2565, 13 May 1903, Page 65

THE HAMILTON COUNTRY.

Not since 1863 has the old title of Marquis of Douglas come glibly and often »» men's lips in the "Hamilton country" : but everybody in the upper teaches of Clydesdale is talking now of the baby heir, who v they have already decided, is to take the "double Marquisate." The. sound of- the name that stirred the leaver of CadyoiT forest in the days ot Archibald eh Grim, 500 years ago, is potent still noiib >'• Tweed, albeit it belongs to-day to a very tiny little morsel of humanity, Iwelling af the present moment warmly fettled in a cosy nursery in Eccleston square. Tht; last Marquis of Doujjins i.« best, remembered as a handsoiup, ied haired laddie, the delight and despair l. iiir. mother, Princess ' Marie of Baden. Fkr Grand Ducal Highness had married Ui>. Marquis; of Douglas of her daj — the handsomest, most courtly, most accomplished of the gentlemen whom sl«a met in the world of fashion;

(which was so gay and dazzling in the days of her girlhood. He was Duk«. of Ha.mil--ton and Brandon now, but "Douglas" to Jher still, and sh.. was immensely proud of lihn — and jealous, after the manner jf d*ot■Eg wives. She had persuaded her cousin, Ithe French Emperor, to bestow on him the fcneient title of Chatelherault, claimed by Siis kinsman the Marquis of Abercorn as lieir-male of the old French house. Aberfcorn had the truth of the case, as is acknowledged now, but in the days of the Second Empire Na-poleon's word was law, Kind Princess Marie's husband took .tyles ond titles from the ruined chateau in Poitoti. The 'cousinship" which the Emperor was so eager to acknowledge was real enough, although slight of tie of blood. Princess jMarie's mother was Vicomtesse Stephanie "de Beauharnais, niece of the Empress Josejphine, and therefore cousin to Queen Hor<*ense, Josephine's child, and mother of jiNapoleon 111. The hold of the French ".Emperor on royalty of any kind was shaky. •Half the world denied him a drop of Bona•iparte blood, but no one could deny him liis relationship to the Beauharnais. Hor;tense might be but a puppet Queen, but her cousin Stephanie had married into the fcluest blood in Europe, and Stephanie's daughter was his undeniable kith and kin, linking him with half the crowned heads tha* were tossed so haughtily at, his preItensions. Princess Marie' 6 marriage to the handsome Marquis of Douglas suited the Emperor's ideas exactly. His residence in Engdand had shown him that the heir of a (Dukedom there might be infinitely more powerful than some German Princeling, and might serve him in- good stead if ill times, should come. So when the Marquis of Douglas became the Duke of Hamilton 3ie gladly stretched the point about Chatel- ' fcerault, and lent his cousin and her husband the royal chateau of Pau for their ."winter abiding place. And so in the wide halls and shadowy I courtyards at Pau the Duke of Hamilton fingered the winters a\" ay ; his Princess•wife happy with "her people," and his two bonny sons running wild, in spite of the efforts of tutors. The- present writer can remember the madcap boys, the Marquis I. of Douglas riding bare-headed in the blazing sun, his brother, Lord Charles, pantfing after him in the wild adoration of hero [worship. The boys were always splendidly mounted, and they would outrage che peaeamts by riding over the springing maize and through the trellis of the sprouting .vines. No one told them this was selfish ;\vork, and the shoutr and threats of the poor farmers only added zest to the play. The Marquis of Doug'a.. was but 18 when his fathei died, and even then he had not learned to think of otuers, or to deny himself what he thought was "fun." it. as all long, long ago now. He and his gayihearted brother are dead and gone. Gone, too, the Princess-Duchess with her vulgar air and kindly heart. Gone the Emperor .•with his narrow eyes — even the "royalty" of the Pau chateau may be said to have yerished at Sedan, for who talks of such •things in the France of to-day? And the only one left of the group is the lonely lady living now at Cap Martin, the ex'[Empress Eugenic, whose, memories must liave been sharply stirred when she read tho announcement of the birth of an heir to Hamilton, and heard again the once familiar name of Marquis of Douglas and Clydesdale. But we are forgetting ! There is one other living member of that gay group at Pau. The widowed Countess Tassilo Festetics. once Princess of Monaco, then a baby-bundli of white muslin and swans'down — little Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton, only daughter of Princess Marie, and sister of the Marquis of Douglas. "?he still survives, after a stormy life indeed — a faded woman now, ut beautiful still, with the old Border spirit flashing yet from the •weary eyes, and holding her place in the foreign Courts and coteries where she has ■dec Led to live.