e had brought himself, by extravagance and
dissipation: and declared, according to the account of his spiritual
guide, that the "exigency of his affairs was very pressing at the time
of the rebellion; and that, besides the general hope he had of mending
his fortune by the success of it, he was also tempted by another
prospect, of retrieving his circumstances if he followed the Pretender's
standard."[328]

Until the commencement of the insurrection of 1745, Lord Kilmarnock
enjoyed the possession of Dean Castle, a very ancient edifice, situated
about half a mile north east of the town of Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire. "It
is," says Grose in his Antiquities of Scotland, "at a small distance
from the main road leading from Kilmarnock to Stewarton, and consists of
a large vaulted square tower, which seems to have been built about the
beginning of the fifteenth century: this is surrounded by a court and
other buildings more modern."[329] Such is the description of Dean
Castle before the year 1735; when, to add to Lord Kilmarnock's other
necessities, it was partially destroyed by fire, leaving only a ruin
which he was too much impoverished even to restore to its former
habitable state. In the "great square tower," referred to by Grose, and
of which a view is preserved in his work on Scotland, the Boyd family
had dwelt in the days of their greatness, when one of their race was
created Earl of Arran. In that tower had the Earl imprisoned his royal
wife, the Lady Margaret, sister of James the Third, who was divorced
from him, pleading, as some say, a prior contract with the Lord
Hamilton, to whom she was afterwards united, taking to him the Isle of
Arran as her dower.

It does not appear that the Earl of Kilmarnock was originally in the
confidence of the Jacobite party: and their designs were not only
matured, but far in full operation before he took an open or active part
in the Stuart cause. It happened, however, that when Charles Edward
resided at Holyrood, the Countess of Kilmarnock was living in Edinburgh.
Her beauty, and the gaiety of her manners, attracted the admiration of
the young Prince, who bestowed no small portion of attention on the
fascinating daughter of one of his father's adherents. Lady Kilmarnock
was as much attached to pleasure as the young and beautiful usually are:
she delighted in public diversions, and led the way to all parties of
amusement. Her ambition, no less than her early prepossessions
conspired, it