urite of
William; yet she continued Queensbury in that high station which it was
believed none could fill so adequately in the disturbed and refractory
kingdom of Scotland.[18]

During the early years of Queen Anne's reign, and in the season of his
own comparative prosperity, the young Earl of Mar entered into his first
marriage, at Twickenham, with Lady Margaret Hay, daughter of John Earl
of Kinnoul. The wife whom he thus selected was the daughter of a house
originally adverse to the principles of the Revolution. William Earl of
Kinnoul, in the time of James the Second, had remained at St. Germains
with that monarch. But the same change which had manifested the
political course of Lord Mar, had been apparent in the father of Lady
Margaret Hay. The Earl of Kinnoul was afterwards one of the
Commissioners for the Union, and supported that treaty in Parliament;
yet, when the Rebellion of 1715 commenced, this nobleman was one of the
suspected persons who were summoned to surrender themselves, and was
committed a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle. His daughter, the Countess of
Mar, was happily spared from witnessing the turmoils of that period.
Married in her seventeenth year, she lived only four years with a
husband whose character was but partially developed, when, in 1707, she
died at the age of twenty-one, having given birth to two sons. She was
buried at the family seat at Alloa Castle, an ancient fortress, built in
the year 1300, one turret of which still remaining rises ninety feet
from the ground. Seven years intervened before Lord Mar supplied the
place of his lost wife by another union.

His days were, indeed, consumed in public affairs, varied by the
improvement of his Scottish estates, embellishing the tower of Alloa by
laying out beautiful gardens in that wilderness style of planting which
the Earl first introduced into Scotland.[19] He had the reward of
seeing his efforts succeed, the gardens of Alloa being much eulogized
and visited. This was by no means Lord Mar's only recreation;
architecture was his delight, and he introduced into London the
celebrated Gibbs, who, out of gratitude, eventually bequeathed a large
portion of his fortune to the children of the Earl.[20] It is refreshing
to view this busy and versatile politician in this light before we
plunge into the depths of those intricate politics which form the
principal features of his life.

It was during the year 1703 that a political association or club