Galignani Messenger - Thursday, May 23, 1895

London, May 22.

The little court at Markborough-street has never been so crowded as it was this morning since Oscar Wilde initiated the famous libel proceedings against the Marquis of Queensberry. As then, so now, the Marquis figures in the role of defendant, but on this occasion he has a companion in adversity in the person of his own son, Lord Douglas of Harwick. Both of the principals of the Piccadilly rumpus were early upon the scene, the Marquis being the first to arrive. For a few minutes he loitered outside the court, the central figure of a gathering crowd, but after he had been joined by his solicitor he proceeded to push his way through the group which barred the entrance to the court. In his buttonhole he wore three Marcebal Niel roses. Lord Douglas entered the building soon afterwards, and it was at once observed that both of his eyes were black. As soon as Mr. Hannay had taken his seat both were put into the dock and charged with disorderly conduct and fighting in Piccadilly.

The first witness was Constable C C 32, who found the Marquis and his son fighting. The constable separated them, after which they again closed, and witness parted them again. Both father and son then crossed Bond-street. They met again, and recommenced fighting. Witness thereupon arrested the Marquis, and his son was taken in charge by another constable. At Vine-street the Marquis, in reply to the charge, said, "It is quite correct."

The Marquis, who defended himself, only asked one question, which suggested that Lord Douglas began the attack, and continued it while the Marquis was walking to the hotel.

Mr. S.T. Stoneham (for Lord Douglas): At the station did you hear the Marquis say anything? Witness: I heard the Marquis say he was willing to fight his son for £10,000. You did not hear Lord Queensberry call his son an opprobrious name? No.

Constable C R 6, who was also on the spot, was asked who struck the first blow, and the witness fancied that it was Lord Douglas.

Mr. Stoneham: Didn't Lord Douglas say that he had spoken to his father, and asked him to discontinue those letters and that they were the cause of the row? Witness: Yes; similar words to those.

The inspector who received the distinguished defendant at Vine-street was the next witness. After the charge had been read over to them the Marquis exclaimed, "That is my son, who has bailed Oscar Wilde to-day. He has been following me about and struck me in Piccadilly." Lord Douglas added, "Yes; that occurred through my father writing letters to my wife of a most disgusting character."

This was the case for the police, and the Marquis then proceeded to make his statement. He had driven up, he said, from the Old Bailey at the bottom of St. James's-street. As he was crossing the road to go up to Albemarle-street he saw his son walking down Piccadilly. As soon as the latter recognized him Lord Douglas "came straight at me, almost at a run, and pushed me up against a shop window, at the same time speaking at the top of his voice. I struck him certainly," added the Marquis, "but it was done in self-defence."

Mr. Stoneham, in giving Lord Douglas's version of the affray, said he and a friend walking in Piccadilly saw Lord Queensberry crossing the street. The Marquis had evidently just come out of a post-office, where he had sent the following telegram to Lord Douglas's wife:-

"Must congratulate on verdict. Cannot on Percy's appearance; looked like a dug-up corpse. Fear too much madness of kissing. Taylor guilty. Wilde's turn tomorrow. -Queensberry.

"That," said Mr. Stoneham, "is a sample of the letters Lord Queensberry has been writing not only to Lord Douglas's wife, but other members of the family. He has been requested time after time to stop these letters, but he still persists in continuing the annoyance.''

Lord Queensberry here broke in with the remark that, as his son refused to receive any letters from himself, he was obliged to write to his wife.

Mr. Hannay thought these family affairs had nothing to do with the case, and suggested that the Marquis should call his witnesses.

Accordingly Mr. Charles T. Sheriff, who was an eye-witness of the occurrence, was called to say that Lord Douglas began the attack. Both defendants admitted fighting, the only question being the issue of who struck the first blow.

Lord Queensberry's second witness, Mr. Charles Taylor, swore that he saw the son begin the fight by knocking his father against the painters' trestles outside the shop.

The magistrate bound each over to his own recognisances in the sum of £500, to keep the peace for six months.

The World - Wednesday, May 22, 1895

LONDON, May 22. -- While Oscar Wilde's trial was proceeding at Old Bailey this morning, two of the eccentric Queensberry family--the Marquis and his heir apparent, Lord Douglas of Hawick, whom he hates almost as furiously as he does his younger son, Lord Alfred Douglas--were in the Marlborough Street Police Court explaining about their flight in Piccadilly yesterday afternoon.

Lord Douglas, with his left eye black, a hugely swollen witness of his old father's prowess, was content to be heard through his solicitor, but the Marquis of Queensberry had no lawyer and was loquacious in his own defense.

He told how he had written letter after letter to his eldest son about the Wilde affair in general and Hawick's stand for Wilde in particular.

"At last," said the Maruis, "my letters were returned unopened. I was forced to write to my son's wife in order to reach him.

"I wanted to find out where Lord Alfred Douglas was and whether it was true that my eldest son was harboring Wilde.

"Yesterday my son rushed up to me and, without provocation, assaulted me. I defended myself.

"Three times we were separated, and each time he followed me and attacked me again."

Lord Douglas's lawyer then said that the Marquis had been writing filthy letters to his client's wife. These letters were produced and were read by the Justice, who, however, resisted Queensberry's excited entreaties that they be put in evidence and given to the public.

The Marquis Congratulates.

Douglas's lawyer, however, read one communication, which was in the form of a telegram to Lady Douglas of Hawick. Queensberry must have sent it only a few minutes before his son attacked him and after the verdict of the jury in the Taylor case had been announced:

"I must congratulate you on the result of the trial. I cannot on Percy's appearance. He looks like a dug up corpse. I fear he has had too much madness of kissing Taylor guilty. Wilde's turn to-morrow. "QUEENSBERRY."

Lord Douglass's lawyer then said:

"Again and again my client has requested him to stop sending these communications to his wife. He promised to stop, but only the other day he sent a picture of an antediluvian monster with 'this is Wilde's ancestor,' written under it.

"My client approached the Marquis of Queensberry yesterday, solely to ask him to cease his obscene writing to Lady Douglas."

Both sides produced witnesses, but the testimony all showed that however aggressive a part the famous boxing MArquis may have taken in the row, the onset was made every time by his son.

The Magistrate deplored bringing a family quarrel into the police courts, and reprimanded both father and son, and bound them over £500 to keep the pece for six months.

Father and Son Side by Side.

Father and Son were side by side in the dock during the whole hearing. They stood side by side at signing of the bond and went out of the court-room together, but neither spoke to the other, unless frequent exchange of savage looks may be called speaking.

There was a great crowd outside the court-room, and the Marquis was loudly cheered when he appeared. He has become a sort of hero with the masses ever since he cast aside all restraints of family pride in his exposure of Wilde and the gang of unspeakable wretches who took or pretended to take Wilde as their high priest.

The Marquis has suffered but little in his reputation for heroism from the fact that he has frequently had public rows with various members of his family on all kinds of pretexts, besided making a number of general exhibitions of his eccentricity.

Within a month after his marriage to a young woman down at Eastbourne about a year ago, she had her marriage with him annulled. It was shown that Queensberry left her immediately after the ceremony, and locked himself in a distant part of the hotel at which they were stopping, and refused to have anything to do with her.

Queensberry in Great Glee.

Immediately after the conclusion of the Court proceedings to-day the Marquis repaired to Willis's rooms, the (Continued on Sixth Page.)

QUEENSBERRY LATEST FIGHT (Continued from First Page.)

most fashionable of London restaurants, where he had luncheon with a lady and a young girl.

He was obviously in great glee. He wore a very large white boutonniere, and evidently enjoyed the attention he received from the other guests. He showed to his companions the picture he had sent Lady Hawick.

It was a full page representation in one of the weekly papers of a prehistoric iguanodon as restored by Prof. Woodward and placed in Kensington Museum.

Lady Hawick,to whom he has been sending these remarkable letters, is a daughter of Thomas Walters.

Her husband is only twenty-six years old and made a considerable fortune in the mines of Australia before the death of his older brother last year. Since he went bail for Wilde he has not been so well thought of as before.

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