The National Police Gazette - Saturday, June 8, 1895

For the second time in the past three months the Marquis of Queensberry has appeared in a police court. This last time he was with his eldest son, Lord Douglas, of Hawick, whom he had punched vigorously on the street the evening before, and who had a reminder of the family quarrel in the shape of a beautiful black eye. If ever young Lord Douglas got it into his head that he could successfully cope with his sportive parent, he has had now a good opportunity to change his mind.

The Marquis was crossing over Piccadilly, in the direction of Albemarle street, where his hotel be situated, on the evening of the fracas, when he was met by his son, who appeared to be in an excited condition, and apparently without any preliminary beyond asking his father how he dared send insulting letters to Lady Douglas, pushed, rather than struck, the elder man. The latter was staggered somewhat, and his hat fell off, but recovering himself, he struck out at his son.

At this juncture a policeman appeared on the scene, and putting his arm between the two, request them both to refrain from making a scene.

Lord Douglas, however, in returning his father’s blow, struck the policeman violently in the mouth, though, of course, only accidentally.

After a short discussion the gentleman in blue somewhat wisely retired from the scene, but the combatants a few yards further along Piccadilly, resumed their verbal altercation, and eventually came again to actual blows.

In short, in the sharp encounter which followed, the author of the Queensberry rules put his pugilistic theories into practice, and, when the police, who had by this time reappeared, separated them, Lord Douglas of Hawick was the possessor of a scientifically discolored eye. Both representatives of the noble house of Douglas were then incumbently marched off to the Vine street police station, where a charge of disorderly conduct was preferred against them. As they were perfectly well known they were allowed to depart when they had entered into their own recognizances to the sum of £2 to appear in court in the morning.

When they were arraigned in the Marlborough Police Court both men were placed in the dock together to respond to a charge of disorderly conduct and fighting on the street.

The Marquis said that his son was the aggressor having first assaulted him, and that he only struck back in self-defense.

Lord Douglas of Hawick, said he merely desired his father’s assurance that he would cease writing obscene letters to his (Hawick’s) wife reviling her husband. His aim in meeting his father was to stop these foul and obscene communications.

Lord Queensberry objected to the letters in question being called obscene. Hearing that Oscar Wilde was residing with Lord Douglas he went to the latter’s house and obtained the assurance of his daughter-in-law that his younger son, Lord Alfred Douglas, was not there also. He thereupon ceased writing letters to Lord Douglas’ wife.

Lord Douglas’ lawyer wished to read the letters in question, but the magistrate would not allow it. The lawyer said that at the conclusion of Taylor’s trial the Marquis of Queesnberry had sent a telegram to Lord Douglas and his wife which was as follows:

"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 tomorrow.

"QUEENSBERRY".

Both the Marquis and his son were bound in sureties of £500 each to keep the peace for six months. The marquis, who wore a fresh boutonniere and prosecuted a very jaunty appearance, admitted that he had offered to fight his son, Lord Douglas of Hawick, anywhere or at any time for £1,000. Lord Douglas showed a very black eye as the result of his encounter with his father, but the latter did not show a mark. The crowd cheered the Marquis as he drove away in a cab, and as earnestly hissed and hooted Lord Douglas as he took his departure.

The Marquis went directly from the Marlborough Street Police Station to the Old Bailey Court, where he was an attentive listener at the trial of Oscar Wilde.

The San Francisco Examiner - Thursday, May 23, 1895

LONDON, May 22. - While Oscar Wilde's trial was proceeding at the Old Bailey this morning two of the eccentric Queensberry's family - the Marquis himself 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 Marlborough-street Police Court complaining about their flight in Piccadilly yesterday afternoon.

Lord Douglas, with his left eye black and highly swollen, attesting to 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 Lord Douglas' friendship 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' lawyer then said that the Marquis had been writing offensive 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.

ONE OF THE TELEGRAMS.

Lord Douglas' 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. It read thus:

"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 Douglas' 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 antedeluvian monster with, 'This is Wilde's ancestor,' written under it. My client approached the Marquis of Queensberry yesterday only to ask him to cease 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 Court, reprimanded both father and son, and bound them in £500 to keep the peace for six months.

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

There was a great crowd outside the courtroom, 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 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 eccentricities.

HE SHOWED IN PUBLIC.

Immediately after the conclusion of the court proceedings to-day the Marquis repaired to Willis' rooms, the most fashionable of the 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 Douglas. It was a full-page representation from one of the weekly papers of a prehistoric iguanodon, as restored by Professor Woodward and placed in Kensington Museum.

Lady Douglas, to whom he has been sending these remarkable letters, is a daughter of Thomas Walters, Vicar of Boyton. She is very young and quiet, even shrinking. 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.

The Marquis of Queensberry talked with the utmost freedom to the World correspondent this evening and gave many facts heretofore unpublished. He had just returned from a tricycle ride, and was clad in a light-blue dressing robe, preparatory to dressing for dinner. "The cause of my son's anger," said the Marquis, "was this: before Wilde was released on bail I went to Holloway Prison and left a note saying that if he went about with my younger son, Lord Alfred Douglas, after his release he would be at serious risk. Had he replied that he would not see Alfred I would have taken his word, but he sent no reply. I accordingly put a detective on him. I called at his hotel after his release, but he refused to see me.

WILDE FLED BEFORE HIM.

"My other son, Lord Douglas, took him, the Rev. Stewart Hadlam and his lawyer to dine, but just as they were sitting down to dinner I appeared, and Wilde forthwith fled out of the house.

"I could not object to Lord Douglas bailing Wilde or befriending him if he chose, but I did object to Wilde’s renewing his intimacy with Alfred. I heard next day that Wilde had gone to stay at Lord Douglass’ country house, at Kensington on the Thames, and Alfred was there. I went down and presented myself at the house and was received by Lady Douglass, who refused me admission and said I should not come there.

Subsequently, however, I learned that Alfred was at Rouen, Oscar Wilde having frightened him into leaving the country by stating that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. No warrant had been issued, but Wilde was advised that the facts of Alfred’s hanging about the prison and so forth was damaging his case, so he invented the story about the warrant to get rid of him.

"Lord Douglas must still believe in Wilde, but his associating with him is partly obstinacy, out of spite to me, partly to stand by Alfred, for which I don't blame him. I've always thought a little blood-letting a very good thing, and though I felt bitterly against Douglas before, now I have no ill feeling, and rather like him for having gone for me. It showed pluck, and I admire him for it. Of course, when I saw he was going to strike me, I got my right in first, but only for a tap on his eye. It didn't hurt.

"I may tell you that Douglas was the cause of my originally bringing matters to a head with Wilde. He came to his hotel and attacked me for saying in clubs what I believed Wilde to be, and challenged me to make a charge in some way so it could be tested. I went, there and then, to Wilde’s club and left a card, for which I was arrested."

WILDE WILL BE CONVICTED.

"Do you believe Wilde will be convicted?" the World correspondent asked.

"A million to one on it," Lord Queensberry answered, "though I was scanning the jury to-day, and I think there are a couple of queer looking fellows among them."

"Do you believe the authorities want a conviction?" the correspondent inquired.

"It looks as if they didn't," the Marquis replied. "They have got no such evidence as they might have done. By the way, there is one matter I would like you to mention, that is the shabby way in which the authorities have treated me. They are relying altogether on a case prepared at my expense. It has cost me £2,000, and when I applied to the treasury for compensation they offered me £35. I protested against this meanness, and they offered me £100, but I told them they might keep it. I intend to get a question put in Parliament on this subject when the case is concluded. I have already seen Mr. Labouchere about it. I am a poor man and can't stand this expense. Then Wilde was decreed to pay me £800 costs in any suit he has. He offered me £200, and I suppose I shan't get a farthing, but I shall make him bankrupt.

"I have just received a check for £200 from a stock exchange, where it was subscribed to-day out of sympathy with me. My son, Lord Douglas, is a member of the stock exchange. It was very nice of them. My sole object was to keep Wilde and Alfred apart, so I hope Wilde will be convicted. Should he escape I will pursue him until I am satisfied that the intimacy between them is stopped."

Lord Queensberry spoke throughout the interview with perfect calmness, but with the quiet conviction of a man who felt that he had been grievously wronged.

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