George Grenville, Lord Bute and the Duke of Bedford dance on the tombstone of the Duke of Cumberland to the tune of the devil playing the bagpipes. Etching, 1765.

On the sudden death of the Duke of Cumberland on 31 Oct 1765 after suffering a blood clot on the brain, 'apparently owing to two very extraordinary preternatural bones which were situated at the upper part of the dura mater (British Library addit. MS. 33954, f. 226; Grenville Papers, iii. 105). He was buried with military honours on 9 Nov. in Westminster Abbey, at the west end of Henry VII's chapel. The duke had not been well for some time: 'He had grown enormously fat, had completely lost the use of one eye, and saw but imperfectly with the other. He was asthmatic ... ; In October he had two fits at Newmarket, having gone thither against advice to see the match between Herod and Antinous. Abscesses formed in his wounded leg, and incisions had to be made which he bore with extraordinary fortitude, insisting on holding the candle himself for the surgeon (Albemarle, i. 186, 244)' (DNB). Though his death was generally mourned, he remained unpopular throughout his lifetime gaining the reputation of 'the butcher' from his brutal ways as military commander. The figure far left holds a staff entwined with serpents and from which a flag flies inscribed 'the oriflame' and decorated with a head of Discord.