Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton

64 THE IAMILY OF
CHAPTER IX.
"E come now to the distinguished and greatly
lamented Alexander the tenth Earl of Eg-
linton, who, on the death of his worthy and
wealthy father, as above, succeeded to the earldom
and widely extended possessions of the family, being
then only about six years of age. His education, as
well as that of his only surviving brother, Archi-
bald, who ultimately came to succeed him, and a
numerous family of sisters, thus fell to be directed
by the dowager countess, his mother, who appears
to have fulfilled her all-important duty with the
utmost propriety and marked success. His lordship
and brother were first sent to the grammar school
at Irvine, from which they were removed to Hadding-
ton. And " on the 4th October, 1738, as we learn
from the family accounts, the earl and his brother
both set out for England — the earl to prosecute his
studies at Winchester, Archibald at Eton. . . .
The progress of Alexander [the earl] was creditable,
but that of Archibald was indifferent. . . . After
being two years at Winchester, Lord Eglinton wrote
to Lord Milton [one of his guardians] a warm pane-
gyeric on the great advantages of a liberal educa-
tion. This was in August, 1 740, when he was in