Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton

X PREFACE.
lowed by many of his enlightened and generous
patrician compeers, it would be altogether unchari-
table to doubt. Indeed already have some important
similar achievements been realized, and it is under-
stood that the same careful and accomplished editor
of the Eglinton work, Mr. William Fraser of Edin-
burgh, is again similarly engaged with the extensive
and interesting collection of papers of the Pollock-
Maxwell family, Renfrewshire, and which, of course
cannot fail to be of signal service in the elucidation
of that important, populous, and eminently enter-
prising district.
The two interesting, and perhaps now unique
views of the ancient Castle of Eglinton, which ac-
company the'present sketch, have been engraved from
original drawings which appear on the plan of the
policies, surveyed by the celebrated Mr. John
Ainslie, in the year 1 790, most kindly and obligingly
communicated by the late generous and affable Earl
of Eglinton and Winton ; which venerable fortalice
stood on nearly the identical site as that now occupied
by the present magnificent castellated mansion of the
domain, and which of course was wholly removed to
make way for it at the time of its erection, about the
close of last century. Regarding the rude monu-
mental stone, yet remaining within the area of the