Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE MONTGOMERIES OF EGLINTON 89
Fencibles. After a life of great activity and usefulness,
he died suddenly at Eglinton on the 18th of February,
1729. The mariner of his death is recorded in a letter,
written from Eglinton, by James, fifth Earl of Galloway,
to Hugh Montgomerie of Hartfield : —
" Sir, — I, with the greatest concern that's possible,
doe acquant you of the death of my dear friend the
Earll of Eglintoun, quhich happened this day towards
three in the afternoon, to the great surprise of all of
us. I was by him when he dyed, but (he) spoke not
one word, nor knew anie person ; yet, with the greatest
ease, and without anie strugle, he finisht his life. The
melancholie situatione of this familie is not to be
exprest ; nothing but sorrow and grief to the greatest
degree in all faces."
He was buried on the 20th of March, and the following
incident, from the " Caledonian Mercury " of March 31,
is worthy of reproduction : — " We hear that at the
funeral of the late Right Honourable Earl of Eglinton,
there were between goo and 1000 beggars assembled,
many of whom came over from Ireland, who had £50
of that noble lord's charity distributed to them."
The ninth Earl was thrice married. When he was
wedded, 1676, to Lady Margaret Cochrane, eldest daugh-
ter of William Lord Cochrane, the Earl of Dundonald,
the bride's grandfather, started with his lady to drive
from Paisley to Eglinton, but when the horses came to
the house by the way where Janet Mathie, a notable
witch, lived, they refused to go by the door and turned
their heads homewards ; " whereupon the gentlemen
that rode with the Earle dismounted themselves and
yoked their horses in the coatch, but by that door they
would not goe. On which occasion the Earle causes
yoake his horses again to the coatch, and so dryves
homeward with his lady, and all that was with him, to
Paisley. A very remarkable passage as has been in our
dayes." Which no doubt it was ; and one is not surprised