BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 127
they were assembled round a small hill or knoll 2t the village called HoodshiZl,
where the Colonel had caused breakfast to be prepared for them, and where a
vast crowd had assembled to witness their departure. Mrs, Montgomerie and
her two daughters, the latter of whom were attired in scarlet riding-habits, with
Highland bonnets, together with the Colonel and several of the neighbouring
gentry, also breakfasted in a tent set apart for them, When breakfast was
finished, and the soldiers marshalled in close order, the lady of Coilsfield,
ascending a proper eminence on the hill, addressed them in a neat and appropriate
speech. She regretted the occurrence of circumstances by which they
were called from their homes ; but she hoped that Scotland would never lack
the hearty support of her sons when a foreign foe threatened invasion. To ;the
women-some of whom were assembled no doubt to take leave of their husbands
or lovers-she observed that, however disagreeable parting might be,
it was a bereavement which she herself, in common with them all, had to submit
to, and which it became them to endure with becoming resolution. Mrs.
Montgomerie concluded her address, during which she was repeatedly cheered,
by expressing a hope that peace would soon restore their friends. The volunteers,
who were in regimentals, and presented a very fine appearance, then
deployed in marching order, the villagers following and cheering them for
several miles.
Immediately after the West Lowland Fencibles had been embodied, Colonel
Montgomerie raised another corps for more extended service, called the “ Glasgow
Regiment,” which was disbanded in 1795, the men being drafted into
other regiments of the line. About this time the Colonel was appointed Lieut.-
Governor of Edinburgh Castle, in the room of Lord Elphinston.
In 17’96 he was again returned Member of Parliament for the county of
Ayr ; but his seat became vacated almost immediately after, having succeeded
to the earldom of Eglinton, upon the death of his cousin Archibald,’ t.ho eleventh
Earl, on the 30th October of the same year.
While limited to the patrimonial revenue of Coilsfield,P the Colonel was
doubt, uncornmonly expeditious ; in proof of which it is told that on some particular occasion he
had made a coat in one day ; but then his “ steeks” were prodigiously long, and with him fashion
was out of the question, abiding 3s he always did by the “good old plan.” The result was, that,
while his brethren of the needle were paid eightpence a day, Sannders acknowledged his inferiority
by claiming no more than sixpence ! The military ardour of the poet was somewhat evanescent.
Whether the duties were too fatiguing, or whether his compatriots had no relish for poetical excitements,
we know not ; but true it is that, in the dusk of a summer evening, some few weeks after
the departure of the Fencibles, Saunders WBS seen entering the village, leading a goat which he had
procured in his travels, and followed by a band of youngsten, who had gone to meet him on his
approach. “ Sawney Tait ” lived to a great age ; and retained his spirit and activity to the last.
Brother.to Alexauder, the tenth Earl, who was shot in the well-known affair with Mungo
Campbell. Their mother was the celebrated Countess of Eglinton, no less famed for her mental
accomplishments than her beauty. She w a ~th e patron of Allan Ramsay, who dedicated “The
Gentle Shepherd” to her, and a great patroness of literature.
* The old family of Coilsfield are still remembered for their homely manner and kind attention
to the people in the neighbourhood. During the winter season, it was no uncommon thing to see
the old Laird at the loch, surrounded by a number of his elderly tenanta, in keen “curling contest
against the Najor, with an equal number of the more youthful villagers. These contests were
