of Kenneth a Bhlair and his unfortunate son, Kenneth Og, to whom only, so far as we can discover, Hector Roy was appointed Tutor; for when his brother, Kenneth a Bhlair, died, there was every appearance that Hector's ward, Kenneth Og, would succeed when he came of age. The succession of John of Killin was at most only a remote possibility when his father died, and therefore no Tutor to him would have been appointed. In terms of an Act passed in 1496, anent the education of young gentlemen of note, John, when young, was sent by Hector Roy to Edinburgh to complete his education at Court. He thus, in early life, acquired a knowledge of legal principles and practice of great service and value to him in after life, not only in the management of his own affairs, but in aiding his friends and countrymen in their peculiar difficulties by his counsel and guidance, and thus he secured such universal esteem and confidence as seldom fell to the lot of a Highland chief in that rude and unruly age. The standard of education necessary at Court in those days must have been very different from that required in ours, for we find that, with all his opportunities, John of Killin could not write his own name. To a bond in favour of the Earl of Huntly he subscribes, "Jhone M'Kenzie of Kyntaill, with my hand on the pen led by Master William Gordone, Notar." Referring to the power of the House of Kintail at this period, and to the rapid advance made by the family under Alexander and his successors, we quote the following from a modern MS. history of the family by the late Captain John Matheson of Bennetsfield: "We must observe here the rapid advance which the family of Kintail made on every side. The turbulent Macdonalds, crushed by the affair of Park, Munro, sustained by his own clan, and the neighbouring vassals of Ross humbled at their own door, when a century had not yet passed since the name of Mackenzie had become familiar to their ears; and it is gratifying to trace all this to the wise policy of the first James and his successors. The judicious education of Alastair Ionraic, and consequent cultivation of those habits which, by identifying the people with the monarch through the laws, render a nation securely great, is equally discernible in John of Killin and his posterity. The successors of the Earls of Ross were turbulent and tenacious of their rights, but they were irreclaimable. The youthful Lord of the Isles, at the instigation of his haughty mother, deserted the Court of James I., while young Kintail remained, sedulously improving himself at school in Perth, till he was called to display his gratitude to his Royal master in counteracting the evil arising from the opposite conduct of Macdonald. Thus, by one happy circumstance, the attention of the King was called to a chieftain who gave such early promise of steady attachment, and his future favour was secured. The family of Kintail was repeatedly recognised in the