David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (12 June 1742 – 19 April 1829), styled Lord Cardross between 1747 and 1767, was a notable Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 eccentric

Eccentricity (behavior)

In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...

.

Background and education

Erskine was the second but eldest surviving son of Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan

Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan

Henry David Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan FRS , styled Lord Auchterhouse until 1745, was a Scottish peer....

, by Agnes, daughter of Sir James Steuart, 7th Baronet. He was the brother of Henry Erskine and Lord Erskine

Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine

Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine KT PC KC was a British lawyer and politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom between 1806 and 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents.-Background and childhood:...

. He studied at St. Andrews University and Edinburgh University.

Career

His pertinacity helped in effecting a change in the method of electing Scottish representative peers, and in 1780 he succeeded in founding the Scottish Society of Antiquaries

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body in Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum, Chambers Street, Edinburgh...

. His correspondents included Horace Walpole, and he produced an Essay on the Lives of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson (1792) and other writings. He died at his residence at Dryburgh

Dryburgh

Dryburgh is a village in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland, famous for the ruined Dryburgh Abbey.-The Temple of the Muses:This circular nine columned gazebo stands since 1817 on Bass Hill, a mound overlooking the River Tweed at the west end of the village...

 (near Dryburgh Abbey

Dryburgh Abbey

Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, was nominally founded on 10 November 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland...

, in the Scottish Borders

Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...

) in April 1829, leaving no legitimate children, and the earldom passed to his nephew Henry

Henry Erskine, 12th Earl of Buchan

Henry David Erskine, 12th Earl of Buchan was the grandson of the 10th Earl of Buchan.On 28 September 1809, he married Elizabeth Cole Shipley , daughter of Maj-General Sir Charles Shipley, and they had one child, David Stuart Erskine, 13th Earl of Buchan...

.

He also commissioned a cable-stayed bridge

Cable-stayed bridge

A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns , with cables supporting the bridge deck....

 over the River Tweed

River Tweed

The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of Great Britain. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying...

 at Dryburgh. He opened this bridge

Dryburgh Bridge

Dryburgh Bridge refers to two different footbridges erected near Dryburgh Abbey, Borders, Scotland, between the villages of Dryburgh and St. Boswells , across the River Tweed...

 on August 1, 1817 but it collapsed within months. A replacement was built after a redesign, but this too collapsed in 1838. A more permanent bridge did not arrive until 1872, when the suspension

Suspension bridge

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...

 system was used instead.

There is an interesting story concerning the Earl in which the writer George Dyer brought him to meet Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb was an English essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, which he produced with his sister, Mary Lamb . Lamb has been referred to by E.V...

 at his flat in Mitre Court Buildings. Charles Lamb was not home and his sister Mary Lamb

Mary Lamb

Mary Ann Lamb , was an English writer, the sister and collaborator of Charles Lamb.-Biography:She was born on 3 December 1764. In 1796, Mary, who had suffered a breakdown from the strain of caring for her family, killed her mother with a kitchen knife, and from then on had to be kept under constant...

was deeply flustered at having to greet an Earl unannounced in her household.