lothian. These domains were increased by the liberality of succeeding monarchs, to the descendants of the family, and comprehended the baronies of Rosline, Pentland, Cowsland, Cardaine, and several others. It is said a large addition was obtained from Robert Bruce on the following occasion. The king, in following the chace upon the Pentland hills, had often started a "white faunch deer," which had always escaped from his hounds; and he asked the nobles who were assembled around him, whether any of them had dogs, which they thought might be more successful. No courtier would affirm that his hounds were fleeter than those of the king, until Sir William St. Clair of Rosline unceremoniously said, he would wager his head that his two favorite dogs, "Help and Hold," would kill the deer before she could cross the March-burn. The king instantly caught at his unwary offer, and betted the forest of Pentland-moor against the life of Sir William St. Clair. All the hounds were tied up except a few ratches, or slow hounds, to put up the deer; while Sir William St. Clair posting himself in the best situation for slipping his dogs, prayed devoutly to Christ, the blessed Virgin, and St. Katherine. The deer was shortly after roused, and the hounds slipped; Sir William following on a gallant steed to cheer his dogs. The hind, however, reached the middle of the brook, upon which the hunter threw himself from his horse in despair. At this critical moment, however, Hold stopped her in the brook; and Help coming up, turned her back and killed her on Sir William's side. The king descending from the hill, embraced Sir William, and bestowed on him the lands of Kirkton, Loganhouse, Earncraig, &c. in free forestrie. Sir William in acknowledgment of St. Katherine's intercession, built the chapel of St. Katherine in the Hopes, the church-yard of which is still to be seen. The hill, from which Robert Bruce beheld this memorable chase, is still called the King's Hill, and the place where Sir William hunted, is called the Knight's Field*-MS. *The tomb of Sir William St. Clair, on which he appears sculptured in armour with a grey-hound at his feet, is still to be seen in Roslin chapel. The person who shews it always tells the story of his hunting-match, with some addition to Mr. Hay's account; as that the knight of Rosline's fright made him poetical, and that, in the last emergency, he shouted, Help, haud, an' ye may, Or Rosline will lose his head this day. If this couplet does him no great honour as a poet, the conclusion of the story does him still less credit. He set his foot on the dog, says the narrator, and killed him on the spot, saying, he would never again put his neck in in such a risk. As Mr. Hay does not mention this circumstance, I hope it is only founded on the couchant posture of the hound on the monument. History of the Family of St. Clair, by RICHARD AUGUSTIN HAY, Canon of St. Genevieve. This adventurous huntsman married Elizabeth, daughter of Malice Spar, earl of Orkney and Stratherne, in whose right their son Henry was in 1379, created earl of Orkney, by Haco, king of Norway. His title was recognized by the kings of Scotland, and remained with his successors until it was annexed to the crown, in 1471, by act of parliament. In exchange for this earldom, the castle and domains of Ravenscraig, or Ravensheuch, were conferred on Sir William St. Clair, earl of Caithness.. Still nods their palace to its full, Ver. 21, p. 139. The castle of Kirkwall was built by the St. Clairs, while earls of Orkney. It was dismantled by the earls of Caithness, about 1615, having been garri. soned against the government by Robert Stewart, natural son to the earl of Orkney. Its ruins afforded a sad subject of contemplation to John, master of St. Clair, who, flying from his native country, on account of his share in the insurrection 1715, made some stay at Kirkwall. "I had occasion to entertain myself at Kirkwall, with the melancholly prospect of the ruins of an old castle, the seat of the old earls of Orkney, my ances tors; and of a more melancholy reflection, of so great and noble an estate as the Orkney and Shetland isles being taken from one of them by James the third for faultrie, after his brother Alexander, duke of Albany, had maried a daughter of my family, and for protecting and defending the said Alexander, against the king, who wished to kill him as he had done his youngest brother, the earl of Mar; and for which, after the forfaultrie, he gratefully divorced my forfaulted ancestor's sister. Though I cannot persuade myself that he had any misalliance to plead against a familie in whose veins the blood of Robert Bruce run as fresh as in his own; for their title to the crowne was by a daughter of David Bruce son to Robert; and our alliaunce was by marrying a grand child of the same Robert Bruce, and daughter to the sister of the same David, out of the familie of Douglass, which at that time did not much sullie the blood, more than my ancestours having not long before had the honour of marrying a daughter of the king of Denmark's, who was named Florentine, and has left in the town of Kirkwall a noble monument of the grandeur of the times, the finest church ever I saw entire in Scotland. I then had no small reason to think, in that unhappy state, on the many not inconsiderable services rendered since to the royal familie, for these many years by-gone, on all occasions, when they stood most in need of friends, which they have thought themselves very often obliged to acknowledge by letters yet extant, and in a stile more like friends than souveraigns; our attachment to them without anie other thanks, having brought upon us consider able losses, and among others, that of our all in Cromwell's time; and left in that condition, without the least relief except what we found in our own virtue. My father was the onlie man of the Scots nation who had courage enough to protest in parliament against king William's title to the throne, which was lost, God knows how: and this at a time when the losses in the cause of the royall familie, and their usual gratitude, had scarce left him bread to maintain a numerous familie of eleven children, who had soon after sprung up on him, in spite of all which he had honourably persisted in his principle. I say, these things considered, and after being treated as I was, and in that unluckie state, when objects appear to men in their true light, as at the hour of death, could I be blamed for makeing some bitter reflec tions to myself, and laughing at the extravagance and unaccountable humour of men, and the singularitie of my own case (an exile for the cause of the Stewart family,) when I ought to have known, that the greatest crime I, or my family, could have committed, |