troops quartered in the castle and vicinity defaced the interior of the building, broke the tombs, and tore up the pavement in search of hidden treasures and for the lead that encased the bodies.

"Seton Church while undamaged was a handsome cruciform Gothic structure with a central tower. Now it stands desolate amid ancestral oaks entwined by ivy-the family badge-retaining little of its former self, and showing only an impressive and deathlike beauty of an architectural ruin. The Earl of Wemyss and March, a descendant, but not the representative of the original owners, is the present proprietor, and has arrested the further progress of decay. It has long been a favorite subject with artists."

The illustration in this book was taken from the one in An Old Family" which was made from Swon's engraving in the Maitland Club edition of the History of the House of Seyton which was published in 1829 for the Maitland Club. It was brought down to the year 1559 then, and Alexander, Viscount Kingston, wrote a continuation to 1687.

"A curious feature of Seton Church is the hagioscope, vulgarly called 'squint,' which is an opening frequently found on one side, and sometimes on both sides, of a chancel arch, arranged obliquely and converging toward the altar in order to enable the worshippers in the side aisles of a church to witness the Elevation of the Host during mass. It is the only one now existing in Scotland. It may be an interesting item that the last burial in this old church (until within these later years, when the Weymes family are beginning to be interred there) was that of Miss Matilda Seton, on December 8, 1750," says Robert Seton, adding: "I do not know who she was."

The following short excerpt from "The Ruins of Seton Chapel," by David Macbeth Moir, taken from "An Old Family," tells its own story:

"And, O! sad emblem of entire neglect,

In rank luxuriance, the nettles spread

Behind the massive tablature of death,

Hanging their pointed leaves and seedy stalks
Above the graves, so lonesome and so low

Of famous men, now utterly unknown,

Yet whose heroic deeds were, in their day,
The theme of loud acclaim,-when Seton's arm
In power with Stuart and with Douglas vied.
Clad in the robes of state, or graith of war,

A proud procession, o'er the stage of time,
As century on century wheeled away,

They passed; and, with the escutcheons mouldering o'er
The little spot, where voiceless they sleep,

Their memories have decayed; nay, even their bones
Are crumbled down to undistinguished dust,
Mocking the Herald, who, with pompous tones,
Would set their proud array of quarterings forth,
Down to the day of Christal and De Bruce."

"The most notable affair in the life of this lord was his capture by Dunkirkers in the course of one of his voyages to France. After losing all of his baggage he was obliged to ransom his life from these Flemish pirates or privateers, but with the firm resolve to bide his time and punish them severely. This he did soon after, although at great cost to himself in land and money. On the 22d of January, 1498, as appears in the Registry of the Privy Seal, he bought a ship from the King of Scotland called the Eagle, fitted her for war, and put to sea against his enemies, slew many of them, took and destroyed several of their vessels. The streamers and flags, embroidered with the family arms, used on this occasion were preserved at Seton Castle, and were seen and described by Alexander Nesbit, the writer on Heraldry, over two hundred years later. Lord Seton married Lady Margaret Campbell, eldest daughter of Colon, first Earl of Argyll, and had three sons and two daughters: George, his successor; John, who died without issue; Robert, a man-at-arms in France, who died in the Castle of La Rocca, at Milan, during the Italian wars of Louis XII., leaving two sons: William, also a man-at-arms, in the Scotch Guards in France, and Alexander, who married Janet Sinclair, Heiress of Northrig, and founded the line of Setons of Northrig; Martha, who married William Maitland of Lethington, of an ancient family, and was ancestress of the Earl of Lauderdale. Catharine, refusing many good offers of marriage, entered the Convent of Saint Catharine of Siena at Edinburgh, and died there a professed sister at the age of seventy-eight."

CHAPTER X.

"GEORGE, FIFTH LORD SETON. During his brief career he completed certain portions of the house at Seton, and repaired the great dungeon. He was also a generous benefactor to his Collegiate Church. By his wife, Lady Janet Hepburn, daughter of Patrick, first Earl of Bothwell, he had, besides a daughter Mariota (or Marion), who in 1530 married Hugh, second Earl of Eglinton, three sons, the first and third of whom died young, and the second succeeded to the title. This lord was very familiar with the chivalrous King James IV., and was among the valiant ones who died at Flodden on September 19, 1513. His body was brought home and buried with great lamentation in the choir of Seton Church beside his father:

"Sleep in peace with kindred ashes

Of the noble and the true,

Hands that never failed their country,

Hearts that never baseness knew.'

"Lady Seton continued a widow until her death, forty-five years after, and was a wise mother to her children and grandchildren, and a very pious woman. Sir Richard Maitland enumerates some of her many benefactions to Seton Church-a silver processional cross, sacred vessels, rich and complete sets of vestments, antependiums of fine woven arras, besides adding new furniture to the revestry, founding two more prebends, and enlarging the priest's chambers near the church, parts of which remain. When her son came of age she retired to the Convent of Saint Catharine of Siena, at Edinburgh, of which she was a large. benefactress, as others of the family had been before. Lady Seton died in this convent in 1558. Her body was honorably transported to Seton, and buried in the choir of the church beside. her husband. Saint Catharine's Convent, commonly called 'The

Sciennes,' was destroyed at the Reformation, and the inmates dispersed. Nothing now remains of it, and even the site is built over, the only memorial being the name, 'Saint Catharine's Place.' . .

66

‘GEORGE, SIXTH LORD SETON, succeeded his father in 1513, and was 'a good, wise, and virtuous man.' This lord repaired the older parts of Niddry Castle, in his Barony of Wynchburgh, and enlarged it. The top of the old square tower is distinctly seen among the trees as the train from Edinburgh speeds northward.

"In former days the traveler to Stirling commonly went by the way of Linlithgow, which is the place where Mary Stuart was born, and he was all the more prompted to think of that enchanting woman because he usually caught a glimpse of the ruins of Niddry Castle one of the houses of her faithful Lord Seton-at which she rested on the romantic and memorable occasion of her flight from Lochleven.'-William Winter: Gray Days and Gold.

"Maitland describes this Lord Seton as much given to manly games and outdoor sports, especially hawking, and says that he was reputed to be 'the best falconer in his day.' On November 17, 1533, he first appears in public life as an extraordinary Lord among the Senators of the College of Justice, an institution which had only been founded the preceding year. In 1542 he was associated with Lords Huntley and Home in command of a strong force organized to watch the operations of the English troops while King James V. himself assembled a large army at Edinburgh. In March, 1543, he was intrusted with the keeping of Cardinal Beton, who was accused of treasonable correspondence with France. In May, 1544, Seton Castle was burnt, and the church. greatly injured by the English invaders, who carried away everything they could. This unfortunate nobleman died on July 17, 1549, at the Abbey of Culross, and was buried in the choir, because the English then garrisoned Haddington and harried the lands of the Barons round about. When they evacuated the country, his body was conveyed to Seton by his wife and a large company of kinsmen and friends to be entombed in his own church. He was twice married. His first wife-1527-was Elizabeth Hay, eldest daughter of John, third Lord Yester, by

whom he had two boys and five girls. The eldest son, George, succeeded as seventh Lord Seton. John, the second son, founded the Setons of Cariston by marrying Isabel, Heiress of David Balfour of Cariston, in the County of Fife, 'of a very old standing family,' which is traced back to Sir Michael Balfour, who died in 1344. Of the five daughters, Beatrix married George, eldest son and heir of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Dunlugus. Their grandson was created a peer in 1642 as Baron Ogilvy of Banss, for his eminent services in the royal cause. The title is dormant since 1803.

"Helen [Maitland says Eleanor] married Hugh, who succeeded as seventh Lord Somerville, a peerage created in 1430 and dormant since 1872.

"Lord Seton married, secondly, a French woman of noble birth, Lady Mary Pyeris, who came to Scotland in the suite of Mary of Lorraine, daughter of the Duke of Guise and second wife of King James V., by whom she was the mother of the ill-fated Mary Queen of Scots. By this foreign marriage, something most unusual at that time, and in Scotland,

"Land of the brown heath and shaggy wood,

Land of the mountain and the flood,'

Lord Seton had two sons, who left no descendants, and an only daughter, Mary, who was one of the Four Marys."

From Chambers we learn that George, sixth Lord Seton, was immovably faithful to Queen Mary during all the mutabilities of her fortune, and that he was master of the household of the king, in which capacity he had a portrait of himself painted with his official baton and the following motto:

"In adversitate, patiens;

In prosperitate, benevolous.
Hazard, yet forward."

But Robert Seton ascribes all this to the seventh lord.

Chambers also describes the joyous times at Seton, and the beautiful necklace won as a prize by Mary Seton at golf in a game against the queen.

Scott mentions a George Seyton, son of this Lord Seyton, as