394 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



t^nd s, VIII. Nov. 12. '59. 



not even from obscure traditions, but from the 

 narratives and characters of those who had lived 

 and acted in the times and scenes he portrays. 

 Nine at least of those fictions, and among them 

 some of the earliest and best in the collection, 

 relate to periods within the memory of persons 

 with whom the author was on intimate terms of 

 friendship ; and it is these that most require, not 

 notes in the ordinary sense of the word, but 

 rather appendices of illustrative facts and anec- 

 dote. Nothing is now to be gained from tradi- 

 tion concerning the era of the Crusades or the 

 Reformation ; little as to Montrose's wars or the 

 dark days of which the great Viscount Dundee is 

 the hero ; but of the subsequent time it is pro- 

 bable that much remains to be told, not indeed 

 perhaps of a nature to change our views of the 

 history of the great struggle then taking place, or 

 of the characters of the notable persons engaged 

 on either side ; but rather of such a kind as to 

 throw light on the interesting events of the every- 

 day life of the century, and on the actions and 

 characters of those concerning whom, though his- 

 tory as it is yet written Is silent, there is very 

 much worthy of being known. I should not 

 despair were I a Scottish antiquary (notwith- 

 standing the recent valuable works on the social 

 and domestic history of that land) of producing 

 an appendix to the modern novels which the 

 reader, when he had laid down the former, would 

 be glad to take up. Something has already been 

 done in this way, but a man of true antiquarian 

 spirit and a mind not above the drudgery of com- 

 pilation might do much more. For instance, 

 many readers would like to know somewhat more 

 than they have hitherto been told as to the per- 

 sons who, under other names, have received im- 

 mortality in Sir Walter's pages. One feels a 

 strong personal interest in the author's old friend, 

 George Constable, Esq. of Wallace- Craigie, the 

 original of Jonathan Oldbuck of Monkbarns. 

 Could not some one furnish us with a few anec- 

 dotes of his life and manners ? Had he a sister, a 

 niece, or a nephew ? Did he rail at woman-kind ? 

 Does there exist a picture of his house, or a like- 

 ness of himself, and was he, like the shadowy 

 Monkbarns, a correspondent of the Gentlemaris 

 Magazine ? 



« Tell us ! Tell all ; of his habiliments, 

 Their make ; his stature and his speech ; 

 The where he kept his gloves and walking-stick, 

 And whether the sweet sound of infant voices 

 Soothed or oppressed him." 



It would be well too, in a work such as I describe, 

 to point out those mistakes which, though by no 

 means blame-worthy in an accomplished anti- 

 quary of the period when Scott flourished, modern 

 research proved to be so. Thus not to wander 

 from the novel above quoted, in the description 

 of the discovery of Misticot's tomb (chap, xxiii.), 



the date of which seems to have been about a.d. 

 1200, the efligy is made to bear the Knockwin- 

 nock arms quarterly with those of Wardour, with 

 the baton sinister, a mark of illegitimacy, ex- 

 tended diagonally through both coats of the shield. 

 It is now well known that the practice of quar- 

 tering arms is of a date later by many years than 

 that of the fabled Misticot, and that the use of 

 the baton sinister as a mark of bastardy did not 

 come into practice till the decline of heraldry 

 had begun. K. P. D. E. 



THE BELAVALS. 



The Delavals, of Seaton Delaval, were one of 

 the most distinguished families in the north, claim- 

 ing descent from a companion in arms and cousin 

 of the Conqueror. Sir Ralph Delaval, who mar- 

 ried Lady Anne Leslie, daughter of the Earl of 

 Leven, was created a baronet at the Restoration, 

 and was succeeded by his sons Sir Ralph and Sir 

 John, neither of whom left issue male, and the 

 baronetcy became extinct. The later Delavals 

 were descended from Sir John Delaval of Dis- 

 sington, a younger brother of the first baronet's 

 grandfather ; and I would be glad to know how 

 they came into possession of the family estates. 

 Sir Egerton Brydges, in his continuation of Col- 

 lins's Peerage, says that Francis Blake Delaval 

 succeeded collaterally as chief heir-male, but this 

 is surely incorrect. The last baronet by his will, 

 which was proved in 1729, left all he had to leave 

 to his friend Elizabeth Poole. Now it must have 

 been during his lifetime that Admiral George De- 

 laval, of the Dissington branch, who died in 1723, 

 commenced the erection of that splendid struc- 

 ture, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh — the ruined 

 walls of which, scathed by fire, alone remain to 

 attest its original grandeur and magnificence — 

 and directed the completion of it by his nephew 

 Francis Blake Delaval, whose armorial bearings, 

 Delaval quartering Blake, are conspicuously dis- 

 played on the northern front. Moreover, Edward 

 Delaval of Dissington, elder brother of the ad- 

 miral, and father of Francis Blake Delaval, who 

 survived until 1740, when he died at a very ad- 

 vanced age, would have had a prior claim to 

 either of them. I presume, therefore, that the 

 admiral, who, probably during his embassies to 

 Portugal and Morocco in the reign of Queen 

 Anne, accumulated a considerable fortune, must 

 have purchased the estates from the last baronet, 

 whose residence was at any rate during the latter 

 part of his life at Seaton Lodge, and bequeathed 

 them to his nephew, who became, on the death of 

 his father, but not till then, the representative of 

 this ancient family. E. H. A. 



