The Swintons of that Ilk, by A. Campbell Swinton. 333 



then in great danger of being completely conquered by Henry 

 V., of England. The leaders of this force were John Stewart 

 Earl of Buchan the Eegent's second son, and Archibald Douglas 

 Earl of Wigton ; and " the chief gentlemen of note and quality 

 that went along with them* were Sir Robert Stewart, (another 

 son of the Eegent) Sir Alexander Lindsay, (brother of the Earl 

 of Crawford) and Sir John Swinton. The first-fruit of this 

 expedition was the battle of Beauge, where on the 22nd of March, 

 1421, an important victory was gained over the English army, 

 commanded by the Duke of Clarence, brother of Henry V. 

 "None among the English," we are told,f "fought with a 

 greater courage and resolution than the Duke himself ; but Sir 

 John Swinton espying him (being easily known by his coro- 

 net shining with precious stones and his glistering armour), ran 

 fiercely at him with a lance, and wounded him in the face ; he 

 being thereby in a great fury, put forward his horse to have 

 charged the enemy ; but was encountered by the Earl of Buchan, 

 who ran him through with a spear, and so slew him, or (as others) 

 felled him down to the ground with a steel hammer." This exploit 

 is referred to in the " Lay of the Last Minstrel ;" where a Swin- 

 ton is among the leaders of the Border clans who come to the 

 relief of Branksome. The lines were introduced into the second 

 edition of the poem.J . 



1 ' Vails not to tell what steeds did spurn, 



Where the Seven Spears of "Wedderburn 

 Their men in battle-order set ; 



And Swinton laid the lance in rest, 



That tamed of yore the sparkling crest 



Of Clarence's Plantaganet." 



The victory at Beauge was deemed of such importance, that the 



Scottish leader Buchan was rewarded with the baton of Constable 



of France. A similar honour awaited the veteran Earl of 



Douglas, who shortly afterwards arrived in France as commander 



* Hume's History of the House of Douglas, p. 125. f lb., p. 126. 



J In a letter to George Home of Paxton and Wedderburn, Sir Walter says, 

 " will you pardon the vanity of an author in hoping a copy of a new edition 

 of his work may not be unacceptable to you as a man of letters, and an an- 

 cient borderer. It contains some lines on p. 138 relative to the Homes of 

 Wedderburn, and the Swintons (my own maternal ancestors) which, with a 

 few others, were added since the quarto edition."— Catalogue of the Scott 

 Centenary Exhibition in 1871, p. 164. 



