166 MEMOIR OF COLONEL DAVID MiLNE HOME 



to the combined three estates, to which he succeeded on his 

 mother's death in 1876, subject however to heavy family 

 charges. To sum up : — Colonel David Milne Home was the 

 nearest lawful heir of line and "tailzie" to David, eldest 

 son of the attainted laird, who was re-infeft in the Wedderburn 

 Estates by Ninian Home of Billie, in 1725. 



It is evident from the foregoing that the Colonel's mother 

 was the great-grand-daughter of the third daughter of the 

 attainted laird. 



We may now emerge from the mazes of a curious and 

 somewhat difl&cult pedigree, and find the subject of our memoir 

 a delicate child, unable to walk till he was four, and always 

 in his earlier days rather weakly and subject to illnesses, — 

 subsequently, in fact, nearly dying of fever at Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree, in 1861, having 

 previously been educated at Merchiston School, near Edinburgh, 

 and afterwards at Cheltenham. After completing his Cambridge 

 course he studied law for two sessions in Edinburgh University, 

 and during that time joined the Berwickshire and East Lothian 

 Artillery Militia, and trained at Dunbar for two or three 

 seasons — thus having enjoyed the advantages of a combined 

 English and Scottish education. 



Having made an extensive tour through Canada and the 

 United States, he selected the army as his profession, and 

 joined the Royal Horse Guards, "The Blues," as Cornet on 

 May 6th 1862, became Lieutenant 29th of September 1865, 

 and Captain 2nd December 1868. Meantime, that is in 1867, 

 he had married Jane, third daughter of Sir Thomas Buchan- 

 Hepburn, Bart., of Smeaton-Hepburn, Prestonkirk, Hadding- 

 tonshire. (She died in 1881, leaving four sons and four 

 daughters, the eldest of whom, David, born 30th April 1873, 

 on the Colonel's death in 1901, inherited his father's combined 

 estates under entail.) 



The young officer was admitted, on 25th November 1869, 

 to the Freedom of the Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed, a 

 privilege to which he was entitled by heredity — his father, 

 "David Milne, gentleman, apprentice to Thomas Jordan 

 Steel," having been admitted to the Freedom, on 5th January 

 1829. 



