ii Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
interesting and even amusing. It starts about the thirteenth 
century, and brings the narrative down through more than a score 
of descents to comparatively recent times. There were members of 
the family to be found in all positions which the well-born Scot 
frequented or patronised in those days. There were Swintons in 
the army and in the navy, at the Scottish bar and on the Scottish 
bench, in the French Guard, and in the historic feuds and frays 
of their borderland. Scott mentions the chief of the Swintons as 
engaged in the battle of Otterburn — 
“ When Swinton laid his lance in rest, 
Which tamed of yore the sparkling crest 
Of Clarence’s Plantagenet.” 
One could construct an interesting paper out of the materials con- 
tained in this volume. Some of the passages are marked by a certain 
grim humour. One of the most eccentric of the Swintons, who are 
commemorated and passed in array in this volume, is one John 
Swinton of Swinton, who flourished, if he could be said to flourish, 
during the Commonwealth and the subsequent troubles. A strong, 
self-willed, and restless man, who fought and did not fight, now 
with the Covenanters and now with the Royalists, and at last, as 
he seemed to agree with neither, compromised matters by becoming 
a Quaker, and undergoing many persecutions in consequence. 
Among other visitations he was attainted as a traitor, but the 
attainder was recalled in favour of his son. He is said to have 
been high in the confidence of Cromwell. John Swinton, the father 
of Mr Campbell Swinton, was descended from the fourth son of this 
John Swinton of Swinton, named Archibald, who in his younger 
years had repaired to India, and on his return purchased the estate 
of Kimmerghame, which had belonged to a family of Hume. 
In 1829 the family estate of Swinton was sold, for the first time 
in 700 years. It was purchased by Mr George Swinton, one of 
the old family. John Swinton had been intended for the Bar, 
but he ultimately entered the army, and after his father’s death 
in 1803, the estate of Kimmerghame having been sold by his 
father shortly before, purchased the estate of Broadmeadows in 
Berwickshire. This he sold in 1825, and thereafter resided with 
his family in Edinburgh in a house Ho. 16 Inverleith Place, which 
he had built for himself. He had two sons, of whom the subject of 
