KNIGHT OR BARONET?
SIR,—Has it ever been noted that in Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott does not seem sure whether Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone was a knight or a baronet? It seems strange for a votary of heraldic propriety—but at Vol. I, p. 287, Sir Hildebrand's youngest son styles him Baronet, and (Vol. II, p. 350) the same son is represented as succeeding him in the title: elsewhere, however, Sir Hildebrand is referred to as a mere ." knight " without suc- cession (cf. pp. 1, 187—" had been knighted ... by James H "; 195, 322— " the good knight "; II. 356 " the old knight "). The references are all to an undated American edition.
Sir Walter also alludes to Diana Vernon as being named in a formal will as "now Lady Diana Vernon Beauchamp." (II. p. 346.) But her father's name was Vernon—though his Jacobite title was Earl of Beau- champ. Also, he is once called (p. 357) " Viscount " Beauchamp—which must have been a mere slip of Justice Inglewood's since of course Diana would not have been "Lady " Diana anything as a Viscount's daughter. An enforced idleness has led me to re-peruse Scott after seventy years' desuetude, and perhaps rather with the scrutiny of a lawyer than the
docility of a warm admirer.—Yours truly, T. BUTT. Nikko, Japan.
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