THE FIAIGS OF BEMERSYDE.*
FIELDING, in vain endeavour to. trace the lineage of one of his chief characters, affects to boast that "it is sufficiently certain that he had as many ancestors as the hest man living." Some such claim as this might reasonably enough be put forward by so many of us, that the honour of ancient descent would * The Has of Bemerayde: a Family History. By John Russia Edinburgh and London : William Blackwood and Bons. seem to run some risk of impairment through very commonness. Accordingly, a distinction must be drawn. "Ancient lineage!" exclaims Mr. Millbank, in Coningsby ; "I never heard of a Peer with ancient lineage. The real old families of this country are to be found among the peasantry ; the gentry, too, may lay some claim to old blood." Now, under this fine
democratic speech lies the distinction in question,—a distinction which reduces peers and paupers of us pretty much to the con- dition of Mr. Joseph Andrews, whose industrious biographer, after diligent search, was unable to trace that hero's ancestors farther than his great-grandfather, and. was obliged to leave it to the opinion of the curious reader whether before this he had.
any ancestors at all. The real test of an honourable, ancient descent, therefore, is found, it would seem, in the possession or survival of parchments truly witnessing the existence of the family through a long series of generations. Iii this respect, the Haigs of Bemersyde may be considered fortunate. On this theory, Lockhart was probably right in speaking of them as
"the most ancient family now subsisting on Tweedside." There exist records, partly in neighbouring monasteries, partly in the family parchment-chest, which trace their lineage back
through seven centuries and twenty - eight generations. Yet, all this "old blood" does not appear to have originated anything of national importance, and people that have not interested themselves in Border lore are likely enough to have never heard of the Haigs of Bemersyde. It is remark- ably creditable, therefore, to Mr. Russell, that he has succeeded. in evolving from those musty charters, not merely a sufficient and even abundant memorial of the successive lords of Berner- syde, fit to adorn the manorial library, but a historical work of general and enduring interest, illustrating afresh the vicissitudes of Border existence, and discovering for us extinct or interesting phases in national or family life. But for our high estimate of
his keen historical souse, we should have been inclined to com- plain of his diction, as too frequently reminding us of what he
somewhere calls "the waving luxuriance of a primeval forest." But this generous fault will soon mend.
The history of the Haigs during the two centuries and a half extending from about 1162 onwards, is mainly derived from the charters and other documents preserved. in the cartularies
of various religious houses in Scotland, chiefly those of Melrose, Dryburgh, and Kelso. The parchments in the family charter- chest begin with 1425, although the information they afford is but scanty until 1.600 is reached, when the materials become abundant. With all his industrious research, Mr. Russell has not been fortunate enough to light upon such another knowing monk as the Benedictine acquaintance of Captain Clutterbuck, of Kennaquair, who "could tell the very year in which the family of De Haga first settled on their ancient barony." He records, indeed, the substance of a humorously unveracious genealogy, wherein the alleged founder, Petrus de Rego (who is connected with the Norwegian Hacos and Suenos of history, and is opportunely wrecked on the coast of Berwickshire), is traced, through half-a-dozen generations up to Druskine, the last King of the Picts, who met his fate in 839 (or 834). Such vagaries of irresponsible" antiquirers " as to" the Pictish extract" of the Haigs, Mr. Russell relates merely to emphasise the traditional antiquity of the family, and to set aside "as alike unverifiable in themselves and inconsistent with known history." On admissible historical methods, he concludes that the family settled in the Mersa of Berwickshire about the middle of the twelfth century ; and the philological history of the name, with the ascertained history of the times, leads him naturally enough to trace the first Bemersyde de Haga from the locality of Cape de Ie. Hague, in Normandy. Having thus established a definite starting-point, Mr. Russell proceeds to declare impartially the virtues and the vices of his eight-and-twenty heroes in succes- sion. A fair proportion of them appear to have risen above local combats and cattle-reiving exploits :—
"The fifth of the name fought with Wallace at Stirling Bridge. The sixth, while but a youth, did his part under Bruce on the field of Bannockburn, afterwards closing his career in the disastrous engage- ment of Haden Hill. The eighth was left stark and stiff with Douglas, by the braken bush' on the bloody slopes of Otterbourne. The tenth fell at the Border battle of Pipordoan. The twelfth and thirteenth were engaged, though on opposite sides, in the unfortunate affray of Sauchieburn, the latter to fall twenty-five years afterwards on Flodden Field ; and the fourteenth distinguished himself at Anornm Moor,—
• Whore the Douglas true, and bold Buoolough, 'Goblet keen Lord Evers stood.'"
The opposition of father and. son at Sauchieburn is an example of a very common device in doubtful times, so as in any event to retain the estates in the family. There is grim humour and curious suggestiveness in the story of the tenth Haig's nine years' bitter feud with the Abbot and Convent of Melrose about a small piece of ground on the marches between them. Not- withstanding a reluctant excommunication, the impenitent Haig "still held to his original contention, and the force of the ex- communication could not keep whole the skin of the abbey servants." In the long-run, it occurred to their wise heads to redefine the marches by arbitration. It was in 1592, under the sixteenth Haig, that was formed the marriage connection -with the Haliburtons, in virtue of which Sir Walter Scott (a descendant of the Haliburtone on the mother's side) acquired his burial-place in Dryburgh Abbey. The turbulent scapegrace seventeenth of the line—who forms a strange contrast with his brother, a distinguished lawyer—succeeded in impoverishing and encumbering his estate to such a degree that the principal liabilities remained to be removed by the energy of Anthony, the twenty-first Haig. A curious charter of the fourth of the known line, Petrus do Raga, conveying to the Abbot and Convent of Old Melrose the grant of half a stone of wax yearly, is signed (among others) by the celebrated Thomas the Rhymer, of Ercildoune, and is the only instance in which the Rhymer'e name is mentioned in a contemporary document of unquestion- able authenticity. It was in the time of the successor of this Petrus that Thomas is said to have uttered the famous prophecy which has ever since cast a glamour around the fortunes of the Haigs
" Tyde what tnay betyde, Haig shall be Haig of Bemersyde."
The prophecy has once or twice stood in imminent danger of falsification ; notably, when Zerubbabel Haig (1712-32) had twelve daughters, before having a son; and again, when James Haig died a bachelor (1854), leaving the succession to three maiden sisters. These sacrificed their prospects to the credit of the prophecy, and conveyed the estate to a cadet of the Clack- rnannanshire branch of the family, the present Haig of Berner- syde. So "true Thomas" remains truer than ever.
But the excellent account of the purely personal fortunes of the Bemersyde family, is perhaps the least valuable part of the volume. In every chapter there start up remarkable illus- trations of Border and national life, and these Mr. Russell has reviewed, co-ordinated, and supplemented, in a final chapter of much excellence. The comparatively high state of civilisation and industry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was swept away in the war of independence, and from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century, the -wild, spirit of the people had all but unbounded scope and encouragement. Yet, amidst all the prevail- ing disorder and strife, there survived a commanding re- aped for the more important formalities of law. With the return of public quiet and rest, after the Revolution of 1688, agricultural progress began to dawn, although the system of culture continued primitive down to the middle of the eighteenth century. Along with agricultural advances came progress in other departments of social and domestic life. Of the legend and romance of the Border, it is unnecessary to speak. Mr. Russell has balanced with great judgment the claims of the private narrative and the general interest. He has executed a most delicate task with unquestionable success.
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