and frequently insulted the
privileges, of the royal burghs of Scotland, that the latter, where it
was practicable, often chose their provost, or chief magistrate, not out
of the order of the merchants, shopkeepers, and citizens, who inhabited
the town itself, and filled up the roll of the ordinary magistracy, but
elected to that preeminent state some powerful nobleman, or baron, in
the neighbourhood of the burgh, who was expected to stand their friend
at court in such matters as concerned their common weal, and to lead
their civil militia to fight, whether in general battle or in private
feud, reinforcing them with his own feudal retainers. This protection
was not always gratuitous. The provosts sometimes availed themselves of
their situation to an unjustifiable degree, and obtained grants of lands
and tenements belonging to the common good, or public property of the
burgh, and thus made the citizens pay dear for the countenance which
they afforded. Others were satisfied to receive the powerful aid of the
townsmen in their own feudal quarrels, with such other marks of respect
and benevolence as the burgh over which they presided were willing to
gratify them with, in order to secure their active services in case of
necessity. The baron, who was the regular protector of a royal burgh,
accepted such freewill offerings without scruple, and repaid them by
defending the rights of the town by arguments in the council and by bold
deeds in the field.

The citizens of the town, or, as they loved better to call it, the
Fair City, of Perth, had for several generations found a protector
and provost of this kind in the knightly family of Charteris, Lords of
Kinfauns, in the neighbourhood of the burgh. It was scarce a century (in
the time of Robert III) since the first of this distinguished family
had settled in the strong castle which now belonged to them, with the
picturesque and fertile scenes adjoining to it. But the history of the
first settler, chivalrous and romantic in itself, was calculated to
facilitate the settlement of an alien in the land in which his lot was
cast. We relate it as it is given by an ancient and uniform tradition,
which carries in it great indications of truth, and is warrant enough,
perhaps, for it insertion in graver histories than the present.

During the brief career of the celebrated patriot Sir William Wallace,
and when his arms had for a time expelled the English invaders from his
native country, h