ended, like most
of his associates from an ancient family. It was of German origin,[345]
first known in Scotland in the reign of Robert Bruce, to whose sister, a
German Knight, sirnamed Elphingston, or Elphinstone, was married. Such
was the esteem in which Robert Bruce held his foreign brother-in-law,
that he gave him lands in Midlothian, which still bear the name of
Elphinstone.[346] Hence was he called Elphinstone of that Ilk--a mode of
expression employed in Scotland to prevent the repetition of the same
name. In process of time certain estates which a descendant of the
German Knight acquired at Arthbeg, in Stirlingshire, were also endowed
with that surname; and, during several centuries, the martial and hardy
race to whom those lands belonged continued in the same sphere, that of
private gentlemen, chiefs of the House of Elphinstone. They were
remarkable, in successive generations, for that bold and manly character
which eventually distinguished their ill-fated descendant, Arthur
Balmerino, and which, in time, extorted applause from the most
prejudiced politicians of the opposite party. Alexander Elphinstone, in
the reign of David the Second, might have emulated the supposed deeds of
Guy Earl of Warwick; he rivalled him in gigantic figure, in immense
strength, and knightly prowess. His disposition was not only martial,
but chivalric; for, conscious of extraordinary power, "he was more
able," says a writer of the last century, "to overlook an affront, than
men less capable of resenting it." His son, inferior in bodily strength,
equalled him in military exploits, which distinguished indeed a
succession of the Elphinstones of that Ilk.[347] At Flodden, John
Elphinstone, who was created a Lord of Parliament by James the Fourth,
was killed by the side of his royal master, and being not unlike to that
monarch in face and figure, his body was carried to Berwick by the
English, who mistook it for that of the King.[348] In the reign of James
the Sixth, James, the second son of the third Lord Elphinstone, was
created a Baron by the name and title of Lord Balmerino. He rose to high
honours in the State; but the first disgrace that befell the family
occurred in this reign. This was the marriage of John, the second Lord
Balmerino, to Jane Ker, sister of the infamous Ker, Earl of Somerset,
and favourite of James the Sixth, who, for his sake, denounced a curse
on his posterity, which seems, says the writer before quoted, "to have
f