spectable, but devoid of energy, boldness, and address, yet wanting
not personal courage, there could scarcely have been found a more
excellent man, nor a more feeble commander. At the head of a troop of
gentlemen, full of ardour in the cause, the plain dress and homely
manners of Lord Kenmure seemed inappropriate to the conspicuous station
which he held; for the exercise of his functions as commander was
attended by some circumstances which required a great combination of
worldly knowledge with singleness of purpose.

George Seaton, the fifth Earl of Wintoun, was another of those noblemen
who raised a troop of horse, and engaged, from the very first
commencement of the rebellion, in its turmoils. The family of Seaton, of
which the Earl of Wintoun was the last in the direct line, "affords in
its general characteristics," says a celebrated Scottish genealogist,
"the best specimen of our ancient nobility. They seem to have been the
first to have introduced the refined arts, and an improved state of
architecture in Scotland. They were consistent in their principles, and,
upon the whole, as remarkable for their deportment and baronial
respectability, as for their descent and noble alliances."[4]

In consequence of so many great families having sprung from the Seatons,
they were styled "_Magnae Nobilitatis Domini_;" and their antiquity was
as remarkable as their alliances, the male representation of the family,
and the right to the honours which they bore, having been transmitted to
the present Earl of Eglintoun, through an unbroken descent of seven
centuries and a half.

The loyalty of the Seatons was untainted. The first Earl of Wintoun had
adopted as one of his mottoes, "_Intaminatis fulget honoribus_," and the
sense of those words was fully borne out by the testimony of time. The
Seatoun Charter Chest contained, as one of their race remarked, no
remission of any offence against Government, a fact which could not be
affirmed of any other Scottish family of note. But this brave and
ancient house had signal reason for remaining hitherto devoted to the
monarchs of the Scottish throne.

Four times had the Seatons been allied with royalty: two instances were
remarkable. George Seatoun, second Earl of Huntly, married the Princess
Annabella, daughter of James the First, and from that union numerous
descendants of Scottish nobility exist to this day: and George, the
third Lord Seaton, again allied his house with that of Stuart