le as the centre of government, the
royal residence from whence laws were issued, and where the business of
the nation was carried on. Following what seems to be one of the most
wonderful rules of heredity--a peculiarity considerably opposed to the
views which have been recently current on that subject--Robert Bruce was
too great a man to have a son worthy of him: and after the trifling and
treacherous David the inheritance of his kingdom came through his
daughter to a family already holding a high place--the Stewards of
Scotland, great hereditary officials, though scarcely so distinguished
in character as in position. The tradition that their ancestor Banquo
was the companion of Macbeth when the prophecy was made to him which had
so great an effect upon that chieftain's career, and that to Banquo's
descendants was adjudged the crown which Macbeth had no child to
inherit, is far better known, thanks to Shakspeare, than any fact of
their early history. It is probably another instance of that inventive
ingenuity of the original chroniclers, which so cleverly imagined a
whole line of fabulous kings, to give dignity and importance to the
"ancient kingdom" thus carried back to inarticulate prehistoric ages. In
this way the Stewarts, actually a branch of a well-known Norman family,
were linked to a poetic and visionary past by their supposed
identification with the children of Banquo, with all the circumstantial
details of an elaborate pedigree. According to the legend, the dignity
of Grand Steward of Scotland was conferred by Malcolm Canmore upon a
descendant of the ancient thane, and the lineage of the family is traced
through all the dim intervening ages with scrupulous minuteness. The
title of Steward of Scotland was enough, it would seem, to make other
lordships unnecessary, and gradually developed into that family surname
with which we are now so familiar, which has wrought both Scotland and
England so much woe, yet added so intense an interest to many chapters
of national history. The early Stewards are present by name in all the
great national events: but have left little characteristic trace upon
the records, as of remarkable individuals. They took the cross in
repeated crusades, carrying their official coat with its chequers, the
brand of the Chief Servitor of the Scottish Court, through the wars of
the Holy Land, till they came finally into the highest favour and
splendour in the days of Bruce, whose cause, which was