Salt-foot controversy

90 REPLY TO THE REMARKS.
Battle of Luncarty. By tradition, Wallace has
been degraded into a hero of Romance, a Giant, and
a combater of evil spirits, and, indeed, he is scarcely
known to the vulgar under any other character."* —
I cannot resist the temptation of quoting one other
observation inculcated by the same eminent Anti-
quarian, singularly apposite on this head, " That
if — persons are not satisfied with a Pedigree,
proved by authentic instruments, they must be-
lieve in flattering and ignorant fictions, and that if
they scorn to wait for the dawn of record to en-
lighten their descent, they must bewilder them-
selves in dark and fabulous Genealogies"^ This
subject, however, is just what was to be expected
from the apologist of such a cause ; and is nobly
backed by the story of the Scottish Barons, a fable
imported from England, and retailed by Hector
JBoetius. |
But " all this," including the extravagance about
tradition, "(it seems,) Mr J. B. knows as well as I do;
and he further knows, that there is not, in the great
mass of genealogies, recorded in the Renfrewshire
History, jirobably half a dozen that are better au-
thenticated than the one he has been at such pains
to vilify and refute" &c. &c. $ Now, I honestly
must inform him, that Mr J. R. knows no such
* Hailes' Ann. Vol. 3. p. €1. t lb. p. 59.
X Dug. Bar. Vol. 1. p. 79 — Coetius, 14. f. 305. Mailis'
Ann. Vol. 2. p. 109.
§ Remarks, p. 72.