Salt-foot controversy

REPLY TO THE REMARKS. 101
applied to Sir Walter, a term of Gallic origin,* and
certainly never with us a baronial designation, " the
goodman ofBroomhitt" being a direGt descendant
of an adulterous bastard, and father-in-Jaw to the
" goodman of Allanton ;f and who ever numbered
a laird of Caldwell- Wester among the baronial
characters of the kingdom? To authenticate the
BATTLE OF MORNINGSIDE, lie still clings to his
favourite absurdity, sagely inculcating, that names
of places might be framed from a language that had
long become obsolete, &c. &c. with other trifles and
crudities, which it would be a waste of time and
patience to expose.
It has gravely been objected, however, though
not in the remarks, that I have been guilty of
misquotation, because I called Allan the rental-
* " On d}t le bon homme pour dire le Paysan." Albert
Nouv. Diet. — " Boni HOMINES vocantur apud anglos vUlici alii-
que rustici quibus est familia— eadem accept at i one nostri dixerunt
less bonnes gens— ¥Lt se ly Seigneurs le veult receivoir a Wally, les
Bones gens lui portent. Du Cange.— " Tbe being a Heritor of
land doth not nobilitate in all cases, even though the Heritage
be very considerable j for else a rich man might ennoble himself,
but these * feuda' only render the possessor noble which are be-
stowed by the prince.— 4nd this remembers me of a custom in
Scotland, which is gone lately in desuetude, and that is, that
such as did hold their lands of the Prince were called Lairds,
but such as held their lands of a subject, though they were large,
and their superior very noble, were only called Goodmen from the
old French word bonne homme, which was the title of tbe Master
of the Family." — Sir George Mackenzie, vol. II. p. 583.
t Vid. Mem. Som. vol. ii. p. 406. Somerville is thus fated
always to be correct.
' OF SCOT