Agnews of Lochnaw

CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST HEREDITARY SHERIFF.
Fra me and fra mine,
To thee and to thine,
Als free as the kingrik is mine,
To verify that this is suith,
I bite the quhite wax with my tuith.
Charter of William I.
The ex-constable of Lochnaw found Ireland little to his liking,
and repaired shortly after to the Scottish Court at Perth. From
the aged monarch, Eobert III., he received much commisera-
tion, but no assistance. He became a member of the royal
household, where he stood in high favour, and he himself, his
son, and in due time his grandson also, are called " scutifers,"
which may perhaps be taken as an equivalent for equerry in
modern court style. Although here they enjoyed some posi-
tion, and received various marks of approval from the royal
family, they seem to have had no pay, as in a charter granted
to the son, in which both father and son are termed " beloved
friends and scutifers," the gift is declared to be a recompense
" for gratuitous services manifoldly rendered" " by Andrew
Agnew and his son Andrew to us and our predecessors."
At court the young man had the good fortune to attract the
favourable notice of the Princess Margaret, who married Archi-
bald, son of the Black Douglas, whose soubriquet was " Tyneman,"
and she became, in right of her husband, Countess of Douglas
and Duchess of Tourenne. Though not inclined to love the name
of Douglas, young Agnew was sincerely attached to this lady, and
had soon cause to be grateful for her good offices. Her sister, the
princess Mary, was already connected with Galloway, having mar-