Genealogy of the house and surname of Setoun

vi PREFACE.
of Mr Hay of Drummelzier ; for amid the ravages of an enraged soldiery,
and the rapacity of treacherous domestics, several of the Sctoun portraits
seem to have been preserved, and transmitted to Dunse Castle ; many
pictures, however, were destroyed, embezzled, and lost ; about twenty
years after the plundering of the mansion, a gentleman discovered, in a
house he purchased near Musselburgh, four large paintings, which had
certainly belonged to Lord Wintoun : they were unframed, and covered
with whitewash to insure concealment ; but on being cleaned, proved to
be of very little value.
The originals of the portraits with which this volume is illustrated,
are in the possession of Mr Hay, and evidently by the pencil of Jame-
son, who seems to have copied the pictures of the husband and wife from
separate representations, and joined them, very awkwardly, on one canvas ;
the painting is in perfect preservation, which is seldom the case with
Jameson's works, and the colouring good ; but though Lady Wintoun
is tolerably handsome, one sees no charm to justify the raptures of the
poet Montgomerie, whose Laura, probably as much from consanguinity
as other attractions, she long continued to bloom —
" Appena si puo dir, questa fu rosa."
The engraving of the chapel is taken from a drawing by a Lady of
high rank, a descendant of the family ; but it is to be regretted that no
delineation was made till the inside of the building had been much de-
faced, the tombs broken, and the pavement raised, by the rabble, and com-
mon soldiers, in searches after hidden treasure, and the lead which inclo-
sed the bodies ; the last was for the most part carried off : yet some years
ago there remained, in a ruined vault, a leaden face as large as life, which
had belonged to one of the coffins, and greatly resembled those rude
heads that are sculptured on Egyptian mummy cases.
The fate of Setoun house is detailed in Grose's Tour, to which the
reader is referred ; and it is ever to be regretted that the present noble
possessor of the place should not have been the first purchaser ; as the
acknowledged good taste of the Earl of Wemyss, putting his descent