Story of the Stewarts

33
Walter, third hereditary High Stewart of Scotland, is
known also by the territorial designation of " de Dundonald,"
and it was he, moreover, who first settled the name of
Stewart on his posterity. Surnames only came into general
use about this time. Many families adopted or continued as
a surname their old territorial or landed designation, such
as Douglas, Menteith, Crawford, Ruthven, and the like, but
Walter chose the title of his office, by which he and his
ancestors had been known for over a century. It has pleased
some vendors of cheap witticisms to be merry at the expense
of this selection of a name, arguing that, etymologically con-
sidered, the word implies "Keeper of the hogs"! (Saxon,
" Sti " and "ward"). " Sti," a dwelling, is of course capable
of application both to the shelter of hogs and of their owners,
and, moreover, as hogs were a principal source of wealth
among the Saxons, it may even be that, in earlier days, the
duties of the " Stiward," or Housemaster, extended to the
care of the stock as well as to the house, of his lord. It is
scarcely necessary, however, to point out that, even if this were
once so, the word had lost all such significance long before this
family were Stewards of Scotland, or had adopted the surname ;
and that the High Stewards of Scotland were Stewards, not
to a private individual or estate, but to the sovereign, and of
the royal revenues and domains. A cynic indeed might trace
a peculiar appropriateness in the suggested significance of the
name, in the experiences of some of the later Stewarts with