Comments in refutation of pretensions advanced for the first time, and statements in a recent work "The Stirlings of Keir and their family papers"

WITH DRUMPELLIERS EXPOSITION, &c. 13
which has never yet been properly sifted or established ; at any rate, as
may subsequently transpire, cannot be proved to be from Cadder. But Andactu-
even this is not all, as a culminating point, and in order to distinguish and made Keir
a-ssume the
decorate Keir with the gaudiest and most imposing trappings, the same "'<* cadder
crGst, to
notable advisers proprio arhitrio even beyond its utmost stretch, though at y^^"^ ^^
-t -i •' ' o IS not en-
some risk and peril, as may also be seen, while actually usurping to them- *!^yg'
selves the power and authority of the Court of Arms, have liberally con- mrinKt^'e
ferred upon him the ancient crest of Stirling of Cadder. That crest — the iier'Satus
white swan issuing out of a coronet — is now, for the first time, conjoined with ^" "*''
the Keir, upon the Keir shield of arms, made common to both, which, with its
accessories, is engraved upon the second leaf of the Keir performance.
But still even this may not suffice. While the above was so ingeniously
achieved — not only has the Drumpellier case been there misrepresented
and prejudiced, but the work has further ignored and even expunged the
family from the text of the Cadder history and pedigree, withholding from
them the jjlace they undoubtedly were entitled to occupy, and, as a clench-
ing blow, doubtless, as devised, they have been precipitated even to the lowest
grade of the Jibulati StirUngs, in a meagre and imperfect account of them
and some others, including strangers, in a kind of supplement.
Most certainly such ex parte puny attempts may only excite a smile ;
such flea-bites, in truth — the results apparently of petty rancour or spleen,
OM'ing to previous Keir mischances and defeats — against the Drumpellier-
Cadder status, now hermetically sealed and secured.
But why or wherefore is DrumpelUer to be so pointedly subjected, in the
Keir performance, even though so secondary and insignificant, to such de-
rogatory inflictions ; to be degraded, in fact — ignored and expunged from
the Cadder stock or pedigree — cui bono essentially 1 it may be asked. Merely
for the sake of, and to clear the way there for, one who has truly been
interpolated into the place which the former can alone occupy. The party
whose family had dreaded and shrunk from a Cadder contest with his,
legally abandoned its very idea, was fain, through an invariable enmity, to his^cacide^'
implore another hostilely to oppose and impede the then Drumpellier in the based by
, the Trium-
course of his successful career, actually has here not a leg to stand upon, nor, virate.
it is believed, can possibly adduce a vestige of proper evidence in support of
a Cadder descent. Yet, it seems, to the prejudice of the true party, he never-
theless must be held, through the medium of his work, to have one quite