Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

io THE SAYS. [a.D. 1030
nobles of that warlike age, the lord of Eskdale paid much
attention to the breeding of horses, and had an extensive stud
in that valley. Some time between 1236 and 1249 John, the
son of Gervaise Avenel, made over to the Monasterv of
Inchcolme twenty-six acres of land in his territory of Dud-
dinston, within the barony of Abercorn ; and in King Alex-
ander II. 's Charter for the foundation of Pluscardyn Prioiy
in 1236, Roger Avenel is a witness. The principal line fin-
ished in an heiress in 1243, wnen Roger's great domain passed
to his son-in-law Henry de Graham of Daikeith. Thus
ended the name of " Avenel, remembered only in tradition,
or embalmed by one who could control and direct even the
current of popular tradition" (Innes, Scotland in the Middle
Ages, p. 128, in allusion to Scott's novel of " The Mon-
astery "). The Duke of Montrose, head of the House of
Graham, is the representative of the senior line of the
Avenels.
CHAPTER III.
Say was a fief in Normandy which came to the Picots and
the Avenels, and gave a name to a distinguished baronial fam-
ily sprung from them. In Stapleton's Magni Rotidi Scaccarii
Normanniae sub Regibus Angliae, with Observations on the Rolls
of the Norman Exchequer, published in 1844, the fief is des-
ignated Sav, Sai, and Seye. It is elsewhere found written
Saie. The Honour of Sav was on the River Orne, near Ar-
gentan, about twenty-six miles northwest of Alencon. The
learned authors of Gallia Christiana tell us, in describing the
Diocese of Seez, that its earliest Latin name, like that of the
Gallic tribe which inhabited the territory, was Sail, and it is
so set down in Spriiner's Hand Atlas . . . des Mittelalters,
1854. I would naturally suppose that the little village or