Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Historie and cronicles of Scotland > Volume 1, 1899

cxx
INTRODUCTION.
had done. He married Margaret Meldrum of Seggie,
in the parish of Leuchars, a parish which adjoins Ceres,
and increased the paternal inheritance by acquiring lands
in the Mearns and Angus. Queen Mary gave him a
pension of 100 crowns of the Sun. He commenced the
building of the Castle of Earlshall in 1546, but it was
not completed in the form in which it has recently been
so well restored till the time of his great - grandson,
another William Bruce, who placed over the fireplace
in the painted hall the inscription—
‘Aedes has extruebat D W B An. 1546 extruit tandem
W B ejus pronepos Anno 1617.
CONTEMNO ET ORNO MENTE MANU.’
The coat of arms in the same place has, in addition to
the ordinary arms of the family, ‘a fleur-de-lis in the
‘ centre of the chief,’ and two naked savages as supporters.
It is said that the fleur-de-lis was introduced to dis¬
tinguish the arms of the Bruces of Earlshall from the
elder branch of Airth,1 but there seems no reason why
the distinction should not have been chosen on account
of the services of Sir Alexander Bruce in France. Sir
William Bruce constructed the family burying-place in
the Parish Church of Leuchars. The monumental slab
has an inscription—
‘ This sappoltur that ze heir see
‘ For Erlis Hal and his posterite.’
Above his shield is a horse’s head bridled as crest, with
the motto ‘ Be Trev,’ while two naked savages appear as
supporters. Round the slab there is inscribed in bold
letters: ‘ Hie jacet vir probus ac omni memoria dignus
1 Notes of the Family of Bruce of Earlshall by S . . .