ABSTRACT
The Earls of Home had substantial estates centred on the mansion of the Hirsel near Coldstream on the Anglo-Scottish border. As Foreign Secretary under a theatrical and innovative premier, he made little mark and was identified with none of the major currents in the party. The Tories made a remarkable recovery in the polls and proceeded with Macmillan's modernizing agenda, Dr Beeching's rationalization of the railways and the expansion of the universities following the Robbins report. While in opposition Home acted as Heath's foreign affairs spokesman but in 1968, because of his popularity in Scotland, he became the Chair of a Committee on the Constitution, which reported in 1970. Retiring from politics and returning to the Lords in November 1974, as Lord Home of the Hirsel, he intervened effectively in February 1979, when he advised Scots to reject Labour's devolution measure for a Conservative offer of 'something better'.
