ABSTRACT
The origin of most of the leading Scottish families is rooted very far back in Scotland’s past. When in 1537 the lovely but ill-fated Madeline of France landed in Scotland as the bride of King James V, a certain John Hope came over in her train. The son of the Sabbatarian Lord Advocate, a third Sir James Stewart, became Solicitor-General for Scotland; he married into the great legal family of Dalrymple, and thus his children had a singularly brilliant heredity. His younger brother, Houston Stewart William Chamberlain, was also destined to pass the greater part of his life outside his native land. Anna Foulis Hope married James Stewart of Coltness, who was himself connected with financial affairs and became Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Almost wholly English on his father’s side, almost wholly Scottish on his mother’s, Chamberlain’s conduct was in flat defiance of all natural instincts.
