[305] Becket's Murderers were Four Barons, and Knights, no doubt, of course; viz. Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto. [Consult Lord Lyttelton and his Authorities.]
[306] Peerage of Scotland, 1767, octavo.
[307] Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 146.
[308] Crawfurd's Peerage, in Duke of Hamilton. Buchanan, vol. I. p. 332, 333. Dr. Abercrombie, however, gives us reasons to doubt that this was the first introduction of the name of Hamilton into Scotland: though that is not material, if it was the occasion which introduced the Motto. This has no apparent connexion with the Crest or Arms, and is therefore, more conclusive. Query as to the Crest?
[309] Crawfurd's Peerage.
[310] Nisbet's Cadencies, p. 192. See also Douglas's Peerage.
[311] Douglas's Peerage, in the Arms.
[312] Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. I. p. 145.
[313] Nisbet's Heraldry.
[314] In rude times, such as those were of which we have been speaking, it was accounted an action of no small valour to kill so fierce an animal as a Wild Boar; being attended with considerable personal danger, for want of such weapons, offensive and defensive, as we have at present. On this account I may be excused bringing forward a parallel honour attending a circumstance of this sort, though I fetch it from the Hottentots, a people to whose very name we seem to have falsely annexed ideas, far from the truth, of every thing below the dignity of human nature, and placed them but one degree above the brute creation. On the contrary, they are represented by Kolben, who had opportunities of personal intercourse with them, and was well qualified to observe and reason upon what he saw, as a people much wronged by our unfavourable opinions of them. But to the point: their country appears to be, from its situation, exceedingly exposed to the incursions of the fiercest of beasts, lions and tigers; insomuch that a Hottentot who kills one of these animals with his own hand is deified, and his person held sacred ever after.