The family of Burnett of Leys, with collateral - Electric Scotland

PREFACE. XI.
King of Arms. His work in this capacity is well known to all
searchers in genealogical byeways who had occasion to seek his
assistance. It was an office for which he was pre-eminently
qualified, and he did much to restore the prestige of a position
which, owing to a variety of circumstances, had to some extent
lost the confidence of pedigree scholars. For nearly a quarter
of a century he administered the office wisely and well. Several
important Peerage cases were decided during that period, and
his assistance and advice were gladly sought and given in many
of them. Few persons were so intimately acquainted with the
Mar case as Burnett was, and in that and other instances his
trenchant pen was always ready to defend what he considered
to be the right. Two articles which he contributed to the
Journal of Jurisprudence in 1883 and 1885 conclusively show
what a profound knowledge he had of Peerage Law, and how
clearly and incisively he could communicate his knowledge. The
article on Jurisdiction in Scottish Peerages, which appeared in
the first mentioned year, is a review of Mr. Hewlett's book on
that subject, and points out with vigour and emphasis, though
with perfect courtesy, the errors into which that author fell. The
other, on the Earldom of Mar Restitution Act, which appeared
in 1885, is an excellent resume" of the history of the title, and
the circumstances which made it expedient that such an Act
should be passed.
" But perhaps the most readable and brilliant of anything
that Burnett wrote was the little book published in 1865,
entitled '
Popular Genealogists, or the Art of Pedigree Making,'
which was a scathing exposure of several perfectly mythical
pedigrees which had appeared in some of Sir Bernard Burke's
volumes, in the days when the productions of that accom-
plished and amiable Herald were not so carefully compiled
as at a later date they began to be. It is safe to say that
no more readable book on a somewhat dry subject was ever