Colstoun Pear
| “ | Possibly the most well-known thing about this family is not their glorious history of service to Scotland, but the famous Colstoun Pear, which Hugo de Gifford of Yester (d.1267), famed for his necromantic powers, described in Marmion, was supposed to have invested with the extraordinary virtue of conferring unfailing prosperity on the family which possessed it.
- William Anderson, 1867 |
” |
George Broun of Colstoun married Marion Hay (d.1564), second daughter of Sir John Hay, 2nd Lord Hay of Yester, ancestor of the Marquess of Tweeddale, and she brought with her the pear as dowry. Lord Yester, in handing over the pear told his new son-in-law that as long as it was preserved the family would flourish until the end of time. Accordingly the pear has been carefully preserved in a silver box as a sacred palladium. Many writers comment upon the pear: Lord Fountainhall relates that in September 1670 he called upon the Brouns "who talk much of their antiquity and pear they preserve." Fountainhall's descendant, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, refers to the story of the pear as something "which we cannot pass over" and mentions that "one of the ladies of the family took a longing for the forbidden fruit while pregnant and inflicted upon it a deadly bite", following which a period of dire financial crisises affected the family and the pear turned rock hard, the teeth-marks still preserved. Martine also mentions it: "the legend of the Colstoun enchanted pear, still preserved, has been long known in the history of the Brouns of Colstoun.""
Read more about this topic: Broun Baronets
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