Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 2/Houses and families

Houses and Families.—A good story is told of the Murrays of Blackbarony, now represented by Mr. Murray of Mount Melville, in Scotland. An ancestor of that clan, who was ridiculously proud of his lineage, said to his friend Sir John Sinclair, who was talking of old families, “Sir, there are plenty of very old and very good families in all countries, and in Scotland, too; but there are only three houses in Europe—the Bourbons of France, the Hapsburgs of Austria, and the Murrays of Blackbarony.”