Borderers seem to have acquired some ascendency over their southern neighbours.-STRYPE, vol. iii.-In 1559, peace was again restored. The flame of reformation, long stifled in Scotland, now burst forth, with the violence of a volcanic eruption. The siege of Leith was commenced by the combined forces of the Congregation and of England. The Borderers cared little about speculative points of religion; but they showed themselves much interested in the treasures which passed through their country, for payment of the English forces at Edinburgh. Much alarm was excited, lest the Marchers should intercept these weighty Protestant arguments; and it was, probably, by voluntarily imparting a share in them to Lord Home, that he became a sudden convert to the new faith Upon the arrival of the ill-fated Mary in her native country, she found the Borders in a state of great disorder. The exertions of her natural brother (afterwards the famous Regent Murray) were necessary to restore some degree of tranquillity. He marched to Jedburgh, executed twenty or thirty of the transgressors, burned many houses, and brought a number of prisoners to Edinburgh. chieftains of the principal clans were also obliged to grant pledges for their future obedience. A noted convention (for the particulars of which, see Border Laws, p. 74.) adopted various regulations, which were attended with great advantage to the Marches." The The unhappy match betwixt Henry Darnley and his sovereign led to new dissensions on the Borders. The Homes, Kers, and other East Marchers, hastened to support the Queen, against Murray, Chatelherault, and other nobles, whom her marriage had offended. For the same purpose, the Johnstones, Jardines, and clans of Annandale, entered into bonds of confederacy. But Liddesdale was under the influence of England; insomuch, that Randolph, the meddling English minister, proposed to hire a band of strapping Elliotes, to find Home business at Home, in looking after his corn and cattle.-KEITH, p. 265. App. 133. This storin was hardly overblown, when Bothwell received the commission of Lieutenant upon the Borders; but, as void of parts as of principle, he could not even recover to the Queen's allegiance his own domains in Liddesdale.-KEITH, App. 165. The Queen herself advanced to the Borders, to remedy this evil, and to hold courts at Jedburgh. Bothwell was already in Liddesdale, where he had been severely wounded, in an attempt to seize John Elliot, of the Parke, a desperate freebooter; and happy had it been for Mary, had the dagger of the moss-trooper struck more home. Bothwell being transported to his Castle of Hermitage, the Queen, upon hearing the tidings, hastened thither. A dangerous morass, still called the Queen's Mire, 3 is pointed out by tradition as the spot where the lovely Mary, and her white palfrey, were in danger of perishing. The distance betwixt Hermitage and Jedburgh, by the way of Hawick, is nearly twenty-four English miles. The Queen went and returned the same day. Whether she visited a wounded subject, or a lover in danger, has been warmly disputed in our latter days. To the death of Henry Darnley, it is said, some of the Border lords were privy. But the subsequent marriage, betwixt the Queen and Bothwell, alienated from her the affections of the chieftains of the Marches, most of whom aided the association of the insurgent barons. A few gentlemen of the Merse, however, joined the army which Mary brought to Carberry-hill. But no one was willing to fight for the detested Bothwell, nor did Bothwell himself show any inclination to put his person in jeopardy. The result to Mary was a rigorous captivity in Lochleven Castle; and the name of Bothwell scarcely again pollutes the page of Scottish history. The distress of a beautiful and afflicted princess softened the hearts of her subjects; and when she escaped from her severe captivity, the most powerful barons in Scotland crowded around her standard. Among these were many of the West Border men, under the Lords Maxwell and Herries. But the defeat at Langside was a death-blow to her interest in Scotland. Not long afterwards occurred that period of general confusion on the Borders, when the insurrection of the Catholic Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland took place upon the Borders of England. Their tumultuary forces were soon dispersed, and the Earls themselves, with their principal followers, sought refuge upon the Scottish Marches. Northumberland was betrayed into the hands of the Regent; but Westmoreland, with his followers, took refuge in the Castle of Fairnihirst, where he was protected by its powerful owner. The Regent himself came to Jedburgh, to obtain possession of these important pledges; but as he marched towards the Castle of Fairnibirst, his men shrunk from him by degrees, till he was left with a small body of his own personal dependents, inadequate to the task for which he had undertaken the expedition. Westmoreland afterwards escaped to Flanders by sea. Robert Constable, a spy sent by Sir Ralph Sadler into Scotland, gives a lively account of the state of the Borders at this time.5 The death of the Regent Murray, in 1569, excited the party of Mary to hope and to exertion. It seems, that the praises him especially for subjugating "the rebellious subjectis inhabiting the cuntreis lying ewest the marches of Ingland."-Keith, p. 388. He appears actually to have defeated Sir Henry Percy, in a skirmish, called the Raid of Haltwellswire. This nobleman bad, shortly before, threatened to spoil the English East March; but," says the Duke of Norfolk," we have provided such sauce for him, that I think he will not deal in such matter; but, if he do fire but one hay-goff, he shall not go to Home agein without torchlight, and, peradventure, may find a lanthorn at his own house." The commissioners on the English side were, the elder Lord Scroope of Bolton, Sir John Foster, Sir Thomas Gargrave, and Dr. Rookby. On the Scottish side, appeared Sir John Maxwell of Terreagles, and Sir John Bellenden. 3 The Queen's Mire is still a pass of danger, exhibiting, in many places, the bones of the borses which have been entangled in it. For what reason the Queen chose to enter Liddesdale, by the circuitous route of Hawick, is not told. There are other two passes from Jedburgh to Hermitage Castle; the one by the Note of the Gate, the other over the mountain called Winburgh. Either of these, but especially the latter, is several miles shorter than that by Hawick, and the Queen's Mire. But, by the circuitous way of Hawick, the Queen could traverse the districts of more friendly clans, than by going directly into the disorderly province of Liddesdale. 4 The followers of these barons are said to have stolen the horses of their friends, while they were engaged in the battle. 6 He was guided by one Pyle of Millheuch, (upon Oxnam Water,) and gives the following account of his conversation with him on the state of the country, and the power of his master, the Baron of Fairnibirst:-" By the way as we rode, I tould my oste that the Lord of Farneherst his master, had taken such an entreprise in hand as not a subject in England durst do the like, to kepe any mann openly as he did the Earle of Westmorland, against the will of the chief in aucthoritie. He said that his master cared not so much for the Regent as the Regent cared for him, for he was well able to raise lij thousand men within bis own rule, beside that his first wief, by whom be hed goodly children, was daughter to the Lord Grange, Captaine of Edenborowe Castell, and Provost of Edenborowe. This wief that he married lately is sister to the Lord of Bucclewghe, a man of greater power then his master; also my Lord Hume, and almost all the gentlemen in Tevydale, the Marsh, and Lowdyan, were knitt together in such friendship that they are agreed all to take one part; and that the Lord Grange was offended with the Lord Hume and the Lord Farneherst, because they toke not the Earle of Northumberland from my Lord Regent at Gedworthe, and | The Earl of Lennox, who had succeeded Murray in the regency, held a parliament at Stirling, in 1571. The young King was exhibited to the great council of his nation. He had been tutored to repeat a set speech, composed for the occasion; but, observing that the roof of the building was a little decayed, he interrupted his recitation, and exclaimed, with childish levity, "that there was a hole in the parliament,"-words which, in those days, were held to presage the deadly breach shortly to be made in that body, by the death of him in whose name it was convoked. Amid the most undisturbed security of confidence, the lords who composed this parliament were roused at daybreak by the shouts of their enemies, in the heart of the town. God and the Queen! resounded from every quarter, and in a few minutes, the Regent, with the astonished no design of Bothwell-haugh, who slew him, was well known upon the Borders; for, the very day on which the slaughter happened, Buccleuch and Fairnihirst, with their clans, broke into England, and spread devastation along the frontiers, with unusual ferocity. It is probable they well knew that the controlling hand of the Regent was that day palsied by death. Buchanan exclaims loudly against this breach of truce with Elizabeth, charging Queen Mary's party with having "houndit furth proude and uncircumspecte young men, to hery, burne, and slay, and tak prisoners, in her realme, and use all misordour and crueltie, not only vsit in weir, but detestabil to all barbar and wild Tartaris, in slaying of prisoneris, and contrair to all humanitie and justice, keeping na promeis to miserabil captives resavit anis to thair mercy."-Admonitioun to the trew Lordis, Striveling, 1571. He numbers, among these insurgents, High-bles of his party, were prisoners to a band of two hundred landers as well as Borderers, Buccleuch and Fairnibirst, the Johnstones and Armstrongs, the Grants, and the clan Chattan. Besides these powerful clans, Mary numbered among her adherents the Maxwells, and almost all the West Border leaders, excepting Drumlanrig, and Jardine of Ap-| plegirth. On the Eastern Border, the faction of the infant King was more powerful; for, although deserted by Lord Home, the greater part of his clan, under the influence of Wedderburn, remained attached to that party. The Laird of Cessford wished them well, and the Earl of Angus naturally followed the steps of his uncle Morton. A sharp and bloody invasion of the Middle March, under the command of the Earl of Sussex, avenged with interest the raids of Buccleuch and Fairnihirst. The domains of these chiefs were laid waste, their castles burnt and destroyed. The narrow vales of Beaumont and Kale, belonging to Buccleuch, were treated with peculiar severity; and the forays of Hertford were equalled by that of Sussex. In vain did the chiefs request assistance from the government to defend their fortresses. Through the predominating interest of Elizabeth in the Scottish councils, this was refused to all but Home, whose castle, nevertheless, again received an English garrison; while Buccleuch and Fairnihirst complained bitterly that those, who had instigated their invasion, durst not even come so far as Lauder, to show countenance to their defence aganst the English. The bickerings which followed distracted the whole kingdom. One celebrated exploit may be selected, as an illustration of the Border fashion of war. Border cavalry, led by Scott of Buccleuch, and to the Lord Claud Hamilton, at the head of three hundred infantry. These enterprising chiefs, by a rapid and well-concerted manœuvre, had reached Stirling in a night march from Edinburgh, and, without so much as being bayed at by a watch-dog, had seized the principal street of the town. The fortunate obstinacy of Morton saved his party. Stubborn and undaunted, he defended his house till the assailants set it in flames, and then yielded with reluctance to his kinsman, Buccleuch. But the time which he had gained effectually served his cause. The Borderers had dispersed to plunder the stables of the nobility; the infantry thronged tumultuously together on the main street, when the Earl of Mar, issuing from the castle, placed one or two small pieces of ordnance, in his own half-built house,' which commands the market-place. Hardly had the artillery begun to scour the street, when the assailants, surprised in their turn, fled with precipitation. Their alarm was increased by the townsmen thronging to arms. Those who had been so lately triumphant, were now, in many instances, asking the protection of their own prisoners. In all probability, not a man would have escaped death, or captivity, but for the characteristic rapacity of Buccleuch's marauders, who, having seized and carried off all the horses in the town, left the victors no means of following the chase. The Regent was slain by an officer, named Caulder, in order to prevent his being rescued. Spens of Ormistorn, to whom he had surrendered, lost his life in a generous attempt to protect him. Hardly does our history present sent plane word to the Lord Farncherst, that if the Lord Regent came any more to seeke him in Tevydale, he should lose all his bulles, both the Duke, the Lord Herris, the secretary, and others, he should sett them all at libertye that would come with all their power, with good will, to take his part; and by as much as I hear since the Tevydale menn pretends to do the anoyances that they can to England, so sone as this storme is past, and meanes not to answer to any day of truce." Another passage presents a lively picture of the inside of the outlaw's cabin: "I left Farneherst, and went to my ostes house, where I found many gests of dyvers factions, some outlawes of Ingland, some of Scotland, some neighbors therabout, at cards: some for ale, some for plake and hardhedds; and after that I had diligently learned and enquired that there was none of any surname that had me in deadly fude, nor none that knew me, I sat downe, and plaid for hard hedds emongs them, where I hard, vox populi, that the Lord Regent would not, for his own honor, nor for thonor of his countery, deliver the Earles, if he had them bothe, unlest it were to have there Quene delivered to him; and if he wold agre to make that change, the Borderers wold stert up in his contrary, and reave both the Quene and the Lords from him, for the like shame was never done in Scotland; and that be durst better eate his owne luggs then come again to seke Farneherst; if he did, he should be fought with ere he came over Sowtrey edge. Hector of Tharlowes hedd was wished to have been eaten amongs us at supper."-SADLER'S State Papers, Edin. 1809, vol. ii. pp. 381, 388. * Dector of Darlaw is meant, an outlaw who betrayed the Earl of Northumberland. 'This building still [1802] remains in the unfinished state which it then presented. Birrel says, that "the Regent was shot by an unhappy fellow, while sitting on horseback bebind the Laird of Buccleuch."-The following curious account of the whole transaction, is extracted from a journal of principal events, In the years 1570, 1574, 4572, and part of 1573, kept by Richard Bannatyne, amanuensis to John Knox. "The fourt of September,. they of Edinburgh, horsemen and futmen, (and, as was reported, the most part of Clidisdaill, that pertenit to the Hamiltons,) come to Striveling, the number of lii or illi e men, on bors back, guydit be ane George Bell, their bacbutteris being all borsed, enterit in Striveling, by fyve houris in the morning. (whair thair was never one to mak watche,) crying this slogane, God and the Queen! Ane Hamiltoune! Think on the Bishop of St Androis --all is owres; and so a certaine come to everie grit manis ludgene, and apprehendit the Lordis Mortonn and Glencarne; but Mortounis hous they set on fyre, wha randerit him to the Laird of Balcleuch. Wormestoun being appointed to the Regentes hous, desyred him to cum furth, which he had no will to doe, yet, by perswasione of Garleys, and otheris with him tho't it best to come in will, nor to byde the extremilie, becans they supposed there was no resistance, and saw the Regent come furth, and was rendered to Wormestoune, under promeis to save his lyfe. Captayne Crawfurde, being in the town, ga! sum men out of the castell, and uther gentlemen being in the town, come as they my't best to the geat, chased them out of the town. The Regent was shot by ate Captain Cader, who confessed that he did it at commande of George Bell, whe was commandit so to doe be the Lord Huntlie and Claud Hamilton. Some says, that Worinestoun was schot by the same schot that slew the Regent, but alway is he was slane another enterprise, so well planned, so happily commenced, and so strangely disconcerted. To the licence of the Marchmen the failure was attributed; but the same cause ensured a safe retreat.-SPOTTIS WOODE, GODScroft, Robertson, Melville. The wily Earl of Morton, who, after the short intervening regency of Mar, succeeded to the supreme authority, contrived, by force or artifice, to render the party of the King everywhere superior. Even on the Middle Borders, he had the address to engage in his cause the powerful, though savage and licentious, clans of Rutherford and Turnbull, as well as the citizens of Jedburgh. He was thus enabled to counterpoise his powerful opponents, Buccleuch and Fairnihirst, in their own country; and, after an unsuccessful attempt to surprise Jedburgh, even these warm adherents of Mary relinquished her cause in despair. While Morton swayed the state, his attachment to Elizabeth, and the humiliation which many of the Border chiefs had undergone, contributed to maintain order on the Marches, till James VI. himself assumed the reins of government. The intervening skirmish of the Reidswire, (see the ballad under that title,) was but a sudden explosion | of the rivalry and suppressed hatred of the Borderers of both kingdoms. In truth, the stern rule of Morton and of his delegates, men unconnected with the Borders by birth, maintained in that country more strict discipline than had ever before been there exercised. Perhaps this hastened his fall. The unpopularity of Morton, acquired partly by the strict administration of justice, and partly by avarice and severity, forced him from the regency. In 1578, he retired, apparently, from state affairs, to his castle of Dalkeith; which the populace, emphatically expressing their awe and dread of his person, termed the Lion's Den. But Morton could not live in retirement; and, early in the same year, the lion again rushed from his cavern. By a mixture of policy and violence, he possessed himself of the fortress of Stirling, and of the person of James. His nephew, Angus, hastened to his assistance. Against him appeared his own old adherent Cessford, with many of the Homes, and the citizens of Edinburgh. Alluding to the restraint of the King's person, they bore his effigy on their banners, with a rude rhyme, demanding liberty or death.-BIRREL's Diary, ad annum 1578. The Earl of Morton marched against his foes as far as Falkirk, and a desperate action must have ensued, but for the persuasion of Bowes, the English ambassador. The only blood, then spilt, was in a duel betwixt Tait, a follower of Cessford, and Johnstone, a West Border man, attending upon Angus. They fought with lances, and on horseback, according to the fashion of the Borders. The former was unhorsed and slain, the latter desperately wounded.-GODSCROFT, vol. ii. p. 261. The prudence of the late Regent appears to have abandoned him, when he was decoyed into a treaty upon this occasion. It was not long before Morton, the veteran warrior, and the crafty statesman, was forced to bend his neck to an engine of death,' the use of which he himself had introduced into Scotland. Released from the thraldom of Morton, the King, with more than youthful levity, threw his supreme power into the hands of Lennox and Arran. The religion of the first, and the infamous character of the second favourite, excited the hatred of the commons, while their exclusive and engrossing power awakened the jealousy of the other nobles. James, doomed to be the sport of contending factions, was seized at Stirling by the nobles, confederated in what was termed the raid of Ruthven. But the conspirators soon suffered their prize to escape, and were rewarded for their enterprise by exile or death. In 1585, an affray took place at a Border meeting, in which Lord Russell, the Earl of Bedford's eldest son, chanced to be slain. Queen Elizabeth imputed the guilt of this slaughter to Thomas Ker of Fairnihirst, instigated by Arran. Upon the imperious demand of the English ambassador, both were committed to prison; but the minion, Arran, was soon restored to liberty and favour; while Fairnihirst, the dread of the English Borderers, and the gallant defender of Queen Mary, died in his confinement, of a broken heart.-SPOTTISWOODE, p. 341. The tyranny of Arran becoming daily more insupportable, the exiled lords, joined by Maxwell, Home, Bothwell, and other Border chieftains, seized the town of Stirling, which was pillaged by their disorderly followers, invested the castle which surrendered at discretion, and drove the favourite from the King's council. The King, perceiving the Earl of Bothwell among the armed barons, to whom he surrendered his person, addressed him in these prophetic words:-"Francis, Francis, what moved thee to come in arms against thy prince, who never wronged thee? I wish thee a more quiet spirit, else I foresee thy destruction."-SPOTTISWOODE, p. 343. In fact, the extraordinary enterprises of this nobleman disturbed the next ten years of James's reign. Francis Stuart, son to a bastard of James V., had been invested with the titles and estates belonging to his maternal uncle, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, upon the forfeiture of that infamous man; and consequently became Lord of Liddesdale, and of the Castle of Hermitage. This acquisition of power upon the Borders, where he could easily levy followers willing to undertake the most desperate enterprises, joined to the man's native daring and violent spirit, rendered Bothwell the most turbulent insurgent that ever distracted the tranquillity of a kingdom. During the King's absence in Denmark, Bothwell, swayed by the superstition of his age, had tampered with certain soothsayers and witches, by whose pretended art he hoped to foretell, or perhaps to achieve, the death of his monarch. In one of the courts of inquisition, which James delighted to hold upon the pro notwithstanding the Regent cryed to save him, but it culd not be, the furie was so grit of the persewaris, who, following so fast, the Lord of Mortone said to Balcleuch, 'I sall save you as ye savit me,' and so he was tane. Garleys, and studrie otheris, ware slane at the Port, in the pursute of thame. Thair war ten or twelve gentlemen slane of the King's folk, and als mony of theris, or mea, as was said, and a dozen or xvi tane. Twa especiall servantis of the Lord Argyle's were slane also. This Cader, that schot the Regent, was once turned bak off the toune, and was send again (as is said) be the Lord Huntlie, to cause Wormistoun retire; but, before he come agane, he was dispatched, and bad gottin deidis woundis. "The Regent being schot, (as said is,) was brought to the castel, whar be callit, for ane phisitione, one for his soule, ane uther for his bodie. But all hope of life was past, for he was schot in his entreallis; and swa, after sumthingis spokin to the Lordis, which I know not, he departed in the feare of God, and made a blised end; whilk the rest of the Lordis, that tho't thame to his biert, and lytle reguardit him, shall not mak so blised ane end, unless they mend their maneirs." This curious manuscript has been published under the inspection of John Graham Dalyell, Esq. A rude sort of guillotine, called the maiden. The implement is now in possession of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. [By a curious coincidence, one of the very first that suffered by the Guillotine, is said to have been the surgeon who invented and gave bis name to that more celebrated maiden.-ED.] * The associated nobles seem to have owed their success chiefly to the Border spearmen; for though they had a band of mercenaries, who used firearms, yet they were such bad masters of their craft, their captain was beard to observe," that those, who knew his soldiers as well as he did, would hardly choose to march before them."— GODSCROFT, vol. ii. p. 368. fessors of the occult sciences, some of his cousin's proceedings were brought to light, for which he was put in ward in the Castle of Edinburgh. Burning with revenge, he broke from his confinement, and lurked for some time upon the Borders, where he hoped for the countenance of his son-in-law, Buccleuch. Undeterred by the absence of that chief, who, in obedience to the royal command, had prudently retired to France, Bothwell attempted the desperate enterprise of seizing the person of the King, while residing in his metropolis. At the dead of the night, followed by a band of Borderers, he occupied the court of the palace of Holyrood, and began to burst open the doors of the royal apartments. The nobility, distrustful of each other, and ignorant of the extent of the conspiracy, only endeavoured to make good the defence of their separate lodgings; but darkness and confusion prevented the assailants from profiting by their disunion. Melville, who was present, gives a lively picture of the scene of disorder, transiently illuminated by the glare of passing torches; while the report of fire-arms, the clatter of armour, the din of hammers thundering on the gates, mingled wildly with the warcry of the Borderers, who shouted incessantly, "Justice! Justice! A Bothwell! A Bothwell!" The citizens of Edinburgh at length began to assemble for the defence of their sovereign; and Bothwell was compelled to retreat, which he did without considerable loss.-MELVILLE, p. 356. A similar attempt on the person of James, while residing at Faulkland, also misgave; but the credit which Bothwell obtained on the Borders, by these bold and desperate enterprises, was incredible, "All Tiviotdale," says Spottiswoode, 'ran after him;" so that he finally obtained his object; and at Edinburgh, in 1593, he stood before James, an unexpected apparition, with his naked sword in his hand. "Strike!" said James, with royal dignity-"Strike, and end thy work! I will not survive my dishonour." But Bothwell, with unexpected moderation, only stipulated for remission of his forfeiture, and did not even insist on remaining at court, whence his party was shortly expelled, by the return of the Lord Home, and his other enemies. Incensed at this reverse, Bothwell levied a body of four hundred cavalry, and attacked the King's guard in broad day, upon the Borough Moor near Edinburgh. The ready succour of the citizens saved James from falling once more into the hands of his turbulent subject. On a subsequent day, Bothwell met the Laird of Cessford, riding near Edinburgh, with whom he fought a single combat, which lasted for two hours. But his credit was now fallen; he retreated to England, whence he was driven by Elizabeth, and then wandered to Spain and Italy, where he subsisted, in indigence and obscurity, on the bread which he earned by apostatizing to the faith of Rome. So fell this agitator of domestic broils, whose name passed into a proverb, denoting a powerful and turbulent demagogue. 3 While these scenes were passing in the metropolis, the Middle and Western Borders were furiously agitated. The families of Cessford and Fairnihirst disputed their right to the wardenry of the Middle Marches, and to the provostry of Jedburgh; and William Kerr of Ancram, a follower of the latter, was murdered by the young chief of Cessford, at the instigation of his mother.-SPOTTISWOODE, p. 383. But this was trifling, compared to the civil war waged on the western frontier, between the Johnstones and Maxwells, of which there is a minute account in the introduction to the ballad, entitled, "Maxwell's Goodnight." Prefixed to that termed " Kinmont Willie," the reader will find an account of the last warden raids performed on the Border. My sketch of Border history now draws to a close. The accession of James to the English crown converted the extremity into the centre of his kingdom. The East Marches of Scotland were, at this momentous period, in a state of comparative civilisation. The rich soil of Berwickshire soon invited the inhabitants to the arts of agriculture. Even in the days of Lesley, the nobles and barons of the Merse differed in manners from the other Borderers, administered justice with regularity, and abstained from plunder and depredation.-De moribus Scotorum, p. 7. But on the Middle and Western Marches, the inhabitants were unrestrained moss-troopers and cattledrivers, "knowing no measure of law," says Camden, “but the length of their swords." The sterility of the mountainous country which they inhabited, offered little encouragement to industry; and, for the long series of centuries which we have hastily reviewed, the hands of rapine were never there folded in inactivity, nor the sword of violence returned to the scabbard. Various proclamations were in vain issued for interdicting the use of horses and arms upon the West Border of England and Scotland. The evil was found to require the radical cure of extirpation. Buccleuch collected under his banners the most desperate of the Border warriors, of whom he formed a legion, for the service of the states of Holland, who had as much reason to rejoice on their arrival upon the continent, as Britain to congratulate herself upon their departure. It may be presumed, that few of this corps ever returned to their native country. The clan of Græme, a hardy and ferocious set of freebooters, inhabiting chiefly the Debateable Land, were, by a very summary exertion of authority, transported to Ireland, and their return prohibited under pain of death. Against other offenders, measures equally arbitrary were without hesitation pursued. Numbers of Border riders were executed, without even the formality of a trial: and it is even said, that, in mockery of justice, assizes were held upon them after they had suffered. For these acts of tyranny, see JOHNSTON, p. 374, 414, 39, 93. The memory of Dunbar's legal proceedings at Jedburgh, are preserved in the proverbial phrase, Jeddart Justice, which signifies, trial * Spottiswoode says, the King awaited this charge with firmness; but Birrell avers, that be fled upon the gallop. The same author, instead of the firm deportment of James, when seized by Bothwell, describes "the king's majestie" as "flying down the back stair, with his breeches in his hand, in great fear."-BIRRELL, apud DALYELL, p. 30. Such is the difference betwixt the narrative of the courtly archbishop, and that of the Presbyterian burgess of Edinburgh. * This rencounter took place at Humbie, in East Lothian. Bothwell was attendant by a servant, called Gibson, and Cessford by one of the Rutherfords, who was hurt in the cheek. The combatants parted from pure fatigue; for the defensive armour of the times was so completely impenetrable, that the wearer seldom sustained much damage by actual wounds. 3 Sir Walter Raleigh, in writing of Essex, then in prison, says, “Let the Queen bold Bothwell while she hath him.”—MURDIN, vol. ii. p. 812. It appears from Creichton's Memoirs, that Bothwell's grandson, though so nearly related to the royal family, actually rode a private in the Scottish borse guards, in the reign of Charles 11.-Edinburgh, 4734, p. 42. [See Notes to Old Mortality.- ED.] 4" Proclamation shall be made, that all inhabiting within Tynedale and Riddesdale, in Northumberland; Bewcastledale, Willgavey, the north part of Gilsland, Esk, and Leven, în Cumberland, East and West Tividale, Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewsdale, and Annerdale, in Scotland, (saving noblemen and gentlemen unsuspected of felony and theft, and not being of broken clans, and their household servants, dwelling within those several places, before recited,) shall put away all armour and weapons, as well offensive as defensive, as jacks, spears, lances, swords, daggers, steel-caps, backbuts, pistols, plate-sleeves, and such like ;and shall not keep any horse, gelding, or mare, above the value of fifty shillings sterling, or thirty pounds Scots, upon the like pain of imprisonment.”—Proceedings of the Border Cominissioners, 1605. Introduction to History of Cumberland, p. 127. In these hasty sketches of Border history, I have endeavoured to select such incidents, as may introduce to the reader the character of the Marchmen, more briefly and better than a formal essay upon their manners. If I have been successful in the attempt, he is already acquainted with the mixture of courage and rapacity by which they were distinguished, and has reviewed some of the scenes in which they acted a principal part. It is, therefore, only necessary to notice, more minutely, some of their peculiar customs and modes of life. Their morality was of a singular kind. The rapine, by which they subsisted, they accounted lawful and honourable. Ever liable to lose their whole substance, by an incursion of the English on a sudden breach of truce, they cared little to waste their time in cultivating crops to be reaped by their foes. Their cattle was, therefore, their chief property; and these were nightly exposed to the southern Borderers, as rapacious and active as themselves. Hence robbery assumed the appearance of fair reprisal. The fatal privilege of pursuing the marauders into their own country, for recovery of stolen goods, led to continual skirmishes. The warden also, himself frequently the chieftain of a Border horde, when redress was not instantly granted by the opposite officer, for depredations sustained by his district, was entitled to retaliate upon England by a warden raid. In such cases, the moss-troopers, who crowded to his standard, found themselves pursuing their craft under legal authority, and became the followers and favourites of the military magistrate, whose ordinary duty it was to check and suppress them. See the curious history of Geordie Bourne, App. No. II. Equally unable and unwilling to make nice distinctions, they were not to be convinced, that what was to-day fair booty, was to-morrow a subject of theft. National animosity usually gave an additional stimulus to their rapacity; although it must be owned that their depredations extended also to the more cultivated parts of their own country. 3 Satchells, who lived when the old Border ideas of meum and tuum were still in some force, endeavours to draw a a very nice distinction betwixt a freebooter and a thief; and thus sings he of the Armstrongs: "On that Border was the Armstrongs, able men; Somewhat unruly, and very ill to tame. The inhabitants of the inland counties did not understand these subtile distinctions. Sir David Lindsay, in the curious drama, published by Mr. Pinkerton, introduces, as one of his dramatis personæ, Common Thift, a Borderer, who is supposed to come to Fife to steal the Earl of Rothes' best hackney, and Lord Lindsay's brown jennet. Oppression also, (another personage there introduced,) seems to be connected with the Borders: for, finding himself in danger, he exclaims,― "War God that I were sound and baill, The Mers sowld fynd me beif and caill, War I thair lyftit with my life, The devill sowld styk me with a knyffe, Adew! my brutbir Annan thieves, PINKERTON'S Scottish Poems, vol. ii. p. 156. I A similar proverb in England of the same interpretation, is Lydford Law, derived from Lydford, a corporation in Devonshire, where, it seems, the same irregular administration of justice prevailed. A burlesque copy of verses on this town begins, "I oft bave heard of Lydford Law, How in the morn they hang and draw, See WESCOIT'S History of Devonshire. * See the acts 48 Cha. II. ch. 3. and 30 Cha. II. ch. 2. against the Border Moss-troopers; to which we may add the following curious extracts from Mercurius Politicus, a newspaper, published during the usurpation. "Thursday, November 14, 1662. "Edinburgh. The Scotts and Moss-troopers have again revived their old custom of robbing and murthering the English, whether soldiers or other, upon all opportunities, within these three weeks. We have had notice of several robberies and murders, committed by them. Among the rest, a Rieutenant, and one other of Col. Overton's regiment, returning from England, were robbed not far from Dunbarr. A lieutenant, lately master of the customs at Kirkcudbright, was killed about twenty miles from this place; and four foot-soldiers of Col. Overton's were killed, going to their quarters, by some mossers, who, after they bad given them quarter, tied their hands behind them, and then threw them down a steep hill or rock, as it was related by a Scotchman, who was with them, but escaped." Ibidem.-October 13, 1663.-The Parliament. October 12, past an act, declaring, any person that shall discover any felon, or felons, (commonly called, or known, by the name of Moss-troopers,) residing upon the Borders of England and Scotland, shall have a reward of ten pound upon their conviction." 3 The armorial bearings, adopted by many of the Border tribes, show how little they were ashamed of their trade of rapine. Like Falstaff, they were "Gentlemen of the night, minions of the moon," under whose countenance they committed their depredations.-Hence, the emblematic moons and stars so frequently charged in the arms of Border families. Their mottos also bear an allusion to their profession :-" Reparabit cornua Phoebe, i. e. We'll have moonlight again," is that of the family of flarden; "Ye shall want, ere I want," that of Cranstoun; "Watch weel," of Haliburton, etc. |