At a later period, the Saxon families who fled from the exterminating sword of the Conqueror, with many of the Normans themselves, whom discontent and intestine feuds had driven into exile, began to rise into eminence upon the Scottish Borders. They brought with them arts, both of peace and of war, unknown in Scotland; and, among their descendants, we soon number the most powerful Border chiefs. Such, during the reign of the last Alexander, were Patrick Earl of March, and Lord Soulis, renowned in tradition [1249]; and such were also the powerful Comyns, who early acquired the principal sway upon the Scottish Marches. In the civil wars betwixt Bruce and Baliol [1300], all those powerful chieftains espoused the unsuccessful party. They were forfeited and exiled; and upon their ruins was founded the formidable house of Douglas. The Borders, from sea to sea, were now at the devotion of a succession of mighty chiefs, whose exorbitant power threatened to place a new dynasty upon the Scottish throne. It is not my intention to trace the dazzling career of this race of heroes, whose exploits were alike formidable to the English and to their own sovereign. and he suffered a final defeat at Burnswark, in Dumfriesshire. The aged Earl was taken in the fight, by a son of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, one of his own vassals. A grant of lands had been offered for his person: "Carry me to the King!" said Douglas to Kirkpatrick : " thou art well entitled to profit by my misfortune; for thou wast true to me, while I was true to myself." The young man wept bitterly, and offered to fly with the Earl into England. But Douglas, weary of exile, refused his proffered liberty, and only requested, that Kirkpatrick would not deliver him to the King, till he had secured his own reward. Kirkpatrick did more: he stipulated for the personal safety of his old master. His generous intercession prevailed; and the last of the Douglasses was permitted to die, in monastic seclusion, in the Abbey of Lindores. After the fall of the house of Douglas, no one chieftain appears to have enjoyed the same extensive supremacy over the Scottish Borders. The various barons, who had partaken of the spoil, combined in resisting a succession of uncontrolled domination. The Earl of Angus alone seems to have taken rapid steps in the same course of ambition, which had been pursued by his kinsmen, and rivals, the Earls of Douglas. Archibald, sixth Earl of Angus, called Bell-the-Cat, was, at once, Warden of the East and Middle Marches, Lord of Liddesdale, and Jedwood forest, and possessed of the strong castles of Douglas, Hermitage, and Tantallon. Highly esteemed by the ancient nobility, a faction which he headed shook the throne of the feeble James III., whose person they restrained, and whose minions they led to an ignominious death. The King failed not to show his sense of these insults, though unable effectually to avenge them. This hastened his fate: and the field of Bannockburn, once the scene of a more glorious conflict, The sun of Douglas set in blood. The murders of the sixth Earl, and his brother, in the Castle of Edinburgh, were followed by that of their successor poniarded at Stirling by the band of his prince. His brother, Earl James, appears neither to have possessed the abilities nor the ambition of his ancestors. He drew, indeed, against his Sovereign, the formidable sword of Douglas, but with a timid and hesitating hand. Procrastination ruined his cause; and he was deserted, at Abercorn, by the Knight of Cadyow, chief of the Hamiltons, and by his most active adherents, after they had ineffectually exhorted him to commit his fate to the issue of a battle [1453]. The Border chiefs, who longed for independence, showed little inclina-beheld the combined chieftains of the Border counties artion to follow the declining fortunes of Douglas. On the contrary, the most powerful class engaged and defeated him at Arkinholme [1455], in Annandale, when, after a short residence in England, he again endeavoured to gain a footing in his native country. The spoils of Douglas were liberally distributed among his conquerors, and royal grants of his forfeited domains effectually interested them in excluding his return. An attempt on the East Borders by "the Percy and the Douglas both together," was equally unsuccessful [1475]. The earl, grown old in exile, longed once more to see his native country, and vowed that, upon Saint Magdalen's day, he would deposit his offering on the high altar at Lochmaben [1483]. Accompanied by the banished Earl of Albany, with his usual fortune, he entered Scotland. The Borderers assembled to oppose him, rayed against their sovereign, under the banners of his own son. The King was supported by almost all the barons of the north; but the tumultuous ranks of the Highlanders were ill able to endure the steady and rapid charge of the men of Annandale and Liddesdale, who bare spears two ells longer than were used by the rest of their countrymen. The yells with which they accompanied their onset, caused the heart of James to quail within him. He deserted his host, and fled towards Stirling; but, falling from his horse, he was murdered by the pursuers [1488]. James IV., a monarch of a vigorous and energetic character, was well aware of the danger which his ancestors had experienced from the preponderance of one overgrown family. He is supposed to have smiled internally, when the Border and Highland champions bled and died in the At the battle of Arkinholme, the Earl of Angus, a near kinsman of Douglas, commanded the royal forces, and the difference of their complexion occasioned the saying, "that the Black Douglas had put down the Red." The Maxwells, the Johnstones, and the Scolts, composed his army. Archibald, Earl of Murray, brother to Douglas, was slain in the action; and Bugb, Earl of Ormoud, his second brother, was taken and executed. His captors, Lord Carlisle, and the Baron of Johnstone, were rewarded with a grant of the lands of Pittinane, upon Clyde.-GODSCROFT, vol. i. p. 375.-BALFOUR'S MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.—ABERCROMBIE'S Achievements, vol. ii. p. 361, folio edition.—The other chiefs were also distinguished by royal favour. By a charter, upon record, dated 25th February, 4548, the king grants to Walter Scott of kirkurd, ancestor of the house of Buccleuch, the lands of Abingtown, Phareholm, and Glentonan Craig, in Lanarkshire, ** Pro suo fideli ser vilio nobis impenso, et pro quod interfuit in conflictu de Arkinholme in occisione el captione nostrorum rebellium quondam Archibaldi et Hugonis de Douglas olim Comitum Moraviæ et de Ormond et aliorum rebelicum nostrorum in eorum comitiva existen: ibidem captorum et interfectorum." Similar grants of land were made to Finnart and Arran, the two branches of the house of Hamilton; to the chief of the Battisons; but above all to the Earl of Angus, who obtained from royal favour a donation of the Lordship of Douglas, and many other lands now held by Lord Dou glas, as his representative. There appears, however, to be some doubt, whether, in this division, the Earl of Angus received more than bis natural right. Our historian, indeed, say, that William, 1st Earl of Douglas, had three sons: 1. James the 2d Earl, who died in the field of Otterburn; 2. Archibald the Grim, 3d Earl; and 3. George, in right of his mother, Earl of Angus. Whether, however, this Archibald was actually the son of William, seems very doubtful; and Sir David Dalrymple has strenuously maintained the contrary. Now, if Archibald the Grim intruded into the Earldom of Douglas, without being a son of that family, it follows that the house of Angus, being kept out of their just rights for more than a century, were only restored to them after the battle of Arkinholme. Perhaps this may help to account for the eager interest taken by the Earl of Angus against his kinsman.-See Remarks on the History of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1773, p. 121. A grant of the King, dated 2d October, 1784, bestowed upon Kirkpatrick, for this acceptable service, the lands of Kirkmichael. [The connexion between the house of Angus and the old line of Douglas has at length, it is believed, been settled by the researches of the learned John Riddell. The first Douglas of Angus was, according to this authority, a natural son of the first Earl of Douglas.-ED.] savage sports of chivalry, by which his nuptials were solemnized. Upon the waxing power of Angus he kept a wary eye; and, embracing the occasion of casual slaughter, he compelled that Earl and his son to exchange the lordship of Liddesdale, and the castle of Hermitage, for the castle and lordship of Bothwell. By this policy he prevented the house of Angus, mighty as it was, from rising to the height whence the elder branch of their family had been hurled. Nor did James fail in affording his subjects on the Marches marks of his royal justice and protection. The clan of Turnbull baving been guilty of unbounded excesses [1510], the King came suddenly to Jedburgh, by a night march, and executed the most rigid justice upon the astonished offenders. Their submission was made with singular solemnity. Two hundred of the tribe met the King, at the water of Rule, holding in their hands the naked swords with which they had perpetrated their crimes, and having each around his neck the halter which he had well merited. A few were capitally punished, many imprisoned, and the rest dismissed, after they had given hostages for their future peaceable demeanour.a The hopes of Scotland, excited by the prudent and spirited conduct of James, were doomed to a sudden and fatal reverse. Why should we recapitulate the painful tale, of the defeat and death of a high-spirited prince? Prudence, policy, the prodigies of superstition, and the advice of his most experienced counsellors, were alike unable to subdue in James the blazing zeal of romantic chivalry. The monarch, and the flower of his nobles, precipitately rushed to the fatal field of Flodden [1513], whence they were never to return. The minority of James V. presents a melancholy scene. Scotland, through all its extent, felt the truth of the adage, that "the country is hapless, whose prince is a child." But the Border counties, exposed from their situation to the incursions of the English, deprived of many of their most gallant chiefs, and harassed by the intestine struggles of the survivors, were reduced to a wilderness, inhabited only by the beasts of the field, and by a few more brutal warriors. Lord Home, the chamberlain and favourite of James IV., leagued with the Earl of Angus, who married the widow of his sovereign, held, for a time, the chief sway upon the East Border. Albany, the Regent of the kingdom, bred in the French court, and more accustomed to wield the pen than the sword, feebly endeavoured to control a lawless nobility, to whom his manners appeared strange, and his person despicable [1516]. It was in vain that he inveigled the Lord Home to Edinburgh, where he was tried and executed. This example of justice, or severity, only irritated the kinsmen and followers of the deceased baron: for though, in other respects, not more sanguinary than the rest of a barbarous nation, the Borderers never dismissed from their memory a deadly feud, till blood for blood had been exacted to the uttermost drachm. 3 of this the fate of Anthony d'Arcey, Seigneur de la Bastie, affords a melancholy example. This gallant French cavalier was appointed Warden of the East Marches by Albany, at his first disgraceful retreat to France. Though De la Bastie was an able statesman, and a true son of chivalry, the choice of the regent was nevertheless unhappy. The new warden was a foreigner, placed in the office of Lord Home, as the delegate of the very man who had brought that baron to the scaffold [1517]. A stratagem, contrived by Home of Wedderburn, who burned to avenge the death of his chief, drew De la Bastie towards Langton in the Merse. Here he found himself surrounded by his enemies. In attempting, by the speed of his horse, to gain the castle of Dunbar, the warden plunged into a morass, where he was overtaken, and cruelly butchered. Wedderburn himself cut off his head; and, in savage triumph, knitted it to his saddle-bow by the long flowing hair, which had been admired by the dames of France.-PITSCOTTIE, edit. p. 130. PINKERTON'S History of England, vol. ii. p. 169.4 The Earl of Arran, head of the house of Hamilton, was appointed to succeed De la Bastie, in his perilous office. But the Douglasses, the Homes, and the Kerrs, proved too strong for him upon the Border. He was routed by those clans, at Kelso [1520], and afterwards in a sharp skirmish, fought betwixt his faction and that of Angus, in the High Street of the metropolis. 5 The return of the Regent was followed by the banishment of Angus, and by a desultory warfare with England, carried on with mutual incursions. Two gallant armies 1 Spens of Kilspindie, a renowned cavalier, had been present in court, when the Earl of Angus was highly praised for strength and valour. "It may be," answered Spens, "if all be good that is upcome;" insinuating that the courage of the Earl might not answer the promise of his person. Shortly after, Angus, while hawking near Borthwick, with a single attendant, met Kilspindie. "What reason bad ye," said the Earl," for making question of my manhood? thou art a tall fellow, and so am 1; and by St. Bride of Douglas, one of us shall pay for it!"-" Since it may be no better," answered Kilspindie," I will defend myself against the best earl in Scotland." With these words they encountered fiercely, till Angus, with one blow, severed the thigh of his antagonist, who died upon the spot. The Earl then addressed the attendant of Kilspindie "Go thy way: tell my gossip, the King, that here was nothing but fair play. I know my gossip will be offended; but I will get me into Liddesdale, and remain in my castle of the Hermitage till his anger be abated."-GODSCROFT, vol. ii. p. 59. The price of the Earl's pardon seems to have been the exchange mentioned in the text. Bothwell is now the residence of Lord Douglas. The sword with which Archibald Bell-the-cat slew Spens, was, by his descendant, the famous Earl of Morton, presented to Lord Lindesay of the Byres, when about to engage in single combat with the noted Earl of Bothwell, at Carberry-bill.-GODSCROFT, vol. ii. p. 175. 2 Holingshed's Chronicle.-LESLY. 3 The statute 4594, cap. 231, ascribes the disorders on the Border in a great measure to the "counselles, directions, receipt, and partaking, of chieftains principalles of the branches, and househalders of the saids surnames, and clannes, quhilkis bears quarrel, and seeks revenge for the least burting or slauchter of ony ane of their unhappy race, although it were ordour of justice, or in rescuing and following of true mens geares stollen or reft." 4 This tragedy, or, perhaps, the preceding execution of Lord Home, must have been the subject of a song, the first two lines of which are preserved In the Complaynt of Scotland God sen' the Duc hed byddin in France, 5 The particulars of this encounter are interesting. The Hamiltons were the most numerous party, drawn chiefly from the western counties. Their leaders met in the palace of Archbishop Beaton, and resolved to apprehend Angus, who was come to the city to attend the Convention of Estates. Gawin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, a near relation of Angus, in vain endeavoured to mediate betwixt the factions. He appealed to Beaton, and invoked his assistance to prevent bloodshed. "On my conscience," answered the Archbishop, "I cannot help what is to happen." As he laid his hand upon his breast, at this solemn declaration, the hauberk, concealed by his rochet, was heard to clatter: "Ah! my lord!" retorted Douglas, “your conscience sounds hollow." He then expostulated with the secular leaders, and Sir Patrick Hamilton, brother to Arran, was convinced by his remonstrances; but Sir James, the natural son of the Earl, upbraided his uncle with reluctance to fight. "False bastard!" answered Sir Patrick, "I will fight to-day where thou darest not be seen." With these words they rushed tumultuously towards the High Street, where Angus, with the Prior of Coldinghame, and the redoubted Wedderburn, waited their assault, at the head of 400 spearmen, the flower of the East Marches, who, having broke down the gate of the Netherbow, had arrived just in time to the Earl's assistance. The advantage of the ground, and the disorder of the Hamiltons, soon gave the day to Angus. Sir Patrick Hamilton, and the Master of Montgomery, were slain. Arran, and Sir James Hamilton, escaped with difüculty; and with no less difficulty was the military prelate of Glasgow rescued from the ferocious Borderers, by the generous interposition of Gawin Dou levied by Albany, were dismissed without any exploit worthy notice, while Surrey, at the head of ten thousand cavalry, burnt Jedburgh, and laid waste all Tiviotdale. This general pays a splendid tribute to the gallantry of the Border chiefs. He terms them, "The boldest men and the hottest, that ever I saw in any nation." [1523.]' Disgraced and detested, Albany bade adieu to Scotland for ever. The Queen-mother and the Earl of Arran for some time swayed the kingdom. But their power was despised on the borders, where Angus, though banished, had many friends. Scott of Buccleuch even appropriated to himself domains belonging to the Queen, worth 400 merks yearly; being probably the castle of Newark, and her jointure lands in Ettrick forest.—This chief, with Kerr of Cessford, was committed to ward, from which they escaped to join the party of the exiled Angus [1525]. Leagued with these, and other Border chiefs, Angus effected his return to Scotland, where he shortly after acquired possession of the supreme power, and of the person of the youthful king. “The ancient power of the Douglasses," says the accurate historian whom I have so often referred to, "seemed to have revived; and, after a slumber of near a century, again to threaten destruction to the Scottish monarchy."-PIN- | KERTON, Vol. ii. p. 277. In fact, the time now returned, when no one durst strive with a Douglas, or with his follower. For, although Angus used the outward pageant of conducting the king around the country, for punishing thieves and traitors, "yet," says Pitscottie," none were found greater than were in his own company." The high spirit of the young king was galled by the ignominious restraint under which he found himself; and, in a progress to the Border, for repressing the Armstrongs, he probably gave such signs of dissatisfaction, as excited the laird of Buccleuch to attempt his rescue. [1526.] This powerful baron was the chief of a hardy clan, inhabiting Ettrick forest, Eskdale, Ewsdale, the higher part of Tiviotdale, and a portion of Liddesdale. In this warlike district he easily levied a thousand horse, comprehending a large body of Elliots, Armstrongs, and other broken clans, over whom the Laird of Buccleuch exercised an extensive authority; being termed, by Lord Dacre," chief maintainer of all misguided men on the Borders of Scotland."- Letter to Wolsey, July 18, 1528. The Earl of Angus, with his reluctant ward, had slept at Melrose; and the clans of Home and Kerr, under the Lord Home, and the Barons of Cessford and Fairnihirst, had,taken their leave of the King, when, in the grey of the morning, Buccleuch and his band of cavalry were found hanging, like a thunder-cloud, upon the neighbouring hill of Haliden.3 A herald was sent to demand his purpose, and to charge him to retire. To the first point he answered, that he came to show his clan to the King, according to the custom of the Borders; to the second, that he knew the King's mind better than Angus. -When this haughty answer was reported to the Earl, Sir," said he to the King, "yonder is Buccleuch, with the thieves of Annandale and Liddesdale, to bar your grace's passage. I vow to God they shall either fight or flee. Your grace shall tarry on this hillock with my brother George; and I will either clear your road of yonder banditti, or die in the attempt." The Earl with these words, alighted, and hastened to the charge; while the Earl of Lennox (at whose instigation Buccleuch made the attempt) remained with the King, an inactive spectator. Buccleuch and his followers likewise dismounted, and received the assailants with a dreadful shout, and a shower of lances. The encounter was fierce and obstinate; but the Homes and Kerrs, returning at the noise of the battle, bore down and dispersed the left wing of Buccleuch's little army. The hired banditti fled on all sides; but the chief himself, surrounded by his clan, fought desperately in the retreat. The Laird of Cessford, chief of the Roxburgh Kerrs, pursued the chase fiercely; till, at the bottom of a steep path, Elliot of Stobs, a follower of Buccleuch, turned, and slew him with a stroke of his lance. When Cessford fell, the pursuit ceased.4 But his death, with those of Buccleuch's friends, who fell in the action, to the number of eighty, occasioned a deadly feud betwixt the names of Scott and Kerr, which cost much blood upon the Marches. 5-See PITSCOTTIE, LESLY, and GODSCROFT. Stratagem at length effected what force had been unable to accomplish [1528]; and the King, emancipated from the iron tutelage of Angus, made the first use of his authority, by banishing from the kingdom his late lieutenant, and the whole race of Douglas. This command was not enforced without difficulty; for the power of Angus was strongly rooted in the East Border, where he possessed the castle of Tantallon, and the hearts of the Homes and Kerrs. The former, whose strength was proverbial, defied a royal army; and the latter, at the Pass of Pease, baffled the Earl of Argyle's attempts to enter the Merse, as lieutenant of his sovereign. On this occasion, the Borderers regarded with wonder and contempt the barbarous array and rude equipage of their northern countrymen. Godscroft has preserved the beginning of a scoffing rhyme, made upon this occasion: glas. The skirmish was long remembered in Edinburgh, by the name of * Cleanse the Causeway."-PINKERTON'S History, vol. ii. p. 181.-PirSCOTTIE, Edit. 1728, p. 420.—Life of Gawain Douglas, prefixed to his Virgil. * A curious letter from Surrey to the king is printed in the Appendix, No. 1. In a letter to the Duke of Norfolk, October 1524, Queen Margaret says, **Sen that the Lard of Sessford and the Lard of Baclw vas put in the Castell of Edinbrouh, the Erl of Lenness hath past byz vay vytbout lycyens, and in despyt; and thynkyth to make the brek that he may, and to solyst other lordis to tak hyz part; for the said Lard of Bavklw vas byz man, and dyd the gretyst ewelyz that myght be dwn, and twk part playnly vyth theffyz as is Well known."- Cot. MSS. Calig. B. 1. 3 Near Darnick. By a corruption from Skirmish-field, the spot is called the Skinnersfield. Two lines of an old ballad on the subject are still preserved: "There were sic belts and blows, The Mattous burn ran blood." [Another part of the field is still called the Charge Law.-ED.] 4 [Sir Walter Scott lived to be proprietor of the ground on which this battle was fought; and a stone seat, on the edge of Kaeside, about half a mile above the house of Abbotsford, marks the spot, called " Turnagain," where Stobbs halted, and Cessford died.-ED.] 5 Buccleuch contrived to escape forfeiture, a doom pronounced against those nobles, who assisted the Earl of Lennox in a subsequent attempt to deliver the King, by force of arms. The laird of Bukcleugh has a respecte, and is not forfeited; and will get his pece, and was in Lethquo, both Sondaye, Mondaye, and Tewisday last, which is grete displeasure to the Carres." -Letter from Sir C. Dacre to Lord Dacre, 2d December, 1526. 6To ding down Tantallon, and make a bridge to the Bass," was an adage expressive of impossibility. The shattered ruins of this celebrated fortress still overhang a tremendous rock on the coast of East Lothian. 7 Edgebucklin, near Musselburgh. chivalry which he worshipped should have taught him other feelings. While these transactions, by which the fate of Scotland was influenced, were passing upon the Eastern Border, the Lord Maxwell seems to have exercised a most uncontrolled domination in Dumfries-shire. Even the power of the Earl of Angus was exerted in vain against the banditti of Liddesdale, protected and bucklered by this mighty chief. Repeated complaints were made by the English residents, of the devastation occasioned by the depredations of the Elliots, Scotts, and Armstrongs, connived at and encouraged by Maxwell, Buccleuch, and Fairnihirst. At a convention of Border commissioners, it was agreed that the King of England, in case the excesses of the Liddesdale freebooters were not duly redressed, should be at liberty to issue letters of reprisal to his injured subjects, granting “power to invade the said inhabitants of Liddesdale, to their slaughters, burning, herships, robbing, reifing, despoiling, and destruction, and so to continue the same at his Grace's plea sure," till the attempts of the inhabitants were fully atoned for. This impolitic expedient, by which the Scottish Prince, unable to execute justice on his turbulent subjects, committo a rival sovereign the power of unlimited chastisement, was a principal cause of the savage state of the Borders. For the inhabitants, finding that the sword of revenge was substituted for that of justice, were loosened from their attachment to Scotland, and boldly threatened to carry on their depredations, in spite of the efforts of both kingdoms. James V., however, was not backward in using more honourable expedients to quell the banditti on the Borders [1529]. The imprisonment of their chiefs, and a noted expedition, in which many of the principal thieves were executed, (see introduction to the ballad, called Johnie Armstrong,) produced such good effects, that according to an ancient picturesque history, "thereafter there was great peace and rest a long time, wherethrough the King had great profit; for he had ten thousand sheep going in the Ettrick forest, in keeping by Andrew Bell, who made the King so good count of them as they had gone in the bounds of Fife."-PITSCOTTIE, p. 153. A breach with England interrupted the tranquillity of the Borders. The Earl of Northumberland, a formidable name to Scotland, ravaged the Middle Marches, and burnt Branxholm, the abode of Buccleuch, the hereditary enemy of the English name [1532]. Buccleuch, with the Barons of Cessford and Fairnihirst, retaliated by a raid into England, where they acquired much spoil. On the East March [1533], Fowberry was destroyed by the Scotts, and Dunglass Castle by D'Arcy, and the banished Angus. A short peace was quickly followed by another war, which proved fatal to Scotland, and to her King. In the battle of Haddenrig, the English, and the exiled Douglasses, were defeated by the Lords Huntly and Home; but this was a transient gleam of saccess. Kelso was burnt, and the Borders ravaged, by the Duke of Norfolk [1542 ]; and finally, the rout of Solway Moss, in which ten thousand men, the flower of the Scottish army, were dispersed and defeated by a band of five hundred English cavalry, or rather by their own dissensions, broke the proud heart of James; a death more painful, a hundred-fold, than was met by his father in the field of Flodden. When the strength of the Scottish army had sunk, without wounds, and without renown, the principal chiefs were led captive into England. Among these was the Lord Maxwell, who was compelled, by the menaces of Henry, to swear allegiance to the English monarch. There is still in existence the spirited instrument of vindication, by which he renounces his connexion with England, and the honours and estates which had been proffered him, as the price of treason to his infant sovereign. From various bonds of manrent, it appears that all the Western Marches were swayed by this powerful chieftain [1543]. With Maxwell, and the other captives, returned to Scotland the banished Earl of Angus, and his brother, Sir George Douglas, after a banishment of fifteen years. This powerful family regained at least a part of their influence upon the Borders; and, grateful to the kingdom which had afforded them protection during their exile, became chiefs of the English faction in Scotland, whose object it was to urge a contract of marriage betwixt the young Queen and the heir-apparent of England. The impetuosity of Henry, the ancient hatred betwixt the nations, and the wavering temper of the Governor, Arran, prevented the success of this measure. The wrath of the disappointed monarch discharged itself in a wide-wasting and furious invasion of the East Marches, conducted by the Earl of Hertford. Seton, Home, and Buccleuch, hanging on the mountains of Lammermoor, saw, with ineffectual regret, the fertile plains of Merse and Lothian, and the metropolis itself, reduced to a smoking desert. Hertford had scarcely retreated with the main army, when Evers and Latoun laid waste the whole vale of Tiviot, with a ferocity of devastation hitherto unheard of. The same "lion mode of wooing," being pursued during the minority of Edward VI., totally alienated the affections even of those Scots who were most attached to the English interest. The Earl of Angus, in particular, united himself to the Governor, and gave the English a sharp defeat at Ancram Moor [1545], a particular account of which action is subjoined to the ballad, entitled, The Eve of St John. Even the fatal defeat at Pinkey, which at once renewed the carnage of Flodden, and the disgrace of Solway, served to prejudice the cause of the victors. The Borders saw, with dread and detestation, the ruinous fortress of Roxburgh once more receive an English garrison, and the widow of Lord Home driven from his * I allude to the affecting story of Douglas of Kilspindie, uncle to the Earl of Angus. This gentleman had been placed by Angus about the King's person, who, when a boy, loved him much on account of his singular activity of body, and was wont to ca'l him his Graysteil, after a champion of chivalry, in the romance of Sir Eger and Sir Grime. He shared, however, the fate of his chief, and for many years served in France. Weary at length of exile, the aged warrior, recollecting the King's personal attachment to him, resolved to throw himself on his clemency. As James returned from bunting in the park at Stirling, he saw a person at a distance, and, turning to his nobles, exclaimed, “Yonder is my Graysteil, Archibald of Kilspindie!" As he approached, Douglas threw himself on his knees, and implored permission to lead an obscure life in his native land. But the name of Douglas was an amulet, which steeled the King's heart against the influence of compassion and juvenile recollection. He passed the suppliant without an answer, and rode briskly up the steep hill towards the castle. Kilspindie, though loaded with a hauberk under his clothes, kept pace with the horse, in vain endeavouring to catch a glance from the implacable monarch. He See also official accounts of these expeditions, in DALYELL's Fragments. sat down at the gate, weary and exhausted, and asked for a draught of water. Even this was refused by the royal attendants. The King afterwards blamed their discourtesy; but Kilspindie was obliged to return to France, where he died of a broken heart; the same disease which afterwards brought to the grave his unrelenting sovereign. Even the stern Henry VIII. blamed his nephew's conduct, quoting the generous saying, “A King's face should give grace."-GODSCROFT, vol ii. p. 407. * In Bayne's State Papers, from p. 43 to page 64, is an account of these destructive forays. One list of the places burnt and destroyed enumeratesMonasteries and Freerehouses. Castles, towres, and piles. Market townes. Villages. Mylnes. Spytells and hospitals. 7 16 243 43 3 baronial castle to make room for the “ Southern Reivers." | prisoners, who fell into their merciless hands, were put to Many of the barons made a reluctant submission [ 1547] to | death, after their eyes had been torn out; the victors conSomerset; but those of the higher part of the Marches remained among their mountains, meditating revenge. A similar incursion was made on the West Borders by Lord Wharton, who, with five thousand men, ravaged and overran Annandale, Nithsdale, and Galloway, compelling the inhabitants to receive the yoke of England. ' The arrival of French auxiliaries, and of French gold, rendered vain the splendid successes of the English. One by one, the fortresses which they occupied were recovered by force, or by stratagem; and the vindictive cruelty of the Scottish Borderers made dreadful retaliation for the injuries they had sustained. An idea may be conceived of this horrible warfare, from the Memoirs of Beaugué, a French officer, serving in Scotland. The Castle of Fairnihirst, situated about three miles above Jedburgh, had been taken and garrisoned by the English. The commander and his followers are accused of such excesses of lust and cruelty, “as would," says Béaugué, "have made to tremble the most savage Moor in Africa." A band of Frenchmen, with the Laird of Fairnihirst, and his Borderers, assaulted this fortress [1549]. The English archers showered their arrows down the steep ascent leading to the castle, and from the outer wall by which it was surrounded. A vigorous escalade, however, gained the base court, and the sharp fire of the French arquebusiers drove the bowmen into the square keep, or dungeon, of the fortress. Here the English defended themselves, till a breach in the wall was made by mining. Through this hole the commandant creeped forth; and, surrendering himself to De la Motherouge, implored protection from the vengeance of the Borderers. But a Scottish Marchman, eyeing in the captive the ravisher of his wife, approached him ere the French officer could guess his intention, and, at one blow, carried his head four paces from the trunk. Above a hundred Scots rushed to wash their hands in the blood of their oppressor, bandied about the severed head, and expressed their joy in such shouts, as if they had stormed the city of London. The ་་ tending who should display the greatest address in severing their legs and arms, before inflicting a mortal wound. When their own prisoners were slain, the Scottish, with an unextinguishable thirst for blood, purchased those of the French; parting willingly with their very arms, in exchange for an English captive. "I myself," says Beaugué, with military sang-froid, "I myself sold them a prisoner for a small horse. They laid him down upon the ground, galloped over him with their lances in rest, and wounded him as they passed. When slain, they cut his body in pieces, and bore the mangled gobbets, in triumph, on the points of their spears. I cannot greatly praise the Scottish for this practice. But the truth is, that the English tyrannized over the Borders in a most barbarous manner; and I think it was but fair to repay them, according to the proverb, in their own coin."-Campagnes de Beaugué, 2 livre iii. chap. 13. A peace, in 1551, put an end to this war; the most destructive which, for a length of time, had ravaged Scotland; Some attention was paid by the governor and queen mother, to the administration of justice on the Border; and the chieftains, who had distinguished themselves during the late troubles, received the honour of knighthood. 3 2 At this time, also [1552], the Debateable Land, a tract of country, situated betwixt the Esk and Sarke, claimed by both kingdoms, was divided by royal commissioners, appointed by the two crowns. By their award, this land of contention was separated by a line, drawn from east to west, betwixt the rivers. The upper half was adjudged to Scotland, and the more eastern part to England. Yet the Debateable Land continued long after to be the residence of thieves and banditti, to whom its dubious state had afforded a desirable refuge.4 In 1557, a new war broke out, in which rencounters on the Borders were, as usual, numerous, and with varied success. In some of these, the too-famous Bothwell is said to have given proofs of his courage, which was at other times very questionable. About this time the Scottish • Patten gives us a list of those East Border chiefs who did homage to the Duke of Somerset, on the 24th of September, 4547; namely, the Lairds of Cessforth, Ferny berst, Grenehead, Hunthill, Bundely, Makerstone, Bymérside, Bounjedworth. Ormeston, Mellestaines, Warmesay, Synton, Egerston, Merton, Mowe, Rydell, Beamerside. Of gentlemen, he enumerates George Tromboul, Jhon Haliburton, Robert Car, Robert Car of Greyden, Adam Kirton, Andrew Met ber, Saunders Purvose of Erleston, Mark Car of Littledean, George Car of Faldenside, Alexander Mackdowal, Charles Rutherford, Thomas Car of the Yere, Jhon Car of Meynthorn, (Nenthorn, ) Walter Haliburton, Richard Hangansyde, Andrew Car, James Douglas of Cavers, James Car of Mersington, George Hoppringle, William Ormeston of Emerden, John Grymslowe.-PATTEN, in DALYELL's Fragments, p. 87. On the West Border, the following barons and clans submitted, and gave pledges to Lord Wharton, that they would serve the King of England, with the number of followers annexed to their names— Laird of Gillersbie. 30 Battisons and Thonsons. Total, 7008 men under English assurance. 46 Nicolson, from Bell's MS. Introduction to History of Cumberland, p. 65. [The Maitland Club of Glasgow printed, in 1830, a beautiful edition of the "Bistoire de la Guerre d'Écosse, par lan de Beaugue, gentilhomme François."-ED.] ANNERDALE. Laird of Kirkmighel. 65 Rose, 31 Hempsfield. 163 Will Johnston, the laird's bro Home Ends. 162 ther. 440 Wamfrey. Dunwoddy. 1000 403 3 These were the Lairds of Buccleuch, Cessford, and Fairnihirst, Littleden, Grenebed, and Coldingknows. Buccleuch, whose gallant exploits we have noticed, did not long enjoy his new honours. He was murdered in the streets of Edinburgh by his hereditary enemies, the Kerrs, anno 1552. 4 The Jest of James VI. is well known, who, when a favourite cow bad found her way from London, back to her native country of Fife, observed, "that nothing surprised him so much as her passing uninterrupted through the Debateable Land!" 5 He was Lord of Liddesdale, and keeper of the Hermitage Castle. But he had little effective power over that country, and was twice defeated by the Armstrongs, its lawless inhabitants.-Border History, p. 584. Yet the unfortunate Mary, in ber famous Apology, says, “that in the weiris against Ingland, be gaif proof of his valyentnes, courage, and gude conduct;" and |