Border Raids and Reivers

But the great feature of Border life in more modern times has been the almost marvellous efflorescence of the spirit of poesy, which has conferred on the district a unique distinction and an imperishable charm. It may seem strange that the home of the reiver should have become the birthplace of poetry and song; yet a moment’s reflection will suffice to show that here are to be found all the conditions which make life a tragedy and beget the feeling for it. The rough adventurous life of the Border reiver, with its constant peril and hairbreadth escapes, formed, as it were, a fitting compost for the cultivation of the tragic muse. And what ballads have sprung from this soil watered by the very heart’s blood of its people! “The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,” “The Douglas Tragedy,” “Johnie Armstrong,” “Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead,” “The Border Widow’s Lament,” “The Flowers of the Forest” – not to mention many others of almost equal merit – have taken possession of the imaginative and emotional life of the nation, and become part and parcel of its very being. Indeed, the influence of this varied body of balladic lore on the thought and life and character of the Scottish people can hardly be over-estimated. Spenser, to whose sublime genius we are indebted for the “Faery Queen,” is known to fame as “the poet’s poet.” It is a high distinction, and not unworthily bestowed. But in a still higher sense it may be said that the Border ballads have been a perennial fountain of poetic inspiration to all lovers of the Muse. Rough and rugged though many of them are, yet they are dowered with that potent spell which at once captivates the heart and awakens within it the deepest and tenderest emotions of which it is capable. Here, if anywhere, we find the Helicon of Scotland.

We may regret, with R. L. Stevenson, that the names of the old balladists have disappeared from the roll of fame. It would have been interesting to know who the singers were; but we may be thankful that the songs they sung have come down to our later age. They are a priceless inheritance, a glorious legacy. In these ballads the rugged cactus of Border life has burst into the most gorgeous blossom.

But this is not all. The ballad period, rich as it is in all the higher elements of dramatic and poetic suggestiveness, was but the beginning of an era of song, which has secured for the Borderland an unique distinction. In the beginning of the eighteenth century there was born in the manse of Ednam, in the neighbourhood of Kelso, one of the most renowned of Border poets, James Thomson, the author of “The Seasons,” “The Castle of Indolence,” “Rule Britannia,” and other pieces. His early youth was spent in the parish of Southdean, and here among the green rolling hills, and by the quiet streams, he stored his mind and imagination with those images of natural beauty which in later times, in a far-off city, he embodied in immortal verse. His services to the poetic literature of his age and country have been tardily, and often very inadequately, appreciated. To him mainly belongs the credit of bringing the minds of men back to nature and reality as the only genuine sources of poetic inspiration. He was the forerunner of Cowper, and Burns, and Wordsworth – the pioneer in a new and profoundly significant movement.

After a considerable interval, Scott, Hogg, and Leyden appear on the scene – names that will for ever remain enshrined in Border song and story. Scott was a Borderer of Borderers, a descendant of Auld Wat of Harden and Mary Scott, the Flower of Yarrow. His grandfather, on the maternal side, was Professor Rutherford, a famous man in his day, the scion of an old Border stock, renowned, like the Harden family, in the annals of reiving.

Hogg and Leyden occupy a place of honourable distinction in the life and literature of the Borders. “Kilmeny” is a masterpiece of imaginative genius, and has won for its author a fame which the lapse of time will not seriously impair. John Leyden, more renowned as a scholar and antiquary than a poet, gave evidence of the possession of powers which, had he been spared, would have secured for him a foremost place among the most brilliant men of his age. These services which the Borders have thus rendered to the literature of the country have been valuable and important in a high degree.

And – if we dare suggest it – it is not altogether improbable that even Burns himself was sprung of a Border stock. We find in the “Border Papers,” from which much of our information regarding Border reiving has been drawn, that the name “Burness” frequently occurs. The family bearing this patronymic was well known in Liddesdale and the Debateable land, and the various branches of the family, like the Armstrongs and Elliots, were distinguished for their reiving propensities. The grandfather of the poet found a home in Argyleshire, and Burns’ father, as is well known, hailed from Kincardineshire. The removal from the Borders of a representative of the family may be easily accounted for. Reference has already been made to a law which was passed by the Scottish Parliament enacting that the various families and clans on the Borders should find pledges for their good behaviour. These “pledges” were sent north of the Forth, and were strictly prohibited from returning to their former haunts. It is just possible that in this way an ancestor of Burns may have been called to leave the Border district in the interests of his family or clan. This much at least is certain, the name is one which was common on the Borders in those times of which we write. But whatever truth there may be in the suggestion we have made (it would be foolish to dogmatise in the absence of authentic information), Burns furnishes many points of resemblance to the distinctive traits of Border character in the olden time. His disregard of conventionality in all its forms, combined with his aggressive sense of independence, mark him out as of the true Border type.

This district, once so famous as the favourite haunt of the reiver, may now be described as one of the most peaceful in the country. Every year it attracts an increasing number of tourists, who come from almost every part of the world to visit its numerous shrines. To the literary and professional classes it has become a kind of Mecca, to which they feel constrained to resort once and again for intellectual refreshment and inspiration. The glamour which Scott, Wordsworth, and Hogg – and many other tuneful poets – have thrown around its green hills and bosky glens has given it an air of enchantment to which the poetic temperament especially is keenly sensitive. The pity is that in modern times, owing to a variety of causes, the population in the rural districts has been steadily decreasing. The fine hardy, thrifty, yeomen race is disappearing. Small holdings have been consolidated, and the big farm – in too many cases – is held by a non-resident tenant, who interests himself little, or not at all, in the social and moral well-being of those whom he is under the necessity of employing. This evil is one of long standing. In the Statistical Account of Yarrow, published in 1833, Dr Russell remarks that – “out of forty-five farms in the parish, twenty are led farms. On many of these were formerly large families, with servants and cottagers, and there are five such lying adjacent, – a state of things the more to be regretted, when its only advantage is a trifling addition of rent, and the saving of outlay on farm buildings.” Well may it be said —

“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,Where wealth accumulates, and men decay:Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade,A breath can make them, as a breath has made:But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,When once destroyed, can never be supplied.”

1

Tytler’s History, vol. I., page 43.

2

Tytler’s History, vol. I., page 46.

3

Border Papers, vol. II., page 130.

4

Froissart, vol. II., p. 362.

5

Ib.

6

Godscroft, p. 98.

7

Hide.

8

Fend – Support.

9

Godscroft, pp. 99-100.

10

Froissart, Vol. II., p. 369.

11

Godscroft, p. 100.

12

Douglas was buried at Melrose beside his father.

13

Hailes’ Annals, p. 111.

14

Maitland of Lethington, vol. I., pp. 69-71.

15

History of James VI.

16

Skene’s Acts of Parliament.

17

Skene’s Acts of Parliament.

18

Border Papers, vol. II., pp. 80-81.

19

Intro. Border Minstrelsy, pp. cxc. – cxci.

20

Armstrong’s Liddisdale, p. 81.

21

Froissart, vol. I., p. 18.

22

Taylor’s History, vol. I., p. 583.

23

Ridpath’s Border History, p. 550.

24

Quoted by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Hist. Dumfries and Galloway, p. 958-9.

25

Quoted by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Hist. Dumfries and Galloway, p. 159-60.

26

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 131.

27

Border Papers, vol. II., pp. 147-8.

28

Border Papers, vol. II., p. 181.

29

Ib., vol. I., p. 143.

30

Ridpath’s Border History, p. 651.

31

Vide Border Antiquities, vol. II., App. p. xlvii.

32

Pitcairn’s Crim. Tr., vol. I., p. 288.

33

Border Papers, vol. II., p. 299.

34

Scott’s Border Antiquities, Intro. pp. xcii. – xciii. Vide also Nicholson’s Border Laws, where these particulars are given more in detail, pp. 127-129, also pp. 143-144.

35

Border Antiquities, p. 104.

36

Border Antiquities, Intro. p. xcvii.

37

Border Antiquities, Intro, pp. xcviii. – c.

38

Armstrong’s Liddisdale, p. 18.

39

Leges Marchiarum, p. 88.

40

Ib., p. 122.

41

Leges Marchiarum, p. 88.

42

Leges Marchiarum, p. 94.

43

Vide Introduction Border Antiquities, p. cviii.

44

Suffer for it.

45

Cary’s Memoirs, p. 112.

46

Leges Marchiarum, p. 124.

47

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 188.

48

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 189.

49

Border Papers, vol. II., p. 163.

50

Border Antiquities, Intro. pp. xlvi. – xlviii.

51

Border Papers, vol. II., pp. 37-38.

52

Armstrong’s Liddesdale, p. 70.

53

Pitscottie, p. 319.

54

Ib., p. 319.

55

Piscottie, p. 321.

56

Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. iii., p. 31.

57

Vide Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. iii., p. 31.

58

Scott’s Border Minstrelsy.

59

Border Papers, vol. i., p. 252.

60

Border Papers, vol. i., p. 284.

61

Border Papers, vol. i., p. 285.

62

Tytler, vol. ii., p. 275.

63

Leslie, p. 82.

64

Cary’s Memoirs, pp. 72-74.

65

Horse newly taken from the grass.

66

Cary’s Memoirs, pp. 45-51.

67

Carries.

68

Rafters.

69

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 348.

70

Pitcairn’s Crim. Tr., vol. I., p. 37.

71

Celtic Scotland, vol. III. p.

72

Vide Intro. Border Antiquities.

73

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 121.

74

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 121.

75

Cary’s Memoirs, pp. 103-110.

76

Border Papers, vol. II., p. 763.

77

Pinkerton.

78

Pitcairn’s Crim. Tr., vol. I., p. 154.

79

Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. I., p. 145.

80

Leslie’s History, p. 143.

81

Pinkerton’s History, vol. II., p. 307.

82

Pitscottie, p. 342-3.

83

Carlenrig.

84

Anderson MS. Adv. Lib. f. 154.

85

Reg. Sec. Big., vol. 8f., 195.

86

Rabbits.

87

Are able to bear.

88

It is said that this and the three preceding stanzas were among those Sir Walter Scott most delighted to quote.

89

Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. i., p. 171.

90

Cheese belly.

91

Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. i., pp. 172-3.

92

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 97.

93

Border Papers, vol. I., p. 282.

94

Border Papers, vol. II., p. 115.

95

Tytler, vol. iv. p. 244.

96

Border Papers, vol. ii., p. 299.

97

Border Papers, vol. ii., p. 313.

98

Border Papers, vol. ii., p. 319.

99

Border Papers, vol. ii. 420.

100

Cary’s Memoirs, pp. 82-3.

101

Border Papers, vol. ii., p. 631.

102

Pitcairn’s Crim. Tr., vol. i., p. 276.

103

Border Papers, vol. II., p. 359.

104

Carriers.

105

Border Minstrelsy, vol. iv. pp. 91-94.

106

Border Minstrelsy, vol. iv. pp. 95-96.

107

Border Minstrelsy, vol. i. p. 402.

108

Innocently.

109

Farms.

110

Rievers, robbers.

111

Martyrs.

112

Execrated.

113

Waking.

114

Execrate.

115

Live stock.

116

Curses and execreations.

117

Uunti.

118

Disencumbered.

119

Lightning.

120

Places.

121

May the earth open, split and cleave.

122

Swallow them alive.

123

Freed.

124

Only.

125

Until.

126

Loyalty.

127

Without part in.

128

So may.

129

Mr Armstrong has printed the above in his ‘History of Liddesdale, &c.,’ from the ‘State Papers of Henry VIII.,’ vol. iv., note, pp. 417-419.

130

Ridpath’s Border History, p. 704.

131

Ridpath’s Border History, p. 706.

132

Apostolic Ministry of the Scottish Church, p. 211.

133

Book of Discipline, chap. vii.

134

Border Papers, vol. i. p. 125.

135

Border Papers, vol. ii. p. 323.

136

Border Papers, vol. i. p. 494.

137

Border Papers, vol. ii. p. 316.

138

Principal Fairbairn.