The Borderlands
The period between the late 13th century and the beginning of the 17th, roughly from the end of Scotland’s Second War of Independence to the accession of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne, was a period of perpetual hostility and rivalry between the two kingdoms. Although during this period, and in stark contrast to preceding times, events rarely spilled over into outright national conflict, the peace that held was never quiet or easy, particularly on the border where the two nations met. Walter Scott, one of the first and still most comprehensive historians of that time and place, aptly described it as “That old, simple, violent world”.1 The border was the home of the Border Reivers, clans of raiders who eked out a living in the wastes left by half a millennium of war.
The people of the area suffered for centuries as army after army passed through, from north and south, often wreaking mindless and unimpeded destruction as they did. Even after this, cross-border raiding remained commonplace, employed by Anglo-Scottish powers at both local and national levels to achieve political leverage or even personal gain. The unfortunate inhabitants, so detached from the considerations of London, York, Stirling and Edinburgh were forced to adapt to a life quite different from the comparative security their counterparts in national heartlands enjoyed. In The Steel Bonnets, still the preeminent history of the reivers, George McDonald Fraser puts this succinctly:
They lived on a battlefield that stretched from the Solway to the North Sea, war after war… to put it mildly had an effect on the folk who lived there… if a man cannot live and ensure that his family lives within the law, he has no alternative but to step outside it.2
Living as they did under constant threat of raiding and violence, the local population quickly sought the only safety available to them, that of strength in numbers. Warbands were composed of extended kinship networks and typically led by individuals who attained their position through exceptional aptitude for violence and cunning. The more accomplished they were in these categories, the larger their clan was likely to be. Being expert light horsemen, these bands could be assembled to see off attacks by rivals or conduct their own raids with lightning speed. The largest of these parties could total several thousand men and were capable of sacking major cities. Johnnie Armstrong, head of reiving’s most notorious clan, could muster 3,000 riders upon command, a number larger than any garrison in northern England at the time. Clan leaders became de-facto lords of the border dales, projecting power from “pele” towers. To this day, these imposing stone structures, with walls 2 metres thick, rise high above the barren, windswept landscape, showing the vantage and safety inhabitants enjoyed.
Anyone attempting to live outside reiver protection faced dire prospects. Indeed, in one of many examples where reiving terminology made its way into the wider English lexicon, “blackmail” was originally the payment taken in the protection rackets reivers ran. Alongside this environment of endemic predation, continual and often intergenerational feuding between clans was the normal order of things. Raiding was not only a means of acquiring wealth but also the most emphatic way to settle scores. To ride out and raid in the name of your clan was the most celebrated of pursuits and men who did this successfully quickly became heroes. Some reiving families were exclusively English, like the Charltons and the Milburns, and some all Scottish, like the Kerrs and the Scotts, but there were Armstrongs, Elliots and Grahams on both sides of the border. There was also a sprawling cross-border web of intermarriage between clans that muddied any sense of national identity and allegiance even further. Raiding done was not necessarily carried out by Scot against Englishman or vice versa. A Bishop of Carlisle at the time complained “More reiving is done in the English Borderland by Englishmen than by Scots”.3 Both nations attempted to use these exceptionally skilled horsemen in their own militaries on numerous occasions but often came to regret it. In battles they participated in (typically only after payment), reivers were known to exhibit national colours in loosely sewn patches, which they could rip off mid-battle, should they decide to change sides. Despite being a society created by England and Scotland’s perpetual tussle, the reivers seldom showed interest in being part of it.
Yet, despite being professional thieves and murderers, reivers were not without a moral code. For these people, clan identity created fierce, unshakeable loyalties. Reputation was everything and fidelity, honour, and bravery were valued above all else. A complex system of rules and customs emerged that governed interaction and regulated issues such as (ironically) theft, murder, debt and hospitality. The “Border Law” was underpinned by belief in the sanctity of oaths, however painful or difficult their upkeep might prove to be. Borderers were “Men who will rather lose lives and livings than go back on their word, and break the customs of the Border”.4
To the English and Scottish monarchs of the sixteenth century these lawless frontiersmen were an anachronism, their casual and capricious violence horrifying for a post-renaissance age that was trying to take significant steps away from mediaeval barbarism. So appalled by their exploits were the nobility and clergy of the time that the reivers became a horror story, an example of supreme wickedness, a waiting terror for anyone who might have to make a visit to the region or attempt to cross the border. One of the most famous public denunciations came from the Bishop of Glasgow, who was particularly vivid in his contempt for the Reivers when excommunicating them in 1525. This rancorous diatribe is an exemplary flight of invective, and worthy of being read in its entirety. In a forlorn attempt to administer and instil order, the Border region was divided into Western, Middle and Eastern Marches, each with its own warden on both sides. The most successful of these were almost invariably locals, who would take a relaxed attitude to royal dictates they were seldom if ever sufficiently resourced to carry out, and instead pragmatically embraced the conventions of “Border Law”.
The Border Ballads
Despite the brutality of this society, and although literacy levels were generally lower than elsewhere in a still largely non-literate age, Borderers had an oral tradition of depth and richness arguably unparalleled in the British Isles since ancient times.5 The Bishop of Ross observed that Borderers ‘delyt mekle in thair awne musick and Harmonie in singing, quhilke of the actes of thair foirbearis thay have leired.6 In terms of cultural legacy, their only rivals could be argued to be The Robin Hood Ballads, but in diversity, scope and as linguistic artefacts, the Border Ballads are surely more rewarding for study. Indeed, they are unequivocally of one place, time and people and have become some of the most cherished works of the Early Modern period. Although they were recorded in various dialects of Scots and occasionally English, often existed in an array of very different versions, were collected many years later and were altered by collectors, they remain intensely local. This is in spite of Scott’s very transparent effort to draw them into a wider Scottish canon. As Bouyssou states:
The Border vernacular is no gimmick to add a touch of local colour. Its terse, abrupt phrases, together with its harsh melody, bring forth the violence of feeling, the rugged character of the people and the wildness of the land.7
There are fantastical tales of faeries and ill-fated lovers within the ballads, but most are historical, serving not just as entertainment but as cultural repositories preserving local identity, historical memory, and the moral codes of the community. What may be surprising is that these historical ballads often corroborate third party accounts of reiver deeds down to the smallest details. These dramatic tales of raiding, revenge and even great battles are always interwoven with the unyielding local spirit of defiance and resistance.
There is also unwavering adherence to the statutes of Border Law, and fascinating insight into the intricacies of oath taking/keeping. In the Ballad of Hobbie Noble, a captured reiver is offered his life in exchange for a false confession of theft. Yet despite being quite open about thefts he had committed, he point blank refuses to admit to something he did not do “How can I confess them?” Hobbie says “For I never saw them with my ee?”.8 He will only take ownership of what he had actually done, even at the cost of his life, and is therefore a hero. There was also an obligation to right wrongs –there could be no surrender or compromise in the face of hostility, even across generations. The Ballad of Johnnie Armstrong demonstrates how deeply ingrained into Border society such ideas were, with even very young children expected to uphold this code:
Out then spoke Johnny’s youngest son, As he stood by his nurses knee, If ever I live to be a man My father’s death reveng’d shall be.9
Such were heroes of the Borders, fighting through an entirely unforgiving life, with a set of rules and laws, although barbaric, their own. Depictions of horrific acts of theft and violence are matter of fact, even light-hearted. However, when the laws of “outsiders” encroach upon them, predatory, self-serving reivers are elevated to heroic resistance fighters defending a way of life.
The ballads were most often in simple quatrains that could fit to diverse melodies to be sung, chanted or performed to music in a mode of storytelling that stretches back to the days of Homer,10 with verse always preceding the music. The purely oral culture which the ballads sprang from and that persisted, relying on collaboration between wordsmiths and musicians was surely a factor in their richness and originality.11 By the late 18th century however, they were being written down, printed and becoming literature. One of the collectors was Sir Walter Scott, himself a Borderer, drawn to the fact many of the stories and ballads featured his ancestors. While it is not hard to see the source of Scott’s interest in the material, his devotion to their promotion went far beyond any contemporary. Scott virtually invented the art of antiquarianism. He travelled Scotland, collecting historical artefacts at a time when old things were not valued by their owners (even being credited with finding Scotland’s lost crown jewels and royal regalia) and he assembled a remarkable private collection. He was fascinated by the heroic past and present, and he breakfasted on the battlefield of Waterloo with the Duke of Wellington the morning after Napoleon’s defeat.12
Scott, the extraordinary, energetic and knowledgeable collector of things, applied the same enthusiasm to gathering the ballads of his home region. As one of the most celebrated and successful writers of his generation13 however, Scott had another trait –an inability to resist the temptation to alter and “improve” what he found. Just as he invented a whole Scottish culture of clan tartans for the visit of George IV to Edinburgh and allowed the king to slot into this ready-made (if completely artificial) society, where the Border Ballads were concerned, it seems certain from the reaction of locals upon publication he had tidied up some when he felt they needed it. This was alongside creating his own in the style of the originals. Although he performed an immeasurable service in gathering and preserving many, there are some rendered almost unrecognisable by “improvements”. As the one of the balladeers Scott had collected from said to him after he had pubished:
There war never ane o’ my sangs prentit till ye prentit them yoursel’, an ye hae spolit them awthegither. They were made for singing and no’ for reading; but ye hae broken the charm now, an’ they’ll never be sung mair.14
Whatever Scott did, he was launched into fame and success with his editions of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and his rise continued to a position in the literary world which few living writers have ever experienced. Being the literary sensation he was in his time, the versions he presented became thereafter definitive and the point of reference for all others.
The Rescue Ballads
Among the Historical Ballads can be found another subset, generally referred to as The Rescue Ballads. These are stories where guile, rather than brute strength, is celebrated. Reivers captured by enemies (often conniving officials or their subjects) are rescued by their kin just before execution. Attempts have been made to tie the Rescue Ballads and the Robin Hood Ballads together as folksy calls to arms against corrupt authority, but this is a link of overarching theme at best. The historical ballads as a whole are less about struggle against unjust hierarchy than about the freedom the reviers felt entitled to in setting their own laws and conduct, outside of the control of established states who had scant consideration for them.15 Some of the most celebrated examples are Kinmont Willie, Jock o’ the Side and Archie o’ Ca’field.
Kinmont Willie
Amongst these tales, the Ballad of Kinmont Willie stands out, both in terms of composition and content. Chronologically, it is perhaps the last great event in reiver history and the final chime of what George Mcdonald Fraser called “The high midnight”16 of the reivers. If this is the case, it is a fitting coda, with the most grandiose and daring of heists and a vividly portrayed cast of some of the Border’s most infamous characters. For a people so fixated on vengeance, there is also the sense of the reivers landing one final blow on the authorities, who had worked so fruitlessly to pacify them. Within the canon, we learn Hobbie Noble was imprisoned in Carlisle castle, then hanged, Willie’s grandfather Johnny Armstrong met the same fate, but, despite the dire circumstances he finds himself in, this time the eponymous hero escapes.
The version commonly read today comes from Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders (1802-1832), which he claimed to have transcribed from an earlier oral/musical version. The slightly polished composition in comparison to other ballads could suggest Scott’s embellishment, with Marsden going as far as to suggest he composed it himself.17 The history upon which it is based however, has been extensively documented and the ballad is still imbued with the brash vigour of the Border canon. As is often the case with border ballads, the plot and the characters of Kinmont Willie need little exaggeration. There is the air of a classic Hollywood swashbuckler about it, with its daring rescue mission in the strongest castle of the region, and an added (and as will be shown, misplaced) flourish of Scottish underdog defiance in the face of English deceit and condescension. The ballad does seem to contradict the notion reivers did not care about national identity, but as it revolves around a personal clash between the wardens of the Western Marches, it is arguably expected. We also plainly see the dearth of diplomacy amongst the Borderers, with violence the only effective means of resolution.
The titular hero is “bauld” Kinmont Willie, who is ambushed and arrested on the day of a declared truce by the deputy of the warden of the English Marches, Sakelde. The tone of disbelief conveys that a terrible breach of Border Law has occurred – “fause” Sakelde has broken his word and is introduced to the audience as an oathbreaker in the first line of the poem. John Leslie, Bishop of Ross had observed that amongst the reivers “To be called an oathbreaker was worse than death”18 and the actions of Sakelde, ostensibly acting on the orders of his superior, the “keen” Lord Scrope, put them straight into the crosshairs of poetic justice:
1. O have ye na heard o’ the fause Sakelde?
O have ye na heard o’ the keen Lord Scrope?
How they hae ta’en bauld Kinmont Willie,
On Haribee to hang him up?
Had Willie had but twenty men,
But twenty men as stout as he,
Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta’en
Wi’ eight score in his companie.19
Willie’s martial prowess is plain to see, he and his kin are claimed to be worth four of Sakelde and his. From the outset and upon arrival as a prisoner in Carlisle Castle, he seems entirely unphased by captivity. Within the ballads, it seems a point of honour that reivers are fearless in the face of retribution.20 Interestingly, in one of the only ballads where a reiver pointedly begs for mercy, Johnnie Armstrong, his request is declined and he is promptly hanged. Willie does not make this mistake, and indeed, he seems as outraged that local law has been flouted in his arrest as he is by his incarceration:
17. “My hands are tied, but my tongue is free,
And whae will dare this deed avow?
Or answer by the Border law?
Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch?”
News of the arrest travels back to Scrope’s Scottish counterpart, the once again “bauld”, Buccleuch and as this suggests, he is quite a different man to Scrope. Buccleuch is a believer in the sanctity of Border Law and, upon hearing of its violation, begins a lengthy rage-fuelled monologue:
35. He has ta’ en the table wi’ his hand,
He garr’d the red wine spring on hie –
“Now Chris curse on my head” he said
“That avenged of Lord Scrope I’ll be!”
Buccleuch is shocked at the act but also obviously considers the arrest a personal affront to both his wardenship and his reiving abilities.
43. And have they e’en ta’en him, Kinmont Willie,
Withouten either dread or fear?
And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch
Can back a steed, or shake a spear?”
Despite being a royally appointed figure, Buccleuch, Sir Walter Scott’s namesake and ancestor, was a local. He quickly decides to forego any attempt at official communication and acts in as any other reiver would – he musters kinsmen for a swift, violent response:
61. He has call’d him fourty Marchmen bauld,
I trow they were of his ain name,
Except Sir Gilber Elliot called,
The Laird of Scots, I mean the same
Ostensibly at great speed, a raiding party of eighty is assembled and they ride for Carlisle across the border, where they almost immediately are halted by Sakeld:
85. “Where be ye gaun…?”
“We gang to hunt an English stag,
Has trespassed on the Scot’s countrie”
“We gang to catch a rank reiver,
Has broken faith wi’ the bauld Buccleuch”
Whether acting in his capacity of Deputy, or simply because he is also a reiver himself, Sakelde then attempts to apprehend the party, but is quickly dispatched. There is neither mercy nor remorse for an oathbreaker such as him, gleefully labelled “fause” until the last. Sakelde’s death is, in their eyes, justice and recompense for his moral offence. It is also noteworthy that the revier responsible for the act is named and given his own small moment of acclaim:
The never a word had Dickie to say,
Sae he thrust the lance through his fause bodie
Upon arriving at Carlisle, the rescuers stealthily climb the castle walls, but then in a tradition of heroic figures going back to the advent of English literature and even Homer, Buccleuch quite literally trumpets his arrival from the ramparts:
124. “Now sound out, trumpets!” quo’ Buccleuch; “Let’s waken Lord Scroop, right merrilie!” Then loud the warden’s trumpet blew— “O whae dare meddle wi’ me?”
This is the first of several gauntlets, both figurative and literal, that will be thrown down. With no sign of Scrope’s men, Willie is quickly located and freed. While it may be expected the prisoner would express relief after narrowly evading execution, instead his final words within the castle walls promise to avenge his ordeal:
152. “Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scrope! My gude Lord Scrope, farewell! He cried – “I’ll pay you for my lodging mail, When first we meet on the Border side”
Lord Scrope and the English garrison finally appear to pursue, but by this point, the raiders have managed to cross the River Eden that “flow’d frae bank to brim”, to safety. Across the water, and now safely back in Scotland, it is now Buccleuch who takes the opportunity to taunt Scrope, with an open challenge to continue their conflict :
166. “He turn’d him on the other side,
And at Lord Scrope his glove flung be –
“If ye like na my visit in merry England,
In fair Scotland come visit me!”
The throwing down of the glove may be more in keeping with Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe than a Border chief, but it is a memorable dramatic gesture in the context of the poem. This footnote to the days of knightly chivalry may have been one of Scott’s famous embellishments and, as the first documented version of the poem, we will never know. For Scrope to pursue a warden of the Scottish Marches over the border would risk escalating what was already verging on an international crises, but rather than tact, the ballad suggests it is Scrope’s lack of daring to cross the swollen river that deters him. He is left marvelling at the daring of his adversaries:
206. “I wad na have ridden that wan water,
For a’ the gowd in Christentie.”
There is extensive evidence confirming the rescue’s occurence in 1596. However, recorded details show some distance between fact and fiction. The Armstrong clan was the most infamous of all the reivers. They were centred around Liddesdale, a remote and rugged area of the western Border, known as “the Debateable Lands”, an area that had been left during the delineation of the border and was therefore within neither nation’s jurisdiction. At the height of their power, the Armstrongs were answerable to nobody but kings, and the most senior members of the clan wrought more destruction than any other two reiving families combined.21 Even within such a group, William “Kinmont Willie” Armstrong was of near unparalleled notoriety. From his pele tower, he led a 20-year reign of terror, stealing thousands of cattle, thousands of pounds worth of goods (a quite staggering amount for the region at the time) and killing scores of men. Although he usually forayed south, he is also renowned for taking advantage of a spat amongst the Scottish nobility to pillage the city of Stirling.22 Few Reivers at any time would risk threatening a major city, but Willie proved himself brazen enough to take such risks time and time again.
Regarding Willie’s capture, we know that Scrope claimed no truce had been violated and that it was his understanding the amnesty on capture ended as soon as the meetings held earlier that day adjourned. Regarding the rescue, there was debate over the actual size of the rescue party. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Buccleuch claimed only 80, while Scrope said a veritable horde of 500 men had set upon the castle when reporting the incident to his superiors in London. Regardless of where the actual total lay, it is quite impossible to imagine the force successfully raiding such a castle, and its 1000 strong garrison, without inside help. Contemporary reports show that the party was made up not only of Buccleuch’s kinsmen, but also Armstrongs, Elliots, and quite notably, English reiver allies on the inside, employed at the time by Scrope.23 As ever, ties of kinship were involved – the English reiver, Thomas Carleton was stationed at the castle, and through the usual complex web, a kinsman of Kinmont Willie. Scrope had recently sacked Thomas from his post as a land sergeant, providing another motive for him to side with the raiders.
The incident was utterly humiliating for Lord Scrope. Although he was an outsider and it would not be remembered in a great ballad of vengeance, his response was very much one of a reiver. He gave special warrant to raids into Liddesdale alleged to have taken over 3000 cattle, burned 24 buildings and killed scores, including women and children.24 The incident was one of the rare times when reiving threatened to spill over into national conflict. Elizabeth I summoned Buccleuch to London, and despite his resistance, James VI of Scotland, terrified of jeopardising his position as her heir, compelled him to go. His defiant and steadfast belief he was innocent of any wrongdoing was reported to have impressed the Queen, who remarked, “What is it that a man dare not do?” Elizabeth replied “With ten thousand such men, our brother in Scotland might shake the firmest throne in England”.25
James succeeded Elizabeth to become James I of England in 1603 and he declared that henceforward there would be no border in his kingdom. By eliminating the reiver’s ability to flee from one side of the border to separate jurisdictions and sanctuary on the other and by being able to finally unite the authorities of both countries against them, the reivers were brought to heel. In the end, it may be surprising that the reiving clans were broken with such little resistance. The Border Law, solid and so firmly upheld was shattered within less than a generation. Our archetypal reiving hero, Buccleuch, would turn to hang many of the men he rode out with to rescue Willie for his king26 – pragmatic, capricious and murderous to the last. This time there would be no retribution, only reward in the form of great wealth and a dukedom for his kin. This became the first period of stable government many of the inhabitants had ever known. While peace, tranquillity and freedom from violence were undoubted blessings for the Borderers, the decline of the reivers also meant the decline of a ballad tradition they had provided the subject matter to.
Although the Anglo-Scottish border was lost to them, it will come as no surprise that the reivers did not simply ebb away into pacified insignificance. Some were shipped out to James’ new plantation in Ulster. Taking the wildest troublemakers within his kingdom and transplanting them to Northern Ireland as oppressors of the local population has of course led to considerable repercussions up to the present day. Many also left for the New World, where their hardiness and martial prowess made them ideally suited to expanding British colonies. Although it is much referenced, it is surely a fitting testament to the intrepid, indomitable spirit of these people that one of their descendants was the first human to set foot on the moon.
Walter Scott and his fellow collectors undoubtedly performed a great service in committing the Border Ballads to print. Scott’s Minstrelsy not only ensured their survival but helped to popularise the idea of the folk ballad as a legitimate and noteworthy form of poetry. However, it was also here when the ballads separated from their creators and passed into the realm of historical artifact. The influence of the ballads went far beyond their original context. The ideas of frontier justice, rugged individualism, and resistance to authority found in these ballads continue to resonate strongly across the Anglosphere and beyond. We may not be able to encounter the ballads today in their entirely original form or experience their power as extant celebrations of Border culture, but they remain a fascinating relic of a people that punched well above their weight, in life and in literature.
Appendix I
The Ballad of Kinmont Willie
O have ye na heard o’ the fause Sakelde?
O have ye na heard o’ the keen Lord Scroop?
How they hae ta’en bauld Kinmont Willie,
On Hairibee to hang him up?
Had Willie had but twenty men,
But twenty men as stout as he,
Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta’en,
Wi’ eight score in his cumpanie.
They band his legs beneath the steed,
They tied his hands behind his back;
They guarded him, fivesome on each side,
And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack.
They led him thro’ the Liddel-rack,
And also thro’ the Carlisle sands;
They brought him to Carlisle castell,
To be at my Lord Scroop’s commands.
“My hands are tied, but my tongue is free!
And whae will dare this deed avow?
Or answer by the border law?
Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch!”
“Now haud thy tongue, thou rank reiver!
There’s never a Scot shall set ye free:
Before ye cross my castle yate,
I trow ye shall take farewell o’ me.”
“Fear na ye that, my lord,” quo’ Willie:
“By the faith o’ my body, Lord Scroop,” he said,
“I never yet lodged in a hostelrie,
But I paid my lawing before I gaed.”
Now word is gane to the bauld Keeper,
In Branksome Ha’, where that he lay,
That Lord Scroop has ta’en the Kinmont Willie,
Between the hours of night and day.
He has ta’en the table wi’ his hand,
He garr’d the red wine spring on hie—
“Now Christ’s curse on my head,” he said,
“But avenged of Lord Scroop I’ll be!
“O is my basnet a widow’s curc
Or my lance a wand of the willow tree?
Or my arm a ladye’s lilye hand,
That an English lord should lightly me!
“And have they ta’en him, Kinmont Willie,
Against the truce of border tide?
And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch
Is Keeper here on the Scottish side?
“And have they e’en ta’en him, Kinmont Willie,
Withouten either dread or fear?
And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch
Can back a steed, or shake a spear?
“O were there war between the lands,
As well I wot that there is none,
I would slight Carlisle castell high,
Tho’ it were builded of marble stone.
“I would set that castell in a low,
And sloken it with English blood!
There’s nevir a man in Cumberland,
Should ken where Carlisle castell stood.
“But since nae war’s between the lands,
And there is peace, and peace should be;
I’ll neither harm English lad or lass,
And yet the Kinmont freed shall be!”
He has call’d him forty marchmen bauld,
I trow they were of his ain name,
Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, call’d
The laird of Stobs, I mean the same.
He has call’d him forty marchmen bauld,
Were kinsmen to the bauld Buccleuch;
With spur on heel, and splent on spauld,
And gleuves of green, and feathers blue.
There were five and five before them a’,
Wi’ hunting horns and bugles bright;
And five and five came wi’ Buccleuch,
Like warden’s men, arrayed for fight:
And five and five, like a mason gang,
That carried the ladders lang and hie;
And five and five, like broken men;
And so they reached the Woodhouselee.
And as we cross’d the Bateable Land,
When to the English side we held,
The first o’ men that we met wi’,
Whae sould it be but fause Sakelde?
“Where be ye gaun, ye hunters keen?”
Quo’ fause Sakelde; “come tell to me!”
“We go to hunt an English stag,
Has trespassed on the Scots countrie.”
“Where be ye gaun, ye marshal men?”
Quo’ fause Sakelde; “come tell me true!”
“We go to catch a rank reiver,
Has broken faith wi’ the bauld Buccleuch.”
“Where are ye gaun, ye mason lads,
Wi’ a’ your ladders, lang and hie?”
“We gang to herry a corbie’s nest,
That wons not far frae Woodhouselee.”
“Where be ye gaun, ye broken men?”
Quo’ fause Sakelde; “come tell to me!”
Now Dickie of Dryhope led that band,
And the never a word o’ lear had he.
“Why trespass ye on the English side?
Row-footed outlaws, stand!” quo’ he;
The never a word had Dickie to say,
Sae he thrust the lance thro’ his fause bodie.
Then on we held for Carlisle toun,
And at Staneshaw-bank the Eden we cross’d;
The water was great and meikle of spait,
But the nevir a horse nor man we lost.
And when we reached the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind was rising loud and hie;
And there the laird garr’d leave our steeds,
For fear that they should stamp and nie.
And when we left the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind began full loud to blaw;
But ‘twas wind and weet, and fire and sleet,
When we came beneath the castle wa’.
We crept on knees, and held our breath,
Till we placed the ladders against the wa’;
And sae ready was Buccleuch himsell
To mount the first, before us a’.
He has ta’en the watchman by the throat,
He flung him down upon the lead—
“Had there not been peace between our land,
Upon the other side thou hadst gaed!—
“Now sound out, trumpets!” quo’ Buccleuch;
“Let’s waken Lord Scroop, right merrilie!”
Then loud the warden’s trumpet blew—
“O whae dare meddle wi’ me?”
Then speedilie to work we gaed,
And raised the slogan ane and a’.
And cut a hole thro’ a sheet of lead,
And so we wan to the castle ha’.
They thought King James and a’ his men
Had won the house wi’ bow and spear;
It was but twenty Scots and ten,
That put a thousand in sic a stear!
Wi’ coulters and wi’ fore-hammers,
We garr’d the bars bang merrilie,
Untill we cam to the inner prison,
Where Willie o’ Kinmont he did lie.
And when we cam to the lower prison,
Where Willie o’ Kinmont he did lie—
“O sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie,
Upon the morn that thou’s to die?”
“O I sleep saft, and I wake aft;
Its lang since sleeping was fleyed frae me!
Gie my service back to my wife and bairns,
And a’ gude fellows that speer for me.”
Then Red Rowan has hente him up,
The starkest man in Teviotdale—
“Abide, abide now, Red Rowan,
Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell.
“Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope!
My gude Lord Scroope, farewell!” he cried—
“I’ll pay you for my lodging maill,
When first we meet on the border side.”
Then shoulder high, with shout and cry,
We bore him down the ladder lang;
At every stride Red Rowan made,
I wot the Kinmont’s aims played clang!
“O mony a time,” quo’ Kinmont Willie,
“I have ridden horse baith wild and wood;
But a rougher beast than Red Rowan,
I ween my legs have ne’er bestrode.
“And mony a time,” quo’ Kinmont Willie,
“I’ve pricked a horse out oure the furs;
But since the day I backed a steed,
I never wore sic cumbrous spurs!”
We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
When a’ the Carlisle bells were rung,
And a thousand men, in horse and foot,
Cam wi’ the keen Lord Scroope along.
Buccleuch has turned to Eden water,
Even where it flow’d frae bank to brim,
And he has plunged in wi’ a’ his band,
And safely swam them thro’ the stream.
He turned him on the other side,
And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he—
“If ye like na my visit in merry England,
In fair Scotland come visit me!”
All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope,
He stood as still as rock of stane;
He scarcely dared to trew his eyes,
When thro’ the water they had gane.
“He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be;
I wad na have ridden that wan water,
For a’ the gowd in Christentie.”
Walter Scott, Ministrelsy of The Scottish Border, Vol. I, Accessed: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12742/12742-h/12742-h.htm
Appendix II
The Great Monition of Cursing by Gavin Dunbar, the Archbishop of Glasgow on the Border
Reivers – 1525
“Gude folks, heir at my Lord Archibischop of
Glasgwis letters under his round sele, direct to
me or any uther chapellane, makand mension,
with greit regrait, how hevy he beris the
piteous, lamentabill, and dolorous complaint
that pass our all realme and cummis to his eris,
be oppin voce and fame, how our souverane
lordis trew lieges, men, wiffis and barnys,
bocht and redemit be the precious blude of our
Salviour Jhesu Crist, and levand in his lawis,
ar saikleslie part murdrist, part slayne, brynt,
heryit, spulzeit and reft, oppinly on day licht
and under silens of the nicht, and thair takis and
landis laid waist, and thair self banyst therfra,
als wele kirklandis as utheris, be commoun
tratouris, revaris, theiffis, duelland in the south
part of this realme, sic as Tevidale, Esdale,
Liddisdale, Ewisdale, Nedisdale, and Annandaill;
quhilkis hes bene diverse ways persewit and
punist be the temperale swerd and our Soverane
Lordis auctorite, and dredis nocht the samyn.
“And thairfoir my said Lord Archbischop of
Glasgw hes thocht expedient to strike thaim
with the terribill swerd of halykirk, quilk
thai may nocht lang endur and resist; and
hes chargeit me, or any uther chapellane, to
denounce, declair and proclame thaim oppinly
and generalie cursit, at this market croce, and
all utheris public places.
“Heirfor throw the auctorite of Almichty God,
the Fader of hevin, his Son, our Salviour, Jhesu
Crist, and of the Halygaist; throw the auctorite
of the Blissit Virgin Sanct Mary, Sanct Michael,
Sanct Gabriell, and all his angellis; Sanct John
the Baptist, and all the haly patriarkis and
prophets; Sanct Peter, Sanct Paul, Sanct Andro,
and all haly appostillis; Sanct Stephin, Sanct
Laurence, and all haly mertheris; Sanct Gile,
Sanct Martyn, and all haly confessouris; Sanct
Anne, Sanct Katherin, and all haly virginis and
matronis; and all the sanctis and haly company
of hevin; be the auctorite of our Haly Fader
the Paip and his cardinalis, and of my said
Lord Archbischop of Glasgw, be the advise and
assistance of my lordis, archbischop, bischopis,
abbotis, prioris, and utheris prelates and
ministeris of halykirk.
I DENOUNCE, PROCLAIMIS, AND DECLARIS all
and sindry the committaris of the said saikles
murthris, slauchteris, brinying, heirschippes,
reiffis, thiftis, and spulezeis, oppinly apon
day licht and under silence of nicht, alswele
within temporale landis as kirklandis; togither
with thair part takaris, assistaris, supplearis,
wittandlie and resattaris of thair personis,
the gudes reft and stolen be thaim, art or part
thereof, and their counsalouris and defendouris,
of thair evil dedis generalie cursit, waryit,
aggregeite, and reaggregeite, with the greit
cursing.
“I CURSE thair heid and all the haris of thair
heid; I CURSE thair face, thair ene, thair mouth,
thair neise, thair toung, thair teith, thair crag,
thair schulderis, thair breast, thait hert, thair
stomok, thair bak, thair wame, thair armes, thair
leggis, thair handis, thair feit, and everilk part
of thair body, frae the top of thair heid to the
soill of thair feit, befoir and behind, within and
without. I CURSE thaim gangand, and I CURSE
thaim rydand; I CURSE thaim standand, and I
CURSE thaim sittand; I CURSE thaim etand, I
CURSE thaim drinkand; I CURSE thaim walkand,
I CURSE thaim sleepand; I CURSE thaim rysand,
I CURSE thaim lyand; I CURSE thaim at hame,
I CURSE thaim fra hame; I CURSE thaim within
the house, I CURSE thaim without the house;
I CURSE thair wiffis, thair banris, and thair
servandis participand with thaim in thair
deides.
I WARY thair cornys, thair catales, thair woll,
thair scheip, thair horse, thair swine, thair geise,
thair hennys, and all thair quyk gude. I WARY
thair hallis, thair chalmeris, thair kechingis,
thair stabillis, thair barnys, thair biris, their
bernyardis, thair cailyardis, thair plewis, thair
harrowis, and the guids and houses that is
necessair for thair sustenatioun and weilfair.
All the malesouns and waresouns that ever
gat wardlie creatur sen the begynnyng of the
warlde to this hour mot licht apon thaim. The
maledictioun of God, that lichtit apon Lucifer
and all his fallowis, that strak thain frae the hie
hevin to the deip hell, mot licht apon thaim.
The fire and the swerd that stoppit Adam fra the
yettis of Paradise. Mot stop thaim frae the gloir
of Hevin, quill thai forbere and mak amendis.
The malesoun that lichtit on cursit Cayein,
quhen he slew his bruther just Abell saiklessly,
mot licht on thaim for the saikles slauchter
that thai commit dailie. The maledictioun that
lichtit apon all the warlde, man and beist, and
all that ever tuk life, quen all wes drownit be
the flude of Noye, except Noye and his ark,
mot licht apon thame and droune thame, man
and beist, and mak this realm cummirles of
thame for thair wicket synnys. The thunnour
and fireflauchtis that set doun as rane apon
the cities of Zodoma and Gomora, with all the
landis about, and brynt thame for thair vile
synnys, mot rane apon thame, and birne thaim
for oppin synnys. The malesoun and confusioun
that lichtit on the Gigantis for thair oppressioun
and pride, biggand the tour of Babiloun, mot
confound thaim and all thair werkis, for thair
oppin reiffs and oppressioun. All the plagis that
fell apon Pharao and his pepill of Egipt, thair
landis, corne and cattail, mot fall apon thaim,
thair takkis, rowmys and stedingis, cornys
and beistis. The watter of Tweid and utheris
watteris quair thai ride mot droun thaim, as the
Ried Sey drownit King Pharao and his pepil of
Egipt, persewing Godis pepill of Israell. The erd
mot oppin, riffe and cleiffe and swelly thaim
quyk to hell, as it swellyit cursit Dathan and
Abiron, that ganestude Moeses and command
of God. The wyld fyre that byrnt Thore and
his fallowis to the nowmer of twa hundredth
and fifty, and utheris 14,000 and 700 at anys,
usurpand aganis Moyses and Araon, servandis
of God, mot suddanely birne and consume
thaim dailie ganestandand and commandis of
God and halykirk. The maledictioun that lichtit
suddanely upon fair Absolon, rydand contrair
his fader, King David, servand of God, throw the
wod, quen the branchis of ane tre fred him of his
horse and hangit him be the hair, mot licht apon
thaim, rydand agane trewe Scottis men, and
hang thaim siclike that all the warld may se.
The maledictioun that lichtit apon Olifenus,
lieutenant to Nabogodonoser, makand wier
and heirschippis apon trew cristin men; the
maledictioun that lichtit apon Judas, Pylot,
Herod and the Jowis that crucifyit Our Lord,
and all the plagis and trublis that lichtit on the
citte of Jerusalem thairfor, and upon Symon
Magus for his symony, bludy Nero, cursit Ditius
Makcensius, Olibruis, Julianus, Apostita and the
laiff of the cruel tirrannis that slew and murthirit
Cristis haly servandis, mot licht apon thame for
thair cruell tyranny and murthirdome of cristin
pepill. And all the vengeance that ever wes taken
sen the warlde began for oppin synnys, and all
the plagis and pestilence that ever fell on man
or beist, mot fall on thaim for thair oppin reiff,
saiklesse slauchter and schedding of innocent
blude. I DISSEVER and PAIRTIS thaim fra the
kirk of God, and deliveris thaim quyk to the
devil of hell, as the Apostill Sanct Paull deliverit
Corinthion. I INTERDITE the places thay cum
in fra divine service, ministracioun of the
sacramentis of halykirk, except the sacrament of
baptising allanerllie; and forbiddis all kirkmen to
schriffe or absolve thaim of thaire synnys, quill
they be first absolyeit of this cursing.
I FORBID all cristin man or woman till have
ony company with thaime, etand, drynkand,
spekand, prayand, lyand, standand, or in any
uther deid doand, under the paine of deadly syn.
I DISCHARGE all bandis, actis, contractis,
athis and obligatiounis made to thaim be
ony persounis, outher of lawte, kyndenes or
manrent, salang as thai susteine this cursing;
sua that na man be bundin ti thaim, and that
thai be bundin till all men. I TAK frae thame and
cryis doune all the gude dedis that ever thai did
or sall do, quhill thai ryse frae this cursing. I
DECLARE thaim partles of all matynys, messis,
evansangis, dirigeis or utheris prayeris, on buke
or beid; of all pilgrimages and almouse dedis
done or to be done in halykirk or be cristin
pepill, enduring this cursing.
“And, finally, I CONDEMN thaim perpetualie to
the deip pit of hell, to remain with Lucifer and
all his fallowis, and thair bodies to the gallowis
of the Burrow Mure, first to be hangit, syne
revin and ruggit with doggis, swine, and utheris
wyld beists, abhominable to all the warld. And
thir candillis gangis frae your sicht, as mot thair
saulis gang frae the visage of God, and thair
gude fame fra the warld, quhill thai forbear
thair oppin synnys foirsaidis and ryse frae
this terribill cursing, and mak satisfaction and
pennance”.
Available at: https://biggararchaeology.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/BASTLE_CURSINGS.pdf
Notes
- Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: Consisting of historical and romantic ballads, collected in the southern counties of Scotland; with a few of modern date, founded upon local tradition. Volume 1. (online) available at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12742/12742-h/12742-h.htm (accessed 5/04/2023), no page number.
- George McDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets, London, Barrie & Jenkins, 1971, p. 4.
- W. Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Lauren Clark and Colin Younger, Border Crossings: Narration, Nation and Imagination in Scots and Irish Literature and Culture, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
- Roland Bouyssou, “Over Hill and Dale in the Border Ballads”, Caliban, 23 (“Mountains in Image and Word in the English-Speaking World”), 2008 (online) available at https://doi.org/10.4000/caliban.1145 (accessed 19/12/2023).
- John Marsden, The Illustrated Border Ballads, p. 134.
- Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1898, (online) available at https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch169.htm (accessed 02/03/2023).
- J. Marsden, The Illustrated Border Ballads, London, McMillan, 1990, p. 17.
- L. Clark and C. Younger, Border Crossings: Narration…, 2013.
- A. N. Wilson, A Life of Walter Scott: The Laird of Abbotsford, London, Pimlico, 2002, p. 158.
- Ibid., p. 23.
- William Beattie, Border Ballads, Edinburgh, Penguin, 1952, p. 16.
- Ibid., p. 72.
- G. McDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets, p. 346.
- J. Marsden, The Illustrated Border Ballads, p. 17.
- W. Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
- J. Marsden, The Illustrated Border Ballads, p. 134.
- Suzanne Gilbert, “Alliance and Defiance in Scottish and American Outlaw-Hero Ballads”, Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature, 18, 2012, p. 73.
- G. McDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets, p. 57.
- Ibid., p. 103.
- J. Marsden, The Illustrated Border Ballads, p. 165.
- G. McDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets, p. 344.
- J. Marsden, The Illustrated Border Ballads, p. 169.
- John Sadler, The Hot Trod: A History of the Anglo-Scottish Border, Stroud, Aberly, 2022, p. 229.
