button to main menu  Camden's Britannia, edn 1789

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Page 199:-
into murders, maimings, fireraising, violent thefts, deadly feuds, cutting down trees, sowing corn in the opposite realm, depasturing cattle, hunting in the opposite realm, following stolen goods into the opposite realm, pursuit of hot trod [s] with hound and horn, hue and cry, reception of fugitives, loiterers, safe conduct, observance of truce, fouling and swearing of bills, baughling and reproving, perjury, over-swearing, offender rescuing himself, retaliation, &c. These several articles of the border laws, together with the several terms of procedure in the courts, may be seen at large in the introduction to Dr. Burns's history of Westmoreland, c.2, 3. and the state of the borders from the reign of Edward I. to that of James I. c. 4-9. What kind of achievements were performed in this peculiar kind of warfare may be learnt from the account of a forray from July 2d to November 17, 1544, wherein 192 towns, towers, stedes, barnekyns [t], parish churches, bastel houses [u], were cast down or burned.

403 Scots slain.
816 prisoners taken.
10386 nolt or horned cattle taken.
12492 sheep.
1296 nags and geldings.
200 goats.
890 bolls of corn.
Insight (i.e. household furniture) not reckoned.
In the next year's forray by the earl of Hertford between the 8th and 23d of September;

Monasteries and friar houses burnt and destroyed 7
Castles, towers, and piles, 16
Market towns, 5
Villages, 243
Milns, 13
Hospitals, 3 [q]
The order of the watches on the West marshes made by lord Wharton 6 Edward VI. in Burn, I. lxxxiv. will shew the different stations where such watches were disposed from October to March.
During the reign of Charles I. the borders were little attended to. Several acts of parliament passed after the Restoration for assessing the county of Cumberland and Northumberland, the former at not above £.200. the latter at not above £.500. a year for the safeguard of their inhabitants against the Moss troopers by the justices of the peace, who were to raise 30 men in Northumberland, and 12 in Cumberland, under a commander to apprehend such malefactors [x]. The accession of James I. to the crown of England, and both kingdoms thus devolving on one sovereign, was an event fruitful of blessing to each nation. The borders, which for many ages had been almost a constant scene of rapine and desolation, enjoyed a quiet and order which they had never before known. The king, in pursuance of his favourite purpose of extinguishing all memory of past hostilities between his kingdoms, and, if possible, of the places that had been the principal scenes of their hostilities, prohibited the name of borders any longer to be used, substituting in its stead that of middle marches. He ordered all the places of strength in these parts to be demolished except the habitations of nobles and barons, and broke the garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle. Natural prejudices and a mutual resentment owing to a series of wars between the two kingdoms carried on for centuries still however subsisted. From the same source arose frequent disputes and feuds upon the marches, which, by the attention of the sovereign, were soon easily composed. But it required almost 100 years, though England and Scotland were governed all the time by a succession of the same princes, to wear off the jealousies and prepossessions of the formerly hostile nations, and to work such a change in their tempers and views as to admit of an incorporating and effectual union[y].
  Act of Union 1707
From the Union of 5 Anne hostilities have, by degrees, subsided; and as the then generation, which had been brought up in rapine and misrule, died away, their posterity, on both sides, have become humanized, the arts of peace and civil policy have been cultivated, and every man lives safe in his own possessions; felonies and other criminal offences are as seldom committed in these parts as in most other places of the united kingdoms; and their country, from having been the outskirt and litigated boundary of both kingdoms, is now become the centre of his Majesty's British dominions! Nevertheless the old wounds have left some scars behind. Much common and waste ground remains, which will require a length of time to cultivate and improve. The chuches near the Borders are many of them in a ruinous condition, and very meanly endowed. In many of the parishes there is not so much as an house for the incumbent to live in, and in some parishes no church. And some defects there are in the civil state, which nothing but the legislature can supply. Whilst the laws of the marche subsisted, criminal offences were speadily redressed by the power of the lords wardens or their deputies; and after the abolition of the laws of marche, the said offences were redressed by special commissioners appointed for the Borders, and matters of property of any considerable consequence were commonly determined at the court at York for the northern parts. The judges in their circuit came only once in the year, and sometimes much seldomer. They still come only once in the year to the bordering counties, which causes determinations of civil rights to be dilatory, and confines criminals (or perhaps innocent persons) in prison sometimes near 12 months before they can come to their trial [z]."
  Debateable ground.
  Debatable Land
The Debateable ground was a tract of land claimed by both kingdoms, which was the occasion of infinite troubles and vexations. The boundary of it in an old roll is thus described: "Beginning at the foot of the White Scyrke running into the sea, and so up the said water of Scyrke till it come to a place called Pyngilburne foot running into the said water of Scyrke and up the Pyngilburne till it come to Pyngilburne Know, from thence to the Righeads, from the Righeads to the Monke Rilande Burne, and from thence down to Har-
[s] Hot trod was a pursuit flagrante delicto, with red hand, as the Scots term it, by dogs called slough dogs, from their pursuing offenders called Moss troopers through the sloughs, mosses, and bogs, that were not passable but by those that were acquainted with the various and intricate byepaths and turnings. They were commonly named blood hounds, and were kept in use till within the memory of many of our forefathers. By a warrant 2 James I. it appears that nine of these dogs were provided and kept by the charge of the inhabitants of the different parishes. Burn, I. cxxx.
[t] The outer ward of a castle, containing the barns, stables, &c.
[u] supposed monasteries or hospitals.
[x] Haine's State Papers, p.51-54.
[y] Ridpath's Hist. of the Borders, p.706, in which may be seen an excellent detail of the transactions on the borders from the Conquest to the Union.
[z] Burn, cxxxiii. cxxxiv.
"venburne
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