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Page ix:-
great contest for empire between the kings of France and
England. The finest library in the world owed its
destruction to the Alexandrine war, which took its rise from
an amorous interview between Caesar and Cleopatra; and the
pitiful logic of an Arabian zealot destroyed another. But
instances of such events are numberless, nor are those fewer
the execution of which depend on multitudes. Thus the
over-forwardness and wantonness of a tax-gatherer caused the
mighty insurrection of the Kentish Commons which disturbed
the reign of Richard II.; and the steadiness of a poor, old,
insignificant priest, first gave consistency to the
Reformation in Scotland. The confinement of a few gladiators
gave being to troubles which challenged the strength of the
Roman Legions; and these outrages in Judea, which did not
terminate but in the almost entire extinction of the Jewish
name, are generally referred to the dismission of some
workmen from the building of the last Temple. I forbear
further instances; and shall only ask, To what more
important cause can we ascribe those religious quarrels with
which almost the whole world has at times been disturbed?
Whoever considers the vanity, or superstition, or other
weaknesses incident to the most eminent men, will not wonder
at such things as strange, any more than that the falling of
an apple should suggest to the comprehensive soul of Newton,
the idea of that great principle which regulates all nature.
Though these same weaknesses in the minds of the multitude
may perhaps operate with a greater force, there generally
are found some more remote, or perhaps collateral incidents,
necessary to give them effect; of which we might bring
illustrations: but I am afraid that this digression is
already too long; I only meant it as an argument of my more
immediate subject, to which I therefore return.
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The disturbances on the borders of England and Scotland have
frequently been the plea, and sometimes the cause of most
serious affairs; yet these disturbances, (such was the
temper of the people,) were begun, and continually fostered
by the most unaccountable trifles. If they met at a fair, or
a merry-making, some or other of them got engaged in a
quarrel; each party had numerous favourers or abettors, and
thus the contest became general: it was carried home by
every individual, and they only came back to revenge it.
Thus mutual insults and injuries made mutual complaints and
justifications necessary; these delayed the cure, and this
delay was not a little increased by the strange nature of
the laws which prevailed in those districts: the mischief,
in consequence, received continual increase, till it became
of a size for general history. In the year 1369, a fair was
held at Roxburgh during a peace between the two nations: at
this fair a quarrel arose amongst the Borderers, as was
generally the case, and a Scotsman, servant to the Earl of
March, was killed. Amongst the customs, and even laws of
these strange people, a certain atonement for blood was one;
and this atonement not being made on the present occasion,
his master took up the quarrel, in which he was assisted by
the Gordon and others. These began to ravage the opposite
marches in a terrible manner, and of course called forth the
Wardens of those marches, Sir John Silburn, and the Piercy,
to repel the invasion, and to take vengeance by similar
means. Thus the confines at large of both kingdoms, and the
counties adjoining, became in a great measure, a scene of
desolation: and considerable numbers of men perished, in
several rough encounters, during its continuance. Again: In
the year 1377, another fair was held at Roxburgh, which was
terminated by a similar quarrel, in which the town itself
was burnt. To revenge this, the Piercy, now Earl of
Northumberland, entered Scotland with an army, which is said
to have consisted of ten thousand men, and for three days
ravaged the lands of the Earl of March. Hunting parties,
besides, were productive of frequent outrages. I do not mean
such parties as were made sometimes in open defiance by the
turbulent and powerful chieftains of the north; but the
poaching companies, who seldom or never desired a fair
field, nor were prepared for much opposition. It is somewhat
singular, that though, in times of peace, people of the one
march were seldom hindred, upon asking leave, to hunt in the
waste grounds of the other; yet the humor was such, as very
seldom to use any such friendly application. Hence, the
hunters were generally driven home again, and punished,
according to the spirit of the times, by a few robberies,
slaughters, and burnings within their own boundaries. Thus
was a war begun, which spread, sometimes
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