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more, and sometimes less, into the neighbouring kingdoms;
but, for the most part, found an ample supply amongst the
irascible tempers in its neighbourhood. History takes notice
of some of these: but without making many quotations, it may
suffice to remember, that in the time of profound peace a
real Chevy-Chace would have been acted in the reign of James
I. but for the intervention of some persons of authority and
moderation. A few hunters appeared upon the West-Marches of
England: they were expostulated with; and refusing to
return, both parties were gathering their strength to an
effectual determination. But I know not that any thing has
furnished so many incitements to mischief as the matches at
foot-balls which used to be played in these parts, province
against province. The custom is not yet obsolete; and within
these last sixty years, though at that time the animosity,
rivalry, and consequently the numbers of its attendants were
much diminished, yet it was still played with great
violence, and several hundreds on a side. When men are
heated with such exercise, and half angry with the rebuffs
of the game, it is inconceivable what disturbance and uproar
the quarrel of two persons can produce, even amongst friends
and neighbours; but much greater must the damage have been
amongst men inflamed by the animosity of ages. I have heard
many traditional stories, which still remembered the
tragedies to which these matches, as well as the hunting
parties, had given birth; and in the neighbourhood of the
Liddle, Esk, and Leven, they may still be heard. But Dr.
Burn, in his history of Cumberland and Westmoreland, gives a
regular account of one, wherein, though they fought only
with clubs and stakes, yet a considerable number of men were
killed. These matches, like other pastimes, were held on
Sundays, or some other holy days, and by a strong similarity
of circumstances present a striking picture of the solemn
times and barbarous feasts of savages. Now it is impossible
but such proceedings must draw the notice of the legislative
authority of the country; but then the judges of such
affairs were men of the same stamp with those who committed
them: for the most part, they wanted little or no incitement
to head and enforce the quarrel of their vassals and
dependents. It was then that the consequences of these
baubles became more or less noticed by real history; and
afforded, as I said before, sometimes a cause, and often a
plea to great and national wars.
The almost uniform train of circumstances which affected
these countries from their border situation, and the little
difference there was between one of the dark ages and
another, strongly induce me to believe, that the Northern
people were little altered in manners from very remote
times, to those immediately preceding the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; and the subject I have been treating upon tempts
me to relate one story, as an exemplification of it.
Guthrie, in his History of England, says, "that a Welsh
Chronicle, of an old date, mentions a battle fought at
Arderydd, (probably Arthuret,) upon the borders of Scotland,
between Aidan Uradog, or the Treacherous, and Guendeleu,
British Princes in the North of England, on the one side;
and Reiderck Hoel, Prince of the same country, on the
other,upon no more important a quarrel than a lark's nest
and two dogs. This battle was fatal to Guendeleu, who
was killed, and Aidan was obliged to fly to the Isle of
Man."
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There still remains to mention another trifle, which was a
nursery to the disorders, and an inexhaustible source of
contention: this was the debateable ground; of which
I shall relate nothing but what the order for its settlement
in the days of Edward VI. authorises. Its length could not
exceed 5 miles, extending from Esk to Sark at Dimmisdale
Syke-foot, and thence to Kirk-ling: yet this was only the
boundary of the kingdoms then made; for the real boundary
was never known before, with certainty, in this piece of
ground, on account of the immemorial disorders which had
prevailed there, and even the antiquity of its being
debateable was too remote for the longest-lived
tradition. It is said that this trifling piece of ground,
from the most trifling circumstances, and given birth to
prodigious, and, if we respect the causes, astonishing
commotions between the two kingdoms; being the sink and
receptacle of proscribed wretches, who acknowledged neither
King, obeyed the laws of neither country, and feared no
punishment: that hence they grew to such a pitch of
boldness, as to live en-
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