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Of these old songs I am obliged, by the nature of this
subject, to take some notice; as in them is contained a
genuine sample of their spirit, and no small portion of
their history, and as their traditions go hand in hand with
them, or rather have been kept alive by them: besides, that
very obscurity and solitude which has preserved these songs
to this day, by presenting few novelties which might eraze
them from the minds of men, renders them little known;
whereas the anecdotes immediately preceding may be found in
several writers on these subjects. But the same motive which
prevents me from quoting any more of the anecdotes,
viz. the fear of being tedious in the recital of
things which may easily be seen elsewhere, prevents me also
from being in any way particular about these; as they may be
heard from many persons in the borders, and as some of them
are, I believe, printed. In that of Jock-o'-the-Side we have
a specimen of their method of scaling walls, of their custom
of ransoming prisoners with cattle, of the refuge which one
side of the boundary afforded to the rascals of the other,
of the spirit of their jests, and of their subtlety. In that
of Hobby Noble, who is mentioned in the former song as one
of those rascals who had been banished from Bewcastle, his
native place, for his crimes, we see the treachery from
Hobby's catastrophe, and the desperate resolution that was
so frequent amongst them, from his whole conduct. But we
see, most particularly, of what matchless estimation,
amongst them was an accurate knowledge of the secret and
almost inexplicable byways through moors and swamps. There
is another song also in these parts of Dick-o'-the-Cow, whom
I cannot help suspecting to be the same with that Richard
Coldall whose monumental inscription remains in Penrith
Church, and who was called by the country people Dicky-Cow.
With this name the women used to make their children quiet
not very long ago, as they did for a long space of time in
France with the name of Talbot. However this be, the song of
Dick-o'-the-Cow exhibits a strong instance of the
encouragement which the petty irregularities of individuals
received from the connivance of their superiors, as well as
the uncommon boldness, dexterity, and cunning, which those
individuals possessed. Again: one may form a notion of their
irascibility and proneness to mischief from "the Battle of
Red-Swire," begun by the men of Tindale; and of their
diversions and amusements, from many songs of either Border.
It is needless to make mention in this place of those which
Dr. Piercy and others have published: only I must beg leave
to take notice here of part of a passage which the Doctor in
his preface to the "Battle of Otterburne" quotes from
Froissart, as immediately applicable to my purpose. We are
there told, after an account of the fury with which the
encounters of those Borderers were managed, that when one
party was well beaten, they would both draw off with a
mutual congratulation of, "God thank you;" as if they were
very grateful to their enemies for giving them an
opportunity of engaging in their favourite amusement. Indeed
Shakespear seems to allude to this humor, in one of
Falstaff's speeches concerning Hotspur. And I hold it to be
no small argument of the authenticity of the relations which
the border-songs contain, as well as of the genuineness of
their descriptions of manners, that they are uniformly
impregnated with this spirit, and frequently tinctured with
a something of the ludicrous, that serves to shew in what
manner they reasoned with danger.
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It may not be improper, in this place, to mention the medley
of nations who were settled in Britain, and who may be
proved not to have entirely coalesced, or been blended
together in these parts, so late as the days of Hubert de
Vallibus of Gillsland, from a deed of his, addressed to all
Cumbrians, Frenchmen, Aliens, Danes, and Normans. Yet it
does not seem that any of these people brought a regular
code of laws along with them; or if they did, these laws
were either never received, or were soon lost and swallowed
up in the prevalent humor: for we find after that, the
Commissioners appointed to settle the peace of the Marches
by fixed and established ordinances, collecting these
ordinances from the traditional accounts of ancient usages,
that had been sanctified as laws by the length of time which
they had endured. And as these usages were different from
most others, nay, almost peculiar to the men to whom they
belonged, it is natural to infer that the laws built upon
them must be singular: for the Commissioners, well aware of
the impracticability of imposing new laws upon such
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