Border Raids and Reivers

Extent of Border reiving--Plunder and reprisal--All classes implicated--Double dose of original sin--Victims of an evil fate--Invasions--Threatened annexation of Scotland--Edwar...

As Edward returned on his way to Berwick, where he proposed holding a Parliament, he visited Scone, and took with him the "famous and fatal stone" upon which for many ages the S...

The battle now raged in earnest. A bright warm day had been followed by a clear still moonlight night. "The fight," says Godscroft, "was continued very hard as among noble men o...

These enactments are at once minute and comprehensive, and had the power to enforce them corresponded in any degree with the good intentions of those who framed them, there woul...

Even to enumerate the raids and forays on the one side or the other, of which some record has been left either in the Histories of the two Kingdoms, or in the archives of the St...

"The Queen of England," says Ridpath, "when informed of these proceedings, was very much incensed, and sent orders to her Ambassador, Killigrew, who had a little before gone to...

The arrangements made for dealing with offences against Border law, though of a primitive, were by no means of an ineffective, character. All things considered, they were perhap...

But despite the drawbacks and dangers attaching to such gatherings for the settlement of Border affairs, the day of truce was an institution of great public utility. It is diffi...

The history of the Borders unfortunately affords too many examples of the deplorable consequences arising from the prevalency and frequency of such feuds. Many were compelled to...

But this work of "dauntoning the thieves" was also occasionally undertaken by the wardens with considerable heartiness, more especially when dealing with unfortunate culprits fr...

The list of goods here "appropriated" by John Elliot and his friends is an interesting one, as it shows "that all was fish that came to their net"--not even the "winding cloth"...

The Cockburns were an old and well-known family. One of the Scotts of Buccleuch married a daughter of the house, which, on the principle of heredity, may help to explain the wel...

The incidents in the predatory warfare so long carried on by the dwellers on both sides of the Border were not all of a painful or tragic character. The spirit of fun sometimes...

The letter which Elizabeth addressed to James on this occasion is written throughout in the most passionate language. It is evident that Her Majesty had great difficulty in cont...

The more famous reivers whose names have been handed down in the traditions, poetry, and history of the Scottish Border, are seldom regarded with any very pronounced feelings of...

Such is the tradition, as Hogg has given it in his humourous poem. It goes without saying that the poet has embellished and enlarged the story to suit his own purposes. But the...

It was during this period of weakness, almost of total moral collapse, that the Archbishop of Glasgow took it upon him to excommunicate the Border thieves. Had the same vigorous...

"The succession of James to the Crown of England," Ridpath remarks, "and both kingdoms thus devolving on one sovereign, was an event fruitful of blessing to each nation. The Bor...

But the great feature of Border life in more modern times has been the almost marvellous efflorescence of the spirit of poesy, which has conferred on the district a unique disti...