hyr bely is loste. Beseching your most gracious highness to reduce unto your gracious memory this wylfull and shamefull murder, done within this your highnes' realme, notwithstanding all the inhabitants thereabout rose unto the said fray, and gave warnynge by becons unto the contrey afore theyme, and yet the Scottsmen dyde escape. And uppon certeyne knowledge to my brother Clyfforthe and me, had by credable persons of Scotland, this abomynable act not only to be done by dyverse of the Mershe, but also the afore named persons of Tyvidaill, and consented to, as by apparaunce, by the erle of Murey, upon Friday at nyght last, let slyp C of the best horsemen of Glendaill, with a part of your highnes' subjects of Berwyke, together with George Dowglas, whoo came into Ingland agayne, in the dawing of the day; but afore theyre retorne, they dyd mar the erle of Murrei's provisions at Coldingham; for they dyd not only burne the said towne of Coldingham, with all the corne therunto belonging, which is estemed wurthe cii marke Sterling; but alsoo burned twa townes nye adionig therunto, called Branerdergest and the Black Hill, and toke xxiiii persons, lx horse, with cc hed of cataill, whiche nowe, as I am informed, hathe not only bene a staye of the said Erle of Murrei's not comyng to the bordur as yet, but alsoo, that none inlande man will adventure theyre selfs uppon the marches. And as for the tax that shulde have bene grauntyd for fynding of the said iii hundred men, is utterly denyed. Upon whiche the king of Scottland departed from Edynburgh to Stirling, and as yet ther doth remayn. And alsoo I, by the advice of my brother Clyfforthe, have devysed

that within this iiii nyghts, Godde wylling, Kelsey, in lyke case, shal be brent, with all the corne in the said town; and then they shall have noo place to lye any garyson in, nygh unto the borderes. And as I shall atteigne further knawledge, I shall not faill to satisfye your highness, according to my most bounden dutie. And for this burnyng of Kelsey is devysed to be done secretly, by Tyndaill and Ryddisdale. And thus the holy Trynite and your most royal estate, with long lyf and as moche increase of honour as your most noble heart can desire. At Werkworth, the xxiith day of October. (1522.)

*

This person was, in my younger days, the theme of many a fireside tale. He was a retainer of the Buccleuch family, and held for his Border service a small tower on the frontiers of Liddesdale. Wat was by profession a sutor, but by inclination and practice, an archer and warrior. Upon one occasion, the Captain of Bewcastle, military governor of that wild district of Cumberland, is said to have made an incursion into Scotland, in which he was defeated, and forced to fly. Wat Tinlinn pursued him closely through a dangerous morass: the captain, however, gained the firm ground; and seeing Tinlinn dismounted, and floundering in the bog, used these words of insult, "Sutor Wat, ye cannot sew your boots; the heels risp, and the seams rive *." "If I cannot sew," retorted Tinlinn,

*Risp, creak. Rive, tear.

discharging a shaft which nailed the captain's thigh to his saddle, "If I cannot sew, I can yerk *."

Bilhope Stag.-St. V. p. 96.

There is an old rhime which thus celebrates the places in Liddesdale, remarkable for game.

Bilhope braes for bucks and raes,

And Carit haughs for swine,

And Tarras for the good bull-trout,

If he be ta'en in time.

The bucks and roes, as well as the wild swine, are now extinct; but the good bull-trout is still famous.

Of silver broach and bracelet proud.-St. V. p. 97.

As the Borderers were indifferent about the furniture of their habitations, so much exposed to be burned and plundered, they were proportionally anxious to display splendour in decorating and ornamenting their females. See LESLY de Moribus Limitaneorum.

Belted Will Howard.-St. VI. p. 97.

Lord William Howard, third son of Thomas, duke of Norfolk, succeeded to Naworth Castle, and a large domain annexed to it, in right of his wife Elizabeth, sister of George Lord Dacre, who died without heirs male, in the 11th of Queen Elizabeth. By a poetical anachronism, he is introdu

* Yerk—to twitch, as shoemakers do, in securing the stitches of their work.

ced into the romance a few years earlier than he actually flourished. He was warden of the Western Marches; and from the rigour with which he repressed the Border excesses, the name of Belted Will Howard is still famous in our traditions. In the castle of Naworth, his apartments, containing a bedroom, oratory, and library, are still shewn. They impress us with an unpleasing idea of the life of a lord warden of the marches. Three or four strong doors, separating these rooms from the rest of the castle, indicate apprehensions of treachefrom his garrison; and the secret winding passages through which he could privately descend into the guard-room, or even into the dungeons, imply the necessity of no small degree of secret superintendance on the part of the governor. As the ancient books and furniture have remained undisturbed, the venerable appearance of these apartments, and the armour scattered around the chamber, almost lead us to expect the arrival of the warden in person. Naworth castle is situated near Brampton, in Cumberland. Lord William Howard is ancestor of the earls of Carlisle.

ry

Lord Dacre.-St. VI. p. 97.

The well-known name of Dacre is derived from the exploits of one of their ancestors at the siege of Acre or Ptolemais, under Richard Cœur de Lion. There were two powerful branches of that name. The first family, called Lord Dacres of the south, held the castle of the same name, and are ancestors to the present Lord Dacre. The other family, descended from the same stock, were called Lord Dacres of the north, and

were barons of Gilsland and Graystock. A chieftain of the latter branch was warden of the west marches during the reign of Edward VI. He was a man of a hot and obstinate character, as appears from some particulars of Lord Surrey's letter to Henry VIII. giving an account of his behaviour at the siege and storm of Jedburgh. It is printed in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Appendix to the Introduction.

The German hagbut-men.—St. VI.

p. 98.

In the wars with Scotland, Henry VIII. and his successors employed numerous bands of mercenary troops. At the battle of Pinky, there were in the English army six hundred hackbutters on foot, and two hundred on horseback, composed chiefly of foreigners. On the 27th September, 1549, the duke of Somerset, Lord Protector, writes to the Lord Dacre, warden of the west marches: "The Almains, in number two thousand, very valiant soldiers, shall be sent to you shortly from Newcastle, together with Sir Thomas Holcroft, and with the force of your wardenry (which we would were advanced to the most strength of horsemen that might be), shall make the attempt to Loughmaben, being of no such strength but that it may be skailed with ladders, whereof, beforehand, we would you caused secretly some number to be provided; or else undermined with the pyke-axe, and so taken: either to be kept for the king's majesty, or otherwise to be defaced, and taken from the profits of the enemy. house of Carlaverok to be used." of the Almains, in the subsequent

And in like manner the Repeated mention occurs correspondence; and the