THE HISTORY OF LIDDESD.A.LE.*
THIS handsome volume is very nearly the perfection of a work of the historico- antiquarian type. Mr. Armstrong, whose very name is redolent of the romantic age of "the enchanted Border- land," combines not a little of the enthusiasm of Sir Walter Scott with all the accuracy of a Dryasdust. If, indeed, any fault is to be found with Mr. -Armstrong, it is that he en- -cumbers his pages with too many references, that he is too anxious to cite authorities for the statements he makes. Hap- pily, however, the type of the leading portions of Mr. Arm- strong's letterpress is so beautiful and clear that one can easily skip his foot-notes. Indeed, the paper, the type, and the illustrations, especially the portraits of James IV. and V. and 'the redoubtable Angus, the quaint, but beautifully-coloured maps, and the brilliant reproductions of the coats-of-arms of the old Border Chiefs, are all admirable, and reflect great credit on the publishing resources of Scotland. Mr. Arm- strong does not command, and does not pretend to command, a brilliant style; but neither does he, like so many workers in the same field, trick out his prose narrative with quotations from Sir Walter Scott. He lets the Foresters, and the Glendonwyns, and the Elliotts, and the Armstrongs, and " hot Lord Dacre," and all the other wild spirits of the region so significantly termed "the Debateable Land" who gloried in being freebooters, but indignantly denied that they were thieves, tell their own stories,—which, indeed, need no embellishment. Mr. Armstrong is further a clear expositor and a cool advocate, although he has naturally a kindly feeling for the members of his own clan, and especially for the great hero of Border minstrelsy, "Johnnie" -of Gilnockie, whom James V. got into his power by very doubt- ful means, and hanged, along with his leading supporters. Mr- Armstrong is, perhaps, at his best when he is dealing with a disputed question, as, to give an instance that will at once strike the reader, when he proves out of the Landsdowne MSS. and other authorities that the mysterious " vower " who plays a part in the old Border trials was not, as Sir Walter Scott rather hastily concluded, a referee, but a witness of a particular sort. But there is no important weakness of any kind in Mr. Armstrong's work. As he has only brought his story down to 1530, he has yet much to tell us, although, in all probability, nothing more stirring than what appears in those pages. It may fairly be said that when he has fully accomplished his -design, his history of the region of the Border of which he treats will be as " final " as any work of the sort can be.
Mr. Armstrong's historical method is excellent. In a series of introductory chapters he describes the system of law that prevailed on the Marches, and the manners and customs of the Border clans. Next, he gives the ecclesiastical history of the -various " dales," and of the parishes into which they were -divided. Finally, we have the civil history of the various clans of the Debateable Land down to 1530, when the Armstrongs were executed. It is hardly possible not to entertain a sort of sneaking regard for the strange race of men that lived on the
• The History of Liddesdale, Eskdale, Doesdale, Wauchopcdoie, and the Debate- able Land. By Robert Bruce Armstrong. Part I. From the Twelfth Century to 1530. Edinburgh : Dasid Douglas. 1534.
Border daring the long struggle between England and Scotland, that were, indeed, produced by that struggle, even when their deeds are told in the sober pages of Mr. Armstrong. History gives us no more thorough pagans, no• more com- pletely trained beasts of prey in the shape of human beings, than these. You admire an Armstrong, or an Irving, or an Elliott for precisely the same reason for which you admire a beautifully striped tiger in a menagerie. Whoever has any linger- ing belief in the patriotism of the Borderers, whether Scotch or English, has but to read Mr. Armstrong's pages to have it dis- pelled. " Johnnie " Armstrong is, indeed, credited with having remonstrated with James V. for sentencing him to death, on the ground that he was a thorn in the flesh of "King Harry." Yet we find one of the chiefs of the clan boasting to the Earl of Northumberland that he and his men had "destroyed forty miles of Scottish ground and thirty parish churches." As a matter of fact, the Armstrongs and others of the best known Scotch clans came originally from the south side of the Border, and intermarriages between them and their English opponents were for a time, and in spite of legal prohibitions, quite common. It is, no doubt, because the Border clans felt themselves a practi- cally distinct race that, when, on being attached to the regular armies of their nominal countries, parties of them were brought face to face, these engaged in sham rather than real fights. The Grahams might have feuds with the Elliotts, and deadly ones, too ; but what did they care in reality for the quarrels of James and Henry ? It is this fact that alone justifies the unscrupulous methods resorted to by both English and Scotch Wardens of the Marches, and even by monarchs, to destroy so many un- doubtedly skilful soldiers. The clansmen fought for their own hands alone.
The Borderers had other virtues besides that honour which does not prevail among thieves, but always has prevailed among freebooters. " Their habits were temperate, and they indulged but little in beer or wine Their persuasive eloquence was so remarkable as to attract the attention of Bishop Lesley
Their great delight in poetry and music deserves to be noticed." The Church had no little difficulty in getting the Dalesmen to attend to their religious duties, yet " they never said their prayers more fervently, or had more devout recurrence to the beads of their rosaries, than when they had made an expedition, as they frequently did, of forty or fifty miles, for the sake of booty." A rude morality even attached to the probationary marriage, made by the joining of hands or " hand-fasting.' This connection was binding for one year only, either party to it being at liberty to withdraw from the contract, although, in the event of both being satisfied, the " hand-fasting " was re- newed for life. But where there were children, the party that withdrew from the engagement was bound to take charge of and support them. A good deal of rough justice, too, is to be found in the laws of the Marches, and the system by which the Wardens—a curious combination of Circuit Judges and Lord-Lieutenants—administered that justice, bears an interesting resemblance to our modern jury trials. The English and Scotch Wardens appointed by proclamation through their respective districts a day for considering grievances and trying cases of murder, robbery, and the like, a day to which the rather ominous name of "Day of Truce" was given. They came to the place of meeting, attended by their respective " knights, esquires, and gentlemen." Arrangements having been made whereby such a meeting should not end in a fight or massacre, the English Warden named six Scotchmen to consider English cases, and the Scotch Warden named six Englishmen to consider Scotch cases. To complete the parallel between the Warden's court and a jury, it should be noticed further that although some cases could be disposed, of summarily by the Wardens, persons who felt aggrieved by the decisions arrived at under such circumstances could claim a trial by assize. The position of a. Warden of the Marches was a very dangerous one, and in many cases he was himself a freebooter. The raids of Lord Dacre, the English Warden, into the Debateable Land in the beginning of the sixteenth century were ostentatiously to obtain plunder, not to exact punishment, from the Armstrongs, whom he tried, though in vain, to surprise. Lord Maxwell, the Scotch Warden, on the other hand, is believed to have helped the Armstrongs, or at least to have encouraged them to resist Dacre. A worse sin than this, however, is laid at Maxwell's door. He is believed to have been privy to the treachery which placed John Armstrong, his own vassal, in the hands of James V., and the fact that Armstrong's lands were afterwards given
him gives countenance to the belief. We are bound to say that the history of the Border down to the middle of the sixteenth century reveals many daring spirits, but not a single noble character.
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