of political association, a very striking picture is furnished by the distinguished author of the Border Antiquities of England and Scotland." The most flourishing period of Border history was the reign of David I, when the splendid monasteries of Kelso, Jedburgh, Melrose, and Dryburgh were founded. The castle also of Roxburgh and Jedburgh, then standing, appear to have surpassed any military stations erected in later times. After the usurpation of Edward I, and the succession of desolating invasions with which Scotland was afflicted; the Scots ceased attempting to defend regularly their frontiers. The consequences are thus described by the author here alluded:

"It followed from this devastating system of defensive warfare, that the Scottish were so far from desiring to cover their borders by building strong places or fortresses, that they pulled them down and destroyed them, where they formerly erected. Buchanan has elegantly termed this systematic destruction of their castles into a compliment to the valour of his countrymen.

Nec fossis et muris patriam sed Marse tueri."

But, without disparaging Scottish valour, the motive of leaving their frontier thus, seems to have been a consciousness that they were greatly surpassed by the English, both in the attack and the defence of their strong-holds; that if they threw their best warriors into frontier garrisons, they might be their besieged, and reduced either by force or famine; and that the fortresses of which the enemy should thus obtain possession, might afford them the means of

maintaining a footing in the country. When, therefore, the Scottish patriots recovered possession of the castles which had fallen into the power of the English, they usually dismissed them. The good Lord James of Douglass surprised his own castle of Douglass, three times, it having been as frequently garrisoned by the English, and upon each occasion he laid waste and demolished it. The military system of Wallace was on the same principle. And, in fine, with a very few exceptions, the strong and extensive fortresses, which had arisen on the Scottish borders in better times, were levelled with the ground during the wars of the thirteenth century. The ruins of the castles of Roxburgh, and Jedburgh, and of several others which was thus destroyed, bear as wonderful disproportion in extent to any which were erected in subsequent times. Nay, the castle of Jedburgh was so strongly and solidly constructed, and the Scottish so unskilful in the art of destruction, even where there was no military opposition, that it was thought it could not be destroyed without such time and labour, as would render it necessary to impose a tax of two pennies on every hearth in Scotland, to defray the expense. But Robert, Duke of Albany, then regent, to show the unpopularity of this impost, defrayed the charge of the demolition out of the crown revenue. This continued to be the Scottish defensive system for many ages; and, of course, while it exposed invaders to hardships, loss, and want of subsistance, it reduced the frontiers of their own country, for the time, to a waste desart. Beacons were lighted in such a manner, as to signify either the threatened approach, or actual arrival of the English army.

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These were maintained at Hume Castle, at the tower of Edgerhope, or Edgerstone, near the source of the Jed, upon the ridge of the Soltra hills, at Dunbar, Dunpender (or Trapraine), Law, NorthBerwick Law, and other eminences; and their light was a signal for the Scottish forces to assemble at Edinburgh and Haddington, abandoning to waste and pillage all the southern counties. Till the very last occasion of hostility between England and Scotland, this mode of defensive war was resorted to in the latter kingdom. Cromwell found the Borders in that desolate situation in his campaign of 1650; and had it not been for the misguided zeal of the Presbyterian Ministers, who urged David Leslie to give battle at Dunbar, he must have made a disastrous and disgraceful retreat.

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From this system it followed, that most of the Scottish places of strength, even when the abode of great nobles or powerful chiefs, were constructed upon a limited and mean scale. Built usually in some situation of natural strength, and having very thick walls, strongly cemented, they could easily repel the attack of any desulsory incursion; but they were neither victualled nor capable of receiving garrisons sufficient to defend them, excepting against a sudden assault. The village, which almost always adjoined to the castle, contained the abodes of the retainers, who, upon the summons of the chieftain, took arms either for the defence of the fortresses, or for giving battle in the field. Of these, the greater part were called "kindly tenants," or "rentallers," deriving the former name from the close and intimate nature of

their connexion with the Lord of the soil, from whom they held their little possessions by favour, rather than bargain; and the latter from the mode in which their right of possession was constituted, by entering their names in their lord's rental book. Besides this ready militia, the more powerful chiefs maintained in their castle, and as immediate attendants upon their persons, the more active young gentlemen of their clan, selected from the younger brethren and gentlemen of estate, whose descent from the original stock, and immediate dependence upon the chief, rendered them equally zealous and determined adherents. These were recompensed by grants of land, in property or lease, which they stocked with cattle or sheep, as their chief did those which he retained in his own hands.

"But the castles which held these garrisons, whether constant or occasional, were not of strength, or at least of extent, at all commensurate with the military power of the chiefs who inhabited them. The ruins of Cessford, or of Branxholm, before the latter was modernized, might be considered as on the largest scale of Scottish border fortresses, and neither could brook compassion with the baronial castles of English families of far less power and influence.

THE ENGLISH BORDER.

The edifices on the opposite side of the border present a very different scene, including, even in these remote provinces, the superior wealth and civilization of the English nation, with that attention to defend, which was the natural consequence of their having

something of value to defend. The central marches, indeed, and the extreme verge of the frontier in every direction, excepting upon the east, were inhabited by wild clans, as lawless as their northern neighbours, resembling them in their manner and customs, inhabiting similar strong holds, and substituting, like them, by rapine. The towers of Thirlwall, upon the river Tippal, of Fenwick, Widdrington, and others, exhibit the same rude strength and scanty limits with those of the Scottish border chieftains. But these were not as in Scotland, the abode of the great nobles, but rather of leaders of inferior rank. Wherever the mountains receded, arose chains of castles of magnificent structure, great extent, and fortified with all the art of the age, belonging to those powerful barons whose names hold so high a rank in English history. The great house of Clifford of Cumberland alone possessed, exclusive of inferior strong hold, the great and extensive castles of Appleby, Brough, Brougham, Pendragon, and Skipton, each of which formed a lordly residence, as may yet be seen from their majestic ruins. The possessions of the great house of Percy was fortified with equal strength. Warkworth, Alnwick, Bamborough, and Cockermouth, all castles of great baronial splendour and strength, besides others in the interior of the country, shew their wealth and power. Raby Castle, still inhabited, attests the magnificence of the great Nevilles, Earls of Westmoreland; and the lowering strength of Naworth or Brougham Castles are compared with the magnificence of Warwick and Kenilworth*, their savage strength,

*See Kenilworth. Passim.