and sundry other of his friends, seeing this army coming, they marvelled what the matter meant ; while at the last they knew the laird of Buccleuch, with a certain company of the thieves of Annandale. With him they were less affeared, and made them manfully to the field contrary them, and said to the king in this manner, "Sir, yon is Buccleuch, and thieves of Annandale with him, to unbeset your grace from the gate (i. e. interrupt your passage.) I vow to God they shall either fight or flee; and ye shall tarry here on this know, and my brother George with you, with any other company you please; and I shall pass and put yon thieves off the ground, and rid the gate,unto your grace, or else die for it." The king tarried still, as was devised; and George Douglas with him, and sundry other lords, such as the earl of Lenox and the lord Erskine, and some of the king's own servants; but all the lave (rest) past with the earl of Angus to the field against the laird of Buccleuch, who joined and countered cruelly both the said parties in the field of Darnelinver either against other, with uncertain victory. But at the last, the lord Hume hearing word of that matter how it stood, returned again to the King in all possible

Darnwick, near Melrose. The place of conflict is still called Skinner's Field, from a corruption of Skirmish Field.

haste, with him the lairds of Cessford and Fairnyhirst, to the number of fourscore spears, and set freshly on the lap and wing of the laird of Buccleuch's field and shortly bare them backward to the ground; which caused the laird of Buccleuch, and the rest of his friends, to go back and flee, whom they followed and chased; and especially the lairds of Cessford and Fairnyhirst followed furiouslie, till at the foot of a path, the laird of Cessford was slain by the stroke of a spear by an Elliott, who was then servant to the laird of Buccleuch. But when the laird of Cessford was slain, the chace ceased. The earl of Angus returned again with great merriness and victory, and thanked God that he saved him from that chance, and passed with the king to Melross, where they remained all that night. the morn they passed to Edinburgh with the king, who was very sad and dolorous of the slaughter of the laird of Cessford, and many other gentlemen and yeomen slain by the laird of Buccleuch, containing the number of four score and fifteen, which died in defence of the king, and at the command of his writing."

On

In consequence of this battle, there ensued a deadly feud betwixt the names of Scott and Kerr, which in spite of all means used to bring about an agreement, raged for many years upon the Borders. One

of the acts of violence to which this quarrel gave rise, was, the murder of Sir Walter Scott of Bucdeuch, who was slain by the Kerrs in the streets of Edinburgh, in 1552. This is the event alluded to in verse seven; and the poem is supposed to open shortly after it had taken place.

No! vainly to each holy shrine,

In mutual pilgrimage, they drew....Ver. 8, p. 18. Among other expedients resorted to for stanching the fcud betwixt the Scotts and the Kerrs, there was a bond executed, in 1529, between the heads of each clan, binding themselves to perform reciprocally the four principal pilgrimages of Scotland, for the benefit of the souls of those of the opposite name who had. fallen in the quarrel. This indenture is printed in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. i. But either it never took effect, or else the feud was renewed shortly afterward.

Such pactions were not uncommon in feudal times; and, as might be expected, they were often, as in the present case, void of the effect desired. When Sir Walter Mauny, the renowned follower of Edward III. had taken the town of Ryoll, in Gascony, he remembered to have heard that his father lay there buried, and offered a hundred crowns to any who could shew him his grave. A very old man appeared before Sir Walter, and informed him of the

P

manner of his father's death, and the place of his sepulture. It seems the lord of Mauny had, at a great tournament, unhorsed, and wounded to the death, a Gascon, knight of the house of Mirepoix, whose kinsman was bishop of Cambray. For this deed he was held at feud by the relations of the knight, until he agreed to undertake a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella, for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. But as he returned through the town of Ryoll, after accomplishment of his vow, he was beset, and treacherously slain, by the kindred of the knight whom he had killed. Sir Walter, guided by the old man, visited the lowly tomb of his father; and, having read the inscription, which was in Latin, he caused the body to be raised and trasported to his native city of Valenciennes, where masses were, in the days of Froissart, duly said for the soul of the unfortunate pilgrim-Cronycle of Froissart. Vol. I. p. 123.

While Cessford owns the rule of Car-Ver. 8, p. 19.

The family of Ker, Kerr, or Car,* was very powerful on the Border. Fynes Morrison remarks, in his travels, that their influence extended from the

*The name is spelled differently by the various families who bear it. Car is selected, not as the most correct, but as the most poetical reading.

village of Preston Grange, in Lothian, to the limits of England. Cessford Castle, the ancient baronial residence of the family, is situated near the village of Morebattle, within two or three miles of the Cheviot Hills. It has been a place of great strength and consequence, but is now ruinous. Tradition affirms, that it was founded by Halbert, or Habby Ker, a gigantic warrior, concerning whom many stories are current in Roxburghshire. The duke of Roxburghe, represents Ker of Cessford. A distinct and powerful branch of the same name own the marquis of Lothian as their chief; hence the distinction betwixt Kerrs of Cessford and Fairnihurst.

Before lord Cranstoun she should wed-Ver. 10. p. 20.

The Cranstouns, lord Cranstoun, are an ancient Border family, whose chief seat was at Crailing in Teviotdale. They were at this time at feud with the clan of Scott; for it appears that the lady of Buccleuch, in 1557, beset the laird of Cranstoun, seeking his life. Nevertheless, the same Cranstoun, or perhaps his son, was married to a daughter of the same lady.

Of Bethune's line of Picardie-Ver. 11, p. 20.