ΤΟ HIS GRACE HENRY, DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, &c. &c. &c. THESE TALES, WHICH IN ELDER TIMES HAVE CELEBRATED THE PROWESS, AND CHEERED THE HALLS, OF HIS GALLANT ANCESTORS, ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS GRACE'S MUCH OBLIGED AND MOST HUMBLE SERVANT, WALTER SCOTT. INTRODUCTION. FROM the remote period, when the Roman province was contracted by the ramparts of Severus, until the union of the kingdoms, the Borders of Scotland formed the stage, upon which were presented the most memorable conflicts of two gallant nations. The inhabitants, at the commencement of this æra, formed the first wave of the torrent, which assaulted, and finally overwhelmed, the barriers of the Roman power in Britain. The subsequent events, in which they were engaged, tended little to diminish their military hardihood, or to reconcile them to a more civilized state of society. We have no occasion to trace the state of the Borders during the long and obscure period of Scottish history, which preceded the accession of the Stuart family. To illustrate a few ballads, the earliest of which is hardly coeval with James V., such an enquiry would he equally difficult and vain. If we may trust the Welch bards, in their account of the wars betwixt the Saxons and Danes of Deira 570 and the Cumraig, imagination can hardly form any idea of conflicts more desperate, than were maintained, on the Borders, between the ancient British and their Teutonic invaders. Thus, the Gododin describes the waste and devastation of mutual havoc, in colours so glowing, as strongly to recal the words of Tacitus; "Et ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant."* At a later period, the Saxon families, who fled from the exterminating sword of the Conqueror, with many of the Normans themselves, whom discontent and intestine feuds had driven into exile, In the spirited translation of this poem, by Jones, the following verses are highly descriptive of the exhausted state of the victor army : At Madoc's tent the clarion sounds, With rapid clangour hurried far: But when return the sons of war! Thou, born of stern Necessity, And owns thy melancholy sway. began to rise into eminence upon the Scottish Borders. They brought with them arts, both of peace and of war, unknown in Scotland; and, among their descendants, we soon number the most powerful Border chiefs. Such, during the reign of the last Alexander, were Patrick, Earl of March, and 1249 Lord Soulis, renowned in tradition; and such were also the powerful Comyns, who early acquired the principal sway upon the Scottish marches. In the civil wars betwixt Bruce and Baliol, all those power- 1300 ful chieftains espoused the unsuccessful party. They were forfeited and exiled; and upon their ruins was founded the formidable house of Douglas. The Borders, from sea to sea, were now at the devotion of a succession of mighty chiefs, whose exorbitant power threatened to place a new dynasty upon the Scottish throne. It is not my intention to trace the dazzling career of this race of heroes, whose exploits were alike formidable to the English and to their own sovereign. The sun of Douglas set in blood. The murders of the sixth Earl, and his brother, in the castle of Edinburgh, were followed by that of their successor, poniarded at Stirling by the hand of |