with England, carried on with mutual incursions. Two gallant armies, levied by Albany, were dismissed without any exploit worthy notice, while Surrey, at the head of ten thousand cavalry, burned Jedburgh, and laid waste all Tiviotdale. This general pays a splendid tribute to the gallantry of the border chiefs, He terms them "the boldest Imen, and the hottest, that ever I saw any na- 1525 ❝tion *."

Disgraced and detested, Albany bade adieu to Scotland for ever. The queen-mother, and the Earl of Arran, for some time swayed the kingdom. But their power was despised on the borders, where Angus, though banished, had many friends. Scot of Buccleuch even appropriated to himself domains, belonging to the queen, worth 4000 merks yearly; being probably the castle of Newark, and her jointure lands in Ettrick forest +.—

long remembered in Edinburgh, by the name of " Cleanse the Causeway."-Pinkerton's History, Vol. II. p. 181.-Pitscottie, Edit. 1728. p. 120.—Life of Gawain Douglas, prefixed to his Virgil.

* A curious letter from Surrey to the king is printed in the Appendix, No. I.

† In a letter to the Duke of Norfolk, October 1524, Queen Margaret says, "Sen that the Lard of Sessford and the Lard

This chief, with Kerr of Cessford, was committed to ward, from which they escaped, to join 1525 the party of the exiled Angus. Leagued with these, and other border chiefs, Angus effected his return to Scotland, where he shortly after acquired possession of the supreme power, and of the person of the youthful king. "The ancient

66

power of the Douglasses," says the accurate historian, whom I have so often referred to, seem"ed to have revived; and, after a slumber of near "a century, again to threaten destruction to the "Scottish monarchy."-Pinkerton, Vol. II. p. 277.

In fact, the time now returned, when no one durst strive with a Douglas, or with his follower. For, although Angus used the outward pageant of conducting the king around the country, for punishing thieves and traitors, " yet," says Pitscottie, (6 none were found greater than were in his own

company." The high spirit of the young king was

" of Baclw vas put in the castell of Edinbrouh, the Erl of Lenness hath past hyz vay vythout lycyens, and in despyt; and "thynkyth to make the brek that he may, and to solyst other "lordis to tak hyz part; for the said lard of Bavkl wvas hyz

man, and dyd the gretyst ewelyz that myght be dwn, and "twk pårt playnly vyth thessyz as is well known."-Cot. MSS. Calig. B. I.

galled by the ignominious restraint under which he found himself; and, in a progress to the border, for repressing the Armstrongs, he probably gave such signs of dissatisfaction, as excited the laird of Buccleuch to attempt his rescue.

This powerful baron was the chief of a hardy clan, inhabiting Ettrick forest, Eskdale, Ewsdale, the higher part of Tiviotdale, and a portion of Liddesdale. In this warlike district he easily levied a thousand horse, comprehending a large body of Elliots, Armstrongs, and other broken clans, over whom the laird of Buccleuch exercised an extensive authority; being termed, by Lord Dacre, "chief maintainer of all misguided men on the "borders of Scotland."-Letter to Wolsey, July 18. 1528. The Earl of Angus, with his reluctant. ward, had slept at Melrose; and the clans of Home and Kerr, under the Lord Home, and the barons of Cessford, and Fairnihirst, had taken their leave of the king, when, in the gray of the morning, Buccleuch and his band of cavalry were discovered, hanging, like a thunder-cloud, upon the neighbouring hill of Haliden*. A herald was * Near Darnick. By a corruption from Skirmish field, the b

VOL. 1.

1526

sent to demand his purpose, and to charge him to retire. To the first point he answered, that he came to shew his clan to the king, according to the custom of the borders; to the second, that he knew the king's mind better than Angus.— When this haughty answer was reported to the earl," Sir," said he to the king, "yonder is "Buccleuch, with the thieves of Annandale and "Liddesdale, to bar your grace's passage. I vow Ito God they shall either fight or flee. Your grace shall tarry on this hillock, with my brother

George; and I will either clear your road of yon"der banditti, or die in the attempt." The earl, with these words, alighted, and hastened to the charge; while the Earl of Lennox (at whose instigation Buccleuch made the attempt), remained with the king, an inactive spectator. Buccleuch and his followers likewise dismounted, and received the assailants with a dreadful shout, and a shower of lances. The encounter was fierce and obstinate;

spot is still called the Skinnerfield. Two lines of an old ballad on the subject are still preserved :

"There were sick belts and blows,

"The Mattous burn ran blood."

but the Homes and Kerrs, returning at the noise of battle, bore down and dispersed the left wing of Buccleuch's little army. The hired banditti fled on all sides; but the chief himself, surrounded by his clan, fought desperately in the retreat. The laird of Cessford, chief of the Roxburgh Kerrs, pursued the chace fiercely; till, at the bottom of a steep path, Elliot of Stobs, a follower of Buccleuch, turned, and slew him with a stroke of his lance. When Cessford fell, the pursuit ceased. But his death, with those of Buccleuch's friends, who fell in the action, to the number of eighty, occasioned a deadly feud betwixt the names of Scott and Kerr, which cost much blood upon the marches*.-See Pitscottie, Lesly, and Godscroft.

Stratagem at length effected what force had 1528 been unable to accomplish; and the king, emancipated from the iron tutelage of Angus, made the

Buccleuch contrived to escape forfeiture, a doom pronounced against those nobles, who assisted the Earl of Lennox, in a subsequent attempt to deliver the king, by force of arms. "The laird of Bukcleugh has a respecte, and is not forfeited; "and will get his pece, and was in Leithquo, both Sondaye, "Mondaye, and Tewisday last, which is grete displeasure to "the Carres."-Letter from Sir C. Dacre to Lord Ducre, 2d December, 1526.