It was a clear, crisp, sunny day, early in March 1813, that the laird of Wauchope was riding into Hawick. A little snow still lay on the crest of Cheviot and on some of the foot-hills, and a smirr of hoar-frost silvered the turf by the roadside; but the sun was bright–strong to overcome frost […]

The story of the Bride of Lammermoor is one that all the world knows, but how many are there who realise that the tragedy which Sir Walter Scott’s genius has given to the world is in truth one of the annals of a noble Scottish family? Possibly among all the “old, unhappy, far-off things” there […]

From about the close of the seventeenth until well on in the nineteenth century, smuggling was carried on to a large extent in the Border counties of England and Scotland, not only as regards the evasion of customs duties on imported articles, but as well in the form of illicit distillation. In the good old […]

What is it that causes a salmon to be so irresistible a temptation to the average Borderer? He knows that it is illegal to take “a fish” from the water at certain seasons, and at other times except under certain circumstances. Yet at any season and under any circumstances the sight of a fish in […]

It can scarcely be said that the Border, either north or south of Tweed, has ever as a field of operations been favoured by highwaymen. Fat purses were few in those parts, and if he attempted to rob a farmer homeward bound from fair or tryst–one who, perhaps, like Dandie Dinmont on such an occasion, […]

Six centuries before Edward the Peacemaker reigned over Britain, the people of Scotland knew the blessing of having for a King one who was known as “The King of Peace.” Alexander the Third was a child of eight when he inherited the Scottish crown, and was only two years older when he married the Princess […]

As the evening closed in, the heavy south-westerly gale that had raged throughout the long-drawn summer’s day gradually dropped, and blew now only in fitful gusts. Instead of the sullen, unending roar of artillery, which till past mid-day had stunned the ear, there was now to be heard only the muttering of distant thunder; the […]

At Berwick-on-Tweed a man had died. In life he was a man of much weight, one of the wealthiest of the freemen. He did his good deeds with pomp. The devoutness of his religion was visible for every man to see, and his look of sanctity as he went to pray was surely an example […]

One blustering February evening towards the close of the eighteenth century there sat in a back room in a little inn at Portsmouth three midshipmen, forlorn-looking and depressed to a degree quite at variance with the commonly accepted idea of the normal mental condition of midshipmen. It was a room, not in the famous “Blue […]

“The cattle thereof shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves.” (Josh. viii. 2.) “The men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle.” (Gen. xlvi. 32.) In days even earlier than those of the early Israelites, to a certain class of persons the flocks and herds of a neighbour have been an […]

Since a time long prior to the Raid of the Redeswire–when on Caterfell the rallying cry, “Jethart’s here,” fell like sweetest music on the ears of a sore-pressed little band of armed Scots, fighting for their lives, and giving back sullenly before superior English strength–the worst enemies of Jedburgh have never been able to taunt […]

Amongst the flying, broken rabble that represented all that was left of the Covenanting army after the disastrous business of Bothwell Bridge, a dismounted Borderer, with one or two other stout hearts by no means disposed even now to give up the day, continued still to strike fiercely at Claverhouse’s pursuing troopers. But their efforts […]

In the days, now happily remote, when folks, provided as for a picnic, laboriously travelled great distances in order to be present at the execution of some unhappy wretch; in the days when harmless old women, whose chief fault may probably have been that they were poor and friendless, and perhaps by age and privation […]

When we look back on the past history of the Border, we might almost think that St. Andrew and St. George, who are supposed to keep watch and ward over North and South Britain, had overlooked that hilly stretch of country that lies between the Solway and the Tyne, leaving the heathen god Mars to […]

It was the back end of the year. The crops were all in, and but little was left of the harvest moon that had seen the Kirn safely won on the farms up “Ousenam” Water. A disjaskit creature she looked as the wind drove a scud of dark cloud across her pale face, or when […]

In a land where fairy tales die hard, it is sometimes no easy task to discriminate between what is solid historical fact, what is fact, moss-grown and flower-covered, like an old, old tomb, and what is mere fantasy, the innocent fancy of a nation in its childhood, turned at last into stone–a lasting stalactite–from the […]

It would be matter for wonder if, in the histories of old Border families, record of strange personal experiences did not at times crop up. Sons of the Border have wandered far, and have sojourned in many lands, and borne their part in many an untoward event. But it is not likely that any can […]

“St. Agnes’ Eve–ah, bitter chill it was!The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;The hare limped trembling through the frozen grass,And silent was the flock in woolly fold.” The great round-backed, solemn Border hills, in summer time kindly sleeping giants, smiling in their sleep, take on another guise when winter smites with pitiless blast, when […]

A venerable and highly respected Scottish professor of literature was once asked what was his ruling passion–his heart’s desire? If the secrets of his soul could be laid bare, what, above all, would be found to be his predominant wish? The question was an indiscreet one, but he was tolerant. He tightly compressed his gentle […]

Close on two hundred years back from the present time there stood far up the South Tyne, beyond Haltwhistle, on the road–then little better than a bridle-track–running over the Cumberland border by Brampton, an inn which in those days was a house of no little importance in that wild and remote country. If its old […]