The History of the Roman Wall/Part 1
THE
HISTORY
OF THE
ROMAN WALL, &c.
This first, and most remarkable piece of Antiquity, in the whole Island, is known by several names, some of them erroneous. It bore that of Agricola, which is now lost. The Picts Wall but this seems inconsistent, for they had no concern with the Wall, except to pull it down; and I think it should rather bear the name of the man who built it up. Sometimes Hadrian's Wall; but I cannot see why a bank of earth should bear the name of a Wall. Our idea of a wall comprehends an erection of brick or stone. Perhaps Hadrian's Bank would be more in character, as agreeing with the materials of which it is composed; Severus's Wall is more proper, because he erected the stone wall, part of which is remaining. It is often called The Roman Wall, and by way of pre-eminence, The Wall.
That man is born a savage there needs no other proof than Severus's Wall. It characterizes two nations as robbers and murderers. Nineteen in twenty of our race sustain half this character during life. Some individuals correct the crude passions, adhere to justice, and avoid whatever is worthy of blame.
The first intentional act of a child is an attempt to scratch the eyes of its mother; the next, wilfully to disobey orders; another, to gripe a young cat round the neck and enjoy with a smile the agonies of death; a fourth, forcibly to take the playthings from a boy less than himself, and, should the loser complain, toss his hat into the street, and kick his posteriors. To punish the brute creation opens a wide field for ferocity; as impaling insects, winging butterflies, and, if possessed of a whip, never to let a dog pass without using the lash.
The next step, as he rises into years, is to hunt after property not his own, which he tries to acquire by deceit, chicane, finesse, and, if he cannot accomplish it, would take a pleasure in destroying it, that another may not possess it. Should pride or influence prompt him to act fairly, only increase the temptation and you will find the rogue. Thus nineteen in twenty declare war against the creation.
This Wall is also a clear proof that every species of cruelty that one man can practise to another was here, and pronounces the human being as much a savage as the brute. This place has been the scene of more plunder and murder than any part of the island of equal extent. During four hundred years, while the Wall continued a barrier, this was the grand theatre of war, as well as during ages after its destruction.
Some learned and worthy men, priers into human nature, have contended "that civilization increases, and that the world is advancing towards perfection."—Light and knowledge, I allow, have made an amazing progress during the last ages, but that is owing to commerce and the printing press. This, however, comes under the word polished society, not honest. Man may be better informed, but not mended; or why did the Spaniards and Portuguese, in latter ages, butcher the natives in South America by millions, and take their property? And why did we, though in a small degree, follow their example in the North?
Perhaps a Scotsman would consider this mighty bulwark a compliment paid to his country; and infer, "It was designed to bar a superior power and was the effect of fear, for if two nations could meet upon equal terms there would be no need to raise a wall between them."
A Roman would reply, "Your country is mountainous, barren, and difficult to conquer. The rough land is your safeguard, not the people; and the inhabitants are so poor they are not worth conquering. On these rests your security." There may be in both these remarks a wider opening for truth than for boasting.
Our old historians always term the Scots Barbarians: to this I assent. They surprised the innocent, murdered them, laid waste their country, took the property, and left the place. Allow me, without the aid of Dr. Johnson, to illustrate the word Barbarian. Julius Caesar, Agricola, Antonine, Severus, &c., went one step farther than the Scots; they surprised, murdered, plundered, and kept possession. Our venerable ancestors too, the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, who came over in swarms, butchered, robbed, and possessed; although they had no more right than I have to your coat. Whoever deprives an unoffending man of his right comes under this word. It follows, no war can be justified but that of defence.
It is an old remark, that "Idleness is introductive of mischief." The Picts, now Highlanders, confirm this remark; strangers to commerce, to the arts, and from the barrenness of the country, almost to agriculture, they led a life of indolence. Their chief avocations were hunting, basking in the sun, procuring fuel from the heath, and fish from the water. In some of these, the women bore a part.
Idleness of body promotes idleness of mind. They were savage, voracious, domineering, except to their chiefs, who were as savage as themselves, but to them they paid implicit obedience. Servility is the attendant upon a mind debased.
Men thus situated must feel the effects of want. Nature and necessity made them courageous. At the beck of the chief they entered the Lowlands, which they sometimes robbed, but oftener joined the inhabitants in partnership, and penetrated the borders between Scotland and England; and when not opposed, killed, burnt, and pilfered at pleasure, then returned, singing in Erse, their native tongue.
While the Britons were supine, or quarrelling with each other; or while their power was withdrawn from the frontiers and employed against other enemies, the Scots and Picts made their inroads. Booty was the word, but this could not be had without blood.
This astonishing rampart, the production of three eminent persons, and at three different periods, was designed to remedy the mischiefs described.
AGRICOLA'S WORK.
WHEN Agricola, the ablest general, and most accomplished statesman. of the age, commanded the Romans in Britain, he led them into Scotland, in the year eighty-four, to punish the depredations of the natives. He found Galgacus, their general, with an army of thirty thousand men, encamped upon the Grampian hills, ready to receive him. He gave them battle, defeated them, and drove them back into the Highlands.
Being master of the country, and willing to prevent such evils as had occurred occurred for ages, he erected what our historians call a Wall, as a bar against the Picts. This was principally a bank and a ditch; on the borders of which he built, at unequal distances, a range of castles. This work extends from sea to sea, about seventy-four miles, beginning three miles and a half East of Newcastle, and ending twelve West of Carlisle, which, while guarded, curbed the enemy: the spot suited, as being the narrowest part of the Island.
HADRIAN'S WALL, OR RATHER WORKS.
AFTER Agricola's works had continued about thirty-seven years, often injured, as a bank of earth easily might, by an enemy constantly upon the watch; the Emperor Hadrian, in the year one hundred and twenty-one, repaired the works of Agricola, and added some of his own to strengthen them. These were, joining to Agricola's small ditch, which lay towards the North, a large one, making a large rampart, and then finishing, as Agricola began, with a small ditch; all their works running in parallel lines.
From this time Agricola's lost its name, and the whole to this day has absurdly retained that of Hadrians Wall. So that what now bears his name, as the work of one man, was really the work of two.
SEVERUS'S WALL.
THE Northern adventurers were quiet while the works were new, and a regular defence continued. But, military attention diminishing, the desire of the Picts increased.
Hunger is said to "break through stone walls:" then what security in walls of earth! It is difficult to keep out an enemy, who is determined not to be kept out. Inroads were quickly made, and former tragedies acted. No newspapers to convey the tidings of the day, no post to reveal distant transactions, nor commodious roads to convey either: the unfortunate residents were off their guard; and, had they been on, they could not have warded off the blow. The first intelligence of an approaching enemy appeared to the eye, instead of the ear, and he brought destruction in his hand.
Upon unprosperous adventures, the Picts sued for peace, always obtained it, and, to keep them quiet, upon easy terms.
When the unhappy Britons had fluctuated between life and death, eighty-seven years after Hadrian's work was compleated, Severus was chosen Emperor. Two years were spent in reducing his enemies on the continent, after which he came into Britain.
Penetrating into Scotland, the enemy fled where Severus durst not follow; and the Picts exulted, it is said, that their unwholesome water, their keen air, their bogs, meres, mountains, impenetrable woods, and slender sustenance, but particularly the incessant labour of Severus's men, had destroyed fifty thousand without a battle. Many skirmishes, however, were fought, chiefly in favour of the Romans. The Picts solicited peace, which was granted upon condition that they should lay down their arms and retire.
Severus, at rest, considered, that as many a fine army might be destroyed in reducing a people not worth reducing, he had better confine them within their own boundary. To accomplish this, he determined, in the year two hundred, to repair the works of the two former chiefs, injured bytime, but more by the enemy, and erect a wall of stone, guarded by a ditch which should run parallel with theirs, and make one grand and compact work. Thus every contrivance of man is set up against the knavery of man. And now the inhabitants of the borders rejoiced in the prospect of security: instead of being plundered by their enemies, they would be protected by their friends, who had full power to protect.
It may seem surprizing, that by the erection of these works, the Romans must have relinquished to the enemy a vast tract of country, extending eighty miles North, and in breadth, from the German ocean to the Irish sea, about ninety, the best land in Scotland. The human capacity is nearly the same in all ages; whatever reasons we can find for the conduct of the Romans, we may be assured they could find for themselves.—They began to be apprehensive they should weaken the state by extending dominion, a thought which ought to strike us. And Severus considered, that building the Wall was an arduous task; that this was the only place where he could shorten the work, the shorter the stronger, and the less force would guard it; besides, if the enemy were allowed the above fertile lands, favourable for agriculture, it would lessen the temptation to plunder. Graham's Dyke too, or rather the work of Antoninus, between the Frith of Forth and the Clyde, was by long neglect far gone in decay.
Another reason which induced him to fix here was, its affinity to Hadrian's work, which would strengthen his own; and he well knew, the united efforts of human wisdom would he needful to guard against inclination and hunger.
There was no fear of the Romans being molested in their operations for two reasons: they were masters of the country to the Frith and Clyde, the above space of eighty miles, and the force employed at the Wall was an ample security.
Some authors have seriously disputed, "at which end of the Wall Severus began." But this point will clear itself when we consider, that two Legions were employed, the Second, and the Sixth, consisting of about twelve thousand men. A plan of the Wall was first determined upon, divided into four parts; the Second Legion was appointed to the first and third parts, beginning in the East; and the Sixth Legion to the second and fourth. This is proved by a variety of inscriptions. Perhaps every mile, in this long range, was begun at the same time. This was necessary, because the whole isthmus would be secured, from one sea to the other.
In all laborious undertakings, the Britons were pressed into the service, and charged with the drudgery. In this case, however, where life and property were at stake, there was no need of compulsion.
The Wall was about eight feet thick, and twelve high, to the battlements, which rose about four more; so that, viewed in profile, it would appear much like a chair, the main part forming the seat, and the embattled part the back. At the foot of the Wall, on the North, a ditch ran parallel, the dimensions of which and the wall I shall give hereafter.
STATIONS.
ALONG the line of the Wall, the Emperor constructed, of stone, three kinds of fortification, which were Stations, Castles, and Turrets. The Stations, or Cities, are said to have been eighteen in number, with seventeen intervals, ranged at unequal distances, the average about four miles each. These were fortified inclosures, about one hundred and thirty-six yards square, the Wall itself constituting the North side. They were designed for residence, as well as guard, and were appropriated to the same use as our modern barracks; also buildings for family use, suitable to various occupations.
If the cohorts were full, six hundred and sixty-six military men were probably the lot of each Station.—From this grand body of reserve, were supplied the . . .
CASTLES,
OF which there were eighty-one, called by the country people Mile Castles, because they were nearly a mile asunder, or rather seven furlongs. About four of these, on the average, were fixed between every Station. They were about ninety-six feet square, the Wall still forming the North side. The Stations supplied the castles with a guard of perhaps one hundred men each. Every Station commanded, on each side of it, about two castles.
As the Stations furnished a guard for the castles, they supplied one for the . . .
TURRETS,
WHICH were small Castles, Castelets, or Watch Towers, ranged along the Wall, at the distance of about three hundred and eight yards each; consequently there must have been about three hundred and thirty. They were twelve feet square: each castle commanded about ten turrets, five on a side, which were daily supplied with a guard, probably, of two or four men each.
These Turrets being near together, the sound of the voice, trumpet, or shell, would penetrate the whole length of the Wall, if attention was paid, in a short time, when danger approached. This must have been the compleatest construction, for the purpose, ever invented by human wisdom. And the expence of the watch, enormous.
What length of time these united and almost immortal works would cost in finishing, is impossible to tell; all our authors; are silent; but it could not be so little as thirty years, nor could they be compleated for so small a sum as one hundred millions of our present money, exclusive of the land they occupy, which is more than five square miles, or than three thousand acres.
As Agricola's name was lost in Hadrian's, so Severus, being superior to both, nearly eclipses both, and the whole is frequently called Severus's Wall.
Thus we have Carried the reader from the beginning to the completion of one of the grandest works of human labour, performed by the greatest nation upon earth. What shall we say of that production, which was the utmost extent of Roman effort, and which stands unrivalled in Europe! How much delight would it afford the modern antiquarian eye, could he survey the works of Agricola, Hadrian, and Severus, as they then appeared! the noblest sight ever beheld in this Island! the work of strength, of genius, and of years! Men have been deified for trifles compared to this admirable structure; a Wall seventy miles in length, furnished with eighteen Cities, eighty-one Castles, and three hundred and thirty Turrets, with all their mounds, roads, ramparts, and astonishing apparatus! One sight would raise the mind to a rapturous sublimity. Man would be lost in the wonder, nor satisfied with a single view. We have admired a wall which has secured only a private mansion; still more, when it surrounded a City; but what ideas can we fix to one which guarded a kingdom!
What I have described is only part of that superb production which crosses the Island; for the three personages, but chiefly Severus, formed various roads, which extended both to the North and South, exclusive of those which ran parallel with the Wall, and which led to various fortified Castles, ten or fifteen miles distant; so that the whole country was a series of fortifications.
These out castles were probably possessed by the Roman officers, to whom, and their heirs, Severus bequeathed the adjacent lands in perpetuity, in consideration of their keeping a certain number of men in arms to guard the frontiers; and which they could not dispose of, except by the same military tenure. This is thought to have been the first instance of the feudal system.—The mighty work obliged the Picts, for a time, to starve at home.
So large a number of people assembled, as the Roman soldiery, with the multitude of Britons drawn to their assistance, together with those who brought materials and necessaries for building, and family use, accounts for the vast number of villages and dwellings which have been near the Wall.
The work of Severus, untouched by the wicked fingers of man, would exhibit its proud head many thousand years; but the works of Agricola and and Hadrian, being native earth, would continue to the last trump.
The Wall was now complete, well guarded, and the people safe. But the Roman power beginning to decline, and the military abating in their attention, the Picts and Scots found means to break through, surprized, and slaughtered the Romans, killed their generals, and retreated.
Constantine (not the Great), who reigned towards the close of the fourth century, first neglected the Wall. He collected the flower of the British, youth; passed with his army into France; and left this country in a defenceless state. Thus, being exhausted of its strength, the Wall was again broken, and the enemy, with destruction, entered: the people lost their energy, and nothing was seen but desolation.
Theodosius began his reign in 401, and continued near half a century. In his time the Romans withdrew from Britain. The Picts and Scots made inroads; and the inhabitants, in distress, applied to the Romans for assistance, inviting those conquerors, whom they formerly tried to repel. A legion was sent, who beat back their enemies; but the Roman empire being in convulsions, they were ordered back, and returned no more, after a residence of four hundred and eighty-eight years from the landing of Caesar.
Before their departure, they instructed the miserable natives in the use of arms, the arts of government, of war, and directed them how to repair the Wall. But a most dastardly spirit, such as is rarely found in history, pervaded the whole kingdom. They were more inclined to weep over their situation, than attempt to improve it. Let not a people vaunt; what they have been, they may be. The sovereign was weak; the people were slaves.
In this dreadful state of existence, without energy, the Wall went to decay, after that noble monument had remained in perfection two hundred years, and was never after effectually repaired.
Gildas, who lived near this period, remarks, "As soon as the Romans were departed, hideous multitudes of Scots and Picts came swarming out of their Carroghes, like whole armies of black vermin, at high noon, crawling out of their narrow holes; which, though they differed in other things, agreed in bloodshed. They seized the Northern parts, as if they had been their own inheritance, even as far as the Wall;" (which proves that the Low-lands were the property of the Romans).
"Against these attempts, there were ranged, in the high parts, along the Wall, garrisons of soldiers; but such as were both slothful, and unserviceable for martial affairs; which white-livered lozels, with quaking hearts, sat still watching day and night, till their joints were benumbed, and were as stupid as the stones on which they sat, so that their unarmed enemies, with long hooks, plucked the miserable watchers off the Wall, and dashed them against the ground till dead. Thus by their sudden deaths they escaped those calamities which awaited their families, relations, and friends; for they abandoned the Wall, their abode, and departed wherever they could hide themselves. But the enemy pursued with violence, slaughtered, massacred, and rent them to pieces like lambs in the hands of bloody butchers, or in the jaws of savage beasts."
In these dreadful times, the distressed were obliged to rob each other to support life; this brought on numberless quarrels, which, as the land denied relief, continued a length of time. Their chief support was hunting and fishing.
During the following five hundred and fifty years, while the Saxons held the rule, a continual warfare was sustained on the borders, between the two kingdoms; sometimes by armies, but more frequently by small parties of the neighbouring inhabitants. The land near the Wall was often the property of a Scotch sovereign, and often that of an English monarch; but so full of thieves and murderers, it was not worth owning by by either; and yet, though the two Princes could agree upon many points, they could not agree upon a line of demarcation. The people lived without restraint, and without protection.
It is impossible to conceive a human being in a more dreadful situation than that of a borderer; keeping, in the day-time, a continual look out, and in the dark and solitary night, attentive to every minute sound, which excited terrible ideas, and augmented those ideas into the approach of an enemy. His property ever open to plunder; his house, the only thing immovable, exposed to the flames; his mind perpetually tortured by the rack, surrounded by enemies, all bred up in savage principles, wishing to take his life, and he who could take it, might with impunity; his only guard was his strength, which, put into the balance, against a multitude, was a dram to a pound. His wife and children, the dearest treasures upon earth, daily liable to be murdered before his eyes, and himself doomed to share their fate or starve! Bread, water, and peace, is preferable to such a life, even with an entail of ten thousand acres.
Some idea may be formed of the ruined state of the country; for, at the general Doomsday survey of the kingdom in 1080, the four counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham, and Westmorland, were omitted; because, by the continued wars between the two nations, they were so ruined, and covered with marks of destruction, that they must have been surveyed with horror, but without profit.
Three of these counties, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, were, at the Conquest, in the hands of the Scots; but they soon lost them, for William gave Cumberland to his favourite, and follower, Randolph Meschines, who parcelled out the dangerous frontiers among his officers upon the feudal system. To some he gave a Knight's fee, six hundred and forty acres, of the annual rent of twenty pounds; to some, half one; and to others, a quarter; furnishing them with men and arms, to guard against invasion, keeping the centre himself, part of which was the forest of Inglewood.
Randolph, like a true patriot, would not suffer the military to be idle; for, being at peace, he distributed his men over the country, which is fertile, to cultivate the land. He gave the Barony of Burgh to Robert Treavers, which descended by marriage to the Morvilles. The head of this family was Sir Hugh Morville, one of the four Knights, who, in 1169, murdered Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury; which as soon as they had accomplished, they entered the bishop's stables, took four of his horses, and travelling private ways hid themselves at Knaresburgh, in Yorkshire, the property of Hugh.
It does not appear that these four gentlemen set out from Normandy with a resolution to kill Becket. Many charges, arguments, and expostulations, passed between them during some time, in which, had the Bishop been in the least complying, the evil had been avoided; but the Knights, irritated for the moment by his stubborn replies, destruction to the man ensued, who merited every punishment but the last.
This Sir Hugh was also proprietor of Kirk Oswald, near Penrith. He erected the church in expiation of the crime, where his sword, in memory of the transaction, was preserved for many ages. Danton says, that the sword which killed Becket was, in his father's life-time, (Queen Elizabeth) kept at Isel, the property of Hugh, and afterwards in the Duke of Norfolk's family, who are descended from Hugh.
The Barony of Burgh came afterwards by marriage to the Moltons, then to the Dacres, and the Howards Dukes of Norfolk, who married the heiress of Dacre.
The military, in time of danger, were collected by firing the beacons; and were, by the laws of tenure, bound to serve forty days. The privates enjoyed small farms of ten or twelve acres, called Nag and Foot tenements. These beacons were erected in the following places in 1468:
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The lawless banditti in the borders were on the watch for plunder; and whatever depredations were committed in one kingdom, were never punished in the other; so that, if the offender could either fight or fly, he was safe.
Exclusive of the want of a general line of demarcation, there was a piece of common land, about ten miles long and six broad, called Debatable Ground, claimed and possessed by both, about five miles North of the Wall, joining Solway Frith; this harboured the greatest number of thieves, because the title of either crown was defective. Thus property, instead of being protected by law, could only be protected by strength, and this was not with the owner. Society cannot exist without a compact; besides, bred among savages, he became savage himself.
An old Roll describes the boundary of the Debatable Ground as follows: "Beginning where Sark meets the sea, then up to Pyngilburn, then to Pyngilburn-Know; thence to Righeads, then to Monk-Riland-burn, and down Harven-burn to the Esk; to the foot of Terras; up Terras to the foot of Reygill; up Reygill to the tophouse; then to the standing stone, and the Mere-burn-head; then down till it falls into the Lyddall at Rutterford; and still down till it falls into the Esk; and thence into the sea."
Which side formed this Roll of division is uncertain; but the description is so very intelligent, that a stranger might find it. The circumference was perhaps thirty-five miles. Had equity decided upon the Debatable Ground instead of arms, she would have given it to Scotland.
This degraded piece of land, this scene of butchery, gave rise to that celebrated joke upon "King James's favourite Cow, which he brought from Scotland when he acceded to the crown. She having no taste for English manners, silently retreated without even a farewell to the monarch; and was the only personage in his whole train that ever returned to Scotland. When the courtiers expressed their surprize, how she could find the way, as she could speak neither Scotch nor English; the King replied, that did not excite his wonder so much as how she could travel over the Debatable Ground without being stolen."
The loss of the three counties sat uneasy upon the mind of the Scotish sovereigns, who did not chuse to assert their right during the martial spirit of the Norman kings; but when the affairs of King John were embroiled with the Pope and the Barons, William, King of Scotland, demanded them; when John, distressed for money, ceded them, with some other privileges, to William, in 1309, for fifteen thousand marks, equal to about two hundred thousand pounds of our present currency; but the money was never paid.
Alexander, the son of William, demanded them afterwards of Henry the Third, the son of John, or that he should fulfil his father's contract; but Henry was too poor, or too dishonest, to do either. Bargains between princes are kept, while it is their interest.
After many applications, the two Kings met in 1237 at York; and agreed, that Alexander should resign his pretensions to the three counties for a yearly pension of eight hundred marks, and two hundred librates of land; and that Henry's brother Richard, King of the Romans, should marry the King of Scots' sister.
As this agreement also was not performed, the two sovereigns met a second time at York, and fabricated a third, which, I have reason to think, was observed just as well as the others.
After Edward the First had reduced Scotland, he resided some time in Cumberland; and hearing daily complaints of the mischiefs committed on the borders by the banditti, appointed Robert de Clifford Lord Warden of the Marches, as they were afterwards called. The lords of manors were placed under his command, and bound to serve, with a stipulated number of men, horse and foot, armed, and supported at their own expence. A revival of the feudal tenure.
The Lords Wardens had almost an unlimited power: they could hold courts, take cognizance of offences, punish the body, could fine, sieze lands, or goods, could upon the appearance of an enemy call into actual service all able-bodied men from sixteen to sixty, lead them into action, and make truce, or peace, with the Scots.
This office continued during many reigns. In Queen Elizabeth's time, the salary of the Lord Warden was four hundred a year, out of which he paid two deputies.
The Lord de Clifford continued in office till slain at the battle of Bannock Burn in 1314, where the English are said to have lost fifty thousand men, which so depopulated the country, that few men were left. An order was therefore issued, "that no man should sleep more than two nights with one woman, but proceed from house to house, and reinstate the lost generation." Perhaps this was the first order of the kind ever made; an order which would probably be kept.
From this time, the Kings of Scotland claimed an equal right with those of England to appoint Lords of the Marches. In this, Richard the Second acquiesced because he could not help it.
Percy, Earl of Northumberland, was constituted for England, and Douglas, Lord Galway, for Scotland. A jury was established; the English lord chose six out of Scotland, and the Scotch six out of England. The defendant, upon the trials, was acquited upon his own oath. Surely they knew but little of human nature, or they would have doubted whether one half of those oaths were true when taken by an interested man. As the oaths are singular, I will transcribe them.
JUROR'S OATH
YOU shall clean no bills worthy to be fouled: you shall foul no bills worthy to be cleaned; but shall do that which appeareth with truth, for the maintenance of truth, and suppressing of attempts—So help you God.
PLAINTIFF'S OATH
YOU shall leile (little) price make, and truth say, what your goods were worth at the time of their takings to have been bought and fold in the market, taken all at one time, and that you know no other recovery but this—So help you God.
DEFENDANT'S OATH
YOU shall swear by Heaven above you, Hell beneath you, by your part in Paradise, by all that God made in six days and seven nights, and by God himself, you are whart and sackless, of art, part, way, witting, ridd, kenning, having, or reciting, of any of the goods, and chattels named in this bill—So help you God.
We may observe a mildness in the plaintiff's oath, and severity in the defendant's, as well as something foolishly wanton. There appears also no reason why one should be accepted, and the other disregarded.
Notwithstanding the power of the Lords Warden, on both sides of the Wall, their juries, and courts of justice, yet incursions were made by both kingdoms, as the watchful eye of villany could find an opening. Many battles were fought, and many prisoners taken, as well by fraud as fighting, and charged with a ransom according to their rank, which was the perquisite of the taker.
The Wall was broken through near Stanwix, and the Scots attacked Carlisle; but the fair sex defended the place by a new art of war, scalding the enemy with floods of boiling water from the battlements. Nor were the English secure, had the Wall been perfectly guarded; for the Scots, in parties, frequently boated over Solway Frith, by night, two miles wide, a little West of the Wall, plundered the inhabitants, and retreated before morning.
At the battle of Solway Moss, near the Wall, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, 1543, the English with one thousand men, are said to have beaten the Scots with fifteen thousand; but this was a victory without honour on one side, or disgrace on the other; for we are told, that Oliver Sinclair, the Scotch King's favourite, but hated by the people, proud of office, was carried upon mens shoulders, to shew himself and his commission as general. The troops were so disgusted, they refused to fight, but grounded their arms, and suffered themselves to be taken: a preconcerted plan, no doubt; or the English, with, their small number, durst not have attacked.
Henry possessed an extension of mind, both for good and evil actions, equal to his extension of body. At Christmas, in the same year, he invited to dinner, at Greenwich, twenty-one of the Scots nobility and gentry taken at this battle, whom he liberated without ransom; perhaps in gratitude for the above plan. Some of their names are as follows:
| Prisoners. | By whom taken. |
|---|---|
| Earl of Cassil, | Batill Routledge took the man, and claimed half the horse, and John Musgrave the other half. |
| Earl of Glencarn, | Willye Grame, called Watt's Willye, Willye Grame of the Balie, Sir Thomas Wharton, and Thomas Dacre. |
| Lord Fleming, the King's Privy Counsellor, | George Pott and Stephen James. |
| Lord Maxwell, Admiral of Scotland, Lord Warden of the Marches, and Privy Counsellor, | Edward Aglionby and Georee Forster. |
| Lord Summerville, | Richard Briscoe. |
| Lord Olivant, | Thomas Denton, James Allison. |
| Lord Gray, | Thomas Whyte, Willye Storey, and George Storey. |
| Oliver Sinclair, General and Privy Counsellor, | Willye Bell. |
The Lord Warden is said to have summoned to this battle, in his department, the following Lords of Manors, with the force they were obliged to send by their military tenures to protect the frontiers.
| Gentlemen. | Manors. |
|---|---|
| John Musgrave, horse and foot, | Beaucastle. |
| Thomas Blenerhasset, 60 horse. | Gilsland. |
| Richard Warwick, and tenants. | Warwicksbrigs. |
| Alex. Apleby, 2 horse. | |
| William Porter, 2 horse. | |
| Anthony Highmore, 4 horse. | |
| Edward Aglionby, horse and foot. | Ainstable. |
| Rob. Briscoe, horse and foot. | |
| Cuthbert Hutton, 6 horse, 10 foot. | Penrith. |
| Tho. Dacre, horse and foot. | Graystock. |
| William Pickering, 20 horse, 20 foot. | Barton, Martindale and Patterdale. |
| Chris. Threlkeld, 4 horse, 6 foot. | Threlkeld. |
| Lancelot Lowther, horse and foot. | Derwentwater Estates. |
| Mr. Lotus, 60 horse. | Lord Millum. |
| John Senhouse, 4 horse. | Calder. |
| William Pennington, all horse. | Mulcaster. |
| Sir James Lowther, 100 horse, 40 foot. | Whitehaven, &c. |
| Sir Thomas Curwen, horse and foot. | Workington. |
| John Lamplugh, 10 horse, 4 foot. | Lamplugh. |
| Thomas Dykes, 4 horse. | Wardel-Hall. |
| Richard Eaglesfield, 6 horse. | |
| Anthony Barwise, 2 horse. | |
| William Asmotherby, 2 horse. | |
| John Swinburn, household servants. | |
| Lord of St. Bees, 10 horse. | |
| Robert Lamplugh, household servants. | |
| Robert Ellis, 2 horse. | |
| John Thwaits, household servants. | |
| John Shelton, 4 horse. | Basinthwait, and Lowswater. |
| Sir William Musgrave, 160 horse, 40 foot. | |
| John Leigh, 10 horse. | |
| Thomas Salkeld, 4 horse. | White Hall. |
| William Shelton, 6 horse. | |
| Thomas Dalston, 10 horse, 20 foot. | Dalston. |
| William Vaux, 4 horse, 6 foot. | Catterland. |
| Richard Blencow, 6 horse. | Blencow. |
| Bishop's tenants, (Carlisle), 40 horse. | |
| Abbey Holm, all tried horse. |
The above military list was in part destroyed, which occasioned some of the gentlemen, and more of the manors, to be omitted; but the total number of men were 1027, another indication of a prior plan of surrender, for we cannot suppose one thousand men would attack fifteen.
We may observe, that the dignified clergy, notwithstanding their peaceable profession, were obliged to contribute their quota; that the force was chiefly horse; that many of the families still possess the same property, without being goaded with an arbitrary martial tax; and, that those who sent their servants, would be apt to retain a smaller number, and perhaps with bodily defects, that they might slip the shoulder from under the burden.
The Debatable Ground, as remarked, had always been an object of dispute between the two crowns. Each kingdom depastured upon this vast common. The Scots were clamorous, or silent, according to the power of the English sovereign. Lord Dacre, who commanded the Western march, informed the Duke of Somerset, Protector, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, 1549, "That the Scots were raising forces, which were to join those of France, and make a descent, with ten thousand men, to burn and destroy whatever was found upon the Debatable Land; and that the numerous and plundering family of Grame (Graham), a sturdy race, would turn Scots, if not supported."
An agreement, however, prevented the sword from being drawn: two gentlemen from each kingdom were deputed to settle the boundary; Lord Warton, and Sir Thomas Challoner, for England; Sir James Douglas, and Sir Richard Maitland, for Scotland. In all disputes, the fewer the number employed to compose them, the sooner the work will be accomplished. They divided it by rivers; but where there were none to guide them, then, by a bank and ditch, which they effected from the river Esk, to the Sark, called The Scotch Dyke, about five miles long. The North was allotted to the Scots, and the South to the English, which last, is now the estate of Sir James Graham, of Netherby, upwards of ten thousand a year. Three hundred and ninety acres of this land, were, in 1771, destroyed by the overflowing of Solway Moss, now re-instated.
Although this division of the land made peace between the two crowns, it did not between the borders. Their depredations continued till the union of the two kingdoms in 1706.
The following is a list, delivered to the Bishop of Carlisle, of the principal offenders, with their followers, who made incursions into Cumberland, and Westmoreland, and were present at the murders, burnings, &c.
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In this list, we find some names in elevated life, but not of elevated manners. As they were not governed by laws, it was so fashionable to be rogues, that, it annihilated disgrace. We see also, among them, the Clergy; who, instead of persuading others from robbery, ought to have been hanged themselves for being robbers.
It was ordained by the commissioners of the border-laws of England, that a council should be established in every March, to be convened twice a year, to try the notorious robbers, who, if found guilty, should suffer death; or, if fugitives, their houses should be destroyed.
On the Scots side of the Wall, William Douglas, in 1468, convened the borderers in council; when it was ordained, "That no person shall have any concern with an English man or woman, under pain of high treason, without special licence. If any man steals, the goods shall be taken from him, and he be deemed guilty of treason."
I shall state some of the charges brought by the West Marches of England, to the commissioners, against the Marches of Liddesdale, in Scotland, taken from Mr. Bell's notes, who, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was a member of the Border court, and which probably fell under his eye.
Commissioners.
- John Foster,
- John Selbie,
- Richard Lowther,
- Carmegell,
- Alex. Hume of Hutton,
- George Young.
Names of the persons complained of, which the Lord Scroop had to deliver to the court.
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Bills found by the Marches of England, against the West Marches of Scotland.
Commissioners.
- John Foster,
- John Selbie,
- Richard Louther,
- Carmigell,
- Alex. Hume, of Hutton,
- George Young,
Subscribed by the Commissioners abovenamed.
Would a Mahometan suppose I was treating of Christians! Should a Divine enquire, what improvement Christianity had made in the human mind, he must not go near the Wall.
As we are not to suppose the Scots were the sole aggressors, it is necessary to examine the English side of the Wall: justice demands it.
Bills of damage, presented to the English Commissioners done by the English, against the West Marches of Scotland.
Signed
- John Foster,
- John Selbie,
- Richard Lowther,
- Carmigell,
- Alexander Hume of Hutton,
- George Young.
The mind is shocked, it even shudders, at the dreadful murders, robberies, and burnings, in the above catalogue; which is only a small part of the devastations practised in the vicinity of the Wall. This farther proves, that we are savages by nature, and should continue so, if not improved by precept, or restrained or protected by the laws of society. I am sorry our own times have exhibited the same ferocity as that found near the Wall; and yet the people in that day, as well as this, would have been angry, had they not been denominated Christians; though I do not recollect, that Christ ever dealt in blood, or taught it his followers.
The line of destruction extended twenty miles or more, on each side of the Wall.
After the establishment of the marches, the country was laid under contribution, to pay for watch and ward upon the Wall. As a specimen, Daham, in the parish of Dacre, paid seventeen and fourpence, to Kendall Castle, for the support of this guard; a large sum in that day. Others paid in proportion.
The roads and avenues were protected by castles, to prevent the inroads of the marauders; and Penrith castle had a subterraneous passage three hundred and seven yards long, which communicated with the kitchen of Dockwray-hall, in that town; thus, as the besieged could not be battered out, they would not be starved out.
In these dreadful times, whole villages fell a sacrifice, and that often in the winter nights, as more congenial to the black purpose; and the inhabitants were obliged to run, even from food, fire, and clothing, into the cold air, and subsist upon the river, and the field. Had there been no other argument for a union between the two kingdoms, the blood which cried from the borders was sufficient. Much has been said, both for and against it; but one short remark will decide the question.—If the members of a vast family are obliged to reside together, whether is it better to live upon equality, and in harmony, promoting each other's interest, or, each to do the other all the mischief in their power? It may be said, "the Scots lost their sovereignty." They did, just as a little tradesman loses his, who, having pursued business upon his own account, with small gains, enters into partnership with a greater, and multiplies his accumulations tenfold.
Many of the names in the above list are well known in modern history. Some have since graced the Senate and the Church; and some are an honour to the place in which they reside. Johnny Armstrong, with his eight score men, whose famous old song delighted me seventy years ago, was probably a member of the house above mentioned.
The use of the sur-name seems to have been but in infancy. The Ap's in Welsh rise from son to father, but here we descend from father to son; thus Black Jock's Johnie, and Jock of the lake's Christie, father and son. Dick's Davie's Davie, father, son, and grandson. We may reasonably conclude, they were a robust and hardy race, and that they lived almost to antideluvian years, when three generations were able to enter the field.
Whether the sufferers were reimbursed is doubtful. It is easier to complain, than find redress. Depredations, however, continued; for, in 1593, Lord Warden Scroop stated to the gentlemen of the Western Marches the dreadful enormities that were committed, and requested their advice. Their opinion was, "that the Lord Warden had power, and ought to summon the heads of houses before him, and oblige them to answer for themselves, and their dependants."
The first of these was Goodman Grame of Netherby, who answered for himself, three sons, six brothers, and fourteen followers.
John Grame, for self, two sons, four brothers, and five tenants.
Fargus Grame, for self, sons, and tenants. The numerous family of Grame was terrible.
This agreement, which consisted only in words, was no more binding than a cobweb. The plunderers had two requisites for mischief, inclination and power. They could fight or run. The name of Goodman, head of the clan, did not altogether coincide with the character.
They returned to their former course, till James the First became sovereign of both kingdoms; when, in the first of his reign, he issued a proclamation against them, and seized many of the clan, who confessed they were unfit for civilized society.
Many of this mischievous race were in 1606, transported into Ireland, and their possessions given to others.
It is difficult to fasten a rogue, except by a halter. Most of them returned the next year, were sent back, but returned even a second, and a third time, following the same diabolical course till 1614, when James again proclaimed, "That he had, in the first of his reign, issued his proclamation against these violent disturbers of the peace, the Grames, who had returned, and committed the same enormities; and that, if they were caught in the middle shires, after fourteen days, they should be proceeded against, and capitally punished for their former crimes."
The Lord of the Marches, and the Commissioners, declared also, that none of the inhabitants (except the Gentry) in Tindale, Riddesdale, Beaucastle, Willgavy, the North of Gillsland, Esk-dale, Ewsdale, and Annerdale, should keep any arms, or horse, mare, &c. worth more than fifty shillings sterling, or thirty pounds Scots.
Notwithstanding these prohibitions, the banditti continued to infest the Western Marches, under the name of Moss Troopers, who being able-bodied men could fight, and expert runners could elude the watch. Many schemes for their extirpation were devised, but none produced a cure, although the blood-hound was introduced, whose powers of body and sagacious nostrils had some effect.
In 1616, a commission was sent to Sir Willfrid Lawson, and Sir William Hutton, stating, that horrid disorders daily increased in the borders, and that slough-dogs (blood-hounds) should be provided, according to the King's proclamation, under the direction of Sir William Hutton, and that he should appoint the watches, where they should be kept, and when used, with a power to punish for neglect of duty.
The dogs were kept at the charge of the inhabitants and stationed as follows:
- One dog above the foot of Sark.
- One at the moat, within-side Sark, to Richmont-Clugh.
- One at the Bailie-head, for the parish of Arthured, Richmont-Clugh, Bailiff, and Blackwater.
- One at Tinker-hill, for Newcastle parish, Bailie, and Blackquarter.
- One for the parish of Stopleton.
- One in the parish of Irthington.
- One at Lanercost, and Walton.
- One at Kirklington, Scaleby, Houghton, and Richardby, and
- One for Westlington, Rawcliss, Etherby, Stainton, Stanwix, and Cargo, to be kept at Rawcliff.
Villainy, notwithstanding every effort, was loth to quit its old habitations. "It was enacted, in 1662, that as lewd, disorderly, lawless thieves, and robbers, commonly, called Moss Troopers, infested the borders, residing in large wastes, heaths, and mosses, who through secret ways escaped from one kingdom to another to elude punishment, the justices in sessions should have power to assess the inhabitants of the adjoining counties, to constitute a guard against the injury, violence, spoil, and rapine of the Moss Troopers. Northumberland should be charged with five hundred pounds a year, to suport thirty men; and Cumberland with two hundred, for twelve men."
The only cure, however, was that applied in 1706, the union of the two kingdoms; for, though the sovereign was one, the people and the jurisprudence were not. And, whatever objections may be made to this union, experience has proved, that nothing ever happened so advantageous to both.
From this happy period hostilities gradually subsided; and that generation, bred to rapine, dying away, posterity became humanized, the laws of protection and civil life assumed an energy, and property was secure on both sides of the Wall.
Thus we have wandered through the long series of fifteen hundred years; have seen the rise, meridian, and fall, of the grandest work ever produced by European hands; have observed, with a melancholy eye, the depraved state of human nature, the defection of law, of the power to protect, and the instability of property; but, with a smile, have seen the termination of a quarrel, which had continued fifty generations. This short inference may be drawn from the whole: that protection on one side, and liberty and obedience on the other, are the foundations of all just government.
The lively impression, however, of former scenes, did not wear out with the practice; for the children of this day, upon the English border keep up the remembrance by a common play, called Scotch and English, or, The Raid (inroad).
The boys of the village chuse two captains out of their body. Each nominates, alternately, one out of the little tribe. They then divide into two parties, strip, and deposit their clothes, called wad (from weed) in two heaps, each upon their own ground, which is divided by a stone, as a boundary between the two kingdoms. Each then invades the other's territories; the English crying, "here's a leap into thy land, dry-bellied Scot." He who can, plunders the other side. If one is caught in the enemies jurisdiction, he becomes a prisoner, and cannot be released except by his own party. Thus one side will sometimes take all the men and property of the other.
None but the most degraded in manners and character will ever upbraid another for his country.—As the place of his birth is not an act of choice, it cannot be a mark of disgrace.