504 COQUET SIDE. 



I 



Ecgcnti of 



" In the auld riding-times on the border, there lived in this tower ane of 

 my forbears, who went by the bye-name of Rough-Riding Will o' the Rye- 

 hope Hill. A ready hand they say he had, and a hard grip to keep what 

 he got, as every man on the border was forced to hae in these troublous 

 times. I'm no saying it was ony fault o' Will's bye other folk. A gay 

 few o' the loose lads about Coquet keepit aye about Will, and were ready 

 to run and ride at his bidding, though it were to the verra gates o' hell. For 

 fe maun understand, Will was alang-headed loun, and lucky in a' his raids, 

 br some way or other he aye kenn'd mair about the ongangings o' the 

 Scotch border lads than his neebors, and wan aye aff wi' a hale skin and a 

 hale hirsell. Naebody could tell Will's sources' o' information. Some said 

 he gat it frae the auld enemy himsel ; but that was doubtless a lee, tauld 

 by those wha envied him his greater skill and success. Dour as he was 

 though, it was never said that Rough-Riding Will shed blood except in 

 fair fight, nor wad allow amang his lads ony insulting o' women, spearing 

 o' bairns, or killing o' troopers^ but in the lawful way of his profession, and 

 this was nae small praise to a moss-trooper. Of a 1 things that Will should 

 love best, what could it be but his mear and his wife ; and till this day ye 

 may hear stories o' the speed arid spirit o' the ane, and the beauty o' the 

 other, that wad shew his affection was but natural. The leddy was ane o' 

 the gentle Clennells the ' Lily o'the Alwin' she was called for her beauty, 

 and she married Will out o' gratitude for his saving her auld father's life 

 frae ane o' the fierce Pottses o' Warden in a quarrel about the marches. 

 The mear was black as night, except one spot o' white upon her brisket, 

 that they say had the shape o' a horseshoe. Word gaed that the devil 

 had planted this mark on the mear, and that nae bog could sink her, nor 

 nae spear nor sword make a dint on her hide. And faith there might hae 

 been some truth in the tale, for it is weel kenned that Will crossed the 

 Boddlemoss at the foot o'Simonside on her back, that never man before or 

 since could get through ; and that he gallopped clean up Alwinton Scaur 

 beside Harbottle, a place that I waclna like to speel on my airi shanks. 

 He ca'd her Sin, and he had a fierce bloodhound bitch that went wi' him 

 in a his raids that he ca'd Death, whereby the auld biggin we're now 

 sittin' in gat the name o' Hell; but that was just the rough way o' speech 

 that belonged to the border. Weel, to make a lang tale short, after a 

 hantle o' good fortune, an awful mischance at last fell upon poor Will. He 

 had been away about Otterburn on some business wi' the warden o' the 

 marches for twa or three days, and when he cam' back there was a toom 

 house and an empty stable where he had left peace and plenty. Nothing 

 was standing of his house but the auld wa's. His bonny wife was herried 

 awa', and her youngest bairn, no a year auld, burnt to death amang a heap 

 of ashes in an outhouse. The black mear that he had left at hame was 

 away too ; and Will sat down on his cauld hearthstane a moody well nigh 

 heart-broken man. Ye may think what an outcry this savage deed raised 

 in a' Coquet and Redesdale. Clennells, Selbys, Snowdons, a' the clans o' 

 Coquet, nay, the verra Pottses themsells, earn' to comfort Will, and to offer 

 him help to get revenge. When the first dunt o' his strang grief was 

 ower, Will roused himsel up, for he wasna a man to sit pinging in the 

 chimney neuk when such a bloody wrang was to be righted. But after 

 that he was a changed man, and folks say he cared as little to shed blood, 

 aye, the verra blood o' weans and women, as the maist cruel trooper be- 

 tween Tweed and Tyne. I'm no defending it, but it canna be denied that 

 he had been hardly guided, poor fallow. Weel, they^ scoured the border 

 frae Newcastle to Berwick, but de'il a word o' Will's mear or his wife 

 could they hear. A twalmonth past away, and Will had maist given up 



