W MR HARDY ON BOWLING. 



generally attached to tlicm a garden and an acre of land, a palliative of 

 idleness, rather than an incentive to industry, the possessors being, from 

 their two exclusive dependence on the bounty of Nature, as it is empha- 

 tically expressed, " always in misery." Most of the occupiers, to some 

 homely craft or calling, added a cart and the appropriate beast of bur- 

 den — a horse or an ass* — with which they were accustomed, at certain 

 seasons, to convey green fish to Fisherrow market, or to the inland parts 

 of tlie country for sale. Many were deeply involved in smuggling, and 

 in the defective state of the revenue laws at that period, and the preva- 

 lent tone of opinion on the subject, under the name of cadgers, carried 

 on with little secrecy or restraint their contraband commerce. Aldcam- 

 bus, and several other rural hamlets, now, save in the groupes and strag- 

 gling lines of forlorn plane-trees and ashes, obliterated from the land- 

 scape, were tenanted by some twenty or thirty families of such indivi- 

 duals, in a condition little removed from absolute idleness — eager to con- 

 cur in whatever scheme of revelry and uproar, would preclude the ne- 

 cessity of thought, absorb care, or " give time a shove." In such a so- 

 ciety, cock-fighting, badger-baiting, and similar inhuman devices, were 

 relished with intense avidity ; and as these could not at all times be in- 



* These horses when yoked were distinguished, as those of carriers are still, by 

 the high capes attached to their collars. Asses were particularly numerous. There 

 was a certain part of the common now included in Penmanshiel farm, in which they 

 were accustomed to leave or stele these animals at night, in the expectation of finding 

 them in the morning ; called, from the circumstance, the Cuddies' stele. A stele (pr. 

 stale) is described as a place where cattle can be put for shelter and security during 

 the evening, so that they will not wander. It differs from Q.fauld in not being en- 

 closed. The Cuddies' stele, as seen in the hand of Nature, previous to being culti- 

 vated, was a wilderness of ferns (Ptcris aquilina), dense whins that overtopped a man, 

 and a sprinkling of scroggy birches. This very insignificant corner is remarkable 

 for appearing to have retained its name for nearly six hundred years. About the 

 year 1259, David the son of Ernald de Quichesyd (Quixwood) gave to his brother 

 Adam along with other acres within the territory of Aldecambus, an acre and a half 

 above " stele" (sup. stele) which appears to have been the place in question. At the 

 period of its improvement, there was bordering upon it, " a piece of auld gaun land," 

 answerable to the description. It is also curious, as serving to mark the wide preva- 

 lence in former times of terms now disused — terms perhaps conferred previous to the 

 disruption of the border districts, into rival and hostile frontiers. The monks of Hex- 

 ham held, according to an account of their revenues, July 7. 1297 (25 Edward I.), 

 amongst their extensive domains, "■ the church of Slealy * * * and a common of pas- 

 ture in Le stele, for 2G0 sheep, the gift of Gilbert de Slealy. (Wallis's Northumber- 

 land, vol. ii, p. 80.) From the chartulary of the monastery being burnt shortly be- 

 fore that period by the Scots under Sir William Wallace, the date of the benefaction 

 is unknown, but it went back beyond the memory of man. In the chai'tex's of the 

 Abbeys of Kelso and Melrose, we have also, MoUestele in Teviotdale, and Witelaw- 

 stele in Northumberland. 



