The Battle of Dorxock. 155 



couatries. As usual, it was the mutual aggressiveness of the 

 borderers that occasioned a renewal of the war. Whilst Edward 

 III. was preparing his proclamation' denouncmg the Scots for a 

 rupture of the peace, Sir Archibald Douglas on Monday, 22nd 

 March, was making a flying raid' into Gilslaud, where he ravaged 

 the lands of Sir Ralf Dacre. lord of Naworth and keeper of Carlisle 

 Castle. Measures of reprisal were promptly taken. On the 

 Wednesday^ following, the 24th, Sir Antony Lucy, leading a 

 strong tody of Enghsh marchmen, entered Scotland. His force is 

 variously stated by the three early historians* who deal with the 

 exp?dition. The chronicle of Lanercost calls it merely a powerful 

 body ; Hemingburgh states it at 800 men ; and Kuyghton follows 

 him in giving the same tigure. William of Lochmaben, probably 

 from his name a renegade Scot, was with the Eng-lishmen, who 

 marched twelve miles inland. The new moon had set in* on the 

 IGth, so that there must have been moonlight all through the 

 night of the 24th and far into the morning. This, of course, 

 enabled them the better to effect their entry and achieve their 

 purpose, which was not war so much as plunder. By next day 

 they had scoured over an area computed at 12 leagues, and with 

 a large booty, consisting of a groat many head of cattle, they 

 were with all possible despatch making their way back to bonnie 

 Carlisle. 



In raids of this kind it is obvious that the sooner the cattle 

 could be got across the firth the better. The course they appar- 

 ently took has a most interesting bearing on the history of the 



1 Foedtra, 23rd March, 1333. 



- Lanercost Chron., 272 ; Knyghton in Dtcem. Scriptorei, 2562. 



^ The editor of the Lantrcott Chronicle misdated it 23rd March. 

 The text says it was on the vigil of the Annunciation. But as the Annun- 

 ciation was 25th March, the vigil was on the 24th. 



* Lanercost and Knyrjhton, where above cited. Hemingbur/jh (Eno-. 

 Hist. See), li., 307. See also Bowers Scotichronicon, ii., 310. 



° For this calculation I am indebted to my friend Mr Arch. A. 

 Young. By Nicholas's Chronology of History I ma/le out the date of the 

 new moon to have been the 20th, but I am assured the lunar table given in 

 that work is erroneous. Mr Young's calculation is explicith- confirmed 

 by an amended Lunar Calendar, framed by Mr A. V. Gough of Chilton 

 Thorn Vicarage, Fence Houses, County Durham, which he has with much 

 courtesy put at my service in manuscript. 



