69 
BORDER WARS AND THE MOSSTROOPERS. 
By THOMAS CARRICK. 
(Read at Keswick.) 
_ Wuen the Romans invaded Britain it was divided amongst about 
forty-five tribes. The north of England, up to the Tyne and 
Solway, was occupied by the Brigantes, Setantii, and Voluntii ; 
farther north were the Ottadini and Selgove. . The Brigantes, or 
Brigands, were by far the most powerful. They were a restless 
and warlike people, and gave the Romans no end of trouble before 
they were subjugated. Probably the Brigand blood has circulated 
in the borderers’ veins ever since, for hardihood and daring have 
eyer been their chief characteristics, 
During the Roman occupation, what is now called the Roman 
Wall, stretching across the isthmus from the Tyne to the Solway, 
was the border line. For many centuries after the Romans left, 
_ and especially during the Saxon Heptarchy, the borderland became 
_ entirely changed and very different from what it is now. The 
Anglo-Danish Kingdom of Northumbria, with its throne at 
Bamborough, stretched from the Forth to the Humber, and the 
. Kingdom of Cumbria from the Clyde to the Mersey. 
During the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, those two 
q kingdoms were broken up. Since then, with few exceptions, 
England and Scotland have been divided by the Solway, the 
 Cheviots, and the Tweed; Cumberland and Northumberland on 
the south, and Dumfries, Roxburgh, and Berwickshire on the 
