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the old towers in the modern houses ; so that nothing of them is 

 visible, and their presence is only revealed by the exceptional 

 thickness of their walls, as shown on a plan. Many of the old 

 residences of this kind have been pointed out in either county, for 

 it has been truly said — scratch a Cumberland or Westmorland 

 squire's house, and you find a peel. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of the Border line, the trade 

 of many of these people was cattle lifting ; and this in some 

 measure formed the basis of their system of operations, — that when 

 a Cumbrian had his house plundered of a cow, he went over the 

 Border and helped himself to another cow, or, possibly, if he 

 thought the one he was taking was not quite equal in value to the 

 one he had lost, he might appropriate two or even three of the 

 Scotchman's cattle, without being particularly anxious about 

 determining whether the Scotchman from whose herd he had 

 made the selection was the same Scotchman that had walked off 

 with his before. 



A verse from the Rydal Poet will show that club-law, and 

 inability to distinguish between meum and iuum was by no means 

 confined to the unquiet spirits upon the Scottish and English 

 Border. For — 



A famous man is Robin Hood, 

 The English ballad-singer's joy ! 

 And Scotland has a thief as good, 

 An outlaw of as daring mood ; 

 She boasts her brave Kob Roy ! 



If I wished to name a Border hero fitted to form a parallel to 

 these two famed freebooters from the interior of England and 

 Scotland, I should name Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie Tower, 

 near Langholm. He certainly was "a thief as good," and the 

 Border "ballad-singers' joy,' for he figures most largely in all the 

 Border songs and ballads of the period, and his expeditions were 

 at one time so extended, that at the head of a desperate band of 

 eight-score followers, he has been known to spread terror as far 

 south as the limits of Westmorland — northwards to Edinburgh, 

 and eastwards to Newcastle. 



