A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



under the influence of Dudley, who worked for peace between the two 

 countries. A truce was arranged on 20 March i ^4950 in the church 

 of Norham, which formed the basis of an international settlement, 1 and 

 subsequently led to the division of the Debatable Land. The stringency 

 of the regulations re-established 2 in 1552 for watch and ward on 

 the northern frontier of Cumberland, and the number of men em- 

 ployed by day and night in carrying out this territorial system of self- 

 defence, show the insecurity which prevailed in the county at this period. 

 Each township had its own organization of watchers who perambulated 

 in assigned places, and the principal men of the district acted as over- 

 seers to set the watch and report on its regularity. Every man was 

 obliged to rise and follow the fray upon the sound of horn, shout or 

 outcry upon pain of death. 3 Under this police system a great advance 

 was made for the pacification and government of the Border district. 



The turn in Scottish affairs, which sent Mary, the ill-fated daughter 

 of James V., across the Solway after her disastrous defeat at Langside, 

 was full of evil consequences to Cumberland. Landing at Workington 

 on 1 6 May 1568, she was met next day by Richard Lowther, deputy 

 warden of the march, and conveyed to Carlisle Castle. The Earl of 

 Northumberland, on the plea that she had landed within his liberty 

 of Cockermouth, endeavoured without success to remove her from 

 Lowther's hands. 4 The weeks the Queen of Scots spent at Carlisle were 

 some of the most anxious that her troubled life had seen. She had 

 appealed to Elizabeth, but knew not what would be the answer. Friends 

 crowded round her, and she was soon the centre of a little court. From 

 the walls of her prison she could see the blue hills of her native land. 

 It would be easy to signal to her friends and not difficult to escape 

 in the course of some of the excursions she was at first allowed to 

 make. Sir Francis Knollys, writing on 15 June, says: 



Yesterday her Grace went out at a postern to walk on a playing-green towards 

 Scotland : and we with twenty-four halberders of master Read's band, with divers 

 gentlemen and other servants, waited on her. Where about twenty of her retinue 

 played at football before her the space of two hours very strongly, nimbly and skilfully, 

 without any foul play offered, the smallness of their balls occasioning their fairplay. 

 And before yesterday since our coming she went but twice out of the town : once to 



1 Leges Marchitarum, 77-98. 



2 It is a mistake to suppose that the system of watch and ward originated in I5S 2 - I n ^ e Court 

 Rolls of the manor of Dalston for 1496-7 provision is made for the watching of the manor on the lines 

 adopted in 1552. One clause of the regulations then in force will serve as an illustration : ' Hawksdale ; 

 Willim Nicson[and]Willim Holme schall begyn the wach with dayly light att evyn and schall come to 

 Thomas Louthre house thare to tak ye wach ; so to remayne to light of the morne and thare gif over 

 thare wach at thare departyn : and they schall kepe wach from the said Thomas house on to the entend 

 beyonde Will Nicson hous : and the said Th : Louthre schall presentt every defaltt onwith uppon the 

 morne to the bailyay of the Roos ; and the said Th : schall hire a wachman and gif hym iiij d when so ever 

 eny defalt is mad att evyn in takyng of eny manner wach. Ric. Thomlynson [and] Th : Bullok schall 

 begyn thar wach for the tothar parte of the said town and take itt and kepe itt as is afore said in every 

 parte.' The tenants were obliged to watch in couples nightly. 



3 These very interesting regulations, with the names of watches, divisions of districts, and other 

 matters explanatory of the whole system of defence, have been embodied by Bp. Nicolson in Leges 

 Marchiarum, 206-28. 



* Cat. of State Pa-pers relating to Scotland, 1509-1603, ii. 853-5, ^73- 



2 7 6 



