OCTOBER 253 



as on the banks of a great river. ' That fellow on 

 the other side!' why, the old meaning of rivalis, a 

 dweller on a rivus or river bank, is quite forgotten 

 in our use of the modern term ' rival.' Such a position 

 implies fighting just as surely as loitering at cross ways 

 trivia engenders gossip what is ' trivial.' This Tweed 

 is a river of rivers, across which for three centuries was 

 hurtled to and fro warfare of that woful, wasteful sort 

 that only brothers can wage. These brothers have 

 made up their quarrel now, and look back wondering 

 what on earth it was made them fall out. 



The birthplace of the great dispute is close at hand 

 only a couple of fields off. Those few grey roofs, scat- 

 tered on yonder green ridge, are all that mark the site 

 of once famous Birgham-on-Tweed, where, on July 18th, 

 1290, the four guardians of Scotland, forty-four ecclesi- 

 astics, twelve earls, and forty-seven barons set their 

 seals to the treaty defining the relations which should 

 exist between their country and England after the 

 approaching marriage of Edward of Carnarvon, first 

 Prince of Wales, to Margaret, the child-Queen of Scot- 

 land the Maid of Norway. Even at the distance of 

 six centuries it is difficult to reflect without chagrin 

 on the shattering of this fair project by the untimely 

 death of the Maid. Fighting, doubtless, there would 

 have been in any case, so many were the facilities for 

 that pastime afforded by the feudal system, but not 

 three hundred years of butchery between people of 

 the same race and language. When Alexander in. 

 died, in 1285, the best king that ever sat on the 



